Good Reviews for Rev. Kate Braestrup’s Book, “Here If You Need Me”
Category: Unitarian Universalism - General
Several weeks ago I posted on Looking for Faith after reading an excerpt from Unitarian Universalist Rev. Kate Braestrup’s new memoir, Here If You Need Me, which describes her journey into ministry following her husband’s death.
UU World’s Unitarian Universalists in the Media feature has posted links to several major national publications that have given Rev. Braestrup’s book very positive reviews. These include USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and the Boston Globe. The Entertainment Weekly article, though too short to give very much detail, gives a sense of how Rev. Braestrup “lives her faith through her work” while remaining “dogmatically undogmatic.”
It is so exciting to see national media giving so much attention to a book that describes a Unitarian Universalist and her faith journey. When Unitarian Universalists share our individual stories about what our religion has meant to us and helped us to be, we offer others who are looking for faith the chance to discover Unitarian Universalism.
Needless to say, I will be reading Here If You Need Me asap, and I’ll post a review here.
Readers, have any of you picked up the book yet? What did you think?
August 18th, 2007 10:11
Kate did a reading and booksigning here at the First Parish in Portland last weekend; it was lightly attended, but those of us who were there enjoyed it quite a bit. I’m also reading the book, and while I’m not quite ready to offer a full “review,” I think those who pick it up won’t regret it.
August 18th, 2007 10:34
I’m so glad a UU blogger has finally mentioned Here If You Need Me. Besides that mention in UU World’s media feature, I just hadn’t seen a single mention.
EXCEPT in a full-page spread in Entertainment Weekly and a review in USA Today, etc! It’s a little weird when the mainstream media takes more notice of something like this before we do.
I’ve just begun Here If You Need Me, and I’m enjoying it.
By the way, I love your blog.
August 18th, 2007 13:53
Eclectic Cleric,
Oh, I didn’t know Rev. Braestrup is doing a tour with stops in UU congregations, that’s great! If you do decide to write a post about the book, please comment again with the link, or e-mail and let me know.
Jay,
Thank you for letting me know you are reading and loving this blog. I really appreciate that.
August 31st, 2007 12:17
[…] After posting several times about the positive media coverage for Rev. Kate Braestrup’s Here If You Need Me, I’m delighted to have finally read it. […]
September 15th, 2007 23:09
Hi! I came across your site in doing some research on Kate’s book. I’m reading it now and really enjoying it. I am an ordained Unity minister and am interested in learning more about how our beliefs differ from those of a UU. I’ve always enjoyed reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works and, as I understand it, he was a Unitarian minister. Any information you have on your denomination would be appreciated.