Thoughtful meditations on the needs of the soul.
Chronicle of an existential journey.
Essayist and fiction writer Barber was raised to believe that Mormonism was the only true religion, a belief that she began to question as she grew into adulthood. In a probing memoir comprised of 17 essays, most previously published, the author circles around her ongoing spiritual quest, recounting her childhood, her deep affinity for the Mojave Desert in which she spent her early years, her love of music (she is an accomplished pianist), two troubled marriages, and the search in which she is still engaged. At 21, she writes, “I danced myself into a Mormon temple marriage and made promises to help build the Kingdom of God here on earth. I gave birth to four sons whom I dressed each Sunday for church meetings.” After a few years, her husband lost his faith; her oldest son, a hemophiliac, died from a cerebral hemorrhage when he was 3; and her marriage unraveled. Barber was undone by sadness. “After years of dedication and every-meeting, every-church-job devotion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” she writes, “I decided—through a strange, broken-and-knotted-and-broken-and-knotted-again thread of events including a looming divorce and an alienation from all that I once thought was ‘true,’—that it was necessary and compulsory to find my way to God by myself.” Raised in a community that imparted vivid images of the devil, heaven, and hell, she found herself longing for a connection to God that went beyond prayer. The book’s title reflects Barber’s sense of the precariousness of turning away from generations of her Mormon ancestors and leaving the embrace of a community and a religion. Freedom—of choice, of will—“is a lonely place sometimes,” Barber writes. “When there are no walls around you to hold you in place, no walls to keep you in your niche, you have nothing to tether you to the earth.”
Thoughtful meditations on the needs of the soul.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-948814-59-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Torrey House Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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