Huntsville Store Mixes Maple Treats and Christian Books
Last week we dropped in at Fruit of the Vine, the Christian bookstore located within the shop at Maple Orchard Farms in Bracebridge, Ontario. The store has been 37 years in business and operates quite a distance from the commercial centre, in an industrial area closer to the edge of the town.
While the store is dominantly a bakery and maple products dealer, Christian books are given a significant amount of space in four distinct areas.
What impressed me about this store was that even though overall volume in a small town isn’t always great — and in this case the area is very vulnerable to the fluctuations of the tourist season — Ruth, the proprietor had all the right books and all the right authors; a healthy mix that would satisfy people from across the Evangelical spectrum.
While doing business in the shadow of the bookstore at nearby Muskoka Bible Camp in Huntsville would be daunting, this store finds its own clientele.
Though it was the last day of our holiday and we were anxious to head home, I’m glad we took about 40 minutes to drop by and visit. I think we encouraged each other.
The pictures I took weren’t great so these are from their website.
The NIV Application Bible’s Best Kept Secret
In the pages after John 21 comes this Harmony of the Gospels, but not as you’ve seen it before.
Last year we learned that Tyndale House, publishers of the popular Life Application Bible, were taking back the rights previously assigned to publishers of it in other Bible translations. To say that differently, Tyndale’s NLT would emerge as the exclusive translation of the bestselling study Bible.
Instead of taking a defeat, the people at Zondervan took it as a challenge. They already had the NIV Application Commentary series, which offered a wealth of source material that could meet the market demand for a Bible which, as I often tell my customers, instead of taking us back into Bible times, brings the Bible into our time and demonstrates its relevance to the concerns we face in our world.
So I was curious to see what the finished product would look like. Some things which Tyndale’s Life Application has to offer exist in a somewhat parallel form, like the profiles of key Bible people, though the layout and emphasis is different. But other Life Application ideas, such as embedding maps in the text portions where they are relevant were scrapped in the NIV Application in favor of the traditional full color map section at the back. I think there’s about 16 of them, all full page.
But I wondered what they would do with what is for me a highlight and key selling feature of the Life Application, the Harmony of the Gospels bound between the end of John’s gospel and the first chapter of Acts. Panic! It wasn’t listed on the back cover of the box where key features were mentioned. I opened the box of a leather edition hoping it was there.
It was. And then some. They totally redefined what a harmonization of the life of Christ looks like. The key sections are listed using columns as is common, but they add an extra column showing the location of the event or teaching. And instead of simply numbering items, there is approximate dating. Furthermore, those moments in the life of Jesus are noted in sections or categories. (See photo above.)
The rest looks good, too. But that one particular feature was my personal benchmark to see if the NIV Application would measure up. And it exceeded my expectations, even if they didn’t list it on the back of the box.
Ingram Suspending Defective Merchandise Credits
Have you tried to arrange for a credit or a partial credit from Ingram International lately? If your experience is like ours, you were met with silence. ‘We’ve taken the hit on damaged books long enough; now it’s your turn;’ is what they seem to be saying.
If your experience is anything like ours, the recent action is part of a long succession of events wherein the company refuses to take responsibility for … well … anything.
First, they greatly curtailed the time window that their customer service people would accept voice calls. I think it’s currently 11:00 to 2:00 Central Standard Time. But who knows? There’s no way of getting accurate information. Before this we could simply pick up a phone and speak with a human. No longer.
Second, they discontinued the practice of including packing slips with shipments. You have to look up your shipping notifications to do a proper check-in. Perhaps that is the wave of the future, but consider what was on the back of those packing slips: A form for dealing with issues which could be faxed. (And who among us are faxing these days?) Sending it out as an attachment would be more in keeping with 2025, but first you’d have to an email to send it to. Which brings us to…
Third, they simply stopped replying to emails. We sent the email version of a smoke signal meaning “HELP!” four times to two different addresses. Nothing. Silence. We provided all the info they needed. A screen shot of the packing list. Two photographs showing the damage to the cover of the book.
