Book Review - The Garden Within by Dr. Anita Phillips

I haven't written as much as I did in the past but writing is still cathartic. It's peaceful and often when I'm writing, I'm worshipping my Creator. Sometimes I desire to write, but the words aren't there. And while God understands our inaudible words and moans, that would simply translate to a blank page that many would not understand.

So today, hopefully, the words will come. A cataclysmic event happened in our country on November 5th, and I was deeply disappointed with the results. I still am, but I know that I must take care of my heart. So it was fortuitous that I was reading The Garden Within during this time of deep disappointment.

As Christians, we unwittingly view emotions as bad or something we have to control and tamp down. How many of you have heard, "You're too emotional" as if that were a ding against you? And having heard that for most of your life, how does that make you feel? For a lot of my life, I tried to manage my emotions to make

Book Review - This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley

The local library is one of my happy places. As I walked through the library, absorbing its calm and quietness, I saw This Here Flesh on a pedestal as a featured book. I sighed audibly as I grabbed it. I follow the author on IG on her Black Liturgies page. Her writing often encourages me that I add her posts to my stories. So when I heard she wrote a book, it was only a matter of time before I got my hands on a copy.

Where do I begin? We are sacred human beings, flawed and all. From this space of holy humanity, with stories from her elders, particularly her gramma and father, we are serenaded with words that heal. Hers is not an easy story to tell, yet the Divine is woven through her story. There is deep trauma in her family in the form of racism, poverty, abandonment, and abuse. She also wrestles with unexplained health challenges. These moments bring out a depth of thought, reckoning with our circumstances, and still having joy in endeavoring to live life the best we can. 

Book Review - Hearts Set Free by Jess Lederman

I had no idea what I was undertaking when I said yes to reviewing this book.

Hearts Set Free is complicated, epic, messy, and disjointed, just like real life. It is semi-autobiographical spanning a timeframe of 80 years or more that starts in native Alaska and ends in Las Vegas. It's a lot to keep track of - characters, connections, and timeframes with a little bit of spiritual warfare - devils, demons, and visions.

The story eventually becomes engaging, but it takes a while to get there. Luke is one of the main characters, and we learn about his background, which initially starts in Native Alaska. His father abandons his family - Luke and his mother, which starts them on the quest to finding him. They eventually do find him, many years later in Vegas where he died as he was working on a dam. In the interim, we also meet David Gold, who became a preacher in the Vegas desert. David is Luke's stepfather. There are other characters - Tim Faber and Joan Reed who connect with Daniel Gold - Luke's

Book Review - Prayer, Does It Make Any Difference by Philip Yancey

The titles of Philip Yancey's books captivate me because he's asking the questions that are in my head. While in the library, I saw PRAYER in big, bold print on the spine of this book which immediately grabbed my attention; when I saw that it was by Philip Yancey (one of my favorite Christian authors), I knew I would be borrowing it.

If we're honest, I think many Christians struggle with prayer. We pray because it's how we communicate with God, but we know it goes deeper than this yet many of us don't grasp the more profound meaning. We struggle with why, how, where, what. Why are we praying? How do we pray? Where do we pray? What do we say? We wonder, are my prayers heard? Is my prayer making a difference?

What I appreciate about this book is the author's honesty. Despite his pedigree, he too struggles. Writing as a fellow pilgrim about that mysterious intersection where God and humanity meet and relate, Philip Yancey pushes beyond conventional treatments to

Book Review: Cross of A Different Kind

In my life, in recent memory, I have lost two close friends to cancer. The first was Dwight, a young man who was a friend of my children. As with all of my children's friend, I treated him like my own. He was at my house having Sunday dinner when he started to complain of pain in his back. This was new to me, but I thought nothing of it and thought it was normal childhood pain. It turned out that this pain was the indication of a relapse. Dwight fought valiantly, and cancer went into remission before it came back and stole his life from him. He was 23 when he left this earth.

