When I had lunch with Dawn in November of 2003, she recommended “Girl Meets God” by Lauren F. Winner to me as a book that I might find interesting. I put it on my “to read” list and it unfortunately got postponed indefinitely due to my local library system not having it. (Technically, I could have gotten it from Concordia College on I.L.L. but I didn’t know that until today.) When I was in Sioux Falls last weekend, I finally got a copy at Barnes & Noble.
My thoughts: as a convert to Christianity who came to faith as an Episcopalian, I could sooooooo identify with what Lauren had to say. I found myself saying “that is exactly how I would have said that” when she was talking about a lot of her experiences in the church and it was actually comforting to know that my conversion experience was not the weirdest one in the world. Having also studied Judaism as a Religious Studies major, I also could appreciate the aspects of Orthodox Judaism that she spoke about.
I got on Amazon.Com and got Lauren’s next two books. I don’t usually buy books (since I can find almost everything I want within my library system) but I felt like I’d use both of them in my ministry life (when I actually am [God willing] ordained) and I didn’t really want to have to explain to my local librarian why I was checking out the third one (Real Sex: A Naked Look at Chastity — there are just some things I don’t want to explain to everyone in the small town where I live).
Sounds like an interesting book. Yeah, I love my local library as well. Sadly, they don’t always have every book that I’m interested in. But that do have more than one might think for such a small town. For example, I actually found Messy Spirituality by Yankovich and The Politics of Jesus by Yoder.
Btw, I have a new blog (I’ve actually been talking about it for some time so I’m glad it’s finally here!). The address is: http://www.acupofrich.com….just thought you’d like to know. :^)
I’ve actually heard good things about “Real Sex…” I added it to my wishlist, and maybe I’ll get it someday. Somehow, I doubt it will end up in the local library. 🙂
Yikes you changed the comments system!
I totally forgot that I recommended it to you. I’m glad you liked it, as I hate to recommend something and have the other person dislike it 🙂 I read Mudhouse Sabbath as well and while slightly disappointed with the content (there could have been more and better fleshed out), I enjoyed the writing style.