Pastor Brown (The Ache for Meaning) draws from the apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians for this straightforward guide to “creat[ing] the conditions where our souls can flourish.” Expounding on Paul’s instructions to “love one another... aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, to work with your hands”—the author explains why loving fellow believers creates a strong church community; how cutting out unnecessary distractions makes room for “peace and tranquility”; why narrowing one’s focus lets one cultivate the “gifts that God puts within our care and attention”; and how working with one’s hands—taken here to mean doing personally meaningful work—helps make “something good and beautiful out of the world that God created.” Such advice, the author argues, “cuts through circumstances, traversing time and space” in addressing core human needs neglected in today’s hectic, online world. Brown builds a robust case supported by scripture and secular sources, even if he’s less insightful on how readers might actually go about creating the conditions for their flourishing. Still, believers seeking to recenter themselves in a stressful world will find inspiration here. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/15/2025 | Details & Permalink

Buchdahl debuts with an affecting account of becoming the first ordained Asian American rabbi. Born in 1972 to a Jewish American father and Korean mother, Buchdahl grew up in her father’s hometown of Tacoma, Wash., finding in its small Jewish community a visceral sense of meaning (prayer was “a vocalization of longing, release, pain, and praise that bypassed the intellect and channeled to every nerve ending in my body”). She traces a rocky path to becoming a rabbi that included encountering unwelcoming Jewish groups in college and beyond (some questioned the validity of her patrilineal Jewish heritage; others “took one look at my face and questioned how I could possibly be a real Jew”). She became a mother before being ordained as a cantor in 1999 and as a rabbi in 2001. The author movingly draws on her experience to debunk race-based notions of Judaism (as far back as the Torah’s description of those fleeing Egypt as a “mixed multitude,” Jews have “never been just one color”), framing the faith as a family bound “by something stronger than blood... by our covenant with God, an ancient call to repair the world.” In a moment of rising social division, racism, and antisemitism, this stirring call for unity resonates. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this candid memoir, former pro football player Forté (My Hair Can) opens up about faith, his NFL career, and life afterward. The son of a former college football player, Forté fell in love with the sport at age seven in a way that felt almost preordained (“I recognized that the Lord had blessed me with a talent for football and the ability to use it”). After playing through high school and at Tulane—staying positive during the chaotic aftermath of hurricane Katrina when the team relocated to Texas by keeping his NFL dreams front of mind—he was drafted by the Chicago Bears in 2008 and then traded to the New York Jets in 2016. Forté remained in the NFL for 10 seasons through injuries and other setbacks and despite the league’s tendency to burn out players. He attributes his success to his stick-to-itiveness, willingness to sacrifice for long-term growth, and ability to pivot with the knowledge that God had bigger plans for him than professional sports. This came in handy after he retired from the league at 32 and dedicated himself to organizations focused on reducing gun violence. While Forté offers some advice that feels rote (“To achieve uncommon results, you must do uncommon things”), his humility and vulnerability support valuable faith-based insights drawn from across his career. Fans will find this worth a look. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Meditation teacher Goldberg (Roadsigns) provides a thought-provoking exploration of karma and what it means to live according to its logic. He traces the term from its original meaning as the correct performance of ritual to curry favor with the gods, to its evolution in Indian culture into the notion that people reap what they sow as part of a just cosmic order. Chronicling its introduction into the West, he notes that karmic influences shaped the thought of Greek philosophers like Pythagoras and were later absorbed into such movements as German idealism, British romanticism, American transcendentalism, and the New Thought movement, which ultimately helped popularize the concept of karma in the United States and beyond. This popularization, Goldberg notes, has spawned erroneous notions of karma as a kind of inescapable destiny; in reality it’s “modifiable,” and, like a bank account, can be balanced. The author shares solid advice on boosting karma through sensible practices like serving others and forgiving oneself (which, he argues, drives home moral lessons more effectively than self-flagellation), though practices like mind-shifting, or replacing negative thoughts with more positive ones—which stems from the idea that, when it comes to karma, thoughts count nearly as much as actions—may be tougher for some readers to swallow. Still, it’s a nuanced and perceptive assessment of an oft-misunderstood spiritual concept. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

Novelist Spearing (Hartfords) shares a heartrending account of her recovery from religious trauma. Raised in a patriarchal evangelical Christianity that viewed men as heads of the home, mothers as “helpmeets,” and girls as future caretakers who were to remain in their father’s household until married, the author grew up starved of freedom and conditioned to “align my desires with the Lord’s.” Doubts were seeded slowly in her mind and reached a breaking point at age 25 when she accepted a job at a different church without her father’s permission, and was told to leave the house. Spearing shares the ups and downs of her healing process, which involved somatic (body-based) therapy; learning to feel emotions—like anger—that women are expressly forbidden to show in restrictive, “high-control Christianity”; finding language for the abuse she’d endured (like a “thousand tiny paper cuts” that may heal but will leave scars); and founding Tears of Eden, a nonprofit support group for survivors of spiritual abuse. The author is eloquent and precise in her critiques of high-control Christianity—the most damaging elements of which, she notes, seep into less extreme versions of the faith—while acknowledging the legitimate needs that give rise to it and religion in general, a “heart cry of people who are searching for comfort, for a way to explain the unexplainable.” Believers who’ve been harmed by church communities will find strength and understanding. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

