memoir

Review: Falling Into a Good Life

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Cover image of "Falling Into a Good Life" by Laurel Richardson

Falling Into a Good Life

Falling Into a Good Life (Literary Scholar), Laurel Richardson. Paper Stars Press (ISBN: 9781737862451) 2026.

Summary: Laurel Richardson miraculously recovered from a serious fall leading to a reinventing of her life in a new place.

One night, while ill with COVID, Laurel Richardson attempted to walk down her steps when she suffered COVID paralysis and fell down thirteen steps. She suffered a broken neck, back, arm, ribs, eye socket. She had a severe concussion. Her aide, Fatu called for help the next afternoon when Laurel didn’t answer her phone. The EMTs brought her to Ohio State’s Trauma Center. Her very life was on the line.

Family gathered around her. Even Suzanne, her son Josh’s ex-wife was there, massaging her feet. She would stay with Laurel and do this often. Suzanne asks Laurel to stay with them until her birthday, six weeks off. Laurel promises. She writes, “My sons know I have never ever broken a promise to them.” And she promises.

In this memoir, Laurel describes how she not only survived to celebrate her 87th birthday in 2023 but went through a hard fought but miraculous recovery with the support of family and friends and the skilled and compassionate help of medical and rehab specialists at Ohio State’s Brain and Spine Hospital. And as amazing as this was, considering many don’t survive such injuries or are seriously disabled, she went on to transition into a new and rich life situation, reinventing her life as she did so.

The first several chapters are prefaced with “Here’s what happened. Or didn’t. I don’t know.” It captures the experience of someone heavily medicated who finds herself in a strange place with all these injuries. She hallucinates. Her son Josh challenges her pain management and they reduce her medication to Tylenol. She slowly recovers. takes her first steps. Then she transitions to a re-hab facility, followed by an assisted living facility. As she feels better, she enters into the community. She also thinks about survival, the meaning of her life, and talks with a trusted rabbi about prayer. Friends visit including her writing group. Then the time comes when she can go home.

However, this comes with mixed feelings. Her family sets up the house for her to live on the first floor while grandson Akiva lives upstairs and helps her out. But she misses the people at her assisted living community. She sets up a group with friend to read Jewish texts on Sabbath. She’s doing well. Akiva is in a deepening relationship. But she doesn’t want to live alone in her home.

Through a friend, she learns of The Hartford, an over-55 community. She likes what she sees, and so do her family and friends. But the decision involves downsizing. She describes working with downsizing consultants who help with the process and manage the move–tremendously exhausting but they worked through the house determining what to keep, sell, give to family.

The last part of the memoir describes life in the new community. An emeritus sociology professor, Richardson recognizes all the things the facility does to make this a welcoming community–places for residents to talk any time of the day, groups, celebrations. She describes celebrating New Years Eve for the first time in twelve years. She walks us through her days and the changing seasons. The memoir concludes with a show of Richardson’s quilts in the entrance foyer, an expression of her life and a gift to her new-found community.

She sums up her fall and the new life it led to like this:

“The fall awakened my life source, kindled a resilience I didn’t know I had, and led me to accept both my gifts and my shadow side–I have found the right place for the embodied me to be me.”

Richardson narrates a journey of not only physical rehabilitation but also of spiritual transformation. Her narrative offers vivid descriptions of the healing process, transitioning out of and downsizing from a home, and the dynamics of a community that honors the uniqueness of seniors. Her narrative offers an example of the powerful influence of a loving circle of family and friends. and the gift of sensitive spiritual advisors, both Jewish and Christian in her case.

As a younger senior, I find myself wondering how I will navigate the final part of my life’s journey. The memoir was a tremendous encouragement that growth is possible through all the transitions, even health challenges. A good life needn’t be simply what I had in the past. Richardson describes a life of growing generosity, deepening community, and richer spirituality on the other side of her fall. Her story is one of hope and meaning from which we all may learn.

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

Review: Serving God Under Siege

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Cover image of "Serving God Under Siege" by Valentyn Syniy

Serving God Under Siege

Serving God Under Siege, Valentyn Syniy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802885692) 2025.

Summary: A memoir of fleeing Kherson when Russia invaded, the challenges and lessons of displacement, and returning home.

