Book 10 of 2024 -- The Bright Ages

 Every year as the summer approaches I look for something different from my normal reading list to read while on vacation. This year I happened on this volume about Medieval history and decided that it would be my holiday reading this summer. I was especially intrigued by the title. It was a nice counterpoint to the oft-used (and IMO inappropriate) descriptor of the Early Middle Ages as the "Dark Ages".

The book is not a comprehensive history of the period or even a survey history. It is a selection of stories that are not as well known, told from a different point of view. The authors also take effort to remind the reader that the whole dividing of history into ages and eras is a bit artificial. It is not like there are hard divisions between different periods of history, there are always crossovers and holdovers.

I found this a very easy and entertaining read. Many of the stories were ones I was either completely unfamiliar with or were ones I had only heard from a very different perspective. I really appreciated the time taken to push the reader to see a Medieval Europe where female voices and people of colour were more a part of the story than most history has portrayed. In the same vein the intentional lifting up of the tension of a multicultural, multi-religious, world connected across Europe, Africa, and Asia was greatly appreciated.

It was indeed a good choice to start my vacation with.

Book 9 of 2024 -- A Year in the Life of the Atikokan River

For nine years every day I looked out the dormer window in the manse out over the Atikokan river valley. Many times I would walk the dog along the trails. When Patty came to Atikokan for the first time we took a walk along the trail leading down from the church before she left. The river is a highlight of the community though, as Brian says in the last column in this book, sometimes it might be easy to take it for granted.

So when I saw on Facebook that Brian and the Progress had put a series of columns into a small book I immediately asked how one might get a copy without having to travel to Atikokan.

It is a great little read. 12 monthly columns about the river. I really appreciated that for each month Brian had not only given the traditional English month names but also the Anishinabemowin names. It is a small act but one that recognizes that the river has been used for far longer than the 125 year that the community of Atikokan has existed.

As we travel through the 12 columns Brian leads us in an exploration of the biology, the flora and fauna one encounters in the valley. He talks about how climate change and human activity have impacted the river and also how the river has impacted human activity. He then includes an appendix with some scientific data about the river.

It is probable that the book will be of most interest to people who have lived in Atikokan and experienced the river directly and given how it was published it is not likely to spread much beyond the town. But I am sure glad I had the connections to get a copy (a signed copy in fact). Well done Brian!

Book 8 of 2024 -- Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul

 

There is something deep in my heart that seems to resonate with Celtic Spirituality. Always has been in fact. So when I happened across this book while browsing one day earlier this year, I decided add it to my cart.

To the best of my memory this is the first book by Newell that I have read, though I know I have heard the name before (I would have to check my shelf at the church to see if I have another one of his). In this book he uses a variety of Celtic saints and leaders over the centuries to explore some aspects of Celtic Christian Spirituality. Some of them are names I have known of for years, though not always been really familiar with their way of thinking. Others were people I heard of first when reading this book.

The overarching premise of the book is that of finding/recognizing the sacred in a variety of places. Much of Western Christianity (Roman Catholic and Reformed churches) has tried to limit the sacred to the realm of the church. Celtic Christianity has a broader view of where the sacred might be seen and found. I agree with the latter point of view. In some ways I wonder how the Celtic approach (which was intentionally quashed by the Roman Church in the Middle Ages, indeed I would suggest that quashing the remnants of Celtic Christian though is part of why the Pope allowed Henry II to invade Ireland, thus beginning a bloody centuries long struggle) might tie in to some of Christian mysticism (which has also long been viewed with suspicion by the church).

Over and over again as I was reading I found myself vigorously nodding in agreement. The chapters of Pelagius, Brigid, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin were most notable for this. Each chapter ended with a meditative exercise focusing on the theme of that chapter which are all compiled into an appendix and I may have to go back and revisit those as time goes by.

Certainly a book I would endorse for a gentle, meditative read.

Book 7 of 2024 -- Where the Light Fell

 Many years ago Philip Yancey's book What's So Amazing About Grace? was suggested to me and I read it. The book made a big impression on me so when I saw this memoir by Yancey while browsing one day I thought I would give it a try. Besides I always enjoy memoirs as reading material in general.

Yancey talks about his strict, one would even say rigid, fundamentalist upbringing and how both he and his brother had their rebelliousness against that rigidity. How such an grace-less legalistic upbringing (as he describes it) led eventually to a faith based so heavily on God's grace is somewhat amazing. In some ways his brother's form of rebellion and reaction seem much more expected.

As time goes on we see Yancey finding a new path back to faith and grace and hope. We hear how he tries to bridge a massive gap between his mother and his brother. We see him trying to reconcile with the life he had and the life he ends up with.