Then there was Michelle. Michelle was a joy to be around. She exuded joy. Her family and my husband's family grew up together, and so my husband considered Michelle his sister. In the summer of 2017, we got the news that Michelle had breast cancer. We saw her that Christmas, where she still exuded joy though waging a valiant fight. But after that Christmas things took a turn for the worse and Michelle left us too soon in March of 2018. Michelle was 51.

The title of this book appealed to me because of these close

Book Review - The Way Back by Phil Cooke and Jonathan Bock

As I read this book, I was so convicted that practically every other page is highlighted. The full title of the book is The Way Back; How Christians Blew Our Credibility and How We Get It Back.

The premise is that in America, Christianity is losing its impact and influence on the culture. This is not a new statement and as illustrated in the book has happened in the past; history has a way of repeating itself.

The authors are Christians in the entertainment industry. They see first hand the degradation of our culture, but they are in positions to exert their influence.

I tend to shy away from how-to books because they tend to minimize the process; if it were so simple once shared everyone would change. So it's not so much a how-to book as it is a "how come?" book. This book provides insight into our current cultural state and then imparts suggested steps for navigating to the next level.

Book Review - A Year of Living Kindly by Donna Cameron

This book found me; I didn't go looking for it, and it's message resonates with me deeply. In the Bible we are told to "Be kind one to another... (Ephesians 4:32)." In A Year of Living Kindly, the author recognized that something was missing from her life and challenged herself to be kind for a year.

This book is the result of how kindness changed her and the insights learned along the way. Many of us think that the opposite of kindness is unkindness, but the author discovered that for her the opposite of kind was nice.

"Being kind - truly kind is hard. Nice requires little effort. I can be nice while also being indifferent, critical and even sarcastic. But I can't be kind and be any of those things. Being kind means caring; it means making an effort; it means thinking about the impact I'm having in an interaction and making it rich and meaningful - giving them what they need at that moment without wondering if I get anything in return. It means letting go of my judgement and accepting people as they are. Kindness demands that I reach out and take a risk."

Book Review - The Sun Does Shine by Ray Hinton

3:00 am, 10:00 am and 2:00pm. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you are on death row. This was Ray Hinton's reality for thirty years in the State of Alabama's Holman Prison. Not everyone on Death Row deserves to be there - remember that.

Ray Hinton was summarily convicted and sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit in September of 1986. His only crime was being a Black man in the state of Alabama. When the crime occurred - a murder of a store manager, he was at work 15 miles away, where his manager could vouch for his presence. With an airtight alibi, he thought he would be released. But none of that mattered. It wasn't an honest mistake; race had everything to do with it.

"You know I don't care if whether you did or didn't do it. In fact, I believe you didn't do it. But it doesn't matter. If you didn't do it, one of your brothers did. And you're going to take the rap. You want to know why?' These are the words that were said to Ray after he was arrested by a police lieutenant. He continued, "I can give you five reasons why they are going to convict you. Number 1, you're black. Number 2, a white man gonna say you shot him. Number 3, you're gonna have a white district attorney. Number 4, you're gonna have a white

Book Review - Falling Free: Rescued from the Life I Always Wanted by Shannan Martin

I'm not sure what prompted me to buy this book but as I read it I was glad I did. I've never lived on a farm, nor do I  have an innate love for pickles and brine but I could relate to the author's description of the joy and liberty of what trusting God feels like.

Shannan used her life and circumstances to demonstrate what faith can look like. For the author it was stepping out of her comfort zone by living in an area some would deem unsafe with no blue ribbon schools in sight, leaving high paying corporate jobs with no future sense of a prized stability, adopting children from every walk of life and ultimately being happy with where God had placed her. It was not a superficial happy either - like "o gee look at me, I'm happy in spite of my circumstances." Instead, it's a happiness where she saw the truths of God's word borne out in her life. So much so, I'm convinced that if this book were not written no one would believe her because her life now seems counter to everything that we thought would make us happy.

As Christians, we're not of this world; we ought to have a different

Book Review - She's Still There: Rescuing the Girl In You by Chrystal Evans Hurst

There was a time for all of us before life became complicated where we reveled in the innocence of childhood. For some, this might have been a brief moment in time for others it's a time that sits clearly in a favored space in the brain.

