With preparations for Beth starting her chemo — pushed back another week — and with my being under the weather, I haven’t finished our big 2025 Advent BookNotes yet. It will in your inbox in a couple of days.

(I’ll admit I’ve also spent time watching the always brilliant Ken Burns and his vivid documentary on the American Revolution, which last night mentioned the Continental Congress escaping Philadelphia and decamping to York, PA, showing a quick early drawing of our downtown and our First Presbyterian Church; although methinks no church in York had such a tall steeple in 1777.) But, again, that new Advent BookNotes is well underway and will be posted soon. I’ll skip any jokes about waiting and just thank you for your patience.

For those who cannot wait for the forthcoming Hearts & Minds Advent BookNotes list I give you this. Here I am in an hour-long conversation with my friend Susan Smetzer-Anderson from the remarkable podcast, UpWords, from the Upper House, a Christian Study Center at the University of Wisconsin. We chat about the spirituality of Advent, the complex meaning of it all, even in times of sorrow, and I show and tell about a whole bunch of books — a few old ones and a lot of new ones. If you want ideas for what to read next, this is jam-packed. All are 20% off.

While there you can browse through their other stellar conversation partners — don’t miss J. Richard Middleton, for instance — and if you’re interested you can browse back to other ones they’ve done with yours truly. They are kind enough to have me on talking books several times a year. Enjoy.

[By the way, the program notes list the books and other useful info.Again, all are 20% off and you can order below at the link to our secure order form page at the bookstore website.]

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/entering-advent-with-intention-byron-borger/id1537044590?i=1000737255706

If you want to see previous BookNotes highlighting good seasonal resources (for adults or children) you can enter “Advent” or “Christmas” into the search box by BookNotes (at our website) and you’ll find years worth of old columns. The discounts are still good — 20% off — although the prices mostly likely have changed since the olden days of BookNotes past.