Fourth, they took away any attempt at recourse. Here in Canada at least, shipments are now charged to your credit card the same day. They’ve already got their money. To them, it’s all over and done.
To make matters worse, the book I was seeking cost relief on was the only book in a 16-book shipment which was a short-discount title. There isn’t any wiggle room to simply reduce the product myself – and it’s quite damaged; I’d need an extra 25-30% to make it work – without being in negative territory on this title.
Update (5/5/25): Over the weekend we received notification that at long last, a credit note had been processed for the cost of the book, though not the flat-rate charge for shipping. (This coincided with a call we received from another dealer that Ingram was running 6 weeks behind.) Since we had no active invoices – and can’t if shipments are being charged the same day – it was put back on our credit card.
The original charge for the book was processed when the USD/CAD exchange rate was quite high: 1.4723. (We were billed on March 27th.) That’s the rate (on that day) for when you are, in essence buying U.S. dollars. But credits to your Visa or MasterCard are an entirely different rate, because at that point you are selling U.S. dollars. You can expect a 7-8% variance. Combine that with the recovery that our dollar made against theirs in the weeks in-between, and the credit we received was processed at only 1.3571.
That’s a difference of 11.52%, some of which would have been mitigated had they processed the return in a timely manner. When you add the 8.8%; flat rate shipping that we will never recover, that’s a total difference of 20.3% of the cost of the book that we are losing on what is supposedly a full refund.
What a mess!
Is it worth the time and energy here to point all this out? Yes, if it helps Canadian dealers – and perhaps those in other countries – make decisions at this critical time in America’s relationship with the rest of the world.
And if you’re reading this, Ingram, the answer is ‘No,’ I won’t be responding to any of the four customer service survey forms you requested in the 24-hours after finally doing your job.
New from Beth Allison Barr: History’s Perspective on a Current Issue
A Review of Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination As a Woman’s Path to Ministry by Beth Allison Barr (Brazos Press; 2025)
by Ruth Wilkinson
Last year I met a young couple in ministry. He identified his calling as that of being “a Pastor*.” She happily identified her calling as that of being “a Pastor’s wife.”
By contrast, years ago I knew a couple of women whose husbands were Pastors, but who firmly made it clear that they were not a ‘two-for-one’ partner in that work. While they would take their turns on the nursery rota, or cooking for Soup Sunday, they had careers, hobbies, and other volunteer interests outside the church, and they didn’t do dinner parties.
I’ve also known a couple of Pastors who my husband and I thought were men who had married Pastor’s wives. One, we thought, was a journalist, the other a taxi driver at heart. Their wives were the stronger spiritual driving forces. But the men occupied the office and cashed the paycheque.
I am the wife of a Christian bookstore owner. On meeting new folks, I am sometimes asked, “Do you work for the store?” The answer is yes, I’ve taken on some behind-the-scenes work in order to free up my husband to carry on his ministry through the storefront and the conversations it makes space for.
But I am a Pastor. Ordained by one Baptist church and working in another.
In Becoming The Pastor’s Wife, Beth Allison Barr engages her personal experience and her academic skill and insight to examine what it means to hold the titular correlative identity.
As with the running of a bookstore, Pastoring can be a family business, benefitting from a shared understanding of its value, and strengthening a relationship through shared joys and agonies. The difference lies in the fact that nobody ever points to the Bible to tell me how to be a better bookstore owner’s wife. Nobody feels they have the right to judge my appearance, my friendships, or the tidiness of my living room because of my husband’s career. (People sometimes assume that I’ve read more of the books my husband sells than I have, but that’s as far as the expectations go.) In contrast, Barr describes the pressures and judgements that come against women whose lives have become defined by what their husband does, examines where those demands arise from (and where they do not), and the impact they can have not only on the women who live those lives, but also on the Church as a whole.
