Diane Glancy (Wipf & Stock)
“The ocean came over my bed at night,” this book begins. “I would say, first of all, the voices were in it. They floated among the fish.” Voices of biblical women—Hagar, Dorcas, Anna, Philippa, and more—come to the narrator, who resembles the author, Glancy (best known for her work on Native American subjects), but is not to be simply identified with her. “Did I actually believe Dorcas was speaking to me? Did I think these voices were making the rounds, so to speak, looking for someone who would listen?” We readers get to hear the voices too: unruly, like an uprising of goats. These obscure women come alive.
Peter Rosenberger (Worthy Inspired)
In Gracie: Standing with Hope, featured in this space a while back, we heard about Gracie Rosenberger, terribly injured in a car accident while still a young woman, married just three years. Her story of suffering, faith, and caregiving was passed on to us by her husband, Peter. Now Peter distills lessons learned the hard way over more than 25 years—lessons that many of us will need to learn too. Ken Tada, husband of Joni Eareckson Tada, contributes a foreword to this candid, funny, inspiring, and down-to-earth guide.
Oliver Rackham (Little Toller Books)
I’m only able to identify the most familiar species of trees. But I love trees of all kinds. I love reading about trees, especially when the writer is Rackham, who died in February at the age of 75. Rackham combined encyclopedic knowledge with a wonderfully lucid style and unfailing good sense. Even as he celebrates the ash tree in this beautifully produced little book, he warns that the “greatest threat to the world’s trees and forests”—and to the ash in particular—“is globalization of plant diseases.” It’s a threat more immediate than climate change.
