Annexed by Sharon Dogar

I'd been wanting to read Sharon Dogar's Annexed since I saw it on the shelf at a local book store. I was working in the library a couple of weeks ago and spotted it on the shelf in the young adult (YA) section and grabbed it. And I'm so glad I did.

Annexed is a YA historical fiction work written from the perspective of Peter Van Pels, one of the eight hiding in the Annex with Anne Frank and her family. The book alternates between Peter in sick bay in a concentration camp reminiscing--trying to remember what it meant to be alive, really--and flashbacks to different points in the time the group was together in the Annex.

Dogar admits that we know a lot about Anne Frank. But what about those who lived in the space with her? That was the question that drove this book. Dogar used Anne's diary as the primary source for the first part of the novel, taking Anne's experiences and interpreting them from Peter's point of view. She also adds what she imagined Peter experiencing as a young man coming of age in a time when it was nearly impossible to do anything but age quickly. Dogar does a masterful job of exploring identity ("Why do I have to be a Jew? Why can't I just be Peter?"), teenage angst/hopes/desires/dreams, what it means to survive against amazing obstacles, and why it is important that we all remember.

This book was truly a YA book--skimming the surface of these themes. At the same time, Dogar draws the reader in and paints a picture like I've never read of what it was like to be captured, put on a train, dropped off at one concentration camp and sent to another. It was vivid and haunting--a book that makes you remember because it sinks into your bones.

Thanks to the many writers who have made sure the story lives on and we will always remember. So that it never happens again.

If Darwin Prayed

Our faith was never meant to stand still. We were meant, from the beginning, to grow in all things. Just as our understanding of God and what it means to be part of a faith community--and to be human--evolves, so too does our universe live and evolve. It's the stuff of Darwin, and it's the stuff of If Darwin Prayed: Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics by Bruce Sanguin.

If Darwin Prayed is a prayer book that includes prayers for all seasons included in the lectionary as well as a few additional times of year. Prayers for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Palm Sunday and Good Friday, Easter and the Ordinary Season are all included--most with a scripture reference upon which the prayer is based or from which it is derived.

The language is expressive and colorful. It's not everyday that one includes "silencing the political party poopers" in a prayer. It's not every church that can tolerate such things. Other prayers stir in the reader (pray-er) a desire for peace, to right the wrongs of our planet, to care for the Earth, to take one's place in the Earth as members of her community, to express gratitude for...well...all things.

This prayer book reminds us all that our faith should never stay in one place--and neither should the prayers we pray in corporate or personal worship. Although I've not yet read all of them, I have certainly found several that will be incorporated in my personal time of prayer.

My encouragement is that you not allow the mention of Darwin to scare you off. Instead, my hope is that you will be inspired to move beyond where you currently are and use this book as one of many tools to aid that endeavor.

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Thanks to Speak Easy for sending this book for me to review.