As a woman who is a Pastor, I often find myself sighing (hopefully not out loud) when the topic of “women in ministry” comes up. I’m tired of talking about it. I just want to get on with being one. But I am encouraged in reading Becoming The Pastor’s Wife to meet some new friends: the Veiled Woman in Rome’s Priscilla Catacombs (a place that has been on my bucket list for some time), an assortment of women both single and married who led with spiritual authority, and, in particular, an 11th century Abbess named Milburga.
It is also interesting to consider the challenges faced by Pastors and their families following the 16th century Reformation, as they began to imagine for the first time in ages what a married ministry partnership might look like after centuries of celibate clergy.
It is heartbreaking and chastening to meet Maria Acacia, a 20th century Pastor’s wife who was let down by not only the Southern Baptist Convention (a body that has in recent decades been closing doors to women called to minister), but also by my own CBOQ who I would have hoped would respond better.
On one hand, this book is a lament. The depths to which the Church has undermined its own mission by limiting and constraining half of the human race is unimaginable. Part of that is the imposition of an institutionalized and pressurized box into which we have forced countless Pastors’ wives.
On the other hand, this book is a call to hope and courage.
“What if we recognize how much of what we perceive as a biblical role for pastors’ wives has been created by a culture (especially white Southern [United States] culture)?
What if we recognize that a woman married to a minister can have a calling separate from her husband, that her domestic role does not define her identity in Christ?
What if we recognize that the only true “biblical” role for a woman is to do whatever God has called her to do?
Can you imagine?” (Page 191)
When I remember my young new friend, I pray God’s best for her. I pray that as she fulfills the ministry of Pastor’s wife to which she feels called, that God will give her countless opportunities to do the work that she has claimed as her own. I hope that she lives a life of joyful service, knowing that she is loved by her God and by her husband and by the churches they serve. And I pray that, if her calling should shift, that she will feel free to step courageously into whatever God has for her to do.
Becoming the Pastor’s Wife is an accessible read, cracking open a door to the trackable history of the ways in which the Church has redefined and narrowed gender roles since the Reformation, and how that limitation impacts the functioning of Churches and believers today.
*I’m capitalizing this word to differentiate the professional work of leading a church from the organic role filled by many in the Church (Ephesians 4:11-12).
Ruth Wilkinson is a Pastor in Ontario, Canada and a weekly contributor to our affiliate site, Christianity 201. While in our more unusual role, technically it’s me (Paul) who is the Pastor’s spouse, it made more sense, after years of looking at Pastoral ministry from a distance, for her to write this review, though I’m halfway through the book. (A 5-minute video clip of Ruth sharing her story appeared last year on the author’s newsletter.)
The only thing I would have added is that I see this book as a continuation of the work begun in Beth Allison Barr’s previous work, The Making of Biblical Womanhood. Together, they form a set. For my review — almost exactly 3 years ago — of that book, click here.
There’s also a Canadian connection here inasmuch as Beth spent some time researching the Canadian Baptists of Ontario & Quebec and was hosted by Leanne Friesen, who is the Executive Minister of CBOQ, and wearing another hat, is the author of the book Grieving Room.
A review copy of Becoming The Pastor’s Wife was provided by Baker Books, the parent company of Brazos Press. The 232-page hardcover is available in North America and the UK using ISBN 9781587435898. For the publisher’s description, click here.
Ann Voskamp: A Textbook Case of Over-Publishing
Please bear in mind that this site is designed for bookstore owners, managers and staff, and other interested publishing-industry personnel. This is isn’t about Ann Voskamp. We share Canadian roots and especially these days, even though I’m not part of the neo-Reformed tribe to which she belongs, we Canadians need to stick together.
With two titles released on October 22nd by Thomas Nelson and another title released on February 11th by Tyndale House, I would argue that Ann Voskamp’s three latest releases represent an over-saturation of the market by a single author, especially in a non-fiction genre. As a bookstore owner, I feel obligated to carry everything a bestselling author has to offer. But I only have so much shelf space and only so much money to spend. But I also know customers who would say, “I have everything she’s ever written;” who would also want to purchase new titles as they emerge, either to (a) support her work, (b) to digest every word on every page, or (c) both of the above. Their well can run dry just as equally.
