Sisters In Crisis

Fifty years ago, nearly 200,000 religious sisters worked in Catholic schools, hospitals and other institutions throughout the United States. American Catholics honored these women of faith who founded and built these flourishing works of mercy. Then came the ideological shifts and moral upheavals of the 1960s, and ever since, most women's orders in the United States have been in a state of crisis. Now the sisters are aging, with fewer and fewer younger women to take their place. Perhaps related to this demographic shift is the continuing doctrinal confusion that has come under the scrutiny of the Vatican. Using the archival records of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and other prominent groups of sisters, journalist and author Ann Carey shows how feminist activists unraveled American women's religious communities from their leadership positions in national organizations and large congregations. She also explains the recent and necessary interventions by the Vatican. After examining the many forces that have contributed to the crisis, Carey reports on a promising sign of renewal in American religious life: the growing number of young women attracted to older communities that have retained their identity and newly formed, yet traditional, congregations.

Women religious, who once were revered as models of deep spirituality and Christian virtue, now have a reputation as the most rebellious group within the church.

In 2014, the nation was rocked by the brutal violence against young Aboriginal women Loretta Saunders, Tina Fontaine and Rinelle Harper. But tragically, they were not the only Aboriginal women to suffer that year. In fact, an official report revealed that since 1980, 1,200 Canadian Aboriginal women have been murdered or have gone missing. This alarming official figure reveals a national tragedy and the systemic failure of law enforcement and of all levels of government to address the issue. Journalist Emmanuelle Walter spent two years investigating this crisis and has crafted a moving representative account of the disappearance of two young women, Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander, teenagers from western Quebec, who have been missing since September 2008. Via personal testimonies, interviews, press clippings and official documents, Walter pieces together the disappearance and loss of these two young lives, revealing these young women to us through the voices of family members and witnesses. Stolen Sisters is a moving and deeply shocking work of investigative journalism that makes the claim that not only is Canada failing its First Nations communities, but that a feminicide is taking place.

Listen to a short interview with Sarah McFarland TaylorHost: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & CraneIt is perhaps the critical issue of our time: How can we, as human beings, find ethical and sustainable ways to live with one another and with other living beings on this planet? Inviting us into the world of green sisters, this book provides compelling answers from a variety of religious communities. Green sisters are environmentally active Catholic nuns who are working to heal the earth as they cultivate new forms of religious culture. Sarah Taylor approaches this world as an "intimate outsider." Neither Roman Catholic nor member of a religious order, she is a scholar well versed in both ethnography and American religious history who has also spent time shucking garlic and digging vegetable beds with the sisters. With her we encounter sisters in North America who are sod-busting the manicured lawns around their motherhouses to create community-supported organic gardens; building alternative housing structures and hermitages from renewable materials; adopting the "green" technology of composting toilets, solar panels, fluorescent lighting, and hybrid vehicles; and turning their community properties into land trusts with wildlife sanctuaries. Green Sisters gives us a firsthand understanding of the practice and experience of women whose lives bring together Catholicism and ecology, orthodoxy and activism, traditional theology and a passionate mission to save the planet. As green sisters explore ways of living a meaningful religious life in the face of increased cultural diversity and ecological crisis, their story offers hope for the future--and for a deeper understanding of the connections between women, religion, ecology, and culture.

A landmark novel of the Canadian West from one of Canada’s most accomplished writers, author of The Ghost Brush and Fables of Brunswick Avenue Gateway, Alberta, 1911. The coming of the railroad to the Canadian Rockies has brought a parade of newcomers to the heavenly Bow Valley—climbers, coal miners, artists, scientists, runaway aristocrats and remittance men. Among the latter is the poacher Herbie Wishart, who arrived on a one-way ticket and has reinvented himself as a trail guide and teller of tall tales. Herbie becomes outfitter for a fossil-hunting expedition headed by a prominent Washington, D.C., archaeologist. Rumours say that the findings of the secrecy-shrouded Hodgson expedition, as it comes to be known, could overturn all previous knowledge about early life forms. Brought along to help in the quarry for the summer are Hodgson’s adult children, mopey Humphrey and the captivating Isabel, with whom Herbie strikes up a campside alliance. But when an early snowstorm hits and trailside grudges come to a head, the expedition mysteriously disappears. The tragedy threatens to stain the Rocky Mountain park’s reputation just as its newly elected government overseers begin to sell the pristine Canadian wilderness to the world. Despite all efforts from that year on to solve, or bury, the mystery, the disappearance will haunt Gateway, and define the futures of Herbie Wishart and his stubbornly female descendants. The Three Sisters Hotel is at once sweeping and intimate, and bursting with heart, wit and larger-than-life characters who rival the Rocky Mountain landscape for sheer brio. Katherine Govier proves she is one of Canada’s master storytellers with this new novel, which is a groundbreaking portrait of Western Canada’s past, with all its contradictions and complexities, an intimate story of romance and family, and a tantalizing historical—and prehistorical—mystery. PRAISE FOR THE GHOST BRUSH “Lavishly researched and brilliant. . . . Govier astonishes throughout in her ability to write epic themes intimately. . . . Lyrical, absorbing, and intense.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Bestselling author [Kristin] Hannah [brings] snap and a lot of warmth to a familiar lesson: that contentment comes from accepting each other’s flaws.”—People Years ago, Meghann Dontess made a terrible choice that cost her everything, including the love of her sister, Claire. Now, Meghann is a highly successful attorney who doesn’t believe in intimacy—until she meets the one man who can change her mind. Claire Cavenaugh has fallen in love for the first time in her life. As her wedding day approaches, she prepares to face her strong-willed older sister. Reunited after more than two decades apart, these two women who believe they have nothing in common will try to become what they never were: a family. Tender, funny, bittersweet, and moving, Between Sisters skillfully explores the profound joys and sorrows shared by sisters, the mistakes made in the name of love, and the promise of redemption—all beautifully told by acclaimed author Kristin Hannah. “Enormously entertaining . . . Hannah has a nice ear for dialogue and a knack for getting the reader inside the characters’ heads.”—The Seattle Times “Hannah writes of love with compassion and conviction.”—Luanne Rice

