Amanda's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 25 Apr 2025 17:25:33 -0700 60 Amanda's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern Food]]> 12630628
Shaken by the legacies of Reconstruction and the turmoil of the Jim Crow era, different races and classes came together in the kitchen, often as servants and mistresses but also as people with shared tastes and traditions. Generally focused on elite whites or poor blacks, southern foodways are often portrayed as stable and unchanging―even as an untroubled source of nostalgia. A Mess of Greens offers a different perspective, taking into account industrialization, environmental degradation, and women’s increased role in the work force, all of which caused massive economic and social changes. Engelhardt reveals a broad middle of southerners that included poor whites, farm families, and middle- and working-class African Americans, for whom the stakes of what counted as southern food were very high.

Five “momentsâ€� in the story of southern food―moonshine, biscuits versus cornbread, girlsâ€� tomato clubs, pellagra as depicted in mill literature, and cookbooks as means of communication―have been chosen to illuminate the connectedness of food, gender, and place. Incorporating community cookbooks, letters, diaries, and other archival materials, A Mess of Greens shows that choosing to serve cold biscuits instead of hot cornbread could affect a family’s reputation for being hygienic, moral, educated, and even godly.]]> 248 Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt 0820340375 Amanda 4 4.37 2011 A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern Food
author: Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/25
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves:
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This book was very informative, and I was especially delighted to see so many case studies from North Carolina.
]]> <![CDATA[White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf]]> 13122087 Ìę
White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender. As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion “good foodâ€� reflect dreams of a better society—even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies.
Ìę
In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, “dirtyâ€� bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original “superfoodâ€� and even marketed as patriotic—while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America.
Ìę
The history of America’s one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation’s decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for “unhealthyâ€� eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.]]> 257 Aaron Bobrow-Strain 0807044679 Amanda 5 3.62 2012 White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf
author: Aaron Bobrow-Strain
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
review:
This book was exactly what I was looking for to help me understand how perceptions of bread help tell the story of class, race, and power in American history.
]]> <![CDATA[Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia]]> 507113
Demonstrating the ongoing interplay between mainstream scientific medicine and folk medicine, Cavender challenges the conventional view of southern Appalachia as an exceptional region isolated from outside contact. His thorough and accessible study reveals how Appalachian folk medicine encompasses such diverse and important influences as European and Native American culture and America's changing medical and health-care environment. In doing so, he offers a compelling representation of the cultural history of the region as seen through its health practices.]]> 288 Anthony Cavender 080785493X Amanda 4 4.10 2003 Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia
author: Anthony Cavender
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
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A comprehensive look at folk medicine in Southern Appalachia.
]]> <![CDATA[Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia]]> 42129163
The work is divided into three sections. The two chapters in the first part consider how Renaissance white women and women of color were depicted as plump and feminine, separated by class, yet belonging to the same gender. The second part of the work charts the rise of modern racial ideologies that yoked feminine beauty to Protestant, Anglo-Saxon whiteness. Later chapters and the epilogue consider how Americans normalized the "scientific management" of white women's bodies for the purpose of racial uplift, a project that continued to situate black women as the embodied Other.

The author does not address fat from the angle of health or previous attitudes white Europeans held towards corpulence.]]> 296 Sabrina Strings 1479886750 Amanda 4 4.25 2019 Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia
author: Sabrina Strings
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:
An important and necessary read for anyone seeking to understand diet culture and fat phobia.
]]> <![CDATA[A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation: Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community]]> 200371848
Weaving together church history, theology, and devotional practice, Sosler offers a holistic introduction to spiritual formation, encompassing biblical truth, the pursuit of the good life, the contemplation of God, and communal belonging. Each section includes a biblical and historical precedent for the tradition and highlights an exemplar from church Augustine on truth, Dorothy Day on goodness, Teresa of Ávila on beauty, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer on church commitment and community.

This accessible book provides avenues for a broader and deeper spirituality that can shape the complexity of our souls. It is ideal for undergraduate students and as a formation primer for church adult education classes, classical schools, and homeschooling communities. Foreword by Russell D. Moore.]]> 224 Alex Sosler 1540966615 Amanda 0 to-read 4.22 A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation: Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community
author: Alex Sosler
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> Belonging: A Culture of Place 207369 These are some of the questions of place and belonging that renowned cultural critic bell hooks examines in her new book, Belonging: A Culture of Place. Traversing past and present, Belonging charts a cyclical journey in which hooks moves from place to place, from country to city and back again, only to end where she began--her old Kentucky home.

hooks has written provocatively about race, gender, and class; and in this book she turns her attention to focus on issues of land and land ownership. Reflecting on the fact that 90% of all black people lived in the agrarian South before mass migration to northern cities in the early 1900s, she writes about black farmers, about black folks who have been committed both in the past and in the present to local food production, to being organic, and to finding solace in nature. Naturally, it would be impossible to contemplate these issues without thinking about the politics of race and class. Reflecting on the racism that continues to find expression in the world of real estate, she writes about segregation in housing and economic racialized zoning. In these critical essays, hooks finds surprising connections that link the environment and sustainability to the politics of race and class that reach far beyond Kentucky.

With characteristic insight and honesty, Belonging offers a remarkable vision of a world where all people--wherever they may call home--can live fully and well, where everyone can belong.

]]> 240 bell hooks 041596816X Amanda 4 4.22 2004 Belonging: A Culture of Place
author: bell hooks
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
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review:
A beautiful articulation of home, place, and identity. Clear eyed, avoiding nostalgia, honest, this book is a must for anyone seeking to understand the rural south and the experience of Black folks who call Kentucky home.
]]> <![CDATA[Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice]]> 209614380
Pastor David Swanson shows how we have failed our God-given duty as caretakers of creation and how that failure has resulted in the exploitation of people and the extraction of natural resources. Racial and ecological injustice share the same root cause-greed-that turns people and the natural world into commodities that are only valued for their utility. Yet Christians have the capacity to live in a way that nurtures racial and environmental justice simultaneously, honoring people and places in dynamic relationship with our Creator God. Swanson shows how we can become communities of caretakers, the way to restore our relationship with creation and each other, and the holistic justice that can result.]]> 208 David W. Swanson 1514007746 Amanda 5 4.39 Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice
author: David W. Swanson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.39
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
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One of the best books I've read this year. Swanson takes journalistic and academic research and brings the issue down to a practical level. Beautifully written, challenging, and inspirational.
]]> <![CDATA[The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation]]> 26245830 From Christian libertarian farmer Joel Salatin, a clarion call to readers to honor the animals and the land, and produce food based on spiritual principles.
What on earth is THE MARVELOUS PIGNESS OF PIGS? It's an inspiring call to action for people of faith . . . a heartfelt plea to heed the Bible's guidance . . . .
It's an important and thought-provoking explanation of how by simply appreciating the marvelous pigness of pigs, we are celebrating the Glory of God.
As a man of deep faith and student of the Bible, and as a respected and successful ecological family farmer, Joel Salatin knows that God created heaven and earth and meant for all living organisms to be true to their nature and their endowed holy purpose. He intended for us to respect and care for His gift of creation, not to ravage and mistreat it for our own pleasure or wealth.
The example that inspires the book's title explains what Salatin means: when huge corporate farms confine pigs in cramped and dark pens, inject them with antibiotics and feed them herbicide-saturated food simply to increase profits, they are not respecting them as a creation of God or allowing them to express even their most rudimentary uniqueness - that special role that is part of His design. Every living organism has a God-given uniqueness to its life that must be honored and respected, and too often that is not happening today.
Salatin shows us the long overlooked ethics and instructions in the Bible for how to eat, how to shop, how to think about how we farm and feed the world. Through scripture and Biblical stories, he shows us why it's more vital than ever to look to the good book rather than corporate America when feeding the country and your family.
Salatin makes a compelling case for Christian stewardship of the earth and how it relates to every action we take regarding our food. He also opens our eyes to a common misconception many Christians may have about environmentalism: it's not a bad thing, and definitely not just the province of secular liberals; it's really a very good thing, part of heeding God's Word.
With warmth and with humor, but with no less piercing criticism of the industrial food complex, Salatin brings readers on a fascinating journey of farming, food and faith. Readers will not say grace over their plates the same way ever again.]]> 288 Joel Salatin 1455536970 Amanda 3 4.32 2016 The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God's Creation
author: Joel Salatin
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:
What I appreciated about this book is how much ground Salatin covers in such a short period of time, deftly outlining the various problems with the industrialized food complex. I also appreciate that he is writing as a Christian, motivated by Biblical mandates. He said himself that he is a bit of a radical, and I would say that my qualms with the book had more to do with the extremes of his view, along with some of what felt like "proof texting." I would have appreciated a recognition that for many who live in food desserts, access to this way of life is nearly impossible.
]]> <![CDATA[The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays]]> 146151 The Art of the Commonplace gathers twenty essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. Grouped around five themes―an agrarian critique of culture, agrarian fundamentals, agrarian economics, agrarian religion, and geobiography―these essays promote a clearly defined and compelling vision important to all people dissatisfied with the stress, anxiety, disease, and destructiveness of contemporary American culture. Why is agriculture becoming culturally irrelevant, and at what cost? What are the forces of social disintegration and how might they be reversed? How might men and women live together in ways that benefit both? And, how does the corporate takeover of social institutions and economic practices contribute to the destruction of human and natural environments? Through his staunch support of local economies, his defense of farming communities, and his call for family integrity, Berry emerges as the champion of responsibilities and priorities that serve the health, vitality and happiness of the whole community of creation.]]> 352 Wendell Berry 1593760078 Amanda 5 4.37 2002 The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
author: Wendell Berry
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/05
date added: 2025/02/06
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review:
An exquisite selection of Berry's finest essays. I've underlined countless passages. Deeply grateful for this book...it is one I can honestly say changed me.
]]> <![CDATA[Waiting on the Word: A Poem a Day for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany]]> 26782076 176 Malcolm Guite 1848258003 Amanda 4 currently-reading 4.57 2015 Waiting on the Word: A Poem a Day for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
author: Malcolm Guite
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:
A beautiful way to experience the seasons of Advent and Christmastide.
]]> <![CDATA[The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business]]> 18211204
The biggest takeover in American business that you’ve n ever heard of

The American supermarket seems to represent the best in abundance, freedom, choice. But that turns out to be an illusion. The rotisserie chicken, the pepperoni, the cordon bleu, the frozen pot pie, and the bacon virtually all come from four companies.

