You are worthy of my praise

Talking About Detective Fiction

by P D James

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307592820
• ISBN-13: 978-0307592828

Here's the blurb:
In a perfect marriage of author and subject, P. D. James—one of the most widely admired writers of detective fiction at work today—gives us a personal, lively, illuminating exploration of the human appetite for mystery and mayhem, and of those writers who have satisfied it.

P. D. James examines the genre from top to bottom, beginning with the mysteries at the hearts of such novels as Charles Dickens’s Bleak Houseand Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, and bringing us into the present with such writers as Colin Dexter and Henning Mankell. Along the way she writes about Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie (“arch-breaker of rules”), Josephine Tey, Dashiell Hammett, and Peter Lovesey, among many others. She traces their lives into and out of their fiction, clarifies their individual styles, and gives us indelible portraits of the characters they’ve created, from Sherlock Holmes to Sara Paretsky’s sexually liberated female investigator, V. I. Warshawski. She compares British and American Golden Age mystery writing. She discusses detective fiction as social history, the stylistic components of the genre, her own process of writing, how critics have reacted over the years, and what she sees as a renewal of detective fiction—and of the detective hero—in recent years.

There is perhaps no one who could write about this enduring genre of storytelling with equal authority and flair: it is essential reading for every lover of detective fiction.

P D James is a Christian so I'm putting her here...in case anyone asks.

Postcolonial Reconfigurations:: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology

Postcolonial Reconfigurations:: An Alternative Way of Reading the Bible and Doing Theology (Paperback)

~ R. S. Sugirtharajah

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Chalice Press (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827229968
• ISBN-13: 978-0827229969

The Blurb:

Collected essays exploring how to do theology (part one) and read the Bible (part two) when viewed through the eyes of oppressed peoples who have suffered - and continue to suffer - from western colonialism.

About the Author

R. S. Sugirtharajah is Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics, University of Birmingham. His most recent publications include: Postcolonial Criticism and Biblical Interpretation (2002), and The Bible and the Third World: Precolonial, Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters (2001).

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

East Indian Christian Song

How Great Is Our God

Mary's Boy Child

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry
Camille T. Dungy
University of Georgia Press, 2009

• ISBN-10: 0820334316
• ISBN-13: 978-0820334318

Here's the blurb:

"Black Nature" is the first anthology to focus on nature writing by African American poets, a genre that until now has not commonly been counted as one in which African American poets have participated.

Black poets have a long tradition of incorporating treatments of the natural world into their work, but it is often read as political, historical, or protest poetry--anything but nature poetry. This is particularly true when the definition of what constitutes nature writing is limited to work about the pastoral or the wild.

Camille T. Dungy has selected 180 poems from 93 poets that provide unique perspectives on American social and literary history to broaden our concept of nature poetry and African American poetics. This collection features major writers such as Phillis Wheatley, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling Brown, Robert Hayden, Wanda Coleman, Natasha Trethewey, and Melvin B. Tolson as well as newer talents such as Douglas Kearney, Major Jackson, and Janice Harrington. Included are poets writing out of slavery, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, and late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century African American poetic movements.

"Black Nature" brings to the fore a neglected and vital means of considering poetry by African Americans and nature-related poetry as a whole.

The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (Paperback) ~ Soong-Chan Rah

The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (Paperback)

by Soong-Chan Rah

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: Intervarsity Press (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830833609
• ISBN-13: 978-0830833603

Here's the blurb:

In this book professor and pastor Soong-Chan Rah calls the North American church to escape its captivity to Western cultural trappings and to embrace a new evangelicalism that is diverse and multiethnic. Rah brings keen analysis to the limitations of American Christianity and shows how captivity to Western individualism and materialism has played itself out in megachurches and emergent churches alike. Many white churches are in crisis and ill-equipped to minister to new cultural realities, but immigrant, ethnic and multiethnic churches are succeeding and flourishing.

