Review of Beauty Will Save the World, by Brian Zahnd

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Beauty Will Save the World

Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity

by Brian Zahnd

Charisma House, 2012. 234 pages.
Review written July 27, 2024, from my own copy.
Starred Review

In this book, Brian Zahnd makes the case that Christianity – as Jesus taught it and lived it – is inherently beautiful. Christianity as we practice it today, when we meld it with power and politics, not so much.

As I began reading, I glanced at the copyright page and realized he wrote this book before the age of Trump. I wondered if it would have changed if he wrote it today. Then today – the day I finished reading the book – Brian Zahnd posted this Tweet:

Christian

It was originally a mild derogatory term for the first followers of Jesus who sought to be Christlike.

Humble
Merciful
Gracious
Gentle
Forgiving
Compassionate

It had nothing to do with seeking political power.

It still has nothing to do with seeking political power.

So I don’t think the intervening years have changed the author’s perspective. I do think the message has become more important.

Here’s how he explains in the middle of the book that to follow Jesus, we shouldn’t be after the kind of power the world seeks:

Our first priority as the church is not to make all these things happen in the world through political action, but to be a prophetic witness to the hope of a world remade according to Christ. Every redemptive action – political and otherwise – must proceed from our faithful witness. In the midst of a hateful, violent, and idolatrous world, the church is to be an enclave of love, peace, and holiness. To be a faithful church, the church must be distinguished by holiness. Not holiness as puritanical moralism, but holiness as otherness – we are to be other to the values of this present darkness. Christian holiness is not based upon a certain set of rules but upon the fact that we are from another time. If we approach holiness as a legislative issue, we are prone to get it wrong. And even if we are not wrong in our judgment, we are likely to be ugly about it – haughty, condemning, and condescending. Holiness is not that. Holiness is not moralism. Holiness is not legalism. Holiness is not puritanical rule keeping. Holiness is otherness. Holiness is prophetic untimeliness. Holiness is the transcendent beauty that comes from belonging to the redemptive future. Holiness is a preview of the world to come. Holiness is a picture of the beauty that is to be. To live now according to the beauty that shall be because the future belongs to God is what the psalmist means when he calls upon us to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” We are holy when we are other. We are holy when we transcend the dominant paradigms of present corruption. We are holy when we are from the future.

He finishes up the book by going through each one of the Beatitudes, the heart of Jesus’ greatest sermon, which teaches the church how to be a shelter from the storm.

It is first of all vital we understand that the Beatitudes are not platitudes. They are not commonsense sayings. They are the very opposite. The Beatitudes are often paradoxes and deeply counterintuitive. The Beatitudes are subversive to the established order – they are the subversive values of the kingdom of God. The Beatitudes are the counterintuitive wisdom of God that turns the assumed values of a superpower culture on its head. The Beatitudes are the antithetical ethos to the superpower mantra of “we’re number one!” The Beatitudes are deliberately designed to shock us. If we’re not shocked by the Beatitudes, it’s only because we have tamed them with a patronizing sentimentality – and being sentimental about Jesus is the religious way of ignoring Jesus! Too often the Beatitudes are set aside into the category of “nice things that Jesus said that I don’t really understand.”

More about the Beatitudes as countercultural:

It’s also helpful to understand that the Beatitudes are not advice or instructions or qualifications. They are nothing like that. They are not dictates or laws; the Beatitudes are announcements. Jesus is proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom of God, and with the Beatitudes Jesus is announcing who it is who is going to be most blessed with its arrival. Jesus is telling us in whose ears the gospel of the kingdom is going to really sound like good news. It is an unsettling fact that the inauguration of the kingdom of God brings a radical change to the accepted order of how the world has always been run. The Beatitudes announce that change. This is why Jesus says things like, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” It is at this point that those accustomed to confessing they are “number one” should squirm.

What Jesus is announcing in the Beatitudes is a radical reordering of assumed values; some will hear it as good news, while others will be threatened by it. Those for whom the long-established order has been advantageous – the winners in the game, the top dogs – are not really looking for things to change; they have a vested interest in the status quo. This is going to place Jesus at odds with the power brokers of the age – then and now. After all, it wasn’t the poor and marginalized who conspired to crucify Jesus; it was Caiaphas and Herod and Pilate – those who had a powerful stake in the present arrangement. But for the losers in the game – those scraping the bottom of life’s barrel, the marginalized and forgotten, the left out – what Jesus announces is indeed good news.