The additional challenge here is that is a lack of brand differentiation between the three titles.
Firstly, all three are hardcover releases. We feel this more acutely in Canada where our book-buying habits owe a little bit of influence to our British cousins, rather than our U.S. cousins who are accustomed to first-edition hardcovers on everything.
But secondly, all are timed Bible study and meditation titles. One is a “90 Days of…” title, one is a “A Year of…” type of book, and the newest is “A 40-Day Pilgrimage…”
Thirdly, all bear a strikingly similar cover design, so much so it’s hard to imagine that the Tyndale release landed with a different publisher at all.
I chose to go with the two Nelson titles for my store. The reason is simply that from HarperCollins (Nelson’s parent) I enjoy (a) a better discount and shipping terms (b) a better access to HTML assets like the one below for blogs, store newsletters, store website, Facebook, etc. (c) superior access to review copies had I decided to review these titles, and (d) an overall better working relationship.
In 30 years of bookselling, and despite independently having a blog which regularly ranked in the Top 100 Christian blogs, I think I have a total of six books in my library from Tyndale; two of which were paid for, three of which were bought when the book remaindered, and one which was actually given to me by a publisher representative. It’s too bad, I like some of their authors, and I do use the NLT. And over 30 years, it wasn’t for a lack of trying.
No, three similar hardcover titles in 112 days is just too much. And if I’m not mistaken, it’s relatively unprecedented.
Ontario Author Examines Jesus and Elvis
I’m keeping a promise today that I made about a month ago to Huntsville author John McTavish to tell you about his book Jesus and Elvis. The book is published by Wipf and Stock and I don’t know if the July, 2020 date listed is for the original edition or for the second edition listed here. Here is the publisher information…
Jesus and Elvis, Second Edition
Creative Resources for Use in Schools and ChurchesJesus and Elvis offers a host of creative resources for use in schools and churches. Jesus proclaims the book’s unabashed gospel-centered content, Elvis its unapologetic creative style. The book as a whole should appeal to both the young and the old, wide-eyed seekers and battle-scarred churchgoers. This new edition includes Skin Deep, a dynamic play that dramatizes Martin Luther King’s response to the enduring sin of racism in our world.
9781725283282
InterVarsity Press Shamelessly Increases Study Guide Prices Again
Full disclosure: I worked briefly for InterVarsity Press (IVP) in Canada on two occasions and in two separate locations, and I’ve always told people that of all the non-profit Christian organizations I worked for, they were the one which treated me the best. It didn’t hurt that I also loved what they were publishing in the ’70s and ’80s and the way their publishing brand integrated with their campus ministry.
But that was then, and this is now.
In Canada, every $1 U.S. increase in suggested list prices results in a $1.50 increase here. In the last several months we’ve watched the price of their flagship brand — Lifeguide Bible Studies — escalate from $15.49 to $16.49 to the current $17.99. (Exchange rate calculations with the major distributor here also affect the price.)
I have great difficulty reconciling what IVP has become — first editions are almost always now in hardcover — with the IVP I worked for. I would like to — naively perhaps — believe that a non-profit doesn’t embrace profit as the central motive, but watching IVP’s price points like a hawk over the years, this is truly a different publisher.
I’m sure they have a response. Something about rising costs, no doubt.
But why not set fixed Canadian prices as does Zondervan, Thomas Nelson, Waterbrook Multnomah, etc.? Why not have conservative exchange rate as does Zondervan and Baker Book Group? Why not have International Trade Paper Editions (ITPEs) as does HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Baker Book Group, Charisma House, etc.?
The answer is simple: These companies are entirely U.S.-focused and can’t see the ramifications in Canada for continually increasing prices.
