I love the very short introductions. This one was no exception. An incredibly hard-to-pin-down subject, made clear and accessible but not overly simplI love the very short introductions. This one was no exception. An incredibly hard-to-pin-down subject, made clear and accessible but not overly simplified. Plus beautifully, intelligently written, and often funny (a pleasant surprise). I learned a ton, and would like to read more; wish the bibliography were more up to date, but this is not the author's fault, as the book has been out for a while. Of most interest to me: the discussions of Torah and rabbinical scholarship; the differences between Reform, Orthodox, Conservative Judaism; the profiles of Jewish scholars, thinkers, humanitarians, writers across wildly different cultures and time periods; the consideration of Judaism and Feminism.
And an important (to me) side point: the very short introductions are so beautiful to look at and pleasing to hold. I love the way they look all lined up on a shelf at a bookstore, like members of a very short, very intelligent family....more
I found this such a brave and moving book. Brave because the subject--Cyndi Lee's unhappy and critical relationship with her body--isn't one yoga teacI found this such a brave and moving book. Brave because the subject--Cyndi Lee's unhappy and critical relationship with her body--isn't one yoga teachers, especially famous yoga teachers, are "supposed" to have (and Lee acknowledges this). So, to not only admit to this kind of self-hatred, but to actually write a whole (smart, funny, thoughtful, compassionate) book about it, strikes me as incredibly courageous. The idea that we can't really love other people or help them to be happy unless we love ourselves in some basic ways is a cliche, but it's also true. And Lee's memoir is a study in self-compassion that ripples outward to her yoga students and her readers, too....more
The first biography of Merton I've read, and it may not have been the best choice. I also had a really hard time deciding how many stars to give it. FThe first biography of Merton I've read, and it may not have been the best choice. I also had a really hard time deciding how many stars to give it. Five for content: it's a Jungian reading of Merton's life. And a four or a five for the author's obvious passion for/engagement with his subject. It's such a heart-felt book, and such an interesting perspective on TM. On the other hand, it's also full of errors--a couple of typos/grammatical issues aren't a problem, but there are many, many here, some of a very basic nature--it seems extremely poorly edited, to say the least. And stylistically, it's problematic, too, largely in the sense of being very repetitive. In the first couple of chapters, it felt to me like every other sentence was a variation on "Merton hasn't yet integrated his shadow"--which I got the first time I read it. The other sections follow suit: lots of repetition, lots of jarring, distracting errors. Edited down, this book, interesting and valuable though it is, could probably be about half as long....more
I have been reading this book since August, and just finished a couple of days ago. I loved savoring it--so much to think about and to let sink into mI have been reading this book since August, and just finished a couple of days ago. I loved savoring it--so much to think about and to let sink into me--I didn't want to fly through it. It's made me want to read more of Merton's journals, though I so much appreciated this edited version, which--even though it's a tiny fraction of the total journals--manages to create such a rich and moving and complicated picture of Merton. Sometimes I wished for more in the way of notes: I didn't always understand the references to people, books he was reading, some historical events--and though the introduction is beautiful and heartful, it doesn't do a whole lot to explain the above. For someone who doesn't know anything about TM's life, this might be a challenge. The writing itself is luminous and presents Merton as fully, contradictorily, wonderfully human; I love what a real person he is in these pages....more
The first Merton book I've read from cover to cover. I've been wanting to read him for ages, since so many books I love are sprinkled with quotations The first Merton book I've read from cover to cover. I've been wanting to read him for ages, since so many books I love are sprinkled with quotations from his work. And I recently went to visit the monastery where he lived in Kentucky (which was actually where I bought this book). The illustrations here are simple, lovely, and true--ditto the prayers. One reviewer commented that she liked the later prayers better, and I did too--they seem to become more mysterious, more paradoxical and startling and real as the book progresses (though the early prayers are amazing as well). And the combination of visual art/prayer--I loved it. The drawings and words add richness and depth to each other, so that it becomes hard to imagine the drawings without the prayers, and vice verse. More Merton for me in future. But I will be rereading this one, too.
