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YA Nonfiction: Two Holocaust Memoirs

Oct15

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the impossible became possible . . . on Schindler’s list by Leon Leyson with Marilyn J. Harran and Elisabeth Leyson.

Helga’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Account of Life in a Concentration Camp by Helga Weiss, translated by Neil Bermel.

Both of these accounts, written by Jewish Holocaust survivors about their teen years in Nazi-occupied territory, were quite absorbing and harrowing, each in its own way. Mr. Leyson’s book has a two-fold purpose as evidenced by the dedication: “To my brothers, Tsalig and Herschel, and to all the sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, parents and grandparents who perished in the Holocaust. And to Oskar Schindler, whose noble actions did indeed save a ‘world entire.'” There has been some controversy over whether the hero of the movie Schindler’s List was really a an unequivocal hero since he was something of a contradiction, a womanizing Nazi businessman who nevertheless saved the lives of perhaps more than one thousand Jewish workers who were slated for extermination by the Germans. Leon Leyson has no doubts about the heroism of Oskar Schlindler since Leon was one of those workers who was on Schlindler’s famous “list”. The memoir begins with Leib Lejzon, now known as Leon Leyson, living in the rural village of Narewka in northeastern Poland. Leon says that when he was a boy “[l]ife seemed an endless, carefree journey.” First, Leon’s father moved to the city of Krakow to work, and then in 1938 when Leon was eight years old, his father sent for the family to join him in Krakow. In 1939 the Leysons’ idyllic and upwardly mobile life came to an abrupt halt when the Germans invaded Poland.

The Boy on the Wooden Box is an excellent story for young adult readers about the Holocaust and about the survivors, particularly the work of Oskar Schlindler in saving many of the Jews who worked for him. Leon Leyson’s mantra for survival could be useful to anyone who is going through suffering and hard times, even if they never have to survive something as horrendous as the Holocaust:

“a new phrase surfaced: ‘If this is the worst that happens.’ My father and mother also adopted this saying as a tool of survival, perhaps as a way of keeping darker thoughts at bay. . . . Whenever a German was near, we whispered to ourselves, ‘If this is the worst . . .'”

Helga’s Diary is the story of the Czech/Jewish Helga Weiss’s childhood spent in the concentration camp of Terezin, and then later at Auschwitz. The Terezin portion of the diary was written at the time of the events and edited later for clarity by the author. Helga’s uncle hid the diary for her at Terezin when Helga and her mother were sent on a transport to Auschwitz. Then, after the war, Helga retrieved the diary and added the details of events that happened to her and her mother at Auschwitz and on their final journey through Poland and Czechoslovakia on a “death train” as the war was drawing to a close.

Helga’s childlike confusion over what was happening to her family and to the rest of the Jews in Czechoslovakia, and then her growing understanding and horror, lend her story an immediacy that pulls the reader into the story in a way that Mr. Leyson’s story is unable to do, written as it was long after the events took place. At the same time there are questions left unanswered in Helga’s account, as there must be in any child’s view of the war. An interview with Helga Weiss in the back of the book brings her story up to date and answered a few of those questions. Other uncertainties in the story simply must be left open since we are reading the story from young Helga’s point of view.

Finally I leave you with Helga Weiss’s words on why her book (and by extension Leon Leyson’s book, too) is important and should be read:

Why should we read another account of the Holocaust?

Mostly because it is truthful. I’ve put my own sentiments into it as well, but those sentiments themselves are emotional, moving, and most of all, truthful. And maybe because it’s narrated in that half-childish way, it’s accessible and expressive, and I think it will help people to understand those times.

The Boy on the Wooden Box has been nominated for the Cybils Award in the category of Young Adult Nonfiction. Helga’s Diary, although eligible in the same category, has not yet been nominated. The thoughts in this review are my own and do not reflect the thoughts or evaluations of the Cybils panel or of any other Cybils judge.

Outcasts United by Warren St. John

Oct4

Outcasts United: The Story of a Refugee Soccer Team That Changed a Town, adapted for young people by Warren St. John.

Great story. Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian-born, U.S. educated soccer coach, takes on a group of misfit immigrant boys from half a dozen different, mostly war-torn, countries and makes them into a soccer team—actually three soccer teams the Under Thirteens, the Under Fifteens, and the Under Seventeens. Collectively, they’re known as the Fugees.

