A World Lost


Book Description

Brilliantly detailed characters and subtle social observations distinguish Berry's unassuming but powerful fifth novel. The T.S. Eliot Award-winning poet, essayist and novelist writes with the authority of a man steeped in the culture of a time an...




The Magic of Ordinary Days


Book Description

The inspiration for the beloved film that became a TikTok sensation An extraordinary tale of one woman’s journey of resilience, courage, and self-discovery amidst the turmoil of World War II. Olivia Dunne, a studious minister’s daughter who dreams of becoming an archaeologist, never thought that WWII would affect her quiet life in Denver. But when an exhilarating flirtation reshapes her life, she finds herself in a rural Colorado outpost, married to a man she hardly knows. Overwhelmed by loneliness, Olivia tentatively tries to establish a new life, finding much-needed friendship and solace in two Japanese-American sisters from a nearby internment camp. When Olivia unwittingly becomes an accomplice to a crime that tests her beliefs about trust and love, she must confront her own desires and reconcile them with the harsh realities of the world around her.




The Gift of an Ordinary Day


Book Description

The Gift of an Ordinary Day is an intimate memoir of a family in transition, with boys becoming teenagers, careers ending and new ones opening up, and an attempt to find a deeper sense of place—and a slower pace—in a small New England town. This is a story of mid-life longings and discoveries, of lessons learned in the search for home and a new sense of purpose, and the bittersweet intensity of life with teenagers—holding on, letting go. Poised on the threshold between family life as she's always known it and her older son's departure for college, Kenison is surprised to find that the times she treasures most are the ordinary, unremarkable moments of everyday life, the very moments that she once took for granted, or rushed right through without noticing at all. The relationships, hopes, and dreams that Kenison illuminates will touch women's hearts, and her words will inspire mothers everywhere as they try to make peace with the inevitable changes in store.




The Beauty of Everyday Things


Book Description

The daily lives of ordinary people are replete with objects, common things used in commonplace settings. These objects are our constant companions in life. As such, writes Soetsu Yanagi, they should be made with care and built to last, treated with respect and even affection. They should be natural and simple, sturdy and safe - the aesthetic result of wholeheartedly fulfilling utilitarian needs. They should, in short, be things of beauty. In an age of feeble and ugly machine-made things, these essays call for us to deepen and transform our relationship with the objects that surround us. Inspired by the work of the simple, humble craftsmen Yanagi encountered during his lifelong travels through Japan and Korea, they are an earnest defence of modest, honest, handcrafted things - from traditional teacups to jars to cloth and paper. Objects like these exemplify the enduring appeal of simplicity and function: the beauty of everyday things.




Ordinary Beauty


Book Description

Lauded by critics and authors for her heartbreakingly real heroines, Laura Wiess brings readers another devastating tale of betrayal and redemption rich with the raw emotion that made Such a Pretty Girl a classic. How can you make someone love you when they won’t? And what if that person happens to be your mother? Sayre Bellavia grew up knowing she was a mistake: unplanned and unwanted. At five months shy of eighteen, she’s become an expert in loneliness, heartache, and neglect. Her whole life she’s been cursed, used, and left behind. Swallowed a thousand tears and ignored a thousand deliberate cruelties. Sayre’s stuck by her mother through hell, tried to help her, be near her, be important to her even as her mother slipped away into a violent haze of addiction, destroying the only chance Sayre ever had for a real family. Now her mother is lying in a hospital bed, near death, ravaged by her own destructive behavior. And as Sayre fights her way to her mother’s bedside, she is terrified but determined to get the answer to a question no one should ever have to ask: Did my mother ever really love me? And what will Sayre do if the answer is yes?