She's Still There: Rescuing the Girl in You by Chrystal Evan Hurst is a form of encouragement geared to women with the Bible as its foundation. It encourages each of us to take the time to search out what God is trying to tell us about our purpose. That little girl is part of who you are, so don't become discouraged with where you are in life but instead, as the author says, keep persevering. This book provides biblical principles on how to do so.

It is written in a very relatable manner yet in a way that captures your attention. As many of us struggle to find our purpose, Chapter 15 (my favorite chapter) says it like this: "Your job is not to find the answer that leads to a master plan or purpose.  Your job

Book Review - A Bigger Table by John Pavlovitz

A Bigger Table by John Pavlovitz is written by a pastor who reached his tipping point at the culmination of last year's presidential election. He compares the confines of the Ameican Church to the Church that was initially established in the book of Acts and finds a huge disconnect especially because the election highlighted such a divide in the American church. It is in this disconnect that he questions all the tenets of his faith -  his idea of God, what does it mean to really love as Christ commanded us, and the internal conflict of preaching one thing and living another.

He is not alone in his thoughts, as many resonated with me. Thoughts in this book are expressed eloquently through the author's life and his experience as a pastor. He so eloquently states that doubting and questioning your faith is not a bad thing, as a matter of fact, it may be necessary to deepening your walk. "Doubt isn't the sign of a dead faith, not necessarily even a sickly one. It is often the sign of a faith that is allowing itself to be tested, one that is brave enough to see if it can hold up under stress. God is more than big enough to withstand the weight of your vacillating belief, your part-time skepticism, and even your full blown faith crises."

If you are numbed by the lack of love you feel in your Christian walk today, this book is for you. The subtitle of this book could be - Challenge: Are you willing to love like Jesus did?
This book challenges what has become conventional thinking around the church. Some tough questions that he addresses are: Why are LGBTQ individuals automatically excluded from the Christian community? Black people? Poor people? Aren't they people just like the rest of us? Why are churches so segregated? What biases do we have that prevent us from reaching out to the least of theses? Are we putting principles over people?

The author is white so as a Black woman, I give him kudos for recognizing the position he's in and being bold enough to challenge the status quo. Radical love whether black or white will do that to you. Building a bigger table is messy as we find seats for all who want to partake. This is a book about humanity and one man's view of how he's trying to live out God's love.

If you are looking to broaden your views on Christianity, I recommend this book.




--Nylse

Thanks for reading. Please take a moment to share using the buttons below and also please like my Facebook Page. Don't forget to subscribe. Stay Encouraged!

Book Review - The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

I didn't want to read this book let alone like the book. But this book was just sitting there begging to be read. I read it in 24 hours; so much for not wanting to read a book. This book is not a how to self-help manual, which was why I had no interest in reading it initially, but rather it's one person's story of how she changed her mindset and what it looked like for her.

Shonda Rhimes is the writer/producer/creator (she has many titles) behind Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Scandal and How To Get Away with Murder. Even if you live under a rock, when you come out ever so often you will hear of one of these shows especially if it's a Thursday night.

This book shares one woman's viewpoint of going from a No to a Yes mentality. A No mentality is: where you're afraid of what a yes will mean so you live safely in your cocoon; where you unintentionally isolate yourself even if you appear successful; where you aren't determining your happiness, you're just existing. This mentality defined the author for most of her life until she made the choice to approach things differently. She shares her transition by letting the reader into her brain so that through the book you can see how she navigated from point A - No to Point B - Yes and the profound impact it had on her.

This book is well written in the author's voice. It's authentic and compelling and a book I reluctantly but heartily recommend.

--Nylse

Thanks for reading. Please take a moment to share using the buttons below and also please like my Facebook Page. Don't forget to subscribe. Stay Encouraged!