It’s a feel-good sports story. I can see it being made into a movie. But I wish I had read the adult version. This YA adaptation felt “holey”, as if there were missing motivations and explanations that would have made the story more understandable. Maybe it was just a true story about real people, and maybe some of the inconsistencies and questions that were raised in my mind were just a result of real life being inconsistent and not as conveniently close-looped as fiction. But since I knew that the author had abridged the adult book of the same title, I kept wondering what was left out.

There’s lots of play-by-play soccer commentary on the Fugees’ critical games. I skimmed over those parts to get to the final score, but soccer fans would enjoy the details.

Here’s a 2007 NY Times article by Mr. St. John that gives the basic outlines of the Fugees and their story. The book mostly focuses on the 2006-2007 soccer season for the Fugees, the tension between the town of Clarkston, Georgia and the influx of refugees, and the coach, Luma and her dedication to the refugee boys she coaches.

From the Fugees Family website:

“The team that Coach Luma established in 2004 has grown to four teams, a tutoring program, an academy, an academic camp, and more. The Fugees Family is the only organization in Georgia that provides programming specifically for refugee boys. By tapping into soccer, the most popular sport in the world, the Fugees Family undertakes its mission to level the playing field and give our kids the same chance at being successful as everyone else’s.”

I would suggest the adult version of the book for adults and young adults who really want to know all of the background on the team and the refugee “problem” in Clarkston. The YA adaptation is for soccer fans who maybe are reluctant readers or want an easier, quick-to-read version of the story.

Gettysburg by Iain Cameron Martin

Oct3

Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War by Iain Cameron Martin.

I wanted to like this book, and it had a lot going for it: lots of good, well-placed photographs, an absorbing subject, apt quotations from numerous primary sources, a good flow to the story, for the most part, thorough attention to details without getting bogged down.

However, take this sentence . . . please:

“Ewell reconsidered his options and ordered Johnson to take Culp’s Hill with his division when they arrived but was only to advance if the hill remained unoccupied by the enemy—a discretionary order.”

Ouch. There were several awkward sentences and grammatical constructions, and I began to wonder if the book actually had an editor–or a proofreader. The publisher, Sky Pony Press, is not one I’ve ever encountered, but I looked at their website and they seem like a decent small publisher/imprint. The design and layout and most of the text are all quite above average. So it was even more jarring to read sentences like the one above or come across paragraphs with mixed verb tenses.

In addition, the book was unsuitably titled since it didn’t really focus on the “two young heroes,” Daniel Skelly and Tillie Pierce. The two eyewitnesses to the battle are quoted, and their stores are told. But the book includes so much more from so many more witnesses. The subtitle is not a good reflection of the scope of the book.

It’s sad because I became fascinated with the battle of Gettysburg in a bittersweet sort of way long ago when I read Killer Angels and then all over again when I saw the movie Gettysburg. Is there anything more tragic, and just sadder, than Pickett’s doomed charge? There can hardly be too many books about Gettysburg, but the subject shouldn’t be marred by infelicitous prose and bad syntax.

Cybils 2013 Young Adult Nonfiction

Oct2

I am a Cybils panelist for the Young Adult Nonfiction category this year, so I’d like to see lots of great books nominated in that category. The category is aimed at young adults, ages 13-18, who like to read the real stuff, the ones who only want to read it if it really, truly happened–or is happening.

“We are looking for the best of the best for nonfiction. We are seeking nominations for outstanding nonfiction that reads so much like a story, readers cannot believe it is nonfiction. Narrative nonfiction reads like story because the information is blended into a well written and meaningful text.”

Here are some possible nominees for the 2013 Cybils Young Adult Nonfiction category:

“The President Has Been Shot!”: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James L. Swanson. NOMINATED

Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kids by Deborah Ellis. NOMINATED

Shanghai Escape (Holocaust Remembrance Series) by Kathy Kacer.

Gettysburg: The True Account of Two Young Heroes in the Greatest Battle of the Civil War By Iain C. Martin.

Open Mic: Riffs on Life Between Cultures in Ten Voices by Mitali Perkins, Editor.

The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World’s Most Notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb. NOMINATED

Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans during World War II by Martin W. Sandler NOMINATED

Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent (Women of Action) by Pearl Witherington Cornioley.

Master George’s People: George Washington, His Slaves, and His Revolutionary Transformation by Marfe Ferguson Delano. NOMINATED in the Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction category.

The Brontë Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne by Catherine Reef. Semicolon review here.

Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty by Tonya Bolden.

Once Upon A Road Trip by Angela N. Blount.

Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain by Russell Freedman.

Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron by Mary Losure. NOMINATED in the Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction category.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Michael French.

Trafficked: My Story of Surviving, Escaping, and Transcending Abduction into Prostitution by Sophie Hayes.

This is Not a Writing Manual: Notes For the Young Writer in the Real World by Kerrie Majors 07/09/2013

For the Good of Mankind?: The Shameful History of Human Medical Experimentation by Vicki Oransky Wittenstein.

Tillie Pierce Teen Eyewitness To The Battle of Gettysburg by Tanya Anderson.

Andrew Jenks: My Adventures As a Young Filmmaker by Andrew Jenks.

Helga’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Account of Life in a Concentration Camp by Helga Weiss.

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler’s List by Leon Leyson. NOMINATED

My American Revolution: A Modern Expedition Through History’s Forgotten Battlegrounds By Robert Sullivan.

A Chance to Win: Boyhood, Baseball, and the Struggle for Redemption in the Inner City by Jonathan Schuppe.

Your Food Is Fooling You: How Your Brain Is Hijacked by Sugar, Fat, and Salt
By David A. Kessler, MD. NOMINATED

Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves (True Stories) by Miranda Kenneally and E. Kristin Anderson. NOMINATED

Bones Never Lie: How Forensics Helps Solve History’s Mysteries
 by Elizabeth MacLeod.

Holy Spokes!: A Biking Bible for Everyone
 by Rob Coppolillo.

The Hatfields and the McCoys by Bruce Wexler.

I haven’t read, or even seen, all of these, but if you have read one and liked it, please take the time to nominate it—or another of your favorite young adult nonfiction books from 2013—at the Cybils website. A couple of these might fit under middle grade and elementary nonfiction category, but it’s OK. If we get the category wrong, the organizers will fix it. Nomination time.

The Bronte Sisters by Catherine Reef

Sep20

The Bronte Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne by Catherine Reef.

Brief, indeed. Emily was 30 years old in December 1848 when she died of tuberculosis. Anne died of tuberculosis a few months later in May 1849. She was 29 years old. Their older brother Branwell had predeceased them by a few months (September 1848). He was 31 years old.

Charlotte wrote: “A year ago–had a prophet warned me how I should stand in June 1849, had he foretold the autumn, the winter, the spring of sickness and suffering to be gone through—I should have thought–this can never be endured. It is over. Branwell—Emily—Anne are gone like dreams.”

Charlotte managed to outlive her siblings by a few years. She died at the age of 39—probably of tuberculosis. Oh, and by the way, the Brontes had two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who died when they were young. Want to guess what killed them?

Therefore, one thing I learned from reading this tragic, true story of Victorian genius was that tuberculosis was (is?) really, really deadly, and I’m glad I didn’t live back then, before antibiotics. And I hope I don’t live to see a resurgence of TB, post-effective antibiotics.

I’ve alway found the Bronte family to be fascinating, even before I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. I read a different book when I was just an elementary school student called The Return of the Twelves by Pauline Clarke. Ms. Clarke’s fantasy about the Brontes’ toy soldiers who come to life and try to return to the Bronte home in Yorkshire won the Carnegie Medal in 1962 (British title The Twelve and the Genii). Anyway, I loved that book, and it’s the story about the Brontes as children and about the stories they told to each other that first got me interested in the Bronte family.

I didn’t actually read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights with understanding and enjoyment until I was in college. And I also read Mrs. Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte Bronte when I was in college. What an amazing family! Even Branwell, with his Heathcliff/Mr. Rochester/Byron alcoholic character, hold a certain fascination.

This biography by Catherine Reef was more than decent, and I did learn a lot about the Bronte family. The book mentions the toy soldiers, and the friendship between Charlotte and Mrs. Gaskell, and several other details that were familiar to me. I also gleaned some new information. For instance, I had forgotten that Charlotte married, after Emily, Anne, and Branwell died. And I never knew how very dissolute Branwell was.

Nevertheless, I’m not sure Ms. Reef really understood the Christian faith of Charlotte and Anne, and perhaps Emily, although Emily seems to have been more private and perhaps less orthodox. She writes several times about how “religious” Anne was and about how Charlotte’s faith was “unshaken.” But their faith comes across in the book as a kind of quaint Victorian notion, rather than a real conviction and solace in grief. The author does quote Charlotte’s reaction to atheist Harriet Maritneau’s apologetic for atheism, Letters on the Law of Man’s Social Nature and Development. Charlotte wrote in response to Ms. Martineau’s lack of faith in God:

“The strangest thing is that we are called on to rejoice over this hopeless blank, to welcome this unutterable desolation as a pleasant state of freedom. Who could do this if he would? Who would do it if he could?”