But the reason Canada gets ITPEs in the first place is because we don’t have the U.S. mentality about books. Culturally, the Canadian customer stands somewhere between the U.S. and the U.K. model (where in the latter, just about everything is softcover.) There’s a sweet spot for pricing, and if publishers venture too far beyond it, consumers often walk away.
All that, plus the possibility that with sales now being concentrated among significant key players, the list prices are an artificial construct. (If I tell you the study guides are $30 and offer them at 40% discount for only $17.99; it sounds like a bargain, right?)
Today I’m faced with contacting customers who use the Lifeguide line regularly to tell them they need to go back to their participants and tell them the money they collected was insufficient.
And then I’m going to tell them about some other Bible study product lines wherein I think they’ll get more bang for their $17.99 CDN buck.
Ontario Author on Finding Meaning and Joy in the Ordinary
Mike Mason
With books published by Waterbrook/Multnomah, David C. Cook and Crossway, I was more than a little surprised to learn that Mike Mason was born in Peterborough and now — after 50 years in British Columbia –resides in the Muskoka region of Ontario. He’s the author of books you may have carried such as The Mystery of Marriage, The Mystery of Children, The Gospel According to Job, Champagne for the Soul and many others.
With his new book, Same Old, Same New: The Consolation of the Ordinary, he’s at Freisen Press, a Manitoba-based publisher with additional distribution at Ingram. You can learn more about his work and how to order the book at MikeMasonBooks.com.
Here’s the publisher summary:
Why is so much of our existence so ordinary? Why this immense tract of stuff in our lives that seems to have no lofty purpose? In ninety short devotional chapters, Mike Mason meditates on this question, concluding that in fact everydayness, to the extent we embrace it, is a source of deep consolation. Far from being meaningless, the humdrum and the commonplace may actually hold the secret of life. Same Old, Same New-beautifully and provocatively written and full of arresting insights-will take your old tired world, stand it on end, and spin it like a top.
“Mike Mason straddles two worlds, the quotidian and the eternal. Of course those two worlds aren’t separate worlds at all-and the reality of that intermingling, that co-existence of the mundane and the mystical, is perhaps the recurrent theme of Mason’s writing.” Ron Reed, Founding Artistic Director of Pacific Theatre
■ Read a short excerpt of the book at Christianity 201 with this link.
216 pages; file under Devotions, Canadian Authors
Paperback: 9781038312068 $19.99 US
Hardcover: 9781038312075 $31.99 US
Another Book Which Tells Our Story
Although we call it the “Christian Publishing industry” the history of Christian Retailing is strongly linked to the Christian music industry. Most of our stores had or still have a music department and that department was responsible for significant traffic flow in the days before downloading and streaming ended our dominance as a supply channel.
In God Gave Rock & Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music (Oxford University Press), author Leah Payne gives significant prominence to the role which Christian bookstores played in the establishment and perpetuation of what was first Jesus Music, then Contemporary Christian Music, and more recently, Modern Worship.
She shows how the Christian Booksellers Assocation (CBA) role in retail and the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) parallel track with radio dovetailed together to advance the music which helped define Evangelicalism itself.
But the genius of this book is the first 50 or so pages where, writing as a historian, she traces the development of CCM back even further — into the late 1800s — when ‘success’ was measured by the sales of sheet music and songbooks. It is interesting to ‘follow the money’ and trace the ‘family tree’ of more modern distribution networks, at least in the days of physical media.
The only liability of the book is the last 50 or so pages where, like so many American writers, she — in my opinion at least — overplays the relationship between the music as a Christian culture influencer, and U.S. politics. I could have lived without that, but perhaps reading as a Canadian, I am simply less interested. And I suppose playing The White House is a significant gig, right?
Everything in the middle was telling my own story, since I lived those years, was an associate writer for CCM Magazine, and have a 3,000+ piece vinyl collection to show for it. Plus some surprises:
- I did not realize that what became Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa California was actually a Foursquare Church, the same denomination as Jack Hayford.
