Month: August 2019

Rarely is the sequel as good as the first installment. While this book isn’t intended to be a sequel to her first, Scarlet Hiltibidal has knocked it out of the proverbial park. Again. In my review of her first book, I praised the conversational tone in which Hiltibidal writes. It makes me feel like she’s not teaching someone whom she considers to be less than herself, but she makes me feel more like she’s a loving friend; reaching out with her experiences to encourage me to take the right path. Her ability to laugh—or more often, lament—at the exploits of her younger self is perhaps her greatest strength. It takes humility to confess struggles and ongoing patterns of sin (even past ones), and this is…

In what is likely to be the minority position, I’m one of the people who actually love Andrew Peterson’s writing more than his music (and I love his music). I remember the agony as I waited for the final installment of The Wingfeather Saga to arrive in the mail, and the bittersweet elation I felt as I reached the end of another great book. So when I learned that Peterson was going to release a book about the creative process and overcoming some of the inner conflicts experienced by authors/artists/songwriters, I knew I needed to read what he’s written. Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making isn’t like other books on writing. Peterson’s natural gift for storytelling translates his toolbox…