Still, if this biography doesn’t capture the fullness of the Brontes’ faith, it does give a reasonably detailed picture of the life and times of this remarkable family suited to readers age 12 and up. After reading Ms. Reef’s biography, I am wanting to read Charlotte Bronte’s other novels, Villette and Shirley, and Anne’s two books, Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I’d also like to re-read Wuthering Heights and The Return of the Twelves, but not until after Cybils season is over.

Real Justice: Convicted for Being Mi’kmaq by Bill Swan

Sep19

Real Justice: Convicted for Being Mi’kmaq, The Story of Donald Marshall Jr. by Bill Swan.

This Real Justice book is the second by author Bill Swan in a series of nonfiction stories about Canadian teens who were wrongfully convicted of serious crimes and only exonerated after many years of incarceration. Swan’s first book in the series was about the case of Stephen Truscott, a high-profile murder conviction in which the convicted fourteen year old, Truscott, was exonerated after forty plus years in prison.

Donald Marshall Jr. was convicted of killing his friend/acquaintance Sandy Seale in 1971 and sentenced to life in prison in Nova Scotia, Canada. Donald Marshall Jr. was of Native American (Mi’kmaq) extraction, and his alleged victim was black, or “African Canadian” or “racialized”, as the book calls him. The author takes a statement from the Royal Commission that studied the case and makes it the centerpiece of his story:

“Donald Marshall Jr. was convicted and sent to prison, in part at least, because he was a Native person.”

Mr. Swan effectively ignores the “in part” part of that statement, and tells the entire story of Sandy Seale’s murder as if Mr. Marshall were completely trustworthy and totally innocent, while acknowledging that Marshall was in trouble with the law and had an explosive temper and lied, both before and after the alleged crime took place. I’m not denying that a dreadful miscarriage of justice happened and that Donald Marshall Jr. was unjustly imprisoned for a crime that he did not commit. However, the author’s attempts to make Marshall into an innocent victim of racial bias, and even a hero for his supposed “courage” and “integrity,” fall flat.

The book calls Donald Marshall’s story “deeply troubling” and says that “conviction for a crime he did not commit scarred him for life.” Maybe. But this book did not convince me that Marshall was a hero–just a sad victim in a sordid case. I never got a sense of who Donald Marshall was —just a sense that he wasn’t the one who murdered Sandy Seale.

I received a review copy of Real Justice: Convicted for Being Mi’kmaq from NetGalley.

There is an adult nonfiction book about the Donald Marshall case: Justice Denied The Law Versus Donald Marshall by Michael Harris, and the book inspired a movie, also called Justice Denied.

Death by Living: Life Is Meant to Be Spent by N.D. Wilson

Sep18

I can’t review this book for a couple of reasons. First of all Mr. Wilson’s writing is intimidating in its brilliance and cleverness. I’m not that clever. Secondly, I read Death by Living on my Kindle. I can’t put my finger on the difference, but something about reading a book on the Kindle makes it feel different, lesser, and difficult to capture. I think it has to do with not being able to easily flip back and forth and re-read parts, or something. Anyway, I am finding it hard to evaluate books fairly that I read on my Kindle, even if I enjoyed them, as I did this one. I just think maybe I would have enjoyed it more in print, on paper.

So, in lieu of a review, her are a few excerpts that I found noteworthy or highlight-worthy:

“Understand this: we are both tiny and massive. We are nothing more than molded clay given breath, but we are nothing less than divine self-portraits, huffing and puffing along mountain ranges of epic narrative arcs prepared for us by the Infinite Word Himself.”

“I began to see the world more like a cook than a writer. There were boundless ingredients out there, combinations waiting to be discovered and simmered and served. There were truths and stories and characters and quirks that could clash badly, and some that could marry and birth sequels. I began to feel a lot more comfortable. It wasn’t all on me to create. It was on me to find. To catch. To arrange.”

“When Job lifted his face to the Storm, when he asked and was answered, he learned that he was very small. He learned that his life was a story.. He spoke with the Author, and learned that the genre had not been an accident. God tells stories that make Sunday School teachers sweat and mothers write their children permission slips excusing them from encountering reality.”