- I did not realize that Chuck Colson was instrumental in the founding of what became K-LOVE radio.
- I did not realize that the Icthus Festival came out of Asbury College, the same place which gave us the Asbury Revival last year.
And there are the elements that Christian retailers knew too well, but may have forgotten, or perhaps not realized the significance they played, such as accompaniment cassettes. She spends more than a page talking about them. They were of course ubiquitous back in the day, but she’s trying to trace how the music formed a broader church culture; how what was happening in the bookstores and on Christian radio showed up at Church on Sunday morning.
She’s given the occasional passing nod to the UK, and there are one or two references to Canada. One of these is the Toronto Catacombs, and the influence of Merv and Merla Watson.
As to her book’s title, she doesn’t subscribe to the theory that Larry Norman was the grandfather of Christian rock, or the members of LoveSong, either. In her view there were many grandfathers, if a person wants to use that term.
She also talks about the consolidation of everything CCM related in Nashville, and hints at the homogeneity that produced, but I would have liked a more critical evaluation of that sameness which ruled the Christian airwaves. (Of course part of that was to appease ‘Becky’ – or ‘Lisa’ – the mythical CCM target customer with the 2.4 kids and the minvan. Elsewhere, I wrote about her extensively in this article.)
After moving to Nashville herself, Leah Payne worked with Charlie Peacock. That gave her a lot access to ‘inside baseball’ things which gives her authority in her writing. She was also a guest on Peacock’s Music and Meaning Podcast where she explored the early 1900s section of the book, along with audio clips. If that interests you, click this link and go to Episode 6.
This is definitely something some of you will want to read, and deserves a place on your shelves next to the histories of Baker, Zondervan and IVP you possibly already own. For others of you, it will be placed next to works such as Jesus and John Wayne.
This book was a gift and not a review copy. I’d like to thank Lando Klassen, a fellow-traveler in the Christian retail journey who sent it to me. It was much appreciated.
See also this excellent review at ChurchLeaders.com .
Manitoba Author Redefines Biblical Fiction
Although she’s probably not the first to do so, Betty Sawatzky‘s book I Am the Prodigal, I Am the Eldest, veers from the common path of re-configuring a classic Biblical narrative and instead uses the characters from a parable Jesus taught.
And why not? This is a great story to begin with. Think of the number of Prodigal Son sermons you’ve heard in your lifetime and you get the idea.
Publisher marketing:
When Jesus shared the story, He was speaking to the Pharisees and Sadducees, leaders in the synagogues who lived strict lives in obedience to the laws of the Torah. They harshly judged others who failed to meet their strict standards and showed little grace and mercy.
By taking a closer look at the culture and traditions of the Israelites in Jesus’ day, we can dig more deeply into the meaning of this story—and yes, the story of the prodigal son is about so much more than a wayward son coming home.
In the novel, we meet Aziel, an adventurous young man whose desire to experience life at its fullest pulls him away from the security of his family and community. This beautiful rendition of the famous parable reveals just how much our heavenly Father and His Son love us.
At the author’s about page, you’ll see what I’m sure is only some of her challenge-filled personal journey followed by some Q&A about the book, including:
Q: What makes your version of the Prodigal Son story different from others?
A: I’ve always been intrigued by this parable that Jesus shared with the leaders of the Jewish faith. But in delving deeper into the culture of ancient Israel, I realized there was so much more to the story. We lose its full meaning due to a lack of knowledge and understanding of the times.As I dug deeper, I had an Aha! moment when it all came together. But I shrugged it off for three years, wondering whether I could write the book. Still, I imagined the chapters, characters, setting, and storyline and sought to digest and sort it out.
Q: What inspired you to finally sit down and write?
