Tag: book-review

Spirituality, Writing

Books I Love by People I Love (2024)

Christine Eberle

‘Tis the season for curated book lists! Here’s my quirky, second annual contribution, with just two rules: I have to 1) know the author and 2) like the book. (And I can’t just have mentioned it in my Thankful Thursday posts, though there were a lot of great reads in there!)

If you’re shopping online (I’m looking at you, Cyber Monday), I beg of you, get not your books on Amazon. Local independent bookstores need our December dollars! If you don’t have one near you, try Bookshop.org, where you can indicate which local indie your purchase will support, or Barnes & Noble, a bona fide brick-and-mortar chain.

And if you want to gift any of my books for Christmas (including Finding God Along the Way) just email me and I’ll move heaven and earth to get personalized, signed copies to you or your chosen recipients.

Okay, here’s the 2024 edition of Books I Love by People I Love (or at least like and esteem a whole lot), alpha by author:

From Broken to Brilliant: How to Live a Brilliantly Resilient Life, by Mary Fran Bontempo
When you are racing to respond to one of life’s many crises, Mary Fran Bontempo has your back. This book—published on Kindle today—is a  “go bag” of useful strategies: nuggets culled from her own hard-earned experience and the wisdom of more than two dozen podcast guests. Delivered in her characteristic sassy style (she puts the “smart” in “smart ass”), the book also includes practical reflection questions to help you apply each insight to your own life. It’s a master class in getting a grip while remaining endlessly kind to yourself! GIFT THIS TO anyone at whom life has thrown a serious curveball.

The Mystics Would Like a Word: Six Women Who Met God and Found a Spirituality for Today, by Shannon K. Evans
By day, Shannon Evans is the culture and spirituality editor at the National Catholic Reporter; she’s also the author of three books and is one of my Ignatian Creators Summit pals. Here she has taken six mystics whose stories we may only think we know and paired them with searingly honest tales of her own life and our contemporary culture. The result is both riveting and thought-provoking. GIFT THIS TO anyone who likes their spirituality generously seasoned with sass.

Domestic Violence Awareness: Listen for the Whispers of Abuse, by Jennifer Gardella
How do you tell the difference between a jerk and an abuser? This is the topic that Dr. Jennifer Gardella tackles in her eye-opening book. Rooted in her own story but determined not to stop there, Jen’s mission is to “empower victims and their support systems to recognize signs of abuse beyond broken bones and bruises, and then learn how to provide support.” GIFT THIS TO anyone who harbors concerns about a loved one but is perplexed about what to do next.

Redeeming Power: Exercising the Gift as God Intended / 12 Lessons for Catholics Who Lead, by Ann Garrido
One of the things I often say about Ann Garrido is that she has a keen sense of what needs redeeming (see Redeeming Conflict and Redeeming Administration). In her third book in the series, she addresses the hard reality that leadership confers power, and power can be used hurtfully. As a remedy, Ann gives us a dozen strategies for the healthy and holy use of power, as well as twelve role models to follow. GIFT THIS TO anyone who finds themselves uncomfortably “in charge,” especially in a church setting.

The Dry Cleaner’s Three Stories, by Betsy Hudson
I’ve never had a comic book on my list before, and I may never again, but this is too sweet not to share. Betsy’s a fellow pilgrim from the Ignatian Camino. Her delightful little book tells the true story of her husband’s long flight delay spent—quite unexpectedly—in the company of their dry cleaner, Max, and the profound lessons Charlie encountered in the three true stories Max shared. “Because you never know when someone will tell you something that captivates, entertains, and maybe even changes you.” GIFT THIS TO anyone who enjoys a meaningful bit of cross-cultural whimsy.

MicroShifts: Transforming Your Life One Step at a Time, by Gary Jansen
Gary Jansen is an award-winning author, speaker, and editor (Loyola Press), but I know him best as someone I was fortunate to connect with during the last Ignatian Creators Summit. In this gem of a book, he explores the topic of personal transformation: why it’s so difficult, how we get in our own way, and things we can do to (gradually, sustainably) create the changes we desire. GIFT THIS TO: Anyone who could use a dose of practical inspiration in their stocking.

This Little Light: Lessons in Living from Sister Thea Bowman, by Bro. Mickey McGrath OSFS
With his usual flair for storytelling, artist Mickey McGrath illuminates the life of Servant of God Thea Bowman (one of the “Saintly Six” Black Catholics whose cause for canonization is under consideration). Through twelve paintings, he weaves her story of faith and hope with his unfolding personal and artistic growth, giving us all a little more light to see by. GIFT THIS TO anyone who needs to remember, “It doesn’t matter if you’re scared; just keep on steppin’!”

