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A Matter of Death and Life: Love, Loss and What Matters in the End (Language Acts and Worldmaking #27)
by Irvin Yalom Marilyn Yalom'Wise, beautiful, heartbreaking, raw' The Times'A beacon of hope to all of us who will be bereaved' Kathryn Mannix'An unforgettable and achingly beautiful story of enduring love' Lori GottleibInternationally renowned psychiatrist and author Irvin Yalom has devoted his career to counselling those suffering from anxiety and grief. But never had he faced the need to counsel himself until his wife, esteemed feminist author Marilyn Yalom, was diagnosed with cancer. In A MATTER OF DEATH AND LIFE, Marilyn and Irvin share how they took on profound new struggles: Marilyn to die a good death, Irvin to live on without her.In alternating accounts of their last months together and Irvin's first months alone, they offer us a rare window into coping with death and the loss of one's beloved. The Yaloms had rare blessings - a loving family, a beautiful home, a large circle of friends, avid readers around the world, and a long, fulfilling marriage - but they faced death as we all do. With the candour and wisdom of those who have thought deeply and loved well, they investigate universal questions of intimacy, love, and grief.Informed by two lifetimes of experience, A MATTER OF DEATH AND LIFE offers poignant insights and solace to all those seeking to fight despair in the face of death, so that they can live meaningfully.
Innocent Witnesses: Childhood Memories of World War II
by Marilyn YalomIn a book that will touch hearts and minds, acclaimed cultural historian Marilyn Yalom presents firsthand accounts of six witnesses to war, each offering lasting memories of how childhood trauma transforms lives. The violence of war leaves indelible marks, and memories last a lifetime for those who experienced this trauma as children. Marilyn Yalom experienced World War II from afar, safely protected in her home in Washington, DC. But over the course of her life, she came to be close friends with many less lucky, who grew up under bombardment across Europe—in France, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, England, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Holland. With Innocent Witnesses, Yalom collects the stories from these accomplished luminaries and brings us voices of a vanishing generation, the last to remember World War II. Memory is notoriously fickle: it forgets most of the past, holds on to bits and pieces, and colors the truth according to unconscious wishes. But in the circle of safety Marilyn Yalom created for her friends, childhood memories return in all their startling vividness. This powerful collage of testimonies offers us a greater understanding of what it is to be human, not just then but also today. With this book, her final and most personal work of cultural history, Yalom considers the lasting impact of such young experiences—and asks whether we will now force a new generation of children to spend their lives reconciling with such memories.
Kore-eda Hirokazu (Contemporary Film Directors)
by Marc YamadaFilms like Shoplifters and After the Storm have made Kore-eda Hirokazu one of the most acclaimed auteurs working today. Critics often see Kore-eda as a director steeped in the Japanese tradition defined by Yasujirō Ozu. Marc Yamada, however, views Kore-eda’s work in relation to the same socioeconomic concerns explored by other contemporary international filmmakers. Yamada reveals that a type of excess, not the minimalism associated with traditional aesthetics, defines Kore-eda’s trademark humanism. This excess manifests in small moments when a desire for human connection exceeds the logic of the institutions and policies formed by the neoliberal values that have shaped modern-day Japan. As Yamada shows, Kore-eda captures the shared spaces formed by bodies that move, perform, and assemble in ways that express the humanistic impulse at the core of the filmmaker’s expanding worldwide appeal.
Finding the Edge: My Life on the Ice
by Kristi Yamaguchi Karen ChenFigure skating icon and U.S. National Champion Karen Chen tells the amazing story of her rise to the top, featuring never-before-seen photos and behind-the-scenes details from her journey on and off the ice!At seventeen years old, Karen Chen has already achieved what some girls only dream of—and yet it’s only the beginning for this incredibly talented athlete.The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Karen began to figure skate at just five years old. Ten years and many grueling training sessions later, she broke out at the 2015 US Championships with a bronze medal. This was after sustaining a nearly career-ending ankle fracture a year earlier.In 2017, Karen became the US National Champion, winning gold in two programs and receiving the highest score ever recorded for the short program at the US National level. Now for the first time, Karen shares the story of how she got where she is today—and where she’s going next. Karen has already overcome astounding obstacles, and her grit, determination, and positive attitude have made her future truly limitless.In Finding the Edge, she shares, in her own words, what it’s like to be Karen Chen—and what it takes to achieve the impossible.Features a foreword from Kristi Yamaguchi, the Olympic champion, two-time World champion, and U.S. champion.
