INSPIRATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2024

IPPY BOOK AWARD 2024

LDSPMA PRAISEWORTHY AWARD 2024

This inspiring, unforgettable true story takes you on a journey through life in North Korea and the heart-wrenching decision two people make who will risk everything to escape.

The story of Doohyun and Jiyeon is eye-opening, heartbreaking, inspiring, and shows a person's determination when they find purpose and something to fight for. This true story explains what life in North Korea is really like. The tyranny of the government and the lies their citizens are forced to believe. So many miracles lead to Doohyun and Jiyeon meeting, falling in love, and escaping for a better life. This book is a must-read!

May Book

 

South African conservationist and Earth Organization founder Anthony spins the uplifting story of his wildlife reserve.

“In 1999, I was asked to accept a herd of troubled wild elephants on my game reserve,” writes the author at the beginning of this robust portrait of Thula Thula, the game land he owns, in cooperation with a number of Zulu tribes, in Zululand—5,000 acres of raw landscape that is thought to have been part of the exclusive hunting grounds of the Zulu king. No longer, since Anthony now runs it as a conservationist lodge, but it continues to produce colorful tales of wild discovery. Most prominent are the many fascinating stories that surround his adoption of the elephants, an unruly bunch he endeavors to make at home on the reserve. With a combination of intuition and experience, the author intelligently discusses many aspects of elephant behavior. But Thula Thula is far more than an experiment in elephant reintroduction; it’s a slice of primal Africa home to Cape buffalo, white rhinoceros, leopards, crocodile, deadly puff adders, and massive pythons. This, of course, makes it a target for poachers, and Anthony displays a manly, hardened edge. But he also demonstrates sensitivity and nuance in his dealings with Zulu tribal politics, especially when it comes to the cattle ranchers who want to take control of his land. Though the prose occasionally becomes mawkish—as in his “born-free adolescence,” remembered “as vividly as a lovelorn youth recalling his first heart-thudding kiss”—Anthony’s bone-deep mission is bracing and his courage is inspiring.

Energetic firsthand reportage from the heart of the African wild.

Summer Books

 The story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novels—at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.

“Women can be heroes, too.”

When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.

This incredible story combines heart-stopping adventure, broken lives transformed, and the realities of spiritual warfare, all rolled together in a page-turning thriller set behind the Iron Curtain. Most riveting of all is that this is a true story, which has inspired and challenged generations of Christians since its first publication almost forty years ago.

Following the rise of Communism after the Second World War, Christians behind the Iron Curtain had never felt more alone. Persecuted for their faith they wondered whether they had been forgotten by their fellow Christians around the world.

But God was calling a young Dutchman, Andrew, to be his ambassador to the faithful. Smuggling a few, then hundreds, then thousands of Bibles across dangerous borders and into needy hands, he risked his life time and again to bring hope to those who needed it most.

This classic book has sold over ten million copies in English alone. This edition includes a new Foreword and Epilogue to update Andrew's story and underline its continuing relevance to a whole generation of readers.

 

April Book

This debut novel is somewhat whimsical and totally delightful. Set in fictional Sowell Bay near Seattle, it is a story of love, grief, the fear of aging, and friendship. And yet, it is still amusing. 

Part of the novel is told by Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who is somewhat sarcastic and very intelligent. He has been in captivity at the Sowell Bay Aquarium for over three years. 

Tova Sullivan is a 70-year-old woman who works nights at the aquarium. Cleaning and talking to the animals helps her stay busy and productive. Tova is grieving the recent death of her husband and the loss of her son 30 years ago. She thinks the police have it wrong when they say her son Erik’s death was a suicide.

When she is not at the aquarium, she enjoys visiting with her longtime friends known as the Knit-Wits. The local grocery store owner, Ethan, is her friend as well, but she is oblivious to his flirting. To the distress of her friends, Tova decides to sell her house and belongings and put herself in a nursing home. She tells the Knit-Wits, Mary Ann and Barbara, “I don’t have children who will come stay with me when I’ve had a fall. I don’t have grandchildren who will stop over to unclog my drain or make sure I’m taking my pills. And I won’t put that burden on my friends and neighbors.” 

Another one of Tova’s friends is Marcellus, the octopus in residence at the aquarium. The giant Pacific octopuses are ingenious creatures. Known to escape from their enclosures and search for “live food,” they can pick locks and open jars. They can even differentiate one human from another. Tova has seen Marcellus escape from his tank and has helped him return.

