a memoir on mortality that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction. (from summary)
As a young woman, Jane Goodall was best known for her groundbreaking fieldwork with the chimpanzees of Gombe, Africa. ...(S)he continues to break the mold of scientist by revealing how her research and worldwide conservation institutes spring from her childhood callings and adult spiritual convictions. (from Amazon.com)
Filled with far-flung settings, polished prose, and...often humorous experiences, (this book)will resonate with seekers and cynics, nature lovers and travel enthusiasts, and readers from all walks of life. (from summary)
Jon Katz couldn't afford a country house...his career looked like it was going off track; and his daughter was about to leave home for college...So, against all rational impulses, he bought (a) cabin and used it as a summer retreat. He read Thomas Merton...whose central concerns Katz summarizes as well as anyone has: Merton was obsessed with a central issue for our time -- figuring out how to live, trying to forge a life of balance, purpose and meaning. (from Amazon.com)
"I went to the priest and asked him if it would be okay [to be confirmed in the church] considering I didn't accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior, didn't believe the Bible was divinely inspired and wasn't entirely sure about the whole God thing. Fortunately Father Andrew had been tending his flock long enough to recognize a lost lamb when one came bleating into his office and put no obstacles in my way." (author quote)
The woman with only two speeds – on and off – had never learned to pace herself, and instead excoriated herself for failings real and imagined. Only after her inability to disappoint others became a disaster, and she felt both totally naked and utterly hidden, could she take a first step toward self-reclamation: simplify. (from BookList)
Only a remarkable life course could transform a devout nun into a sophisticated iconoclast. Armstrong...recounts precisely such a journey with an unflinching honesty that exposes unanticipated ironies in her personal metamorphosis. (from Booklist)