Valentyn Syniy’s world turned upside down on February 24, 2022, as it did for many Ukrainians. He is the president of the Tavriski Christian Institute (TCI), located in Kherson, in southeastern Ukraine, not too distant from Russian held Crimea. They were about to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of training Christian workers to serve the church in Ukraine. They’d built an attractive campus with an extensive library. And then came the rumors of war. Working with a security consultant, they’d planned for a possible evacuation. And then a call came from a friend at their bank the day before, urging them to withdraw their funds and clean out their safe deposit box.

Syniy then goes on to narrate the next nine months, living as homeless, displaced persons in Ivano-Frankivsk. Churches there took them in. But first, they had to evacuate, as the sound of shelling grew louder. The drivers they contracted to evacuate them refused to go. This meant buying a used van, which repeatedly broke down enroute. There were good-byes with people they feared never seeing again. Then long queues on the roads, hoping they had enough fuel to reach their destination.

Those who welcomed them did so generously–yet soon there were strains–mostly reflecting the different cultures, including the church cultures of their respective regions. Yet they learned not only to accommodate differences but begin to see themselves within the national fabric of the Christian community in Ukraine.

Assistance from other Christians in Europe and the United States rapidly began to pour in. Quickly, they realized a need to pivot from theological education to humanitarian aid. Much of this consisted of turning the vans around and taking food to the Kherson region, helping those who stayed.

Siniy is honest about his disappointment with Russian theological partners who equivocated or were silent about the Russian invasion. He recounts a long conversation of being urged to “reconcile” without any expression of repentance or denunciation of Russian aggression and war crimes. He also discusses a sobering conference of theologians on “Theology after Bucha” and what it means to preach the gospel in the light of the horrible atrocities in that and many other towns.

But there are also lighter moments–Easter celebrations and his daughter’s wedding. He describes the cross-pollination among believers that would not have occurred apart from the war. And he recounts the continuation of their mission to train Christian leaders in their new location, using both in-person and online courses to continue to train Christian leaders.

In November 2022, the news came that Kherson had been re-captured by Ukrainian forces. (It has remained under Ukrainian control since then, although facing nearly daily shelling from nearby Russian forces.) Siniy describes returning to Kherson, seeing his father and mother who stayed, and witnessing the destruction of the TCI facilities. Russians used them to house military and then stripped the campus of anything of value. Subsequent shelling badly damaged a number of buildings.

This is a powerful and moving memoir. Siniy captures the anxiety of evacuation, the struggles of displacement, and Christians at their best and worst in a crisis. It also captures the resilient faith that presses on in the mission to train Christians for leadership in the church. Their website states: “TCI is the first and only evangelical Christian school in Ukraine with full state accreditation to award bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theology and ministry. Its accredited programs are recognized by Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and provide a legal and professional foundation for graduates to serve in both church and public contexts.” While hoping to re-build in Kherson, they have established a regional training center in Kyiv.

At this writing, Russia and Ukraine remain at war. Russian forces shelled Kherson in the last day (May 27). This book is a good reminder to me of our need to continue to pray for the peace of Ukraine, and for our fellow believers in that country.

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

Review: She Teaches Me Still

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Cover image of "She Teaches Me Still" by Andrew T. Le Peau

She Teaches Me Still

She Teaches Me Still, Andrew T. Le Peau. Fill Us Publishing (ISBN: 9798993671819) 2026.

Summary: A memoir, by her husband of 47 years, of Phyllis Strong Le Peau, a nurse, campus minister, writer, and church leader.

Reading this memoir made me wish I’d known Phyllis Strong Le Peau better during her life. Although we were colleagues in the same collegiate ministry, we worked in different areas on different teams and only occasionally crossed paths. But two things I can say about her that come up over and over in this biography was that she lit up any room she entered. And while joyous and fun, she was a person of great depth evident in her probing Bible studies and care for people.

In some ways, her generous and welcoming spirit belies her roots. She grew up in a separatist fundamentalist church in a suburb of East St. Louis. But her life was rooted in an intact family with parents who loved her, and while steeped in the Bible. she was able to recognize the central focus on God’s redemptive grace. Thus, she extended that grace in welcome to all she met.