Reading this book gets me thinking about whether the way I live out my faith is beautiful or not.

brianzahnd.com

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Review of Kapaemahu, by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, and Joe Wilson, illustrated by Daniel Sousa

Children's Nonfiction Review, Folk Tales, Starred Review 0

Kapaemahu

by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer, and Joe Wilson
illustrated by Daniel Sousa

Kokila (Penguin Random House), 2022. 40 pages.
Review written October 24, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This hauntingly beautiful picture book tells an indigenous story from Hawaii, with text in both Olelo Niihau, the language it may have originally been told in, and English.

The story tells how long ago four spiritual healers came from Tahiti to Hawaii

The visitors were tall and deep in voice yet gentle and soft-spoken.

They were not male;
they were not female.

They were mahu —
a mixture of both in mind, heart, and spirit.

The four visitors each had a separate special healing gift, and they bequeathed their healing wisdom to the people of Hawaii.

The people moved four large boulders to the beach as a monument to the healers, and the healers transferred their healing power to the stones to keep it safe for Hawaii before they left.

As the story finishes up, we learn that the stones were considered sacred for centuries, but as Waikiki got built up, for a time they were buried under a bowling alley.

The stones have since been recovered. But their history is still being suppressed, and the fact that the healers were mahu has been erased.

But now readers know the story, and we can honor it.

penguin.com/kids

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Review of The Coquíes Still Sing, by Karina Nicole González, illustrations by Krystal Quiles

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Coquíes Still Sing

A Story of Home, Hope, and Rebuilding

story by Karina Nicole González
illustrations by Krystal Quiles

Roaring Brook Press, 2022. 40 pages.
Review written August 30, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

This bright and beautiful picture book tells the story of a girl named Elena and her family who live in Puerto Rico. As the book opens, the girl is enjoying the mango tree outside their house, heavy with sweet fruit.

At night the coquí frogs in the tree and in the garden sing, “Co-quí, co-quí,” and Elena and her Papi sing back, “Co-quí, co-quí. Oh, how I love thee.”

But that night, the radio talks about a storm. Hurricane Maria is coming. The family shelters safe together in a closet, but the roof gets blown off their house. When they come out again, the mango tree has no fruit or leaves, and the coquí frogs are silent.

But this is a book about resilience and recovery. The community works hard and comes together, plants a garden, and makes repairs.

And to finish the story, some months later, the mango tree sprouts new leaves, and the coquí frogs sing again.

Six pages of back matter give details about Puerto Rico and the impact of Hurricane María, as well as work that still needs to be done.

Overall, this is a book of hope, created with a deep love for Puerto Rico that shines through.

karinanikole.com
krystalquiles.com
mackids.com

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 2, by Beth Brower

Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion

Volume 2

by Beth Brower

Rhydon Press, 2019. 151 pages.
Review written July 16, 2024, from my own copy.
Starred Review

First, thank you again to my sister Becky for giving me the first three volumes of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion for my birthday. I have been devouring them. Perhaps I should be a little annoyed that her gift prompted me to order four more volumes, but it seems only fair to just send someone the beginning of a series. What if I hadn’t liked it? Though that’s hard to imagine in the case of these fictional journals.

In this volume, the plot very much thickens. And we learn more about various intriguing characters. Something I liked about these books is that by the end of Volume 2, I had no idea where Emma will find romance — there are several fine upstanding men in her acquaintance, and I like her relationship with all of them. Of course, Emma is not looking for romance, because the love of her life was killed in Afghanistan.

When I started Volume 2, I still thought the series was a trilogy, so assumed all would be revealed soon. Now I’ve ordered Volumes 4 through 7 and peeked to learn that’s not the end either – so who knows if Emma will find romance at all? But I’m enjoying her relationships (think witty banter and interesting situations) with various interesting men – all of whom are quite different from one another. (Well, except the brothers who are up to mischief. But I think of them as one character different from the other men Emma encounters.)

In this volume we also begin to learn some of the quirks of St. Crispian’s, the part of London where Emma resides. There’s a resident friendly ghost who makes appearances from time to time. But also, objects in St. Crispian’s tend to wander. So, if you don’t keep a white feather on top of an object, it may suddenly show up in someone else’s home. So you need to put your name clearly on your belongings so you can claim them on the shelves set aside for that purpose in a local tea house.