In The Meat Racket , investigative reporter Christopher Leonard delivers the first-ever account of how a handful of companies have seized the nation’s meat supply. He shows how they built a system that puts farmers on the edge of bankruptcy, charges high prices to consumers, and returns the industry to the shape it had in the 1900s before the meat monopolists were broken up. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the greatest capitalist country in the world has an oligarchy controlling much of the food we eat and a high-tech sharecropping system to make that possible.

Forty years ago, more than thirty-six companies produced half of all the chicken Americans ate. Now there are only three that make that amount, and they control every aspect of the process, from the egg to the chicken to the chicken nugget. These companies are even able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. And tragically, big business and politics have derailed efforts to change the system.

We know that it takes big companies to bring meat to the American table. What The Meat Racket shows is that this industrial system is rigged against all of us. In that sense, Leonard has exposed our heartland’s biggest scandal.]]> 384 Christopher Leonard 1451645813 Amanda 4 4.12 2014 The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America's Food Business
author: Christopher Leonard
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
This wasn't exactly the book I was looking for, but I still learned a lot about the industrial food complex in America
]]> Reading Genesis 127282468
For generations, the book of Genesis has been treated by scholars as a collection of documents, by various hands, expressing different factional interests, with borrowings from other ancient literatures that mark the text as derivative. In other words, academic interpretation of Genesis has centered on the question of its basic coherency, just as fundamentalist interpretation has centered on the question of the appropriateness of reading it as literally true.

Both of these approaches preclude an appreciation of its greatness as literature, its rich articulation and exploration of themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture. Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis , which includes the original text, is a powerful consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity. This magisterial book radiates gratitude for the constancy and benevolence of God’s abiding faith in Creation.]]> 344 Marilynne Robinson 0374299404 Amanda 5 4.03 2024 Reading Genesis
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves:
review:
I really loved this book - if you go into expecting it to flow like an academic read, you may be disappointed. But I read it as I read Robinson's prose, which is deeply observant, reflective, and incorporates imagery and imagination to offer a greater understanding of complex issues. I'll never read the book of Genesis the same.
]]> <![CDATA[Naming the Animals: An Invitation to Creativity]]> 57280574
“Naming the Animals so gracefully guides artists into a deeper understanding of Kingdom creativity. The divine invitation to co-labor with the Creator pulls readers into the mystery of exponential possibilities and Spirit-breathed purpose
â€�
—Joy ike singer/songwriter

“Few people are willing to plumb the depths at the intersection of faith and art like Stephen Roach. He reminds me that the pursuit of creativity is also fellowship with the Divine, and his work has been a constant source of inspiration on my creative journey.â€�
—John Mark McMillan singer/songwriter

“
everything one could ask for in a representation of what is good, true, and beautiful. It is a rare offering served with common kindness, accessible language, evocative visual art, and the abiding presence of the unseen God. This is a book I will be re-reading again and again.â€�
—Lancia E. Smith The Cultivating Project]]> 96 Stephen Roach 1941106161 Amanda 5 4.61 Naming the Animals: An Invitation to Creativity
author: Stephen Roach
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.61
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
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A beautiful concise reflection on Christianity and creativity!
]]> <![CDATA[Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life]]> 74896040 Discover what it means to be blessed and challenge the false beliefs many in the church hold about “the good lifeâ€� and what it means to walk in communion with God.

American Christians have developed a long list of expectations about what the life with God willÌęfeelÌęlike.Ìę Many Christians rightly deny the prosperity gospel—the idea that God wants you to be healthy and wealthyâ€� but instead embrace its more subtle spin-off, the emotional prosperity gospel, or the belief that happiness and spiritual euphoria will inevitably follow if you believe all the right things and make all the right choices. In this view, frustration is deemed unholy, fear is seen as a failure of faith, and sadness is a sign of God’s disfavor.Ìę

InÌęHoly Unhappiness, Amanda Held Opelt, author ofÌęA Hole in the World, grapples with her own experience of disillusionment when life with God didn’t always feel the way she expected it to feel. ÌęShe examines some of the historic, religious, and cultural influences that led to the idolization of positive feelings and the marginalization of negative feelings.Ìę Unpacking nine elements of life that have been tainted by the message of the emotional Prosperity Gospel â€� including work, marriage, parenting, calling, community, and church - she points to a new path forward, one that reimagines what the “blessedâ€� life can be like if we release some of our expectations and seek God in places we never thought to look.

This is a book that asks “what good is God?â€� when he doesn’t always make sorrow go away or soothe every fear.Ìę It is a book that explores our aversion to sadness and counts the costs of our unrelenting commitment to optimism. This is a book that insists there is holiness to be found even in our unhappiness.
Ìę]]> 244 Amanda Held Opelt Amanda 0 4.10 Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life
author: Amanda Held Opelt
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/04
date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (California Studies in Food and Culture #12)]]> 523002
As she traces the underpinning of modern-day beauty and slimness ideals―as well as the bigotry against people who are overweight―Griffith links seemingly disparate groups in American history including seventeenth-century New England Puritans, Progressive Era New Thought adherents, and late-twentieth-century evangelical diet preachers.]]> 323 R. Marie Griffith 0520242408 Amanda 4 3.96 2004 Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (California Studies in Food and Culture #12)
author: R. Marie Griffith
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:
This book was exactly what I needed for my research project - an insightful overview of the spiritual component of diet culture through the centuries.
]]> <![CDATA[With Christ in the School of Prayer (Christian Classics)]]> 273342 240 Andrew Murray 1593107099 Amanda 4 4.37 1885 With Christ in the School of Prayer (Christian Classics)
author: Andrew Murray
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1885
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves:
review:
A classic text on prayer that all Christians should have exposure to
]]> <![CDATA[The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls]]> 199929002 A compelling call to embrace the countercultural values of Jesus, which lead to a life of love, peace, and fulfillment, from the bestselling author of The Deeply Formed Life, winner of the Christianity Today Book Award.

“In The Narrow Path, Rich unpacks what living our best life truly looks like. This book is a much-needed heart checkup for every Jesus follower.”—Christine Caine, founder of A21 and Propel Women

We live in a culture that wants it all. More is seen as better—whether it’s more money, social media fame, choices, or power. For those chasing this way of life, “narrowâ€� seems negative. Who wants to narrow their options . . . or be seen as narrow-minded?

Which is why the most well-known talk in the history of the world—the Sermon on the Mount—is also the most paradoxical one. In it, Jesus holds up the narrow path as the most spacious . . . and the broader path as the more confining one.

Rich Villodas, bestselling author of The Deeply Formed Life, explores what today’s broad and narrow paths look like so you can discern which one you’re on. The answer may surprise you—and will help you pursue the way of Jesus more deeply when it comes to loving God and others, prayer, sexual desire, conflict, money, anxiety, and more.

The Narrow Path reintroduces the counterintuitive wonder of Jesus’s timeless wisdom for this age, one fraught with anxiety, depression, polarizing politics, and online vitriol. The path of Jesus is most certainly narrow, but it is the only one filled with the ever-expanding life of God . . . and it is available now for all who want it!]]> 225 Rich Villodas 0593444280 Amanda 5 4.42 The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls
author: Rich Villodas
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves:
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I really loved this book - the first 3 chapters especially were some of the best commentary I've read on the Sermon on the Mount. I loved the practical nature of the entire book. Villodas has a way of stating things that you've probably heard before but in a way that is so concise and precise that it hits home in a whole new way.
]]> <![CDATA[Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930 (Twentieth-Century America Series)]]> 553736 Book by Eller, Ronald D. 298 Ronald D. Eller 0870493418 Amanda 4 4.12 1982 Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930 (Twentieth-Century America Series)
author: Ronald D. Eller
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:
Eye opening look at the industrialization of Appalachia. This book helped explain the context for the history of my own family, their migration from an Appalachian farm to the coal mines and back again. A bit granular in certain chapters, but I really appreciated the cultural analysis.
]]> The Birds of Opulence 26702833 Blackberries, Blackberries and Water Street comes an astonishing new novel. A lyrical exploration of love and loss, The Birds of Opulence centers on several generations of women in a bucolic southern black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness. The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona. The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality. As the members of the youngest generation watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away, they live with the fear of going mad themselves and must fight to survive. Crystal Wilkinson offers up Opulence and its people in lush, poetic detail. It is a world of magic, conjuring, signs, and spells, but also of harsh realities that only love-and love that's handed down-can conquer. At once tragic and hopeful, this captivating novel is a story about another time, rendered for our own. The first title featured in Wiley Cash's Book Club!]]> 216 Crystal Wilkinson 0813166918 Amanda 4 4.09 2016 The Birds of Opulence
author: Crystal Wilkinson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves:
review:
I loved the way Wilkinson wove imagery about food and the land into her narrative about women's communal ties and women's bodies. This is a gentle read despite the difficulty of the subject matter.
]]> <![CDATA[Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People]]> 62564337 imagined she would have been interested in cooking?