A side note: I also loved Jonathan Montaldo's introduction, specifically his discussion of women/the female in Merton's life, and how TM's relationship with his own female nature deepened over time. So moving. There are a number of prayers addressing various women, especially the Virgin Mary, and they are among the most heartfelt in the book....more
My third Cynthia Bourgeault book... I'm still so blown away by her. This one is brief and incredibly rich at the same time--it's about different WisdoMy third Cynthia Bourgeault book... I'm still so blown away by her. This one is brief and incredibly rich at the same time--it's about different Wisdom traditions (Sufi, Christian, etc.) and is a lovely blend of inspiring and practical. CB writes so gracefully--she includes stories from her own life, from different religious traditions, quotations, poems... she explains a difficult subject clearly and thoughtfully, without dumbing it down... she includes guidelines for how to begin a practice, and a generous list of resources for support. As I read more of her books, I'm loving the way they both overlap--covering similar material in different ways--and add to each other. And I'm moved by her form of mystical, contemplative Christianity, which feels so inclusive and large-hearted and wise....more
I'm going to start with my only quibble about this book, partly to get it out of the way: Shirt of Flame is structured as one of those "I did X for a I'm going to start with my only quibble about this book, partly to get it out of the way: Shirt of Flame is structured as one of those "I did X for a year and now I'm writing a book about it" memoirs that are all over the place right now, but it doesn't really fit the model at all. Yes, each chapter supposedly covers one month, but there's nothing within any of the chapters that ties it to the month in question, aside from the chapter title. There are no seasonal references, and actually no references at all to the time of year or to the author's specific practice during a specific month. The book, to me, felt shoehorned into a popular format... and this is a shame, because Shirt of Flame is so smart, honest, moving, and generally lovely. It doesn't need any help from an imposed structure, and I was left wondering whether publishers encourage their writers to use this format to boost sales?
OK, now that I've complained... I loved Shirt of Flame. I'm not particularly drawn to St. Therese, though I'm definitely interested in her, but Heather King writes about Therese's life and teachings in such an incredibly heartful and personal way that I found myself totally drawn in, and reading very slowly so I could savor the author's thoughtfulness. Initially I was bumped by the fact that King refers to several major life events--becoming sober, falling in love, converting to Catholicism--without including much detail, but then I realized she's written two other memoirs which probably cover at least some of these subjects... and I also realized that, surprisingly, I wasn't that bothered by the lack of specificity. Heather King is one of those rare writers who's able to deal with enormous issues briefly (the book itself is quite short) but also with such depth... her writing somehow goes straight to the core. And it is also bravely, sometimes painfully honest--an amazing gift to her readers. Each chapter deals with one facet of Therese's teachings, weaves back and forth between Therese's life and the author's, and ends with a prayer. I usually find prayers in contemporary books sort of cloying, but Heather King's are beautiful--wise, honest, and grounded in the everyday, as is the entire book....more
My second Cynthia Bourgeault book, and I loved it. It's not quite as rich as The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, but it's a very different sort of text--brMy second Cynthia Bourgeault book, and I loved it. It's not quite as rich as The Meaning of Mary Magdalene, but it's a very different sort of text--briefer and more tightly focused. It has the same ease of language, though, the same sense of lightness and clarity and depth of feeling. C.B. redefines hope as something that has to do with the present rather than the future, something we're surrounded by always, even though we may not be aware of it. She touches on ideas of time, on prayer and meditation, on mercy and hope and the differences (and similarities) between the two. Her work is technically Christian, but it's also so much bigger and less easy to characterize--she moves back and forth between religious traditions, from personal stories to theology, with ease, and it's part of what makes her books surprisingly easy reads, in the best possible sense: they're compelling and graceful as well as profound....more
