Home / Issues / Books by UU authors, Fall 2008
Books by UU authors, Fall 2008
A selection of books written by Unitarian Universalists.
Children and youth
My Favorite Sounds From A to Z and My Favorite Places From A to Z. Peggy Snow. Illus. by Brian Barber. Maren Green Publishing, 2007; $15.99 each. Vibrant illustrations and lively poems introduce the alphabet and scenes of everyday life. The illustrator, Brian Barber, is an art director and a member of the UU Congregation of Duluth, Minn.
Fake Out! Animals That Play Tricks. All Aboard Science Reader, Station Stop 2. Ginjer L. Clarke. Illus. by Pete Mueller. Grosset & Dunlap, 2007; $3.99. Clarke, a member of the First UU Church of Richmond, Va., has created a series of fun, fact-filled books about animals for beginning readers. The series includes Bug Out! The World’s Creepiest, Crawliest Critters, Freak Out! Animals Beyond Your Wildest Imagination, and Gross Out! Animals That Do Disgusting Things.
A Child’s Book of Blessings and Prayers. Ed. by Eliza Blanchard. Illus. by Rocco Baviera. Skinner House Books, 2008; $12. The third in a series of full-color illustrated hardbound books for children from the UUA’s Skinner House Books is an anthology of children’s prayers from diverse traditions. The editor, the Rev. Eliza Blanchard, is minister of the UU Society of Grafton and Upton, Massachusetts.
Nonfiction
Opa Nobody. Sonya Huber. Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2008; $24.95. Sonya Huber renders the story of her ancestor, an anti-Nazi socialist named Heina Buschmann, through a combined use of imaginative and non-fiction narrative techniques. Huber is assistant professor of creative writing at Georgia Southern University and a member of the UU Fellowship of Statesboro, Ga.
Our Whole Lives: Sexuality Education for Young Adults, Ages 18–35. Michael J. Tino, Sarah Gibb Millspaugh, and Laura Anne Stuart. UUA, 2008; $40. The latest volume in a series of sexuality education curricula, this time for young adults. Additional volumes in this series cover grades K–1, 4–6, 7–9, 10–12, and adults. The Rev. Dr. Michael J. Tino is minister of the UU Fellowship of Northern Westchester in Mount Kisco, N.Y., and former director of young adult and campus ministry for the UUA. The Rev. Sarah Gibb Millspaugh is former adult programs director for the UUA.
Sexuality and Our Faith: A Companion to Our Whole Lives for Young Adults. Mandy J. Keithan (Unitarian Universalist). T. Michael Rock and LynnYoung (United Church of Christ). UUA and United Church of Christ, 2008; $18. This companion volume to Our Whole Lives for young adults offers separate fourteen-workshop sessions for UU and UCC groups that integrate religious values into sex-related issues. Mandy Keithan was the director of religious education at the UU Church of Silver Spring, Md.
The Future of Human Rights. Ed. William F. Schulz, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2008; $45. Thirteen essays by human rights scholars offer ideas for how to restore America’s foreign policy leadership in making progress with some of the globe’s most distressing problems. The Rev. Dr. William F. Schulz, the editor and author of one of the essays, is former president of the UUA and former executive director of Amnesty International USA. Now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, he is the author of two other books on human rights and the editor of The Phenomenon of Torture: Readings and Commentary.
Going Out Dancing: Poems. Ric Masten. Skinner House, 2008; $12. Many poems in the Rev. Ric Masten’s final collection deal with illness, mortality, and going forward. The author, a UU community minister and “troubadour poet,” died of prostate cancer in May.
Alternative Oklahoma: Contrarian Views of the Sooner State. Ed. by Davis D. Joyce. Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2007; $19.95. A collection of essays emphasizing the role of women, minorities, radicals, and common people in shaping the state’s development. An essay by the Rev. Marlin Lavanhar, minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, Okla., describes the church’s role in the city’s history. The editor, Davis Joyce, is professor emeritus of history at East Central University in Ada, Okla., and a member of All Souls.
Ghosthunters: On the Trail of Mediums, Dowsers, Spirit Seekers, and Other Investigators of America’s Paranormal World. John Kachuba. New Page Books, 2007; $15.99. This guidebook of haunted Americana, full of strange lights, spooky houses, and weird events, suggests that ghosts may be another natural phenomenon we don’t yet understand fully. Kachuba, a “certified ghost hunter,” teaches in the Gotham Writers’ Workshop and is a member of the UU Fellowship of Athens, Ohio.
Food Drying with an Attitude: A Fun and Fabulous Guide to Creating Snacks, Meals, and Crafts. Mary T. Bell. Skyhorse Publishing, 2008; $14.95. Features illustrated chapters on drying everything from fruit to flowers for food and crafts. This is Mary Bell’s fifth book on the subject. She is a member of the First Unitarian Society of Madison, Wisc.
Fiction
The Body in the Gallery. Katherine Hall Page. William Morrow, 2008; $23.95. Faith Fairchild must grapple with the mystery of a corpse found in an installation at the Ganley Art Museum in a bucolic New England town (as if she weren’t busy enough, as a caterer, wife, and the mother of a boy in middle school). The author, a three-time Agatha Award winner, is a parishioner at King’s Chapel in Boston.
Openwork: A Novel. Adria Bernardi. Southern Methodist Univ. Press, 2007; $22.50. Stories of three generations of Italian families who struggle to build new lives in the United States. Bernardi, the author of an award-winning novel and short-story collection, teaches in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers near Asheville, N.C. She is a member of First Unitarian Church in Worcester, Mass.
The Baker’s Boy. Barry Kitterman. Southern Methodist University Press, 2008; $22.50. Tanner Johnson leaves his pregnant wife while trying to avoid a ghost from his own past in Barry Kitterman’s first novel. The author teaches at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee and is a member of the UU Fellowship of Clarksville, Tenn.
Submissions for Books by UU Authors may be sent to UU World, 25 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02108. Indicate publisher, date, price, and the author's UU affiliation. We cannot include every title and cannot return books. Preference will be given to books of general interest; self-published books will be included selectively.