In this volume, we also learn more about the mysterious tenant in Lapis Lazuli Minor, and he and Emma get better acquainted. We get a grasp of Aunt Eugenia’s plans for Emma. She is to serve as a foil for Aunt Eugenia’s daughter, the beautiful Arabella. Emma’s fine with this, as she is not interested in romance, and Aunt Eugenia is willing to buy her a fine wardrobe so she’ll look presentable. And further intriguing situations and people kept me eagerly turning pages and again immediately grabbing the next volume as soon as I’d finished this one.

bethbrower.com

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Review of Jack Knight’s Brave Flight, by Jill Esbaum, illustrated by Stacy Innerst

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Jack Knight’s Brave Flight

How One Gutsy Pilot Saved the U.S. Air Mail Service

by Jill Esbaum
illustrated by Stacy Innerst

Calkins Creek (Astra Books for Young Readers), 2022. 44 pages.
Review written August 15, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Thanks to Betsy Bird and her blog for pointing out this book of true adventure hidden behind a brown cover.

This picture book tells the story of Jack Knight, who flew in an open cockpit through a blizzard on little sleep to single-handedly win the approval of Congress to give the post office the funds to continue air mail service.

Here’s the set-up. It’s February 22, 1921. First we’re told that Jack recently survived a crash into a snowy mountainside and has a broken nose to show for it.

Those crashes are why America’s lawmakers want to end air mail. Flying is too dangerous, they say, and replacing planes costs too much. Moving mail by train is safer and cheaper.

But air mail officials — and pilots — know planes can move mail faster than trains. Today and tonight will prove it. Pilots are taking turns short-hopping four planes across the country, two flying east, two flying west. At least one must get through, or air mail is doomed.

Well, it was supposed to be four planes, two east and two west — but it ends up being all up to Jack. With blizzard conditions and little sleep and needing to do an additional leg of the trip — one he’d never flown before.

It’s all made dramatic and exciting for the reader, with pictures filling every inch of the pages.

An Author’s Note at the back includes a photograph of Jack Knight and a timeline of the history of the U. S. Mail. Who knew that history was so interesting?

picturebookbuilders.com
stacyinnerst.com
calkinscreekbooks.com

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*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Up High, by Matt Hunt

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Up High

by Matt Hunt

Nosy Crow, 2024. First published in the United Kingdom in 2024. 40 pages.
Review written July 31, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

I love this simple, but bright and colorful picture book. It’s the story of a little boy going for a walk through the city to the park with his father, a big man with sleeve tattoos. When the city seems so crowded and busy, the boy asks to go “up high,” and his father let’s him ride on his shoulders.

Suddenly, I don’t feel so small any more.

There’s not a lot of text on each page, and it really gives us the kid’s perspective, from looking up at all the giant people standing around him to looking down from above the whole crowd. I love the spread where his dad stops to talk with a friend for a long time:

His hair feels tickly in my hands.
I pull it.

There are also pages of all the things the boy notices once he gets to the park.

It definitely brings to mind family walks when my own kids were small. And that happy trust on my kids’ faces when they went up high.

Just a happy and joyful slice of life.

matthuntillustration.com
nosycrow.us

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Review of Royal Scandal, by Aimée Carter

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Royal Scandal

by Aimée Carter
read by Kristen Sieh

Listening Library, 2024. 11 hours, 21 minutes.
Review written July 16, 2024, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Royal Scandal is a sequel to Royal Blood, but left me frustrated because I’m going to have to wait to get a finish to the story.

In the first book, we learned about the alternate reality world of this book where King Edward VIII did not abdicate his throne to marry Wallis Simpson, and the history of the British monarchy has been completely different since then. Our protagonist is Evangeline Bright, known to her friends as Evan, the illegitimate daughter of the reigning King of England. She grew up in America, living with her grandmother and then in boarding schools. But at 18, she was brought to England and King Alexander acknowledged her as his daughter. And the furor that ensued was the topic of Royal Blood.

In this book, the scandal and chaos only deepens. Someone’s leaking information to the tabloids about the long failed marriage of the king and queen, and they don’t know where the leak lies.

But then things get deadly. The day after the assassination attempt against former President Trump, I listened to an episode in this book where someone shoots at Evangeline. Somehow that made it seem very real. And things escalate horribly even from there, with signs that a terrorist group is responsible. And someone seems to be trying to pin it on Evan.

But how can Evan fight the weight of public opinion? How can she possibly clear her name? And how can anyone get proof that it’s not her?

