Nancy J. Nordenson

November 22, 2014

Dear mailing list friends,

I so appreciate all of you on this mailing list and your interest in what's happening with my new book, Finding Livelihood: A Progress of Work and Leisure. As a little reward for your generosity toward me, I want to give you a first look at the book cover. Only a few friends and family members have seen it so far, so this is an unveiling. I'll later add it to my website and show it on Facebook, but you're seeing it here first. I do hope you like it! Kalos Press has been great to work with and they really wanted to get this cover right. I'm quite pleased with it. It's abstract, which reflects that the book is a lyric sort of book rather than instructional and expository. It's green, which reflects life, the root of livelihood. The image looks like ground that could be tilled or a lawn by a stream on which you could spread a blanket and have a picnic (work + leisure). There's more but I'll stop at that. You get the idea.

A sneak peek
One of the chapters has been recently published in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Although it's a print journal, the contents are also online, so by clicking here you can get a sneak peek at the book. While you're there, please dip into some of the other fine essays in the issue, as well as the editor's column by Wendy McDowell. Those of you who also subscribe to my blog will have already seen this link.

On the blog
Other recent posts of potential interest to you on the blog include: vocational notes from Thomas Merton, Albert Schweitzer, and the television show Parenthood; why most of us are like back-up singers; two songs (here and here) to end a work week; fear and broken bones; the poetry of finding a job; my blog tour responses; comments on books (The Province of Joy, What Happened to Sophie Wilder?, In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist, Packinghouse Daughter, Surprised by Scripture, The Empathy Exams, and caregiving memoirs); communal silence; observations on hope; and  miscellany on writing (a rule, distress, creative bursts, daily intention, creative idleness, and larger truths). If you'd like to also subscribe to the blog posts you can do so here at these links: daily or weekly.

Recommended books for Advent
I want to commend to you two books for Advent. The first is Watch For the Light and includes daily readings by a variety of writers, including Henri Nouwen, Annie Dillard, Kathleen Norris, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and more. The second book is God with Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas, which is also an anthology of readings and includes work from such writers as Scott Cairns, Luci Shaw, Eugene Peterson, and Emilie Griffin.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving this coming week! Thank you again for your continued interest in my work.

Warmly,

Nancy