This was going to be a simple invitation to PRE-ORDER a few forthcoming titles that we thought you’d want to know about. One that has an August release date just showed up so while it’s listed on this pre-order BookNotes, it’s now available. How ‘bout that?

(And of course, he says, sotto voce, you can pre-order anything, anytime. Just let us know how we can get what you need. Right?)

In the chance that you are ordering more than one not-yet-released title, it would be helpful, gentle readers and good customers, to tell us if you want us to send each as they release or hold one up until the others arrive; consolidating them into one shipment is a bit more stewardly (resource wise) and cheaper for you. But we can send them out each the day they arrive if you’d like. With these four, I’m sure we’ll have them all a bit early. Hooray.

I hope you have a few lazy hours this summer, some time to get caught up on some long-awaited reading — don’t we all have one or two big stacks we’ve been wanting to get to? We are sure that some on this list are worth bumping up to near the top of that pile. Believe me when I say we’re looking out for you, helping you narrow down the reading options that call to us. You may want to listen to these — some are calling your name, I bet.

You know and I know I sometimes can be a bit enthusiastic in promoting certain books. You may smile and say — oh yeah, another book that Byron says is the best he’s read this year or his favorite read of the season. I know. As the Bear says, I’m working on it. But we’ve got a zillion books here that are fine, useful, swell. I wish I could tell you about some and there are many that are merely ho-hum and don’t need extra promo. For you, dear readers of BookNotes, I want to curate the best of the best, books that really are our favs. I’m not going to waste your time singing out that this book is really mediocre that that one is okay. Why bother? So, yes, these all get my many superlatives and I’m proud of it. I do it for you. I don’t say this sort of glad stuff about all of the books we’ve got, but these? These deserve your attention. You can thank me later.

ALL ARE 20% OFF. Happy summer reading.

(We hope you recall that we do an every-other-week podcast called “Three Books from Hearts & Minds” which you can watch on YouTube or listen to by visiting Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The episode that dropped on July 3rd described three books reflecting on this season of flags and fireworks. I explained about Remaking the World by Andrew Walker, a handsome hardback about the huge trends kicked off in the 18th century in that momentous year of 1776. Then I explained the value of history prof John Fea’s important book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?  I ended the half-hour conversation with a shout-out to How to Be a Patriotic Christian: Love of Country as Love of Neighbor by the wise and gracious Richard Mouw. Thanks to good pal Sam Levy and the CCO for hosting our bookish conversation.These are 20% off as well.)

Some of the Words Are Theirs: The Art of Writing and Living a Sermon Austin Carty (Eerdmans) $22.99 // OUR SALE PRICE = $18.39 available now

Hooray — this is now here, a month early! And there are woodcuts. What a nicely created paperback this is. The title alludes to A River Runs Through It.

I gave a quick shout out about this then-forthcoming title a month ago, reminding readers that Carty’s lovely, inspiring, funny, touching, informative and very helpful The Pastor’s Bookshelf was one of my favorite reads in years, expressing in clear and enjoyable prose why books matter for ministry leaders; whether one is a preacher or pastor, I concluded, didn’t really matter — that book would inspire anyone to realize how reading novels, poetry, science, memoir, history, comedies, and all manner of fiction and nonfiction can help us navigate our Christian duties to live well in the church and world.

I think you will love this one even more. It may seem an even bigger stretch suggesting this one to a wide BookNote audience (who are, admittedly, mostly not preachers) but I want to say that this book about homiletics — the science and art of writing and preaching sermons — is for all of us. How can I convince you of this other than to tell you how very much I enjoyed reading it.

First, Carty offers such a heart-touching (and at times heart-breaking) glimpse into his own rough and rowdy life that Some of the Words… is a winner for anyone that enjoys memoirs. Man, he can tell a story and oh how he so wisely, so caringly, so tenderly relates his life stories to his instructional stuff about how to write sermons. In a section about revising one’s first draft of a sermon he then enters — in the typeface of an old typewriter — some extra stuff he might have said in the previous section about his life story. Some lines are crossed out, which was clever — you saw, actually, some stuff he apparantly wanted you to know, but, since it had that line struck through it, you realized he didn’t want to include it (in the previous narrative.) My mouth dropped open with this postmodern trick of showing the re-write after the fact.  That’s a hard call that every writer and most preachers know well: what words are most important, which are supportive, and which need to go. Yup.

