Intelligent but approachable, this book regales well-known Biblical stories and deconstructs them for today’s doubting audiences. We don’t have to dismiss the hard topics. We can embrace them in all their complexity. God can handle our doubt and questions.

I remember my discomfort about some of the Bible stories and issues, but was silenced and never allowed to ask questions. My grandma was gentle with me and explained as best she could. My Bible thumping born again classmates in high school and college couldn’t discuss anything. They were blank-eyed zombies for Jesus. When I tried church after church and denomination after denomination as a young adult, I found that questions were unwanted and I was not befriended.

I’m highlighting all the quotes from Biblical scholars for later research.

This is a great book for a women’s group, college age young adults, or anyone seeking answers.

About the Book:

If the Bible isn’t a science book or an instruction manual, then what is it? What do people mean when they say the Bible is inspired? When Rachel Held Evans found herself asking these questions, she began a quest to better understand what the Bible is and how it is meant to be read. What she discovered changed her–and it will change you too.
Drawing on the best in recent scholarship and using her well-honed literary expertise, Evans examines some of our favorite Bible stories and possible interpretations, retelling them through memoir, original poetry, short stories, soliloquies, and even a short screenplay. Undaunted by the Bible’s most difficult passages, Evans wrestles through the process of doubting, imagining, and debating Scripture’s mysteries. The Bible, she discovers, is not a static work but is a living, breathing, captivating, and confounding book that is able to equip us to join God’s loving and redemptive work in the world.

About the Author:

Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advocate Suzanne Ludlum Provides Inspiring Message of Hope and Healing.

As an author and yoga therapist, Suzanne Ludlum shares her compelling story of struggling with mental illness and suicide attempts to help others suffering in silence know they are not alone and to never give up.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and as an advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention, author Suzanne Ludlum has a message to send:  Hope.

Ludlum’s recently released book, An Imperfect Pilgrim – Trauma and Healing on This Side of the Rainbow, is a compelling memoir which chronicles her harrowing experiences with trauma and severe depression to navigating her struggles and finding a pathway to healing and overcoming her demons.

Suzanne Ludlum allows readers into the most intimate and tragic moments of her life while she finds hope in the pathways that were the key to helping her reclaim her lost life. After suffering multiple losses and subsequent abuse at the hands of those very people who were supposed to help her, Ludlum suffered intense mental decline and fell into a darkness that seemed unrecoverable.  After years of psychiatric hospitals and various therapists, she began her long climb out. She is now active in spreading her message of hope and healing to those who may still be suffering, teaching them that they are not alone and that help truly is available.

As a yoga therapist and owner of Trinity Yoga Therapy, Ludlum is also involved in her local chapter of Mental Health America. Her inspiring messages and therapeutic practices are helping those who suffer from trauma and mental health issues such as PTSD.

“Suzanne offers us ways we can discover and nourish resources within ourselves that enable us to feel in control, even when life is out of control. Here, she shows us that we don’t have to be defined by our circumstances. We truly can be the master of our own destiny,” said Richard Miller, PhD, founder of the Integrative Restoration Institute and author of The iRest Program for Healing PTSD.

An Imperfect Pilgrim – Trauma and Healing on This Side of the Rainbow By Suzanne Ludlum

About Suzanne Ludlum:

Author Suzanne Ludlum is a Certified Yoga Therapist and holds the highest credentials in her field, including a Master of Science degree in Yoga Therapy from Maryland University of Integrative Health, certification through the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and ERYT-500 designation (experienced yoga teacher at the highest level) from Yoga Alliance. She also presents at international conferences to audiences of mental health professionals and other yoga therapists. Ludlum resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia with her husband and daughter.

To learn more please visit www.animperfectpilgrim.com and www.trinityyogatherapy.com.

A brave new book – Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times by Adam Hamilton

My Review:

Packed with statistics, social studies, and Biblical truth, Adam Hamilton confronts fear and its causes in American during these postmodern times.

He discusses politics, parenting, church efforts and failures…also loneliness, significance, FOMO, finances, and illness.

There’s not really any new information in the book, but it is very attractively packaged into 5 parts, each with 4 chapters. Footnotes provide extra information about sources of info. The appendix includes 31 Days of Scripture Reading on Fear.

Hamilton is unafraid to mention what many of us are feeling in this scary social media-induced dystopia.

We are feeding our fears instead of facing them.

I have liked Hamilton’s other books, and this book is no different. Well-written, including relevant personal stories, facts and statistics for the intellectual in me…It shows fear as the evil it is and how we can still be courageous in spite of fear.

About the Book:

One of the most repeated instructions in the Bible is “Don’t be afraid.” This phrase, in one form or another, appears 140 times in Scripture. It reminds us that ordinary women and men from ancient times struggled with fear. But Scripture also shows us that faith—and paradoxically, a healthy “fear of the Lord”—can be pivotal to overcoming fear and finding peace in uncertain times.

