Meeting another author and an illustrator

Painting for Peace in Ferguson ~ by Carol Swartout Klein, 2015, children's, 9/10

Through poetry and art, this book tells the story of hundreds of artists and volunteers who turned boarded up windows into works of art with messages of hope, healing and unity in the aftermath of the Ferguson, Missouri riots.  Written in verse, the book focuses on the way the community came together to begin the healing process through the art of the Paint for Peace effort.  Using illustrations and photographs of the art and the artists and volunteers ― black and white, young and old ― the book is a tool for beginning the conversation with children about how we all have something to contribute to healing our communities.  As the last line in the book says, "The work is not finished, there's much more to be done.  But this art shows the spirit of a new Ferguson."

Painting for Peace: A Coloring Book for All Ages ~ by Carol Swartout Klein, illustrated by Robert O'Neil, 2016, racism, 9/10

Perfect for all ages, this coloring book is designed for adults and children to color together and lets them join the hundreds of artists who transformed the community of Ferguson, Missouri, by creating dazzling and inspiring works of art with messages of peace, love, and community.  Now parents and grandparents can color with their little ones to create their own images based on the murals that covered the boarded-up windows of the town and brought real hope to the community after months of tension.  More than a dozen of the original art pieces as well as some new designs are featured with both simple and elaborate elements making it appropriate for all ages.  A wonderful companion piece to the award-winning children’s picture book Painting for Peace in Ferguson that has been acclaimed by reviewers, teachers, parents, and kids alike.  All profits from sales of both the picture book and the coloring book will be reinvested in the Ferguson community.

Meeting the author and illustrator

Carol Swartout Klein and Robert O'Neil were at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Ladue Crossing, half a mile from me, so three of us went to color single pages they brought for us while the author and a few participants shared stories.  Marilyn, Donna, and I all bought copies of the coloring book, which Carol is holding.  It was a great afternoon, sitting around that table (see the colored pencils?) with like-minded people.

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.

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.