Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009) Finally. Someone has exposed the ideology of positive thinking for what it is: a billion dollar industry that is turning out more crap in a day than all the cows in Sonoma County in a year. Barbara Ehrenreich, who for decades has documented the decline of the middle class, takes a clear-eyed look at … Read More »

Evidence by Mary Oliver

Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

The Naked Now by Richard Rohr

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Love Poems from God

Nobel genius

“The God Patent” by Ransom Stephens

Given Sugar, Given Salt by Jane Hirshfield (New York: HarperCollins, 2001) In a recent poem, Jane Hirshfield rifts on the expiration date on a plastic container, and gets personal about the metaphor of perishability: “I found myself looking:/ now at the back of each hand,/ now inside the knees, / now turning over each foot to look at the sole.” Her poems often begin with the easily overlooked stuff of everyday life. … Read More »

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice (New York: Knopf, 2005)   Anne Rice is well known for the Vampire Chronicles. It must have surprised many a faithful reader that she chose to write about Jesus. Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt is the first book in a trilogy on the life of Jesus. Next week I will review the second book, Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. The … Read More »