We can hardly overstate the extent to which fear permeates our lives. Most of us have known times when it has robbed us of the life we wanted. Our fears, in the form of insecurity, often wreak havoc on our lives and personal relationships. At times, fear has led us to make bad decisions. At others, it has kept us from taking risks or doing things that would have brought great meaning, fulfillment, and joy to our lives.

But it does not have to control us, says Adam Hamilton in UNAFRAID: LIVING WITH COURAGE AND HOPE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES (Convergent; hardcover; 3/13/18; $24.00).

Hamilton, who was recently interviewed by David Brooks at the Aspen Ideas Festival, has seen the climate of fear up close as the senior pastor of a diverse and dynamic 20,000-member congregation planted squarely in Middle America, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. He has spent the last thirty years shepherding congregants, and in the process, becoming deeply involved with their struggles with fear. He’s walked them through economic downturns, three wars, terrorist attacks, countless personal tragedies, and, most recently, the current political divide, a topic he spoke about earlier this year with Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered.

In doing research for a sermon series, Hamilton conducted a survey of his congregation to gain deeper insight into this emotion. Of the 2,400 people who participated, eighty percent reported living with moderate or significant levels of fear. He then analyzed the latest national polls to see what people across the country rank as their top fears, and delved deeper into that research.

UNAFRAID combines thorough research, powerful stories from people Hamilton has pastored, and timeless wisdom from the Scriptures. He helps readers understand some of the most common fears we wrestle with, differentiate between those things we should fear and false or exaggerated fears, and find ways to cope with our fears that lead us to live with hope. The book also helps readers identify and counter their fears in key areas of threat: crime, race, terrorism, politics, failure, disappointing others, insignificance, loneliness, change, and finances, and the perennial fears of growing old and death.

To these near-universal fears, Hamilton brings insights in critical areas, including:

• why you will never fully eliminate fear from your life (and why that’s a good thing)
• the search for meaning as a fundamental need
• how people from time immemorial have addressed their fears
• spiritual practices that can bring real peace
• cognitive restructuring to identify faulty assumptions and replace them with positive thinking
• how appropriate fear plays an important role in our lives

Hamilton draws upon insights from psychology, sociology, and the Scriptures to offer inspiration and help for addressing the most common sources of fear, worry, and anxiety and guides the reader in how to live “unafraid, with courage and hope.”

About the Author:

Adam J. Hamilton, a leading voice for reconciliation and church renewal in mainstream Christianity, is the senior pastor of the 20,000-member Church of the Resurrection, Kansas City, the largest and most influential United Methodist congregation in the United States. He is the author of twenty-five books; his most recent trade release is Making Sense of the Bible.

Renowned picture book author/illustrator Hudson Talbott has created a captivating, full-color, online story to introduce America’s children to Thomas Cole, founder of the nation’s first major art movement, the Hudson River School of art.

It’s available free on the website of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site (www.thomascole.org), in honor of the 200^th anniversary of Cole’s arrival in America.

The 16-page story – “Picturing America: Thomas Cole and the Birth of American Art” – is an abbreviated version of a picture book by the same name to be published in September by Penguin Random House. The story shows how, as an immigrant from England, Cole fell in love with the American wilderness, especially the Hudson River Valley and the Catskills. Through his paintings and writings, he made an impassioned plea to value and preserve America’s natural landscapes – a message that profoundly influenced the nation and continues to resonate today.

Hudson Talbott is a Trustee of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY, and lives in the Hudson Valley. He has written and/or illustrated more than 25 books, including the Newbury Honor Book Show Way (by Jacqueline Woodson), ALA Notable Book Leonardo’s Horse (by Jean Fritz) and We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, which was adapted into an animated film by Steven Spielberg.

The idea for the full 32-page picture book Picturing America arose when Elizabeth Jacks, mother of two and Executive Director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, was planning a family trip to another historic site. Unable to find a child-friendly introduction to the place they would visit, she took stock of the offerings at the Thomas Cole Site and turned to Hudson Talbott, who created Picturing America and this shortened online story.

The Cole Site is located in the Hudson River Skywalk Region, which consists of two landmark historic sites – the Cole Site and Olana –  located two miles apart and linked by the Hudson River Skywalk pedestrian walkway on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. The region includes the City of Hudson and Village of Catskill. Olana is the masterpiece of Cole’s student and legendary artist Frederic Church. Its Persian-inspired house and 250-acre landscape, both designed by Church, offer stunning views of the Hudson River Valley and Catskills, complementing the magnificent views from the Skywalk. More information is available at www.thomascole.org and www.olana.org.