The book’s other narrative is about 30-year-old Cameron, who was abandoned by his mother when he was 9. He has never met his father. He lives in a trailer park in California with his aunt. Cameron has trouble holding down a job and would rather play with his rock band. Cameron finds a class ring in his mother’s belongings. When he sees it is from the high school in Sowell Bay, he is convinced his father must live there. He heads to Sowell Bay thinking his father owes him back child support.

The three characters meet through connections with the aquarium. When Tova injures her ankle, Cameron temporarily takes Tova’s job cleaning the aquarium. Tova goes to the aquarium every night to teach Cameron how to clean to her standards. Cameron finds Marcellus fascinating as well. And Marcellus studies them both.

While “Remarkably Bright Creatures” is unlikely, it is poignant and heartwarming. It reminds us that even if we do not have family, friends can be just what we need.

 

Lynda Rutledge has delivered a wonderful, bittersweet coming-of-age novel designed to celebrate hope in a hopeless world. “West With Giraffes” is an unforgettable novel of adventure, unrequited love, and the spirit of America during the bleakest period of its existence.

Belle Benchley, the first-ever female zoo director who runs the San Diego Zoo, has managed to procure two giraffes and a rhino from Africa. As the transport ship neared New York City a disastrous hurricane nearly sinks it, and the rhino is lost. The giraffes survive and are quarantined before the long trek to California.

Woody manages to procure the job of driving the truck along with Benchley's right-hand man, Riley Jones. Although only 17 and unfamiliar with driving a truck, he manages to impress Jones.

Augusta Lowe, a beautiful redhead with dreams of becoming a photojournalist for Life magazine, begins shadowing the giraffes and their transporters. America's love affair with the animals is a welcome distraction from the events of the times.

This is a beautifully written novel that has everything in it. Intrigue, guilt, desperation, redemption and a pair of the most wonderful giraffes to ever be documented.

The truly inspiring part of this book is that it is based on true events. Some names have been changed and the story is invented by Rutledge, but it reads like a true biography.

 

February Book

The pitiless dictatorship of Francisco Franco was examined through the voices of four teenagers: one American and three Spaniards.

The Spanish Civil War lasted from 1936-1939, but Franco held Spain by its throat for 36 years. Sepetys (Salt to the Sea, 2016, etc.) begins her novel in 1957. Daniel is a white Texan who wants to be a photojournalist, not an oilman; Ana is trying to work her way to respectability as a hotel maid; her brother, Rafael, wants to erase memories of an oppressive boys’ home; and Puri is a loving caregiver for babies awaiting adoption—together they provide alternating third-person lenses for viewing Spain during one of its most brutally repressive periods. Their lives run parallel and intersect as each tries to answer questions about truth and the path ahead within a regime that crushes any opposition, murders dissidents, and punishes their families while stealing babies to sell to parents with accepted political views. This formidable story will haunt those who ask hard questions about the past as it reveals the hopes and dreams of individuals in a nation trying to lie its way to the future. Meticulous research is presented through believable, complex characters on the brink of adulthood who personalize the questions we all must answer about our place in the world. 

A stunning novel that exposes modern fascism and elevates human resilience. 

January Book

  

An exceptional tribute to three generations of courageous and articulate Chinese women: the grandmother, born in 1909 into a still feudal society; the mother, a Communist official and then ``enemy of the people''; and the daughter, the author, raised during the reactionary Cultural Revolution, then sent abroad in 1978, when the story ends, to study in England, where she now, at age 39, serves as Director of Chinese Studies for External Services, Univ. of London. In recounting her grandmother's early life—the binding of her feet, her time as the concubine of a warlord, her escape with her infant daughter after his death, and her marriage to a respectable middle-class doctor—Chang provides a vivid picture of traditional China and the place of women before the Communist Revolution. After the Revolution, the position of women rose: Chang's mother, who grew up during the Japanese occupation and married a Maoist guerrilla soldier, bore five children while enduring the discipline and hardship of those early revolutionary years, and later, as a civil servant and wife of an official, acquired in the new government status and advantages, especially education for her children. Raised in this ``Privileged Cocoon'' between 1958-65, Chang was protected from the injustices that led to the Cultural Revolution—the purges, repression, public denunciations and humiliations, the confusing and arbitrary shifts in ideology that led ultimately to the conviction of her parents, idealistic but old-time Communists, as ``enemies of the people.'' As part of her ``re-education,'' Chang was sent to the countryside to live as a peasant, serving without any training as a doctor and then as an electrician before being sent abroad. A valuable historical perspective on the impact of Mao on traditional Chinese culture and character—as well as an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world. Mostly, however, Chang offers an inspiring story of courage, sensitivity, intelligence, loyalty, and love, told objectively, without guilt or recrimination, in an unassuming and credible documentary style.

