Spong and the non-religious world

Bonnie and Bishop Spong

I went to Grace Episcopal Church yesterday to hear Bishop John Shelby Spong, a world-renowned biblical scholar and theologian.  Spong urges Christians to grow up and take the Bible seriously — but not literally.  He spoke at morning and afternoon sessions, with lots of time allowed for questions and answers.  After the reception and book signing, I came home with these two books.

Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World ~ by John Shelby Spong, 2011, religion, 432 pages

For two hundred years, scholars have been analyzing the Bible and overturning much of what we once thought we knew.  Everyday Christians, however, are not privy to this deeper conversation.  This book is designed to take readers into the contemporary academic debate about the Bible.  Read what he says about the book's publication last week.

• Spong opens the possibility that some of the characters in the New Testament — such as Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus; Judas Iscariot; Nicodemus; the Samaritan woman at the well; and Lazarus who was raised from the dead — are imaginary composites or literary creations.
• He explores the origin and essential meaning of each of the individual books in the Bible, examining the background, the context, the level of authenticity, and even the trustworthiness of the messages found there.
• He explains why these particular books, written between two and three thousand years ago, came to be regarded as authoritative and preserved as sacred.
• He traces the pathway that biblical religion has traveled as it evolved through the centuries.
• He shows how people have misused many of these texts in the service of their prejudices.

"One does not," he asserts, "have to twist one's brain into a first-century pretzel in order to take the Bible seriously in this increasingly non-religious world."

Jesus for the Non-Religious ~ by John Shelby Spong, 2007, religion

Writing from his prison cell in Nazi Germany in 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian, sketched a vision of what he called "Religionless Christianity."  In this book, John Shelby Spong puts flesh onto the bare bones of Bonhoeffer's radical thought.  The result is a strikingly new and different portrait of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jesus for the non-religious.

Spong challenges much of the traditional understanding, from the tale of Jesus' miraculous birth to the account of his cosmic ascension into the sky.  He questions the historicity of the ideas that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that he had twelve disciples, or that the miracle stories were ever meant to be descriptions of supernatural events.  He also speaks directly to those critics of Christianity who call God a "delusion" and who describe how Christianity has become evil and destructive.  Spong proposes a new way of understanding the divinity of Christ as the ultimate dimension of a fulfilled humanity.

My name is more legible than his.

My question for both books:  Does the non-religious world care about either the Bible or about Jesus?  Is there any reason they should?  In his November 10th column, Spong says:

"I still believe that Christianity can engage the modern mind in significant dialogue if we dare to take the biblical and theological knowledge that is currently available seriously.  I believe that we ought not to seek to dodge, but to address the questions that impinge upon us daily from the world of knowledge.  I have seen this engagement bear fruit when it has been practiced.  I believe it can happen world-wide."

How to meet authors ~ Bishop Spong

I'm writing a series of posts to answer a question posed by Helen of Helen's Book Blog:

"How the heck do you meet all these authors? That's awesome!"

I'm posting this early to tell you I'm off to hear Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong this morning.  All day, actually.  He will be one more to add to my list of authors I've met.  It's all a matter of being willing to watch for appearances in town and then attending.

I've read several of his books, but don't have time right now to look up the titles for you.  More later.

Seeds of Change ~ by Jen Cullerton Johnson

Wangari Maathai died yesterday, a great loss to the world.  I was quite impressed when I first learned about her by reading Unbowed: A Memoir, and just this summer I read a beautiful children's book about her called Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace by Jen Cullerton Johnson.

Here's a summary of the book — and her life.

"As a young girl in Kenya, Wangari was taught to respect nature. She grew up loving the land, plants, and animals that surrounded her — from the giant mugumo trees her people, the Kikuyu, revered to the tiny tadpoles that swam in the river.  Although most Kenyan girls were not educated, Wangari, curious and hardworking, was allowed to go to school. There, her mind sprouted like a seed. She excelled at science and went on to study in the United States. After returning home, Wangari blazed a trail across Kenya, using her knowledge and compassion to promote the rights of her countrywomen and to help save the land, one tree at a time.  This book brings to life the empowering story of Wangari Maathai, the first African woman, and environmentalist, to win a Nobel Peace Prize."