Book Review - Americanah & Crossing the Lines

Sometimes no matter how much we plan, things don't go as expected. In the midst of planning a wedding which by the way is going well, we've had some unexpected turn of events all related to our health. My husband has a nagging knee injury that required an MRI and my Little One suffered a third-degree burn. And life goes on.
So while working and waiting, I read. I'm reading my Bible and completing a Bible Study but I also read whatever interests me.

One of my newest favorite authors is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her most recent novel is Americanah which lived up to all of its positive reviews. Americanah captured all of my senses. I read it with awe not just at the storyline but at the way, the sentences were constructed and thoughts were developed. This is a confident writer who has no problem sharing her world, or her heritage with the reader. It's shared as common knowledge though it is new to many who are reading.
The story of our two protagonists - Ifemelu and Obinze starts off in Nigeria and winds its way through London, various cities on the East Coast of America and then back to Nigeria.
In mainstream culture - one would say they were high school sweethearts whose paths diverged and then they finally come back together. But in the Nigerian and African American cultures, this is so much more colorful. There are cultural norms associated with immigrating and then returning home - hence the name Americanah - a Nigerian slang term for someone returning from America pronounced with a heavy emphasis on the last syllable.
There's the plight of being undocumented while trying to maintain your dignity and make a living. There's getting to know others who are not like you and falling in love. There is losing yourself in love, yet trying to find out who you really are. There's a discovery of your race and what it means in other countries outside of your own; discovering you weren't black until you came to America. Then there's coming home and how it makes you feel whole again.
Through the eyes of Ifemelu and Obinze, we experience all of these things while we receive a sociology lesson on various cultures. This is pleasurable reading.

Then recently I read Crossing the Lines: A Novel by Richard Doster. This book caught me by surprise in a good way. I don't know why I downloaded it to my Kindle but I'm glad I did. Have you ever thought about the Civil Rights movement through the eyes of a white sports reporter who really loves the South but hates its portrayal to the entire world, while figuring out where he fits and how he feels based on his Christian faith? Those are the intersections that are explored in this book in a believable and entertaining fashion.

As a sports reporter, Josh Hall takes a stand on the integration of baseball and his family suffers for it. As they attempt to rebuild, he is presented with new professional opportunities that have him interviewing leaders of the Civil Rights Movement - Martin Luther King, in Montgomery Alabama and Arkansas. The book humanizes the bus boycott and the integration of Central High. While all of this is happening, we are also introduced to the genius behind the musicians B.B. King and Elvis Presley. We see how race impacted the music of the times and how we came to have the Blues and Rock and Roll.
The book is set in Atlanta, in a suburb, where Hall's local church also struggles with how to deal with integration. The struggle is for the "Beloved Community" that MLK envisioned and the one vs the exclusionary status quo.
This book is a lesson on race in America, with some of the ugliness removed.





--Nylse

Thanks for reading. Please take a moment to share using the buttons below and also please like my Facebook Page. Stay Encouraged!

Book Review - Purple Hibiscus

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was her debut novel. I had heard this author's name and wanted to read her works but when I saw the eloquent tribute she left to Michelle Obama, I knew I had to delve into her work.


Purple Hibiscus is a story of zeal based on the Catholic religion. Zeal can be good or bad; in the case of Purple Hibiscus, it is horribly bad. In the name of Catholicism, the family is abused - physically and verbally by its leader - their father and husband. He is fanatically religious and a tyrant at home.It is the tale of domestic and spousal abuse in the name of religion, set in upper-class Nigeria.


A purple hibiscus is a hybrid and is rare - perhaps the elements around this tale are rare also as I never expected such brutality in this setting, and the trajectory of the story is unexpected.
But the hibiscus is also beautiful - so in spite of the abuse, there is a beautiful story that is told around family connection. The family yearns to be free from this tyranny and like the hibiscus, they eventually bloom and are free. But the road to freedom is heartbreaking.


After reading this book, I am more knowledgeable about Nigeria - its customs, its foods, and some of its traditions. The author has a gift for making the story come to life while searing your soul.