By the end of this tension-packed book, they’ve figured out who is responsible, but they don’t have details as to how, and they don’t have any proof. But Evan has a plan….

All I have to say is this author better hurry up and write the next book!

aimeecarter.com

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Review of How Old Is Mr. Tortoise? by Dev Petty, illustrated by Ruth Chan

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

How Old Is Mr. Tortoise?

by Dev Petty
illustrated by Ruth Chan

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written July 26, 2022, from my own copy, signed by the author at ALA Annual Conference
Starred Review

Here’s a silly picture book about an old tortoise who just wants to eat cake on his birthday. But his friends want to know how many candles to put on the cake before anyone gets a slice.

So then they try to figure out how old Mr. Tortoise is. There are some silly guesses. Some ideas based on what he remembers. And finally, he remembers that he moved into his fancy enclosure on his hundredth birthday and was given a new succulent each year as a gift after. When you also add in the ones he’s eaten, they can finally figure out how old he is.

But the cake won’t fit that many candles! Will Mr. Tortoise ever get to eat cake?

This book has a nice little bit of math to make me happy and to get kids thinking about numbers. But my favorite part of that is what I just discovered — under the paper cover, the book shows a great big cake (instead of the cover image) — and I counted and it has the right amount of candles. (Unfortunately, on the library version, the cover will get taped down and you won’t get to check.) Ha! Though I just counted the candles pictured on the endpapers (apparently leftover after the cake is mostly eaten) — and there are again exactly the right amount. Nice touch!

But even without the math, it’s a happy story of friends and a birthday and cake! What’s not to like?

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

*Note* To try to catch up on posting reviews, I’m posting the oldest reviews I’ve written on my blog without making a page on my main website. They’re still good books.

Review of Apple Crush, by Lucy Knisley

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

Apple Crush

by Lucy Knisley

RH Graphic, 2022. 202 pages.
Review written June 16, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

Graphic novels are the perfect format for middle school contemporary stories. Picturing all the roller coaster emotions of middle school helps show the humor and humanity in them.

Apple Crush is a sequel to Stepping Stones, though it’s easy to catch up if you haven’t read the first book.

Jen from the city is still adjusting to life on the farm, as she and her mother are living on a farm with her mother’s boyfriend — and his daughter, who’s Jen’s age, and is there on the weekends.

In this book, Autumn is coming and they’re helping with the Haunted Hayride and Pumpkin Festival at a neighboring farm. And Jen has to start a new school, far from the city and her old friends.

Much to Jen’s annoyance, it seems everyone around her is falling in love. And they tease her about the one friend she makes who loves the same series of books about dragons — but Jen insists they’re just friends, and it’s not about romance.

And that all sounds simple when summarized, but the execution is delightful. We’ve got Autumn on a farm. And love is in the air, whether Jen likes it or not.

lucyknisley.com
RHKidsGraphic.com

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Review of The Age of Magical Overthinking, by Amanda Montell

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

The Age of Magical Overthinking

Notes on Modern Irrationality

by Amanda Montell
read by the Author

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 6 hours, 5 minutes.
Review written July 22, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I got to hear Amanda Montell speak at George Mason University’s Fall for the Book festival a few years ago. I purchased her book Cultish and thought it was wonderful and insightful, so I was very happy to listen to her latest offering. My only regret is that I listened to it instead of reading the print copy, because then I would have retained more, and I could have given you pithy quotations from each chapter.

The “Magical Overthinking” she refers to in the title is logical fallacies and cognitive biases – as applied to our everyday lives.

She’s more interested in how the “sunk cost fallacy” keeps a person in a bad relationship than about how you might throw good money after bad – she applies these cognitive biases to our relationships and daily decisions.

But I like the way Amanda Montell explores all sides of each cognitive bias, including bringing up scholars who suggest that sometimes staying longer in a “bad” relationship can be a good thing. She doesn’t make any of the issues sound cut-and-dried, but explores ideas and asks questions. She includes stories from her own life – including the abusive relationship she got pulled into as a teen.

Relationships aren’t the only thing she talks about. There’s the halo effect of celebrities. Another is nostalgia and how we don’t necessarily think realistically about the past, and how that can affect our decisions. And honestly, if I had the print book in front of me, I’d now go back and list each fallacy. (My complaint being that it didn’t have chapter titles – each chapter was about a different fallacy.)

She talks about the thought patterns we fall into with lots of compassion, and plenty of insight. And helps open our eyes to the ways they might not be as logical as we think.

amandamontell.com

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