Appalachia on the Table argues, in part, that since the conception of Appalachia as a distinctly different region from the rest of the South and the United States, the foods associated with the region and its people have often been used to socially categorize and stigmatize mountain people. Rather than investigate the actual foods consumed in Appalachia, Locklear instead focuses on the representations of foods consumed, implied moral judgments about those foods, and how those judgments shape reader perceptions of those depicted. The question at the core of Locklear's analysis asks, How did the dominant culinary narrative of the region come into existence and what consequences has that narrative had for people in the mountains?]]> 242 Erica Abrams Locklear 0820363405 Amanda 5 4.00 Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People
author: Erica Abrams Locklear
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:
This has been one of my favorite books of the year. The topic is niche and the writing a bit academic, but it is engaging and flows well. Highly recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves]]> 56216937 "God's eternal plan for us involves our body. We can't write off our physical life as spiritually irrelevant." --Sam Allberry

There's a danger in focusing too much on the body. There's also a danger in not valuing it enough. In fact, the Bible has lots to say about the body. With the coming of Jesus, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"--flesh that was pierced and crushed for the sins of the world.

In What God Has to Say about Our Bodies, Sam Allberry explains that all of us are fearfully and wonderfully made, and should regard our physicality as a gift. He offers biblical guidance for living, including understanding gender, sexuality, and identity; dealing with aging, illness, and death; and considering the physical future hope that we have in Christ.

In this powerfully written book, you'll gain a new understanding for the immeasurable value of our bodies and God's ultimate plan to redeem them.]]> 208 Sam Allberry 1433570157 Amanda 4 4.25 2021 What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves
author: Sam Allberry
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
This book was comprehensive and absorbable. Not quite the detail I was looking for regarding some key texts and the philosophical underpinnings of our Western misconceptions about the body, but overall a good introduction to the topic.
]]> <![CDATA[Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy]]> 41815897 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis has defined Appalachia for much of the nation. What about Hillbilly Elegy accounts for this explosion of interest during this period of political turmoil? Why have its ideas raised so much controversy? And how can debates about the book catalyze new, more inclusive political agendas for the region’s future?

Appalachian Reckoning is a retort, at turns rigorous, critical, angry, and hopeful, to the long shadow Hillbilly Elegy has cast over the region and its imagining. But it also moves beyond Hillbilly Elegy to allow Appalachians from varied backgrounds to tell their own diverse and complex stories through an imaginative blend of scholarship, prose, poetry, and photography. The essays and creative work collected in Appalachian Reckoning provide a deeply personal portrait of a place that is at once culturally rich and economically distressed, unique and typically American. Complicating simplistic visions that associate the region almost exclusively with death and decay, Appalachian Reckoning makes clear Appalachia’s intellectual vitality, spiritual richness, and progressive possibilities.]]> 432 Anthony Harkins Amanda 5 3.85 2019 Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy
author: Anthony Harkins
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:
A brilliant response to Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. I loved the mix of essay, poetry, and photography.
]]> <![CDATA[Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis]]> 27161156 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062300546.

Hillbilly Elegy recounts J.D. Vance's powerful origin story...

From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate now serving as a U.S. Senator from Ohio and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the 2024 election, an incisive account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America's white working class.

Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

The Vance family story begins hopefully in postwar America. J. D.'s grandparents were "dirt poor and in love," and moved north from Kentucky's Appalachia region to Ohio in the hopes of escaping the dreadful poverty around them. They raised a middle-class family, and eventually one of their grandchildren would graduate from Yale Law School, a conventional marker of success in achieving generational upward mobility. But as the family saga of Hillbilly Elegy plays out, we learn that J.D.'s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and, most of all, his mother struggled profoundly with the demands of their new middle-class life, never fully escaping the legacy of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and trauma so characteristic of their part of America. With piercing honesty, Vance shows how he himself still carries around the demons of his chaotic family history.

A deeply moving memoir, with its share of humor and vividly colorful figures, Hillbilly Elegy is the story of how upward mobility really feels. And it is an urgent and troubling meditation on the loss of the American dream for a large segment of this country.]]> 264 J.D. Vance Amanda 2 3.81 2016 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
author: J.D. Vance
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:
This was a second read through for me. I wish I could give 4 stars for storytelling ability and one or two stars for overall takeaways. Unfortunately, this book relies on old and inaccurate stereotypes about Appalachian people. The book also seemingly contradicts itself, at times embracing the meritocracy and at other times blaming the system for the problems he faced.
]]> <![CDATA[Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview: A Decolonized Approach to Christian Doctrine (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology)]]> 59530103 160 Randy Woodley 154096471X Amanda 3 4.27 Indigenous Theology and the Western Worldview: A Decolonized Approach to Christian Doctrine (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology)
author: Randy Woodley
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/27
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves:
review:
There were a few key takeaways from this book that I really appreciated and have helped me immensely. I also felt that the book was quite practical. The varying formats throughout (sometimes Q&A, some transcripts of lectures, overall took away from the cohesion of the book for me, but that is totally a preference issue for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier]]> 53137966 The Instant New York Times Besteller

National Bestseller

"[The] authors� finest work to date." � Wall Street Journal

The explosive true saga of the legendary figure Daniel Boone and the bloody struggle for America's frontier by two bestselling authors at the height of their writing power--Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.

It is the mid-eighteenth century, and in the 13 colonies founded by Great Britain, anxious colonists desperate to conquer and settle North America’s “First Frontierâ€� beyond the Appalachian Mountains commence a series of bloody battles. These violent conflicts are waged against the Native American tribes whose lands they covet, the French, and finally against the mother country itself in an American Revolution destined to reverberate around the world.

This is the setting of Blood and Treasure, and the guide to this epic narrative is America’s first and arguably greatest pathfinder, Daniel Boone—not the coonskin cap-wearing caricature of popular culture but the flesh-and-blood frontiersman and Revolutionary War hero whose explorations into the forested frontier beyond the great mountains would become the stuff of legend. Now, thanks to painstaking research by two award-winning authors, the story of the brutal birth of the United States is told through the eyes of both the ordinary and larger-than-life men and women, white and red, who witnessed it.

This fast-paced and fiery narrative, fueled by contemporary diaries and journals, newspaper reports, and eyewitness accounts, is a stirring chronicle of the conflict over America’s “First Frontierâ€� that places the reader at the center of this remarkable epoch and its gripping tales of courage and sacrifice.]]> 383 Bob Drury 1250247136 Amanda 4 3.97 2021 Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier
author: Bob Drury
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:
This book was a real page turner - I just couldn't put it down. I was glad to learn so much of the history of the land struggles between indigenous tribes and settlers and to read a sober/realistic portrayal of Daniel Boone's life. I believe the authors honored the dignity of the tribal cultures, but I'd love to hear a native historian's perspective on that.
]]> <![CDATA[A Short History of Watauga County]]> 15029007 238 Michael C. Hardy 1933251476 Amanda 3 4.00 2006 A Short History of Watauga County
author: Michael C. Hardy
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves:
review:
This was a very readable, accessible history of Watauga County, definitely a page turner. As a resident of Watauga County, I felt that some aspects of county life were left out such as more details on the Junaluska community.
]]> <![CDATA[Shameful Bodies: Religion and the Culture of Physical Improvement]]> 30038630
Shameful Religion and the Culture of Physical Improvement explores these questions by examining how traditional religious narratives and modern philosophical assumptions come together in the construction and pursuit of a better body in contemporary western societies. Drawing on examples from popular culture such as self-help books, magazines, and advertisements, Michelle Mary Lelwica shows how these narratives and assumptions encourage us to go to war against our bodies-to fight fat, triumph over disability, conquer chronic pain and illness, and defy aging. Through an ethic of conquest and conformity, the culture of physical improvement trains us not only to believe that all bodily processes are under our control, but to feel ashamed about those parts of our flesh that refuse to comply with the cultural ideal. Lelwica argues that such shame is not a natural response to being fat, physically impaired, chronically sick, or old. Rather, body shame is a religiously and culturally conditioned reaction to a commercially-fabricated fantasy of physical perfection.

While Shameful Bodies critiques the religious and cultural norms and narratives that perpetuate external and internalized judgment and aggression toward “shamefulâ€� bodies, it also engages the resources of religions, especially feminist theologies and Buddhist thought/practice, to construct a more affirming approach to health and healing-an approach that affirms the diversity, fragility, interdependence, and impermanence of embodied life.]]> 288 Michelle Mary Lelwica 1472594932 Amanda 4 3.76 Shameful Bodies: Religion and the Culture of Physical Improvement
author: Michelle Mary Lelwica
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves:
review:
Overall, a great read. I found the analysis of the history of the theology of the body to be a bit reductive, but for the most part, I love how she explored the impact of capitalism, consumerism, and religion on our understanding of the body.
]]> <![CDATA[Hunting: A Cultural History (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)]]> 59720823 The history of hunting, from Stone Age hunter-gatherers to today's sport hunters.

