Using vivid word portraits, the author blends scripture, tradition, and creative imagination into a fictional re-creation of the courtship of Mary and Joseph. This is the foundational piece of the trilogy... which continues with "Three From Galilee" and concludes with "The Messiah".

Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet's book is a well-done, clear and compehensive tour of the Black Virgins of France. The many color illustrations add a great deal to the text. Her heart is obviously into her work.

Kathrin is sent to America from Germany after the death of her mother. She eventually comes to work for a woman named Violet on Summit Avenue translating fairy tales from German. Violet has secrets, and over a space of time, she begins to tell the young woman her secrets and the two have one night of passion. The confused Kathrin flings herself into marriage with an ambitious young man who fathers her child. She eventually leaves her husband and searches for Violet. Like a modern adaption of a fairy tale, Sharratt's novel is lush and metaphoric in places, and is evocative of the early part of the 1900s, right before and during World War I. It reminded me of Emma Donoghue's "Kissing the Witch", which also used fairy tales in a sort of modern retelling. I was especially impressed with Sharratt's use of the maiden/mother/crone dynamic. If you enjoyed "Tipping the Velvet" by Sarah Waters, then you certainly love this book.

This is a poetic novel of longing, the timeless story of a young woman yearning to find herself and her place in an unfamiliar world. As an immigrant steeped in the fairy tales of her native Germany, Kathrin struggles to build a new life in the flour mills of Minneapolis during the World War I era. She perseveres in learning English, dreams of books and college and being loved. Unexpectedly swept into a different world by an elegant and cultured woman who hires her to translate German folk tales, Kathrin soon arrives at an emotional crossroads. The author does a lovely job of blending rich historical detail with the psychological and emotional resonances of ancient folk tales. Readers will be swept away by the story and yet think long afterward about its many layers. This is one of my favorite books of the year.

Mary Sharratt's new book , Summit Avenue , is a great novel about a German immigrant to the USA . Kathrin Albrecht, a German teenager when her mother dies, emigrates to the USA to start her American dream. The historical detail about Minneapolis is very fascinating, and the reader gets a better understanding of the living conditions of young female immigrants to the USA in the beginning of the 20th century. The details about Germans in the USA during WW1 are interesting. Also very fascinating is the use of fairy tales throughtout the book. The book is divided into 3 sections, and each section has a fairy tale that forms the backbone of this specific phase Kathrin goes through in life. The fairy tales are vry different from the fairy tales one reads a lot these days -- they are full of original images, and do not have a happy ending. They have nothing in common with the happy endings we know from Walt Disney. The real end of the book however is very beautiful, full of hope and love.

The book is fiction and the author is a loon. He was a minor diplomat who has now become a religious zealot. This book belongs with those that expose Area 51 and Magical fairys living in your window well.

As a diplomat, and later as director of the Fulbright Scholarship Program, Wayne Peterson traveled circles inaccessible to most people. He had contacts at the highest levels of the White House, many foreign governments and the Vatican. This book tells the amazing story of how Mr. Peterson first met Maitreya, the Christ, and the group of highly evolved spiritual beings who surround him and oversee the evolution of our planet. It follows his career in the political halls of power, where he met many other influential people who have had similar experiences of Maitreya. All are aware that life as we know it is about to change dramatically for the better, and that they have a part to play in the transformation of our world when the time is right. A real page-turner, this book carried me from one astonishing adventure to the next - adventures which I would have had difficulty believing were it not for Mr. Peterson's credentials. His message offers us great hope during these trying times. It does corroborate Benamin Creme's information given over the last 25 years. Both men, each from different backgrounds and perspectives, assure us that the future is bright; that we have the possibility of making our world a place of peace, justice and beauty- a virtual heaven on earth.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, first appeared to Wayne Peterson at the age of four. She saved his live and made a promise that he had forgotten until many years later -- that if he stayed with his family he would see the Christ, because Christ would come to live with the people of the world. Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings: Experiences Of An American Diplomat With Maitreya And The Masters Of Wisdom is the incredible, fascinating story of how Peterson first met Maitreya, the Christ, and the group of highly evolved spiritual beings who surround Him and oversee the evolution of our planet. This blend of memoir and metaphysics follows his career in the political halls of power (where he met many other highly-placed people who have had similar experiences of Maitreya); the fulfillment of that long ago promise made to him as a child, and a message of hope for the future. Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Beings is highly recommended reading for students of spirituality, metaphysics, religion, and the future.