The End of Ending, by Josh Noem
Another Ignatian Creators Summit friend, Josh Noem is Editorial Director at Ave Maria Press whose other hats include blogger and novelist. The End of Ending is one of those rare novels that treats religion as a normal part of everyday life (true for so many people, but rarely seen in fiction). When I complemented him on that, Josh said that he wanted the book to be about “the lived experience of confronting despair, grief, injustice—and experiencing something gratuitous on the other side.” GIFT THIS TO fans of belief, beer, baseball or—better yet—all three!

Homework Success for Children with ADHD: A Family-School Intervention Program, by Thomas J. Power, James L. Karustis, and Dina F. Habboushe
Okay, you caught me. I have not read this book—because this is not a topic I’ve ever had to think about. But Jim Karustis played a brief but pivotal role in my journey from shy English major to campus ministry-immersed theology major, so I owe him a lot! And apparently this is a very good book and I did actually purchase it, so if anyone would like it please let me know and I’ll pop it in the mail. GIFT THIS TO any educator or parent of young children for whom “homework has become a frustrating battle nobody wins.”

The Missing, by Ben Tanzer
The Missing is narrated in the alternating voices of parents whose teenage daughter has vanished. Through this technique, Ben Tanzer deftly weaves the characters’ paths together even as their emotional trajectories are spinning apart. Ben was the publicist for my first two books; I know that he’s a good guy and a great dad. But here’s the writing challenge he set for himself: explore a crisis in which the protagonists make decisions he NEVER would make. I spent a lot of time yelling “Nooooo!” as I read, but ended up applauding Ben’s swell writing chops, and the creative leap required to get inside the heads of characters who keep taking dead wrong turns in their relationship. GIFT THIS TO anyone who’d enjoy a literary deep dive into some truly dark stuff.


A red cardinal in a tree in winter
Grief, Retreats, Spirituality, Writing

Paula D’Arcy

Christine Eberle

Part of the Thankful Thursday Series

“Wait, you know Paula D’Arcy?” I’ve loved Paula’s writing for decades; my Camino buddy Jane Lafave might as well have told me she’d been hanging out in Ann Patchett’s kitchen! Jane explained that she’d known the author for many years, since going on a pilgrimage she led to Notre Dame (Paris) as part of her grief ministry.

Paula D’Arcy

The ability to write or speak authentically about loss is hard earned, and Paula D’Arcy paid a terrible entrance price to the world of grief ministers. When she was a young mother, pregnant with her second child, her family was struck by a drunk driver. She awoke in the hospital, alone except for the child in her womb. Her beloved husband and twenty-one-month-old daughter were gone.

That she built a beautiful life in the wake of such tragedy is a testimony to the power of resurrection. I first encountered the story in her 2004 book Sacred Threshold: Crossing the Inner Barrier to a Deeper Love. When my mother died a few years later, I clung to D’Arcy’s next book, When People Grieve. It is full of sanity-saving wisdom and practical advice about the physical, mental, and emotional aftermath of a profound loss. I owe much of my patience with the slow course of grief to her gentle guidance.

D’Arcy’s devastating accident was almost fifty years ago. What defines her life now is not the tragedy, but her consequent commitment to helping others keep the doors of their hearts propped open, even in the midst of grief. She is the founder of the Red Bird Foundation, whose mission is to assist others in the transformation of pain and the restoration of hope.

What defines her life is not the tragedy, but her consequent commitment to helping others keep the doors of their hearts propped open . . .”

I am thrilled to announce that Paula soon will be offering a retreat via Zoom through the SSJ Center for Spirituality in Ocean Grove, NJ. Mark your calendars for Thursday, February 13 from 6-8 p.m. for “Beauty Beyond Loss: Finding Your Way Through the Mystery of Grief and Gratitude.” I just signed up; you can learn more and register here.

Knowing that pilgrimage has been a meaningful part of Paula D’Arcy’s life, I asked my friend Jane if she could reach out to her on my behalf. Paula read my manuscript, then swiftly responded with these lovely words: Finding God Along the Way is equal parts adventure and strong spiritual experience; I felt like I was being given a private retreat as I read along. In this beautifully written book, Eberle encourages readers to risk what it means to step into the unknown each day, putting the Camino experience within every person’s reach.

According to the Talmud, every blade of grass has an angel bending over it, whispering “Grow, grow, grow!” For every angel on earth who whispers hope into the hearts of grieving people, I am truly grateful.

