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The Failure of Success - Review

The Failure of Success by Jennifer Kavanagh

On Superiority (July 2013)

Why Civil Resistance Works - Review

Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict by Erica Cheoweth and Maria J. Stephan

On Patriotism (January 2014)

Public Secrets and Justice – Review

Public Secrets and Justice: A Journal of a Circuit Court Judge

On Temptation (November 2014)

The Price of Folly - Review

The Price of Folly: A Lay-Person’s Guide to American Plutocracy

On Reconciliation (January 2015)

A Sustainable Life - Review

Doug Gwyn has established himself among Friends as a scholar, teacher, and writer of consequence. He has helped us through several decades to appreciate and vitalize our peculiar ways of being.

On Countries (January 2016)

Our Life is Love - Review

The title of Marcelle Martin’s newly published book, Our Life is Love, echoes Isaac Penington’s well-known 1667 quotation, “Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand . . . ” Martin’s book is about the transformative path taken by fervent men and women refined by the fire of truth, and the tender help from one another they receive along their way. It is the sharing of the many struggles and rewards experienced by early seekers of the Spirit, as well as contemporary followers of the Light.

On Heritage (July 2016)

Unlacing the Heart - Review

Unlacing the Heart (2015) offers a series of vignettes from Henry Freeman’s life as a fundraiser and his subsequent break from his career to do service in Central America. The accompanying study guide (by Freeman with Colin Saxton, 2016) adds scripture readings and queries for each vignette. Freeman shares a variety of experiences, including relationships he developed in El Salvador while on a mission there and interactions he had with teachers, mentors, and clients. Taken together, they fit into the Quaker tradition of sharing impactful personal experiences in worship, personal journals, and diaries; and using those to develop spiritual insight and practice. [pullquote]With each story, Freeman examines his sense of connectedness to others and identifies guideposts for his future relationships.[/pullquote] The study guide invites the reader to further consider the impact of these insights on their own style of living and relating to others.

On Insight (March 2017)

The Focus Book Series (review)

With global warming’s impact of floods and droughts becoming ever more apparent, this ten-book series gives hope that, oriented by the spirit and coupled with mindful research, people can make a difference in reducing causes of environmental destruction. I read three books in this series:

On Music (March 2018)

Empire of Guns (review)

How free is your life from war, violence, and oppression? How free is your financial life from these forces? Satia Priya poses these questions as she traces the conflict between the Birmingham Monthly Meeting (BMM) in central England in the 1790s and the Galton family, who were members of the meeting and who made their livelihoods selling guns as England became the leading weapons manufacturer in the world. In fact, Quakers owned or managed over half of the ironworks in operation in England in the last half of the 18th Century, and weapons were a major product of the iron industry, sold to the Ordnance Office of the British Government and on the open market – throughout several decades of war and colonial expansion dominated by the British.

On Weapons (January 2019)