Karen Swallow Prior (who has written a lovely pair of books on reading herself) says Some of the Words Are Theirs is “stunning” and that “it will inspired you to not only write better but to live more deeply, too. It took my breath away.” Exactly.

This is a book on writing sermons unlike any I’ve ever read. (Please forgive my nerdiness, but I’ve read a lot.) It is not only insightful and helpful, but deeply, deeply moving, without being sensational or sentimental. Like his sermons, he builds stories, often starting with a ironic tip (he calls this hook the Coldplay piece — a nod to the “I hate Coldplay” line from pop culture essayist Chuck Klosterman) and yet is restrained, gentle, honorable. The way his own story that unfolds in each chapter informs what he says or circles back or hints towards the teacherly comments about wise sermon prep is just ingenious. Anyone who likes the intricacies of well-crafted chapters will take delight in reading this (even if you never plan to preach or be a public speaker or develop a lesson. It’s that good…) I predict you will wish it was not finished when you turn the last page. You might just start over and read it all again, for fun and profit.

From allowing the Holy Spirit to guide one towards a sense of gravitational pull towards a certain text or phrase within a lectionary selection to finding what day of the week to write the sermon (he nearly burned out from thinking he could squeeze it in here and there, in bits and pieces, the way I do BookNotes.) He tells of his habits of creating some sort of sacred space for the hard work of writing the first draft, the arrangement of his desk, his favorite mug (and pulling the shades, at the advice of Annie Dillard, who knows something about distractions.)

As a seat-of-the pants writer I was seriously struck by how much of the book was about revision. (Not to mention punctuation and the use of italics. What a blast; seriously!) I think of the drafts after drafts that my novelist friends have done and the significant revisions most nonfiction writers have to do; his lyrical explanation of this work becomes nearly sacramental with this stories and attentiveness to text and cadence.

His simple reminders about knowing well the place and people to whom one is preaching or speaking were so interesting to me; again his care was really moving for me — I don’t even know why. He shows how a first draft of one sermons mentioned “my daughter, Amy” but then realized that everybody in the place knows well that his daughter’s name is Amy and deleted the “my daughter” line as a way to honor that intimacy. Man, this book is loaded with these little tips and were sometimes, mundane as they were, literally moved me to tears.

Yep, you heard that right; I’m not ashamed: this is the only homiletics text that made me bawl. And it made me get up from my outside chair and find my wife and read pages right out loud.  We had talked to each other much of the day about favorite current reads — she was blown away by the latest novel by Niall Williams, This is Happiness and I can’t stop thinking about a memoir about consumerism and hoarding, American Bulk: Essays on Excess by the spunky, surprising, and troubled Emily Mister.) I just had to enter Austin Carty’s gem to the mix and Beth listened and nodded. How romantic, reading a homiletics book out loud to my beloved. I owe ya, Austin!

Seriously, his kind and smart words mean very much to me and I am grateful for his candor, about his ministry, his care for his people, and about his own life — yes, he talks about being a child model, his beloved (religious) father’s alcoholism, and his stint on Survivor. (It was Season 12 if you want to know, the one called Panama: Exile Island. He says he is now quite happy to be a mostly unknown, small town pastor — “unglamorous” he calls it — even.) Anyway, Some of the Words is not what I thought it would be and I can’t stop thinking about how he narrates his story in plain and elegant ways, the sorrow and the grace, realizing it is God who is the final author.