La voz del silencio: Mi nombre es Yoko
by Yoko Yamaguchi<P>Un canto a la libertad y una oda a la superación. " Soledad, confusión, miedo. <P> Una vida difícil, un pozo que parece no tener fondo. <P> Nuestra protagonista narra en prim era persona algunos de los horrores que marcaron su vida desde muy temprana edad. <P> Ni la orfandad ni la esclavitud ni los malo s tratos pudieron quebrantar su voluntad y sus ganas de vivir. <P> Esta novela es un canto a la libertad y una oda a la superació n. <P> La voz del silencio es la historia de Yoko Yamaguchi, una mujer japonesa criada en Bolivia, desde su más tierna infancia, en la Colonia Japonesa."
Novice to Master: An Ongoing Lesson in the Extent of My Own Stupidity
by Belenda Attaway Yamakawa Soko MorinagaThe autobiography of Soko Morinaga, who started out as an orphan and became a Zen Buddhist monk, the leader of a monastery and head of Hanazono University, a primary training facility for Buddhist monks. Translated by Yamakawa.
Starting from Loomis and Other Stories
by Tim Yamamura Hiroshi KashiwagiA memoir in short stories, Starting from Loomis chronicles the life of accomplished writer, playwright, poet, and actor Hiroshi Kashiwagi. In this dynamic portrait of an aging writer trying to remember himself as a younger man, Kashiwagi recalls and reflects upon the moments, people, forces, mysteries, and choices--the things in his life that he cannot forget--that have made him who he is.Central to this collection are Kashiwagi's confinement at Tule Lake during World War II, his choice to answer "no" and "no" to questions 27 and 28 on the official government loyalty questionnaire, and the resulting lifelong stigma of being labeled a "No-No Boy" after his years of incarceration. His nonlinear, multifaceted writing not only reflects the fragmentations of memory induced by traumas of racism, forced removal, and imprisonment but also can be read as a bold personal response to the impossible conditions he and other Nisei faced throughout their lifetimes.
Heads by Harry
by Lois-Ann YamanakaLois-Ann Yamanaka's new novel tells the story of the Yagyuu family, who live in Hilo above Heads by Harry, the family's taxidermy shop. Every day a group of opinionated old futs from the neighborhood gathers outside Harry O.'s shop, where they discuss everyone in town (loudly) and drink beer and eat smoked meat into the pau hana hours. Back at home, things aren't quite as simple. Toni Yagyuu, the middle child, wanders through life in the shadow of her flamboyant big brother, Sheldon, who prefers the name Shelly and whose penchant for cosmetology causes Harry O. much consternation. Their younger sister, Bunny, is a provocative beauty and budding diva. At the heart of their rivalry is a small-town catch extraordinaire, Maverick Santos, football star and pig hunter for the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. Maverick's older brother, Wyatt, is a swaggering, macho thug who may be far more tender than he appears. Caught in the center of every conflict, Toni must choose between college life, the strange beauty of taxidermy, and the gore of the hunt. Graphic, compassionate, and brutally funny; Heads by Harry completes Yamanaka's haunting and memorable trilogy on growing up in Hawai'i.
Shapes, Lines, and Light: My Grandfather's American Journey
by Katie YamasakiKatie Yamasaki’s newest picture book celebrates the life of her grandfather, the acclaimed Japanese American architect Minoru Yamasaki. Minoru Yamasaki described the feeling he sought to create in his buildings as “serenity, surprise, and delight.” Here, Katie Yamasaki charts his life and work: his childhood in Seattle’s Japanese immigrant community, paying his way through college working in Alaska’s notorious salmon canneries, his success in architectural school, and the transformative structures he imagined and built. A Japanese American man who faced brutal anti-Asian racism in post–World War II America and an outsider to the architectural establishment, he nonetheless left his mark on the world, from the American Midwest to New York City, Asia, and the Middle East. This striking picture book renders one artist’s work through the eyes of another, and tells a story of a man whose vision, hard work, and humanity led him to the pinnacle of his field.