Beverly Donofrio's experience of Mary is both inspiring and stunningly real. Her honesty about her life and her journey to belief imparts hope to us all. I have never been to Medjugore or Guadalupe, but I trust Donofrio's account of those places and their spiritual impact because of her clear-eyed and unvarnished descriptions. In the midst of a troubled world, with war raging and evil brazenly stalking some of our most treasured territory -- the Catholic Church, our children, and our own United States -- Donofrio's book about Mary's intercedence and concern for all her children is comforting and gives one courage to stand up (or kneel down) to fight the evildoers. We can be confident that Mary will protect us and help us in our efforts. I have bought several copies of the book to give to my friends who are mothers. The book has special meaning for moms, with its message of love, forgiveness, and the promise of the love and support Mary can give us as we try to emulate her divine motherhood.

A friend recommended this book ... and I have to say it was a fine read. It's the story of Beverly Donofrio's search for meaning in her life via the Virgin Mary. She started out collecting Mary icons at yard sales and soon had an entire room dedicated to Mary. God does work in mysterious ways.

She delves in depth into her relationship with her son and how God healed that part of her life. But I had to laugh out loud at one statement she made. She said she just couldn't understand why God did not include Mary in the Trinity, bless her heart. What most people don't know (and male preachers/priests seldom ever mention) is that in the Old Testament God is referred to as El Shaddai. Shaddai is formed from "shad" (the breast) Genesis 49:25 or "The Breasted" - the "Nourisher", "the Strength-Giver", the "Satisfier" who pours Himself/Herself into believing lives. God is all female/all male and thankfully, much, much more than the sum of the two! ...

...ALSO a boomer lapsed Catholic. Married to a scientist. He would hate this book. I LOVED this book. I particularly love the authors attachment to Mary souvenirs. I believe that the author is completely sincere, and so am I at this moment. I too long for "proof". A must-read for anyone who's attracted to Mary for whatever reason, or for someone looking for a good read who is willing to suspend disbelief for the time it takes to finish the book.

Forget love. Forget anger. Forget fear. The most powerful human emotion is grief. It's also the most mysterious, and yet the most concrete. Haven Kimmel, following her stellar memoir "A Girl Named Zippy," explores grief from four different experiences via the primary characters of this remarkable debut novel. Like Zippy, it's set in a tiny Indiana town, where Langston Braverman has returned upon abandoning her doctoral studies, only to find her deep self-absorption challenged by her mother, self-doubting minister Amos and two recently orphaned girls gripped by religious ecstasy. As all of them are thrown together by tragedy, each deals with his or her grief in distinctly different ways which Kimmel reveals in incredible depth and nuance as she weaves their increasingly entwined lives. It is not a romance -- though there are certainly romantic elements. It is not a melodrama -- at least not in any contrived way, in that every note of the story rings true to the people and situations. What "Solace" is is a confident and immensely readable work from a young writer with a true gift for language, feeling for her characters and the mysticism of everyday life. With this, Kimmel joins the ranks of today's top writers (Franzen, Chabon) as well such distinctly southern/middle American voices as Ellen Gilchrist and Flannery O'Connor.

Forget love. Forget anger. Forget fear. The most powerful -- and mysterious -- human emotion is grief. It's also perhaps the most difficult emotion for a writer to explore. But in this remarkably assured and affecting debut novel, Haven Kimmel looks at grief with with deft assuredness, depth and compassion. Returning to a small town setting similar to her stunning 2001 memoir "A Girl Named Zippy," she weaves the compelling stories of self-absorbed Langston Braverman, guilt-burdened minister Amos, Langston's strong-willed mother and two visions-gripped girls, thrown together by a brutal tragedy. It's not a romance -- though there are romantic elements. It's not a melodrama -- every situation, every character response, rings true. Kimmel exceeds the gift for language and storytelling that already made "Zippy" such an entertaining and meaty read. And with both an eye for detail and honest feeling for her characters, she joins both the emerging elite of young American writers (Franzen, Chabon) and the company of such iconic southern/middle American writers as Ellen Gilchrist and Flannery O'Connor.

It's difficult to write a novel about faith and romance that's smart but not smug, moving but not preachy, and entertaining on a purely plot level. Remarkably, Haven Kimmel has done just that in SOLACE--she's a wordsmith of the first order, a common-sense theologian and a splendid storyteller. She's also created two characters--Amos and Langston--who stay with you as if they were genuine folks, the preacher from your neighborhood church or an old friend returned home--a bit worse for wear--after years away. Add to this the author's subtle asides, droll throwaway lines, narrative winks and quick wisdom, and you've got a great read, one of the best in years as far as I'm concerned.

