From Powells.com
The Best Books of 2022 (So Far)
Staff Pick
The writing in This Here Flesh is so breathtakingly beautiful. It invites quiet, thoughtful reading and contemplation and is one of those books that leaves your soul just a little bit bigger for having read it. Told as a series of stories in simple, powerful prose, it feels like sitting down with an old friend, someone who knows your deepest truths and seeks to help you rediscover them Recommended By Deana R., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the "necessary rituals" that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.
"This is the kind of book that makes you different when you're done." Ashley C. Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Somebody's Daughter
"Reaches deep beneath the surface of words unspoken, wounds unhealed, and secrets untempered to break them open in order for fresh light to break through." Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing and Caul Baby
"From the womb, we must repeat with regularity that to love ourselves is to survive. I believe that is what my father wanted for me and knew I would so desperately need: a tool for survival, the truth of my dignity named like a mercy new each morning."
So writes Cole Arthur Riley in her unforgettable book of stories and reflections on discovering the sacred in her skin. In these deeply transporting pages, Arthur Riley reflects on the stories of her grandmother and father, and how they revealed to her an embodied, dignity-affirming spirituality, not only in what they believed but in the act of living itself. Writing memorably of her own childhood and coming to self, Arthur Riley boldly explores some of the most urgent questions of life and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this indelible work of contemplative storytelling, Arthur Riley invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it.
At once a compelling spiritual meditation, a powerful intergenerational account, and a tender coming-of-age narrative, This Here Flesh speaks potently to anyone who suspects that our stories might have something to say to us.
Review
"Welcome the rising of Arthur Riley's astonishing voice. This is a gorgeous and muscular work." Krista Tippett, host of On Being and New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Wise
Review
"This Here Flesh is a gospel to what we remember. This book is rigorous, joyous, complex, and honest, and tells the story of how we get free. It is a story that would not let me go." Danté Stewart, author of Shoutin' in the Fire
Review
"A wonderfully winsome, heartbreakingly honest, and ever-poetic work of spiritual biography and theological reflection." Library Journal (Starred Review)
About the Author
Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Executive Curator. Born and for the most part raised in Pittsburgh, Cole studied Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She once took a professor's advice very seriously to begin writing a little every day, and has followed it for nearly a decade.
Deana R. on PowellsBooks.Blog
Spring is here, and with it the promise of renewal and regrowth. I feel like it’s also a good time to take stock of oneself and focus on where we want that growth to happen. My favorite way to do this is, unsurprisingly, through books. The following is a collection of eight books that have helped me find...
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