One could hardly find a more honest presentation of the extent to which our sermons emerge from the tragic, grace-filled fabric of the preacher’s own life. — Thomas Long, Candler School of Theology, Proclaiming the Parables: Preaching and Teaching the Kingdom of God

You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good & Beautiful Karen Swallow Prior (Brazos Press) $21.99 // PRE-ORDER OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59

RELEASE DATE August 8, 2025 we expect it in a week or so

Oh my, this compact sized hardback — think of that lovely first edition of that little Parker Palmer book, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation —is a delight to behold, a treasure to hold, a fabulous, fabulous read. I say this from time to time, I’ll admit, on some topics: do we really need another book reflecting on this topic of vocation and call, on discerning God’s ways our lives should go, on work and passion and such? And, yes, yes, yes: this is much needed. And even for those of us in the “faith and work” conversation, who work in campus ministry or with y young adults helping them discern their sense of calling and such, those who know the standard titles, again, yes, this is a must. You will love it if you like this sort of topic and you need it if you don’t. I like how novelist and songwriter Andrew Peterson says she writes with “wisdom and clarity.” Indeed.

“With her usual wisdom and clarity, Prior dives deep into something that we all wrestle with: our place in the world and the work we’ve been given to do. I heartily commend this book.” — Andrew Peterson, singer, songwriter, and author of The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and The Kingdom and Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making

I could frame my recommendation of this book by talking about this broader conversation, as I have sometimes, in the story of the movement of people increasingly naming the disconnect for many between Sunday faith and Monday work, between liturgy and life, worship and work. I could tell our how we arrangement our store to highlight books for Christian workers in nursing and the arts, in education and the sciences; we have large sections on faith-based politics and engineering, psychology and business. All of this – our store and the broader faith and work movement with it’s many centers and institutes all over — presumes some working knowledge of God’s call to serve Christ’s Kingdom in all of life, including the high calling into vocations in careers and marketplaces. As Jim Mullins and Michael Goheen put it, we are all called to play are role in God’s “symphony of mission.”

But what is the difference between the theological / spiritual terms vocation and call? What is the difference between vocation and work? Are we always paid to do what we’re most passionate about? And what should lead us, passion or skill? The need for money or the need for meaning?

Yep, once one reads The Call by Os Guinness or books by Gordon Smith or Steve Garber or high-water marks like Every Good Endeavor by Katherine Alsdorf Leary and Tim Keller or the lovely work by Dan Doriani or, say, the great Tom Nelson, for many of us, our appetites are whetted and we want to dig deeper, read more, reflect in fresh ways. Karen Prior will help you, inspire you, offer a tremendous new angle.

And, frankly, if you’ve read some of this stuff — maybe even you use the one-of-kind resource Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy or have lead people thought the small group Bible study, Go Forth: God’s Purpose for Your Work by Lauren Gill & Missy Wallace  — you may wonder, again, how to say it well, how to slice the differences between vocation and calling, between work and career. These are vital questions and all of us need some guidance.

Karen Swallow Prior doesn’t worry too much about getting the terms just precisely so, but yet she has chapters on each. They are so good. She draws on great, classic stuff — from Dorothy Sayers to Ben Witherington, Os Guiness to Madeline L’Engle — but much of the book is laden with stories, student’s she’s guided, friends she knows, her own journey through much of this. (And, as you might guess, she offers some excellent poems that wonderfully clarify and set us to thinking. Kudos, there, Karen!) I couldn’t put it down and could hardly stop smiling. We all need this kind of clear and inspiring writing and — again — it is ideal for those who are new to all of this and very important for those of us who have started using some of this lingo, framed by this big vision of serving God in all sides of life, each square inch, all our various callings and opportunities.

Let’s face it, we are children and siblings, neighbors and consumers, citizens and friends, church members and most have professional associations or jobs. None of just one call, and that one overacting call — “follow me” from Jesus Himself — is necessary lived out in various times and places and contexts. We have vocations that are other than our jobs.

I adore Karen as a writer and have admired her own story. She reveals more of herself in this little book than in her major work on reading for virtue or the one about the evangelical imagination, a fabulous read about the evangelical history that lead to culture wars and a host of troubling stuff. You Have a Calling is not only her most personal book, it is also, I think her most beautiful. It is a sheer joy.