This prophetic report casts a vision for a dynamic evangelicalism that fully embodies the cultural realities of the twenty-first century. Spiritual renewal is happening within the North American church, from corners and margins not always noticed by those in the center. Come, discover the vitality of the next evangelicalism.

Here are some reviews:

"In this manifesto for change, Soong-Chan Rah calls for the church to break free from limiting and exclusive paradigms and fully embrace the dramatic cultural diversity that is rapidly defining the twenty-first century in the United States. His powerfully persuasive pen engages and challenges the reader in ways that radically transform how church life is to be understood, shaped and lived. Everyone who cares about the Christian church in the United States needs to read The Next Evangelicalism. This book ignites hope for reconciliation in the world through the church." --Curtiss Paul DeYoung, professor of reconciliation studies, Bethel University

"Soong-Chan Rah explores the impact of ethnic and geographic shifts on the present and future state of evangelicalism. He gives us fair warning that parts of his heartfelt book are 'intended to provoke,' and they will. But that doesn't stop his book from being timely, thoughtful and very rewarding." --Philip Jenkins, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities, Pennsylvania State University, and author of The Next Christendom

"The Next Evangelicalism reminds me of July 4: there's plenty to celebrate and there are fireworks going off in all directions! But I kept asking myself: What will this next evangelicalism celebration do to us? Will we stay the same or will we follow the leading of God's Spirit into the next era of evangelicalism, one that will surely be unlike what we have now? Sit down, open this book, and get ready to duck!" --Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University, blogger, JesusCreed, author, The Blue Parakeet

"In this manifesto for change, Soong-Chan Rah calls for the church to break free from limiting and exclusive paradigms and fully embrace the dramatic cultural diversity that is rapidly defining the twenty-first century in the United States. His powerfully persuasive pen engages and challenges the reader in ways that radically transform how church life is to be understood, shaped and lived. Everyone who cares about the Christian church in the United States needs to read The Next Evangelicalism. This book ignites hope for reconciliation in the world through the church."

How Great Thou Art

Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity

Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity
by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor


Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press; 1 edition (March 31, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0674032934
ISBN-13: 978-0674032934


Here's the blurb:

Blessed Trinity
by
Vanessa Davis Griggs

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dafina; Reprint edition (November 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758217331
• ISBN-13: 978-0758217332

Here's the blurb:

Three sisters...one devastating secret.

Faith Alexandria Morrell, the oldest of a mysterious trio of sisters, lives a troubled life and guards a horrifying secret. Yet few, least of all her new church family, would believe this always-impeccably-dressed woman is so utterly lost. But what lies beneath the surface of Faith's carefully constructed veneer could completely destroy her.

Needing help, Faith and her sisters, Hope and Charity, join Followers of Jesus Faith Worship Center. This new mega church, led by the dreadlock-wearing, Holy Ghost-filled Pastor George Landris, just may offer the solace she needs. But Faith soon discovers that all is not well in her new church home: Pastor Landris's marriage may not be as solid as everyone thinks and he's struggling to finance the church building; Thomas, the pastor's deadbeat brother, is diagnosed as bipolar; and Johnnie Mae, the pastor's wife, is facing some tough choices regarding her ailing mother's care. How can Faith and her sisters find comfort here when so many are wrestling with their own issues? And when one sister suffers a crushing collapse, prayer may be the only way to unravel the mystery shadowing Faith and her sisters--the blessed trinity.

CFBA: The Sheriff's Surrender

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Sheriff’s Surrender
Barbour Books (December 1, 2009)
by
Susan Page Davis


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


I've always loved reading, history, and horses. These things come together in several of my historical books. My young adult novel, Sarah's Long Ride, also spotlights horses and the rugged sport of endurance riding, as does the contemporary romance Trail to Justice. I took a vocational course in horseshoeing after earning a bachelor's degree in history. I don't shoe horses anymore, but the experience has come in handy in writing my books.

