Books

God and Forgiveness on the Bathroom Floor: Immaculee Ilibagiza and the Rwandan Genocide

Some books are so powerful, so disturbing, I almost hesitates to recommend them or pass along a copy to a friend. Left to Tell, a spiritual autobiography written by a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, is one such book. A friend who read it at her church lent it to me, and the book spent […]

17Jun2008 | Andrea Useem | 3 comments | Continued

The Most Mysterious Haggadah: Q+A with “People of the Book” author Geraldine Brooks

A sweeping narrative set in multiple locations with a myriad cast of characters, People of the Book, a novel by Pulitzer-prize winning author Geraldine Brooks, is held together by one thing – a powerful fascination with a deceptively tattered book. The maxim “don’t judge a book by its cover” couldn’t be more applicable as the […]

24Apr2008 | Shona Crabtree | 3 comments | Continued

American Muslims are so American they are…boring?

At last September’s Religion Newswriters Association pow-wow in San Antonio, veteran religion reporter (and bead-blogger) Kimberly Winston pulled me aside to tell me about Melody Moezzi, the young author of the Dec. 2007 book, War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims. “You have to meet her,” said Kimberly, who profiled Moezzi and her book […]

24Mar2008 | Andrea Useem | 5 comments | Continued

Extreme Sports and Religion: The Faith of Ultramarathon Man

Like most religion reporters, my mailbox is usually stuffed with the latest religion-book releases from publishers around the country; indeed, my children are often a bit resentful that I receive so many of these mysterious “presents” in the mail. New releases carpet a good section of my office floor, but in spite of their […]

5Feb2008 | Andrea Useem | 7 comments | Continued

A Gripping Tale of the Iranian Revolution (without the cartoons)

Don’t let the headline mislead you: I’m thrilled that Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, is coming to a movie theater near me, hopefully this weekend. Indeed, I spent the last several months loaning out copies of Persepolis: it is a funny, sad, perfectly rendered child’s-eye view on what […]

24Jan2008 | Andrea Useem | 2 comments | Continued

The Purpose-Driven Journalist

What was your favorite New Year’s Eve? Here’s an unexpected one from Pamela Constable, a long-time foreign correspondent with the Washington Post. On Dec. 31, 1999, Constable found herself camped out in a freezing airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan, reporting on a hijacked Indian jetliner, after breaking off her winter holiday in Connecticut. When the hijacked […]

31Dec2007 | Andrea Useem | 0 comments | Continued

The Grinch Who Stole Eid ul-Adha

What are the biggest Christian and Jewish holidays of the year? Religiously speaking, Christmas and Hannukah are not the answer — rather, as observant Christians know, Easter has more significance for followers of Christ, and, as Jews know, Hannukah pales besides Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashonah.
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but the same phenomenon happens in […]

17Dec2007 | Andrea Useem | 3 comments | Continued

Hospital Reading: America’s Most Religious College Students

This weekend ReligionWriter found herself at an area hospital, watching over her one-year-old son, Moses, who was suffering from respiratory problems (he’s better now, and we’re both home, thank you.) But there’s nothing like being captive in a strange, somewhat scary place to make a book seem like a treasured escape. While rocking Moses to […]

10Dec2007 | Andrea Useem | 1 comment | Continued

Does God Want Us to Genetically Improve Our Children?

Hold onto your socks, it’s time to think calmly about a topic that quickly, and sometimes frighteningly, blurs the line between science and science fiction: directed evolution — altering our genetic makeup in ways that can be passed down to future generations.
Want to hear the scary part first? Consider that in a matter of years, […]

30Nov2007 | Andrea Useem | 0 comments | Continued

In Describing Mormonism, Who Is More Accurate: Believers or Reporters?

A heated digital discussion following last week’s review of Dick and Joan Ostling’s Mormon America on this site brought up a set of pointed questions about religion and journalism.

Commenter Amanda P. wrote: “If you are interested in Mormonism, visit mormon.org and get your answers straight from the Church itself. This book is NOT an ‘objective’ […]

20Nov2007 | Andrea Useem | 52 comments | Continued