Review--Here If You Need Me

Here If You Need Me: A True Story

By Kate Braestrup

When Kate Braestrup’s husband, Drew, a police officer, died suddenly in a traffic accident, he had been planning to enter the ministry. After his death, Kate decided to follow his chosen path herself, in his memory.

Planning to become a chaplain serving police officers, she instead found herself as a Unitarian Universalist minister working as a chaplain for the Maine Warden Service. Accompanying them on searches for hikers lost in the Maine forest, comforting relatives while they waited, being there when the worst possible news arrived, Kate discovered depths of strength and beauty in the world, and in herself.

This is a short but powerful book. Beautifully written, it is by turns poetically eloquent and almost brutally straightforward, all tempered by Braestrup’s sharp, sometimes irreverent sense of humor. Her work brings her face-to-face with the best and worst of humanity, and with unanswerable questions about life, death, and God.

Review--The Gift of Change--Marianne Williamson

The Gift of Change
by Marianne Williamson

Based largely on principals from A Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson’s latest book offers hope for a new and better world.

Change is good. Change is necessary. Yet we so often fight it, wanting nothing more than to cling to the familiar. Williamson speaks of change as an opportunity to become the people God intends us to be, and to claim the gifts God has reserved for us.

Too many of us, Williamson says, believe we don’t deserve to have goodness in our lives. If we’re not suffering, we’re not on a proper spiritual path. This is not only untrue, but is the polar opposite of what God intends for our lives. By releasing control, worry and doubt, we can turn everything over to God with an expectation of results that will bring blessing to not only ourselves, but to all those around us, and to the world.

This message isn’t new, but Williamson has a way of making it sound personal and, more importantly, doable. Her straightforward presentation of profound, life-changing ideas gives the reader the hope that we can, indeed, embrace the gift of change, and through that acceptance bring about a far better world.

Book Review--Violin--Anne Rice

Violin is one of those books where the author has obviously put so much effort into the language that you keep reading, hoping that at some point there will be a plot, or some strong characterization, or something else that has received as much attention as the poetic words. Then you realize you've read a hundred pages, then a hundred and fifty, and nothing has really happened.

There's really nothing to Violin. Even the poetic language falters, often overwrought, and repeating the same themes to tiresome effect. The motivations of Stefan, the ghostly owner of the titular violin, are never fully explained, and Triana, the heroine, receives similarly short shrift.

Although I've read numerous Anne Rice books that I loved, this book did little for me, and if I hadn't been on a plane reading the book straight through, I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing it.