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The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real
by Neta Jackson
The Yada Yada Prayer Group has become a national phenomenon, with
thousands of women across the country joining reading groups to live
and learn through their fictional sisters. Book Three finds Jodi
Baxter's oasis turned upside down when her upstairs neighbors move
out and her nemesis, Leslie (Stu) Stuart, moves in! Avis'
middle-aged cocoon is turned inside out, too, by a beau from her
past, and Chanda's future has never looked brighter. But Stu's
proximity to the Baxter household will draw her secret to the
surface-and no one is ready for the crisis that will follow or the
question the group will have to face: Just how far does forgiveness
go when it requires investing your life in the forgiven one? |
Joshua in a Troubled World
by JOSEPH GIRZONE
Girzone's Joshua (i.e., Jesus) makes his first appearance since
The Parables of Joshua (2001) and this time deals with a
real-world problem, peace in Israel. Chameleon-like, Joshua appears
at various locations in Washington, D.C., and because he lacks ID
and looks Middle Eastern, secret service goons trail him, and lose
him, every step of the way. Girzone makes much of the political
climate, where "scribes and Pharisees" abound and where "it takes
only a few sick people to destroy a democracy and strip us of our
rights." Case in point: when Joshua, simply by asking them, rallies
Arab, Jewish, and Christian leaders to sue for peace in Israel,
thugs round them up and detain them. This is, however, all part of
God's plan. Even those old combatants, Arafat and Sharon, are made
at last to see reason in the presence of Joshua, and soon peace is
on its way in a reprise of the Oslo accords. Girzone's topical
approach seems likely to date his new book almost upon publication,
but the urgency and anger of his words are arresting. His many fans
will be gratified and a bit taken aback.
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