Book Review - Homegoing

"History is storytelling. So when you study history you must always ask yourself, whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice can come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there you begin to get a clearer, yet still imperfect picture." (Yaw - Homegoing)

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is the story of the suppressed voices of Colonialism, Slavery, and Racism from the coasts of Ghana to America. It spans a period of approximately 300 years with stories told through the eyes of members of each generation. The story starts in Ghana where we learn about tribal practices - polygamy, war, prisoners of war and the initial slave trade. To bring this home there are two sisters who anchor this story: Effia from the Asante tribe who is betrothed to a white slave trader in Ghana and her half sister Essi from the Fante tribe who was captured and sold into American Slavery.

Homegoing is a collection of atrocities borne out of institutions that no longer cared for humans, where greed and pride are what's important. It highlights the strength, resolve and unfortunately the resignation of humans when dealing with horrible circumstances.

Though the underlying thread is slavery - the effects of slavery in America portrayed in Homegoing are more heart-wrenching than those from Ghana. Slavery in America an institution based on white supremacy, that lasted too long, with unimaginable cruelty, led to ramifications that have never been addressed -  the convict leasing system, which was an outgrowth of Jim Crow, which led to the Great Migration, which led heroin in Harlem, which led to the war on drugs, which led to the crack epidemic, which led to mass incarceration. All of these are touched on in Homegoing.

With each person's story in Homegoing, the legacies and ramifications of slavery in both continents are addressed. Near the end of this book, I felt like it became an autobiography and some of the stories lose their richness.

There is a family tree at the beginning of the book which I referred to as I started each chapter; this was helpful as it can become hard to keep track of characters over such large periods of time

For the breadth of time that Homegoing covers, it is done well and deeply impactful.

Book Review - Water For Elephants

I've returned with a vengeance to reading on a regular basis as it's enjoyable and provides a great escape. I was at the library, looking for one book and ended up leaving with five and Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen was one of them. I had no intention of picking this up initially but it was in the "Book Club" section; I've always wanted to be a member of a book club. I thought if this was selected for a book club which meant it produced great discussion, then it was good enough for me.

This book did not disappoint. Essentially it's a book about animals while working at a circus. This was a whole new world for me, but the story is told from the point of Jacob Jankowski who is now 93 in an assisted living facility. After a traumatic life event at 23, he finds himself at the circus while trying to find himself. So from this vantage point, it is understandable as the character and the reader learn the ways of the circus. It's also a story about animal behavior. Rosie the Elephant is almost human in how she is portrayed and it isn't a stretch to imagine her feelings dealing with the ringmaster and others. This is a well-written story with well-defined characters set in post-depression America.

But ultimately this is a story of love, that encompasses domestic violence, poverty, and animal rights; and finding yourself while being thrown into unexpected circumstances.
If you're an animal lover - the story line will appeal to you. Even if you're not, the overriding story reinforces that love always wins.

Book Review - Behold the Dreamers

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue resonated with me to a certain degree because it amplifies the immigrant experience of a family from Cameroon. I picked this book up and could not put it down as it captured my imagination from beginning to end. At one point, I had to know how it was going to end so I read the last 2 pages so I wouldn't be held in suspense anymore.

Basically, this book builds on the so call American Dream that many in a foreign land hear;  when they get here realize that dreams can be dashed and revived and reshaped over a long period of time. It is the story of Jendi and Neni Jonga - a husband and wife with their young family who made it to American soil.

As is the case with many, he came first, worked hard and eventually sent for her. Working hard is an understatement because he has worked menial jobs in order to save this money. He also has a cousin, who has done well - he is a lawyer and constantly looks out for Jendi. It is because of his cousin, Winston, that Jendi finds himself interviewing to be a chauffeur for a Wall Street Executive - Mr. Clark. He gets the job and making thirty-five thousand a year means he has hit the jackpot and finally arrived. This story takes place during the recent recession of 2009, so along with everyone else he loses what he has worked so hard for. Then the story takes a shift and we see how dreams do shift and can be realized anywhere.

As dreams shift we get an up close view of what this looks like in one marriage - some of it is ugly. I love the intricacies and intimacies in the way the story is told. I love seeing the inner workings of this couple's marriage as they handle all of this stress and I love the description of the Cameroon way of life in America - the holding on to traditions by finding a community of people similar to you, cooking traditional foods and inviting others to partake.