Look at one of the fantastic illustrations.

Read what people are saying about her:

• Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai: A Global Icon of Conservation ~ NPR, today 
• Wangari Maathai and Why She Matters ~ Huffington Post, today
• Wangari Maathai, 71, Nobelist and advocate for Kenyan women, environment, dies ~ Washington Post, today
• Wikipedia
• The Green Belt Movement, which she founded in 1977

Wangari Maathai, born 1 April 1940, died 25 September 2011.  May she rest in peace.

Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace ~ by Jen Cullerton Johnson, illustrated by Sonia Lynn Sadler, 2010, biography for children (Kenya), 9/10

Unbowed by Wangari Maathai, 2006, memoir (Kenya), 9/10

Both books are excellent. Rated: 9 of 10.

How to meet authors ~ Roberta C. Bondi

I'm writing a series of posts to answer a question posed by Helen of Helen's Book Blog:

"How the heck do you meet all these authors? That's awesome!"

Roberta C. Bondi

Roberta Bondi was one of my seminary professors when I was at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta.  She and Bill Mallard co-taught a class on the history of the church that gave me a good grounding for the whole process of doing theology by knowing the basis of previous theological ideas.

So one way to "meet an author" is by attending a university or seminary.  Most professors are expected to "publish or perish," so — ta-da! — they are authors.

A Place to Pray: Reflections on the Lord's Prayer ~ by Roberta C. Bondi, 1998, religion, 9/10

The other day, I mentioned to my friend Donna that I may do a series on the Lord's Prayer for the Seekers Class at St. Luke, a church that occasionally invites me to teach or preach.  Her pastor is in the middle of such a class, she told me, showing me the most recent study sheet.  It started with their Lenten Luncheon series, and the group wanted to keep studying.  The upshot of that conversation was that I decided to attend the luncheon discussions with her.

The book they are using (see below) is only 112 pages long, so I read Donna's copy in a couple of days.  Although Willimon and Hauerwas have each written some pretty good books, this is not one of their better ones.  So Donna and I got out our copies of Roberta Bondi's book, A Place to Pray, which I first read in 1999 and have taught a few times over the years.  It is much better than the one the class is using.  Since I also bought the companion video series, Donna and I set it up on my porch to view during lulls in our recent Neighborhood Yard Sale.  I would pause the video whenever neighbors stopped by to look over my books.

Bondi put this study together in a unique way, with each chapter written as a letter to her friend.  From what she writes, we can infer what her friend has said (or written) in the meantime.  Here is a deep friendship.

"Dear friend, how grateful I am for the gift of your own existence in my life, for such a friendship in which we can talk openly about our lives with God and the hard and happy things for which we pray.  May God always keep in our hearts the knowledge that these words spoken between us are, after all, as much a part of prayer as anything we do" (p. 49).

One more quote from this book:

"As for us, ours is a God who loves, and if we love this God who is love, we long to express that love by imitating God, that is, by loving those whom God loves in the way God loves, in an appropriately human manner" (p. 128).

I rate this book 9 of 10, a very good book.

Whenever it works into the conversation, I try to share insights from Roberta Bondi's book in the study I'm attending with Donna.  Yes, I also use the notes I took while reading Donna's copy of their study book:

Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer and the Christian Life ~ by William H. Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, 1996, religion, 7/10

One good thing about this book is that it raises questions for a class to discuss.  Throughout the book, however, I got the distinct impression that they tossed the book together, and no one edited it to smooth the edges.  One minor slip — the index shows scripture in the order it's printed in the Bible, except Colossians and Philippians are out of order.  Another is that, in making Jesus "perfect," they overstep:

"There is nothing that we go through here on earth that Jesus has not also endured" (p. 36).

I know what they meant to impart, but this is just silly and likely to make thoughtful people pause.  It's too broad.  Jesus did NOT birth a child, I can imagine some new mother thinking.  Jesus did NOT have cancer, I imagine from a suffering patient.  Jesus did not even get old, like many of us in that class.  C'mon, guys!  You can do better.

Rated:  7/10, good because it encourages discussion.  By the way, I also met Will Willimon and talked to him after he preached.  That's why I expected more from this book.   (Check — another author I've met.)