Another longtime hobby of mine is genealogy, which has led me down many fascinating paths. I'm proud to be a DAR member! Some of Jim's and my quirkier ancestors have inspired fictional characters

For many years I worked for the Central Maine Morning Sentinel as a freelancer, covering local government, school board meetings, business news, fires, auto accidents, and other local events, including a murder trial. I've also written many profiles and features for the newspaper and its special sections. This experience was a great help in developing fictional characters and writing realistic scenes. I also published nonfiction articles in several magazines and had several short stories appear in Woman's World, Grit, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

My husband, Jim, and I moved to his birth state, Oregon, for a while after we were married, but decided to move back to Maine and be near my family. We're so glad we did. It allowed our six children to grow up feeling close to their cousins and grandparents, and some of Jim's family have even moved to Maine!



ABOUT THE BOOK


Gert Dooley can shoot the tail feathers off a jay at a hundred yards, but she wants Ethan Chapman to see she's more than a crack shot with a firearm. When the sheriff of Fergus, Idaho, is murdered and Ethan is named his replacement, Gert decides she has to do whatever she can to help him protect the citizenry. So she starts the Ladies Shooting Club. But when one of their numbers is murdered, these ladies are called on for more than target shooting and praying. Can Gert and the ladies of Fergus find the murderer before he strikes again?

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Sheriff’s Surrender , go HERE

How Great Is Our God

Alleluia #4

CFBA: The Familiar Stranger

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Familiar Stranger
Moody Publishers (September 1, 2009)
by
Christina Berry


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Single mother and foster parent, Christina Berry carves time to write from her busy schedule because she must tell the stories that haunt her every waking moment. (Such is the overly dramatic description of an author's life!) She holds a BA in Literature, yet loves a good Calculus problem, as well. All that confusion must have influenced her decision to be team captain of a winning team on Family Feud.

Her debut novel, The Familiar Stranger, released from Moody in September and deals with lies, secrets, and themes of forgiveness in a troubled marriage. A moving speaker and dynamic teacher, Christina strives to Live Transparently--Forgive Extravagantly!

Her work has also appeared in The Secret Place, The Oregonian, and Daily Devotions for Writers.





ABOUT THE BOOK

Craig Littleton's decision to end his marriage would shock his wife, Denise . . . if she knew what he was up to. When an accident lands Craig in the ICU, with fuzzy memories of his own life and plans, Denise rushes to his side, ready to care for him.

They embark on a quest to help Craig remember who he is and, in the process, they discover dark secrets. An affair? An emptied bank account? A hidden identity? An illegitimate child?

But what will she do when she realizes he's not the man she thought he was? Is this trauma a blessing in disguise, a chance for a fresh start? Or will his secrets destroy the life they built together?

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Familiar Stranger, go HERE

CFBA: The Christmas Lamp

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Christmas Lamp
Zondervan (October 1, 2009)
by
Lori Copeland


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lori Copeland has been writing for twenty-five years and has over three million copies of her books in print. She began her writing career in 1982, writing for the secular book market. In 1995, after many years of writing, Lori sensed that God was calling her to use her gift of writing to honor Him. It was at that time that she began writing for the Christian book market.

To date, she has more than 95 books published, including Now and Always, Simple Gifts, Unwrapping Christmas, and Monday Morning Faith, which was a finalist for the 2007 Christy Awards. Lori was inducted into the Springfield Writers Hall of Fame in 2000.

Lori lives in the beautiful Ozarks with her husband Lance. They have three sons, two daughter-in-laws, and five wonderful grandchildren. Lori and Lance are very involved in their church, and active in supporting mission work in Mali, West Africa.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Christmas trees, twinkling lights, skating in the park, and holiday displays are the hallmark elements for celebrating Jesus birth for the sentimental residents of Nativity, Missouri. Will fiscal responsibility replace Christmas their traditions when times are tough? Though their priorities and methods clash, Roni Elliot and Jake Brisco want the same thing, for the town to prosper. As the two get to know each other better, each begins to gain a new perspective on what the real wealth of Nativity and the season might be.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Christmas Lamp, go HERE

Call for Manuscripts: Street Smarts

Call for Manuscripts: Street Smarts

There’s a New Anthology in the works and the deadline for submissions has been extended to January 30, 2010...Louis Reyes Rivera and Bruce George, co-editors of the critically acclaimedThe Bandana Republic, are now accepting submissions for their latest effort, Street Smarts: An Anthology of Urban Survival Strategies.