Poetry. "These nearly weaponized poems manifest what it's like to be caught in a trap where family, money, and world have turned against each other, and no one, not even the reader, can touch a single object 'without touching the consequence.' These are poems of singular shipwreck in the wake of a collective crisis that pulls every piece of personal debris into its maelstrom. How do we grieve the gap between the true and the false signatories? Gardiner shows, bravely, deeply, that poetry is how we, is what survives." --Eleni Sikelianos "Christine Gardiner writes, 'The telling of the seeing broke the crisis.' Here is a book that illumines (and through the alchemy of writing, becomes) the ways the disaster exceeds every limit, even as it simultaneously, constantly arrives. And when the crisis breaks? Language becomes a listening (a sounding veil) where we might, as Gardiner suggests, listen without knowing what for. MY SISTER'S FATHER--lamentation as a field composed of whispers, an underworld dirge, a primer for how to walk through the dark corridor in the empty house during the longest night. The only thing to do now is to read this book again. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror: I hold onto this book the same way I clutch the Psalter from the abandoned church I found after the storm." --Selah Saterstrom "The surreal horror of this family constellation (the father is seen stitching 'a match-book car-bomb into my sister's intestines') becomes a kind of trampoline for Gardiner's amazing leaps: 'my feet were set in concrete, / and I turned so slowly from one problem / to the other that I was frozen solid / at their center, and the whole world / came into an indolent orbit around me.' "These leaps of language and imagination take us to 'another country' where 'time comes and goes without a ticket.' Here, in this freedom, 'time is the infinitive.' Hence, with the logic of grammar, the infinite-- and even humor becomes possible: 'And you sense the swollen heart / first plummet, then rise / to the still, scarred surface of being, / where impermeable and quivering, / inexplicable as the seraph, / it quacks and buoys like a duck.' "An amazing and delightful book." --Rosmarie Waldrop

Voted BEST BOOK SERIES by Supportive Business Moms, UK **BONUS** Includes the first chapter of SISTERS IN WHITE. In SISTERS IN BLOOM... Kaylie Snow has always been the fun, flirty, pretty sister. Now her burgeoning baby bump, hormone-infused emotions, and faltering singing career are sending her into an unexpected identity crisis. Watching her older sister, Danica, glide through a major career change and a new relationship with the grace of a ballerina, Kaylie's insecurities rise to the forefront--and her relationship with fiance Chaz Crew is caught in the crossfire. Chaz Crew has everything he's ever wanted: a lovely fiancEe, a baby on the way, and soon, the film festival he owns will host its biggest event ever. When he's called away to woo the festival's largest sponsor--and the lover he's never admitted to having--secrets from his past turn his new life upside down. With her baby shower around the corner and her fiance's big event looming, the pressure is on for Kaylie to pull herself together--and for Chaz to right his wrongs. In a few short weeks, the couple who had it all figured out will learn things about life and love that may change their minds--and their hearts. SISTERS IN BLOOM is part of the Love in Bloom series. While SISTERS IN BLOOM can be read as a stand-alone novel, for even more reading enjoyment you may want to read the entire Love in Bloom series in series order. READ THE FULL LOVE IN BLOOM SERIES: SNOW SISTERS: Sisters in Love, Sisters in Bloom, Sisters in White THE BRADENS (Weston, CO): Lovers at Heart, Destined for Love, Friendship on Fire, Sea of Love, Bursting with Love, Hearts at Play THE BRADENS (Trusty, CO): Taken by Love, Fated for Love, Romancing My Love, Flirting with Love, Dreaming of Love, Crashing into Love THE BRADENS (Peaceful Harbor, MD): Healed by Love (Nate), Surrender My Love Coming Soon – River of Love THE REMINGTONS: Game of Love, Stroke of Love, Flames of Love, Slope of Love, Read, Write, Love Coming Soon – Touched by Love SEASIDE SUMMERS: Seaside Dreams, Seaside Hearts, Seaside Sunsets, Seaside Secrets, Seaside Nights, Seaside Embrace Coming Soon - Seaside Lovers THE RYDERS: Seized by Love Coming Soon - Claimed by Love, Chased by Love