Library Loot ~ October 9-15

Open Secrets: A Spiritual Journey Through a Country Church ~ by Richard Lischer, 2001, memoir

Fresh out of divinity school and bursting with enthusiasm, Richard Lischer found himself assigned to a small conservative church in an economically depressed town in southern Illinois.  It's an awkward marriage at best — a young man with a Ph.D. in theology, full of ideas and ambitions, determined to improve his parish and bring it into the twenty-first century, and a community that is "as tightly sealed as a jar of home-canned pickles."  Lischer tells not only his own story but also the story of New Cana and its inhabitants.  He brings to life the clash of cultures and personalities that marks his pastoral tenure, including his own doubts, as well as those of his parishioners, that a twenty-eight-year-old suburban-raised liberal can deal with the troubled marriages, alcoholism, teen sex, inadequate farm subsidies, and other concerns of the conservative, tightly knit community.  But the inhabitants of New Cana — lovable, deeply flawed, imperfect people who stick together — open their arms to him in their own way, and the result is a colorful, poignant comedy of small-town life and all it has to offer.

Moses Man of the Mountain ~ by Zora Neale Hurston, 1939, fiction

In this 1939 novel based on the familiar story of the Exodus, Zora Neale Hurston blends the Moses of the Old Testament with the Moses of black folklore and song to create a compelling allegory of power, redemption, and faith.  Narrated in a mixture of biblical rhetoric, black dialect, and colloquial English, Hurston traces Moses's life from the day he is launched into the Nile river in a reed basket, to his development as a great magician, to his transformation into the heroic rebel leader, the Great Emancipator.  From his dramatic confrontations with Pharaoh to his fragile negotiations with the wary Hebrews, this very human story is told with great humor, passion, and psychological insight — the hallmarks of Hurston as a writer and champion of black culture.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Marg @ The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.  They encourage us to share titles of books we’ve checked out of the library.  Add your link any time during the week, and see what others got this week.

This is the sign in front of my branch of the library.