November Book

 In this absorbing dual-timeline story, the landscape Morton creates is tangible, immersive, and transportive. Much of the novel takes place in the weeks around Christmas of 1959 in the fictional Southern Australian town of Tambilla—and as I read, I was there. I could see the lush foliage, hear the screech of the cockatoos, and experience the loves and losses of those whose stories Morton tells. 

This is a layered novel with many characters and plotlines all of which Morton writes effortlessly. In present day, Jess, on the cusp of 40, feels as though her professional and personal life has been a let-down. She was essentially raised by her imperious, loving, and rather controlling grandmother–Jess’s own mother, Polly, lives in Brisbane and rarely speaks to her mother or her daughter. All three, it will turn out, have a copy of Daniel Miller’s As If They Were Asleep—a (fictionalized) book whose chapters tell the story of the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve, 1959. These embedded chapters along with the sections actually set in the past, teem with the people of Tambilla whose families along with that of the Turners are shaped by long-held secrets and bone-deep love.

I had a few quibbles–all around the present-day storyline–but I forgot them as soon as I turned the page. Morton doesn’t give a resolution to all the issues Jess faces–this actually gives the story a verisimilitude lesser fiction often lacks. Additionally, one of the big reveals of the book is not, I believe, intended to be a surprise. The connection between Jess, Nora, and Polly to Isabel Turner and her family is easy to make out early on in the book. But how that outcome occurred and, even more compellingly, why are things I didn’t see until the final chapters. The enigma at the heart of the novel is complex, and heartbreaking, and will satisfy even the most critical mystery reader.

Morton limits the way humans hide truths from both themselves and others. With gorgeous prose, she slowly cracks open how, for better and for worse, families, especially mothers, love. This is a book tinged with sadness and yet, when I turned the last page, I felt elated. The hours I spent in the landscape meticulously portrayed in Homecoming were a gift. Readers of historical fiction will treasure this book.

October Book

 

The Warsaw Orphan…

Inspired by the real-life heroine who smuggled thousands of Jewish children to safety during WWII, the powerful new novel by the New York Times bestselling author.

In the spring of 1942, young Elzbieta Rabinek is aware of the swiftly growing discord just beyond the courtyard of her comfortable Warsaw home. But she has no idea what goes on behind the walls of the Jewish Ghetto nearby until she makes a discovery that propels her into a dangerous world of deception and heroism.

Elzbieta comes face to face with the plight of the Gorka family who must give up their newborn daughter – or watch her starve. For Roman Gorka, this final injustice stirs in him a rebellion not even his newfound love for Elzbieta can suppress. His recklessness puts their families in harm’s way until one violent act threatens to destroy their chance at freedom forever.

Kelly Rimmer, bestselling Australian author of Truths I Never Told You and The Things We Cannot Say, has penned her most meticulously researched and emotionally compelling novel to date.

Summer Books

In this haunting, moving and beautifully written novel, Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie used thousands of letters and original sources to tell Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s story as it’s never been told before --- not just as the wronged wife at the center of a political sex scandal, but also as a founding mother who shaped an American legacy in her own right.

A general’s daughter...Coming of age on the perilous frontier of revolutionary New York, Elizabeth Schuyler champions the fight for independence. And when she meets Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s penniless but passionate aide-de-camp, she’s captivated by the young officer’s charisma and brilliance. They fall in love, despite Hamilton’s bastard birth and the uncertainties of war.

A founding father’s wife...But the union they create --- in their marriage and the new nation --- is far from perfect. From glittering inaugural balls to bloody street riots, the Hamiltons are at the center of it all --- including the political treachery of America’s first sex scandal, which forces Eliza to struggle through heartbreak and betrayal to find forgiveness.

The last surviving light of the Revolution...When a duel destroys Eliza’s hard-won peace, the grieving widow fights her husband’s enemies to preserve Alexander’s legacy. But long-buried secrets threaten everything Eliza believes about her marriage and her own legacy. Questioning her tireless devotion to the man and country that have broken her heart, she’s left with one last battle --- to understand the flawed man she married and imperfect union he never could have created without her.