I don't want to end on a low note, so I'll leave you with one especially good quote from this book:

"Too often, we are conditioned to think of prayer as asking God for what we want — dear God, give me this, give me that.  But now, in praying that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are attempting to school ourselves to want what God wants" (p. 66).

Those words by Willimon and/or Hauerwas remind me of my favorite title:


To Love As God Loves ~ by Roberta Bondi, 1987, religion, 9/10.

Ha!  We now come full circle, right back to my seminary professor.  Thanks, Roberta!

How to meet authors ~ Lurlene McDaniel

I'm writing a series of posts to answer a question posed by Helen of Helen's Book Blog:

"How the heck do you meet all these authors? That's awesome!"

Lurlene McDaniel

Before Donna and I opened our bookstore, I worked for two other bookstores.  I had never worked in retail, so I had a lot to learn about the bookstore business.  First, I worked fifteen hours a week with store near my home that specialized in rare and out-of-print books.  Then for a year, I was manager of a bookstore in Trenton, Georgia, about 25 miles from my home, that sold both new and used books.  It was there that I first heard about Lurlene McDaniel.  A teacher who was one of the store's regular customers told me that Lurlene mentioned the REAL name of a neighbor in one of her novels.  That neighbor was a teacher in Trenton, so it was good to know which book students meant when they came looking for the one that mentioned their teacher.

Donna and I opened our store, which we named Book Buddies, in 2004. To answer Helen's question, Lurlene McDaniel came to me.  To my bookstore, I mean.  I found out more about her online:

Growing up, Lurlene lived in different parts of the country because her father was in the Navy. Eventually her family settled in Florida. She attended the University of South Florida in Tampa, where she earned a B.A. in English. She now lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

One day, a customer was looking for books in the YA (young adult) section of Book Buddies and told me she was pleased to see that we had two of her titles on the shelves that day.  It was Lurlene.  Imagine getting to meet a recipient of both the RITA Award and the IRA–CBC Children’s Choice Award (several times for this last one).  She didn't buy anything that day, but it was nice to meet her.

Some folks wonder why she chooses to write about sad situations.

“I tell them that sometimes tragedy hits people — kids, too. They want answers. They want to know ‘why.’ By using novels, I show ordinary kids confronting and overcoming great odds.”

Her books affirm life and are definitely optimistic.  And guess what?   Her novel Six Months to Live has been placed in a literary time capsule at the Library of Congress, to be opened in the year 2089.  Here's a summary of that YA novel, the first in a series:

"When 13-year-old Dawn Rochelle is diagnosed with leukemia, she's scared. While in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy, Dawn meets Sandy, who also has cancer. Dawn and Sandy battle the disease together, and remain best friends even after they both go into remission and return home. But when Sandy gets sick again, Dawn wonders what the future holds both for Sandy and herself."

So guess which of Lurlene McDaniel's books I chose to re-read in April?  The answer is on my April reading wrap-up (it's book #80 for the year):

80.  Six Months to Live ~ by Lurlene McDaniel, 1985, YA fiction (Ohio), 8/10

I like it when authors use humor.  It makes the characters seem like people I know.  Here's Dawn talking to her college-aged brother (on page 39) after a discussion about bone marrow from a healthy donor, "preferably a sibling":

"You'd give me your bone marrow?" Dawn asked Rob shyly once they were alone.

"Absolutely!" Rob said, chucking her on her chin.  "I gave you the chicken pox, didn't I?  I can spare bone marrow for you, too."

I rate this 8 of 10, a very good book.
_________________________

On her Random House web site, Lurlene McDaniel says:

"Here’s a fact you may not know.  My summer release, BREATHLESS, will be my forty-third original book for Random House!"

How to meet authors ~ Frank McCourt

I'm writing a series of posts to answer a question posed by Helen of Helen's Book Blog:

"How the heck do you meet all these authors? That's awesome!"

Today's author was a "Teacher Man" with an Irish lilt.  I heard him and "saw" him, but he drew such a huge crowd that hundreds of us were shunted off to another auditorium and had to watch him televised on screen.  So I heard him and was in the same building with him, but I never got close to him.