A: I was listening to CHVN, a contemporary Christian radio station out of Winnipeg, when I heard about the Braun Book Awards. I thought, “Why not? Go for it!” That was in early February. My husband chuckled at my goal of writing a novel in just over a month, but I was determined to finally get this story down on paper.Within hours of the deadline at the end of March, the book was written and in the hands of Word Alive Press! No, I didn’t win the award. However, I finished the novel I had longed to write for the past three years. It was really an incredible experience! …
Q: What’s next? Will there be a sequel? Will this turn into a series?
A: I’m already working on the next book, in which the two main characters, the prodigal and the older brother, find themselves in a disastrous situation that takes them to places they would never have envisioned…
Christian Book Shop Talk found out about this book through a recurring “Canadian Authors Spotlight” post on the Facebook page of Kennedy’s Parable bookstores — their business is very proactive in promoting homegrown writers — not through any publisher publicity. I found the title intriguing and also worked behind the scenes to get Betty’s last name — Sawatzky — spelled on the Word Alive Distribution site the same way it appears on the book’s cover! (It was wrong for over 4 months, and took two tries.)
Betty Sawatzky is a reporter and part of the sales team of Golden West Radio which operates 38 stations in rural communities across the Prairies. She is also Unit Public Affairs Rep with Cadets Canada.
■ For more insight into the author and book, watch this 12-minute interview:
Trade information: 168 page paperback from Word Alive Press 9781486624805 | $12.99 US from Ingram, Anchor Distributors |$16.99 CAD in Canada through Word Alive Distribution | also available in hardcover from Ingram 9781486624829 $25.49 US
Consumer information: Available to order wherever you buy books.
Hamilton Author Explores the Grieving Process
As the Pastor for 18 years at Mount Hamilton Baptist Church, Leanne Friesen had interacted with many who were dealing with loss. But when it hits home, these things tend to become personal. Her book, Grieving Room: Making Space for All the Hard Things After Death (note: not The Grieving Room) released in February in hardcover from Broadleaf Books and is already into its second printing.
Here is the publisher description:
People long to reduce the enormity of our grief. “Time heals all wounds,” they tell us, or “At least she isn’t in pain anymore.” Yet no matter how hard others try to stuff our grief into a process or a plan, grief cannot be willed away.
Leanne Friesen thought she knew a lot about bereavement. She had studied it in school and preached at memorial services. But only when her own sister died from cancer did she learn, in her very bones, what grieving people don’t need–and what they do. In Grieving Room, Friesen writes with vulnerability, wisdom, and somehow even wit about the stark and sacred lessons learned at deathbeds and funerals.
When someone dies, we need room for imperfect goodbyes, she writes, and room for a changing faith. We need room for regret and room to rage at the world. Room for hard holidays and room in our schedules. We need room for redemption and room for resurrection–and we also need room to never “get over it.”
In this poignant account of a sister’s mourning and a pastor’s journey, Friesen pushes back against a world that wants to minimize our sorrow and avoid our despair. She helps those of us walking with the grieving figure out what to say and what not to say, and she offers practical ways to create ample space for every emotion and experience. Reflection questions, practices, and prayers at the end of the book offer guidance and ideas for individuals and groups.
In a world that wants to rush toward closure and healing, Grieving Room gives us permission to let loss linger. When the very worst happens, we can learn to give ourselves and others grieving room.
The table of contents reveals that the book is organized around 15 grieving “rooms” or “spaces” that are either needed or experienced in various degrees.
For an excellent overview of the book, watch this interview Leanne did with 100 Huntley Street. (Fast-forward to the 9:47 mark; the interview runs about 12 minutes.)
From this point on, since this a trade blog, I want to ‘talk shop.’ I found it unusual that this American-published book by a Canadian author has no representation within our Christian book trade sphere. There is a Canadian distributor, Jaguar Book Group, which many of you reading this may not have dealt with before. This compounds with the American penchant for first-edition hardcovers. A straight 1.4000 conversion of its $26.99 US list — for example, if you purchase from Ingram — would make it $40.99 in Canada. The Jaguar price, $36.50 is more merciful! No representation also means there weren’t review copies in circulation, so I went with the publisher description.
