A passionately argued work for Christian readers on an enduring topic of discussion.
DeStefano’s treatise asks why God bestows miracles upon some believers, but not others.
The author, who is Catholic, offers a book that’s primarily directed at fellow Christians with its exploration the concept of miracles. For the author, the existence of miracles, which Jesus performed in the Bible, is a given; in the age of miracles, which DeStefano defines as the period when the early Apostles founded the Christian church, such occurrences were “everyday realities. Healings, raising of the dead, exorcisms, divine interventions, and miraculous signs weren’t the exceptions; they were the rule.” Today, he says, the faithful have troubled hearts and minds, and he addresses their doubts with admirable integrity, as when he recounts the anguish of an unspecified church whose congregation spent weeks praying for a 6-year-old child with a diagnosed terminal illness: “They whipped themselves into a kind of spiritual-emotional frenzy. They were convinced with 100 percent certitude that this little girl was going to be cured.” The child died, leaving the congregation devastated and wondering why the Lord let it happen. To answer readers who, like himself, believe in a just God, DeStefano examines the nature of human desires and free will, arguing that most miracles occur in the course of everyday life, engineered by God’s invisible hand. He also provides accounts of what he characterizes as bona fide modern miracles. Most interestingly, he devotes several chapters to describing what he believes should be a Christian attitude toward miracles, especially in desperate times, as when tragedies occur. The result is a useful primer for religious readers on how to approach miracles and pray for them—believing in God’s omnipotence yet accepting God’s will.
A passionately argued work for Christian readers on an enduring topic of discussion.Pub Date: June 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781644134351
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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