This Ordinary Adventure: Settling Down Without Settling

“My life is boring.” This is the crisis statement that precipitates recounting and reflecting by the Jeskes, both professional communicators; she is an author (Into the Mud: Inspiration for Everyday Activists), he the associate director of communications for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. They had lived and worked for years in Africa, and ended up in Wisconsin with two children, accomplished and socially conscious fish readjusting to swimming in a very big and different pond, and scorning American suburban life and its demands. The Jeskes write in a concrete and detailed way about recalibrating their earnestness so they can shop at Target without getting angry, about understanding life-and-death occasions without exaggeration, about the frequently routine and humbling requirements of child rearing. This book speaks most clearly to 30-somethings starting families and loosening their grips on fierce ambitions; they may find the chapter-ending suggestions for awareness-building activities genuinely helpful rather than obvious. (Oct. 7)