Le Peau traces her educational journey after high school through nursing school, her work as an ER and pediatric nurse, and her work with Nurses Christian Fellowship (NCF). She always engaged with ministry with peers and patients. Working in an interdenominational ministry, she began to question the separatism of her youth. That work also brought her into contact with her future husband. NCF was a division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. As it turned out, Andy worked with InterVarsity on the same team as she. He traces their courtship from a 1974 “not-a-date” lunch to a September 1975 wedding.

Marrying Andy meant another big change for Phyllis. During their engagement, Andy accepted an editorial position and InterVarsity Press in the Chicago area. Phyllis returned to nursing. Following chapters chronicle the growth of their family (she was several years older than Andy and so they did not wait long), successive moves to three houses on the same street, and Phyllis’s first study guide–one on Habakkuk I used with a number of groups!

An invitation to spend a summer vacation in Michigan with friends led to the next adventure of their lives. They quickly fell in love with their cottage on the lake in Fremont. This included Phyllis’s struggle to water ski! Then they learned that the owners were selling. They wondered about buying it. Phyllis’s “Andy let’s do it” settled matters. It meant a lot of work, but created a place of welcome for family, friends and other renters.

Opening themselves to hospitality was just something Phyllis did. Andy was an opposite in many ways but he joined her in turning homes and cottages into welcoming places. This part of the book included stories of the ways she was “crazy fun.” All of this was a manifestation of an infectious love for people–family, students, coworkers, people in their church. In her later years, Phyllis returned to InterVarsity as a staff director and then as an evangelism influencer, working with many younger colleagues.

Retirement led to a new season of influence, working with a national ethnic reconciliation effort in her denomination, until a slow growing lung cancer suddenly exploded in 2021. One of the most moving moments in the book was her passing, when Andy told her “it’s okay for you to go be with Jesus.” The final chapter, “Remembering” looks back over their years and all the ways “she teaches me still.”

Andy Le Peau is a gifted writer, but I can’t imagine writing the memoir of one’s wife. Yet I think he succeeds in a way that offers an honest tribute to a remarkable woman. He doesn’t pass over foibles but handles them lightly. The person he portrays is one in the grip of God’s grace, extending his care to all she met. I mentioned at the beginning that I wish I’d known Phyllis better in life. Thanks to this memoir, I think I do now and she also teaches me.

Review: On Fire for God

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Cover image of "On Fire For God" by Josiah Hesse

On Fire for God

On Fire for God, Josiah Hesse. Pantheon (ISBN: 9780553387292) 2026.

Summary: A memoir of growing up in a troubled family amidst a toxic mix of conservative Christianity, and escaping it.

Josiah Hesse is an accomplished freelance journalist with several books to his credit as well as regular contributions to The Guardian, Esquire, Newsweek, and other publications. He is also part of the growing body of “exvangelicals.” This book combines memoir with a sociological study of the impact of both religion and economic forces on a working class town in Iowa.

Josiah was born in 1982 in Mason City, Iowa, the town that served as inspiration for The Music Man. His father had converted through a Jesus Movement era ministry that combined lots of bible study and a Late Great Planet Earth expectation of Christ’s imminent return. Henry wanted to be ready, but also to enjoy the pleasures of marriage before that. He met Janet, a quiet and studious woman at a Bible study in her home. They married young. When Josiah came along, the marriage was already in trouble. Henry was abusing alcohol and drugs. Janet was probably suffering clinical depression. But ministers encouraged them to “claim victory in Jesus” by making generous donations and serving actively in the church. They hid the troubles behind fake smiles. But Henry’s business was struggling. The home was a mess. Meanwhile, ministry leaders lived in lavish homes.

Josiah was in the middle of it all. That included imbibing toxic teaching, frequent altar calls that only called into question his salvation, and as he grew older, struggles with doubts that couldn’t be voiced and his sexuality. He was taught to be ashamed of his body and its urges. There was also a shadow life of substance abuse and the exploits most teens engage in at some time or another. By then, his parents are divorced. He struggled in school, finally dropping out.

Finally, he escapes to Denver, discovering a talent for writing that he turns into a career. Through counseling, running, and in his case, cannabis, he comes to a healthy acceptance of himself. While not an atheist, he left Christianity and the troubling ideas of the God he grew up with.