I would give this book six stars if I could--this despite the fact that I couldn't really get on board with one of the chapters (the second-to-last onI would give this book six stars if I could--this despite the fact that I couldn't really get on board with one of the chapters (the second-to-last one, about Mary Magdalene's possible sojourn in France). It's the most moving, surprising, courageous book about Christianity--maybe even about religion and spirituality in general--I think I've ever read. Cynthia Bourgeault is both smart and heartful, as well as unafraid to say what she thinks, no matter how many people she may offend or unsettle (and though I don't know much about institutional Christianity, I imagine there are many folks who consider themselves Christian who'd find themselves somewhere on the scale from startled to appalled by this book). I don't feel like I can do the ideas here justice--I don't want to dumb them down or turn them into cliches--and anyway, plenty of reviewers have written about the book's content. I just have a feeling I will be thinking about and processing this book for a long time....more
I've been reading this book slowly--about a chapter every week, for the past several months--partly because I loved and wanted to savor it, partly becI've been reading this book slowly--about a chapter every week, for the past several months--partly because I loved and wanted to savor it, partly because it's so rich that I couldn't take in too much at once. Fr. Rohr is a Franciscan priest with a particularly capacious sense of what it means to be Christian (which I'm not, but this feels like a book about Christianity that is really for everyone). He draws on Buddhism and Jungian thought as well as twelve step programs and the teachings of Jesus, and writes with a lovely and rare sort of clarity and accessibility about matters that are hard to make accessible without dumbing them down. Now that I've finished I feel I could happily start this book again from the beginning and still get so much out of it....more
I haven't cared for the Kathryn Harrison novels I've tried to read, but I was happily surprised and intrigued by this book--intelligently and thoughtfI haven't cared for the Kathryn Harrison novels I've tried to read, but I was happily surprised and intrigued by this book--intelligently and thoughtfully written and researched, provocative, sad, and moving. I also didn't know much of anything about Therese before I started, and so I feel like I learned a ton--as much about France and French Catholicism of that time as about the saint, who lived a painfully short life (pages and pages of Harrison's book are devoted to Therese's dying of TB--a protracted death which is occasionally excruciating to read about). Harrison draws from several different fields--psychology, feminist studies, religious history--and blends them seamlessly into her narrative--you can sometimes intuit where Harrison stands on certain issues, but she does an admirable job, too, of writing with a warmth but leaving it up to the reader to figure out what s/he thinks of Therese, her culture and religion, her family and choices....more
I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. It's a wonderful topic and one that's close to me personally, so I was happy to find it aI wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. It's a wonderful topic and one that's close to me personally, so I was happy to find it at the library--I had high hopes. But Listening Below the Noise is disappointing. For one thing, even though Anne LeClaire gives lip service to the idea that practicing silence, like any spiritual practice, is a circular path, the structure of the book is relentlessly linear. Each chapter has a well-defined subject, begins with a problem or question, and by the end of the chapter... magically!... the problem is solved, the question is answered, and then never returned to. Which, to me, makes the book feel shallow, emotionally flat, simplistic. I was incredibly bothered (I actually wanted to reach into the book and shake the writer, or her editor) by the mangled Mary Oliver quotation another reviewer mentioned. It leaped out at me, too, and I felt (maybe unreasonably) annoyed--partly because it is such a sloppy error, partly because that quotation (the real one) is a favorite of mine. Listening Below the Noise is also over-written--filled with rapturous and somewhat cliched descriptions of Cape Cod beaches that I started skipping over pretty quickly. The metaphor of the garden, which the author returns to at the beginning of every chapter, feels over-used, and I quickly got sick of that, too. LeClaire also fails to deal in any sort of depth with the shadow side, the difficulties, of practicing silence. She touches on some of them, but seems to come to a pretty quick (and to me, false) sense of resolution. OK, so apparently I liked this book even less than I thought I did. I'm not quite sure why I actually finished it... I think I kept hoping things would look up....more
