Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Pastrix
 
Nadia Bolz-Weber
 

224 pgs, Jericho Books 2013

Netgalley

 

 

 

Summary from Goodreads

Foul-mouthed and heavily tattooed, former standup comic-turned-Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber weaves hilarious rants and stunning theological insight into her personal narrative of a flawed, beautiful, and unlikely life of faith.

Bizarre, rich, and remarkable, PASTRIX turns spiritual memoir on its ear in a sardonically irreverent and beautifully honest page-turner that readers will never forget. Nadia Bolz-Weber takes no prisoners as she reclaims the term pastrix (a negative term used by some Christians who refuse to recognize women as pastors) in this wildly entertaining and deeply resonant memoir about an outrageous, unlikely life of faith. From a commune of haggard-but-hopeful slackers to the wobbly chairs and war stories of Alcoholic Anonymous, from a funeral in a smoky downtown comedy club to an unexpected revelation during the Haitian stations of the cross, PASTRIX is a journey of cranky spirituality that intersects religion with real life, weaving incredible narrative, hilarious rants, and poignant honesty to portray a life deeply flawed and deeply faithful-giving hope to the rest of us.

My Thoughts/Summary

Full disclosure, I would have been shocked not to love this book.  I started reading Nadia’s blog shortly after stumbling across a video of her speaking at the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering that I mentioned in this post.  When I got the email that I was approved to read Pastrix on Netgalley I literally jumped up and down on the sidewalk in my work uniform.

 

Pastrix did not disappoint  It’s the story of Nadia’s spiritual life, but instead of telling it chronologically it’s told in chapters that show how moments early in life can fold into what happens later and what she learned from the whole experience.   Nadia doesn’t try to fit into our expectations of what a pastor should be: the picture on the cover shows off her tattoos and the first word of the book is “shit”.  But she really illustrates that God is everywhere – not just a church. 

“We want to go to God for answers, but sometimes what we get is God’s presence.”

But I think the strength of this book is that Nadia admits she doesn’t know all the answers.  That God is meant to be unknowable and instead of faking anything she’s just very honest about her experiences and feelings.  Nadia voices hard questions that believers and non-believers ask of God and of the church, addressing the disappointments and abuse many people have suffered at the hands of the church.  Some chapters end with very clear messages of what she believes about God, while others like “Hurricanes and Humiliations” aren’t quite as clear cut. 

“Jesus calls us to welcome the stranger and serve our neighbor.  And the images on our television during the Katrina event begged the question:  Who is that neighbor?  Being Christian is much harder that I wish it was.  We’re called to take care of the poor.  But should we open our homes to those in need if it entails danger to our children?  We’re called to love our enemies and forgive those who trespass against us.  Does that mean we should allow people who have hurt and betrayed us back into our lives?  Or does it mean that simply don’t wish them ill?”

Every single chapter elicited genuine emotion from me.  I cried a lot – happy and sad tears.  I laughed out loud.  But mostly I felt hope at the message of a loving God that I’ve always felt, but have had a hard time expressing to other people. 

I believe that this is my most highlighted book ever.  I thought about adding more quotes, but they work so much better in context so please READ THIS BOOK!

My Rating

Enjoyability (5 out of 5 stars)

Relationships (4 out of 5 stars)

Writing (5 out of 5 stars)

This book will stay with me forever.  I’ll buy a physical copy as soon as it comes out on Tuesday. 

So Tough to Tame by Victoria Dahl

So Tough to Tame
Victoria Dahl
384pgs, Harlequin HQN
Release date – 9/24/13
Netgalley

Goodreads Summary

Tough to tame, but not too tough to love... Charlie Allington is supposed to be on the fast track to the top-a small-town girl who was making it big in her career. Instead, she's reeling from a scandal that's pretty much burned all her bridges. Now, out of options, she needs a place to lick her wounds and figure out her future. True, working at a ski resort in rugged Jackson Hole, Wyoming, isn't her dream job. But if there's one perk to coming back, it's a certain sexy hometown boy who knows how to make a girl feel welcome.