When Martha Skelton finds herself falling in love with a shy young burgess named Thomas Jefferson, it feels like an inconvenience. Widowed at twenty-two, Martha has no desire to lose the independence she has gained in the wake of her husband's death. But she cannot deny her feelings indefinitely. Despite her intentions, her friendship with Thomas develops into an intense and all-consuming love. History casts a shadow on Martha's newfound joy. Through her father's slave and mistress, Betty Hemings, she comes to understand the true nature of slavery, an institution she has always taken for granted. As Betty's revelations tear down the walls of her ignorance, Martha begins to work with her husband to end the despicable practice forever. This story is essentially true. Thomas Jefferson was such an obsessive record-keeper that we know what he was doing nearly every day of his adult life, and all the public things he is quoted as saying in My Thomas come from his contemporary writings. Martha's marriage to Thomas spanned the decade from 1772 to 1782, so it put her at the center of the audacious grab at freedom that was the American Revolution. Jefferson's writings suggest that if he had not been widowed, he would have retired from politics following the war and devoted himself to finding a way to end slavery that could have truly and forever healed the separations between the races. It is hard to read Martha's story now and not think about what might have been. 

 

May Book

You can’t make a living being an author of uplifting novels without experiencing pain, regret, anguish, and sadness. So, a successful writer like Catherine Ryan Hyde doesn’t offer her readers a Pollyanna version of life, nor any toxic optimism. No, Hyde understands that life is too often like walking through mud with snowshoes on. Her novels reflect the sharp needles that surround us in life, and the secret map to avoid those cuts and slashes, and discover redemption in the most unlikely of ways.

So Long, Chester Wheeler, published in December 2022, is a novel torn from the maelstrom we call the news cycle and carefully caressed by the author to release revelations about the spiteful virulence life can inflict, and how we deal with them.

April Book

 

The backstory of finding Elizabeth Smart and how growing up in the Mormon culture pushed the author to develop the exact kind of intuition that was needed to help manage Elizabeth’s kidnapping and rescue while the world watched.

Chris Thomas is not yet 30 years old when he finds himself managing the immense pressure, eccentric personalities, and extenuating circumstances of an international story, where one small misstep could adversely impact the search for a missing teenager and the reputation of her family. Now, 20 years later, Thomas takes listeners behind the scenes, providing new details, perspectives, and commentary on finding Elizabeth Smart.

In the process of reflecting on Elizabeth’s search and rescue, Thomas discovers how growing up in the culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as Mormon) helped push him to develop the exact kind of intuition needed to manage Elizabeth’s kidnapping and rescue, and to do so while the world watched.

Unexpected juxtaposes crucial events from the Smart case with Thomas’ experience growing up in the Latter-day Saint culture, including coming to understand the secret of a broken war hero before it was too late.

March Book

 

The True Story Behind the Events on 9/11 that Inspired Broadway’s Smash Hit Musical Come from Away, Featuring All New Material from the Author

When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of U.S. airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill.

As the passengers stepped from the airplanes, exhausted, hungry and distraught after being held on board for nearly 24 hours while security checked all of the baggage, they were greeted with a feast prepared by the townspeople. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the passengers to the various shelters set up in local schools and churches. Linens and toiletries were bought and donated. A middle school provided showers, as well as access to computers, email, and televisions, allowing the passengers to stay in touch with family and follow the news.

Over the course of those four days, many of the passengers developed friendships with Gander residents that they expect to last a lifetime. As a show of thanks, scholarship funds for the children of Gander have been formed and donations have been made to provide new computers for the schools. This book recounts the inspiring story of the residents of Gander, Canada, whose acts of kindness have touched the lives of thousands of people and been an example of humanity and goodwill.

February Book

 

In Original Grace, Adam S. Miller proposes an experiment in Restoration thinking: What if instead of implicitly affirming the traditional logic of original sin, we, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, emphasized the deeper reality of God's original grace? What if we broke entirely with the belief that suffering can sometimes be deserved and claimed that suffering can never be deserved?

In exploring these questions, Miller draws on scriptures and the truths of the Restoration to reframe Christianity's traditional thinking about grace, justice, and sin. He outlines the logic of original sin versus that of original grace and generates fresh insights into how the doctrine of grace relates to justice, creation, forgiveness, and more.

