Her stories of hurt, anger, and isolation brought forth painful childhood memories I thought I had long tucked away. I spent much of my youth bullied by the same kinds of mean girls Nellie represented. I remember the day the most popular girl in the school gave me a note from my crush, saying he thought I was ugly. He didn’t write the note…

John’s descriptions of Labrador retrievers are spot-on—the tail commentary makes me grin; I’m always making fun of Molly for her big butt knocking over everything. My in-laws yelp when Molly comes near them—apparently, her tail is like a whip and leaves welts on them, something I apparently never notice.

As a Christian, these gritty narratives challenge me, but I think that even if I wasn’t a Christian, I would be moved by the absolute trust given under the strangest of circumstances, by the lack of motive behind the giving, and by the levels of faith played out over the…

Grandma Patricia is a delightful bundle of contradictions. Along with being quite superstitious, she’s a devout Catholic and passes out condoms in her village. She is the grandmother I imagine I would have had, not just because of her liberal ideas on contraception, but…

For me, learning about faery paths, faery forts, and faery bridges invokes the sense of wonderment that Pike strives to capture. I now look at things differently when I’m out walking. Maybe a faery left that rock, shell, or feather lying across my path. Who knows?

The end of the book finishes off with a short piece of writing by George that he wrote when he was fourteen. His words are sweet, endearing, funny, poignant—a true insight into an autistic child’s world. There are many people who try to explain how an autistic…

It can be a very difficult time of testing and fear when a minister and his family are between assignments. Speaking from personal experience, because that’s precisely where I find myself today after over 25 years in full-time vocational ministry, it…

I hear the voices of each of Audie’s friends, and laugh at their jokes as if they were next to me. I feel a deep sadness and grow angry when they die, and I realize that the story…

I’m sitting here, in my mildly jet-lagged and highly caffeinated state, reading the disclaimer of Braman’s book where she talks about how she’s not responsible for the water that comes into your life while reading her book. Meanwhile, I can actually feel my hair growing into…

Unloved, she continues. Beaten, she continues. Raped, she continues. Forced to convert from Christianity to Islam, she continues. Watching her friends tortured and killed, she goes on. Watching her husband killed and made to go back to prison, she goes on. Released into sorrow and insensitivity, she continues. This woman has an incredible will to live. And she doesn’t just continue or…

While her desire for spiritual guidance is one that I can relate to since I have also had that urge for spiritual completeness and that feeling that something was missing in my life, I don’t think I would be ready for…

When you can’t conceal your laughter on a train full of stern and snippy commuters, you know it’s good. When you consider buying a copy for everyone you know this Christmas, you know it’s good. When you pull it out of your purse on date night and start re-reading parts to your hungry date as he tosses his fork under the table just to be able to hide from your hysterical laughter, and you…

A final lesson is that forgiving others is part of the process to opening yourself up to miracles. An example for me would be my supervisor at work not telling me when my contract was terminating, and having someone else do it instead. Rather than holding a grudge that she…

I hope I’ll relate to the main character. Perhaps I’ll feel less miserable about myself if I get to know someone else who’s hiding her writer’s identity from the world. I’m hoping her fierce love of good books will encourage me to keep exploring the reader in me. I’m also hoping…