One of the things You Have a Calling brings to the table conversations about these topics is her unique contributions about the “transcendentals” — namely, the classic virtues of truth, goodness, and beauty. With succinct but lovely chapters on each, consider this your primer (or refresh course) on the need for character formation, for Christ-likeness described in this particular way. (I am aware, as is she, that not all Christians use the lingo of the true, the good, and the beautiful, and some might even resist the pagan, Greek paternity of those ways of putting things.) Still, I adored this second half of the book and will re-read it soon, I am sure. It is so nicely done, so clarifying, and so challenging, really — living our our callings in ways that our vocations bear witness to these Kingdom attributes or values, creating an ethos of such wholeness and goodness in the world. You Have a Calling is a handsome little book that is wise beyond measure, helpful more than you may know, and a great, enjoyable read.

We love that Karen is a research fellow at our beloved Comment magazine. And we’re so grateful she contributes as a Fellow at the Trinity Forum. That she and I got to be on a panel together at Jubilee Professional last winter make my heart sing, not to mention being in front of a crowd (with Anne Bogel) at a special session at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing. What an honor! But this book — this is what makes me really smile. You too, I bet! Order it now and we’ll send it as soon as it arrives.

Karen Swallow Prior has gifted us a masterful exploration of what it truly means to be called. In You Have a Calling, she expertly weaves together theology, literature, and cultural wisdom, illuminating how our life’s purpose is found not merely in what we do but profoundly in who we are becoming. Prior invites readers to embrace callings that transcend occupation, anchoring life’s meaning firmly in the pursuit of the true, the good, and the beautiful. Richly nuanced, deeply reflective, and eloquently written, this book challenges contemporary misconceptions of vocation and reminds us that the highest calling is to live authentically before God, wherever we find ourselves. A profoundly refreshing read that every Christian– and especially young adults navigating life’s big questions — ought to pick up and savor. — Anthony B. Bradley, distinguished research fellow, The Acton Institute; research professor, Kuyper College, author of Black Scholars in White Space: New Vistas in African American Studies from the Christian Academy

Making It Plain: Why We Need Anabaptism and the Black Church Drew G.I. Hart (Herald Press) $21.99 // PREORDER OUR SALE PRICE = $17.59  RELEASE DATE September 2, 2025

I wish I had been able to acquire an early version of this — I’ve got all the others on this list — but for whatever reason, I’ve not yet seen this. But I want to announce it here to invite you to pre-order it for a handful of reasons. I’m really excited about this one and I think all of our thoughtful BookNotes readers will want to know about it. If you have followed us here, you know that I will say that, regardless of your own theological tradition or convictions, there are some things going on in this book that will be edifying for all of us. It’s a little on the rare side and will be (how do I say this nicely) a bit of an outlier on the big bestseller lists. Anabaptists and the Black church?

I know many of us feel somewhat estranged from the word evangelical these days, the word handled by so many grimy hands these days, co-opted by those who care little about Jesus or a Biblical worldview. Be that as it may, it is clear that even for those of us who still appreciate the phrase, the broader Christian stream (to borrow Richard Foster’s image from the wonderful Streams of Living Water) has included important, diverse tributaries from medieval mystics and contemplatives to high church liturgical folks, from Kuyperian neo-Calvinists to old-school holiness folks, to Azusa Street Pentecostals and 20th century charismatics. This big Body of Christ needs the best of many tributaries. Two that are often missed in these ecumenical lists are — yep, you know — the Black church tradition (itself pretty diverse) and the historic movement of Anabaptists (known to most as the Mennonite and Brethren traditions, although we might mention Hutterites and Quakers and others in the radical reformation tradition.)

And so here we have a major scholar — his PhD from a Lutheran Seminary — professor at an evangelical university, and church-based social activist who is both Black and Brethren. Rev. Dr. Drew Hart, an old friend, is a man I’ve admire since I first met him and whose two previous books we’ve raved about often. We take his two important paperbacks The Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism and Who Will Be A Witness? Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, and Deliverance  almost every where we go, not only because know and trust the author, but because, as we’ve often said, he gets so much about what needs to be said these days. He’s Biblically solid and fiesty and helpful. I am sure here in this forthcoming one he will position the Anabaptist and Black church traditions as counter to the mainstream Constantinian view of civil religion.

