Margaret Renkl’s stunning ability to see
It is hard to say what will enamor readers more, the bird calls or the familial ones.
memoir
A memoir of hardship and gratitude in Appalachia
Cassie Chambers tells family stories and considers the history of the people of Owsley County, Kentucky.
A city dweller follows the harvest
Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s spiritual and cultural pilgrimage through the heart of farm country
Notes from an organ transplant surgeon
Joshua Mezrich weaves professional insight with personal stories.
A lapsed Catholic’s unexpected devotion
Searching for the Mary statue from her childhood, Sonja Livingston found much more.
A former Jehovah’s Witness tells her story
Amber Scorah’s memoir has a breathless quality that makes it compulsively readable.
Why did Lyz Lenz’s church fail? Why do so many others?
The former church planter’s melancholy journey through the Midwest and its faith
The intersection between blackness and whiteness
Emily Bernard’s essays insist that no conversation is about race alone.
When Jane Tompkins couldn’t move, she read
Confined by illness, the feminist literary scholar dove into the complete works of V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux.
Elaine Pagels’s lifelong search for the sacred
Pagels vividly recounts her spiritual experiences. But she won’t let herself be bound by any tradition.
Learning to love Iran
Delphine Minoui planned a weeklong visit to explore her heritage. She stayed for 10 years.
A DNA test and its aftermath
Even as a child, Dani Shapiro wondered whether she belonged in her family.
Serene Jones’s memoir poses as many theological questions as answers
Theology is story, and Jones is a rousing storyteller.
Tressie McMillan Cottom asks who black women’s voices are for
Cottom interrogates her own story loudly enough for others to hear themselves in it.
A chaplain, his cerebral palsy, and the philosophy that guides him
Stephen Faller’s series of wise reflections on being alive