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Rose Hanig, UUA Bookstore manager, says, “When Beacon Press published Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words: Travels with Mom in the Land of Dementia by Kate Whouley (2012), I did not think I wanted to read it. Too depressing, I thought. However, I took a chance and bought the book. I loved it! I read it in one day, and it made me both laugh and cry. Whouley describes her vibrant mother, with whom she had a complicated but loving relationship, and how they navigated her mother’s decline as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. It would make a great gift for anyone who has elderly parents or who has faced the loss of a loved one.”
The Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein, minister of the UU Church of Greater Lynn in Swampscott, Massachusetts, recommends The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, ed. by Paul Rogat Loeb (Basic Books, 2004). “The activist in your life needs this beautiful collection of essays.”
Kathleen Montgomery, former executive vice president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, describes her pick, For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey by Richard Blanco (Beacon Press, 2013), as “a compelling memoir that captures nation, family, the complexity of ethnicity in modern America, and the place of poetry in this era.”
Mary Benard, editorial director of Skinner House Books, suggests Bless the Imperfect: Meditations for Congregational Leaders, ed. by Kathleen Montgomery (Skinner House, 2014). “Being a leader in a UU congregation can be a transformative, joyful experience, but it can also be challenging. Let your leaders know you appreciate and support them with these meditations that affirm their commitment and hard work.”
What book would you give? Share your answers in the comments below.
This article appeared in the Winter 2014 issue of UU World (page 54).