Cowboy Walker Pearce never expected a grown-up Charlie to be temptation in tight jeans. She's smart and successful-way out of league for a man like him. But he's not about to let that, or his secrets, get in the way of their blazing-hot attraction. Yet when passion turns to something more, will the truth-about both of them-send her out of his life for good...or into his arms forever?

My Summary

This is the third and I believe final novel in Dahl’s Jackson Series.  Charlie Allington returns to her hometown of Jackson, WY to recover from a scandal that rocked both her professional and personal confidence.  She was able to find a job in her field back home with the help of some old “friends”, but they seem to be enjoying her fall from grace.  She manages to land an apartment at the “Stud Farm” with the help of Walker Pearce – a high school crush she tutored junior year. 

Walker is still tall and gorgeous, with an extra dose of manly that he’s acquired since high school.  He’s also still the ladies man she remembers, but now Charlie is much more confident and flirts back.  Walker has struggles of his own.  He’s a cowboy, but after a mistake that got him fired at his last job, he hasn’t been able to find consistent work or and the work he can find isn’t the kind he enjoys.

Walker never believes he isn’t smart enough for Charlie in an actual relationship, and based on Walker’s lack of relationship history Charlie doesn’t know he would be open to one.  Since they are both trying to keep the relationship casual and keep their pride Walker and Charlie keep their pasts secret from each other pretty much until everything blows up.

I really enjoyed this book, although I enjoyed the previous two more.  I spent a large portion of “So Tough to Tame” with my stomach in knots because I knew shit was gonna hit the fan and just wanted to be prepared for it to happen.  I also spent a lot of time internally begging Charlie to trust her instincts (although she has reason not to).

Either way I love both Charlie and Walker.  I love that Charlie is totally confident sexually, while struggling at work (cause we all have area’s where we are more confident than others).  I enjoyed seeing Walker’s fun side when dealing with the kids as well as his frustration having to face his father with dementia.  I’ve read at least ten Victoria Dahl romances and she manages to make every character unique – a rare find in the genre.

My Rating

Enjoyability (4 out of 5 stars)

Relationships (4 out of 5 stars)

Writing (4 out of 5 stars)

This book will stay with me until I have read it so many times I can practically quote verbatim. 

Disclosure:  I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Holy great books Batman!

Three books that I have been anxiously waiting to read are all being released on September 10^th.  Unfortunately, I have to work so best case I’ll be able to read one on release day. 

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – I am so jealous of all the bloggers out there who got an advance copy…BUT I keep reminding myself that I still have it to look forward too!  Ha!

Solid logic.  Joey and I have that in common.

 

 

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint by Nadia Bolz-Weber - Nadia is an ELCA Minister from Colorado and I listen/read her sermons weekly.  She has a fresh outlook and something in every sermon speaks to me.  Plus before she was a minister, Nadia was a stand-up comedian.    This book is sort of her spiritual memoir and I am dying to read it. 

 

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein – Code Name Verity broke my heart last year, but Wein is a wizard because I really want to repeat the experience.

Opinions?  What do I read first?

Top 10 Tuesday - Book I'd like to see taught in school

Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10 theme. 

This week’s theme is Top 10 Contemporary Books That Would Be Great Paired With A Required Reading Book (like Perks of Being A Wallflower with Catcher in the Rye) OR Top Ten Books That You Wish Were Taught In Schools.  FYI - This was my suggestion and I did an incredible geek dance when I saw that they used it :)  I actually posted these last October during a "Free" top 10 week.

Here are my top 10.  If I could think of a good classic "pair" I included it.

1.  Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne)

2.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger)

3.  A Time to Kill by John Grisham (To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)

4.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (1984 by George Orwell)

5.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank)

6.  Incarnate by Jodi Meadows (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte)

7.  Exile by Richard North Patterson (Mila 18 by Leon Uris)

8.  The Help by Kathryn Stockett  (Beloved by Toni Morrison)

9.  The Kite Runner by Khaled Kossini

10. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Confession time - I haven't read "1984", "Jane Eyre" or "Beloved".  I paired those based on summaries.  Also I don't know if "Mila 18" can really be called a classic, but those two book read together give an incredible perspective of why the situation in the Middle East is what it is.   Making this list actually made me add a couple classics to my TBR pile.

