I really loved this book.

I liked the pace of it, perhaps because it reminded me of my own exploration of faith. There are those moments of introspection and insight and then, well, life goes on. Gallagher shows that those moments of insight can add up to something significant, particularly if they are interpreted through a deliberate process - her exercise in discernment. The moments she describes are all distinct -- racing on the freeway to church, folding altar cloths, walking in the hills above Santa Barbara -- but they start to add up, to build momentum, early in the book.

I liked the simplicity of her writing. Her portrayals of people and emotions are restrained, but that may be why they are illuminating. I don't know what some of the characters look like, but I do know that I'd like to share a meal with them. I also appreciated her honesty - she reveals her own overly-harsh judgments, and finds ways to expose her own doubts without wallowing in them.

It's a religious book, or a book about religion, I suppose. That's obvious from the title and virtually every page. But my first thoughts about it when putting it down had little to do with religion, or even spirituality. What we see in this book is an individual on a journey to find the work for which she is best suited. It's a mystery, an uncommon mystery.

It's an interesting story, and very well written. It's a book I'll read again down the road.

Practicing Resurrection confirms what Gallagher's first book, Things Seen and Unseen, demonstrates-the holiness of candor and the well-crafted word. By inviting readers to join her on a journey of deepening faith and vocational discernment, Gallagher provides us the opportunity to experience how each of us ministers and is ministered to. Her graceful prose, her expansive heart, and her exploration of our fragile and tenacious humanness make it easier to practice resurrection. This is a transformative book-sacramental in its ability to incarnate both the doubt and the grace requisite for faith.

At the beginning of Practicing Resurrection, Gallagher is at a crossroads, sorting out how to live after her brother's death and wondering whether she is being called to ordination. She is haunted by the sense that, despite her busyness, her life is drained of meaning. She feels trapped in a small world, as if she's just going through the motions and painting by the numbers. What is the larger, wilder, and more vivid life that keeps calling to her from her dreams? And where is the door?
As Gallagher makes clear, resurrection is not about dead bodies coming out of the grave. It is God's energy of renewal and rebirth, a compelling and sometimes dangerous vitality that calls us to live larger lives - to give ourselves more generously and to love without holding back.
Written with the keen eye of a journalist and the open heart of a poet, this marvelous new memoir is a treasure.

This is a wonderful book that will enhance your life. Sometimes we just need a hint of things to do and how to do them special. This book has that and I feel it's even better than those hardbound, artsy, more high priced books on how to have a lovely life/home. This one includes little pleasures and insights just for you (ie, how to take a bath, getting over a love affair, one good waffle recipe). Very nice paperback that I damaged and had to toss quite a few years ago. I'd love to find it again! It would come in handy for my now (more) stressful life.

Christian living is not a matter of assent to a certain set of truths, nor of wearing "WWJD" bracelets and a big smile. Christian living is the often heart wrenching process of walking each day -- each hour -- in the presence of the living God.

Nora Gallagher is not a theologian -- she's a journalist -- and Things Seen and Unseen is a reporter's notebook, a journal of life in the Christian front lines. Her church family falls into division, and pulls together over the selection of a new pastor. The soup kitchen in the parish hall draws criticism from the neighbors -- and from members of the congregation. Gallagher's beloved brother, Kit, grows ill and moves toward death.

None of this is earth shattering, but as Christians, we all live in a shattered -- and reclaimed -- world. Gallagher reminds us of that mysterious reality on each page.

Some things are seen, and other's unseen. Gallagher reminds us that what we see often depends on where we look. For that, her book is a treasure.

THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN: A Year Lived in Faith Gallagher, Nora. (New York: Knopf, 1998) "I came to this church five years ago a tourist and ended up a pilgrim," writes Nora Gallagher in the first chapter of her new book "Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith". In the particularity of her pilgrimage the reader is invited into the universality of "the longing a soul has to find its shape in the world" -- a longing Gallagher explores in the context of her life in the parish of Trinity Episcopal Church, Santa Barbara. Her story of this year lived in faith -- one Advent to the next -- offers insights for all spiritual seekers: struggles between the ideal and real, the power and pain of authentic community and the search for a practical mysticism that bridges the "thin place" between those things seen and unseen. By giving us a glimpse of the sacred in the ordinary of her own life (in the tradition of Madeline L'Engle and Kathleen Norris) Gallagher challenges us to do the same in ours, and we are the richer for it. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently living in Santa Barbara, Nora Gallagher has reported for Time and Life magazines and her articles have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Village Voice, Mother Jones and the Utne Reader.

I read this wonderful book when it was first published and I continue to recommend it to anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of what it means to live a life of faith. Thought-provoking and beautifully written, Gallagher's book is an outstanding exploration of Christianity. By turns probing and funny, poignant and inspiring, Things Seen and Unseen is a book to treasure. Highly recommended.

I can't say that I've read the whole book but it looked pretty awesome. One warning, I didn't read the review carefully enough and I bought it thinking all of the field notes were actually from the place Patagonia. This is not the case. The writings are from the Patagonia magazine and include all areas of the world. Pretty cool if that is what you are looking for. THIS BOOK IS NOT SOLELY ABOUT PATAGONIA!

As there was no description for this book, I have taken the liberty to add the following from the publisher's (Chronicle Books) web site:

"The people who use Patagonia® gear have explored the furthest extremities of wildness-from the icy waters of the Labrador Sea to the baking hot, vertical granite of El Capitan. Patagonia: Notes from the Field delivers an intense glimpse of those front lines in a spectacular collection of essays and photographs commissioned for Patagonia. Authors such as Paul Theroux, Gretel Ehrlich, Russell Chatham, Rick Ridgeway, and Tom McGuane offer first-hand perspectives-often off-beat and sometimes unsettling-on our relationship to the natural world. Their words capture life-threatening moments and sudden insights into the soul of a sport. The accompanying images may command silence (the tiny silhouettes of climbers on a distant snowy ridge) or elicit a whoop of joy (a kayaker dropping off a 20-foot waterfall). Editor Nora Gallagher has collected the best essays and images from Patagonia's award-winning catalog and melded them with newly commissioned material to create an intelligent, powerful, and vital portrait of "life out there." Patagonia: Notes from the Field will appeal to adventurers, travelers, and dreamers everywhere. "