Evolving Toward Peace: Awakening the Global Heart, by Jalaja Bonheim

Most of us want to find some semblance of peace in our lives, a way to shut up the chattering voice of doubt, anger and/or dissonance in our lives. In Evolving Toward Peace: Awakening the Global Heart, Jalaja Bonheim attempts to lead us toward gaining that peace, while building toward "a peaceful global community" (from the back cover).

While the book's introduction is a little long, it helps give the reader some background on where Bonheim is coming from, both physically and emotionally. My main concern with the intro came from its New Age-y feel, which almost made me put the book down. Bonheim also introduces us here to her idea of "circlework," in which people gather in circles to strengthen their "capacity for heart-thinking." This circlework is her method of helping people find peace.

Near the end of the intro, Bonheim writes, "...Together, we can move...from violence to peace" (page 23). She also recommends that the reader "not try to absorb whole chapters in a single gulp." I found this to be good advice, as it is too easy to become overwhelmed. Much of what is written in Evolving Toward Peace seemed repetitive, making the reader possibly want to skip over sections while missing some of what Bonheim has written.

The body of the book is broken down into four main parts, each with several chapters to read through. Each chapter is filled with anecdotes from Bonheim's observations, as well as quotes from a wide variety of people, places, books and points of view to help drive home the point that each chapter is trying to teach. The chapters then end with several exercises for the reader to do, and which are described fully in Appendix II.

In the end, while much of what Evolving Toward Peace: Awakening the Global Heart has to offer is relevant to helping better one's self, the idea of a "global movement" may be a difficult undertaking with one book, and the New Age-feel may be a turn-off to many of those Bonheim is trying to reach. That said, I would advise a potential reader to check out a copy, as there are portions that, even among skeptics, can help one's understanding of one's self.

Disclaimer: I received this book as part of Goodreads' giveaway program. (Thank you!)

Fox Tracks: A Novel, by Rita Mae Brown

Fox Tracks: A Novel by Rita Mae Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I received Fox Tracks: A Novel, by Rita Mae Brown from Goodreads' Giveaway program.

There's an adage that a writer should write what he or she knows. Rita Mae Brown has taken that advice to heart. In her latest "Sister" Jane novel, Fox Tracks, Brown has Sister Jane still living in Albermarle County, Virginia, and reigning over the local hunt club. An equestrian who lives in Virginia and who rides with a hunt club, Ms. Brown has many of her books firmly set in Virginia, with characters noted for their strength and indepence. Brown's Miss Murphy mysteries - my first foray into Ms. Brown's writings - also take place in Virginia, as do many of her non-series books.

In Fox Tracks, Sister Jane and members of her hunt club gather with other hunt clubs for their annual event in Manhattan. The festive mood, however, is dampened with the murder of a local tobacco shop owner. Later, another murder takes place in Boston. Of course, this is not the end of the trail of murders. Even the beloved Sister Jane becomes a target, hunted with more zeal than a hunt club hound chases a fox. Does she smoke out the killer or killers before she becomes a victim? Read this quickly moving book to find out.

There are a few things that bothered me with Fox Tracks, all of which are relatively minor. There are times when Ms. Brown's wording seems a little stilted, with a slightly strange syntax. On page 17 of Fox Tracks, Ms. Brown writes, "Hailing from Lexington, Kentucky, where she was Master of the Woodford Hunt, Jane Winegardner walked across the ballroom straight toward Sister,..." It would have made more sense if "Jane Winegardner, the Master of the Woodford Hunt in Lexington, Kentucky, walked across the ballroom..." Meanwhile, on page 18, we learn that Jane "wave[d] at Lynn Lloyd, MFH, from Red Rock in Nevada." Adding the MFH seems to slow down the flow of the words a little. There are several other places where the writing is a little off, but not so much to where the reader would want to walk away from the book.

One thing that Brown does that I have found helpful, both in the Miss Murphy books, as well as Fox Tracks, is the habit of giving a list of characters at the beginning of the book. For a new reader in either the Sister Jane or Miss Murphy series, it helps to know who the characters are we'll encounter along the way. Readers who have followed each series from the start will be able to get a quick idea of how far the characters have come from the previous book, as well as any new characters who might either be a new permanent addition, or simply here for the current book.

Despite the slight quirks in Ms. Brown's writing, Fox Tracks is as enjoyable as other Rita Mae Brown novels and worth the read. Fans will thoroughly enjoy this book, and first time readers may become fans after this novel.