Letters to Memory
by Karen Tei YamashitaAn excursion through the Japanese-American internment using archival materials from the author’s own family. In this unique memoir, Karen Tei Yamashita draws on her family’s history and creates a series of epistolary conversations with composite characters representing a range of academic specialties. Historians, anthropologists, classicists—their disciplines, and Yamashita’s engagement with them, are a way for her explore various aspects of the internment and to expand its meaning beyond her family, and our borders, to ideas of debt, forgiveness, civil rights, and community. From a National Book Award finalist, Letters to Memory is “in moments deeply personal and impressionistic and in moments pulling back into a voice of epic omniscience” (The Boston Globe). “Interrogates the cruelty of internment and the random nature of immigration, war, birth and death and disease through her own probing, lively correspondence . . . The irony and dark humor of Yamashita’s interrogations, of her nimble prose and sentences, illuminate the tragedies.” —Los Angeles Times
Children of the Atomic Bomb: An American Physician’s Memoir of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the Marshall Islands
by James N. Yamazaki Louis B. FlemingDespite familiar images of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan and the controversy over its fiftieth anniversary, the human impact of those horrific events often seems lost to view. In this uncommon memoir, Dr. James N. Yamazaki tells us in personal and moving terms of the human toll of nuclear warfare and the specific vulnerability of children to the effects of these weapons. Giving voice to the brutal ironies of racial and cultural conflict, of war and sacrifice, his story creates an inspiring and humbling portrait of events whose lessons remain difficult and troubling fifty years later.Children of the Atomic Bomb is Dr. Yamazaki's account of a lifelong effort to understand and document the impact of nuclear explosions on children, particularly the children conceived but not yet born at the time of the explosions. Assigned in 1949 as Physician-in-Charge of the United States Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Nagasaki, Yamazaki had served as a combat surgeon at the Battle of the Bulge where he had been captured and held as a prisoner of war by the Germans. In Japan he was confronted with violence of another dimension--the devastating impact of a nuclear blast and the particularly insidious effects of radiation on children.Yamazaki's story is also one of striking juxtapositions, an account of a Japanese-American's encounter with racism, the story of a man who fought for his country while his parents were interned in a concentration camp in Arkansas. Once the object of discrimination at home, Yamazaki paradoxically found himself in Japan for the first time as an American, part of the Allied occupation forces, and again an outsider. This experience resonates through his work with the children of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and with the Marshallese people who bore the brunt of America's postwar testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific. Recalling a career that has spanned five decades, Dr. Yamazaki chronicles the discoveries that helped chart the dangers of nuclear radiation and presents powerful observations of both the medical and social effects of the bomb. He offers an indelible picture of human tragedy, a tale of unimaginable suffering, and a dedication to healing that is ultimately an unwavering, impassioned plea for peace.
The House of Yan: A Family at the Heart of a Century in Chinese History
by Lan YanThrough the sweeping cultural and historical transformations of China, entrepreneur Lan Yan traces her family’s history through early 20th Century to present day.The history of the Yan family is inseparable from the history of China over the last century. One of the most influential business leaders of China today, Lan Yan grew up in the company of the country’s powerful elite, including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping. Her grandfather, Yan Baohang, originally a nationalist and ally of Chiang Kai-shek, later joined the communists and worked as a spy during World War II, never falling out of favor with Soong May-ling, aka Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek. Lan’s parents were diplomats, and her father, Yan Mingfu, was Mao’s personal Russian translator.In spite of their elevated status, the Yan’s family life was turned upside down by the Cultural Revolution. One night in 1967, in front of a terrified ten-year-old Lan, Red Guards burst into the family home and arrested her grandfather. Days later, her father was arrested, accused of spying for the Soviet Union. Her mother, Wu Keilang, was branded a counter-revolutionary and forced to go with her daughter to a re-education camp for five years, where Lan came of age as a high school student. In recounting her family history, Lan Yan brings to life a century of Chinese history from the last emperor to present day, including the Cultural Revolution which tore her childhood apart. The reader obtains a rare glimpse into the mysteries of a system which went off the rails and would decimate a large swathe of the intellectual, economic and political elite country. The little girl who was crushed by the Cultural Revolution has become one of the most active businesswomen in her country. In telling her and her family’s story, Lan Yan serves up an intimate account of the history of contemporary China.