Frank McCourt (August 19, 1930 to July 19, 2009) was an American-Irish teacher and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who was best known for Angela’s Ashes. It had been awhile since I had read that book or his more recent one, Teacher Man, so I re-read parts of both books before going to hear him speak at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on February 19, 2008. He was addressing teachers, but I went mostly to hear the Irish lilt in his voice.

I have a green button I like to wear on St. Patrick's Day, maybe to pat myself on the back that I'm part Irish ... the part that has a story for every occasion, the part that likes to elicit a laugh or two for the stories I'm telling. Although I've never kissed the Blarney Stone, I do wear my green button which says, "I speak fluent Blarney." I like to think that I do. Frank McCourt's stories may make the audience (and his readers) laugh, but they aren't blarney.

blarney = deceptive or misleading talk; nonsense; hooey (silly or worthless talk, writing, ideas, etc.; nonsense; bunk: That's a lot of hooey and you know it!).

According to legend, kissing the Blarney Stone endows the kisser with the gift of gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery).



Read more about what I got out of McCourt's lecture in my post about it.

Teacher Man ~ by Frank McCourt, 2005, memoir, 8/10

I would rate Teacher Man a very good book.

How to meet authors ~ Naomi Tutu

When I wrote recently about authors I've met,  Helen of Helen's Book Blog left this comment:

"How the heck do you meet all these authors? That's awesome!"

I've decided to tell you -- one by one -- "how the heck" I happened to meet these folks.  Think of it as a new series of posts from me.  Today's author is not as well-known as her father.

Naomi Tutu

Naomi, an activist for human rights and currently associate director of the Office of International Programs at Tennessee State University, spoke at Chattanooga State last year on the subject, “What Gift Do You Bring?” She compiled a book of excerpts of her father's writings, speeches, and sermons:  The Words of Desmond Tutu, Second Edition, 2007.

Naomi spoke in the auditorium of the Humanities building, where I usually teach when my classes are on the main campus.  To answer Helen's question, this one was easy -- a matter of deciding to attend her talk, which was open to the public.  My friend Donna went along with me, and we were both very impressed with what she said.  Afterwards, Donna photographed me with Naomi Tutu, but it was too dark to get a good photo (we were using my cell phone, which has no flash), so this one is from the internet.

Fun Fact:  I began writing this first post in the series while I was in Nashville a few days ago, though I had forgotten it's where Naomi Tutu lives until I looked up this article to refresh my memory about when she was in Chattanooga.

Authors I've met

I'm adding Richard Peck to the list of authors I remember meeting:

Richard Peck
Masha Hamilton
Fannie Flagg
Laurie Halse Anderson
Madeleine L'Engle
E. L. Konigsburg
Robert Hicks
Christopher Paul Curtis
Avi
Susan Gregg Gilmore
Janisse Ray
Marcus J. Borg
John Dominic Crossan
Theda Perdue
Paul Von Ward

Laurie Halse Anderson ~ talking about "Forge"

Today, I reserved Laurie Halse Anderson's newest YA novel, Forge, at my library, which has three copies in process.  Forge, the second in a trilogy, follows Chains (click to read my review).  I have also reviewed some of her other books:  Speak, Independent Dames, Thank You, Sarah, and The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School.

Here's a video Laurie made when she was in Austin for the Texas Book Festival.

Authors I have met

When the BEA (Book Expo America) met in May, those of us who stayed home held our own Armchair BEA.  I participated in only one meme, the one about book signings and author sightings.  In my post, I tried to remember some of the authors I've met over the years.  I managed to come up with a few that day, but I'm still occasionally remembering others I've stood in line for, waiting to get a book signed.  The best meet-ups with authors, of course, are when I actually get to look her or him in the eye and talk a few minutes.  Here are the ones I remember specifically.

I've read three of Masha Hamilton's books, but have reviewed only one of them:  The Camel Bookmobile.  Donna and I had lunch with Masha when she came to Tennessee for a conference, and Masha also chatted with our face-to-face book club via speaker phone.  Take a look at Masha's web site.

Fannie Flagg came to town for our very first A Tale for One City event, when Chattanoogans read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.  She's as funny in person as I expected her to be.

