The weeks before Christmas are for more than just stress and holiday shopping. The Christian season of Advent is a time of waiting and reflection in spiritual preparation for the Nativity. Some books to celebrate Advent, quietly:
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp (Tyndale, Sept.) follows last year’s The Greatest Gift, also by Voskamp. Centered on the tradition of the Jesse tree, an object that represents the genealogy of Jesus and is decorated in the days leading up to Christmas, the book is a devotional for the family to read aloud; it also contains activities. Tyndale has shipped 65,000 copies of Unwrapping so far, and expects to ship more later in the season if sales follow the pattern of The Greatest Gift, which shipped a total of 125,000 last year, the largest orders coming in November and December. Voskamp will tour in three states in early December in connection with Compassion International, an international child welfare organization she supports.
The Season of the Nativity: Confessions and Practices of an Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Extremist by Sybil MacBeth (Paraclete, Nov.) is a colorful memoir-cum-craft-book that weaves together the author’s reflections with her suggestions for seasonal activities. MacBeth’s Praying in Color has sold more than 70,000 copies in various editions, including children’s and portable. The book will be featured in the online Patheos book club for two weeks in November. Phyllis Tickle, a friend of MacBeth’s and also the founding editor of PW’s religion department, says MacBeth may have written publishing’s first “selfie” review.
Every Valley: Advent with the Scriptures of Handel’s Messiah compiled by Jessica Miller Kelley (Westminster John Knox, Sept.) is for music lovers. Forty reflections from pastors and scholars unpack the passages of Scripture used in Handel’s Messiah oratorio. Kelley says the idea for the devotional came to her when one day she was reading the biblical Book of Isaiah and began singing one of the passages used in Messiah. “The idea for the devotional came out of the assumption (or hope) that I was not alone in this quirky behavior,” Kelley says. “The music, though written so many years after the text, makes the scripture even more memorable and meaningful.”
Behold the Lamb of God: An Advent Narrative by Russ Ramsey (Rabbit Room, Oct.) is the paper edition of a 2011 e-book from this small press, developed by a creative community in Nashville. Ramsey, a pastor, links the story of Jesus to Old Testament adumbrations of a Savior.