As we embrace the reality of God's original grace and refuse the logic of original sin, we achieve a deeper understanding of our relationship with Christ and the meaning of his atonement. Christ suffers with us in order to heal our wounds and redeem our suffering. He rescues us from sin by empowering us to exercise our agency and accept. God's original offer of grace. He fills us with this pure love by teaching us how to respond to all suffering the same way God does: with even more grace. Indeed, as Miller suggests, the very substance of salvation has always been a grace-filled partnership with Christ.

January Book

 As hope fades for the Confederacy and victory looms for the Union in the fall of 1864, the widowed Mary Surratt, left heavily in debt by her drunken husband, moves to Washington with two of her grown children, John and Anna, and opens her home to boarders. There she welcomes the friends of John, a Confederate courier, even as she is disturbed by her son’s increasingly secretive behavior.

Fresh from convent school, bookish Nora Fitzpatrick finds a second mother in Mary, and is fascinated by the odd characters who frequent her landlady’s house. But none of the visitors is so thrilling as John Surratt’s new friend, the dashing actor John Wilkes Booth, who captivates Nora and Anna with his charm and good looks, and whose fervor for the Southern cause draws John—and Mary—into an audacious scheme to save the dying Confederacy.

Then on Good Friday, 1865, Booth commits an act that will reverberate through history. Suddenly everyone in the boardinghouse is under suspicion, and everyone has something to hide or to reveal. And in the tumultuous weeks that follow, some will be changed forever—and some will lose everything.

December Book

  

Life is like a maze. It takes mysterious twists and turns, has walls much too tall to peer over, and often includes a few dead ends. When we’re in the maze, we do not know where we are going next, nor where it ends. But, when we overcome the pressures of giving up, we often find that our path, full of seemingly impossible challenges, eventually leads us to restore what we once thought was lost.

Marjan Kamali’s The Stationery Shop focuses on the timeless enigma of fate and destiny through the love story of protagonists Roya Joon and Bahman Aslan. In this captivating novel, Kamali discusses timeless themes that continue to weigh on us all. The novel takes place over nearly an entire century to capture the generational struggles of classism, misogyny, gender inequality, grief, immigration, and political unrest. The Stationery Shop is primarily written from a third-person perspective based on Roya’s point of view. However, Kamali structures the novel to include chapters that flash forward and backward in time to provide a multi-generational look into the lives of the other characters. This is one of my favorite elements of the novel’s form, as it creates exceptional foreshadowing and dramatic irony which adds to the prismatic nature of the tale.

November Book

  

“Deep Conviction features four ordinary Americans who put their reputations and livelihoods at risk as they fought to protect their first amendment right to live their personal beliefs. Though these individuals couldn’t be more different, they share a similar conviction and determination.

• In the winter of 1813, in rural New York City, a Catholic priest faced prison after a grand jury subpoenaed him for refusing to divulge the identity of a criminal who admitted his guilt during the sacrament of confession.
• In the summer of 1959, an atheist pushed his attempt to become a Maryland notary public all the way to the United States Supreme Court because the state required him to sign an oath that said he believed in God.
• In 1989 a Klamath Indian man walked into the highest court of our nation supported by legions of members of the Native American Church to plead for the freedom to practice his beliefs after years of oppression.
• And, finally, in 2017, a Christian baker in Denver had his beliefs and actions scrutinized by the Supreme Court after he refused service to a gay couple who wanted to purchase a custom wedding cake.

These stories were specifically chosen for their universality and for the broad principles they represent. Most importantly, the notion of religious freedom for all, truly cherished, allows justice and protection for everyone, religious or not.”

I was a little hesitant to read this book because I thought reading about court cases might be a little boring. Let me tell you how wrong I was. Steven T. Collis has a gift with words. He took these old court cases and brought them to life. I was enthralled! I couldn’t put it down! The law is not my thing—I teach sixth grade—but Collis held me captivated. As he described the laws and the courtroom scenes, I felt like I was there. I could feel the tension in the room, and I think I held my breath as I waited to hear the final decisions. He has a gift for storytelling.