 

This is bound to be another literary first, focusing on the urban working class and the ability to enhance one’s earning power despite often being underemployed. How do lower paid workers make ends meet? How do the unemployed survive once they’ve used up their benefits? What happens to them once they disappear from official statistics? What tactics have they developed? Is there another economic system at work that is totally outside of mainstream standards? What does the underclass and the fair-to-middling do to feed the family within a hostile environment? Are the strategies they devise parts of yet another working standard? To what extent is there an underground economy that is not exactly illegal, yet for which there is no yardstick by which to measure its effectiveness?

Given the current economic downturns and consistent losses of jobs, are the strategies and options that have long ago developed among the working poor still viable? What are they? Are they legal, extralegal or illegal? What common threads hold the underclass together? Do they bear their own ethics? How applicable are they?

 

The answers to these questions serve as the parameters for Street Smarts. Our target audience includes the hundreds of thousands who, like never before, are faced with new challenges – unemployment, loss of homes, debts, etc., with homelessness and public shelters ever increasingly a viable and realistic given.

Here’s an opportunity for the entire planet to hear your truth, our truth, about both our desperate and our aspirate states, straight up from the streets. This anthology will offer real life stories of how folk who have come from or find themselves suddenly at the bottom have developed their own ways and means to survive.

 

The editors of Street Smarts welcome you to submit your own story of survival. It can come in the form of poetry or drama, as biographical and/or fictional accounts of ways in which citizens will make ends meet – how we work a hustle or cook those meals on a shoestring budget or how we use borrowing and lending to keep that household going (even via pyramid schemes or other forms of community banking, or working the numbers racket and/or relying on the bolita).

We want to hear from freelance writers and artists, from consultants who no longer work a regular j-o-b, even from street pharmacists and drug dealers. We want to hear from those who still host Rent Parties and poker games or organize poetry readings, who rent dance halls for weekend events or loan shark their way through life. We want to hear from anyone who finds a way to cut the price down or makes use of old home remedies instead of going to the pharmacy, from those who’ve survived prisons in every way imaginable, and how they adapt to street and prison codes in order to fend for themselves.

 

We will consider material on any topic, in any form and according to how each contributor interprets factual events and strategies, even when couched with fictional characters. What matters most is that you’re helping to illustrate how creative humans really are, no matter what the odds against us. Artwork, photography and transcribed interviews are welcomed.

 

Email your submissions to  Louisreyesrivera (at) aol.com   in simple word format. If you have to use snail mail, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope to Louis Reyes Rivera, GPO Box 16, New York City 10116.

 

File Formats:

All material submitted must be the author’s original work. Use of work that was done or created by others without permission is a violation of copyright laws. Send us your best work and in simple word format! Please use your program’s spell check option or manually check your work before sending it. The editors reserve the right to make minor grammatical changes so that all materials conform to our guidelines. We want this to be a work of art both for general markets as well as for schools.

 

Material submission guidelines:

Poems and letters cannot be more than up to three (3) pages in length (single spaced).

Short stories, interviews and essays (political or social) should not be more than ten (10) pages in length and must be double-spaced, typewritten. Artwork and photographs should conform to a 6″ by 9″ format.

 

Requirements:

Please include with your submission your name/address, P.O. Box and/or e-mail along with a brief bio. Any questions or concerns about your submission can be sent to the editors at  Louisreyesrivera (at) aol.com     

 

Terms & Conditions:

A submission implies that you agree with the following terms: No submission will be returned without your inclusion of a self-addressed stamped envelope. If your work is not accepted, we will either return it in your self-addressed stamped envelope or we will discard it (and/or delete it from our computer).

