Books about books Archives

Cover image of "World of Wonders" by Jeff Crosby

World of Wonders: A Spirituality of Reading, Jeff Crosby, foreword by Carolyn Weber. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609457) 2025

Summary: On reading as a spiritual practice and how books may transform our lives.

I love books on books. And I think many of you will especially love this book, World of Wonders. That was how I felt the first time I walked through the doors of the Reuben McMillan Library in Youngstown. It’s how I felt the first time I visited a Borders store when we were house hunting in the city where I now live. And its how I felt the first time I read Lord of the Rings.

The author, Jeff Crosby, is writing about all this and more. He believes in reading as a spiritual practice, a means by which we position ourselves to receive the grace of God. And in this book, he writes about how we may cultivate this practice and the various genres and types of books we may read along the way. After each chapter he includes a short statement from another reader on the chapter topic. And then he offers a list of recommended readings on that topic or theme.

Part One of the book lays foundations. Crosby explores why we read and tells his personal story of how reading Calvin Miller’s The Singer transformed him as a reader. He then elaborates his ideas on reading as a spiritual discipline through a “liturgy of reading” consisting of a number of practices, including building a list of books to read (in which he generously recommends this blog as a resource!). Finally, Crosby discusses the reading of scripture as a discipline. I appreciated his challenge to those of us who read many books to not allow this to supplant our reading of scripture! The temptation is real.

Part Two considers “The Wide, Wide, Wonderful World of Reading.” Four chapters consider the genres of fiction, poetry, diverse voices, and memoirs. Quoting Christine Seifert, he argues that “Research suggests that reading literary fiction is an effective way to enhance the brain’s ability to keep an open mind while processing information, a necessary skill for effective decision-making.” Likewise, poetry enhances our power of paying attention as we slow down and ponder. Diverse voices broaden our perspective and help build bridges of understanding. Finally, reading memoir deepens our capacity for reflection. He offers the example of Carolyn Weber’s Surprised by Oxford, the account of her intellectual and spiritual conversion to Christianity.

In Part Three, Crosby explores reading as a spiritual practice through the seasons of life. He recounts reading with children, reading as they left home, and reading while caring for aging parents. Crosby discusses reading as part of dealing with grief and loss. He speaks of reading in seasons of doubt. Daniel Taylor’s The Myth of Certainty was an important book for him. Reading can also be an important adjunct through the liturgical year. Lastly, he returns to his theme of wonder in how books may be our companions through all the seasons of wonder in our lives.

World of Wonders is a great book for readers who always are looking for a book recommendation. In addition, Crosby gives words to what is often our inarticulate sense of the spiritual importance of our reading. And it is good for Christians who realize that they’d like to read more but wonder where to begin. Crosby’s stories of his own reading journey are not from elite literary circles but from daily life. One thinks “that could be me.” And indeed it could. Welcome to the world of wonders!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Cover image of "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin. Algonquin Books (ISBN: 9781616204518) 2014.

Summary: A widowed bookseller’s life changes when a rare book disappears and an orphaned child is left in his care.

Amelia Loman didn’t deserve this. She’s on her first sales calls, representing Knightly Press. She’s taken the ferry to Alice Island, where she has an appointment to meet the owner of Island Books, A. J. Fikry. He’s terribly rude and doesn’t appear to be interested in anything in her winter catalog. She even manages to knock over a pile of Advanced Reader Copies stacked in the hallway to his office. But all she can do is leave a book she has really liked in his office along with the winter catalog.

A. J. Fikry is not yet forty and a widower. His wife, Nic, with whom he started the bookstore on a resort island, had been killed in an auto accident. Since then, he’s been drinking and the store’s sales are slumping. His sister-in-law Ismay, married to a fading, once best-selling author, tries to help. She even took him to an estate sale where he found a rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane. He buys it for $5 but figures it is worth $400,000. It’s kind of an insurance policy.

The night of Amelia’s visit, he pulls out Tamerlane as he drinks himself into oblivion. When he wakes the next morning, the book has disappeared. But, in a strange turn, the officer, Lambiase, who takes the police report, becomes a regular visitor to the bookstore. Then he starts a popular book group for those who read detective fiction. Meanwhile, A.J. helps him broaden his reading interests.

While Lambiase was taking the police report, A. J. had a seizure, something that had occurred throughout his life. When a trip to the hospital reveals nothing wrong, except for his depression, the only recommendation is that he get exercise. One day, on returning from a run, he finds the door to his store, which he leaves unlocked, ajar. On investigating, he discovers a baby in the children’s section. With her, he finds a note introducing the baby as Maya and that the mother, who can’t care for her wants her to grow up in a place with books. With Ismay’s help, he figures out how to care for her, The next day, Maya’s mother’s body washes ashore.

Lambiase explains the realities of the foster system, and against all his instinct’s A.J. decides to fulfill the mother’s last wish. The town is abuzz. Then he adopts her, and gives her the middle name Tamerlane. She has become the most valuable thing in his life, an unexpected replacement for the missing book. And A.J.’s heart begins to open up as Maya blossoms into an amazing daughter.

Remember Amelia? She keeps calling and A. J. discovers he likes discussing books with her. He looks forward to her visits. And the wonder of it is that Amelia, who has had her own disappointments with men, finds herself drawn to this one. And she finds herself marrying the guy who had treated her so rudely on her first sales call.

Gabrielle Zevin writes a story of how tenderness, friendship, and love arise out of tragedy. And for booklovers, it all happens in a bookstore! Another bookish device are the “shelftalkers” that open each chapter, written as we later learn, for his daughter Maya, who loves books and writing beyond her mother’s hopes. This is the second Zevin novel I have read this year, and she is one of my “author finds” of the year.