It was so interesting to read this book at pretty much the same time as Anne LeClaire's Listening Below the Noise--such similar topics (solitude and sIt was so interesting to read this book at pretty much the same time as Anne LeClaire's Listening Below the Noise--such similar topics (solitude and silence), and such different treatments. I loved, loved, loved True Nature. First of all, it's beautiful to look at--Barbara Bash's watercolors are graceful and full of feeling. And the writing is spare, lovely, honest. It allows for mystery and contradiction. It's very present to both the joys and the challenges of solitary spiritual practice, and it moves seamlessly between the two. Bash's writing feels deeply true to me, in the sense that it works the way the mind seems to work: that seamless shuttling from one thing to the next to the next. I so much appreciated her forthrightness about the fact that spiritual practice is often hard. She writes about loneliness, her too-high expectations for herself, her self-criticism, her sense of disappointment and failure and fear of the dark. She also writes about newts, skunks, apple blossoms, meditation, sleep, confronting her fears, and feeling at peace. She doesn't provide any easy answers... actually, she doesn't provide any answers at all. Which is one of the things that makes the book so nourishing, like spending time with a friend. It's a self-help book that isn't....more
So many people have written so much about this book, I don't feel I have a lot to add. Just that I liked it even better than The Power of Now (though So many people have written so much about this book, I don't feel I have a lot to add. Just that I liked it even better than The Power of Now (though that's definitely worthwhile and helpful in all sorts of ways)--among other things, this book feels better-written, more engaging, and clearer. Also it's a lovely one to listen to on audio. Eckhart Tolle reads it, and over time I got to really love his voice. Occasionally--and this was a nice surprise--A New Earth is actually pretty funny, which I don't remember The Power of Now being, ever. Tolle's subject matter is so, so important; he draws on a number of spiritual traditions but has a unique and, to me, enormously helpful way of phrasing and framing what he writes about. The sort of book I will need to read/listen to a number of times... it's incredibly rich....more
Lauren Winner's Girl Meets God is one of my favorite books in one of my favorite genres, or sub-genres--spiritual memoir. I love Winner's honesty and Lauren Winner's Girl Meets God is one of my favorite books in one of my favorite genres, or sub-genres--spiritual memoir. I love Winner's honesty and her sense of humor and her courage, both as a writer, in the way she tells the truth about her inner and outer life, and as a person, for--as far as I can tell--living that truth, no matter how popular or unpopular.
So I was incredibly excited to read Still, which I actually pre-ordered from Amazon (first time I've ever done that). My short review: I loved it. I read it in a couple of days--I'd actually have been very happy to read it straight through, but didn't have time. It's a very different book from Girl Meets God--and that was impressive to me, to see how Winner's grown as a writer (though GMG is also beautifully written) as well as as a person. It's an appropriately different book: Winner is in a very different place in her life, her spiritual life, than she was when she wrote GMG, and that's part of the point of Still, which is about a deeply painful "middle" period involving her divorce, her mother's death, and a general sense of being far from God, after the excitement of her conversion to Christianity 10 or so years ago.
Winner discusses--in the Q&A with her editor at the end of the book--her love of poetry, and that love shines through in the writing of Still. Several of the "chapters" are really paragraphs, more like poems than like prose in their respect for silence and their reaching for something beyond or behind a traditional narrative chronology of events.
I was fascinated by the reviews of this book. People seem to feel incredibly strongly about Winner, who is a sort of "Christian celebrity" writer. Some reviewers objected to the fact that Winner doesn't really tell "what happened" in her marriage or around her mother's death--and there's a part of me that can relate to that, that was hungry for more details, more specifics. Winner says at one point in the Q&A that she hopes the book will be a companion for people feeling or experiencing the same difficult shifts in their spiritual lives... and I think that kind of intimate detail CAN be a way of companioning the reader, of making yourself vulnerable and more exposed, and can be, for the reader, a way of knowing the writer better, and of feeling less alone.