La gente en los árboles
by Hanya YanagiharaEl debut literario de la autora de Tan poca vida., el fenómeno editorial que ha cautivado a más de un millón de lectores. «Una novela absorbente, inteligente e inflexible que cautiva y perturba.»The Independent En 1950, Norton Perina, un joven médico recién graduado, se une a una expedición a una remota isla de Micronesia, Ivu'ivu, en busca de una misteriosa tribu. Allí comienza a investigar lo que lo llevará a ganar el Premio Nobel: la extraña longevidad de los isleños. Antes de regresar a Estados Unidos, decide adoptar a cuarenta niños nativos para rescatarlos de la pobreza. Pero en 1995, uno de sus hijos lo denuncia por abusos... Mientras cumple condena, Perina, a instancias de su fiel colega Ronald Kubodera, escribe sus memorias con el fin de recuperar el prestigio perdido y demostrar su inocencia. Una historia llena de intriga sobre la ambición y la naturaleza humana en la voz de un narrador sospechoso que, como Humbert Humbert, desafía nuestro sentido de la ética. La crítica ha dicho...«Consolidada como una de las grandes voces de la literatura actual, Hanya Yanagihara nos descubre un modo nuevo de mirar y sentir la vida.»Todo Literatura «Una escritora para maravillarse.»The New York Times La crítica dijo sobre Tan poca vida...«Un libro extraordinario. [...] Daríalo que fuera por escribir una novela tan potente comoTan poca vida.»James Rhodes, músico y autor de Instrumental «Una de las novelas más desafiantes y perturbadoras de los últimos años.»Ángeles López, La Razón «Una vez empezada, abandonarla no es una opción.»Daniel Arjona, El Confidencial «Una novela humana que cuestiona las nociones más íntimas, que molesta, que sacude los más profundos miedos que habitan dentro de nosotros.»Emilio Naranjo, EFE«Una historia sobre el miedo a hablar, sobre la soledad y la amistad que perdura. Tan poca vida se lee como una droga.»Elena Méndez, La Voz de Galicia «Una soberbia pieza de resistencia en una carrera de fondo adoquinada con pulso firme. Un libro escalofriante, bello y conmovedor como un altar gótico.»La Provincia «Consolidada como una de las grandes voces de la literatura actual, Hanya Yanagihara nos descubre un modo nuevo de mirar y sentir la vida.»Todo Literatura
Lady Nijo's Own Story
by Eizo Yanagisawa Wilfrid WhitehouseAs a historical work, the book documents the routine of long-ago court life, with its great emphasis on poetry contests, "football" games, drinking parties, and clothing (at the most tragic moment, Lady Nijo stops to describe what the messenger bringing word of her lover's death is wearing).Lady Nijo's story is much more than a day-to-day record of trivial events. It is the tale of a courageous woman, told with consummate skill. Scholoars agree that the newly-discovered diary is one of the masterpieces of the country's literature, a genuine autobiography that not only records the social pastimes of the aristocracy, but also gives a contemporary view of the political and economic movements of the time.
Lady Nijo's Own Story
by Eizo Yanagisawa Wilfrid WhitehouseAs a historical work, the book documents the routine of long-ago court life, with its great emphasis on poetry contests, "football" games, drinking parties, and clothing (at the most tragic moment, Lady Nijo stops to describe what the messenger bringing word of her lover's death is wearing).Lady Nijo's story is much more than a day-to-day record of trivial events. It is the tale of a courageous woman, told with consummate skill. Scholoars agree that the newly-discovered diary is one of the masterpieces of the country's literature, a genuine autobiography that not only records the social pastimes of the aristocracy, but also gives a contemporary view of the political and economic movements of the time.
Lady Nijo's Own Story
by Eizo Yanagisawa Wilfrid WhitehouseAs a historical work, the book documents the routine of long-ago court life, with its great emphasis on poetry contests, "football" games, drinking parties, and clothing (at the most tragic moment, Lady Nijo stops to describe what the messenger bringing word of her lover's death is wearing).Lady Nijo's story is much more than a day-to-day record of trivial events. It is the tale of a courageous woman, told with consummate skill. Scholoars agree that the newly-discovered diary is one of the masterpieces of the country's literature, a genuine autobiography that not only records the social pastimes of the aristocracy, but also gives a contemporary view of the political and economic movements of the time.