Anyone have any suggestions for classics to pair with my last 2 contemporary reads?  Any contemporary reads you think would be great additions to curriculum?

11/22/63 by Stephen King

11/22/63

Stephen King

849 pgs, 11/8/2011

Bought Physical Book

Goodreads Summary

If you had the chance to change the course of history, would you? Would the consequences be what you hoped?

Jake Epping 35 teaches high school English in Lisbon Falls, Maine, and cries reading the brain-damaged janitor's story of childhood Halloween massacre by their drunken father. On his deathbed, pal Al divulges a secret portal to 1958 in his diner back pantry, and enlists Jake to prevent the 11/22/1963 Dallas assassination of American President John F. Kennedy. Under the alias George Amberson, our hero joins the cigarette-hazed full-flavored world of Elvis rock n roll, Negro discrimination, and freeway gas guzzlers without seat belts. Will Jake lurk in impoverished immigrant slums beside troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald, or share small-town friendliness with beautiful high school librarian Sadie Dunhill, the love of his life?

My Thoughts

Read this book!  Seriously, I know it’s long.  But it’s awesome and totally different for Stephen King yet still totally Stephen King. 

I looked at a blank piece of paper for awhile trying to write a summary without giving away too much and I’m stumped.  So instead here’s a mini list of reasons you should read it.

·         Time travel – I love the concept of this book, but what’s really amazing is that King pulls it off. 

·         The writing – No surprise but it’s excellent.  King may tend to be a little more detailed than I need at times, but he’s at his best here.

·         Love Story – At its heart 11/22/63 is a love story.  A beautifully developed and at times heartbreaking love story.

·         Characters – Jake, Sadie, Ellie, Deke, Al – all of the characters are fleshed out and have dimension. 

·         Educational – I am not a history buff.  I learn 90% of my history through historical fiction and this is perfect.  Well researched and the history was woven into the story so seamlessly that I never noticed it.

My Rating

Enjoyability (4 out of 5 stars)

Characters (4.5 out of 5 stars)

Writing (5 out of 5 stars)

This book will stay with me forever.

Who else out there has read it?  What did you think of the ending?

Top 10 Tuesday - Most Memorable Secondary Characters

Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and theBookish host a book related Top 10 theme. 

This week’s theme is Memorable Secondary Characters.  YAY!  I love fun secondary characters.   I actually mentioned a few of my faves in this post.

Grandma Mazur from the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich

“That shooting gave me an appetite," she said. "Somebody pass
me the potatoes."

“The dog ran into the kitchen, stuck his nose in Grandma's crotch, and snuffled.
Dang," Grandma said. "Guess my new perfume really works. I'm gonna have to try it out at the seniors meeting.”

Windsor Horne Lockwood III (Win) from the Myron Bolitar Series by Harlan Coben

“If you clone yourself and then have sex with yourself, is it considered incest or masturbation?”

“So basically your plan is to flail about helplessly.”

Hoppie/Doc/Morey from “The Power of One” by Bryce Courtenay

“The power of one is above all things the power to believe in yourself, often well beyond any latent ability you may have previously demonstrated. The mind is the athlete, the body is simply the means it uses to run faster or longer, jump higher, shoot straighter, kick better, swim harder, hit further, or box better.”

“Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.”

“Your brain, Peekay, has two functions; it is a place for original thought, but also it is a reference library. Use it to tell you where to look, and then you will have for yourself all the brains that have ever been”

Miranda Priestly from “The Devil wears Prada” by Lauren Weisburger

“Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room.”

Fred and George from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Lettie West/Davenport from some later books in John Sandfords Prey Series

Shrake (cop) and Letty, Lucas and Weather’s 15 year old daughter are playing gin rummy

“Who’s winning”

“Don’t bother us,” Letty said, “If he goes out, I’ve got to take off my bra.”

“When I’d kill a rat, I’d always aim at the little white spot in their eye.  ‘Course, I was using a twenty-two, from two inches.  Still like that gun.” 

“But he didn’t hit me in the head.  He hit me in the arm, and I hate this cast.” 

