Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Never once did Jesus scan the room for the best example of  holy living and send that person out to tell others about him. He always sent stumblers and sinners. I find that comforting.”
― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

I think I could just string quotes together instead of a review; but I'd probably cross some line and get a DMCA warning. Suffice to say, this is stimulating, challenging and inspiring. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses - saints of all sorts, and Pastor Nadia is finding them every day - and helping me to see them as well. And that's enough.

(Okay, here's one more quote)

“There are many reasons to steer clear of  Christianity. No question. I fully understand why people make that choice. Christianity has survived some unspeakable abominations: the Crusades, clergy sex-scandals, papal corruption, televangelist scams, and clown ministry. But it will survive us, too. It will survive our mistakes and pride and exclusion of others. I believe that the power of  Christianity — the thing that made the very first disciples drop their nets and walk away from everything they knew, the thing that caused Mary Magdalene to return to the tomb and then announce the resurrection of Christ, the thing that the early Christians martyred themselves for, and the thing that keeps me in the Jesus business (or, what my Episcopal priest friend Paul calls “working for the company”) — is something that cannot be killed. The power of unbounded mercy, of what we call The Gospel, cannot be destroyed by corruption and toothy TV preachers. Because in the end, there is still Jesus.”
― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

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Strangers from the Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Golden Age Trek

There's a window in time when the Trek novels were more unencumbered by editorial oversight, story arcs and trying to be more canonical - and this is a novel from that era. Really kind of quirky in many ways (there's magic, for one!), but still a fun story. [Not a complaint about the current state of Trek literature - just an observation.]

I'd read this long ago, but picked up the abridged audio version with great voice work from George Takei and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock. There's sound effects too! Not your serious full text audio book, almost more of a radio play - but *I* liked it.

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