To write the memoir, he returns home to interview family and friends. He also studies the history and current economic conditions of a town in which big agriculture and Walmart replaced family farms and local stores. He learns that religious shysters long preceded his generation. And he understands both the religious and economic sources of adherence to the ideas of the Right.

It was hard to read this book. The Jesus Movement played an important role in my spiritual journey. While experiencing some of the emotionalism described in the book, occasionally manipulative, I was blessed with wise mentors of integrity, including within my family. Raised in a home with a love of learning, I discovered that I could love God as well. And I spent a career helping college students connect those two loves in their own lives.

So it was hard to read this book, though good. I knew how different and good the walk of faith could be and grieved that this was not Josiah’s experience. It was also hard because I know of too many other instances of predatory ministry figures who love sex, money, and power more than Jesus. I know of those who played on the latent fears of congregants, rather than inviting them into the “perfect love which casts out fear” that flows out in love to neighbor and stranger alike.

I grieve for a generation that lost its way. The generation of Josiah’s parents. My generation. So many of us really experienced how Jesus changes everything. We envisioned working this out in loving and serving communities, living out the just love of Jesus in society. But Josiah describes ministry leaders who did not feed the sheep but fleeced them. And sadly, what many of the sheep learned was to pursue, not the kingdom of God, but personal prosperity.

Given all this, and all that Hesse experienced, it is striking that he writes, “Though I cannot, at this time embrace Christianity as part of my identity, I can place humble curiosity about it at the center of my being. And hope that one day I can view spirituality beyond the lens of fear and shame, and perhaps connect with something divine.” He also can acknowledge the great treasures Christianity has given the world. It says something about him that he can forgive and realize his connection to his people and their land. As much as I grieve what he experienced (and many others), I’m encouraged with how far he’s come, and long that in his “humble curiosity” he will one day discover a better story.

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

Review: Paper Girl

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Cover image of "Paper Girl" by Beth Macy

Paper Girl

Paper Girl, Beth Macy. Penguin Press (ISBN: 9780593656730) 2025.

Summary: A memoir about growing up in Urbana, Ohio and how the town changed in ways that reflects the struggles of rural America.

Beth Macy grew up in Urbana, Ohio, the county seat of Champaign County, about an hour west of where I live. She grew up in a family with a mostly absentee father. As the title suggests, to supplement the family income and have some spending money, she delivered the daily paper to a section of the town and got to know those families well. With the support of her mother, older siblings and teachers, she managed to do well in school. Then she learned of the Pell Grant program, that enabled her to complete journalism studies at Bowling Green State University. From there, she went on to a career in journalism and published several best-selling books.

Her mother remained in Urbana and as her health declined, Macy spent more time there and noticed the dramatic changes in her former home. It came home to her when she met Silas James, a talented graduate from her high school from a similar poor background. She describes his struggle to find hope and his efforts to scrape together the means to enroll in a two-year welding course and cobble together transportation to get there. She wonders why the investment in her education was no longer available for someone like Silas.

And she began to notice other changes. Declining graduation rates. Confederate flags in what was once a Union stronghold and underground railroad stop. Local companies sold to outside or foreign interests followed by layoffs. The paper she delivered and later interned with was down to two issues a week and barely hanging on. Talking to counselors at the high school, she learned of stunning amounts of abuse. There were changes among former classmates and family as well. A former boyfriend, a one-time radical, was deep into QAnon.

This book is both a memoir of growing up, with lots of memories of siblings and friends, and an exploration of the cultural changes and political divides she was encountering. Rather than simply cut off contact with those she disagreed with, including families, she interviewed a number of them as a good reporter. This was not always easy. For example, one sister told her the idea of her son marrying another man was an “abomination.” But she learns about the church and political beliefs that led to these differences. She showed up for homecomings and reunions.

More than that, she weighed how broader changes in the country contributed to the changes in her town. She looks at the gutting of the Pell Grant program, so helpful to her, that resulted in making it so much harder for students like Silas to get an education. She lays blame on both parties for forgetting rural America, except to harvest their votes. NAFTA led to the offshoring that closed factories that were the backbone of small towns throughout Ohio. Drugmakers made huge profits on addictive drugs that destroyed lives and families. And media echo chambers engendered distrust of other media, science, and education.

