Review of Eucontamination, by Paul Hoard and Billie Hoard

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Eucontamination

Disgust Theology and the Christian Life

by Paul Hoard and Billie Hoard

Cascade Books, 2025. 221 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from my own copy ordered via Amazon.com
Starred Review

When I heard about this book, I preordered it eagerly because I’ve long followed Billie Hoard on Twitter. She’s a transgender Christian, and everything she posts is uplifting and encouraging.

Billie’s brother Paul is a psychology professor, and the book ends up being academic, philosophical, psychological, and a little hard to absorb. (Am I losing my ability to read academic stuff in my old age?) I will try to explain the main point of the book, and I am still trying to absorb these ideas in my life.

The first paragraph of the Introduction is provocative:

This is a book about disgust and contamination. And Jesus. We would dare to assert that few if any other texts on theology and the Way of Jesus spend as much time talking about poop as the one you are reading. However, if you are willing to move towards your disgust, we hope you just may find Jesus in the last place you expect, but the very place he said he would be.

It turns out that a big part of polarization – of dividing people into us and them – is about disgust.

We aren’t so much afraid of one another as disgusted – a much harder truth to face. We don’t resist the foreigner, orphan, and widow out of fear for our lives and well-being so much as out of a fear that they will contaminate us – change us into something we do not want to become. It’s a very human and very normal reaction but not one that Jesus seemed to follow. The Way of Jesus runs in the opposite direction of the exclusion that disgust instigates: it welcomes instead of rejecting, integrates instead of segregating, and loves instead of fearing. . . . We needed a term, a concept, to represent this anti-disgust way of engaging the other that Jesus modeled.

The term they landed on is eucontamination, contamination for good. The initial chapters explore the concepts of disgust and eucontamination, and then look at the life and teaching of Jesus from the framework of John 14:6.

How might each of these: way, truth, and life, be vectors of eucontamination – contaminants to or self-understanding and social realities that lure us back to Christ?

So that’s the main thread of the book. The “Way” is intentionally covered last of the three, so that thought will precede action. But the whole book is a powerful teaching against us-versus-them thinking and purity codes that look down on people. I love the teaching that God is not disgusted with us, and Jesus became a human because God was not disgusted.

A core vocation of the church is to stand in solidarity with the stigmatized and disgusting – remembering that it is not the people who are disgusting, but society who is disgusted. Like our Lord, we should be “reckoned with the lawless” (Luke 22:37) such that at every stage of the disgust cycle, the church is standing with the stigmatized and is leveraging any power, privilege, or influence it has on their behalf, fully knowing that this means casting our lot with a targeted and scapegoated community.

An overarching message of this book is that getting to know the “others” – the people in groups we feel alienated from – will indeed contaminate us – and that’s a good thing. It’s also about being open to listening and learning.

And they aren’t blind to boundaries.

By highlighting the beauty of eucontamination, we are not advocating the abandonment of boundaries. Recognizing the problems of disgust does not mean that threats no longer exist. Instead, we hope that recognition allows one to hold effective and humane boundaries. We are inviting you to resist the lure of dehumanization that comes from disgust, not asking you to ignore all boundaries. Dangers exist in the world. Not all people can be trusted. Power dynamics are real and must be taken into consideration. As you do though, notice how disgust may sometimes be used to make holding those boundaries easier. Jesus continually calls us back to see the image of God in everyone, even while holding them accountable.

So those are some of the beautiful and challenging ideas you’ll find in this book. Lots to think about as we attempt to follow the way of Jesus.

Added on the day I’m posting this: I’m currently reading a fourth book by Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest who works with gang members in Los Angeles, Cherished Belonging. Fr. Boyle models eucontamination. He sees the gang members he works with – indeed every human being – as unshakably good. That’s the opposite of disgust, and working with gang members has indeed contaminated him into a more loving and compassionate human.

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Review of When We Ride, by Rex Ogle, read by Ramón de Ocampo

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

When We Ride

by Rex Ogle
read by Ramón de Ocampo

Recorded Books, 2025. 3 hours, 28 minutes.
Review written July 11, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve come to know and love Rex Ogle’s writing from his award-winning memoirs about growing up in poverty and his recent Printz Honor book about being homeless as a teen after he came out as gay.

