Book Review: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present

Excerpt: This premise—that so much has changed, and that so much work still needs to be done— resides at the heart of Gail Collins’s excellent book, When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present. Collins, a columnist for the New York Times, uses her significant authority and her accessible writing style to breathe life into a half-century of women’s history, and the result is a fascinating narrative about women’s strength, resilience, and hope for a more equitable future

Life Writing and Mennonite Identity - Review: Essay of Mennonite Women\u27s Memoirs

Excerpt: Rhoda Janzen’s recent success is enviable, her hefty book deal with a prominent press and the publicity that followed her first memoir the kind of triumphs to which writers often aspire. Her book Mennonite in a Little Black Dress has – in its own way – brought Mennonitism to the mainstream, introducing readers (and plenty of them) to a religious sect that remains, to many, enigmatic and exotic. The book’s title alone is alluring, juxtaposing the long-held stereotypes about cape-dress-wearing and be-capped Mennonites with the startling image of a skimpy black shift, a modern emblem of sexy fashion: and so, it seems, entirely not Mennonite

Book Review: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home

Excerpt: An honest admission: When I first saw Rhoda Janzen’s new book featured in Time magazine and in The New York Times, my initial impulse was toward envy—unadulterated, green-as-possible envy. As a fledgling writer who grew up in a close Mennonite community, I often dreamed of creating a humorous memoir about my religious upbringing, complete with satirical observations about the peculiarities of Mennonite culture. Janzen’s Mennonite in a Little Black Dress was the book I always wanted to write. That the author had received a good bit of publicity for her work only intensified my shade of green. After finishing Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, however, I’m convinced the book is misnamed, and that the publisher added “Mennonite” to the title as a clever marketing tool: the cache of a seemingly exotic religious sect being used to sell a different type of story. Certainly Mennonites play a role in Janzen’s book, but only as a quiet thrum to a much larger, more complex and more compelling story about the author’s spiritual quest to discover the self she had lost, and the results of her efforts

Book Review: Letters and Life by Bret Lott

Excerpt: Lott’s newly published book, Letters and Life, limns and amplifies the themes expressed in “Genesis.” Letters and Life enters into a centuries-old conversation about what it means to be an artist and a Christian, relying on what has already been written about the Christian artist to expand and deepen our notions of faith and art, showing that, like the child-narrator in “Genesis,” the artist in creation imitates God

A Christian Feminist Speaks Out on the Drone War in Pakistan

Excerpt: On a warm morning recently, as I was backing the car out of the garage, I saw my eldest son standing on our porch, still in his pajamas and bare feet, looking mournfully at me. I stopped the car and asked what he wanted. “To give you a hug,” he said. I parked the car, got out, and picked up my growing kid, holding him for a moment as I might an infant, his long legs wrapped around me. Right then, nothing felt sweeter

Reckoning With “Other Lies”: A Review of “Everything Happens for a Reason”

Excerpt: Everything Happens For a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved narrates the aftermath of Bowler’s diagnosis, reflecting on what it means to live well despite the specter of death. The memoir, by turns funny, thoughtful, meditative, and sobering, asks important questions about how we understand God in the midst of suffering and pain, especially when those facile mythologies we often turn to—everything happens for a reason, it’s all part of God’s plan, God is teaching me something—provide insufficient comfort for those who are hurting

Why Mowing the Lawn can be Complicated (Chapter 6 from Worthy: Finding Yourself in a World Expecting Someone Else)

In Worthy, college professor Melanie Springer Mock sifts through the shape and weight of expectations that press Christians into cultural molds rather than God\u27s image. By plumbing Scripture and critiquing the ten-billion-dollar-a-year self-improvement industry, Mock offers life-giving reminders that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Set free from the anxiety to conform to others\u27 expectations, we are liberated to become who God has created us to be. If you\u27re worn out from worrying that you\u27ve missed God\u27s One Big Calling, and if you\u27re tired of trying to fit yourself into some cookie-cutter Christian mold, step away from the expectations and toward God\u27s heart

Dismantling Privilege: A Review of “White Picket Fences”

Excerpt: Every once in a while, I read a book that resonates with me so fully, I wish I could become close friends with its author. I presume this is the case with most inveterate readers: we see our lives represented in an author’s words, and feel that—perhaps for the first time— someone has articulated our own experiences and world views completely. We might even imagine spending a long afternoon talking faceto- face with the author over coffee, the book having convinced us that time together would pass quickly because we were so simpatico