by Christie Purifoy | Jan 26, 2013 | Art, Books, Religion, Stories, Uncategorized
I began this Saturday series, this weekly glimpse of my over-stuffed bookshelves, because it seemed like fun. Just fun.
But now I’ve read House of Prayer No. 2: A Writer’s Journey Home
by Mark Richard, and the word fun doesn’t come close. To share a book like this is something far beyond fun. It is serious. It is sacred. It almost feels like worship, and what can I possibly say to convince you to read this book? I don’t know what to say, but I feel desperate to say it.
This is a writer’s memoir. It is the story of a life, of a boy sinned against and sinning, and it is the story of God’s grace for this broken world. It is a work of art.
Unlike almost every other memoir you will read, Richard never uses the first person singular, never writes the word I. He refers to himself as you, and that choice draws his reader in and propels us through the pages.
It is as if a drowning man has lured us into the chaos of deep water. With him we are nearly overcome by the Southern Gothic horrors of his childhood, the wandering waste of his young adulthood, and, with him, we are saved. We are pulled from the water just as his father once pulled him from a swirling stream, and we see God.
By the end of this book we, like Richard, have long stopped believing in coincidence. Instead, through the words of an artist we are able to see the work of that Artist who takes the broken pieces of our lives, our bodies, our stories and fits them perfectly together. The result is something beautiful.
Richard’s memoir reminds me of the memoir trilogy by the poet Mary Karr, a series that began with The Liars’ Club: A Memoir
. These are not easy books to read. Karr’s story takes Richard’s horrific Southern Gothic childhood and kicks it up a few notches. However, like Richard’s, this is memoir as poetry. Both books make me think that maybe the surest path to God is to run as hard and fast as you can in the opposite direction. Just maybe.
Next to memoirs by writers, I most enjoy memoirs by midwives. Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
by Peggy Vincent is the best I’ve found. Each birth story she shares could stand alone, but there’s an overarching narrative that will make you catch your breath. Organized with brief quotations from The Book of Common Prayer, Vincent’s story prompts me to believe there may be no work more holy than that of a midwife.
I only wish we had a memoir from those heroic Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah, women brave enough to deliver babies and tell tales to Pharaoh himself.
If books get written in heaven (and why not?), then no doubt we’ll read their stories someday. I, for one, can’t wait.
Find earlier book recommendations here, here, and here.
by Christie Purifoy | Jan 19, 2013 | Books, children, Gardening, Uncategorized
This week I’ve been knee-deep in gardening books and seed catalogs.
I love winter gardening. It’s all about dreaming.
This is one of my new favorites. Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard
is practical and inspirational. The photography is lovely, and the ideas are especially well-suited for small, suburban yards.
Another book discovered with my third-grade daughter (actually this is the first of an eight-book series) is Moonsilver (The Unicorn’s Secret #1)
by Kathleen Duey. This is a very rare kind of book. Written for beginning readers, it still manages to tell a beautiful, sophisticated story.
My first-grade son is currently obsessed with The Magic Treehouse series of books. I can hardly stand to read those aloud because the simplistic language and choppy sentence structure drive me nuts. Duey’s series proves that it doesn’t have to be this way. Buy her series for yourself to enjoy. If you feel awkward reading a “beginning chapter book,” just say you’ll pass it on to a young reader when you’re finished.
I especially love memoir, and one of my favorites is Martha Beck’s Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic
. Here is my true story: I actually brought this book home more than ten years ago from a white elephant gift exchange. No one else seemed to want it, but I knew I’d rather go home with a paperback than a cassette of bad 80s music or a withered house plant. Just before I left the party, a young man came up to me. Very seriously he told me that others may have thought the book was a joke, but he wanted me to know that I would love it.
He was right.
This is the story of how two Harvard academics unlearn almost everything Harvard had taught them. It is the story of a devastating diagnosis, an almost unbelievably difficult pregnancy, and an encounter with Love. I give that word a capital letter, because through this nightmarish yet somehow magical experience, Beck meets Someone. She doesn’t name him, but I recognized him immediately. He’s the one I call Jesus.
What books are keeping you company this winter?
(You can find my earlier book recommendations here and here.)
by Christie Purifoy | Jan 12, 2013 | Books, Faith, motherhood, Uncategorized
Last Saturday, I gave you a peak at my bookshelves.
Let’s take another look, shall we?
I found Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry
,
by Katrina Kenison, years ago. It is about neither God nor mittens, but if I could put a copy in the hands of every new mother, I would. Kenison is in search of a less frenetic, more thoughtful approach to family life, and she shares with us her discoveries along with stories of raising her two boys. I’m sure many mothers of young children imagine turning off the tv and scheduling fewer activities. But, then what? This book gives us a glimpse of what might happen next.
Perhaps many of you have already read Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis
by Lauren F. Winner. I think I’ve mentioned it before. It was one of my favorites of the past year. In a previous memoir, Winner describes her journey from Judaism to Christianity. That was her beginning, and it was marked by enthusiasm and optimism. In this book, she describes the middle of her spiritual life. It is characterized by doubt, loneliness, and even boredom. This is a quietly beautiful book. It is a book about remaining faithful even when faith falters.