When We Ride is equally heartrending. This time a novel in verse. Fair warning: Like the others, it’s not exactly pleasant reading. But the novel is worse than the memoirs because now we have absolutely no guarantee the main character will get through it and come out okay. And here’s a heads’ up without being too spoilerish: The ending does not at all leave me feeling happy.

However, reading this short novel will build your empathy. I heard the author speak at ALA Annual Conference, and he said he wrote it in verse to give it lots of white space, since that’s the only kind of book his best friend from high school would ever read.

And the book is about two best friends in their senior year of high school. They live across the street from each other, and they’ve been friends since elementary school, so close they call each other Brother. Benny is the one telling the story. He’s working hard to go to college and get funds to pay for it. His mother is a drug addict who’s gotten clean, and she wants nothing more than for Benny to make a success of himself. And be nothing like her. She gave Benny her own car and rides the bus to her two jobs. And she works hard to provide for Benny, who also works at a diner in a job he hates, but works to help out his Mom.

Benny’s best friend Lawson, though, has taken another route to make ends meet. He’s dealing drugs. It starts as only weed, but things progress over the course of the year. Lawson doesn’t have a car, and most of the poems in this book begin with Lawson calling and saying, “I need a ride.”

Since Benny is Hispanic, it’s all too easy for him to imagine being pulled over by cops when Lawson is carrying drugs and Benny’s entire future being ruined. Lawson tells him if Benny doesn’t know he has drugs, there will be no problem. And as his brother, isn’t he supposed to be there when Lawson needs him? So Benny goes back and forth with guilt and anger and fear.

All the adults in Benny’s life tell him that Lawson is bad news and he needs to stop spending any time with him. But the reader (or listener) comes to understand how deep that tie of brotherhood runs and to see the great things about Lawson that keep Benny’s loyalty. But none of that makes Lawson’s path any safer.

This book is short, but hard-hitting. These characters will live in my head for a long time. It made me care about someone I would have otherwise dismissed – helping me understand more deeply my own belief that all people are made in the image of God. Yes, even drug dealers. When you know someone’s story, it’s so much easier to see their humanity.

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Review of Making Light Bloom, written by Sandra Nickel, illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Making Light Bloom

Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps

written by Sandra Nickel
illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Peachtree, 2025. 32 pages.
Review written November 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is another picture book biography that tells us about something a woman did that men got the credit for. (Pass Go and Collect $200, by Tanya Lee Stone, about the woman who invented the Monopoly game comes to mind, but I think I have reviewed others.)

In this case, the woman is Clara Driscoll. She grew up in the country loving gardens and flowers and art. As an adult, she moved to New York City to do more with her art. She got a job at the company of the glassmaker Louis C. Tiffany.

She joined a team of artists who selected and cut glass to create pictures and shapes in windows.

Clara showed great talent, so she was put in charge of a workshop staffed only by women.

She hired both experienced artists and untrained immigrants. And as she and her new Tiffany girls worked, Clara inspired them all by reading poetry about nature.

They continued to make glass for windows until Clara had a moment of inspiration.

Though her work kept her busy, Clara missed the house on the hill and its gardens.

One day she had an idea of how to bring their bright beauty to the city. She sent her sisters a letter and asked for yellow butterflies and wild primroses.

Once they arrived, Clara sketched them. But not as a window, with light coming from behind. As a lamp, with light coming from within.

She worked with the Tiffany girls to cut the pieces and with the craftsmen to form the glass into a lampshade. It took so much time and effort to make, one of the managers told Clara not to make any more.

But then, Louis saw what Clara had created and said it was “the most interesting lamp in the place.” He asked her to make another to display at the World’s Fair in Paris.

When the lamp won a bronze medal at the World’s Fair, she was asked to make more lamps and windows filled with gardens and landscapes and flowers. And Clara was put in charge of lamp-making.

“Tiffany lamps” became wildly popular and very valuable. Because Tiffany’s name was on them, no one knew that they were Clara’s design – until a bundle of her letters to her sisters and mother was discovered after both she and Louis Tiffany had died.

