SKC

Honest and Compelling

Revisado: 02-08-25

This book tells the story of Circle of Hope—a collection of urban congregations, cell groups, Thrift stores, and other social ministries in the Philadelphia area. While the author gives a brief history of Circle, the book mainly focusses on how Circle’s pastors and other leaders wrestled with issues and interpersonal tensions growing out of the 2020 Covid shutdown and the emerging racial and cultural unrest from that time. The author gives a raw and honest look at how this group of deeply committed followers of Christ struggled personally and as a larger body around such issues as racism, economic disparities, and LGBT inclusion.
I found the book compelling, partly because of how the author chose to structure the narrative. The book is really a series of continually alternating chapters, each devoted to the experiences and perspectives of four individuals--Julie, Jonny, Rachel, and Ben--who served as Circle of Hope pastors during the period of time, from 2020 onward, the author chose to explore in the Circle of Hope story. The care the author put into telling each pastor’s and a few other people’s pivotal life experiences and faith journeys made me feel deeply connected to these individuals. Even when I found myself questioning some of their actions or motives, I felt like I could understand where they were coming from. I also connected on a personal level to many of their experiences in Anabaptist and Evangelical churches. The book gives a window into various church movements, beginning with the Jesus movement of the 60’s (where Circle of Hope’s founders got their start) through various phases and struggles of Christian Evangelical movements up through the present. I loved how the author brought to the forefront many things I have witnessed or been part of first-hand, myself (youth movements, missions emphases, the emergence of mega churches, the rise and fall of Mars Hill, church activism, and struggles with cultural and political engagement) that don’t often get attention from journalists in the larger culture in such a thoughtful, sustained way.
As much as I appreciated the deeply personal narrative structure, this was also the book’s biggest downfall. By spending so much time going back and forth between at least four people’s experiences and perspectives, I felt like the book lost its way. It just kept boring in on the same events, conflicts, and attempts at conversation and mutual understanding from so many points of view that I had trouble keeping track of what actually happened or what some of the conflicts were even about. As much as I appreciated the candor and personalized approach, I found the back and forth rehashing of the same events confusing, repetitive, unhinged from a coherent timeline of events, and just plain tedious. I also felt like so much of what Circle of Hope was actually doing in the communities it served and in people’s lives got lost and overshadowed. It even felt a little jarring and out of place when the author suddenly introduced the story of a church member struggling with drug addiction and the efforts of church leaders and members to meet his needs. This is unfortunate because I feel like I missed out on truly important aspects of Circle of Hope in the interest of the author telling and retelling internal conflicts to the extent that the central “story” –what was actually going on in real time--lost any linearity and became incoherent.
Despite these flaws, I really liked this book because it felt serious, honest, compassionate, and it had heart. I will not forget these individuals or their stories or Circle of Hope. I almost feel like I’ve had the chance to sit and have coffee with each of them and to be “in the room” at Circle, so to speak. I think that’s what the author was going for as a self-proclaimed embedded journalist. In that sense, the book is a triumph, though a bit convoluted.

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Honest and Non-judgemental

Revisado: 02-07-25

I liked that the author read her own story because the events and her perspective were deeply personal, and hearing them through her voice gave me a strong sense of connection.
I was amazed how she could be straightforward and honest about the raw and harmful parts of her upbringing while not coming across as bitter or judgmental.

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50% sex scenes

Revisado: 04-14-24

I like historical fiction, but this was a poor pick! Apart from the fact that the author really seemed more interested in writing bedroom scenes more than anything else, the book was not particularly well written and it was ultimately a revenge story, so hardly uplifting. The attempt at dialect was childish and tedious. Some of the plot elements were far-fetched, downright fanciful, or just never explained (like why would a doctor kidnapped at gunpoint stay with the household for weeks and not seem to mind or need to get back to his real life?) I listened for the historical content, and some of that was OK, but it took a backseat to the sex and revenge themes. Overall, this book was a missed opportunity to tell a good historical fiction story, and all the weaknesses and flaws overcame any significant substance.

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Interesting but not as Profound as Expected

Revisado: 05-20-19

The author of this book sets out to test the premise that spending time in nature is good for our psyches, and, more specifically, that the biggest payoff comes on the third day of an immersive nature experience.

I found the stories the author covered interesting, but her overall presentation was more chatty than rigorous. Not surprisingly, the participants in the four different nature experiments covered in this book experienced benefits from their time in nature, such as less stress, more hope, and enhanced creativity. The "scientifuc" side of this was born out in studies measuring brain-wave activity and before-and-after cognition tests. The study was not very convincing, however, as to causes and effects at work in each "test scenario," since many other variables entered into each 3-day experience--pure change of venue, comradery, ritual experiences, pre-set and constantly reiforced expectations, faith, personal achievements, play, companionship, listening, empathy, nurture. So, while I am a big believer in nature as a tonic, it seemed many other things were at play for those who experienced what the author liked to call transformation.

The most striking transformations seemed to come from a group of women who were on extended healing journies of overcoming abuse. But these women were already in therapy, and they incorporated prayer and other processes, including guided symbolism, into their experiences.

So, yes, I did come away with a greater sense that we need to get away from our normal routines and thought-patterns and that excursions into nature can be a powerful way to do this, but I am not convinced three days is a magic number or that nature alone is transformative. I expected more scientific rigor around that particular theory, and this book was not really that.

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Smug narration and main charcter

Revisado: 04-28-19

This story presented a fascinating premise about what would happen if people came back to life after being murdered. The plot and narration hooked me early on, but the charm wore off because I found the main character too aloof and "above it all" in the face of some pretty horrific events. I think that was supposed to be part of the appeal of the story, but it felt a little soulless to me. I would have preferred to follow a more empathic main character than this cool as a cucumber hero and police sidekick heroine.

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Slice of Life re female scientist

Revisado: 04-08-19

I was hoping to learn more about Marie Curie and her importance to science. This book was a fictional presentation of what it was like for her as a woman to try to take her place in a male-dominated world and profession in the early 1900's. It also tells of her meeting and eventual engagement to Pierre Curie. It was interesting and well-read, but it was more focused on one brief period at the beginning of her studies and not very informative as to the rest of her life and her overall contribution to science.

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Memorable Characters, tough stories

Revisado: 03-23-19

This book weaves together stories of modern Native Americans in an urban setting and explores their connections (or loss of connection) to each other and their cultural roots. It is a hard listen because of the violence many of the characters suffer or perpetrate. It also contains lots of warmth and humor and empathy for its characters. The use of different narrators for different stories added to the textured approach of the novel. The characters were very believable and their stories form a tapestry that is bigger than the sum of the stories.

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Chipper narration of inexplicable rapes/murder

Revisado: 03-23-19

This is a straightforward, fairly simple (not overly graphic) telling of violent crimes by a teenaged boy then ex-con young adult. It is not a true crime mystery investigation because the identity of the attacker is known the whole time. The author seems to be an interested towns person or former neighbor (I am not exactly sure which) looking back on these crimes as a real "head-scratcher" of a story, but never getting in-depth as to the psychology/pathology of the serial killer. It held my interest, but I wouldn't recommend it.

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