A Tale for One City is a citywide reading initiative designed to get Chattanoogans to read the same book at the same time. Started by READ Chattanooga, the purpose of this program is to build unity in the community and to stress the importance of reading.

Laurie Halse Anderson was here in March 2008, when A Tale for One City read her YA novel Speak.  She shared a meal with members of the committee, which gave me a chance to talk to her.  I've reviewed three of her books:  Speak, a young adult novel; Independent Dames, a children's book; and The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School, another children's book.

I've read two of Christopher Paul Curtis's excellent young adult novels: Bud, Not Buddy and The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963, about the church bombing.  A Tale for One City chose Bud, Not Buddy as our YA book one year, and I chatted with him at a reception at the home of a committee member.

I first learned about Avi when my friend Donna insisted I read Nothing But the Truth, a wonderful YA novel in documentary form, which became one of my favorite YA books, ever.  Donna and I met Avi at a conference in Kentucky a few years ago.  Take a look at Avi's web site.

Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan are friends and occasional co-authors.  In February, I'll be leading a weekend retreat in a study of Borg's The Heart of Christianity, the best book I've found that explains differences between two current streams of Christian thought.  Together, Borg and Crossan wrote The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon.  One of Crossan's most recent books is God and Empire.

The list keeps getting longer.  So far I've remembered Laurie Halse Anderson, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Masha Hamilton, Theda Perdue, Madeleine L'Engle, Robert Hicks, Susan Gregg Gilmore, Paul Von Ward, Fannie Flagg, Janisse Ray, Avi, and Christopher Paul Curtis.  That's a baker's dozen (thirteen, in other words).  Actually, I've met several others at the Conferences on Southern Literature I've attended (people like Lee Smith), but these thirteen are my most memorable "author sightings."

Update (1-27-11):  E. L. Konigsburg, who wrote The View from Saturday and lots of other young adult books, signed my book when she spoke at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Update (1-26-14):  I met Paul Von Ward, author of The Soul Genome, when he spoke at the Unitarian church.

Adding an author to my list

When I wrote about meeting authors, I missed one (maybe more).  Susan Gregg Gilmore's post about visiting Southern bookstores mentioned Janisse Ray, reminding me to go back to my Author Sightings post and add her name.  I met her about a decade ago when she was in Chattanooga for the Conference of Southern Literature.  I had read and loved her book Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (1999) about how a childhood spent in rural isolation and steeped in religious fundamentalism grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that once covered the South. This book, her first, garnered lots of awards:

Southeastern Booksellers Award 1999
American Book Award 2000
Southern Environmental Law Center 2000 Award for Outstanding Writing
Southern Book Critics Circle Award 2000

Janisse Ray has published three more books since then.  Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home (2003) is about coming home:  "Seventeen years after she'd left home 'for good,' Janisse Ray pointed her truck away from Montana and back to the small southern town where she was born."  Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land (2005) explores southern Georgia's Pinhook Swamp, a vital watershed that links the Okefenokee and the Osceola National Forest.  A House of Branches (2010) is a book of "poems informed by the author's long-standing interest in the wilderness and nature."

I have put Wild Card Quilt on hold at my library.  Have you read any of Janisse Ray's books?

Susan's second novel ~ The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove

I met Susan Gregg Gilmore last August when she spoke to the Southern Lit Book Club about her first novel, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.  This evening I went to a book signing for her second novel, The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove, which was published Tuesday.  Susan graciously posed for a photo with me (in the middle) and my friend Donna (on the right), a couple of hours ago.  You should have seen the line of people waiting for her to sign their copies!

I'm sure I'll like getting to know Bezellia Grove, who lives in Nashville, as much as I enjoyed knowing Catherine Grace Cline, who lives in the little town of Ringgold, just south of Chattanooga. (Okay, so they live in a fictional Nashville and a fictional Ringgold. When you read the books, you'll see how REAL her characters are!)