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Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, by David Sedaris

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One reason to read a book of essays about another's quirkily normal family, written with a sense of humor and a laugh at life's foibles is to reassure one that our family is no better or worse than any other family, that the things in our lives that we eventually laugh at are the same things that others laugh at. To that end, David Sedaris has written Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls in such a way that the reader can fully relate with Sedaris's family. Most of the essays deal with his family, childhood, health, and politics.

The book begins with "Dentists Without Borders," in which he describes visits to a French dentist. "Memory Laps" swimmingly wanders from, well, swimming, includes his grandmother moving in with the family and weaves his father's obsession (?) with the Osmond Brothers, among other bits of family history.

There are several places where the essays drag a little, making the reader feel like telling Sedaris to hurry it along or, worse yet, skip to the next essay. But for the most part, the book is well worth the read.

Disclaimer: This is a review of a book that I won from Goodread's giveaway program. Check out the program (located under the "explore" tab) for your chance to win books!

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Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler, by Jamie McGuire

Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler by Jamie McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I won this book from the Goodreads Giveaways program; sign up with Goodreads, find their Giveaways program (at the down arrow next to the Explore link) for your chance to win cool books!

Have you ever browsed through a bookstore, found an interesting looking book, read a page or two, bought the book, then found that either: a) you happened to pick what apparently were the most brilliant two pages of the book and that the rest left you cold, or b) the rest of the book was as good as, if not better than, the two pages you read and that you now have to buy every book by this author? C'mon, if you're anything like me, you know that both scenarios have happened to you at least once. And while certain edited compilations have been interesting, while leaving out long blocks of texts, they're not quite what you're looking for.

Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler, by Jamie McGuire is a wonderful way to read more than that page or two of several books without overwhelming the reader. The premise is that the reader gets a decent section of the book, ranging from four pages of one chapter (Colleen Hoover's Slammed) to a fourteen page segment of two chapters (The Sea of Tranquility, by Katja Millay). (The other book segments in this sampler were fro Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster, Love Unscripted, by Tina Reber, Naked, by Raine Miller, and One Tiny Lie, by K.A. Tucker.)

Each segment was enough to really get a feel for the book that it came from without overwhelming, leaving the reader either wanting more, while knowing that yes, it would be worth the price, or thankful that it wasn't a longer segment. However, the samples were chosen in such a way that each segment prompted me to want to buy the entire book that the segment came from.

Both Atria Books and Jamie McGuire have a hit with Atria Books: A Booklovers Sampler. I look forward to reading other samplers from Atria Books, as well as the entire books that subsequent segments are from.

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Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry, by John Piper

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry by John Piper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This reviewer received this as a free Goodreads giveaway book.

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Pleas to Pastors for Radical Ministry, by John Piper, is, no doubt, a much needed book got pastors leading their congregations. If not, it is unlikely that Piper would have come up with a new edition of his book were it not needed by many pastors. And while I'm not a pastor, but what would be referred to as a lay-person, I attempted to read this as a pastor.

That said, I had a rough time reading past the first two chapters. The first chapter begins

 "We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry.  The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet.  It is not the mentality of the slave of Christ.  Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry."

This explanation may be valid if one uses the argument that a professional is merely out for money, rather than acting as a spiritual guide for a congregation. However, according to World English Dictionary, one definition for profession is "1. an occupation requiring special training in the liberal arts or sciences, esp. one of the three learned professions, law, theology, or medicine.". If a pastor has not acquired the knowledge with which to lead his or her congregation, then the people of that church will be as leaderless as though the pastor were absent. One need not be looking for a quick dollar to be a professional paster; professional and pastor are not opposites.

The second chapter ("Brother, God Loves His Glory") starts out making God sound like an egotistical being, rather than a loving God who wants the best for His creation/children.

The chapters following the first two did have some good advice. However, if the new edition of the book was the first time one has read Piper, it might be easy to give up quickly and not get past the first two chapters. Add to that the fact that several denominations are allowing women in leadership roles, and the idea of call all pastors brothers may be a further turn-off.

The remainder of my disclaimer: having grown up in the Episcopal church - a denomination that tends to lean slightly to the left - this may have colored my views on reading this book. In all honesty, I believe that there is a place for this book, most likely in the more conservative Christian denominations. But for those of us who tend to be a little more liberal, this may be a bit difficult to read.

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