I just finished Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, which is a pretty neat read, if you like that kind of book, and I do. A lot of the content is on her blog but I liked the coherence of the book format.
A few interesting or surprising tidbits:
-Happiness and personal justice often conflict. She found […]

I’ve been worried about and mystified by C lately. It’s hard to explain, but she hasn’t been herself. Or she has been herself, just more so.
C, intensified.
She is naturally a very competent and controlled person. Lately this has veered into outright anxiety. R and I have a code, “Knock-knock,” when she gets like this. It’s […]

Book. What book - fiction or non - touched you? Where were you when you read it? Have you bought and given away multiple copies?
Without a doubt that would have to be BBT’s An Altar in the World. I haven’t given away multiple copies, but I know at least two congregations that are going to […]

Lots going on right now. Thought I’d share some recent books I read… a special thanks to Reverent Reader for many of these suggestions:
From Stone to Living Word: Letting the Bible Live Again by Debbie Blue — Love her writing. Lovely yet down-to-earth and even irreverent at times. These are essays based on various Bible […]

The past few days I’ve been reading various blogs about “Poets, Prophets and Preachers,” which is the preachingpalooza that Rob Bell has been hosting and keynoting up in Grand Rapids. Peter Rollins (who’s also presenting) is brilliant and crazy and I love his stuff. I also love so much of Bell’s stuff. Much of it […]

This is a shout out to my cousin, whose book Letting Go of Perfect: Overcoming Perfectionism in Kids was just released. Brava!
I had a chance to read/skim the book last night and got a lot out of it. The authors profile five kinds of perfectionists, and I could see myself and/or my kids in a […]

Obama: The Historic Journey, Young Reader’s Edition
The New York Times
A Review for MotherTalk
You know I am an addict of all things Obama. On the one hand that means that I’m not altogether objective about Obamaphernalia. On the other hand, being in the Nation’s Capital I have seen a LOT of Obama stuff, not all of […]

Back from the Motherland.
I took this picture on a walk to the cross. Anyone know what this plant is? The base of it is very spiky, like a yucca plant.
Had a great time. The women were lovely and very affirming. People are hungry for good liturgy, it seems.
R did a great job, with lots […]

The Double-Daring Book for Girls
by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz
Reviewed for MotherTalk
I wrote about the first Daring Book for Girls here, and was excited to get a copy of their follow-up. It is again chock-full of even more fun stuff to do with girls (or boys, for that matter), everything from being a private […]

We love the book Owl Babies, and not just because our college mascot is the owl. It’s about three little snowy owls who wake up to find their mother gone, hunting for food—well, they’re pretty sure that’s what she’s doing, but things are a little spooky without Mommy in the middle of the night.
We […]

A review for MotherTalk
Out of the Mouths of Babes: Parenting from a Child’s Perspective
by Dyan Eybergen
This is a rather sweet book, with a very home-grown quality, that draws on the author’s clinical background as well as her experience raising three boys with very different temperaments. She comes from an attachment parenting perspective; it’s not likely […]

(We’re back… had a great time. Will post more on the trip later.)
A review for MotherTalk
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X, by James Patterson
This book is part of a project initiated by bestselling author James Patterson. His goal is to encourage the publication of books that will appeal to boys, who are reading less than […]

A review for MotherTalk
The Pregnancy Journal by A. Christine Harris
I received this book in the mail a couple of weeks ago and set it aside: This won’t take long to review… a few thought-provoking paragraphs about pregnancy amid lots of empty space.
Yesterday I opened it. Oops. There’s tons of great info in this book.
This […]

The series I’m working on for Denominational Magazine will explore spiritual/Christian themes in various works of children’s literature. Here is a draft list with blurbs for each…
September 2008: Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
Our series begins with the second installment in the classic Chronicles of Narnia, in which the Pevensie children return to Narnia and take […]

A review for MotherTalk
The Working Woman’s Pregnancy Book by Marjorie Greenfield
Pregnancy is a huge topic, but let’s face it: there’s only so much you can say about it. There are lots of books out there and the difference is often not in the content, but in the tone. Some books are cutesy, others alarmist, […]

First things first: SPOOKYRACH won the 10,000th comment challenge! This was several days back but I kept forgetting to announce it. E-mail me your address, and I’ll send you some goodies sometime, oh, before the 11,000th comment.
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Next, the book challenge: I recently finished reading David Allen’s Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and […]

Gentle Readers!
I am working on a proposal for Denominational Magazine for a series of ten articles that will explore scriptural themes as illuminated in children’s literature. I have a few books in mind, namely Because of Winn-Dixie and one or more Madeleine L’Engle books, but I need some other ideas, especially current books.
If you […]

Works of Heart: Building Village Through the Arts by Lynne Elizabeth and Suzanne Young
I saw this book some months back in my hippie catalog and finally got around to reading it. What a fun book about different ways that artists have used their art to bring people together for the betterment of their communities. There […]

I’m not quite done with The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, but will finish it up shortly. This was a fun, funny and even poignant read. This could easily have been a scornful, cynical book, but it’s not. A.J. Jacobs, an agnostic Jew (basically […]

Just finished Thirst, Mary Oliver’s latest poetry collection.
As a preacher, from time to time I worry that I only have about three or four sermons that I have been preaching over and over. (I’m not the only one who gets preoccupied with this.) Well, I’m going to stop worrying, because Mary Oliver only has […]