RevGalBookPals: Lauren Winner Book Giveaway!!!

Author Lauren Winner, who teaches at Duke Divinity School, has just published a new book, Still:  Notes on a Mid-faith Crisis (HarperOne).

This is a book about hitting a spiritual wall--


What happens when you hit a spiritual wall, and rather than fleeing, you stay there – right there at the wall?


What happens when the things you thought you knew about leading a Christian spiritual life no longer seem to make sense in the actual life you find yourself living?


What happens when you realize you have left the (joy-filled, thunderstruck) beginning of your spiritual life, and entered the decidedly not thunderstruck middle?


Those are the questions of Still. 

Lauren writes,

"I am making a big effort to get this book into the hands of women clergy, and I would love, if possible, to find a way of sending a copy to each member of the RevGalBlogPals ring."

If you would like a copy of Still, send your snail mail address to RevGalBlogPals@gmail.com by Monday, February 13, and we will forward the list to Lauren. Please write "Winner book" in the subject line. This offer is open to ring members, blog commenters, blog lurkers and Facebook fans of RevGalBlogPals, both clergy and lay, gals and pals.

We will be scheduling a book discussion on the blog sometime in the spring, but to be clear, the books are a gift, and neither RevGalBlogPals, nor any or the book recipients, are required to review or promote the book, or participate in a discussion of it.

RevGalBlogPals has never done an unsolicited snail mailing, and is highly unlikely to use your address in the future. (We live in the Cloud!) We think this is a very cool idea and a win-win for everyone involved.

Many thanks to ring member MaryAnn McKibben Dana for putting Lauren in touch with us!

Here's a review of the book:

Publishers Weekly starred review of Still:

Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis

Lauren F. Winner. HarperOne, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-176811-8

In present-tense, lyrical essays of varying lengths, some brief paragraphs, others pages long, the author explores her emotional landscape as she struggles to move beyond the depression that plagues her following her mother’s death and her own divorce. Examining feelings of grief, failure, and doubt that she never expected to encounter after her conversion from Judaism to Christianity, Winner’s (Girl Meets God) use of rhythm and image bring poetic nuances to her exquisitely crafted prose. Narrative accounts of visiting her mother’s grave; “the failed cool-professor moment;” infiltrating a synagogue, in costume, to participate in Purim; and a church visit that results in her holding hands with “one of the people from whom Jesus would have cast a demon” all provide an intimate window into a seeker trying to find equilibrium in a stage of faith and life that is neither beginning nor end, but, she fears, “an extended sojourn into the spiritual equivalent of middle school.” Evocative section titles (“hospitality: an icon,” “female saints, their intimacy with Jesus”) and quotes from poets, theologians, and friends prove inviting, while a circumspect honesty conveys both intimacy and privacy. Author interview included. (Feb.)