IT is a good read, it makes you feel and think. And there is a good story told along the way.

Book 6 of 2024 Indians on Vacation

 An impulse buy really, though I do like Thomas King's writing. However this is the first of his fictional works that I have read.

A couple in Prague, seeking a long lost family member and having an interesting visit makes up the base story. Mixed in with the story of their vacation are snippets and episodes from their past. 

A nice light read. Good for a break.

Book 5 of 2024 My Mother's Legacy

 This short little volume was a Clergy Appreciation Month gift from the congregation. The subject of the book, Angie Mercredi-Crerar is well known here in Grande Prairie. She was one of the Metis representatives who visited His Holiness Pope Francis as a part of encouraging the Roman Catholic Church to live in the the truth and reconciliation process.

The book is very engaging. It draws one in and is one of those "hard to put down" books. I just wish it was longer so we could learn more of Mercredi-Crerar's life story.

A very good read.

Book 4 of 2024 -- Disruptive Thinking

 Late last summer I was standing in an actual bookstore holding real live books in my hands looking for ideas of what looked interesting. This was one of the ones the caught my attention (and then I went home and bought the e-book versions instead). The idea of the need to more of us to embrace being intentionally disruptive intrigued me. I really do think that when it comes to the church, to socio-economics, to environmental policy we have to be disrupted or we will really keep trying the same solutions as before while hoping for different results.

To be honest I found the book a bit disappointing. Maybe I had forgotten what had intrigued me looking at the cover back in the summer but reading the actual book several months later left kind of blah. There were some helpful ideas and ways of seeing things but I was not filled with excitement and feelings of "YEAH!" as I was reading.

I still think there is a real need for disruptive thinking and action in the world. I am just not sure this book will help me (and I am not a natural disruptor by any means) get to that point.

Book 3 of 2024 -- When Church Stops Working

 In a clergy discussion last month one of my colleagues mentioned that she had just read this book and recommended it as a good read. While the Zoom meeting was still going on I had purchased it.

IT was a good recommendation. In a world where many of our churches are struggling with decline and trying to figure out a way forward this book offers a different answer. Too often the answer we jump to is "maybe if we tried..." or "this new program will...." or "if we worked harder at...". Instead this book suggests we pause and wait and listen so we can encounter the God who is acting in the world.

It is hard advice in a world where we feel like we have to do something to stave off decline and death. Then again, the way we have been responding have not really worked out the way we hoped so maybe trying a different tack has some merit.

There were suggestions in this book that resonated with things I already thought needed to happen, things I was trying to bring in. I do still struggle with how to convince churches who want to  "do" to get out of decline to pause to "be" and wait and listen. In some ways it goes against all common sense. In many ways it is the reverse of what seems needed, sometimes doing somethings out of our anxiety is the only way we can cope. Then I am drawn to the example the authors use of the Acts 1 church who are told to wait for God to act but end up trying to act themselves while they wait -- only for God to go God's own way as the book continues.

As with most books on this topic it is useless if only the clergy reads it. I encourage all church leaders, clergy and lay, to read and discuss it. With that in mind, I will be suggesting it to our local council.

Book 2 of 2024 --The Dead Sociologists Society

 On Christmas Morning as I was emptying my stocking I found this little volume.

IT is an interesting concept. A bunch of dead sociologists have a meeting, one might even call it a seminar, to present papers about the events most live people would consider the fictional account of Harry Potter's time at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Because after all the events were real and the story had been fed to JK Rowling by the Ministry of Magic as part of a grand cover-up. Only the ghosts know the real truth.

What results is a unique way of presenting different sociological theories and showing how they might be applied. I like the tool. I greatly enjoyed the reading and pondering if I agreed with the interpretations being presented. 

This is a great way of introducing theory and showing how the theory can be used to analyse a culture. I think I would greatly like to take an introductory Sociology course from the author.

Book 1 of 2024 -- The Undertaking of Billy Buffone

 Love, death, secrets, scandal, a ghostly narrator.  Makes for an interesting book. 

This one I bought simply because I knew the author. Besides a novel to read over the break of the year seemed a nice idea.

It is a story that takes place both in the mid 1970's and in the mid 1990's. On one side we have a scandalous troubling story. On the other we have the story of a blossoming romance, and a family deep in fresh grief, a minister in her first year of ministry, and an odd small-town undertaker. Then there is a surprising twist....

But in the end there is healing, or at least that seems to be where we are headed.

A very good read indeed. Touches the heart. Leads one to consider the power of buried secrets.