hollyd19's reviews
279 reviews

In this fascinating, earnest book, Nikondeha contextualizes the first Advent within the cultural moment at the time of Jesus’s birth. Written with boldness and integrity, this book gently educates, leaving the reader with a clarified understanding of the radical implications of Christ’s arrival in a time and to a people besieged by oppression and tragedy.

Nikondeha is a bonafide storyteller and peacemaker. She weaves her scholarly research with her own experiences visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem. She makes plain the astounding truth of Jesus’s intentional alignment with those on the margins and the ways he exposed himself to very real human suffering.

I learned so much from this book, but two particular things stand out. First, Joseph’s faithfulness. We hear often of Mary and the Magnificat (rightly so!) but Nikondeha gave me fresh eyes for the ways that Joseph was facing down cultural and imperial pressures by standing by Mary and repeatedly conceding to angelic instructions. Second, the present-day ways that Palestinians are policed and controlled hearkens back to long before now and grievously impacts the lives of people who simply seek to steward the land and stories they have carried for generations. When we talk about intergenerational trauma, oh boy, is that relevant.

If you are curious about context in relation to the narratives within Christian Bible, I strongly recommend you add this to your list! It’s especially timely as Advent is just around the corner.

Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.5

With sharp, honest writing Geller pieces together a mosaic of her life in the aftermath of her mother's death from alcohol withdrawal. Using her training as an archivist, Geller takes the fragmented records found in an old suitcase kept by her mother's on-again, off-again lover to formulate an account of her mom's history and revise her own memories of her youth.

Raised by alcoholic, often abusive parents and bounced between caregivers, Geller's youth was ragged and disjointed. Abandoned early on by her enigmatic mother, Geller was raised largely by her paternal grandmother -- possibly the only sober adult in her life until college. Knowing anecdotally about her mother's Navajo heritage but with no established connections herself, Geller is confronted with this added grief of lost community when a memorial service brings her back to the reservation where her mother was raised.

The writing in this memoir reflects the contradictions and tensions Geller felt as a person trying to grow up in a wildly dysfunctional household, attempting to break the cycles but with virtually no support to do so. Her role within her family -- immediate and extended -- is one of mature caregiver, even to those who traditionally should be providing her guidance. Geller's resilience is remarkable, but the memoir does not feel like a victory story, rather an endurance. Her circumstances are devastating, but somehow she maintains enough softness toward the people she loves to continue to be their touchstone even when it seems to be destroying her. This is a memoir of love but also extraordinary tragedy -- both acute and drawn-out.

I marveled at Geller's ability to write both poetically and phlegmatically, as if her numbness seeped through her pen. Critically, there was no sense of apathy, but rather a sense of unease and resignation. The end of the book was exceptionally poignant: Geller doesn't "triumph" over her circumstances. But she chooses her life and herself, and does so in small, faithful ways.

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hollyd19's reviews 279 reviews

hollyd19's reviews
279 reviews