Forgiving God: A Story of Faith
by Hilary YanceyA young mother's life is forever changed and her faith in God is broken when her son in diagnosed with complex physical disabilities. Restore and grow your faith as you read about Hilary Yancey's personal journey back to God. Three months into her pregnancy with her first child, Hilary Yancey received a phone call that changed everything. As she learned the diagnosis-cleft lip and palate, a missing right eye, possible breathing complications-Hilary began to pray in earnest. Even in the midst of these findings, she prayed that God would heal her son. God could do a miracle unlike anything she had seen. Only when Hilary held her baby, Jack, in her arms for the first time did she realize God had given her something drastically different than what she had demanded. Hilary struggled to talk to God as she sat for six weeks beside Jack's crib in the NICU. She consented to surgeries and learned to care for a breathing tube and gastronomy button. In her experience with motherhood Hilary had become more familiar with the sound of her son's heart monitor than the sound of his heartbeat. Later, during surgeries and emergency trips back to the hospital with her crying, breathless boy, Hilary reproached the stranger God had become. Jack was different. Hilary was not the mother she once imagined. God was not who Hilary knew before. But she could not let go of one certainty-she could see the image of Christ in Jack's face. Slowly, through long nights of wrestling and longer nights of silence, Hilary cut a path through her old, familiar faith to the God behind it. She discovered that it is by walking out onto the water, where the firm ground gives way, that we can find him. And meeting Jesus, who rises with his scars to proclaim new life, is never what you once imagined.
The Jesus I Never Knew
by Philip Yanceya personal journey to discover the biblical Jesus and this motivations and thought. Through this, we learn what it means to be a true follower of Christ.
Soul Survivor: How My Faith Survived the Church
by Philip YanceyPhilip Yancey, whose explorations of faith have made him a guide for millions of readers, feels no need to defend the church. "When someone tells me yet another horror story about the church, I respond, 'Oh, it's even worse than that. Let me tell you my story.'I have spent most of my life in recovery from the church."Yancey acknowledges that many spiritual seekers find few answers and little solace in the institutional church. "I have met many people, and heard from many more, who have gone through a similar process of mining truth from their religious past: Roman Catholics who flinch whenever they see a nun or priest, former Seventh Day Adventists who cannot drink a cup of coffee without a stab of guilt, Mennonites who worry whether wedding rings give evidence of worldliness."How did Yancey manage to survive spiritually despite early encounters with a racist, legalistic church that he now views as almost cultic? In this, his most soul-searching book yet, he probes that very question. He tells the story of his own struggle to reclaim belief, interwoven with inspiring portraits of notable people from all walks of life, whom he calls his spiritual directors. Soul Survivor is his tribute to thirteen remarkable individuals, mentors who transformed his life and work.Besides recalling their effect on him, Yancey also provides fresh glimpses of the lives and faith journeys of each one. From the scatterbrained journalist G. K. Chesterton to the tortured novelists Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, to contemporaries such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Annie Dillard, and Robert Coles, Yancey gives inspiring portraits of those who modeled for him a life-enhancing rather than a life-constricting faith."I became a writer, I now believe, to sort out and reclaim words used and misused by the Christians of my youth," Yancey says. "These are the people who ushered me into the Kingdom. In many ways they are why I remain a Christian today, and I want to introduce them to other spiritual seekers."Soul Survivor offers illuminating insights that will enrich the lives of veteran believers and cautious seekers alike. Yancey's own story, unveiled here as never before, is a beacon for those who seek to rejuvenate their faith, and for those who are still longing for something to have faith in.From the Hardcover edition.
What Good Is God? In Search of a Faith That Matters: In Search of a Faith That Matters
by Philip YanceyJournalist and spiritual seeker Philip Yancey has always struggled with the most basic questions of the Christian faith. The question he tackles in WHAT GOOD IS GOD? concerns the practical value of belief in God. His search for the answer to this question took him to some amazing settings around the world: Mumbai, India when the firing started during the terrorist attacks; at the motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; on the Virginia Tech campus soon after the massacre; an AA convention; and even to a conference for women in prostitution. At each of the 10 places he visited, his preparation for the visit and exactly what he said to the people he met each provided evidence that faith really does work when what we believe is severely tested. WHAT GOOD IS GOD? tells the story of Philips journey--the background, the preparation, the presentations themselves. Here is a story of grace for armchair travelers, spiritual seekers, and those in desperate need of assurance that their faith really matters.