This is a tale of the American Dream intertwined with the Immigrant experience of becoming legal or getting your papers in a foreign land. This book shows how what used to be relatively easy has become quite difficult and the toll it can take.

This book is simultaneously educational and entertaining.

Book Review - I'm Judging You

I was pleasantly surprised to find I'm Judging You by Luvvie Ajayi in a local library. I follow Awesomely Luvvie's blog and knew she was writing this book, so when I saw it, I grabbed it and started reading immediately

What drew me to her blog is her humorous point of view in a way that is familiar to me. She calls herself a wacky wordsmith, but her wackiness and way with words were something I grew up with. So when I saw how she expressed herself on a variety of topics I kept reading. As an example here's a sentence from one of my favorite chapters - "I called good sense and asked if it was coming back soon and it told me not to hold my breath."

This book is a collection of essays, written in a Luvviesque style that runs the gamut from the superficial to the serious. She expounds on Relationships, Racism, Religion, Immigration & Assimilation, Body Image, Social Media and Fame and tells you how to find your "act right!"

Because that's the whole point of the book - you're being judged because you have no behavior - so get some, by reading this manual. After reading this book you'll walk away with more sense and more laughs. It's conventional wisdom or common sense (which is not so common) wrapped in humor and some strong language.

We all need to be better, so pick up this book.

Book Review - The Flower Girls

Reading a book while sitting on the beach is noted as one of the simple pleasures in life. If you're sitting on a beach in Ocho Rios reading the Flower Girls by Wendy Paine Miller, the pleasure is heightened.

I started reading this book shortly before arriving in Jamaica, and could not wait to continue it at the beach. It is the perfect beach read as the plot is unpredictable but not laborious. The main characters are twins named Daisy and Poppy, hence the title. Daisy struggles with a disease called prosopagnosia - face blindness disorder, and Poppy feels obligated to help her. The book attempts to answer "How did we get here?" and "Where do we go from here?" The story is interwoven with folklore from their Irish heritage, midwifery and the love of flowers.

This book weaves a tale around sisterhood and twinship. The book takes turns alternating each twin's voice, and so we really get to see their relationship from both vantage points.

I'd never heard of face blindness disorder until I read this book. I struggled with seeing a person yet not seeing their face through Daisy's eyes. It required great leaps of imagination on my part to really understand this character and her disability. Because it is a disability that's hard to explain, you can imagine the feelings her sister, Poppy had. Was it real? Is it my fault? Am I obligated to help her all my life?

You'll have to read this book to find the answers to these questions and see how the sisters navigate their tenuous yet caring relationship.

This was a great beach read.

Book Review - Humans of New York

Source

For 29 years, I lived in New York. I was never overwhelmed by NY, but rather I always found it intriguing and interesting. I arrived at the age of 12, and shortly after that, I was taking public transportation to go to elementary school. Riding the bus started a life long love affair with people watching and people listening (if that is a thing). There were so many dialects, juxtaposed with people from all walks of life. As I grew, all modes of public transportation became the vehicle for which I learned the city and this knowledge translated into love.

I don't know how I started reading Humans of New York on Facebook, but I do know once I started I was hooked. In its simplest form, it's a chronicling of humanity. It displays the complexity of the human spirit, and even in flawed humans, we see bits of ourselves. Because I was so enamored by the HONY FB page I requested this book  - Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton, for Christmas.

This book does not disappoint though it has a slightly different format than the FB page. There are images of people from every facet of life, every race, each gender, every age and stage, frozen at a point in time. Sometimes there are unexpected captions and stories associated with each photo and sometimes the portrait tells a story. Ultimately Humans of New York is about people and their city. Though I've lived a couple of places, I can truthfully say there is no place like New York and the portraits in this book do a superb job of capturing the essence of the city.

If you'd like an all-encompassing view of NY through the eyes of the people that live or pass through there, this book is a great place to start.