The art in this wonderful book is done in a style that matches the lamps Clara created, with dark outlines around simple shapes, as if made of glass themselves.

SandraNickel.com
JuliePaschkis.com
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Review of Happy Land, by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Historical 0

Happy Land

by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
read by Bahni Turpin and Ashley J. Hobbs

Books on Tape, 2025. 10 hours, 19 minutes.
Review written November 21, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

First, a big thank you to Suzanne, who recommended this book when she signed up for my email newsletter, Book Talking with Sondy. My hold finally came in, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This is a book that combines characters you care about with little-known history and present-day injustices. There are two perspectives and two narrators in this audiobook. First, in the present day, Nikki has been summoned unexpectedly from her home in DC to her grandmother in North Carolina. Nikki hasn’t seen her grandmother since her mother and grandmother had an extreme falling-out. Now Nikki’s own daughter is at loose ends after graduating from high school without a plan going forward, and Nikki hasn’t been doing well in her career as a real estate agent. But she doesn’t know why her grandmother has summoned her to the mountain where their family has lived for generations.

The second perspective is Luella, Nikki’s grandmother’s great-grandmother. Luella was born in slavery, but after gaining freedom, her community was in danger from the Klan in South Carolina. So the entire community, led by her father, a preacher, traveled to a mountain on the border with North Carolina. At the urging of William Montgomery, a charismatic young man who asked her to marry him – they founded not just a community, but a kingdom. And William was elected the king and Luella the queen.

At first, the folks of the kingdom rented the land from a widow who needed their help running her hotel, but they worked toward owning the land. There were many obstacles along the way and much personal turmoil. And this is all based on an actual “kingdom” that existed in America not long after the Civil War.

Meanwhile, in the present, Nikki learns about the kingdom – but that her grandmother is in danger of losing the land, where she’s lived since she was born on the premises. And along the way, she sees how connected her grandmother is to the land and to the community – but needs to find out more about why her grandmother and mother stopped speaking to each other. Can she mend the generational rift? Can she save the land that her family has owned for 150 years?

I didn’t completely understand the law that allows people who inherit one portion of property to sell off other portions of property at auction without folks who live there knowing about it. Since I was listening, I didn’t even catch the name of this type of law, but the author names it as a major way that land has been stolen from African Americans, destroying generational wealth. So one of the big conflicts in the book has to do with an actual current issue.

And it’s all told in a compelling story. Luella’s life wasn’t easy, even though she was a queen. And Nikki, after her, has some choices to make as she learns about her connection to royalty and the Kingdom of the Happy Land.

The author’s blog points to a fascinating webpage about the actual Kingdom of the Happy Land. Amazing stuff!

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Review of The Davenports, by Krystal Marquis, read by Joniece Abbot-Pratt

Audiobooks, Historical, Romance, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Davenports

by Krystal Marquis
read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Listening Library, 2023. 12 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written April 29, 2023, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

The Davenports reminds me of a Jane Austen book – a wealthy family trying to get their kids married off – only this one is set in 1910, and the family are successful Black Americans in Chicago. The father of the Davenport clan was born enslaved, but after escaping, ended up making a fortune with a carriage company. And he’s happily giving his family a much better life – maybe sheltering them a little too much.

Now the two daughters and one son are at an age to be married – but nobody falls in love with the person their parents want and expect them to marry. And it’s quite fun watching it happen.

There are four viewpoint characters: Olivia Davenport is getting ready for her second season and really needs to find a husband this time around. When Jacob Lawrence shows up from England, everyone thinks she’s found one. But then she stumbles into meetings of activists when she’s doing charity work and learns the plight of her people in the South.

Olivia’s friend Ruby has been in love with Olivia’s brother, John Davenport, since they were kids. Her father is running for mayor of Chicago, and her parents want Ruby to go ahead and get him to propose. Maybe if she makes him jealous….

Younger sister Helen Davenport is never happier than working in the garage on the modern horseless carriages. Maybe she can help John convince their father to expand the business to automobiles. But instead, her parents hire an etiquette tutor to bring Helen into line.

