Category: read in 2022

• February 28, 2022

  The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom

  “Beginnings and endings are earthly ideas. I go on. And because I go on, you go on with me. Feeling loss is part of why you are on Earth. Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you. But the human form is…
• February 26, 2022

  Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

  “The truth is we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t even know the questions we need to ask in order to find out, but when we learn one tiny little thing, a dim light comes on in a dark hallway, and suddenly a new question appears. We spend decades, centuries, millennia, trying to…
• February 23, 2022

  Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor

  “I can respect almost anyone who admits to being human while reading a divine text. After that, we can talk – about we highlight some teachings and ignore others, about how we decide which ones are historically conditioned and which ones are universally true, about who has influenced our reading of scripture and how our…
• February 19, 2022

  The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

  “At forty-two, I had never done anything that took my own breath away, and I suppose now that was part of the problem–my chronic inability to astonish myself. I promise you, no one judges me more harshly than I do myself; I caused a brilliant wreckage. Some say I fell from grace; they’re being kind.…
• February 16, 2022

  I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

  “This never knowing, it weakens us,” Bunu would say. “It’s a form of control. They know exactly what they’re doing.” – Ruta Sepetys, “I Must Betray You” Review: I Must Betray You is Ruta Sepetys’s newest historical fiction novel marketed for young adults. I absolutely love how Sepetys manages to take a little known (at…
• February 14, 2022

  Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

  “You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.” – Chris McCandless, in a letter to…
• February 12, 2022

  How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

  “I saw a civilization that could destroy itself before it even reached the nearest star.” – Sequoia Nagamatsu, “How High We Go in the Dark” Review: How High We Go in the Dark is a new and excellent work of speculative science fiction, and in my opinion one of the best works of art (that…
• February 11, 2022

  Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

  “I’m not sure Black people can be happy in this world. There’s just too much of a backstory of sadness that’s always clawing at their heels. And no matter how hard you try to outrun it, life always comes through with those reminders letting you know that, more than anything, you’re just a part of…
• February 9, 2022

  Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

  “But when you were a girl, people could tell you how to walk, how to sit, what to do, where to go, how to think, who to love. And who to obey.” – Charmaine Wilkerson, “Black Cake” Review: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson opens with two estranged siblings, Byron and Benny, who discover some shocking…
• February 7, 2022

  Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby

  “Chopping up your first body is disgusting. Your second is tiresome. When you’re doing your fifteenth, it’s all muscle memory.” – S. A. Cosby, “Razorblade Tears” Review: The title of Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby refers to the way society teaches men that they can’t cry, or they’re weak. The act of mourning itself…