Reviewed by Sharon VanderPol and Arlene Martin
When Jodi Baxter attends a weekend Christian women's conference near her home in Chicago, she is randomly placed in a prayer group with several other women. Their first meeting is stiff and unorganized and it is apparent that the women have little in common. That is, until one of them experiences a seriously critical incident. Deepest concern and help is poured out toward the family, and the prayer group decides to at least keep in touch by email. Before long, their lives are intertwined by many events that draw them closer to one another and to God.
The Yada Yada Prayer Group was an easy read. I felt myself identifying with the situations, some of them pretty funny, and growing fond of the women as if I had made some new friends. It was enlightening, too, watching the various ways these women worshipped.
On the down side, I felt that minor incidents were treated with undue attention, whereas real life crises were trivialized by being articifially solved. For example, Jodi goes ballistic when her husband brings beer into the house, but the tragedy that she creates late in the book is dismissed in court. Also, there are some loose ends to some of the ladies' situations which, of course, begs a sequel. Indeed, there are seven Yada Yada books that follow.
Great for summer realistic fiction reading!
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris
Reviewed by Adie Johnson
Kathleen Norris' now classic non-fiction book, The Cloister Walk, gives to its readers a rare opportunity – to peer inside the cloistered walls of modern, monastic life. Norris, "raised a thorough Prostestant", finds herself living among the Benedectine monks of St. John's Abbey in Minnesota for two extended stays, and is caught by the beauty, power and presence of God in their midst. Her interaction with Scripture, monastic life, liturgy and modern world are poetically captured through her short chapters echoing the rhythm of the abbey. She speaks of Biblical authors as companions with whom they travel through the books of the Bible daily - Isaiah joining her one Christmas and Jeremiah shouting at her in the morning. Perhaps one of my most favorite excerpts from the book has to do with her insight into the challenges and blessings of monastic community:
"One monk, when asked about the diversity in his small community, said that there were people who can meditate all day and others who can't sit still for five minutes; monks who are scholars and those who are semiliterate; chatterboxes and those who emulate Calvin Coolidge with regard to speech. "But," he said, "our biggest problem is that each man here had a mother who fried potatoes in a different way." Differences between individuals will either be absorbed when the community gathers to act as one, or these communal activities become battlegrounds. As one monk, a liturgist, once said to me, "Go to the dining room and to prayers, and you'll find out how a monastery is doing." p. 22
Cloister Walk introduced me to some of great authors of our faith as Norris would weave into the story quotes from John Chrysostom, Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Benedict and more. As Protestants, we have inadvertently cut ourselves off from the wealth of depth and richness of our ancient faith. Cloister Walk is an invitation not to deny who we are, but to reacquaint ourselves with our past while remaining planted soundly in the present.
Kathleen Norris' now classic non-fiction book, The Cloister Walk, gives to its readers a rare opportunity – to peer inside the cloistered walls of modern, monastic life. Norris, "raised a thorough Prostestant", finds herself living among the Benedectine monks of St. John's Abbey in Minnesota for two extended stays, and is caught by the beauty, power and presence of God in their midst. Her interaction with Scripture, monastic life, liturgy and modern world are poetically captured through her short chapters echoing the rhythm of the abbey. She speaks of Biblical authors as companions with whom they travel through the books of the Bible daily - Isaiah joining her one Christmas and Jeremiah shouting at her in the morning. Perhaps one of my most favorite excerpts from the book has to do with her insight into the challenges and blessings of monastic community:
"One monk, when asked about the diversity in his small community, said that there were people who can meditate all day and others who can't sit still for five minutes; monks who are scholars and those who are semiliterate; chatterboxes and those who emulate Calvin Coolidge with regard to speech. "But," he said, "our biggest problem is that each man here had a mother who fried potatoes in a different way." Differences between individuals will either be absorbed when the community gathers to act as one, or these communal activities become battlegrounds. As one monk, a liturgist, once said to me, "Go to the dining room and to prayers, and you'll find out how a monastery is doing." p. 22
Cloister Walk introduced me to some of great authors of our faith as Norris would weave into the story quotes from John Chrysostom, Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Benedict and more. As Protestants, we have inadvertently cut ourselves off from the wealth of depth and richness of our ancient faith. Cloister Walk is an invitation not to deny who we are, but to reacquaint ourselves with our past while remaining planted soundly in the present.
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