Sinners make the best Christians (I hope)

So this song sticks in my head a lot, which is awesome and sad at the same time. I mean, “Sooner or later, God’s gonna you down?” Can I get an amen? And a tissue? And a happier song, maybe? As I’ve said multiple times, yesterday I was on the Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR …

What a beautiful legacy to leave

When children’s book author Anna Dewdney died at age 50 of brain cancer, she didn’t want a funeral. She wanted mourners to read to a child, instead. I love that. It’s like a kiss blown from the grave.  

Reader, I did it.

Yesterday, promptly at 3 p.m., I dropped off my manuscript, “Searching for the American Dream in Frog Hollow,” at Wesleyan University Press. It was 264 pages, close to 600 foot notes, and a whole lotta headache to get done in time. I have been working on the damn thing for a year and a half, and …

Have you read “The Warmth of Other Suns?”

That wonderful book (full name: “The Warm of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration) by Isabel Wilkerson charted the movement of Southern African Americans to economic opportunities in the north, in Detroit, in Chicago, and yes, in Hartford (particularly to the Frog Hollow section, the subject of a book-I’m-finishing). This says that gun …

Go out and buy “Chaos & the Kingdom”

A friend of mine, Michael T. Bush, co-wrote (with Nathanael Vissia) “Chaos & the Kingdom,” a book designed for small group discussions, but I read it on my own and got quite a bit out of it. The book explores six Biblical stories — among them the flood, and Jesus’ walking on water — through …

And the No. 1 Christian book of the year is?

Rick Warren’s weight lost book, “The Daniel Plan: 40 Days to a Healthier Life.” It comes with a special Daniel t-shirt. No lie. Here’s a bit more about the Biblical character, Daniel. And thanks, Leftover, for the link.

Just a bit more on Harper Lee’s new novel

Cynical sends this,, an interesting piece by a Monroeville, La., native who knows more than most of us about Harper Lee, and the controversy around her recently published prequel, “Go Set a Watchman.” The piece includes her reaction to that book’s publication: I thought of Miss Nelle, sitting in that quiet nursing home out on …