McLaughlin (No Greater Love) serves up an undercooked endorsement of regular church attendance. Against the backdrop of a mass “dechurching” that finds 40 million fewer Americans attending church today than 25 years ago, the author contends that those who worship weekly may live longer (those who attended services more than once weekly at age 20 lived seven years longer on average than their peers, one study found); are less likely to develop depression; and are more altruistic (two-thirds of people who worship at least twice monthly give money to charitable causes, compared to less than half of those who don’t). Unfortunately, the haphazard parade of statistics fails to coalesce into a meaningful argument and is weakened by a lack of nuance, a failure to meaningfully differentiate between correlation and causation, and a tendency to lean on vague statements without sufficient supporting evidence. McLaughlin also brushes aside cases in which belonging to a church has hurt believers, dismissing those who’ve endured religious abuse by noting that “just as growing up in an unhealthy family wouldn’t lead you to give up on family for good, so the experience of an unhealthy church need not mean giving up on church.” This myopic treatise disappoints. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/08/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this accessible if sometimes trite debut, Zen priest Taigu shares Buddhist wisdom for moving past difficult feelings “with greater ease and peace of mind.” The process begins, he argues, with realizing that suffering is rooted in the mind and becoming cognizant of the emotions causing it. To that end, the book is organized around three key emotions that cause suffering—greed, anger, and ignorance—with examples of how to tackle the challenges stemming from each. Regret, for example, is a form of anger at oneself that reinforces negative thought patterns and should be replaced with calm reflection on why one “did or didn’t do something” or by viewing the situation in a humorous light. Elsewhere, Taigu advises readers who feel angry to take a break from the person or situation that’s causing distress and, in the long term, work on remembering that such feelings are rooted in their interpretation of the situation rather than the person who ostensibly upset them. The author’s elucidation of Buddhist principles is straightforward and often refreshing, even if some of his takes can feel out-of-touch (addressing how readers can let go of “intense dissatisfaction or anger toward their employer” after being fired, he suggests reframing the situation by realizing that “your evaluation of yourself was completely different to the company’s evaluation of you”). Despite those flaws, new students of Buddhism will find some pearls of wisdom here. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/01/2025 | Details & Permalink

Readers should stop playing it safe and embrace risk to take their professional lives “to the next level,” according to this spirited debut manual from McDonald, CEO of Boss Women Media, an online career and educational resource for women. Contending that readers must shift from a fear-based comparison mindset to a growth mindset, she suggests taking such steps as celebrating personal strengths, expressing gratitude for small victories, and using others’ success as motivation. Women can then bring the growth mindset into the business world by creating strong networks of family, colleagues, and acquaintances; making successful pitches (it should sound more like a story); and using rejection to refine their game plan. Readers should also take care to leave room for the unexpected, McDonald writes, noting how her own faith has helped her seize on unexpected chances (“Often, it’s in the spaces we don’t plan for, the gaps we don’t fill, that miracles happen”). McDonald’s enthusiasm is infectious, and the lessons on how she built her company are mostly instructive, even if the lack of other supporting examples can make the scope of her advice feel somewhat limited. Still, Christians entrepreneurs will be energized. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 07/25/2025 | Details & Permalink

Memoirist Zaslow (Bringing Bubbe Home) and other members of the Jewish Women’s Storytelling Collective put a modern, feminist spin on Jewish folklore in this eclectic anthology. Contributors excel at preserving the morals of the originals, swhile fleshing out the protagonist’s backstory and character, as in Gail Pasternack’s “Sarika and the Magic Pomegranate Seed,” which features a young Moroccan girl who faces execution for stealing to feed her family. Pasternack provides one of the collection’s cleverest alterations in “Hannah and the Moon,” which follows a determined milkmaid who unites the townspeople of Chelm (a legendary town of fools in many Jewish folktales) for an impossible mission—and reveals in the process the value of togetherness, no matter the goal. Lisa Huberman’s title story is one of several about acceptance; in this case, a princess learns the value of occupying several identities by briefly turning into a rooster. As Huberman notes, the story originated with Rebbe Nachman of Breslov and reflects how the author, “a queer person who wrestles with neurodivergence,” learned to stop conforming to rigid, binary roles. Creative, witty, and sly, these stories do valuable work in energizing an ancient storytelling tradition. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this earnest and impassioned guide, Troutt (The Love Everybody Wants), cohost of the Stay True podcast and former Bachelor contestant, challenges Christians to cast aside lies that keep them from leading full and faithful lives. She highlights false cultural narratives that distance believers from God: that people can save themselves from sin (only Jesus can do that), that self-love cures unhappiness (focusing on God and others is more effective, because self-love can lead to self-obsession), and that one is defined by past sins (believers are “loved, free, and redeemed” regardless of their past). To combat such “satanic” lies, readers can forge closer relationships with God by praying, finding strong faith communities, and generally prizing faith over instant gratification. Those lessons are delivered in an appealingly down-to-earth tone and interspersed with vulnerable disclosures about the author’s life, including how she faced insecurities about her self-worth following her stint on The Bachelor. Unfortunately, her case for a godly life is sometimes overshadowed by dramatic descriptions of how Satan can dismantle it (“Satan’s quest is to steal life, joy, and freedom through deception... We reap the deadly fruit of despair, deceit, and darkness”). Still, the author’s fans will find this worth a look. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 07/18/2025 | Details & Permalink