Submissions may not have been published before or appeared in any other commercial publication. None of the contents may be derived from previously created documents unless specifically noted.

 

You agree to authorize publication of your work to appear in Street Smarts and in any manner that the editors deem appropriate to the format of the book. By submitting your work, you also grant permission for the editors to distribute it throughout the world.

 

You agree to hold harmless the editors and publisher from any and all claims, suits and damages based on international copyright laws, including plagiarism or unauthorized use, or any other legally related issues.

 

Having read the Terms & Conditions for submitting your work, you understand that these Terms constitute the basis for accepting your work and that you agree to such Terms & Conditions.

 

Submission Deadline:

We should have received your materials no later than January 30, 2010. Entries submitted after that date might not be considered.

 

SASE: We prefer that you email your submissions. If you decide to snail mail your work, include a stamped self-addressed business-sized envelope so that your work can be returned to you if it is not accepted.

Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell

Well, Folks, it's my birthday so decided to repost about Wind Follower. I feel so blessed to have had a book published. It just makes my heart leap with joy. mucho.



http://www.juno-books.com/windfollower.html

It can be bought directly from the publishers here:
http://www.wildsidepress.com/Wind-Follower-by-Carole-McDonnell-PB_p_31-130.html

Anyways, check out the interview at Shades of Romance . There'll be a review sometime during the month on Shades of Romance Blog

The folks involved in the Christian Fiction Review Blog will be posting stuff from Dec 2 - Dec 8. So if something isn't up on their respective sites yet, it will be up later.

Christian Fiction Review Blog
Cathischatter.blogspot.com/
Disturbing The Universe: Reviews And Rants
Queen of Convolution
The Lost Genre Guild
The land of my sojourn
virtualbooktourdenet/
http://gracebridges.blogspot.com/
http://afrankreview.blogspot.com/
http://blog.lostgenreguild.com/
http://disturbingreviews.blogspot.com/2007/12/windfollower-art-loic.html
http://virtualbooktourdenet.blogspot.com/2007/12/interview-with-carole-mcdonnell.html
http://authorgeralynbeauchamp.blogspot.com/2007/12/thank-you-carole-mcdonnell-and-wind.html
http://forstrose.blogspot.com/2007/12/wind-follower-by-carole-mcdonnell-cfrb.html
http://lisanevin.blogspot.com/2008/04/wind-follower-my-thoughts.html


The Writers of Color Blog Tour participants are:
Rachel Lindley
Moondancer Drake's blog
East of Mars
Greg Banks

Other interviews and reviews --from folks not in the tour-- can be found here:
http://www.graspingforthewind.com/2007/10/03/book-review-wind-follower-by-carole-mcdonnell/
http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2007/07/review-wind-follower-not-yet-released.html
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6478173.html?q=carole+mcdonnell+wind+follower
http://mindflights.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=512

CFBA: Raising Rain

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Raising Rain
Moody Publishers (September 1, 2009)
by
Debbie Fuller Thomas


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Debbie writes contemporary fiction from an historic Gold Rush town in Northern California. By day, she manages after school and day camp programs, and she burns the midnight oil to write what she loves. Her first book Tuesday Night at the Blue Moon, is a Christy finalist. Raising Rain, her second book became available September 2009.

Debbie has contributed to story collections such as Chicken Soup for the Bride's Soul, and Lord, I Was Happy Shallow, along with articles in Coping With Cancer magazine.

She has two teenagers and her husband is the executive pastor on Sonrise Church with 1,000 members. Debbie is a manager at Auburn Area Parks and Recreation.



ABOUT THE BOOK


Raised to be a 'new woman' by her mother and three college roommates in
the 70's amid anti-war protests, feminist rallies, and finals, Rain
Rasmussen discovers that putting her career first has left her overdrawn
at the egg-bank, and her baby fever has now driven off her significant
other.