(For what it’s worth, we’re looking forward to another September release which can tell you about later — it’s a collection of essays from various Fellows from the Timothy Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics and is to be called The Gospel After Christendom edited by Collin Hansen and others, published by Zondervan. It will be a fine supplement to Hart’s important, radical, Anabaptist manifesto.

So many astute thinkers (and most of us, if we pause to think about it) realize Christendom has been a big mix-up and whether you’ve read Hauerwas or not, or resonate with the Keller Center (above), you know that the church dare not be co-opted by the culture, as it in so many ways has been. We have much to learn about this resistance from young black activists, and Drew Hart is one of our best.That he has this Anabaptist posture is just fabulous, maybe the eccentric, plain, but countercultural mix we need the most these days.

This book is slated for a late summer release but we hope it will arrive early. We can’t wait. We hope many will pre-order it and give it a read alongside your own tradition and church style.

The title really is something, isn’t it? Many know the Anabaptist as those committed to a non-materialistic simple lifestyle (and, when talking about the Old Order Mennonites or the Amish, are actually called The Plain People, although their gorgeous quilts are anything but plain.) Hart’s allusion there is fascinating, as if our simple convictions about love and service might be a clue to how to counter the razzle-dazzle prosperity teaching and MAGA idolatry of the nation-state. What does it mean to be plainly committed to Jesus, loyal to His simple (if not easy) ways?

And yet, Hart is mostly know as an anti-racist and shalom activist, a speaker and trainer of those involved in multi-ethnic and multi-denominational solidarity with the poor and oppressed. His anti-colonial Kingdom values and strategies for allowing beloved community to break into real history draw from the dramatic civil rights struggle (just think of King and the Birmingham Bus Boycott, say) and more recent Black scholars from James Cone to Katie Cannon to Kelly Brown Douglas. He’s a lovely guy and a great communicator. I’m eager for this book.

I love that Otis Moss — a vibrant UCC pastor in Chicago, and author of Blue Note Preaching and the wonderful 2023 release, Dancing in the Darkness: Spiritual Lessons for Thriving in Turbulent Times wrote the foreword to this forthcoming volume.  Let’s go.

The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action Wesley Granberg-Michaelson (Orbis Press) $26.00 // PREORDER OUR SALE PRICE = $20.80 RELEASE DATE September 24, 2025

This is another book written by a long friend and a man I admire very, very much. As I’ve explained before, I began to follow Wes in the mid-1970s when he was on staff with the respected Republican Senator Mark Hatfield. Hatfield meant the world to me — a thoughtful elected official who desired to allow the ways of Jesus to shape his understanding of life, his policy views, as well his character and temperament as he served in the halls of Congress. As a proud and storied Senator for the GOP he was an early opponent of the Viet Nam war. He voted to serve the poor and had a profound understanding of how we were, in the words he used then, stewards of creation and how we needed a wise and restrained energy policy. For Hatfield the economy was not god and the god of Mars ought not lead our foreign policy. There hasn’t been anybody like him since (although maybe the ordained Presbyterian elder, Chris Coons, comes close. He talks about his faith as easily as he talks about public justice.)

Did Hatfield teach young Wes Michaelson, son of conservative evangelicals, about the integration of faith and justice work, about faithful public policy? Maybe. Wes would say so, I’m sure. On the other hand, it may be that the passionate young evangelical may have rubbed off on the elder Senator. In any case, Wes ended up meeting Jim Wallis and the edgy rag, The Post America, moved to DC and became the important prophetic voice, Sojourners. Wes and his wife were editors there and leaders in thei- emerging community houses in a rough part of urban DC. Their earliest books were about creation care and social holiness; they were very good.