Summer Books

A remarkable chronicle of a courageous woman who worked undercover for British and American intelligence in occupied France during World War II and had to fight for every ounce of recognition she deserved. Throughout this lively examination of the life of Virginia Hall (1906-1982), British biographer and journalist Purnell (Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill, 2015, etc.) shows how, if Hall had been a man, dropping undercover in and out of occupied Vichy, Paris, and Lyon, setting up safe houses, and coordinating couriers for the Resistance, she would now be as famous as James Bond. However, this daughter of a well-off Baltimore family, who attended Radcliffe and Barnard before finishing her education in Europe, dreamed of a career in the American Foreign Service—but over and over she was relegated to the secretary’s desk. In 1933, a freak hunting accident in Turkey left her with an amputated left leg, a horrendous experience that only seemed to steel her resolve to live her life as she pleased. The outbreak of Nazi aggression in 1939 and subsequent invasion of France prompted Hall to volunteer to drive ambulances for the Service de Santé des Armées. Then, a fortuitous meeting with an agent of the Special Operations Executive, the fledgling British secret service, sealed her fate. Impressed by her courage, independence, and poise, the SOE tasked Hall with returning to occupied France to help coordinate the work of local Resistance leaders and future SOE agents. Her appointment, writes the author of her consistently fascinating subject, “was an outstanding act of faith in her abilities, which had for so long been belittled or ignored.” Hall’s daring efforts in the breakout of Resistance prisoners in the Vichy-run internment camp at Mauzac, in March 1942, was a stunning achievement considering the enormous danger of getting caught and tortured by the Gestapo. Later in the narrative, the author amply shows how her later CIA work was only grudgingly recognized and celebrated.

Meticulous research results in a significant biography of a trailblazer who now has a CIA building named after her.

Warning! This book has some language you might find offensive.

A vivacious portrait of a therapist from both sides of the couch.

With great empathy and compassion, psychotherapist and Atlantic columnist and contributing editor Gottlieb (Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough, 2010, etc.) chronicles the many problems facing the “struggling humans” in her stable of therapy patients. The intimate connection between patient and therapist established through the experience of psychic suffering forms the core of the memoir, as the author plumbs the multifaceted themes of belonging, emotional pain, and healing. “Therapists…deal with the daily challenges of living just like everyone else….Our training has taught us theories and tools and techniques, but whirring beneath our hard-earned expertise is the fact that we know just how hard it is to be a person,” she writes. Through Gottlieb’s stories of her sessions with a wide array of clients, readers will identify with the author as both a mid-40s single mother and a perceptive, often humorous psychotherapist. In addition to its smooth, conversational tone and frank honesty, the book is also entertainingly voyeuristic, as readers get to eavesdrop on Gottlieb’s therapy sessions with intriguing patients in all states of distress. She also includes tales of her appointments with her own therapist, whom she turned to in her time of personal crisis. Success stories sit alongside poignant profiles of a newly married cancer patient’s desperation, a divorced woman with a stern ultimatum for her future, and women who seem stuck in a cycle of unchecked alcoholism or toxic relationships. These episodes afford Gottlieb time for insightful reflection and self-analysis, and she also imparts eye-opening insider details on how patients perceive their therapists and the many unscripted rules psychotherapists must live by, especially when spotted in public (“often when patients see our humanity, they leave us”). Throughout, the author puts a very human face on the delicate yet intensive process of psychotherapy while baring her own demons.

Saturated with self-awareness and compassion, this is an irresistibly addictive tour of the human condition.

April Book

Ella Minnow Pea is a first novel by Mark Dunn who is in fact a successful writer of over 25 plays. The novel structure is epistolary, which means that the story unfolds via letters between the characters. This is supposed to add greater realism to the story and demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the device of an omniscient narrator. The approach was a popular 18th-century device but mostly abandoned for most of the 19th and mid-20th century with the notable exceptions of Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. Recently it has a bit of a popular revivable with works such as The Boy Next Door (2002) by Meg Cabot and We Need to Talk about Kevin (2003) using the format.

Ella Minnow Pea is a slim 200-page book about Nollop, an isle off the coast of South Carolina, and home to Nevin Nollop, the supposed creator of the well-known pangram "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." The island folk are best imagined as a type of Amish or Plain People who are happy to be in a pre-industrial idyll. Then one day tiles fall off Nevin Nollop's statue knocking off a letter. This sets in train events in which that letter is forbidden in speech and writing on pain of punishment and eventual banishment.

The story is more than wordplay although the letters read aloud are a joy to hear. It also explores how an open accepting community gradually falls apart as neighbours turn on neighbour and as willing followers gradually also become victims. This is explored politically as free speech is lost and an increasingly power-hungry elite takes

over and theologically as rival cults emerge and the emptiness of worshiping idols is shown. Alongside these important themes, we also see a love story unfold and a race to find a new pangram before all freedoms are lost that will reveal that Nevin Nollop's is a fraud.

