New & Recent Books

Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice A memoir of a Quaker activist and master storyteller George Lakey on his involvement in struggles for peace, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, labor justice, and the environment, whose life will be the subject of a new documentary film coming in 2022. From his first arrest in the Civil Rights era to his most recent during a climate justice march at the age of 83, George Lakey has committed his life to a mission … Read More

Human beings “must now return nature . . . into our worship. And Quaker meeting is the perfect place to make that reclamation,” writes Jim Hood in this poetic and thoughtful meditation. In celebrating the interrelationship of living beings – the ecology – of the natural world, alongside the deep interrelationships at work in a meeting for worship, Hood calls us to deepen our spiritual relationship to nature and to the Light that illuminates it. He urges us to restore … Read More

After nearly thirty years living in the Salish Sea’s San Juan Archipelago, Iris Graville felt compelled to write about the threats to its interwoven lattice of beauty, wildness, fragility, and relationship. In 2018-19, Graville served as the Washington State Ferries’ (WSF) first Writer-in-Residence on the “Interisland” route, traveling only among Lopez, Shaw, San Juan, and Orcas islands. As a result, this storytelling lover of the Salish Sea presents Writer in a Life Vest, thirty-six essays that explore climate change and endangered … Read More

Quakerism: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the history and diverse approaches and ideas associated with the Religious Society of Friends. This small religion incorporates a wide geographic spread and varied beliefs that range from evangelical Christians to non-theists. Topics covered include:– Quaker values in action– The first generations of Quakerism– Quakerism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries– Belief and activism– Worship and practice– Quakerism around the world– The future of QuakerismWith helpful features including suggested readings, timelines, … Read More

Braving Your Way Toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace Find spiritual insight for developing courage and meeting life’s broken-open, pulled-apart times for anyone seeking hope. Daily we are asked to move toward bravery, to stretch in the direction of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, patience, and vulnerability. Yet life’s tender fragility, fear, anxiety, and our own practiced self-sabotage can derail us from growing and thriving, leaving us fractured and afraid. Ordained Buddhist teacher and Quaker Valerie Brown invites us into the heart of … Read More

Walking in the World as a Friends: Essential Quaker Practices is a program of the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative.  It looks at how essential Quaker practices weave together the individual, Quaker community and Spirit, creating a unique, vital and transformative dynamic. It addresses the question “What do we do that makes us Quaker?”   Author: Nadine Clare HooverPublisher: Quaker Religious Education Collaborative, 2020ISBN: 9780982849279Paperback, 72 pages

Reflections on God’s Love is a collection of prayers and commentaries to recall our hearts and minds to the loving Presence of God. The readings can be used as doorways into contemplation and as inspirations to help us dwell in the Vine (John 15:4-6) and grow in our trust in God. Many of them draw on much-loved Bible passages. Included are reflections which shed fresh light on the Lord’s Prayer and on the parable of the prodigal son. “Father, I … Read More

Small-town USA, entering the ’70s. A childless couple, Gene and Molly, adopted a strange, wounded child of the stars they call Cory. Molly is the main narrative voice – a passionate nurse fighting for her own extraordinary child. Cory is gentle, vibrant, excitable, endlessly curious and loving – and both joy and danger comes from his otherworldly origins. In Our Child of Two Worlds, a figure from the past brings uncomfortable truths, and Gene and Molly face the terrifying loss … Read More

Quakers and their Meeting Houses Chris Skidmore A highly illustrated and fascinating account of the architecture and historical development of the Quaker meeting house, from the foundation of the movement to the twenty-first century, drawing largely on examples from the UK but including some from colonial America. www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/55131/

“Apart from being a fascinating snapshot of London in the 21st century, it’s a valuable social commentary.” –Terry Waite In 1861, the great journalist and social advocate Henry Mayhew published London Labour and the London Poor, an oral history of those living and working on the streets of Victorian London. Nothing on this scale had been attempted before. On the surface, the streets of London in 1861 and in 2019 are entirely different places. But dig just a little and … Read More