But I think Still is not that kind of book. First of all, it's not really a memoir (the subtitle describes it as "notes," and Winner's very clear that it isn't a memoir in the traditional sense). And it's also written from the middle of that difficult period, when words for "what happened" probably just weren't available. In the middle of a crisis it's almost impossible to describe what's going on except in the most cliched of ways. But Winner DOES manage to get at what she is feeling and experiencing, if not on a very detailed exterior level, then in a (to me) much more heartful, and important, deeply interior way.
I was incredibly moved by Still. I'm not Christian, so a lot of the Christian-specific language and practices Winner discusses don't resonate with me (though I do find them interesting). But, though Winner's using the specifics of her own faith to describe her journey, so much of Still seems universal to me--it's about crisis and sorrow and disappointment and change--all things we all experience, obviously, and Winner writes those things with compassion and intelligence.
Which brings me to another objection made by some reviewers--that the book is too woe-is-me, too navel-gazing and self-centered. This just strikes me as odd, honestly. Our real selves and real lives are what we have to work with. If we're going to learn anything, or be able to give anything, it's from that very personal place. Winner actually addresses this question, too, in the Q&A, when she talks about studying works on the Holocaust, and realizing that what she's experiencing in her personal life obviously does not compare... and still, knowing that what she's experiencing in her personal life is what she's given to work with, learn from, write about, share. It's a tricky balance for anyone--living in the reality that both of those things are true--and Winner, to me, handles it mindfully and bravely.
Back to the idea of book-as-companion. The books I love have been, and are, companions I couldn't do without. They teach me and encourage me and help me to feel less alone. I'm glad and grateful for Still, because I'm pretty sure it's already, for me, become one of those companions.
This little book is surprisingly rich--it's the first of Thich Nhat Hanh's I've read, and offers such an expansive view of prayer. It's one of those bThis little book is surprisingly rich--it's the first of Thich Nhat Hanh's I've read, and offers such an expansive view of prayer. It's one of those books I wanted to begin again from page 1 as soon as I finished reading it. Among the heartful and provocative topics I remember (off the top of my head and in no particular order) are: The Lord's Prayer explained from a Buddhist perspective; the idea of praying to one's ancestors and/or to living family members/loved ones; questions and thoughts about praying to something "outside" oneself vs. praying to/drawing on oneself (I'm way oversimplifying that one, but it's worth reading the book just for that section!). Lots to ponder after reading--I love that....more
I listened to rather than read this book, which I think is the way to go. I've been interested in it for a long time, and it's been recommended by so I listened to rather than read this book, which I think is the way to go. I've been interested in it for a long time, and it's been recommended by so many people, but I haven't been inspired enough to pick it up. So I'm so glad I went the audiobook route instead. I found lots of the book extremely wise, helpful, and thoughtful, but it is very repetitive (which Tolle admits, and which is probably necessary), and some of it's quite dense and abstract. I'd probably have had difficulty wading through those parts if I were reading, but with listening, it wasn't an issue. Though his subject matter (to me, anyway) seems so Buddhist, I appreciate the way he's tried to create a new non-religious and down-to-earth way of expressing these ideas, and it seems like his method would be especially appealing to folks who are turned off by organized religion in general. Overall, helpful and inspiring....more
I loved, loved, loved this book. Which surprised me, because I wasn't particularly into the Dani Shapiro novel I tried to read. Maybe I didn't try harI loved, loved, loved this book. Which surprised me, because I wasn't particularly into the Dani Shapiro novel I tried to read. Maybe I didn't try hard enough. Because this book is beautifully written and very, very moving. It isn't really specifically about Buddhism, though it's one tradition Shapiro investigates in her effort to (for lack of better words) get more spiritual (she also explores yoga and Judaism, which is her family tradition). I'm making the book sound silly and lightweight, which it isn't, at all. Shapiro describes beautifully so many things that are so difficult to describe; meditation is a good example. And I was so so glad that this wasn't one of those "I found yoga and now my life is perfect" kinds of memoirs. Shapiro is very honest about everything she goes through, including rough edges, pain, and not knowing--and the book feels organic and heart-felt as a result....more