Uncategorized

David W. Burns

Christine Eberle

Part of the Thankful Thursday Series

There’s an almost thirty-year gap in the story of my friendship with Dave Burns. I have clear (ish) memories of our time together as undergrads at Saint Joe’s: arguing in honors seminars, collaborating on SEARCH retreats, that sort of thing. When the Challenger exploded, Dave and his girlfriend (now wife) Kate and I watched the coverage together in Xavier Hall. There’s a fun cap-and-gown picture of us in front of the student center in 1987, and then . . . I was forty-nine, walking into church for my father’s funeral, trying to figure out who that vaguely familiar middle-aged man was, smiling at me kindly from a back pew.

Cultivating the “Man of Mystery” look!

Since I reconnected with Dave ten years ago, our shared passion for writing has helped us make up for lost time.  He sent me an unpublished draft of a fun romp in which his protagonist was a fast-talking, wise-cracking, self-deprecating Gorgon (yup—snakes for hair, paralyzing death-gaze). Then he confessed to having also written a six volume post-apocalyptic series with some surprisingly Biblical turns. I asked for the manuscripts one at a time, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Dave’s writing chops garnered some attention in 2019 when his excellent short story “Night Surf” won a Writer’s Digest grand prize. (You can read the story and an interview about it here.) And in 2022, he entered a Pitch Week competition at When Words Count—the writers’ retreat in Vermont that opened the door to my first published book—and swept all the categories, winning the top prize with that little Gorgon tale, now out in the world as Heart of Stone: Book One of The Medusa Chronicles. (Keep writing, Dave; we want to know what’s next for Kyra!)

Besides being a prolific writer, Dave is a New Jersey trial attorney. What do world-building in a fantasy novel and making a persuasive case to a jury have in common? They both rely on his gift for storytelling. In the Writer’s Digest interview, he says that’s the aspect of trial work he enjoys most: “having the opportunity to tell what I hope is a true story to a jury and then letting them weigh in on what they think of it.”

I haven’t seen Dave in the courtroom, but as a fan of his fiction, I believe that the truth at the core of each of his stories is what makes them so good. His characters wrestle with eternal, relatable themes of meaning and purpose, even when they’re battling mythological assassins or defending a citadel from vampire attacks.

His characters wrestle with eternal, relatable themes of meaning and purpose, even when they’re battling mythological assassins or defending a citadel from vampire attacks.”

Dave was one of the early readers for Finding God Along the Way, and I can picture exactly where I was when he called to tell me he had finished reading it.  I was giving a retreat in Hampton Bays NY, out for a long walk after dinner when my cell phone rang. “I remember finishing the last Lord of the Rings book as a kid,” Dave said, “and bursting into tears because I knew it was over and there wouldn’t be any more. Not since then have I been so sorry to reach the end of a book!”

Here’s what he had to say in writing: “Do you want to go for a walk with me?” With this deceptively simple question, author Christine M. Eberle launches us on a journey that is both physical and spiritual as she recounts her month-long, 300-mile trek through northern Spain with a group of fellow pilgrims to visit the key sites in the life of Ignatius of Loyola. In Finding God Along the Way: Wisdom from the Ignatian Camino for Life at Home, Eberle shares the perils and pitfalls of each stage of her travels, as well as the moments of sublime grace and beauty she encountered, while recreating each wild and wide vista of the Ignatian Camino trail—from the formidable heights of its mountains to the fragrant vineyards and arid deserts of its lowlands.

With her trademark tongue-in-cheek wit and relentless honesty, Eberle crafts both an entertaining and accessible memoir and a guidebook for meditating life’s most important questions. At turns harrowing and joyous, this is a book that lets the reader inhabit each step of an uplifting and transformative odyssey few will get to experience firsthand. By the time the author reaches the pinnacle of her journey and arrives at the monastery at Montserrat, the reader will feel an undeniable sense of accomplishment and triumph.

For new iterations of old friendships, I am truly grateful.

Spirituality, Writing

Jeff Crosby

Christine Eberle

Part of the Thankful Thursday Series

Beginnings are fascinating. Without Jeff Crosby’s introduction, I would not have found Paraclete Press. But the early threads of our connection could have been dropped without either of us noticing.

After Finding God in Ordinary Time came out in 2018, it was selected as a finalist for the Foreword Indies book awards. Jeff—who at the time was Publisher/CEO of InterVarsity Press—bought my book on the strength of its description in the magazine. Then he did two rare and wonderful things: he 1) wrote beautiful reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and 2) dropped me a note to let me know. (Book lovers: embrace this practice!)