Hunting has a long history, beginning with our hominid ancestors. The invention of the spear allowed early humans to graduate from scavenging to actual hunting. The famous cave paintings at Lascaux show a meticulous knowledge of animal behavior and anatomy that only a hunter would have. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series traces the evolution of hunting, from Stone Age hunting and gathering to today's regulated sport hunting.

Humans have been hunting since we became human--but did hunting make us human? The authors consider and question the "hunting hypothesis of human origins," noting that according to this theory, "hunting" meant hunting by men. They explore hunting in the Stone Age and how, beginning some ten thousand years ago, the spread of agriculture led to the emergence of empires and attempts by elites to monopolize hunting. They examine the democratization of hunting in the American colonies and how hunters decimated, but then, in the twentieth century, rallied to save game animals from extinction. They describe how some European and postcolonial societies have managed wildlife and hunting, consider the difficulties of living with abundant wildlife--even as many nongame species are disappearing--and trace the implications of the increasing participation of women in hunting for the future of hunting.]]> 248 Jan E. Dizard 026254329X Amanda 4 3.62 Hunting: A Cultural History (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)
author: Jan E. Dizard
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.62
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves:
review:
Considering this is a topic I'm not particularly interested in, this book kept me engaged in every chapter. A great overview of the history and culture of hunting.
]]> <![CDATA[Walking Through Deconstruction: How to Be a Companion in a Crisis of Faith]]> 211718849 However you define it, deconstruction is impossible to deny.

"I'm deconstructing my faith." As any pastor can tell you, hearing these words is simply a regular feature of ministry these days. How we respond to those who are deconstructing will reveal the kind of church—and the kinds of Christians—we really are.

Ian Harber knows the fear and grief of deconstruction firsthand. In Walking Through Deconstruction, he tells the story of his own process of deconstruction and reconstruction over more than ten years and explores what is actually happening, both culturally and spiritually, when someone deconstructs their faith.

Deconstruction doesn't happen in a vacuum; it is catalyzed by a comfortable society, cultural Christianity, compromised churches, and the compounding anxieties of life. But the Christian faith has better to offer. Harber lays out a vision for the kind of faith environment that can foster genuine reconstruction through healthy relationships, robust doctrine, healthy institutions, a better theology of suffering, and the peace of God.

Walking Through Deconstruction

� tells the author's real life story of deconstruction and reconstruction
� provides a clear definition of deconstruction
� acknowledges the urgency of deconstruction while prioritizing patience and trust over fear
� describes common contributing factors and phases of deconstruction, and
� casts a vision for healthy communities that help people hold onto faith.

We desperately need healthy models of ministry to those who are deconstructing. Whether you're a pastor, parent, or friend of someone on this path, Walking Through Deconstruction offers hope for a renewed faith—stronger than it was before.]]> 208 Ian Harber 1514008564 Amanda 5 4.44 Walking Through Deconstruction: How to Be a Companion in a Crisis of Faith
author: Ian Harber
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:
I had the privilege of getting an early look at this book. This book was a great overview of the landscape we are traversing as a modern American Church. Harber's assessments were wise, accessible, compassionate, and hopeful. I left feeling better equipped to love and support people who are deconstructing and was also reminded of all the reasons I decided to stay with Church and continue following Jesus. I'll be recommending this book for years to come to pastors and lay leaders who want to shepherd the next generation of believers.
]]> <![CDATA[Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants]]> 17465709 Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.]]> 408 Robin Wall Kimmerer 1571313354 Amanda 5 4.52 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/19
shelves:
review:
Lived up to the hype. Beautifully written, stories well crafted, and lots of takeaways on how to interact with nature in more healthy ways.
]]> <![CDATA[The Body: A Guide for Occupants]]> 43582376 A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe.

Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.

A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this book will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again.]]> 450 Bill Bryson 0385539304 Amanda 5 4.30 2019 The Body: A Guide for Occupants
author: Bill Bryson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:
Such an easy read that includes so much helpful information. Bryson is always a delight.
]]> Housekeeping 11741 Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck, and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience.]]> 219 Marilynne Robinson 0312424094 Amanda 5 3.82 1980 Housekeeping
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves:
review:
Some of the most incredible prose I've ever read. A wonderful exploration of family, generational trauma, mental illness, and place.
]]> <![CDATA[The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith (Overtures to Biblical Theology)]]> 271919 225 Walter Brueggemann 0800634624 Amanda 4 4.14 1977 The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith (Overtures to Biblical Theology)
author: Walter Brueggemann
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/23
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves:
review:
As with much of Brueggemann's writing, there were portions of this book that were difficult to absorb. But the number of takeaways I had from this book is enormous, particularly his thoughts on the dispossession of land, and land as inheritance rather than entitlement.
]]> <![CDATA[Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870-1920]]> 839158
Between 1870 and 1900, it became clear that the existence of the "strange land and peculiar people" of the southern mountains challenged dominant notions about the basic homogeneity of the American people and the progress of the United States toward achiving a uniform national civilization. Some people attempted to explain Appalachian otherness as normal and natural -- no exception to the rule of progress. Others attempted the practical integration of Appalachia into America through philanthropic work. In the twentieth century, however, still other people began questioning their assumptions about the characteristics of American civilization itself, ultimately defining Appalachia as a region in a nation of regions and the mountaineers as a people in a nation of peoples.

In his skillful examination of the "invention" of the idea of Appalachia and its impact on American thought and action during the early twentieth century, Mr. Shapiro analyzes the the "discovery" of Appalachia as a field for fiction by the local-color writers and as a field for benevolent work by the home missionaries of the northern Protestant churches; the emergence of the "problem" of Appalachia and attempts to solve it through explanation and social action; the articulation of a regionalist definition of Appalachia and the establishment of instituions that reinforced that definition; the impact of that regionalistic definition of Appalachia on the conduct of systematic benevolence, expecially in the context of the debate over child-labor restriction and the transformation of philanthropy into community work; and the attempt to discover the bases for an indigenous mountain culture in handicrafts, folksong, and folkdance.]]> 376 Henry D. Shapiro 0807841587 Amanda 3 3.63 1978 Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870-1920
author: Henry D. Shapiro
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/10
date added: 2024/04/26
shelves:
review:
This book was a bit dense and difficult to absorb at times, but I learned so about the history of hillbilly stereotypes.
]]> <![CDATA[Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church]]> 2319645 332 N.T. Wright 0061551821 Amanda 5 4.30 2007 Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
author: N.T. Wright
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves:
review:
This one is a re-read for me, but the perfect companion for the Easter season.
]]> <![CDATA[The Matter of Little Losses: Finding Grace to Grieve the Big (and Small) Things]]> 182094853
In this compassionate and deeply personal book, Rachel Marie Kang invites you to see and be seen in the midst of your sorrow, your suffering--your story. Through prose and poetry that gives voice to all the things we lose along the way, this gracious book will help you

· ponder your loss without judgment
· remember what was and make meaning of your memories
· reflect on what is yet to be as you heal with hope

You don't have to bury your pain, and you don't have to pretend you're over it just because the world thinks you should be. Let Rachel walk hand in hand with you, giving space for sorrow and welcoming you as you find your way along the path to healing.]]> 256 Rachel Marie Kang 0800740874 Amanda 5 4.21 The Matter of Little Losses: Finding Grace to Grieve the Big (and Small) Things
author: Rachel Marie Kang
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves:
review:
Rachel is a poet and wise shepherd. This book serves as a great companion or devotion reading for those who are suffering loss.
]]> <![CDATA[Wonderfully Made: A Protestant Theology of the Body]]> 55185388 When it comes to thinking about our bodies, confusion reigns. In our secular age, there has been a loss of the body's goodness, purpose, and end. Many people, driven by shame and idolatry, abuse their body through self-harm or self-improvement. How can we renew our understanding and see our bodies the way God does?
In Wonderfully Made , John Kleinig forms a properly biblical theology of our bodies. Through his keen sensitivity to Scripture's witness, Kleinig explains why bodies matter. While sin has corrupted our bodies and how we think of them, God's creation is still good. Thus, our bodies are good gifts. The Son took on a body to redeem our bodies. Kleinig addresses issues like shame, chastity, desire, gender dysphoria, and more, by integrating them into the biblical vision of creation.
Readers of Wonderfully Made will not only be equipped to engage in current issues; they will gain a robust theology of the body and better appreciation of God's very good creation.]]> 235 John W. Kleinig 1683594673 Amanda 4 4.21 Wonderfully Made: A Protestant Theology of the Body
author: John W. Kleinig
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/15
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves:
review:
I appreciated how comprehensive and approachable this book was. The interior design was also lovely. I'm not sure I resonated with every point he made, but I found it very informative and helpful.
]]> <![CDATA[You Are a Tree: And Other Metaphors to Nourish Life, Thought, and Prayer―A Contemplative Meditation on Language in Scripture and Poetry to Find Meaning and Understanding in Our Words]]> 182093506
· live with more joy, gratitude, and God-given purpose
· create healthier expectations of ourselves and others
· embrace the beauty of being a human crafted by God
· infuse the world with new meaning

When we grow more attentive to the words we use, our experiences of the world will become more rich and meaningful. We will see God, ourselves, our relationships, and the world in a new light and with a tapestry of scriptural imagery, full of hope, promise, and beauty.]]> 208 Joy Marie Clarkson 0764238256 Amanda 5 4.12 You Are a Tree: And Other Metaphors to Nourish Life, Thought, and Prayer―A Contemplative Meditation on Language in Scripture and Poetry to Find Meaning and Understanding in Our Words
author: Joy Marie Clarkson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:
Beautifully written with so many wise reflections. Clarkson is one of my favorite current writers!
]]> <![CDATA[Original Blessing: Putting Sin in Its Rightful Place]]> 30508142 Original Blessing, Shroyer shows not only how we got it wrong, but how we can put sin back in its rightful place: in a broader context of redemption and the blessing of humanity's creation in the image of God.]]> 220 Danielle Shroyer 1451496761 Amanda 4 4.26 Original Blessing: Putting Sin in Its Rightful Place
author: Danielle Shroyer
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/14
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:
Approachable and fresh take on an old issue.
]]> <![CDATA[Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks]]> 123286433
People are always surprised that Black people reside in the hills of Appalachia. Those not surprised that we were there, are surprised that we stayed.

Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, sheÌęfelt her late grandmother’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in herÌękitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These areÌęher kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life,Ìęa legacy, and a cuisine.

An expert cook, Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full ofÌęflavor—delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Chicken and Dumplings, GrannyÌęChristine’s Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits , brought to vivid life through stunningÌęphotography. Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts honors the mothers who came before,Ìęthe land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.

As the keeper of her family’s stories and treasured dishes,ÌęWilkinson shares her inheritance in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts. She found their stories in her apron pockets, floating inside the steam of hot mustard greens and tucked into the sweet scent of clove and cinnamon in her kitchen. Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts weaves those stories together with recipes, family photos, and a lyrical imagination to present a culinary portrait of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century.]]> 256 Crystal Wilkinson 0593236513 Amanda 5 4.36 2024 Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks
author: Crystal Wilkinson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/28
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
review:
One of the best books I've read in awhile - the beautiful combination of evocative writing, family photographs, and tasty recipes made the book simply a joy to work through.
]]> <![CDATA[The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls]]> 150749
"Fascinating ... riveting ... Women and girls should read this fine book together."Ìęâ€� The New York Times Book Review

A hundred years ago, women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their daughters to do the same. The ideal of the day, however, was inner a focus on good deeds and a pure heart. Today American women have more social choices and personal freedom than ever before. But fifty-three percent of our girls are dissatisfied with their bodies by the age of thirteen, and many begin a pattern of weight obsession and dieting as early as eight or nine. Why?

In The Body Project , historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg answers this question, drawing on diary excerpts and media images from 1830 to the present. Tracing girls' attitudes toward topics ranging from breast size and menstruation to hair, clothing, and cosmetics, she exposes the shift from the Victorian concern with character to our modern focus on outward appearance—in particular, the desire to be model-thin and sexy. Compassionate, insightful, and gracefully written, The Body Project explores the gains and losses adolescent girls have inherited since they shed the corset and the ideal of virginity for a new world of sexual freedom and consumerism—a world in which the body is their primary project.]]> 214 Joan Jacobs Brumberg 0679735291 Amanda 3 3.83 1997 The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls
author: Joan Jacobs Brumberg
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves:
review:
I found the journal entries to be fascinating and appreciated how clearly the book was organized. I would have appreciated a bit more of her own personal analysis and drawing in of other cultural factors.
]]> Toward a Theology of the Body 5368793 208 Mary Timothy Prokes 0802843395 Amanda 2 3.42 1996 Toward a Theology of the Body
author: Mary Timothy Prokes
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1996
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves:
review:
This book offered some helpful overviews of the theology of the body, but her writing style was not as approachable as I would have preferred
]]> <![CDATA[Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies and Fat]]> 1286314
Discussions are as follows: dieting and history; ritual and romance of dieting; men, women and fat; thin body and the Jacksonians; buoyant body (obese) in Victorian America; the balanced body at century's turn; regulated body (fasting, slow chewing of foods, calorie counting, and thyroid pills); measured body (calorie controlled) ; physiological effects of obesity and body types; dieting and marketing profits; overweight children and dieting; and a weightless body.]]> 448 Hillel Schwartz 0029292506 Amanda 2 3.40 1986 Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies and Fat
author: Hillel Schwartz
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1986
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves:
review:
There was a lot to learn from this book, but I found his style of writing a bit difficult to follow. His points were often so granular, I found it hard to understand the big picture. Nevertheless some of the anecdotes were fascinating!
]]> <![CDATA[Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West]]> 83822676
With dizzying social transformations in everything from gender to social justice, it may seem like there’s never been a more tumultuous period in history. But a single year in the late 18th century saw a number of influential transformations—or evenÌęrevolutions—that changed the social trajectory of the Western world. By understanding how those events influenced today’s cultural landscape, Christians can more effectively bear witness to God’s truth in a post-Christian age.

InÌęRemaking the World, Andrew Wilson highlights 7 major developments from the year 1776—globalization, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Enrichment, the American Revolution, the rise of post-Christianity, and the dawn of Romanticism—and explains their relevance to social changes happening today. Carefully examining key documents and historical figures, Wilson demonstrates how a monumental number of political, philosophical, economical, and industrial changes in the year of America’s founding shaped the modern West into a “WEIRDERâ€� Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic, Ex-Christian, and Romantic. This thoroughly researched yet accessible book offers a unique historical perspective on modern views of family, government, religion, and morality—giving Christians the historical lens they need to understand today’s post-Christian trends and respond accordingly.

Relevant Cultural and Historical ÌęSkillfully connects key ideas and events from the past to the presentÌę ÌęExamines important developments from 1776, including the American Revolution, Thomas Paine’sÌęCommon Sense, Edward Gibbon’sÌęThe History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; James Watt’s steam engine; Adam Smith’sÌęWealth of Nations; and Immanuel Kant’sÌęCritique of Pure Reason ÌęCovers key historical figures, including John Adams, Edmund Burke, and David Hume Equips and encourages readers to share the gospel in a post-Christian world A Great Resource for Pastors, Scholars, and Readers of Carl Trueman’sÌęThe Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self]]> 473 Andrew Wilson 143358056X Amanda 5 ]]> 4.46 2023 Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West
author: Andrew Wilson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/10
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves:
review:
One of my favorite books in the "why are we the way we are" genre. It is perhaps one of the best articulations I’ve read on what exactly the Christian ethic has historically offered the world, and what happens when Christians themselves don’t live up to that ethic.

]]> <![CDATA[Feed Yourself: Step Away from the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design]]> 63354363 256 Leslie Schilling 0310366526 Amanda 5 4.27 2023 Feed Yourself: Step Away from the Lies of Diet Culture and into Your Divine Design
author: Leslie Schilling
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves:
review:
A great book for anyone needing to heal from the toxic diet culture of the 90s and early 2000s.
]]> <![CDATA[In Good Time: 8 Habits for Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing Peace]]> 60332870 anxiety. Yet is productivity really the only grid for the good life? Have you ever imagined a life without hurry, relentless work, multitasking, or scarcity? A life that is characterized instead by presence, attention, rest, rootedness, fruitfulness, and generosity?

This is the kind of life we are meant for, says Jen Pollock Michel. But if we want to experience freedom from time anxiety, we have to reimagine our relationship with time itself.

In the pages of In Good Time, she invites you to disentangle your priorities from our modern assumptions and instead ground them in God's time. Then she shows you how to establish 8 life-giving habits that will release you from the false religion of productivity so you can develop a grounded, healthy, life-giving relationship with the clock.]]> 256 Jen Pollock Michel 1540900541 Amanda 5 4.08 2022 In Good Time: 8 Habits for Reimagining Productivity, Resisting Hurry, and Practicing Peace
author: Jen Pollock Michel
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/18
date added: 2023/12/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia]]> 35606508 What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia is a frank assessment of America’s recent fascination with the people and problems of the region. The book analyzes trends in contemporary writing on Appalachia, presents a brief history of Appalachia with an eye toward unpacking Appalachian stereotypes, and provides examples of writing, art, and policy created by Appalachians as opposed to for Appalachians. The book offers a must-needed insider’s perspective on the region.]]> 200 Elizabeth Catte 0998904147 Amanda 3 4.02 2018 What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia
author: Elizabeth Catte
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/29
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves:
review:
This book started very strong with a clear articulation of many of the misconceptions about Appalachia and the "Trump Country" think pieces genre. I felt that her conclusion could have been a bit more clearly organized, with a more linear history of resistance provided to help prove her point.
]]> <![CDATA[She Walks These Hills (Ballad, #3)]]> 178142 448 Sharyn McCrumb 0451184726 Amanda 4 4.09 1994 She Walks These Hills (Ballad, #3)
author: Sharyn McCrumb
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves:
review:
This book started a bit slow, but by the end it was a real page turner. More of a light read, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
]]> <![CDATA[The Understory: An Invitation to Rootedness and Resilience from the Forest Floor]]> 201608882
That's the invitation award-winning author Lore Ferguson Wilbert extends to readers in The Understory.