As she listens, and sometimes argues, she also wrestles with her own contribution to the divides. The last part of the book is titled “Showing Up.” Despite the hits, she keeps showing up with aging sisters, recalling family memories, particularly when her mom passes. And she grieves the death of her ex-boyfriend, who lacked health insurance. He delayed going to the hospital for too long with a case of pneumonia. Through all the discouragement of the 2024 election and its aftermath, she doesn’t give up. Recalling her rural roots, she contends that “We must scramble for hope fiercely, the way a farm girl wrestles with a muddy sow.”

The city where I live is a government/business/education/tech center and has boomed. Politically, it is a blue island. A majority of Ohio’s 88 counties struggle with the same issues as Urbana. I grew up in Youngstown (and was a paperboy). While Youngstown was and still is much larger (59,000 vs. Urbana’s 11,000), I’ve seen the same kinds of changes Macy describes. She helped me understand rural Ohio. Not only does she model a posture of grace for how we show up. She also models the fierce hope we need to lean into. And she makes the urgent case for forgotten rural America.

Review: From Dropout to Doctorate

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Cover image of "From Dropout to Doctorate" by Terence Lester, PhD

From Dropout to Doctorate

From Dropout to Doctorate, Terence Lester, PhD. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514011485) 2025.

Summary: A personal memoir underscoring the structural obstacles for Blacks in poverty who aspire to advanced education.

Dr. Terence Lester, his sister and mother fled an abusive husband at age five. At age nine, the Rodney King beating at the hands of police deeply traumatized him. Despite his mother’s efforts, Terence joined gangs, became a juvenile delinquent, experienced homelessness, and then dropped out of school when told his grades weren’t good enough to graduate with his class. At one level, this book is a narrative of how Dr. Lester, over twenty years went from high school dropout to earning five degrees including a doctorate in public policy. During this time, he launched Love Beyond Walls, a Christian ministry among Atlanta’s homeless.

This book is about more than an inspiring narrative. It is also an account of the barriers impoverished Black children face in working their way out of poverty. Lester delineates five components of trauma that undercut even the hope of a better life: historical/systemic oppression, injustice/policy, poverty/social conditions, trauma/barriers, and educational injustices.

First, Lester recounts the history of systemic oppression of Black from slavery to the war on drugs and Rodney King. He describes the pervasive impact of poverty as it impacted his life. For example. he scored ten out of ten on the ACEs scale (Adverse Childhood Experiences). He describes the trauma of showing up at school without pencils and in secondhand clothes. However, when educators who are not trauma-informed approach such children, they miss opportunities for support.

He shows the injustices of educational redlining, in which certain districts in poverty areas have substandard funding and resources. Living in proximity with poverty comes with multiple challenges, which Lester enumerates. All these were contributing factors that led to his dropping out. Through the encouragement of a man at a YMCA, friends of his father, his mother, and a teacher who saw his potential, Lester returned as a fifth year senior, and graduated. Around this time, he attended a Bible study and said “yes” to Christ.

He began attending church while working a demeaning warehouse job to earn funds to go on to college. Then a businessman who saw his emerging gifts talked to him about his future and offered to help pay for college, setting him on the road to earn four more degrees, culminating in his doctorate. In addition to directing Love Beyond Walls, he directs the public policy and social change program at Simmons College. Throughout, he chronicles how important was the support of his Christian community and of educators who create safe spaces for the advancement of Blacks and other people of color.

The book also describes the healing the trauma of the broken relationship with his father beginning with a visit to the ICU when his father had suffered a serious stroke. As they continued to talk, his father described the traumas of his own childhood, illustrating the reality of generational trauma. There were apologies and forgiveness, and then his father decided to be baptized.

This book is more than an inspiring personal story. It is also a call to recognize the systemic challenges impoverished Blacks and others face. Lester shows how Christian community and educational support can be so important. But he also underscores the public policies needed to address educational injustices. Sadly, it appears we have opted to believe the playing field is level and without obstacles. Lester’s story does not support that narrative. Rather, he shows how, despite the barriers and the uneven field, he overcame because of substantial personal, financial, and educational support. His story makes me wonder how many others have aspirations like his but struggle to maintain hope that they, too, might one day achieve the status of “Doctor.”

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