Read more about Susan's books on her web site: http://www.susangregggilmore.com/

Armchair BEA: Book Signings and Author Sightings

It isn't true that all book bloggers have left the blogosphere to attend the BEA (Book Expo America) in New York this week.  There is, for example, me!  I'm still here at home, and I have discovered that other book bloggers (like Sarah of Puss Reboots, who designed the logo pictured here) have decided we could have our own BEA on our blogs.  Here are some examples:

• Yesterday Chris of Book-A-Rama posted I See Dead People and populated her "dream panel" with dead authors -- Jane Austen, Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), and Charlotte Bronte -- adding, "though I doubt Charlotte would be comfortable being stared at by so many people."
• Today Nancy, the Bookfool, posted Blast from the Past, showing us a dozen books she fell in love with as a child and as a young mother.
• Yesterday Florinda of the 3 R's Blog posted If I were there, and NOT in my chair. She imagined herself THERE in New York City and wandered through the New Title Showcase.

I knew I needed an idea, so I searched Armchair BEA Central's suggestions and came up with this BEA-related one.

BOOK SIGNINGS and AUTHOR SIGHTINGS

Here I am with Fannie Flagg, who is signing my copy of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. (Photographing a small snapshot with my cell phone caused that reflection across the top.)  My favorite of all her books is Red Bird Christmas, because of quotes like this one from page 35:

Mildred looked at her, highly incensed. “And just how am I supposed to know what I want until I get there? That’s why it’s called shopping, Frances!” And with that she marched out the door.

Laurie Halse Anderson signed Fever 1793 for me when she was in Chattanooga a couple of years ago.  I have reviewed her YA novel Speak, which has been challenged, on this blog and on my Banned Books blog.

John Dominic Crossan signs books as "Dominic," as you can see.  This is what he wrote for me in his memoir A Long Way from Tipperary.  I've met him a couple of times, once when he led a seminar about his book God and Empire and another time on The First Paul, which he wrote with Marcus Borg.

Dom's friend and occasional co-author, Marcus Borg, led a day-long seminar that I attended on his book The Heart of Christianity.  I got my email moniker from that book:  Emerging Paradigm.

After driving three hours to a conference in the northeast corner of Tennessee, I lucked out and actually had lunch at Masha Hamilton's table before taking part in her workshop about her novel The Camel Bookmobile.

Theda Perdue wrote a history of Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, probably the best history book I've ever read.  Aong with the other women of my face-to-face book club, I met her when she spoke at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on the same night we sat around a table to discuss her book.

Years ago, I drove an hour north of here to hear Madeleine L'Engle, who wrote A Wrinkle in Time and dozens of other books.  She was younger then than this picture of her.  She is one of my favorite authors of all time, and I was surprised at how sad I was when I heard she had died in 2007.

Robert Hicks signed his novel, A Separate Country, for me.  I've been to two of his book signings.

I'm trying to remember other authors I have met, but this may have to do for now.

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Addendum (5-27-2010):  Yep, I knew I'd start remembering other authors I've met.  Here are two more I have remembered this morning.

Just this past August I met Susan Gregg Gilmore at a local bookstore where she was promoting her 2008 book Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. Here's a teaser from page 236:

"My mama and daddy had certainly left me a mess to sort out, and I couldn't think of a single verse of scripture that was going to comfort me as I came to terms with an adulterating daddy, a resurrected mama, and an expectant mistress with an imaginary fiance."

And another author I met was Paul Von Ward, who wrote Soul Genome.  I've run into him a time or two since I first met him two years ago, and he has signed three of his books for me:  Our Solarian Legacy, The Soul Genome, and Gods, Genes, and Consciousness.
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UPDATE on Sept 8, 2010:  I met Janisse Ray about a decade ago, but I had forgotten until I read about her on another blog. I've written about her on my blog today.  Click here to read about her and her books.
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UPDATE on Dec 12, 2010:  Helen listed books she read during 2010 that got her highest rating, and among them is Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  That reminded me that I met him at a reception held in the home of another member of the committee that brought him to Chattanooga.  I even chatted with him over hors d'oeuvres.  I highly recommend Bud, Not Buddy.

And it just crossed my mind that I met Avi at a conference in Kentucky.  My favorite book by Avi is Nothing But the Truth.

The list keeps getting longer.  So far I've remembered Fannie Flagg, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Masha Hamilton, Theda Perdue, Madeleine L'Engle, Robert Hicks, Susan Gregg Gilmore, Paul Von Ward, Janisse Ray, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Avi.  That's a baker's dozen (thirteen, in other words).