When her terminally ill mother demands a Celebration of Life before she
dies; they all confront ghosts from the past on a 'stormy' weekend in
Monterey. Bebe, the roommate closest to Rain's heart, revisits choices
that have impacted Rain the most, raising doubts about God's—and her
own—willingness to forgive and to be forgiven.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Raising Rain, go HERE.

CFBA: The Christmas Glass

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Christmas Glass
GuidepostsBooks (October 1, 2009)
by
Marci Alborghetti


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Marci Alborghetti has been writing only slightly longer than she's been reading. In seventh grade she received her first writing prize for a zany Halloween story. The prize? A five dollar gift certificate to a local bookstore. She was hooked. The Christmas Glass is her fourteenth book, and she is currently at work on a sequel as well as a non-fiction book about service. Some of her other books include: Prayer Power: How to Pray When You Think You Can’t, A Season in the South and Twelve Strong Women of God.

She and her husband, Charlie Duffy, live in New London, Connecticut and the San Francisco Bay area. While in New London she facilitates the Saint James Literary Club.



ABOUT THE BOOK

In the tradition of The Christmas Shoes and A Christmas on Jane Street, the heartwarming story of The Christmas Glass shows how, today as always, the Christmas miracle works its wonders in the human heart.

In the early days of World War II in Italy, Anna, a young widow who runs a small orphanage, carefully wraps her most cherished possessions -- a dozen hand-blown, German-made, Christmas ornaments, handed down by her mother -- and sends them to a cousin she hasn't seen in years.

Anna is distressed to part with her only tangible reminder of her mother, but she worries that the ornaments will be lost or destroyed in the war, especially now that her orphanage has begun to secretly shelter Jewish children. Anna's young cousin Filomena is married with two-year-old twins when she receives the box of precious Christmas glass.

After the war, Filomena emigrates to America, where the precious ornaments are passed down through the generations. After more than forty years, twelve people come to possess a piece of Christmas glass, some intimately connected by family bonds, some connected only through the history of the ornaments.

As Christmas Day approaches, readers join each character in a journey of laughter and tears, fractures and healings, as Filomena, now an eighty-four-year-old great-grandmother, brings them all to what will be either a wondrous reunion or a disaster that may shatter them all like the precious glass they cherish.

If you would like to read the first chapter of The Christmas Glass, go HERE

Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire

Decolonizing God: The Bible in the Tides of Empire by Mark G. Brett

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press (31 Jul 2008)
• Language English
• ISBN-10: 1906055378
• ISBN-13: 978-1906055370

Here's the blurb:

For centuries, the Bible has been used by colonial powers to undergird their imperial designs--an ironic situation when so much of the Bible was conceived by way of resistance to empires. In this thoughtful book, Mark Brett draws upon his experience of the colonial heritage in Australia to identify a remarkable range of areas where God needs to be decolonized--freed from the bonds of the colonial. Writing in a context where landmark legal cases have ruled that Indigenous (Aboriginal) rights have been 'washed away by the tide of history', Brett re-examines land rights in the biblical traditions, Deuteronomy's genocidal imagination, and other key topics in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament where the effects of colonialism can be traced. Drawing out the implications for theology and ethics, this book provides a comprehensive new proposal for addressing the legacies of colonialism. A ground-breaking work of scholarship that makes a major intervention into post-colonial studies. This book confirms the relevance of post-colonial theory to biblical scholarship and provides an exciting and original approach to biblical interpretation. Bill Ashcroft, University of Hong Kong and University of New South Wales; author of The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (2002). Acutely sensitive to the historical as well as theological complexity of the Bible, Mark Brett's Decolonizing God brilliantly demonstrates the value of a critical assessment of the Bible as a tool for rethinking contemporary possibilities. The contribution of this book to ethical and theological discourse in a global perspective and to a politics of hope is immense. Tamara C. Eskenazi, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles; editor of The Torah: A Women's Commentary (2007).