Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Quick Read with Transformative Power

Love Wins by Rob Bell

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“A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’s message of love, […]

For all y’all hippie monks

New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton

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This book has been on my shelf for years. Since we’ve been home more than a month and I have the spiritual space to sit down with this kind of dense nourishment, I finally took the plunge and fully engaged with Thomas Merton. He’s something of a legend to Christian contemplatives, sort of like the Keith Richards of monks. Wise, somewhat cantankerous, expansive and global in his conception of God, God’s purpose, and destiny of people. A hippie monk. In New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton […]

Stolen History

Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

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Going into Unfamiliar Fishes, my knowledge of Hawaii was sparse, to say the least. I can’t say that we covered any Hawaiian history in school- not even that it is our “newest” state. Information came in fits and starts; a friend of mine teaches Hula through VSA, I was familiar with Captain Cooks adventures (and one serious misadventure) in the archipelago, and I caught an old episode of No Reservations. Embarrassing, I know. I had nothing to write home about. Enter Sarah Vowell and her “almost oral […]

His Holiness Pope Francis I stirs things up….

Francis The People's Pope by Ted Ral

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When I learned we had a Pope Francis my first thought was, “We have a Pope FRANKIE???” (And I mean no disrespect, truly I only have love here.) He caught my eye. Now I was curious who this man was. What was the hub-bub about? He was the fifth Pope I was alive for but only the second I was “aware of” (I knew of Pope John Paul II, as I remember the assassination attempt, but I was still a kid and not into politics). […]

How to create beauty from chaos.

A Beautiful Mess by Danielle Strickland

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Danielle Strickland is a speaker that I have had the privilege to hear several times, and even learn from directly at a conference she taught at. I’m a huge fan of her as a person, and of the work that she does. She’s passionate about empowering women to lead (especially in the church, where sadly, the patriarchy is still often calling the shots) and she’s passionate about justice (working with girls at risk of falling into human trafficking). She’s real and genuine and is someone […]

Great read, unless you’ve heard her speak live.

SelfLess by Megan Marshman

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I picked up this little book after hearing Marshman speak at a conference I was attending. She is an engaging speaker, and was the reason I wanted to attend the conference to begin with. She’s dynamic and hilarious and insightful and real. Just enough sarcasm to be relatable, and full of hilarious anecdotes from her real life to drive home the points she’s making. So I was happy to pick up this book, looking for more of what she has to offer. The book itself […]



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