Articles : On My Desk
March 12, 2012 issue
-
Don’t expect an end to war
On my desk is The End of War by John Horgan, published by McSweeney’s Books, San Francisco, 2011, 232 pages, $22.
Feb. 20, 2012 issue
-
A family’s responses to war
On my desk is Conscience: Two Soldiers, Two Pacifists, One Family: A Test of Will and Faith in World War I by Louisa Thomas, published by The Penguin Press, New York, 2011, 320 pages, $25.95.
Jan. 2, 2012 issue
-
Faith in tension with culture
On my desk is Third Way Allegiance: Christian Witness in the Shadow of Religious Empire by Tripp York, published by Cascadia Publishing House, Telford, Pa., 2011, 123 pages, $12.95.
Dec. 12, 2011 issue
-
What if Jesus were Amish?
On my desk is The Christmas Story by Carol J. Haile and Freiman Stoltzfus, published by Firenze Press, Wyomising, Pa., 2001, 62 pages, $27.95. This is a delightful book that places the birth of Jesus in an Amish setting.
Oct. 24, 2011 issue
-
Root of the economic crisis
On my desk is Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral Recovery by Jim Wallis, published by Howard Books, 2011, 263 pages, $14.99.
Sept. 5, 2011 issue
-
Educator’s cautionary tale
In Bid Me Discourse (Masthof Press, Morgantown, Pa., 2011, 115 pages, $12.95), David J. Rempel Smucker documents the life and work of his grandfather, Boyd David Smucker, a gifted professor of oratory and drama at Goshen and Bluffton colleges. Having spent the better part of my life teaching speech and theater at a Mennonite college, I found Rempel Smucker’s book resonant with my own experience.
June 13, 2011 issue
-
Amish history reinterpreted
On my desk is Unser Leit: The Story of the Amish by Leroy Beachy, published by Goodly Heritage Books, Millersburg, Ohio, 2011; Volume 1, 493 pages; Volume 2, 501 pages; $85.
April 18, 2011 issue
-
Newsman’s fictional Mennos
Best known as anchor of the PBS News Hour, Jim Lehrer has also written 20 readable if light-weight novels. Quite a few of them take his readers on buses or trains in Kansas, for he spent his early years at Wichita, and his father was a bus operator. At some point he picked up some knowledge of Mennonites, who now and then drop in and out of his stories.
March 7, 2011 issue
-
What’s more-with-less now?
On my desk is Living More With Less: 30th Anniversary Edition, published by Herald Press, 2010, 253 pages, $14.99. Originally written by Doris Janzen Longacre in 1980, this anniversary book has been revised and edited by Valerie Weaver-Zercher.
Jan. 24, 2011 issue
-
Poet defies the god of war
On my desk is War Is a God That Demands Human Sacrifice by Muriel Stackley, published by Wordsworth, Newton, Kan., 2009, $12.
Download