Wes’s story is one that follows a long and winding road and he has written several very good books about it all; his insights about the multi-ethnic, global church, vision casting and problem-solving in the local congregation, one about the trends facing the Western church and how to step up faithfully to the issues of the day. After retiring from his work with the World Council of Churches and as the General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America and letting go of some of his leadership in global trans-denominational alliances (does anybody have more friends in more denominations and church groups around the globe than Wes?) he wrote one of beautiful books of recent spirituality — Without Oars: Casting Off Into a Life of Pilgrimage (released by Broadleaf.) It’s a great read and is arranged around the story of pilgrimage (the Camino, for instance) and the ways in which a faith less tethered to certitude and stable truths might be nurtured by visions of pilgrimage, of setting out like the ancient monks of Ireland. Growth, change, deepening faith, risk-taking, gently evolving theology, knowing in the heart (not only the mind)  and being known (by God and others) — all of these themes are beautifully explored in this 2020 release, Without Oars.  Diana Butler Bass wrote a beautiful forward to that one and it captured very much for many of us in these perplexing days.

And now, we are proud to announce the forthcoming one, his masterpiece, The Soulwork of Justice. Can you see how his full life led to this very moment, the release of a book that is both about spirituality and public justice? It is, as his pal Richard Rohr might say, about the journey inward and the journey outward. It is suitable that it is being published by the legendary Catholic publisher known for publishing the classics of early liberation theology. Wes remains Reformed (and he and his wife are serving a small Lutheran church at the moment) but there is something right about being on the storied publisher who brought us Gustavo Gutierrez and Oscar Romero and James Cone and Alan Boesak.

From his friendships with some of the best faith-based social activist and leaders public renewal, and his keen observations and discernment, Wes had drawn four key “movements” that shape a life of sustainable faith and flourishing for the common good. The book is build around these four features.

I am sure I’ll write more about it as the release date draws nearer — I’m working on my advanced manuscript this week! — but for now, here is what the publisher tells us about this anticipated Fall release:

Former politico, long-time activist, and faith leader Wes Granberg-Michaelson looks at a life in activism. advocacy, and ministry to reveal four key discernible movements of a lifelong soul journey to God’s justice. He’s also witnessed these elements consistently in the lives of others devoted to both soul-care and justice. Now he offers these four key movements for anyone at any age wanting to step into the entwined lineage of justice and soul work. While all experience it, few justice leaders talk about in the often exhausting effort of their work, and how critical soulwork — spiritual formation — is for sustaining a life of outward social witness.

Culled from the wisdom of decades of leadership experience in global ecumenical initiatives, religious organizations, and social justice movements, this book combines tenacity of vision with the groundedness of soul that has sustained Granberg-Michaelson even as it offers support to others engaged in the work for a lifetime and beyond.

With shades of Thomas Merton, I’d say, Wes writes:

“Your inner life will require an ongoing exploration as rigorous as your excavation of the external, global structures of oppression and social sin. If your inward and outward journey becomes interwoven, your life and witness will have opportunity to flourish. If they are alienated from one another, and your inward journey is neglected, your outward journey, regardless of the intensity of your commitment, eventually will start to disintegrate, with self-inflicted wounds likely to injure others and undermine the causes to which you committed your life.”

 

World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading Jeff Crosby (Paraclete Press) $18.99 // PREORDER OUR SALE PRICE = $15.19 RELEASE DATE  October 21, 2025

You are going to love this. This — I hope you trust me on this — is a book you need. It will inspire and bless you and you will smile each time you open a page. You will sigh as I did, I’m sure, as you finish the book. This is a book you are going to want to share with other book worms and a book to give to those who maybe don’t read as much as they might. Of all the many great books on the reading life, this one is the best I’ve ever read.

Let me say that again, please: Of all the many great books on the reading life, this one is the best I’ve ever read.

World of Wonders is, simply put, a wonder.

Jeff has worked in nearly every capacity in the book and publisher world. He came to Christian faith, in fact, through a friendship with some indie Christian bookstore owners and he learned to read widely as a youth and yong adult.  He has run stores, run distributors, been the head of one of my favorite publishers, been an informal editor and agent, and now is the director of the ECPA (the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association) where he is working to help faith-based publishers mature and promote good books to a needy world, a world longing for beauty and goodness and truth. I could say much about how Jeff has inspired us here (and been specifically helpful in many ways.)

His first book was with Broadleaf, the wonderful, wonderful Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts. I’ve mentioned it often and want to press it into the hands of anyone who likes lovely stories and challenging insights and pages full of inspiration about learning the quiet language of the God.