Sharing this final book with you is a bit like handing you my heart on a platter. Well, maybe not exactly, but I imagine if I ever find someone who loves this book as much as I do then I know I have found a friend. Unfortunately, Penelope Fitzgerald may just be the best writer you’ve never read.
You might find The Bookshop at your local used bookstore. Or, you can pick up this three-book edition (this is the copy on my shelf) from amazon: The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, The Blue Flower (Everyman’s Library)
. The Bookshop is short, beautiful, and sad. It’s also funny. We are in a small English seaside town in the 1950s. A middle-aged widow defies the complacency and pettiness of her community and opens a bookshop.
Even a seemingly small thing like opening a bookshop can be an act of courage. Alas, the bravest and wisest among us do not always emerge as victors.
Still unconvinced? Let me just add that even the spirits have aligned themselves against our heroine. The bookshop, it turns out, is haunted.
What are you reading?
by Christie Purifoy | Jan 5, 2013 | Books, Uncategorized
Books are bread and water for me. You may think that’s metaphor, but I mean it quite literally. I feel the need for reading like I do a sudden drop in blood sugar. My introverted, sensitive self falls apart regularly. Time spent with a book puts me back together.
It won’t surprise you to know that my bookshelves are crammed. Two whole rooms in this house are practically devoted to them. There is also my desk. That’s where the stacks of library books live.
Recently, I’ve had so many friends ask for book recommendations that I knew I needed to do something. Of course, the easiest and best way to share books would be to sit with you on my old green sofa and talk our way through a stack of them.
Here’s my plan for “next best.” Every Saturday I’ll give you a glimpse of my bookshelves. I’ll share old favorites. I’ll share the latest thing on my bedside table. I won’t write long reviews (because these days I’d rather be reading than reviewing), but I’ll try to nudge you towards books I’ve enjoyed, no matter the category.
I read widely. You can expect anything from cookbooks to poetry to theology to children’s picture books. And maybe you’ll comment with some recommendations of your own? I would love that.
I have my nine-year-old daughter to thank for this first book. She found Inside Out and Back Again
by Thanhha Lai at her school library, and she’s been reading it aloud to me. Years of having to listen to Junie B. Jones and Wimpy Kid exploits are now redeemed. This book is exquisite. Written as narrative poetry, this story of a young Vietnamese war refugee making a new life in Alabama is accessible for a child but still powerful for an adult. It will break your heart. In a good way.
What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty reads like a fluffy, fun beach read. Don’t be fooled. There is a lot more going on here. In this novel Alice bumps her head and forgets the previous ten years of her life. She wakes up believing she is pregnant with her firstborn and madly in love with her new husband. In reality, she is an angry mother-of-three in the midst of a divorce. Observing Alice negotiate the chasm between the life she has and the one she remembers is not only fun (I loved every character in this book), it is eye-opening. Fluffy on the outside, yes, but this book offers real wisdom on the subjects of marriage and motherhood.
My husband gave me three cookbooks and a pasta maker for Christmas. He knows me well. One of those books is Vintage Cakes: Timeless Recipes for Cupcakes, Flips, Rolls, Layer, Angel, Bundt, Chiffon, and Icebox Cakes for Today’s Sweet Tooth
(yes, that’s a mouthful) by Julie Richardson. I can’t stop reading her descriptions of desserts I’ve mostly never heard of. Pink Champagne Cake, anyone? As of the new year, I am back on my no-added-sugar diet. Surprisingly, this book is actually helping. I’m finding it easier to say no to chocolate today because I’ve promised myself a little cake over the weekend. I’ll let you know which recipe I choose.
by Christie Purifoy | Dec 14, 2012 | Advent, book of quotations, Books, prayer, Stories, Uncategorized, Waiting
“When God seems silent and our prayers go unanswered, the overwhelming temptation is to leave the story – to walk out of the desert and attempt to create a normal life. But when we persist in a spiritual vacuum, when we hang in there during ambiguity, we get to know God.”
– Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life
Explore the growing collection of Advent imagery here.
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by Christie Purifoy | Dec 10, 2012 | Advent, Books, Poetry, Uncategorized
If there is one thing I am sure of after two years of desert living, it is that darkness can be a gift. It is often (perhaps always?) the only possible beginning for new life.
After all, the very darkest night is the night of the new moon.
Here is one more poem from one of my favorite collections, Luci Shaw’s Accompanied by Angels: Poems of the Incarnation.
The Overshadow
“… the power of the Most High will overshadow you …”
Luke 1:35
When we think of God, and
angels, and the Angel,
we suppose ineffable light.
So there is surprise in the air
when we see him bring to Mary,
in her lit room, a gift of darkness.
What is happening under that
huge wing of shade? In that mystery
what in-breaking wildness fills her?
She is astonished and afraid; even in
that secret twilight she bends her head,
hiding her face behind the curtain
of her hair; she knows that
the rest of her life will mirror
this blaze, this sudden midnight.
– Luci Shaw
Explore the growing collection of Advent imagery here.
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