How Beautiful the Ordinary


Book Description

A girl thought to be a boy steals her sister's skirt, while a boy thought to be a girl refuses to wear a cornflower blue dress. One boy's love of a soldier leads to the death of a stranger. The present takes a bittersweet journey into the past when a man revisits the summer school where he had "an accidental romance." And a forgotten mother writes a poignant letter to the teenage daughter she hasn't seen for fourteen years. Poised between the past and the future are the stories of now. In nontraditional narratives, short stories, and brief graphics, tales of anticipation and regret, eagerness and confusion present distinctively modern views of love, sexuality, and gender identification. Together, they reflect the vibrant possibilities available for young people learning to love others—and themselves—in today's multifaceted and quickly changing world.




The Ministry of Ordinary Places


Book Description

Find your life and true calling by losing yourself in the ordinary rhythms of life with the people God has placed around you. Popular blogger, Shannan Martin offers Christians who are longing for a more meaningful life a simple starting point: learn what it is to love and be loved right where God has placed you. What does it look like to live lives of meaning? And how do we do it between loads of laundry and reimagining leftovers? Where do we even begin? For Christ-followers living in an increasingly complicated world, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to live a life of intention and meaning. But in The Ministry of Ordinary Places, speaker and writer Shannan Martin offers a surprisingly simple answer: it’s about being with people, the ones right next door. As she walks you through her own story she challenges you to see your community through a wider lens of love, following in the footsteps of a Savior who came as an everyday man and spent his life circled up with regular folks just like us. Along the way, she shares discoveries about the vital importance of showing up and committing for the long haul, despite the inevitable encounters with brokenness and uncertainty. With transparency, humor, heart-tugging storytelling, and more than a little personal confession, Martin shows us that no matter where we live or how much we have, as we learn what it is to be with people as Jesus was, we'll find our very lives. The details will look quiet and ordinary, and the call will both exhaust and exhilarate us. But it will be the most worth-it adventure we will ever take and The Ministry of Ordinary Places will help guide you along the path.




Find Wonder in the Ordinary


Book Description

Find Wonder in the Ordinary is not only the story of one person's journey back to their inner child, but it also is a guide for the reader do the same. As children, we view the world quite differently. With a sense of wonder. As we grow older, this is somewhat pushed out of us. Occasionally we all have moments where something reminds us of being a child, but they are usually fleeting moments. This book helps regain that focus. Through natural wonders and mysteries of the Universe, you are reminded how to find the fascination within ordinary things...and beyond. As the writer states, this book is "more like a drinking buddy", a companion that will definitely change how you see the world. In other words, it is a kid's book for adults.




Ordinary on Purpose


Book Description

Beauty is Found in the Ordinary The world is shouting at us to be more. Strive. Achieve. Overachieve. Never stop pushing. As a family practice doctor, wife, and mother, Mikala Albertson appeared to be living a "perfect" life, but really her whole world was falling apart. Married seven years to an alcohol and drug addict while raising two young children and finishing residency, Mikala eventually reached a breaking point. And surrendered. In sifting through the shattered pieces of her life, she realized she had been chasing something that doesn't exist. Perfect is pretend. And what she desperately needed to embrace was ordinary. A good, hard, messy, gritty, lovely, ordinary life. In Ordinary on Purpose, Mikala shares her heartfelt journey in a raw and revealing way as she invites you to lay down your own endless chase for perfection and embrace this beautiful, messy life exactly as it is with our perfect, loving God right by your side. What would it look like to stop pretending to be "perfect" and be ordinary? Instead of always feeling overwhelmed and alone, you might discover the beauty of a good, hard life grounded in the radiant hope of God's unending love. Life happens in the ordinary, after all.




Glory in the Ordinary


Book Description

Folding laundry. Weeding the garden. Cooking dinner. Changing diapers. Work in the home can seem so ordinary. Does any of it matter? Is there meaning in our most mundane moments at home? When the work of the home fills our days, it is easy to get disillusioned and miss God's grand purpose for our work. As image bearers of the Creator who made us to work, we contribute to society, bringing order out of chaos and loving God through loving others—meaning there's glory in every moment. In this encouraging book, Courtney Reissig combats the common misconceptions about the value of at-home work—helping us see how Christ infuses purpose into every facet of the ordinary.