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
by Philip Yancey'Not until college days do I discover the shocking secret of my father's death.'With a journalist's background Philip Yancey is widely admired for taking on the more difficult and confusing aspects of faith. Now in Where the Light Fell he shares, for the first time, the painful details of his own origins - taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods and Bible-belt pockets of the South to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church parking lots; from dark secrets and family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and interminable church services. Raised by their impoverished single mother, Philip and his brother Marshall struggle to comprehend her speeches about their dead father, an Old Testament Bible story, and sons sacrificed for a divine cause.This coming-of-age story is a slice of life, both intensely personal and broadly resonant, set against a turbulent time in post-WWII American history shaped by the racism and paranoia of fundamentalist Christianity and reshaped by the mounting pressures of the Civil Rights movement and 60s-era forces of social change. An unforgettable read, it is at once hugely funny, deeply disturbing and achingly poignant. A testament to the power of the human spirit, Where the Light Fell illuminates Yancey's ability to bring comfort to those bruised by the church, and hope to those who can't imagine ever finding a healthy faith.
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
by Philip Yancey'Not until college days do I discover the shocking secret of my father's death.'With a journalist's background Philip Yancey is widely admired for taking on the more difficult and confusing aspects of faith. Now in Where the Light Fell he shares, for the first time, the painful details of his own origins - taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods and Bible-belt pockets of the South to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church parking lots; from dark secrets and family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and interminable church services. Raised by their impoverished single mother, Philip and his brother Marshall struggle to comprehend her speeches about their dead father, an Old Testament Bible story, and sons sacrificed for a divine cause.This coming-of-age story is a slice of life, both intensely personal and broadly resonant, set against a turbulent time in post-WWII American history shaped by the racism and paranoia of fundamentalist Christianity and reshaped by the mounting pressures of the Civil Rights movement and 60s-era forces of social change. An unforgettable listen, it is at once hugely funny, deeply disturbing and achingly poignant. A testament to the power of the human spirit, Where the Light Fell illuminates Yancey's ability to bring comfort to those bruised by the church, and hope to those who can't imagine ever finding a healthy faith.(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton
Where the Light Fell: A Memoir
by Philip YanceyIn this searing meditation on the bonds of family and the allure of extremist faith, one of today&’s most celebrated Christian writers recounts his unexpected journey from a strict fundamentalist upbringing to a life of compassion and grace—a revelatory memoirthat &“invites comparison to Hillbilly Elegy&” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). &“This stunning tale reminds us that the only way to keep living is to ask God for the impossible: love, forgiveness, and hope.&”—Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason Raised by an impoverished widow who earned room and board as a Bible teacher in 1950s Atlanta, Philip Yancey and his brother, Marshall, found ways to venture out beyond the confines of their eight-foot-wide trailer. But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father&’s death—a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause.Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite paths—one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a &“toxic faith,&” the other into a self-destructive spiral.Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post–World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear.&“I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write,&” says Yancey. &“So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.&”
Tables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, Lost, and Found Again
by Preston YanceyIn Tables in the Wilderness, Preston Yancey arrived at Baylor University in the autumn of 2008 with his life figured out: he was Southern Baptist, conservative, had a beautiful girlfriend he would soon propose to, had spent the summer living in southeast Asia as a missionary, and planned to study political science. Then God slowly allowed Preston’s secure world to fall apart until every piece of what he thought was true was lost: his church, his life of study, his political leanings, his girlfriend, his best friend . . . and his God. It was the loss of God in the midst of all the godly things that changed Preston forever. One day he felt he heard God say, “It’s going to be about trust with you,” and then God was silent—and he still hasn’t spoken. At least, not in the ways Preston used to think were the only ways God spoke. No pillars of fire, no clouds, just a bit of whisper in wind. Now, Preston is a patchwork of Anglican spirituality and Baptist sensibility, with a mother who has been in chronic neurological pain for thirteen years and father still devoted to Southern Baptist ministry who reads saints’ lives on the side. He now shares his story of coming to terms with a God who is bigger than the one he thought he was worshiping—the God of a common faith, the God who makes tables in the wilderness, the God who is found in cathedrals and in forests and in the Eucharist, the God who speaks in fire and in wind, the God who is bigger than narrow understandings of his will, his desire, his plan—the God who is so big, that everything must be his.
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty inside the IRS
by Richard YanceyBeginning in the 1990s, Yancey worked for the Internal Revenue Service. At first he collected money from dilinquent taxpayers and was indifferent to the job, and then later he became more passionate as he worked to track down tax protesters. Soon he found that he was becoming obsessed with his job and began to feel isolated from everyone in his personal life.