On this journey, Wilbert shares her story of alienation and disorientation after years of religious and political unrest in the evangelical church. In doing so, she looks to an unlikely place--the forest--to learn how to live and even thrive when everything seems to be falling apart. What can we learn from eroding soil, the decomposition process, the time it takes to grow lichen, the beauty of fiddlehead ferns, the regeneration of self-sowing seeds, and walking through the mud? Here, among the understory of the forest, Wilbert discovers rich metaphors for living a rooted and flourishing life within the complex ecosystems of our world. Her tenderness and honesty will help readers grieve, remember, hope, and press on with resilience.]]> 240 Lore Ferguson Wilbert 1587435705 Amanda 5 4.29 2024 The Understory: An Invitation to Rootedness and Resilience from the Forest Floor
author: Lore Ferguson Wilbert
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/12
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
The Understory speaks to the quiet grief many of us are carrying, one that we aren't quite sure how to name. In naming that 'sorrow, Wilbert offers us a rare gift: raw honesty devoid of cynicism. This is precisely the book the church needs for this moment in history, but its message, like the forest that serves as the book's subject, is timeless.
]]> <![CDATA[Grieving Room: Making Space for All the Hard Things after Death and Loss]]> 176186060 241 Leanne Friesen 1506492371 Amanda 5 4.58 Grieving Room: Making Space for All the Hard Things after Death and Loss
author: Leanne Friesen
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.58
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/18
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
A helpful offering for any griever. Friesen shares her hard earned wisdom in a way that is relatable and practical. I'm so thankful for this book!
]]> <![CDATA[Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life]]> 63251924
InÌę Holy Unhappiness , Amanda Held Opelt, author ofÌę A Hole in the World , grapples with her own experience of disillusionment when life with God didn’t always feel the way she expected it to feel. ÌęShe examines some of the historic, religious, and cultural influences that led to the idolization of positive feelings and the marginalization of negative feelings.Ìę Unpacking nine elements of life that have been tainted by the message of the emotional Prosperity Gospel â€� including work, marriage, parenting, calling, community, and church - she points to a new path forward, one that reimagines what the “blessedâ€� life can be like if we release some of our expectations and seek God in places we never thought to look.

This is a book that asks “what good is God?â€� when he doesn’t always make sorrow go away or soothe every fear.Ìę It is a book that explores our aversion to sadness and counts the costs of our unrelenting commitment to optimism. This is a book that insists there is holiness to be found even in our unhappiness.
Ìę]]> 272 Amanda Held Opelt 1546001921 Amanda 5 4.25 Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life
author: Amanda Held Opelt
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/10
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Start with Hello: (And Other Simple Ways to Live as Neighbors)]]> 60324265
You want more. You want to belong to a community that looks out for each other. You believe in your bones we don't have to live detached, distracted, and divided. The question is, How ? Shannan Martin invites you into deeper connection through simple resets, such as

· Open Door > Perfect Décor. We invite others in, seeking to connect, not impress.
· Familiar > Fussy. We serve tacos and pizza like the feasts they are, because fancy is overrated.
· Tender > Tough. We greet the world with our hearts exposed and our guards down.

Packed with street-level practices and real-talk storytelling, Start with Hello is your field guide for a life of security, camaraderie, and joy. There is no step too small.


"As it turns out, there is no them but only us , and this is the book we both want and need to help us find our way back to each other."-- Emily P. Freeman , Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Next Right Thing

" Start with Hello is a love letter to community and a call to action toward radical, realistic hospitality."-- Osheta Moore , pastor, speaker, and author of Dear White Peacemakers

"This book will change you in a way you've been craving to change. It makes being a neighbor, not to mention a person, just so beautifully . . . doable ."-- Kendra Adachi , New York Times bestselling author of The Lazy Genius Way

"This book is lovely, warm, honest. It brims with possibility."-- Jen Hatmaker , New York Times bestselling author of Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire]]> 224 Shannan Martin 0800740890 Amanda 5 4.00 2022 Start with Hello: (And Other Simple Ways to Live as Neighbors)
author: Shannan Martin
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Practical, funny, and beautifully written
]]> <![CDATA[The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals]]> 3109 What should we have for dinner? For omnivore like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma. When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffered by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. The omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance, as the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous food landscape. What’s at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children’s health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth.
The Omnivore's Dilemma is groundbreaking book, in which one of America’s most fascinating, original, and elegant writers turns his own omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire, how we answer it today, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, may well determine our very survival as a species. Should we eat a fast-food hamburger? Something organic? Or perhaps something we hunt, gather, or grow ourselves?
To find out, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating. His absorbing narrative takes us from Iowa cornfields to food-science laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds, always emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on. Each time Pollan sits down to a meal, he deploys his unique blend of personal and investigative journalism to trace the origins of everything consumed, revealing what we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods and flavors reflects our evolutionary inheritance.
The surprising answers Pollan offers to the simple question posed by this book have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us. Ultimately, this is a book as much about visionary solutions as it is about problems, and Pollan contends that, when it comes to food, doing the right thing often turns out to be the tastiest thing an eater can do. Beautifully written and thrillingly argued, The Omnivore’s Dilemma promises to change the way we think about the politics and pleasure of eating. For anyone who reads it, dinner will never again look, or taste, quite the same.]]> 450 Michael Pollan 1594200823 Amanda 4 4.18 2006 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
author: Michael Pollan
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
A helpful exploration of the modern food industry
]]> Food in History 79958 448 Reay Tannahill 0517884046 Amanda 3 3.97 1973 Food in History
author: Reay Tannahill
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1973
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
A bit dry at times but a good overview of food history.
]]> Clay's Quilt 51732144 324 Silas House 1949467244 Amanda 3 4.22 2001 Clay's Quilt
author: Silas House
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Story moved along nicely and was a compelling read in many ways
]]> <![CDATA[Aggressively Happy: A Realist's Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life]]> 58543352
Instead, you can unlock the power to a happy life--an act of defiance that will make you more resilient in times of turmoil, pain, and chaos. Cultivating happiness takes grit, determination, and a good sense of humor. It's not always easy, but it's well worth it.

Writer Joy Marie Clarkson leads the way, crafting a case for happiness no matter what you're going through.

"If we accept that life will be full of difficulties and sorrows, we then have two to resign ourselves to life generally being a bummer, or to seek enjoyment, delight, and hope in the midst of (and in spite of!) life's up and downs. To put it You could choose to cultivate happiness, or you could not. . . . I think we should go for it."

Go, therefore, and choose an aggressively happy life.]]> 224 Joy Marie Clarkson 0764238248 Amanda 5 4.38 Aggressively Happy: A Realist's Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life
author: Joy Marie Clarkson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Beautifully written, wise, and spiritually formative. Highly recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics]]> 25135194 Geography shapes not only our history, but where we're headed...

All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to follow world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.

If you've ever wondered why Putin is so obsessed with Crimea, why the USA was destined to become a global superpower, or why China's power base continues to expand ever outwards, the answers are all here.

In ten chapters and ten maps, Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present and future to offer an essential insight into one of the major factors that determines world history.

It's time to put the 'geo' back into geopolitics.

Ten maps; ten chapters:

Russia * China * United States of America * Latin America * the Middle East * Africa * India and Pakistan * Europe * Japan and Korea * the Arctic]]> 256 Tim Marshall 1783961414 Amanda 4 4.18 2015 Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
author: Tim Marshall
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
A helpful overview of world history through the lens of space and geography.
]]> <![CDATA[The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection (Modern Library Food)]]> 157466 284 Robert Farrar Capon 0375760563 Amanda 5 4.48 1989 The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection (Modern Library Food)
author: Robert Farrar Capon
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Lyrical celebration of the joy of cooking and eating. Highly recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry]]> 50179225 almost daily—about sexual misconduct, affairs, and abuse inflicted within our own walls.
Ìę
Singles are staying single longer, dating is wrought with angst over purity, and marriagesÌęstruggle to not interpret all forms of touch as sexual. We can’t even talk about touching our own bodies without the underlying assumption that it must be sexual. There is simply no place in our culture—and in the church—where touch doesn’t seem threatened or threatening.Ìę
Ìę
In the laws within the Old Testament, there is a form of one statement made 38 times: “Do not touch.â€� Everything seems off-limits to the people of God. But a curious thing happens in the New Testament when Jesus comes into his ministry:ÌęHe touches.ÌęJesus touches the sick and the outcasts, the bleeding and the unclean.
Ìę
What could it mean for families, singles, marriages, churches, communities, and the world to have healthy, pure, faithful, ministering touch? Somewhere in the mess of our assumptions and fears about touch, there is something beautiful and good and God-given. As Jesus can show us, there is ministry in touching.Ìę]]> 264 Lore Ferguson Wilbert 153596233X Amanda 5 4.41 2020 Handle with Care: How Jesus Redeems the Power of Touch in Life and Ministry
author: Lore Ferguson Wilbert
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/15
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Lore tackles a subject here that many are afraid to approach. Wisely and beautifully done.
]]> <![CDATA[The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis]]> 63828159
In this book, acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior examines evangelical history, both good and bad. By analyzing the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded evangelicalism, she unpacks some of the movement's most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices to consider what is Christian rather than merely cultural. The result is a clearer path forward for evangelicals amid their current identity crisis--and insight for others who want a deeper understanding of what the term "evangelical" means today.