In the end, you will either like the book because of the fun wordplay and important themes or you dislike the format and the limited characterization. I am of the former camp and so strongly recommend it.
 

March Book

 

At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilson a young slave woman, fearing for her infant son's life exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's.  From this rather simple premise, Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels.  On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery:  reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, a suspenseful courtroom drama, and a surprising, unusual solution.  Yet it is not a mystery novel.  Seething with the undercurrents of antebellum southern culture, the book is a savage indictment in which the real criminal is society, and racial prejudice and slavery are the crimes.  Written in 1894, Pudd'nhead Wilson glistens with characteristic Twain humor, with suspense, and with pointed irony:  a gem among the author's later works.

February Book

PBR Book Review: If nothing else this book will pique your interest because Truth or legend, the story is intriguing. It's the tale of a young woman who craved knowledge but was denied this opportunity because only religious people were educated in the 9th century. Determined and strong-willed, she assumes the identity of a man, sets out to learn, and eventually becomes Pope. Much research went into this story; it is rich with details of the day-to-day life and customs of the Dark Ages, the vicious power struggles that took place in the churches and medicines of medieval times. The author does a really great job of not just describing the torturous methods of fighting but also conveying the horror of entire villages being annihilated. Rumor says the legend is true and the Catholic Church upon discovery removed all evidence of a female Pope. I found it quite plausible that there was indeed a female Pope, Notes from the author at the book's end further support this theory. However, either way, the tale is thought-provoking and an adventure that has action, romance, mystery, murder, and lethal secrets. The on

 

The book is largely a memoir, with a few sections devoted to spiritual lessons that Tom has learned. The power of the latter sections is such that I hope that even people with minimal interest in LGBTQ issues would read the book.

Tom’s journey back to the church is a fascinating one: it involved a ward who welcomed him—and his partner—with open arms. Tom argues against the idea that shunning is somehow necessary to remind gays of the commandments and points out that, when he was ready to return to full activity, he did not have to overcome the additional barriers of bitterness and pride that family or ward ostracism would have created. 

 

Charlie Bird—the viral face of BYU during his years as Cosmo the Cougar—made waves across the nation in February when he came out and revealed to BYU fans that he is gay. Now, in Without the Mask, Bird reflects on how his identity has strengthened his testimony and how he views his sexual orientation in conjunction with his faith in Jesus Christ. Alternating between memoir and teaching chapters, Bird’s touching and authentic prose chronicle his decision to openly share that he is gay and to remain active in the faith. Highlighting the challenges Bird has faced along the way, the book also shares the blessings he’s learned to recognize through his sexual orientation. Charlie feels deeply the importance of maintaining a relationship with God and hopes this message will “spark healing, bridge gaps of understanding and inspire hope” for other LGBTQ readers and those who love them.

 A Walk in My Shoes: Questions I’m Often Asked as a Gay Latter-day Saint invites readers to act upon that counsel by following the journey of Ben Schilaty, a licensed therapist and BYU Honor Code administrator, as he works to reconcile his faith with his sexual orientation.

Each chapter in the book focuses on a question that the author is often asked which he answers using stories from his life and gospel principles. Questions include: Were you born gay? Why do you stay in the Church? Why don’t you marry a woman if marriage is about more than sex? Readers are invited to experience various steps of Ben’s journey with him. A Walk in My Shoes allows readers a glimpse into the life of a single, gay, active Latter-day Saint and provides examples of how they can support and minister to their LGBTQ loved ones.

November Book

 The former first lady opens up about her early life, her journey to the White House, and the eight history-making years that followed.

It’s not surprising that Obama grew up a rambunctious kid with a stubborn streak and an “I’ll show you” attitude. After all, it takes a special kind of moxie to survive being the first African-American FLOTUS—and not only survive, but thrive. For eight years, we witnessed the adversity the first family had to face, and now we get to read what it was really like growing up in a working-class family on Chicago’s South Side and ending up at the world’s most famous address. As the author amply shows, her can-do attitude was daunted at times by racism, leaving her wondering if she was good enough. Nevertheless, she persisted, graduating from Chicago’s first magnet high school, Princeton, and Harvard Law School, and pursuing careers in law and the nonprofit world. With her characteristic candor and dry wit, she recounts the story of her fateful meeting with her future husband. Once they were officially a couple, her feelings for him turned into a “toppling blast of lust, gratitude, fulfillment, wonder.” But for someone with a “natural resistance to chaos,” being the wife of an ambitious politician was no small feat, and becoming a mother along the way added another layer of complexity. Throw a presidential campaign into the mix, and even the most assured woman could begin to crack under the pressure. Later, adjusting to life in the White House was a formidable challenge for the self-described “control freak”—not to mention the difficulty of sparing their daughters the ugly side of politics and preserving their privacy as much as possible. Through it all, Obama remained determined to serve with grace and help others through initiatives like the White House garden and her campaign to fight childhood obesity. And even though she deems herself “not a political person,” she shares frank thoughts about the 2016 election.