That critique — which has nothing to do with the book’s content — aside, I’ve met Leanne in her other role as Executive Minister of the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec (CBOQ), that denomination’s top job; and have heard her speak on two occasions. I expect this book is meeting a real need right now, hence the need for a second printing. Take some time to watch the interview linked above.
Broadleaf Books| 256 pages, hardcover | 9781506492377 | 26.99 US (Ingram) 36.50 CAD (Jaguar)
Brant Hansen: Not a Pastor, Not a Theologian — His Unique Audience
Review: Life is Hard. God is Good. Let’s Dance. by Brant Hansen
The elephant in the room is that I am at an age, and have tracked enough years in Christian life and service where I should be reading and reviewing serious authors, right?
I’ll own that. Looking back over the books I’ve reviewed, which occupy seven shelves of an Ikea bookshelf, there are things that, working in Christian book marketing as I did, seemed so important and relevant then and seem completely frivolous and unimportant now. And there are also places on those bookshelves that I wish were occupied with other more philosophical or analytical authors.
But long after reaching that conclusion, I found myself requesting a review copy of Brant Hansen’s new book, Life is Hard… I think I’m only missing one of his titles on that shelf and I doubt any of them will ever be on the reading list for a seminary course, but I knew that interesting content was guaranteed.
I’m not a fan of the title. Or the cover. It’s pure Brant, but I don’t know how well it will score at the box office, so speak. Especially if they hope to attract new readers. But they say you can’t judge a book by its mirror ball.
What I would normally do here is give you an overview of the book, perhaps even an short excerpt or two. But that wasn’t how I read it. Instead, I found myself thinking over and over about the unique voice that God has given Brant Hansen, and the unique audience to which he gets to speak.
Brant is a Christian radio guy. Not a pastor. Not a theologian. Not a Christian academic. He’s an example of the people God can use, and the fact you “don’t have to be a ______” for God to work through you. But Brant’s not even a normal Christian radio guy. He’s a person on the spectrum who has to constantly remind his podcast and radio listeners to give it time if they find the humor too dry or too quirky.
The ones who make the investment eventually get rewarded. If it’s been more than a week, and I need something to put a smile on my face, I look up the podcast, which consists of liners sent out to radio stations to use between songs. Thought pieces. Stream-of-consciousness rambling with Sherry Lynn, his producer.
That’s right. There isn’t a definitive example of The Brant Hansen Show. In some markets it might be the usual Christian hit fare; in others it might lean more to alternative Christian music; and perhaps there’s a station where it’s a mix of Christian and mainstream music. In most markets local announcers often have to break in for traffic, weather or contests. But nothing I just said really describes The Brant Hansen Show, so take 2 minutes to watch this.
You see? Different. But at some point I need to satisfy Brant’s publisher — Thomas Nelson — that I did in fact read the book they sent. Which I did. Every chapter. So let’s do that.
Life is Hard… continues a now well-established pattern in Brant’s books. He finds spiritual illustrations in the everyday — and the not so commonplace — but also shares a significant number of hope-filled illustrations from his travels around the world on behalf of CURE International, where Brant’s official position is “storyteller.”
And that mirror ball? Brant says that
God has a modus operandi, a style, which He uses all the time. He uses the humble. He uses the little things, the seemingly unimpressive, overlooked things to do the marvelous. He enjoys it. He loves real parties with real hospitality, where outsiders are treated like insiders. So I’m honestly trying, in my own halting fashion, to make his style my style.
Life is Hard… is published by Thomas Nelson in paperback.
• Also, for Brant Hansen fans who enjoyed his book The Men We Need, a student edition, The (Young) Men We Need, aimed at boys 14 and over, goes on sale in March.
A copy of Life is Hard… was provided by HarperCollins Christian Products Canada. Thanks as always to Dave and Mark for keeping me in the loop!
Christian Book Shop Talk 