For Christian readers, a serviceable exploration of the process of finding “a beautiful and deep sense of rootedness.”
A radio host examines her journey toward the realization that home doesn’t necessarily mean a beautiful house where one lives forever.
When SiriusXM radio host and writer Lord (On the Other Side of Fear: How I Found Peace, 2016) got married, she wanted a dream home where she and her husband, Dan, could raise their children and settle down. But as she writes, God had other plans for her, as she moved 11 times in 15 years and had eight children along the way. A woman of deep religious convictions, Lord explores what home really means to her. The dream may be of a place of permanence, but the reality is often much different. Furthermore, that reality involves more than just a physical space where we store our belongings; it includes our relationships with our family, friends, neighbors, and, most importantly to the author, God. Lord’s tale is clearly directed at Christian readers, as she constantly questions the directions, obstacles, and blessings God has brought to her. She chronicles her struggle with a miscarriage but mostly embraces both the good and the bad, taking it all in stride when she finally relinquishes control to God. With honesty and a bit of humor, Lord discusses her loneliness and depression as well as how she overcame her introverted nature to embrace a man who became godfather to one of her children. Throughout the narrative, we see her pushing against what she perceives as God’s path for her, but she always comes back to him. For Christian readers, the book will reinforce the concept that God is divine and knows far more than we do, so it’s best to release control into his hands. Nonbelievers, however, should look elsewhere for a meaningful definition of home.
For Christian readers, a serviceable exploration of the process of finding “a beautiful and deep sense of rootedness.”Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9807-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Howard Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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