Book Review

BookPage's Review of Called: Easter Season's Promise of Renewal

Like many folks my age, I first read Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz in undergrad, when Coldplay was still a new band on the scene, and The Terminator himself had just been elected governor of California. For many of us, Miller's "non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality," set in the familiar Pacific Northwest I called home, was a rite of passage.

So you can imagine my excitement when, some 10 years later, I stumbled upon a BookPage review that set my new, debut book, Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis's House and Back Again, alongside Miller's latest work, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy.

Getting Naked in Front of a Crowded Room: Hearing from Called Readers

Writing Called felt like getting naked in front of a crowded room.

Some of the people you know. Some of the people are perfect strangers. Either way, the fear is what they will think, and whether they'll laugh.

That's why I chose to start the book by turning to the wisdom of Mr. Bob Dylan himself:

"Bob Dylan once said a poem is a naked person. I’m not much of a poet, but I hope you’ll excuse me if I go ahead and take off all these layers." 

"Lessons in Belonging," by Erin Lane: A Book Review

 

Erin was giving a book reading when we first met, from her chapter in Talking Taboo: American Christian Women Get Frank About Faith. 

I was in my final year at Duke Divinity School at the time; she was just a year out of the same program. We soon realized that we shared a number of things in common: we'd both recently traded a PR career for theology and we'd both lived in the Pacific Northwest (Erin works withParker Palmer and the folks at the Seattle non-profit Center for Courage & Renewal).

When I noticed Erin also had a book releasing in early 2015, I suggested swapping book reviews, crossing my fingers she'd think it was a good idea. She was generous enough to agree. Thanks, Erin.

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No book I have ever read does justice to this topic like Ryan's story: Will Vaus Reviews "Called"

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"No book I have ever read, or sermon I have ever heard, does justice to this topic like the simple sharing of Ryan's story--not so much because his tale is extraordinary--but simply because it is told truly."

Read Will's full review of my new book, "Called: My Journey to C. S. Lewis's House and Back Again"...