May 2009

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Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy
by Frederica Mathewes-Green

I read Mathewes-Green's account of her conversion to Orthodoxy shortly before I was baptized; it seeded my imagination with images of what Christian community could be.

Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith
by Nora Gallagher

When I sat down to write my own memoir, I went back to Gallagher's account of her return to the Episcopal Church. My favorite line: "In my thesaurus, one of the synonyms for Eucharist is windfall." It is simple and perfect.

Miriam's Kitchen: A Memoir
by Elizabeth Ehrlich

Ehrlich, who grew up in a secular Jewish home, narrates her midlife decision to keep a kosher kitchen. I always tell Christians that if they are going to read one book about Judaism, it should be this one.

Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative Life
by Patricia Hampl

This is Hampl's account of trying to learn to pray. "Prayer only looks like an act of language," she writes. "[F]undamentally it is a position, a placement of oneself." Amen.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs

In this amazing 19th-century text, Jacobs provides an account of her life in and escape from slavery. She describes her time in the attic and subsequent freedom in Christological terms—as a kind of going down into the tomb and then being redeemed.

Lauren Winner is author of several books, including Girl Meets God.

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