This Is Awkward: How Life’s Uncomfortable Moments Open the Door to Intimacy and Connection

Awkward moments are cheerfully repurposed in this wry book of observations and advice from Rhodes, campus minister with Reformed University Fellowship at the University of South Carolina. A mix of anxiety, depression, pop culture, humor, and theology infuses this delightful text. Rhodes shares many of his own personal anecdotes in cringeworthy and often sidesplitting fashion, relating parenting mishaps, his no-divorce policy, the “porn in my side,” and a no “side-hugging Jesus” lifestyle. In each acerbic chapter, Rhodes digs deep into life’s trials and troubles and helps point the way out of the rubble of heartache. His work aims to take the pressure off of the awkward experiences (and the emotional responses they invoke) that seem to be everywhere. Readers will get more than they bargained for in this feel-good book that’s written for times when life doesn’t feel good at all. (Mar.)