The final viewpoint character is Amy-Rose, long time friend and maid to the Davenport girls. She’s been saving her money, and now she’s almost ready to start her own business and open a salon.

I thought I knew where this book was going, but all the romances run into snags toward the end of the book, and the author’s note hints at a sequel. So I’m looking forward to more time with the Davenport family in the future. The author’s note also tells us that the family was based on an actual family led by a formerly enslaved Black man who got rich in the carriage business. She wondered what life might have been like for his daughters. And her wondering gave us this delightful book.

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Review of The Polar Bear and the Ballerina, by Eric Velasquez

Fantasy, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 1

The Polar Bear and the Ballerina

by Eric Velasquez

Holiday House, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written November 12, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Wordless picture books are hit or miss with me, because it’s not always clear what’s actually happening. And they’re not easy to use in story time. But this one is a grand slam.

The book opens with a group from Harlem Children’s Ballet at the zoo, taking photos in front of the polar bear’s tank. They pose as the giant polar bear swims behind them. One girl has a long red scarf streaming out behind her.

After the other kids move on, the polar bear and red scarf girl have a moment through the glass. She lingers, but has to head to the performance. She doesn’t notice that she has left her red scarf trailing on the floor behind her.

The polar bear notices, though! In a double-page spread with extra panels, we see the bear climb over the fence lining his enclosure and go around to the entrance of the park to go in and get the scarf. He puts on the scarf and makes his way uptown.

There’s a sign on the ticket booth: SOLD OUT! NO POLAR BEARS ALLOWED!

But the girl hears his growl in response and comes running. She gets her scarf from him and brings him to a seat in the auditorium.

And then the girl dances, with a photo of the bear behind her. He is enraptured.

Afterward, he gets to take the scarf back home with him, and he dreams about his new friend.

And it’s all done so beautifully. The graceful lines of the dancers and the sheer size of the bear stand out. My favorite is the page of the bear stealthily getting out of his cage. Or no, wait – it’s probably the spread of the girl gracefully dancing.

There are facts about polar bears at the front and facts about the ballerina at the back. This picture book left me smiling.

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Review of The Bluest Sky, by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Children's Fiction Review, Historical 0

The Bluest Sky

by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. 314 pages.
Review written September 11, 2025, from a library book.

The Bluest Sky is the story of Hector, a Cuban boy in 1980 who dreams of getting on the National Math Olympiad Team. But he wonders if the politics of his father, who spent time in prison and now lives in America, will outweigh that of his grandmother, who is a high official in the Communist party.

There are rumors that the government is allowing more people to leave Cuba. But they are rousing communities against the non-patriotic scum who would do so. Hector loves his country and his friends and doesn’t understand why anyone would leave.

And then his mother tells him that she has applied for exit visas to join his father, whom Hector hardly knows.

The story that follows is full of ups and downs and conflict. It builds toward the Mariel boat lift, when Cuban prisoners were added to the boats of refugees.

This book is a window into a difficult time and tough decisions. I had heard of the Mariel boat lift, but hadn’t realized it was so recent – and that Hector would have been younger than me, so folks from that episode of history are still alive in America today. I appreciate that fictional eyes can help kids understand what it must have been like to live that historical moment.

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rhcbooks.com

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Review of The Lord’s Prayer, by Adam Hamilton

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Lord’s Prayer

The Meaning and Power of the Prayer Jesus Taught

by Adam Hamilton

Abingdon Press, 2025. 176 pages.
Review written October 27, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

My church decided to do a sermon series on this book and encouraged all the small groups to go through the book together. I think all of us in my group were surprised how much we got out of the book, even though we were already familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.

Adam Hamilton takes one phrase in each chapter, covering the whole prayer in six chapters. Something that hit me is noticing throughout the prayer that it talks about “Our” and “Thy” instead of “Mine” and “My.” He points out that so much of the prayer is about our own need to act – to hallow God’s name, to act in accordance with God’s kingdom of love, to help others receive their daily bread, to forgive.

The book gave us a lot to think and talk about. It has deepened my experience every time I pray the Lord’s Prayer.