Graham Joyce came highly recommended by Jonathan Carroll, and that's enough recommendation for me to read a phone book. Requiem, Joyce's fourth novel and the first to be published in the U.S., is a quirky book, written in a weirdly flowing style that I associate with several of today's British authors (Mary Gentle is the author that comes to mind immediately, although shades of Geoff Ryman and Greg Egan are also present). This style is achieved partly through the use of dialogue as a method for moving plot, wherein elements to the story are told by the characters, but almost as a short story told by the narrator to the other characters. The other major element to this style is the use of blind switchbacks (or red herrings) in the plot, and a willingness to "leave out" information, that the reader must fill in by putting together narrator comments, dialogue, and a good guess. In Gentle's case, I can't take this style--she does it to such an extent or I am such a fast reader that I miss the subtle implications and quickly get lost as to what is actually happening. Joyce only does it somewhat, reserving it for the secrets that surround his narrator.

Requiem is about guilt. The trick is to determine exactly what guilt. Tom's wife Katie dies in a freak traffic accident--her car is smashed by a fallen tree--so Tom quits his job as a teacher and travels to Jerusalem. Although it's been six months, he still has strange feelings about his wife's death, much more than just the natural ones of mourning and loss. There's also something not quite right at the school, helping him make the decision to leave for awhile. In Jerusalem, he connects with an old college friend, Sharon, who is working for a women's counseling center. Along the way he befriends an old man who runs a hostel. While exploring the old city, something he had always wanted to do, and feels guilty about doing it without Katie, especially after her death, he finds himself adrift, confronted by Arab vagabonds, and this strange old woman who scratches out a message in the sandstone walls with her fingernail.

The similarities with Carroll are many. Not only do scenes have that slightly unreal feeling, while remaining so detailed and close to home, the characters are vivid and intriguing, the narrator is questionable in his sanity, and then there's the ancient manuscript that might be a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls find that could change our concept of the gospel as it is now known. In both large and small items, the concept of truth and honesty is ambiguous.

I liked Requiem, and almost wanted to read it again as soon as I finished it, to see if there were things that I missed as I sped through the book, caught up in the world and the fine writing. I'm searching for Joyce's other novels, delighted to find another writer who appeals to that same sense of mystery and wonder that has caught me up in the works of Davies, Carroll, and Banks.

"Requiem" is an intruiging psychologically based fantasy about a former teacher whose wife has died, so he quits his job and goes to visit a female "friend" in Jerusalem. There, he comes to terms about his loss and his past. It's all tangled up with his relationship with his wife and his feelings for her when she died. The Mary Magdelene mythology also plays an important role as well as the dijin (demon) mythology. It's a novel about loss, understanding, dreams, love, religion, and acceptance. (Just a side note: "Requiem" reads a LOT like the author Jonathan Carroll, and the subject matter is VERY similar as well. "Requiem" is a MUST read for ANY Jonathan Carroll fan.)

Requiem is a quick book--filled with all sorts of psycho-religious science fiction--that is written in a very provocative, graphic way. Graham Joyce wraps Christian and Islamic mythology into western paranoia and presents a story that stays with you. He uses the Mary Magdalene character as a thread to draw you through the story--posing her as the demon and angel that keeps the reader questioning every turn in the plot. Its fun.

Scott Hahn demonstrates how all Christians can discover Mary's central role in the New Testament's redemptive message. The reader is guided through a close examination of the Bible, and is introduced to the works of both Catholic and Protestant scholars and clergy, to bring to light the small but significant details showing the integral role of Mary in God's plan since creation.

Beginning in the book of Genesis, Hahn examines in detail three Old Testament typologies which foreshadow the person of Mary: Eve, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Queen Mother of Israel's monarchy. He then ties these typologies into Mary as she is revealed in the gospels and as she appears in John's Revelation.

Building on these scriptural and historical foundations, Hahn presents a new look at the Marian doctrines: her immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, assumption and coronation. As he guides modern readers through passages filled with mysteries and poetry, Hahn helps us redisocver the ancient art and science of reading Scripture. I gained a more profound understanding of the truthfulness of God's Word and Christ's Church, and their relevance to living out my faith as a catholic christian in our contemporary world.

