  | Book Details Title: Remember Me: A Novella about Finding Our Way to the Cross |
Book DescriptionReview “When we face great pain or loss, these are the times when we may be tempted to ask whether God’s care is reliable. And it is especially in times like these when Jesus speaks from the place of his cross. He empathizes with us and is present to help. In Remember Me, Sharon tells a compelling and grace-rich story that helps us enter into these realities. I was touched and helped as I read. I believe you will be, too.” (Alan Fadling, author of An Unhurried Life, founder and president of Unhurried Living)”I’ve already read Remember Me more than once, and as with all of Sharon Garlough Brown’s novels, I’ll savor it again. Through her true-to-life characters and powerful story, she interweaves themes of suffering, lament, and mental health with beauty, hope, and resurrection. When I finished it, my faith in our living, loving God was strengthened and renewed.” (Amy Boucher Pye, author of The Living Cross)”Most of us find grief and waiting to be two of the most challenging aspects of life. With the skillful precision of a spiritual director, Sharon Garlough Brown connects us with engaging characters who are working through deep loss. Remember Me offers hope in the midst of waiting and empathy in the midst of grief. Thank you, Sharon, for leading us straight to the cross, where we find a suffering Christ, ready to meet us.” (Gem Fadling, author of What Does Your Soul Love? and founder of Unhurried Living)”Can the path of suffering and grief carry us to a place of healing as we journey to the cross? Author Sharon Garlough Brown’s new book Remember Me offers a stunningly beautiful narrative of restoration and redemption in two women’s lives. . . . I loved this tender telling of the slow dance into new life and highly recommend it for any season of sorrow, but especially during Lent. I’m grateful it includes a Stations of the Cross personal exercise. What a poignant reminder that new life will come as we persevere in seeking the Lord.” (Lucinda Secrest McDowell, author Life-Giving Choices and Ordinary Graces)”Sharon Garlough Brown understands the powerful potential of letter writing and art to express deepest feelings. She lets one of the protagonists of her beautifully and sensitively written novel bare her soul, expose her grief, and affirm her deep faith to the young artist struggling with her own grief and faith and confidence in her artistic abilities. For both the writer of the letters and the receiver, this thoughtful way of communicating brings peace, resolution, and healing. Remember Me offers the reader a powerful tool of self-reflection and a safe and intimate way to explore the depths of the soul―through letter-journaling as well as through the expressive language of art.” (Carol A. Berry, author of Learning from Henri Nouwen and Vincent Van Gogh: A Portrait of the Compassionate Life)”One of the deepest human longings is the longing to be understood―and there are few experiences in life when this ache surfaces more urgently than in the throes of depression and grief. In Remember Me, Sharon Garlough Brown vividly illuminates what it’s like to be engulfed in depression’s shadow and isolated by its despair. She puts words to what many of us have experienced but lack a vocabulary to describe. Through the sometimes tentative yet always tender support given by Kit to Wren, Brown illustrates what it looks like to heal in and through relationship. This novella is unquestionably written for those longing to be understood and those seeking to understand the desolate experience of mental illness.” (Beth A. Booram, cofounder and director of Fall Creek Abbey, coauthor of When Faith Becomes Sight)”Remember Me, Sharon Garlough Brown’s sequel to Shades of Light, is a novella filled with heartbreaking beauty and profound truth. Readers will savor this story as they join Kit and Wren on a Lenten journey contemplating the stations of the cross. Kit’s letters to Wren, grace filled and laced with deep sorrow from her own trauma and heartbreak, show how Christ uses ‘companions in sorrow’ to come alongside those who are grieving. There are no easy answers here, but the reader is invited to sit with both Kit and Wren in the not knowing, not having the answers they hoped for, not having one kind of closure but finding closure in a better way. The artwork and reflection questions add yet another dimension to this potentially life-changing message. I found great hope and freedom in this story.” (Elizabeth Musser, author of When I Close My Eyes)”If the literary world had a spiritual director, Sharon Garlough Brown would be it. Through the backdoor of the imagination, she encourages us to brave vulnerability in spiritual friendships and gently prods us toward a more robust vision of genuine community. I can think of no other living novelist doing this so consistently, with such wisdom, excellence, and patience.” (Sarah Arthur, preliminary fiction judge of the Christianity Today Book Awards and author of A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle) Read more About the Author Sharon Garlough Brown is a spiritual director, speaker, and cofounder of Abiding Way Ministries, providing spiritual formation retreats and resources. She is the author of the bestselling Sensible Shoes Series, which includes spiritual fiction novels Sensible Shoes, Two Steps Forward, Barefoot, An Extra Mile, and their study guides. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Sharon has served on the pastoral staff of congregations in Scotland, Oklahoma, England, and most recently in West Michigan, where she copastored with her husband, Jack, for many years. In March 2013 her book Sensible Shoes was named one of television personality Kathie Lee Gifford’s “favorite things.” Her most recent book is Shades of Light. Read more Customers Review: For me, reading this book was an experience like no other. I experienced empathy on an intimate level for Wren and for Kit, companions in sorrow. In the past, Kit had experienced debilitating sorrow, grief and depression. Wren was currently in the depths of great sadness, depression and deep grief. Kit became the best person to walk along beside and help Wren. She cared for her with extraordinary compassion and deep loving kindness. I so loved their relationship.I was profoundly affected by a passage in chapter 5 where the author shared her deep and powerful thoughts about when Peter had denied Jesus, not once , but three times. Now, whenever I think of Peter and his failures, I will envision Jesus praying for Peter. As I ponder my own failures and those of close loved ones, I choose to picture Jesus praying for us, even and especially in the midst of our own poor choices and corresponding consequences.I loved how Wren, a gifted artist, worked on a series of paintings to represent the stations of the cross. This was an incredible and enlightening journey of healing for her. What’s more? Wren’s beautiful and heartfelt paintings then ministered to others who viewed them in contemplation.Reading this book was like going on a spiritual retreat with fellow, trusted believers who had deaths to mourn and brokenness to heal, all the while guided by a compassionate, wise and God-led spiritual director. I loved this book!I received a complimentary copy of this book from InterVarsity Press through NetGalley and I also purchased my own hard cover copy. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
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24 reviews