Here If You Need Me by Kate Braestrup

In this memoir the author tells of losing her husband in an auto accident and deciding to fulfill his dream of becoming a Unitarian-Universalist minister. She managed to get through seminary while raising four children and ultimately became the chaplain for the Maine game wardens. Her role involved her in desperate searches for people lost in the woods and sometimes the retrieval of bodies. She comforts families of the victims and shores up the wardens when the work is gruesome and painful. In a straightforward way Braestrup amuses the reader with a wonderful mix of the personal and the professional.

Why God Won't Go Away; Brain Science & the Biology of Belief by Andrew Newberg et al.

Andrew Newberg is a radiologist and instructor in religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He teamed up with his colleague there, psychiatrist Eugene d'Aquili; and together they ran studies aimed at understanding the neurobiology of spiritual experiences. They located an area of the brain called the orientation area, which is associated with knowing where the body ends and the rest of the world begins, giving us a perception of where we are in space. When people who meditate reach a deeply spiritual state, the orientation area becomes quiescent and the meditator experiences a transcendent reality beyond the normal reality of our everyday experience. The authors believe that the brain's capacity for transcendent experience is the basis for mysticism which is historically found in religions and cultures across the globe; it is the neurobiological aspects of spiritual experience that support humankind's sense of the realness of God. This spiritual state is analogous to the concept being developed in today's quantum mechanics that "both observer and observed are merging and interpenetrating aspects of one whole reality, which is indivisible an unanalysable." [David Bohm in Wholeness and the Implicate Order]

Lolly Willowes or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner

The very first Book-of-the-Month club selection back in 1926, Lolly Willowes is a peculiar tale of an English maiden aunt who becomes a witch and follower of the devil (the eponymous Huntsman.) With its blatant departure from realism the tale is obviously meant to be taken as allegory. When Lolly emerges from the restrictions of proper English family life and attempts to go her own way, why does she fall into witchcraft? Is the Loving devil good or bad? Is a mature woman's departure from self-sacrifice good or bad? Is the devil the only thing that can propel women into personal self-expression? Is it evil for women to want to leave the family and pursue independence? Is life in the outside world just too dangerous for a single woman? It beats me.

Setting a Trap for God; The Aramaic Prayer of Jesus by Rocco A. Errico

Errico goes back to the original Aramaic words that Jesus spoke in what we commonly refer to as "The Lord's Prayer" and he pays special attention to cultural setting and the nuances of the Aramaic language. What he comes up with is not so different from what we already know, but he emphasizes the sense of intimacy with God that Jesus encouraged. He also objects to "lead us not into temptation," as something a loving father would not do. He prefers "leave us not in temptation." Errico's book is sensible and has little to disagree with. However, those of us who see the Universe as God (there's nothing that's not God) still wonder whom you are addressing when you pray. Even though this is a Unity book, it seems to emphasize human separation from God -- as does all prayer. Personally, I think meditation and "intention" is the way to go.

The Translator by Daoud Hari

Daoud Hari is an African of the Zaghawa tribe in Darfur. Using his talent for language, he left his home to support himself in Chad by translating. His adventures took him to Egypt and Israel dodging authorities eager to enforce immigration laws. As Sudan's war against its native Africans heated up, Daoud's job became escorting journalists into Darfur to report on conditions there. He was also part of a commission to establish that the Arab Sudanese government was indeed committing genocide. For me this was an excellent introduction to the problems in Darfur.

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

Bhima is an illiterate old woman who lives with her granddaughter in the slums of Bombay. She works as a housemaid in a wealthy home headed by a widow named Sera. Over decades of employment Bhima and Sera have become friends who look out for each other's families. Bhima endures the drudgery of housework and the humiliation of servanthood (she is not allowed to sit on the furniture in Sera's house.) Sera, who has endured her own pain and unhappiness, comes to Bhima's aid with money or influence when needed. Eventually events conspire to make clear the boundaries and distance between them. Thrity Umrigar is a good story teller who takes you deep into Indian culture in this page-turner.

The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart

I loved McTaggart's book called The Field, but was a little disappointed in this one. It is about attempts of science to prove that prayer or thoughtful "intention" can have long distance effects. There are a lot of past experiments that prove it to be true and several that prove nothing. With this book McTaggart and her colleagues have set up an internet site (www.theintentionexperiment.com) which allows anyone who has read the book to participate online in experiments aimed at proving the effectiveness of human "intention" on living things. If this were a subject close to my heart, I would join in; but it seems to me that results thus far are scant and unpredictable and I doubt we'll be able the use this method to achieve world peace anytime soon. Nevertheless, McTaggart's writing is wonderfully clear and her facts thoroughly documented. If you should doubt any of the research she's writing about, you can check her endnotes and run down the source yourself.