Brought to life with color illustrations, images, and paintings, this book explores ideas including conversion, domesticity, empire, sentimentality, and more. In the end, it goes beyond evangelicalism to show us how we might be influenced by images, stories, and metaphors in ways we cannot always see.]]> 304 Karen Swallow Prior 1587435756 Amanda 5 4.23 2023 The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis
author: Karen Swallow Prior
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
This book filled in so many historical gaps for me. A helpful explanation for the current state of Evangelicalism.
]]> <![CDATA[Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating]]> 11419951 264 Norman Wirzba 0521195500 Amanda 5 4.25 2007 Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating
author: Norman Wirzba
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/30
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
I learned so much about a theological perspective I've never heard before. One of my favorite books of the year.
]]> Storming Heaven 890210 In 1921, an army of 10,000 unemployed pro-union coal miners took up arms and threatened to overthrow the governments of two West Virginia counties. They were greeted by U.S. Army airplanes, bombs, and poison gas. This book recounts the real story of what happened--and where it all went wrong.
Four people tell this powerful, deeply moving tale: Activist Mayor C. J. Marcum. Fierce, loveless union man Rondal Lloyd. Gutsy nurse Carrie Bishop, who loved Rondal. And lonely, Sicilian immigrant Rosa Angelelli, who lost four sons to the deadly mines. They all bear witness to nearly forgotten events of history, culminating in the final, tragic Battle of Blair Mountain--the first crucial battle of a war that has yet to be won.]]> 293 Denise Giardina 080410297X Amanda 4 4.10 1987 Storming Heaven
author: Denise Giardina
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
I learned so much from this book. I didn't think the writing was quite as poetic as the sequel (The Unquiet Earth).
]]> <![CDATA[Strange as This Weather Has Been]]> 586732 Strange As This Weather Has Been, tells the story of a coal mining family� a couple and their four children� living through the latest mining boom and dealing with the mountaintop removal and strip mining that is ruining what is left of their mountain life. As the mine turns the mountains to slag and wastewater, workers struggle with layoffs and children find adventure in the blasted moonscape craters.

Strange As This Weather Has Been follows several members of the family, with a particular focus on fifteen-year-old Bant and her mother, Lace. Working at a “scabâ€� motel, Bant becomes involved with a young miner while her mother contemplates joining the fight against the mining companies. As domestic conflicts escalate at home, the children are pushed more and more outside among junk from the floods and felled trees in the hollowsâ€� the only nature they have ever known. But Bant has other memories and is as curious and strong-willed as her mother, and ultimately comes to discover the very real threat of destruction that looms as much in the landscape as it does at home.]]> 357 Ann Pancake 159376166X Amanda 5 3.87 2007 Strange as This Weather Has Been
author: Ann Pancake
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
A haunting articulation of the ecologic and economic marginalization of Appalachia. One of my favorite books of the year.
]]> <![CDATA[By Bread Alone: A Baker's Reflections on Hunger, Longing, and the Goodness of God]]> 75590328 Bread is central to God's story, and to your story too.

Our spiritual lives are deeply connected to bread--the bread we break with family and friends and the Bread that is Christ's Body, given and broken for us. It's easy to choose the cheapest, most convenient option, but the life of Jesus and the story of Scripture, as well as the substance of bread itself, shows us that there is more. In By Bread Alone, Kendall Vanderslice, a professional baker and practical theologian who spends her days elbow-deep in dough, reveals that there is no food more spiritually significant than bread--whether eating, baking, sharing, or breaking.

Kendall has struggled with hunger ever since she can remember--hunger for bread, yes, but also for community and for the ability to "taste and see" the goodness of God. She knows the tension of bread as blessing and bread as burden but has learned that bread also offers a unique opportunity to heal our relationship to the body of Christ and to our own bodies. In By Bread Alone, she weaves her own faith-filled journey together with original recipes and stories about the role of bread in church history, revealing a God who draws near to us and creatively provides for our daily needs.

When words fail, when we cry out in longing and loneliness, when God feels impossibly far away, By Bread Alone displays the tangible expression of God's presence and provision for us in the form of bread. It's the story of hunger and family, of friendship and unmet longing. It's the story of a God who meets us in both sacred and mundane ways. In the mixing and kneading, in the waiting and partaking, may God also meet you.]]> 252 Kendall Vanderslice 1496461355 Amanda 5 4.14 2023 By Bread Alone: A Baker's Reflections on Hunger, Longing, and the Goodness of God
author: Kendall Vanderslice
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/18
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
A helpful exploration of Jesus as the bread of life. Kendall's storytelling is wise and relatable, and many will find solace in her words.
]]> <![CDATA[Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia]]> 33931717 How the United States underdeveloped Appalachia

Appalachia--among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America--has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in U.S. history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.

Ramp Hollow traces the rise of the Appalachian homestead and how its self-sufficiency resisted dependence on money and the industrial society arising elsewhere in the United States--until, beginning in the nineteenth century, extractive industries kicked off a "scramble for Appalachia" that left struggling homesteaders dispossessed of their land. As the men disappeared into coal mines and timber camps, and their families moved into shantytowns or deeper into the mountains, the commons of Appalachia were, in effect, enclosed, and the fate of the region was sealed.

Ramp Hollow takes a provocative look at Appalachia, and the workings of dispossession around the world, by upending our notions about progress and development. Stoll ranges widely from literature to history to economics in order to expose a devastating process whose repercussions we still feel today.]]> 432 Steven Stoll 080909505X Amanda 5 3.84 2017 Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia
author: Steven Stoll
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Fascinating in-depth history of the ecological and economic marginalization of Appalachians. One of my favorite books of the year.
]]> <![CDATA[On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living]]> 62697454 108 Alan Noble 1514004437 Amanda 5 4.30 On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living
author: Alan Noble
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/16
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
A wise and brave articulation of the harsh reality of living, and the call to be faithful in the midst of that. One of my favorite books of the year.
]]> <![CDATA[Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians]]> 62873964 ÌęAn exploration into the curation of the self in Western civilization from Da Vinci to Kim Kardashian.

In a technologically-saturated era where nearly everything can be effortlessly and digitally reproduced, we're all hungry to carve out our own unique personalities, our own bespoke personae, to stand out and be seen. As the forces of social media and capitalism collide, and individualism becomes more important than ever across a wide array of industries,Ìę "branding ourselves" or actively defining our selves for others has become the norm. Yet, this phenomenon is not new. In Self-Made, Tara Isabella Burton shows us how we arrived at this moment of fervent personal-branding.

As attitudes towards religion, politics and society evolved, our sense of self did as well, moving from a collective to individual mindset.ÌęThrough a series of chronological biographical essays on famous (and infamous) "self-creators" in the modern Western world, from the Renassiance to the Enlightenment to modern capitalism and finally to our present moment of mass media, Burton examines the theories and forces behind our never-ending need to curate ourselves. Through a vivid cast of characters and an engaging mix of cultural and historical commentary, we learn how the personal brand has come to be.Ìę
Ìę]]> Tara Isabella Burton 1668628422 Amanda 4 3.84 Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians
author: Tara Isabella Burton
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/15
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
Tara Isabella Burton remains one of my favorite writers and thinkers. This book didn't read quite as easily for me as Strange Rites, but I still found it to be enormously helpful. Full of interesting historical figures and intriguing sociological analysis.
]]> <![CDATA[The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods through the Year]]> 39396153
Talking with farmers, fishmongers, cooks, historians, and scientists, Eubanks looks at how foods are deeply tied to the culture of the Old North State. Some have histories that go back thousands of years. Garlicky green ramps, gathered in April and traditionally savored by many Cherokee people, are now endangered by their popularity in fine restaurants. Oysters, though, are enjoying a comeback, cultivated by entrepreneurs along the coast in December. These foods, and the stories of the people who prepare and eat them, make up the long-standing dialect of North Carolina kitchens. But we have to wait for the right moment to enjoy them, and in that waiting is their treasure.]]> 288 Georgann Eubanks 1469640821 Amanda 4 4.29 The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods through the Year
author: Georgann Eubanks
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
This book was very helpful for some research I'm doing about local foodways. Not too academic, but gives good background on each of the featured foods.
]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Amanda 5 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/01
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
This is a book I will never forget! I'm thrilled to see a Melungeon protagonist in such a widely read work of fiction. Thank you, Barbara Kingsolver, for the gift of this journey with Demon.
]]> <![CDATA[Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul]]> 28592793
The Blue Ridge Parkway meanders through miles of rolling Virginia mountains. It's a route made famous by natural beauty and the simple rhythms of rural life.

And it's in this setting that Hannah Anderson began her exploration of what it means to pursue a life of peace and humility. Fighting back her own sense of restlessness and anxiety, she finds herself immersed in the world outside, discovering a classroom full of forsythia, milkweed, and a failed herb garden. Lessons about soil preparation, sour mulch, and grapevine blights reveal the truth about our dependence on God, finding rest, and fighting discontentment.

Humble Roots is part theology of incarnation and part stroll through the fields and forest. Anchored in the teaching of Jesus, Anderson explores how cultivating humility - not scheduling, strict boundaries, or increased productivity - leads to peace. "Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden," Jesus invites us, "and you will find rest for your souls."

So come. Learn humility from the lilies of the field and from the one who is humility himself. Remember who you are and who you are not, and rediscover the rest that comes from belonging to him.]]> 205 Hannah Anderson 0802414591 Amanda 5 4.39 2016 Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul
author: Hannah Anderson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/01
date added: 2023/12/27
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So much wisdom here - felt like I was underlining half the book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Lord Is My Courage: Stepping Through the Shadows of Fear Toward the Voice of Love]]> 59608790
How can we cultivate courage when fear overshadows our lives? How do we hear the Voice of Love when hate and harm shout loud? This book offers an honest path to finding that there is still a Good Shepherd who is always following you. Braiding contemplative storytelling, theological reflection, and practical neuroscience, Ramsey reveals a route into connection and joy that begins right where you are.

