Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life »

Shauna Niequist lives in Illinois with her husband Aaron, who is a worship leader, and their son Henry. She grew up at Willow Creek, then studied English and French literature at Westmont College, in Santa Barbara, California. She worked in Student Ministry at Willow Creek for five years and as the Creative Director at Mars Hill for three years. Shauna’s first book, Cold Tangerines, is a collection of essays about the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives.

Cold Tangerines---now available in softcover---is a collection of stories and ideas about the life of celebration that God gives you. This book offers a vision of life as a collection of bright and varied glimpses of hope and redemption and celebration, in and among the heartbreak and boredom and broken glass.

Publishers Weekly

Niequist, a 30-year-old mother and first-time author, wants readers to look around their ordinary lives and celebrate all their manifold, quotidian blessings. To that end, she offers 40 short essays, each an exploration of something mundane and wonderful: getting pregnant, throwing parties, collecting champagne flutes. She recalls a breakup that deepened her relationship with God, and explains why moving into a fixer-upper helped her learn that God loves us as we are. A lovely, honest and wistful tone characterizes the title piece, an ode to living a life of gratitude and joy. Essays on a friend's health scare, the power of art and experiencing Christmas with a newborn are especially powerful. Yet Niequist's relentlessly first-person reflections would have been leavened by more fully developing some of the other characters, the relatives and friends who pop up. Sometimes her prose is annoyingly abstract ("if we cultivate a true attention, a deep ability to see what has been there all along, we will find worlds within and between us"), and there are clichéd observations. Still, with a bit of seasoning (and more vigorous editing), Niequist could be a writer to watch. (Oct.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Contents

introduction....................9
I on waiting....................15
spark....................19
becoming family....................25
puppies....................31
old house....................37
island....................41
swimming....................47
french class....................53
carrying my own weight....................59
these are the days....................67
visions and secrets....................75
II baby making....................81
the red tree....................87
exodus....................91
eggs and baskets....................97
brothers, sisters, and barbecues....................103
lent and television....................109
a funeral and a wedding....................113
mothers and sons....................117
the cat's pajamas....................121
pennies....................125
III hide and seek....................133
broken bottles....................139
prayer and yoga....................145
confession....................151
shalom....................157
good causes....................161
the hook....................165
how sweet it is....................169
blessings and curses....................175
IV mother prayers....................183
the track star....................189
ladybugs....................193
carrying my own weight redux....................197
writing in pencil....................203
happy thanksgiving....................209
soup from bones....................215
basement....................219
needle and thread....................225
coldtangerines....................231
acknowledgments....................237