Scott Hahn demonstrates how all Christians can discover Mary's central role in the New Testament's redemptive message. The reader is guided through a close examination of the Bible, and is introduced to the works of both Catholic and Protestant scholars and clergy, to bring to light the small but significant details showing the integral role of Mary in God's plan since creation.

Beginning in the book of Genesis, Hahn examines in detail three Old Testament typologies which foreshadow the person of Mary: Eve, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Queen Mother of Israel's monarchy. He then ties these typologies into Mary as she is revealed in the gospels and as she appears in John's Revelation.

Building on these scriptural and historical foundations, Hahn presents a new look at the Marian doctrines: her immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, assumption and coronation. As he guides modern readers through passages filled with mysteries and poetry, Hahn helps us redisocver the ancient art and science of reading Scripture. I gained a more profound understanding of the truthfulness of God's Word and Christ's Church, and their relevance to living out my faith as a catholic christian in our contemporary world.

"Hail, Holy Queen" is the latest offering from the indefatigable Scott Hahn, today's most popular Catholic popularizer, and the author of "The Lamb's Supper," an exposition of the Mass. Here Hahn explains the Church's teaching about Mary with scriptural arguments about her identity as Queen Mother, Ark of the New Covenant, New Eve and type of the Church.

Hahn's primary audience is Catholic, and his presentation is especially informative for those educated during the past 30 years with little exposure to the Marian doctrines, much less to the reasons why we hold them. Even supposedly well-catechized older Catholics will profit from Hahn's treatment. Nevertheless, Hahn's former Protestant brethren are also part of his target audience, whose fears of the Canaanite Queen of Heaven "Hail, Holy Queen" is meant to allay.

Hahn's final chapter summarizes current Catholic mariology as taught in the Vatican II document, "Lumen Gentium," which serves as a source of inspiration for his book. He shows that teaching the full truth about Mary won't hurt ecumenism with Protestants and Eastern Christians. Both groups may profit from Hahn's appendix on the Rosay, along with his treatment of our need for familial intimacy with God, enhanced by Mary's maternal love. As sources concerning Mary's role in the Church, Hahn invokes patristic writings, a connection that helped him in own journey to the Church. Hahn also quotes John Henry Newman and recent Church documents. Other scholarship is relegated to endnotes. Hahn's love for our Lady is warm and sincere, and "Hail, Holy Queen" is a useful guide to the Bible.

I cannot begin to express the impact this book has had on me. I was struggling with my Christian upbringing and wanting to embrace the Goddess, when a wonderfu Witch, author Silver RavenWolf suggested this book to me. Thank you Raven. I didn't want to give up "Jesus," but through this book I came to see that Yeshua/Jesus is as much a part of the Goddess/God myths of so many religions. The story of birth, death and rebirth, so much a part of my Wiccan religion, was played out in this book on multiple levels. Witches and Pagans need not turn from Jesus, as he is a much a Messiah for us as for the entire world, past, present and future. I truely believe that the author has tapped into the Cosmic Consciousness and come up with a "true" version of what happened so long ago. If you would but look at the extensive research done, the books of the effort listed, I think you will find that this book explains the importance of the Goddess in life, as well as the God. Mari and Jesus represent both, as they are the Goddess and God, reincarnated from Isis and Osiris, Inanna and Dumuzi. There is such beauty and passion in this book, and such incredible love. A woman's point of view. A world view to embrace for today and forever!!

Professor Kinstler's retelling of the Christ story depicts Jesus' life and death as part of the Sacred Marriage, a Goddess-worship ritual. Her reimagining the gospel from the point of view of the women, particularly Christ's mother and Mary Magdalene, brings a refreshing and beautiful perspective, reminiscent of the way Marion Zimmer Bradley retold the Arthurian legend in "The Mists of Avalon." My one complaint, when I read this novel more than a decade ago, was that the cast of characters at the beginning of the book gave away too much about Judas. I would have preferred Judas' relationship to the story to have come as an interesting plot twist, not as a character note. ...

This is a beautiful book, and I have read it several times already. Not only is the story great, very involving and well written, but the imagery and historical references are accurate and scholarly. As a woman interested in the often under-represented female perspective on historical events, this book fills a need for fully fleshed out mythical perspectives on life. At first I wondered if the alternate take on Christian myth would be sort of like a vegetarian version of a meat dish, interesting but not really enjoyable or necessary. Instead I found myself immersed in a completely plausible reinterpretation of a universal story which pulled me in and then expanded my understanding of myth and mystery. Highly recommended!