“The world never slows down so that we can grasp the story, so that we can form study groups and drill each other on the recent past until we have total retention. We have exactly one second to carve a memory of that second, to sort and file and prioritize in some attempt at preservation. But then the next second has arrived, the next breeze to distract us, the next plane slicing through the sky, the next funny skip from the next funny toddler, the next squirrel fracas, and the next falling leaf.”

“Imagine a world that is truly and intrinsically and explosively accidental. Explain time in that world, in the world with no narrative and no narrator. Why time? Why progression?”

“Time is that harsh current that thrusts us down the rapids of narrative causation. Every moment leads to another moment and those moments pile together, boiling and rolling in falls, creasing skin and blinding eyes and breaking bones and wiping minds. Why are we old? Because we were young. Why do we die? Because we lived.”

“No matter how many pictures we take, no matter how many scrapbooks we make, no matter how many moments we invade with a rolling camera, we will die. We cannot grab and hold. We cannot smuggle things out with through death.”

“We are authors and we are writing every second of every day. A child scissors a couch, and that action is forever and always. It cannot be undone. But now it is your turn. What you say and what you do in response will be done forever, never to be appealed, edited or modified.”

So yeah, it’s a book about time and living abundantly and stories and choices and dust motes and upchuck. Yep, all of those things. So read it. But maybe not on an eReader.

Cybils 2013

Sep17

Yeah, hooray, I’m going to be judging Cybils again this year. Along with a great team of litbloggers, I’m going to be helping to choose the finalists for the Young Adult Nonfiction category this year, a category which I expect to add to my knowledge base and broaden my reading horizons.

My fellow nonfiction panelists are:
Jessica Tackett MacDonald, Her life with Books

Kim Baciella, Si Se Puede

Stephanie Charlefour, Love, Life, Read

Cheryl Vanatti, Reading Rumpus

Alyssa Feller, The Shady Glade

Sarah Sammis, Puss Reboots

This year’s Cybils is going to be fun. I hope you enjoy it, too, as I read and review nonfiction on all sorts of topics. I may even sneak over to the fiction side and read some of the nominees in the other categories. Hang on, and get ready to start nominating your favorite YA and children’s titles starting October 1st at the Cybils blog.

U.S. Constitution Day

Sep15

Constitution Day is celebrated in the United States each year on September 17th, the day that the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787. Educational institutions receiving funding through the Department of Education are required to participate by holding educational programs pertaining to the U.S. Constitution. I think this particular instance of unwarranted interference by the federal government in educational affairs is probably unconstitutional, but well-meaning and perhaps helpful. At any rate, if you want to introduce students—or yourself– to the U.S. Constitution and its meaning, here are some titles to help you to do so:

Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen. Subtitled “The Story of the Constitutional Convention May to September 1787,” this book is the one that gave me the story of the US constitution. It’s suitable for older readers, at least middle school age, but it’s historical writing at its best. I loved reading about Luther Martin of Maryland, whom Henry Adams described as “the notorious reprobate genius.” Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts who was”always satisfied to shoot an arrow without caring about the wound he caused.” (Both Gerry and Martin refused to sign the final version of the Constitution.) Of course, there were Madison, known as the Father of the Constitution, George Washington, who presided over the convention in which all present knew that they were creating a presidency for him to fill, and Ben Franklin, the old man and elder statesman who had to be carried to the convention in a sedan chair. Ms. Bowen’s book brings all these characters and more to life and gives the details of the deliberations of the constitutional convention in readable and interesting format.

A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution by Betsy Maestro; illustrated by Guilio Maestro.

If You Were There When They Signed the Constitutionby Elizabeth Levy; illustrated by Joan Holub.

Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution by Jean Fritz; illustrated by Tomie dePaola.

We the Kids: The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States Illustrated by David Catrow.

We the People: The Story of Our Constitution by Peter Spier.

Great Little Madison by Jean Fritz.

Cobblestone: Celebrating Our Constitution. Cobblestone Publishing, September 1987. (magazine for kids)

Cobblestone: The Constitution of the United States. Cobblestone Publishing, September 1982. (magazine for kids)

Celebrate the Constitution game.

Unexpected Gifts: Discovering the Way of Community by Christopher L. Heuertz

Sep11

This book was an unexpected gift. I was in the mood for something nonfiction, inspirational, and thought-provoking. And Mr. Heuertz delivered.