An engrossing memoir as well as a lively treatise on what extraordinary grace under extraordinary pressure looks like.

October Book

An economic conservative proposes that those at opposite poles of the political spectrum should learn to love each other.

American Enterprise Institute president Brooks (The Conservative Heart, 2015, etc.) welcomes the opportunity to share his views with those who might not agree with him. After a recent talk on a particularly progressive campus, one student told him, “I came ready to fight, but I really connected with that speech.” Many readers will have the same reaction—or at least the author hopes they will since he largely avoids grinding an ideological ax. “What is the cure for our culture of contempt? As I have argued throughout, it’s not civility and tolerance, which are garbage standards. It is love for each other and our country.” So how do we get there? Brooks argues that we must build bridges rather than walls, replace contempt with empathy, focus on the many values where we agree rather than on the relatively few where we disagree, and embrace each other’s common humanity. “Your opportunity when treated with contempt is to change at least one heart—yours,” he writes. “You may not be able to control the actions of others, but you can absolutely control your own reaction. You can break the cycle of contempt.” Because Brooks feels that the country at large has become addicted to contempt, much of the material parallels 12-step jargon; at the end, he provides “Five Rules to Subvert the Culture of Contempt.” He draws from neuroscience and psychology to support his hypotheses and rarely indulges in the sort of finger-pointing that proceeds from who-started-it accusations. “In the long run,” writes Brooks, “people are instinctively attracted to happy warriors who fight for others.” Since the last to embrace the “happy warrior” label was Hubert Humphrey, it will be fascinating to see whether a book like this has any influence.

Hardly groundbreaking but a straightforward and practical guide back toward human decency.

Summer Books

 

“In 1937 came the novel in which Hurston triumphed in the art of taking the imagery, imagination, and experiences of Black folk and making literature. Hurston says in her autobiography that she wrote the novel in seven straight weeks in the Caribbean after a love affair ended, and though the circumstances were difficult, she tried to ‘enbalm’ the novel with all of her tenderness for this man.

Perhaps because the novel’s main character, Janie Woods, has a succession of husbands and finally finds joy and fulfillment in her third marriage, the novel has generally been thought of as a love story, about love.

On a much deeper and more important level, however, its theme is Janie’s search for identity, an identity which finally begins to take shape as she throws off the false images which have been thrust upon her because she is both black and woman in a society where neither is allowed to exist naturally and freely.

Hurston uses two images from nature to symbolize Janie’s quest: the horizon and the blossoming pear tree. One, the horizon, suggests that the search is an individual quest; the other, the pear tree in blossom, suggests a fulfillment in union with another. Janie describes her journey to find herself in a language that takes us deep into black folk traditions.”

 In 1940, at a time when women’s roles were still firmly rooted in home and hearth, the ladies of Chilbury, England, find themselves at the bleeding edge of progress as the ramifications of World War II begin to infiltrate their little town. The men of Chilbury head to battlefields, and the village choir becomes the first casualty of the war. When a female professor of music insists the choir can be reassembled as a ladies’ choir, the small community is at first scandalized by such an idea. But this is soon lost to other more salacious events. There is the brigadier who hires an unscrupulous midwife to swap his baby girl for a boy, and his teenage daughter seduces a handsome artist who’s come to town under mysterious circumstances. An upstanding single woman (a widow whose only son has gone to fight) is tapped to take a colonel into her home, and a 10-year-old Czech evacuee finds out what happened to her family. As the war advances on Chilbury, even more lives are changed when a German bomb kills a young mother as well as the choir mistress, young men are sent off to war, and spies and black-market profiteers lurk in the quiet lanes. Told in the form of diaries and letters in the voices of the female characters, Ryan’s novel, reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, captures the experience of the war from a woman’s perspective. Readers may have come across this kind of story before, but the letter/diary format works well and the plot elements satisfyingly come together.