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Review of If Looks Could Kill, by Julie Berry

Audiobooks, History, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

If Looks Could Kill

by Julie Berry
read by Jayne Entwistle

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 15 hours, 24 minutes.
Review written November 14, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This brilliant novel is Medusa vs. Jack the Ripper! But not a Greek Medusa. Instead, Medusas are something like vampires, getting created by a kind of infection. But then they stand against those who would prey on vulnerable women.

The setting of the book is the Bowery in New York City in 1888. Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel Killer, is fleeing London after a very strange encounter with his last victim. Meanwhile, in New York, 18-year-old Tabitha Woodward is adjusting to her new life in the Salvation Army and her annoying partner, Pearl. Tabitha and Pearl visit the saloons and bars, selling the Salvation Army’s newsletter and coaxing people to come hear the preaching. They meet the people in the city and see a girl get pulled into the orbit of a notorious madam.

And I don’t want to give anything away, but yes, the story ends up being Medusas vs. Jack the Ripper. With the innocent and earnest Salvation Army girls in the middle of it.

I appreciated the long historical note at the back reflecting the author’s deep research. She chose a likely suspect for Jack the Ripper who actually came to New York after the murders. She even gave him a plausible motive, using the theosophical teachings popular at the time to use almost-living organs to try to cure his own illness. She honored his victims, who may not have been prostitutes at all. And I especially love the way she also researched the early Salvation Army and showed Tabitha and Pearl’s deep faith and desire to help people in trouble in the slums of New York. I was afraid when they showed up that they’d be a caricature, but they were the opposite of that.

And I do love a story where the helpless become powerful! But these Medusas don’t blindly use their power. It’s not a matter of one look turns the viewer to stone – they have to mean it. And they grapple with the meaning of that power. There are scary moments, and a few in-the-nick-of-time rescues, but it all adds up to a fascinating historical story with lots of suspense. There’s even a developing sweet romance.

I heard about this book at ALA Annual Conference last June, but wasn’t able to get an Advance Reader Copy, so I was looking forward to its publication ever since and got on the holds list for the audio the first day I purchased it for the library. I knew to expect good things from Julie Berry, and I was not disappointed.

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Review of The Book of Candles, by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Leanne Hatch

Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Starred Review 0

The Book of Candles

Eight Poems for Hanukkah

written by Laurel Snyder
illustrated by Leanne Hatch

Clarion Books, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written October 13, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

As the title says, this is a book of eight poems for Hanukkah, one for each night of the festival, one for each candle. It’s in picture book form, so in the library, we’ve got it in the Holiday Picture Books section, where we think it will get plenty of checkouts. For Sonderbooks, I’m going to put it on the Children’s Nonfiction page in the Poetry section, because it actually gives good information about Hanukkah, besides the lovely poems.

A couple years ago, a Jewish friend challenged her non-Jewish friends on Facebook to purchase menorahs and light candles in solidarity, and I did so. Now with this book, I have learned more about the holiday. So I recommend it to both Jewish and non-Jewish families. Each poem is lovely, and each is accompanied by “A Thought” for that night.

I especially liked “A Thought for the Fifth Night”:

It’s tradition to avoid doing work while the candles burn, and this goes for everyone! So you can wait until after they fizzle out to do your homework, but you should make sure your parents take a break, too, before they wash the dinner dishes or check their email. The goal is to focus on the light and each other.

That’s far more challenging than spending half a minute to turn on the Christmas tree lights!

The poems and pictures themselves take us through a particular family celebrating Hanukkah together, ending with watching the candles fizzle out.

I also love the Author’s Note at the back:

Hanukkah is a funny sort of holiday. It isn’t like Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, when we set aside our lives and disappear into the synagogue. Instead, at Hanukkah, we live our daily lives – go to school, play and laugh as usual, even quarrel (not too often, hopefully).

But then, each night, we set aside time to care, to notice, to light our candles.

Hanukkah doesn’t stop our busy world from spinning, but as we move through each day, we do so with an awareness that something is coming at sunset, something special. Something silly or joyful or peaceful.

And with this book, Laurel Snyder and Leanne Hatch have added a bit of beauty and thoughtfulness to lucky family’s Hanukkah celebrations.

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