I know nothing at all about Word Made Flesh community, the community that Mr. Heuertz lived in and among and from which he takes his examples in the book. I know nothing of the jargon that Mr. Heuertz uses in his book: “contemplative activism”, “transitional awakening” and “prophetic community”. I am skeptical about the pantheon of heroes of whom the author has pictures pinned up in his office: Gandhi, Romero (who?), Che (?), Mother Teresa and Bob Marley(?). I got lost in the “progressive” new monasticism that Mr. Heuertz espouses and the sometimes dense, esoteric language he uses to describe his insights into community. I don’t think the author and I are on the same page, theologically speaking.

And yet . . . Mr. Heuertz has deep experiential understanding and wisdom about how Christians can and should live in community. I found a lot to think about and mull over, especially in relation to my church family, my immediate family and my homeschool co-op family, all of which make up the community where God has placed me. The chapters in the book talk about eleven “unexpected gifts” of living in community: failure, doubt, insulation, isolation, transition, the unknown self, betrayal, incompatibility, ingratitude, grief, and restlessness. All of these would seem to be issues and problems rather than gifts, but as we allow God to redeem our failures, doubts, griefs, and restlessness, we can receive these things as gifts to spur us on to greater growth and deeper relationship with Him and with others.

Failure: ” . . . let restoration become a journey toward brokenness. For in brokenness, our woundedness is best addressed, our fears are calmed, our shame is lifted, and love is extended.”

Doubt: ” . . . very real times of doubt lead both of us to places of lament—the grieving of the things that are fundamentally broken in the world—even as we simultaneously hope for more of God’s justice, presence and nearness. . . . in our community, when one of us has been down or experiencing doubt, we have found that the faith of those around us helps carry us.”

Insulation: “Our communities won’t always be able to offer us everything we need, nor will we be able to give back all that they need from us. . . That’s often when we need to step back, to refocus.”

Isolation: “The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from a Christian community, may actually mean the exclusion of Christ.” ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Transition (or change): “Avoiding blame, not picking sides, speaking honorably of the communities we leave or the people who transition from our communities are all parts of a bigger process–one that must also include space for grieving and room for celebrating.”

The Unknown Self: I must admit that this chapter about self-image and identity didn’t speak to me, and I didn’t understand what the author was trying to say. Self-discovery is found in self-denial which allows us to be free and whole people? Or something.

Betrayal A powerful meditation on betrayal and forgiveness. “Our response to betrayal can be a powerful force, setting our life trajectories toward grace or bitterness.”

Incompatibility: Subtitled “When Together Is Too Close,” this chapter explores the difficulties and blessings of incompatibility or the flip-side of too much “chemistry” between people who need to maintain some emotional and physical distance (members of the opposite sex, for instance). I’m not sure I agreed with Mr. Heuertz in his simplistic solution, that we all just act like mature people and get along but not misbehave. I think it is more complicated than that and that there is a place for drawing “artificial” boundaries, such as two people of the opposite sex not being alone together or avoiding intimate communication with people who are immature or abrasive. Heuertz seems to sy that we should just exercise common sense and grow up.

Ingratitude: More powerful stuff. “Many of us hadn’t considered the ways in which ingratitude had created subtle distances among us–forgetting to say thank you when someone stayed late, pitched in, or helped complete a big project, or merely thanking each other for common courtesies such as opening a door. Sometimes not saying thank you when a meal tab was covered by a community member or failing to express gratitude for well-prepared meetings caused some of us to judge each other as entitled or ungrateful.”

Grief: “Grief must be accepted. We can’t control it; we have to experience the depths of grief. In a contemplative posture, we are able to receive the pain as a gift filled with healing and lament.”

Restlessness: I think I liked this chapter best of all because it spoke to my temptation to devalue and become tired of the daily-ness of my life and my calling as a mother. “Most of real life consists of living in the ordinary, in-between times, the space and pauses filled with monotony. Most of real life is undramatic. The challenge is to be faithful and consistent, ‘praying the work’ when no one is looking or when there’s no recognition of our contributions.”

“Becoming the best versions of ourselves often requires that we stay. Stay when things get hard. Stay when we get bored. Stay when we experience periods of unhappiness. Stay when the excitement wears off.Stay when we don’t like those we’re in community with. Stay when we fail or are betrayed. Stay when we know who we can become if we have courage to be faithful in the undramatic.”

Unexpected Gifts was sent to me free of charge by the publisher, Howard Books, for the purpose of review. I am grateful to them and to the author for the opportunity to review and reflect on the ideas that Mr. Heuertz presents in this testimony of difficulties transformed into gifts.