Standing In The Whirlwind: The Riveting Story Of A Priest And The Congregations That Tormented Her Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This spiritual autobiography focuses on James's tumultuous tenure as a rector of two rural Episcopal parishes in Virginia after working at a Washington D.C. jail and teaching at Lorton Reformatory.
Initially, both of James's parishes support her charitable idea of inviting homeless African American persons from Washington D.C. to join church socials. This acceptance, however, quickly changes to a malicious plot of a few parishioners who begin to mercilessly harass her, kill her pets, damage her property, and even attempt to arrange her "accidental" death. Some members of local law enforcement even take bribes, turning their backs on her cries for help.
As a counterbalance to these horrific experiences, James finds solace and spiritual strength both in fondly recalling her childhood in Alaska and in the mystical theology of Madam Guyon, incarcerated by Louis XIV for being a female religious thinker.
NANCY C. JAMES is priest associate at St. John's Lafayette Square in Washington D.C. and a professor at American University in Washington D.C. She received her M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.


Click Here to see more reviews about: Standing In The Whirlwind: The Riveting Story Of A Priest And The Congregations That Tormented Her

Click here for more information about Standing In The Whirlwind: The Riveting Story Of A Priest And The Congregations That Tormented Her

Read More...

Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Someone recommended this book to me, but I was reluctant to buy it, since I've never been to Alaska and don't expect to get there anytime soon, and sometimes it can be frustrating to read about the wonderful places you are missing. But it was a useful nudge that this book was published by the University of Nebraska Press, a national publisher, and an excellent one too. Sometimes it is a disservice to nature writers that they become pegged as regional writers, as Nancy Lord might be for being Alaska's official writer laureate. But nature is universal, and the best nature writing rises above specific places to explore universal truths and human experiences. Nancy Lord's book does achieve this. Her writing is graceful and thoughtful, both personal and universal. We see how her enthusiasm for Alaska was born out of a childhood sense of adventure and wonder, and how she discovered the real Alaska, in all its complexities. We see Alaska through the eyes of early explorers, including John Muir and John Burroughs. Lord explores environmental issues, but having made her living in commercial fishing, she avoids the standard demonology of some environmental writing.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life

For Nancy Lord, what began as a yearning for adventure and a childhood fascination with a wild and distant land culminated in a move to Alaska in the early 1970s. Here she discovered the last place in America "big and wild enough to hold the intact landscapes and the dreams that are so absent today from almost everywhere else." In Rock, Water, Wild, Lord takes readers along as she journeys among salmon, sea lions, geese, moose, bears, glaciers, and indigenous languages and ultimately into a new understanding, beyond geographic borders, of our intricate and intimate connections to the natural world.

Get 24% OFF

Click here for more information about Rock, Water, Wild: An Alaskan Life

Read More...