GOD ALLOWS U-TURNS: True Stories of Hope and Healing

This is no run-of-the-mill, cheesy inspirational book. Even the most cynical reader will find the introduction, in which Bottke describes her husband's transformation from a loving man into a wife-beating brute who almost killed her, gripping. She then describes the equally dramatic way God transformed her life. The essays that follow are just as moving, if not always quite as gut-wrenching. Candace Carteen's loving contribution describes her father's struggle with Parastremmatic Dwarfism and her own struggle to love and accept him. In "The Nativity Scene at Easter," Cindy Appel offers a simple meditation on the connections between Easter and Christmas. Susan Fahncke shares a snapshot of her husband signing "I love you" to his deaf baby son. Chapter Four, "Angels Among Us," offers four essays about seeing God's messengers in ordinary folks. This is not a book to read through in one sitting—the bite-sized chapters should be savored one or two at a time, like chocolates from a sampler. Readers will enjoy this volume and eagerly await not just future anthologies by the same editors, but essays and devotions by the dozens of contributors they will discover here. Christians will want to pass this book along to their nonbelieving friends, and they will want to keep a copy for themselves. (July)