The Lord is My Courage is for the deconstructing and the dreamers, the afraid and the amazed, for those whose fear has not been fully shepherded but who can't seem to stop listening for their Good Shepherd's Voice.]]> 304 K.J. Ramsey 0310124166 Amanda 5 to-read 4.55 The Lord Is My Courage: Stepping Through the Shadows of Fear Toward the Voice of Love
author: K.J. Ramsey
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.55
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church]]> 59817517 224 Katelyn Beaty 1587435187 Amanda 5 to-read 4.18 Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church
author: Katelyn Beaty
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Even As We Breathe: A Novel 63896722
With World War II raging in Europe, the resort is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. A secret room becomes a place where Cowney and Essie can escape the white world of the inn and imagine their futures free of the shadows of their families' pasts. Outside of this refuge, however, racism and prejudice are never far behind, and when the daughter of one of the residents goes missing, Cowney finds himself accused of abduction and murder.

Even As We Breathe invokes the elements of bone, blood, and flesh as Cowney navigates difficult social, cultural, and ethnic divides. Betrayed by the friends he trusted, he begins to unearth deeper mysteries as he works to prove his innocence and clear his name. This richly written debut novel explores the immutable nature of the human spirit and the idea that physical existence, with all its strife and injustice, will not be humanity's lasting legacy.]]> 238 Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle 1950564320 Amanda 4 3.75 2020 Even As We Breathe: A Novel
author: Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/30
date added: 2023/07/30
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]]> Gift from the Sea 77295
With great wisdom and insight Lindbergh describes the shifting shapes of relationships and marriage, presenting a vision of life as it is lived in an enduring and evolving partnership. A groundbreaking, best-selling work when it was originally published in 1955, Gift from the Sea continues to be discovered by new generations of readers. With a new introduction by Lindbergh’s daughter Reeve, this fiftieth-anniversary edition will give those who are revisiting the book and those who are coming upon it for the first time fresh insight into the life of this remarkable woman.

The sea and the beach are elements that have been woven throughout Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s life. She spent her childhood summers with her family on a Maine island. After her marriage to Charles Lindbergh in 1929, she accompanied him on his survey flights around the North Atlantic to launch the first transoceanic airlines. The Lindberghs eventually established a permanent home on the Connecticut coast, where they lived quietly, wrote books and raised their family.

After the children left home for lives of their own, the Lindberghs traveled extensively to Africa and the Pacific for environmental research.]]> 130 Anne Morrow Lindbergh 0394724550 Amanda 4 4.14 1955 Gift from the Sea
author: Anne Morrow Lindbergh
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/06/05
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Lots of lovely insights here.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Be Sad: Everything I've Learned About Getting Happier by Being Sad]]> 56554483 352 Helen Russell 0063115352 Amanda 5 3.94 2021 How to Be Sad: Everything I've Learned About Getting Happier by Being Sad
author: Helen Russell
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/06/05
shelves:
review:
Russell has a unique voice all her own. Blending humor with sobering studies, this one is not to miss.
]]> <![CDATA[Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage]]> 270008 448 Stephanie Coontz 067003407X Amanda 5 3.95 2005 Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy or How Love Conquered Marriage
author: Stephanie Coontz
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/12
date added: 2022/07/12
shelves:
review:
Fascinating overview of the history of marriage. In spite of the fact that it was fairly academic, it was written in a compelling way. All the information was digestible and interesting. For me, it was a page turner. A must read for anyone who wants to know how we arrived at our current state of marriage and family.
]]> <![CDATA[The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity]]> 6012191 192 Skye Jethani 0310283752 Amanda 4 4.30 2009 The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity
author: Skye Jethani
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/19
date added: 2022/07/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel]]> 16248505 Kate Bowler's Blessed is the first book to fully explore the origins, unifying themes, and major figures of a burgeoning movement that now claims millions of followers in America. Bowler traces the roots of the prosperity gospel: from the touring mesmerists, metaphysical sages, pentecostal healers, business oracles, and princely prophets of the early 20th century; through mid-century positive thinkers like Norman Vincent Peale and revivalists like Oral Roberts and Kenneth Hagin; to today's hugely successful prosperity preachers. Bowler focuses on such contemporary figures as Creflo Dollar, pastor of Atlanta's 30,000-member World Changers Church International; Joel Osteen, known as "the smiling preacher," with a weekly audience of seven million; T. D. Jakes, named by Time magazine one of America's most influential new religious leaders; Joyce Meyer, evangelist and women's empowerment guru; and many others. At almost any moment, day or night, the American public can tune in to these preachers-on TV, radio, podcasts, and in their megachurches-to hear the message that God desires to bless them with wealth and health. Bowler offers an interpretive framework for scholars and general readers alike to understand the diverse expressions of Christian abundance as a cohesive movement bound by shared understandings and common goals.]]> 352 Kate Bowler 0199827699 Amanda 4 3.92 2013 Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel
author: Kate Bowler
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/05/10
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[It's Not You, It's Everything: What Our Pain Reveals about the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life]]> 58495628 198 Eric Minton 1506471919 Amanda 5 3.79 It's Not You, It's Everything: What Our Pain Reveals about the Anxious Pursuit of the Good Life
author: Eric Minton
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/05/10
shelves:
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Eric has written a book that is a prophetic word for this generation. Blending humor with research and personal story, he opens our eyes to the root cause of the anxieties and restlessness that plagues us. It's rare to find a book that is so personally incriminating and yet inspirational and hopeful. I'm so grateful to have stumbled upon this book.
]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History of Sunday: from the new testament to the new creation]]> 32503183 176 Justo L. GonzĂĄlez 0802874711 Amanda 4 3.99 2017 A Brief History of Sunday: from the new testament to the new creation
author: Justo L. GonzĂĄlez
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough: A Shooting Survivor's Journey into the Realities of Gun Violence]]> 56187033 Taylor Schumann never thought she'd be a victim of gun violence. But one spring day a man with a shotgun walked into her workplace and opened fire on her. While she survived, she was left with permanent wounds, both visible and invisible.
In When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough, Taylor invites us to see what it means to be a survivor after the news vehicles drive away and the media moves on. Healing is slow and complicated. As she suffered through surgeries, grueling rehabilitation, and counseling to repair the physical injuries and emotional trauma, she came face to face with the deep and lasting impact of gun violence. As she began grappling with the realities, Taylor experienced another painful truth: Christians have largely been absent from this issue. Gun violence undercuts God's vision of abundant life and community--and the silence of the church rings loudly in the ears of survivors and families of victims.
Taylor weaves her own incredible story of survival and recovery into a larger conversation about gun violence in our country. With compassion and honesty, she encourages readers to reconsider their own engagement with the issue and to join her in envisioning a more hopeful, safer future for our nation. Move beyond thoughts and prayers and enter into grace-filled dialogue and action.]]> 252 Taylor S. Schumann 0830831703 Amanda 5 4.41 2021 When Thoughts and Prayers Aren't Enough: A Shooting Survivor's Journey into the Realities of Gun Violence
author: Taylor S. Schumann
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/23
date added: 2022/03/23
shelves:
review:
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the impact of gun violence in our country and gun reform. The author uses her personal story to make the statistics come to life.
]]> <![CDATA[Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope]]> 48994895 Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say. Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery. Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward.]]> 200 Esau McCaulley Amanda 5 4.43 2020 Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
author: Esau McCaulley
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/08/01
shelves:
review:
Highly recommend this book to any student of theology who wants to broaden their perspective. McCaulley is pointed but charitable in his critiques and offers a fresh vantage point through which to view scripture and theology.
]]> <![CDATA[Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World]]> 51720367 A sparklingly strange odyssey through the kaleidoscope of America's new spirituality: the cults, practices, high priests and prophets of our supposedly post-religion age.

In Strange Rites, Tara Isabella Burton takes a tour through contemporary American religiosity. As the once dominant totems of civic connection and civil discourse—traditional churches—continue to sink into obsolescence, people are looking elsewhere for the intensity and unity that religion once provided. We're making our own personal faiths - theistic or not - mixing and matching our spiritual, ritualistic, personal, and political practices in order to create our own bespoke religious selves. We're not just building new religions in 2019, we're buying them, from Gwyneth Paltrow's gospel of Goop, to the brilliantly cultish SoulCycle, to those who believe in their special destiny on Mars.

In so doing, we're carrying on a longstanding American tradition of religious eclecticism, DIY-innovation and "unchurched" piety (and highly effective capitalism). Our era is not the dawn of American secularism, but rather a brand-bolstered resurgence of American pluralism, revved into overdrive by commerce and personalized algorithms, all to the tune of "Hallellujah"--America's most popular and spectacularly misunderstood wedding song.]]> 301 Tara Isabella Burton 1541762533 Amanda 5 3.88 2020 Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World
author: Tara Isabella Burton
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/08/01
shelves:
review:
This is one of the best, most helpful books I've read in years. Burton provides an incredibly thoughtful and well-researched analysis of the country's current religious landscape. Her insights generated so many "aha" moments for me, and explained the context and trajectory of cultural trends I've been observing but struggling to explain for years.
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