Jeff Crosby and the cover is his book

By the time Finding God Abiding entered the world in 2022, Jeff was serving as president and CEO of ECPA, a trade association of Christian publishers, and working on his own book, The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts. I was honored to serve as one of his early readers, and included the book in my 2023 “Books I Love by People I Love.”

In that post, I wrote, “In this cozy book, Jeff explores the concept of saudade—a ‘vague and constant desire for something that does not and possibly cannot exist.’ He muses through ten longings, adding resources for further reading as well as a musical playlist to accompany each one. Gift this to any spiritually minded person who likes to read with pencil in hand.” (As a bonus: now you can download a beautiful, 32-page conversation guide and journal for Jeff’s book on the Broadleaf website.)

Jeff explores the concept of saudade—a ‘vague and constant desire for something that does not and possibly cannot exist.’

When I finished the first draft of Finding God Along the Way last year, Jeff was one of the first people I sent it to for thoughtful feedback, which he provided—then offered to help me find a publisher, should I need assistance. (Here’s where I should point out that Jeff and I have never met in person or even spoken on the phone.  Ours is an entirely epistolary friendship—so old fashioned!)

After several months of fruitless attempts to connect with publishers or agents, I turned to Jeff for advice. He sent me three ideas, of which Paraclete was clearly the strongest, but their website said they weren’t accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Jeff kindly shared my pitch with an editor friend on a Friday afternoon; by Monday morning, she’d asked to see the whole manuscript. Many editorial and marketing team meetings and a lot of discernment ensued, and now I’m part of the Paraclete Press family.  (As is Jeff, by the way; next year they are publishing his new book, World of Wonders: Reading as a Spiritual Discipline. I can’t wait to read it!)

Here’s Jeff’s kind endorsement: A three-cord strand of wonder awaits you in Finding God Along the Way, an inviting book that artfully weaves together Christine Marie Eberle’s pilgrimage along the Ignatian Camino in Spain with history of Ignatius of Loyola and the author’s own deep reflection on what she experienced and learned about herself—and her God—as she made her way. The scriptures she shares and the prompts for our own reflection as readers are icing on the cake. Whether or not you have shared the experience of pilgrimage, you will find much to savor in this book from one who has.

For our mutual delight in seeking just-the-right words to express the ineffable, I am truly grateful.

Spirituality, Writing

Elizabeth Grace Matthew

Christine Eberle

Part of the Thankful Thursday Series

“Great stories are all the same beneath the splendid array of differences that makes each one unique. The answers (whom to kill, whom to marry, how to cope) are specific to the place, the time, the characters, and the circumstances. But the questions (Who am I? What is my life about? What is my legacy?) that necessitate those answers are universal to the human condition.”

For years, I’ve been quoting this snippet from Elizabeth Grace Matthew during my retreat / keynote called “The Stories that Form Us”—explaining that I encountered it in an America magazine review of the Sex and the City reboot, of all things.  After encouraging people to brainstorm their favorite childhood books or current television series on streaming loops, I ask, “What questions—universal to the human condition—do they address?”

Elizabeth Grace Matthew

A few years ago, at a grade-school faculty retreat not far from my home, a teacher rushed up to me after the session. “Liz Matthew is a friend of mine! Do you want to meet her? I think you’d really like each other!”

It had never occurred to me that a writer I’d read in the Jesuit Review (note reverent tone) would be a mom who lived one town over from me—friendly and funny and fond of our local coffee shop. We met there and hit it off at once, chatting about writing and editing and creative-life balance, right to the outer limit of her childcare.

Several times since then, I’ve found myself sufficiently struck by the quality of writing in an America article to flip back to the beginning and see who wrote it, only to discover Liz’s name again.  (You can check out her articles here.) In addition to writing for many other publications, this mother of four boys is busy working on a book about Little Women and feminism. Sign me up!

It had never occurred to me that a writer I’d read in the Jesuit Review would be a mom who lived one town over from me—friendly and funny and fond of our local coffee shop.

While juggling all that, she made time to read my manuscript and had this to say:  “With humor and insight, Christine Eberle invites us to tag along from afar on her Ignatian Camino. At first glance, this is a book about how extraordinary circumstances super-charged one woman’s spiritual growth. Dig deeper, and it’s really about how ordinary life can also reveal our own opportunities to grow with God. Eberle gives us the context and the questions to better understand our own journeys, and where to look for those opportunities, through the evocative lens of Ignatian spirituality.”

For the serendipity that precedes the exclamation “How have we never met?” and the delight of discussing shared passions, I am truly thankful!