Stuart Whitworth from “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett

Joanna Mason and Finnick Odair from “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins

Doris from “Attachments” by Rainbow Rowell

Mammy from “Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell

 

When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

When Crickets Cry
Charles Martin
336 pgs, 2006 Westbow Press
Purchased Book

Goodreads Summary

"A man with a painful past. A child with a doubtful future. And a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts."

It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl's pretty yellow dress can't quite hide the ugly scar on her chest.

Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he's restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives.

Before it's over, they'll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry . . . and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners.

My Summary

When Crickets Cry revolves around a man named Reese who is mourning the loss of his wife and has essentially banished himself from the life he lived before her death.  One day in town he is drawn to a young girl at a lemonade stand with unexpected energy and a scar he recognizes all too well.

Told in alternating chapters between the current time and Reese’s past beginning with when he met his wife the author tries to establish some mystery as to what happened to Reese’s wife and who he was before her death.  The first third of the book accomplished that goal, but resulted in chapters that felt choppy.  Just as I invested in his story in the past or present the scene would shift.

I abhor giving away plot detail and since Charles Martin went to such trouble to create mystery early in the novel I’d be even more hesitant, BUT about halfway through he gave away the entire ending.  To the point I could tell you details of how it would play out – not just whether it would have a happy ending.

SPOILERS AHEAD – I could not figure out how to give my thought without giving away some plot points.  Skip to Overall Thoughts to avoid.

Reese fell in love with his wife when they were children and she had a heart condition already.  He started studying the heart at a very young age – he’s very smart (pretty much unbelievably).  Eventually he went to medical school where he excelled and became a heart surgeon.  He’s incredibly successful, especially with children.  His wife is on the list for a new heart and they had decided on a surgeon to perform the operation.  A heart becomes available, but it’s an EXACT match for his wife and another one of his patients.  His wife insists it should go to the other patient. 

Side note:  This could never happen.  There are no ties in UNOS – they have eight criteria in order

·         Age

·         Ability of the patient to recover

·         ABO

·         Distance

·         Height and weight

·         Life support status

·         Listing status

·         Time on the waiting list (down to the SECOND!)

Anyway, Reese performs that transplant on his patient and returns home and goes to sleep.  He wakes up to discover his wife’s heart is failing, calls 911 and almost performs a miraculous open heart surgery in their kitchen to maintain her long enough to get to a hospital but in the end fails.

Fast forward a few years and Reese is living in semi-seclusion.  He goes into the nearest town for a few things and is drawn to the little girl selling lemonade.  Annie has a scar on her chest that he can tell means she’s had several heart surgeries.  She’s hit by a truck and he saves her life while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.  From there the story unfolds in a pleasantly predictable way.  Annie befriends Reese not knowing he’s a heart surgeon.  As he gets more and more involved in her life, Reese begins to consider coming out of exile to perform Annie’s heart transplant.

Overall Thoughts

This was probably never going to be a favorite of mine.  To me it was a cross between Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult – I’ve read 2 of each of theirs and have no interest in more.    I found When Crickets Cry to be overwritten in several sections, especially the Prologue. 
 

"I pushed against the spring hinge, cracked open the screen door, and scattered two hummingbirds fighting over my feeder.  The sound of the wings faded into the dogwood branches above, and it was there that the morning met me with streaks of sunkist crackling across the skyline.  Seconds before, God had painted the sky a mixture of black and deep blue, then smeared it with rolling wisps of cotton and sprayed it with specks of glitter, some larger than others.  I turned my head sideways, sort of corkscrewing my eyes, and decided that heaven looked like a giant granite countertop turned upside down and framing the sky."

If this hadn’t been a book club choice I wouldn’t have made it past the first paragraph.  I laughed when I read “sunkist” cause it’s not a word – it’s a brand.  He does it a couple more times in the novel.   And the third and fourth sentences had me rolling my eyes.

My Rating

Enjoyability (3 out of 5 stars)

Relationships (3 out of 5 stars) – The main character may have had two dimensions – everyone else was pretty one dimensional.

Writing (1.5 out of 5 stars)

This book will stay with me…longer than you would guess from my review.  I read it about a month ago and had no problem writing this review.

Other Reviews of When Crickets Cry

Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Stray Thoughts

Reading for Sanity