I read this forthcoming volume in manuscript form months ago and we are soon to see the release (finally!) of this book that I’ve been itching to tell you about. This “spirituality of reading” means so much to me that I will do another review once it does out, describing more of it good chapters and its many wonders  Let me just tease you now, inviting you to pre-order now. It will release early, I’m sure, and you are going to want to get this as soon as you are able.

Karen Marsh is so right that this book actually invites us into the deeper (and enjoyable) reading life. She puts it exactly right — and I bet she speaks for some reading this now:

Jeff Crosby invites me to step away from my fragmented life of screens, information, images and opinion, and he returns me to earlier days when I dwelled in books, when I lost track of time, when the now-rare experience of “presence” was as natural as reading.  Where researchers fail to spark a change in my habits (despite their evidence of my changing brain and shrinking capacity for attention), World of Wonders speaks to my soul through literary quotes, intriguing books lists, practical strategies, and stories of people who call me back to what I once knew – that to read deeply is to inhabit the world more fully and to encounter the God who is there. — Karen Wright Marsh, author of Wake Up To Wonder and Vintage Saints and Sinners, and executive director of Theological Horizons.

One of the lovely things about Jeff is how he so graciously and generously supports others and reaches out in friendship to authors, musicians, artists, and others he appreciates. He loves the good writing of Chris de Vinck — am essayist, storyteller, memoirist, columnist known in the mainstream world of secular letters, even as he is a devout Catholic Christian. de Vinck was good friends with Henri Nouwen and he is friends with Jeff.

The wondrous de Vinck writes a blurb about World of Wonders and it is combines sane practical — educators need this! — but is ablaze with an lovely phrase that is as good as it gets. De Vinck says the book si about “the mesmerizing holiness of reading.”

Having been an English teacher and language arts administrator on both high school and college levels during my 40-year career in education, it is easy for me to say that our national education community would greatly benefit from Jeff Crosby’s refined celebration about the mesmerizing holiness of reading. I highly recommend World of Wonders! — Christopher de Vinck, columnist for The Dallas Morning News, author of Things That Matter Most

One of the great booksellers (and readers!) in America is Warren Farhar of Eighth Day Books in Wichita, Kansas. It is perfect that Warren weighs in with these splendid words about this splendid book.

Jeff Crosby appropriately begins his exploration of reading with a quotation from C. S. Lewis’s brilliant Experiment in Criticism, which, with the perceptive precision typical of Lewis, perfectly describes why we read: “We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own.” World of Wonders is intended to help us do just that. Despite his immersion in every aspect of book reading and publishing, Jeff is an unintimidating, disarmingly gentle and humble guide for readers of every level of proficiency and every type of reading intention, whether it’s for sheer entertainment or deepest spiritual discipline. And don’t miss the dozen reading lists, reflecting decades of experience of a veteran reader and publisher. Pure gold. — Warren Farha, founder and owner, Eighth Day Books, Wichita, Kansas

Warren is right about this — World of Wonders  (yes, Jeff knows the Bruce Cockburn song and album by that names!)  — is not intimidating or too heady. I love Deep Reading and Alan Jacobs and Karen Swallow Prior’s guidance about reading for virtue and the visionary Reading for the Common Good by Christopher Smith, but all of these favs have, more than others, a certain tone or demeanor that might be off-putting to young readers or those who struggle with the printed page.  Jeff understands ordinary people and is humble, gracious, fun. His book lists are his own and you’ll enjoy them. I’ll say more later, but, for now, here’s what I’m told might appear on the back cover:

Most book lovers love that genre of writing — books about books. They are beloved and often influential. World of Wonders is one that is unlike any other in this field, a truly lovely, easy-to-read, utterly delightful, deeply spiritual book that indeed makes you want to read more. It helps you realize God’s presence as you turn the pages, and guides you to encounter the world of wonder that is discovered in an open-hearted reading life. No stuffy tome for only the erudite experts, this is a book for you, me, your neighbors, friends, and even those who may not (yet) love to read. This book is a gift. Read and share.  — Byron Borger, Hearts & Minds, Dallastown, Pennsylvania

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