Skinner House Books

Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class, and the Environment presents a powerful and penetrating look at environmental justice from some of the key thinkers and activists in Unitarian Universalism today. Fourteen activist ministers and lay leaders apply a keen intersectional analysis to the environmental crisis, revealing ways that capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and other systems of oppression intersect with and contribute to ecological devastation.

They also explore how spiritual practices, congregational organizing, and progressive theology can inform faith-based justice work in the twenty-first century. These prophetic voices, from a wide range of perspectives, reveal new approaches and opportunities for more holistic, accountable, and connected justice efforts. Each essay is accompanied by suggested ways to take the next steps for further learning and action.

Justice on Earth is available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Happy Earth Day! Children and adults will delight in Earth Day, a poem of gratitude that celebrates life on earth. From apricots to groundhogs to junebugs, from quahogs to zinnias, zucchini and zebras, plants and animals come alive with Rocco Baviera's bright and imaginative illustrations. In alphabetical order, the wonders of nature leap from the page, reminding readers that every day is a reason to give thanks and that miracles are as simple as ABC. For ages 3 and up.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Tree Lessons

Suspended between the breath of God and the cool dark Earth body, roots and rings no separation, between time and space.

Reaching out gathering powers lightning and fire trickle and storm breath and resistance firm, solid shifts no separation between earth and sky.

Connecting to infinite networks stars and saplings suckling on bodies of old ones fallen sustenance and decay no separation between life and death.

—Rev. Sean Parker Dennison Breaking and Blessing: Meditations

Recommended Resources for Earth Day:

Earth Day: An Alphabet Book—Children and adults will delight in Earth Day, a poem of gratitude that celebrates life on earth. In alphabetical order, the wonders of nature leap from the page, reminding readers that every day is a reason to give thanks and that miracles are as simple as ABC. For ages 3 and up.

Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class, and the Environment—Fourteen activist ministers and lay leaders apply a keen intersectional analysis to the environmental crisis, revealing ways that systems of oppression intersect with and contribute to ecological devastation. The 2018-19 UUA Common Read. A discussion guide is available online.

The Sustainable Soul: Eco-Spiritual Reflections and Practices—A poignant and inspirational guide for a journey toward ecological spirituality and sustainable culture. Each chapter contains an essay and spiritual practices designed for both group and individualized reflection.

These titles and more are available at shopinspirit.org.

The Justice and Spirit Goodreads Book Club group read this month is Seeds of a New Way: Nurturing Authentic and Diverse Religious Leadership, edited by Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Nancy McDonald Ladd.

What will it take for diverse leadership within Unitarian Universalism to truly thrive and contribute to a radiant and inclusive future? In Seeds of a New Way, editors Manish Mishra-Marzetti and Nancy McDonald Ladd and contributors explore how to foster and nourish diverse and authentic leadership within congregations.

Building on the foundations of the groundbreaking Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry, this collection offers a glimpse into the forming edge of the shared journey happening right now to make diverse leadership, both lay and ordained, more survivable and vibrant. Rather than presenting one definitive pathway or roadmap, Seeds of a New Way recognizes that the specific context and relationships within any given setting will shape the journey and so brings together a diverse array of perspectives, experiences, and strategies to illustrate a range of considerations and possibilities.

As congregations strive to live into the potential and joy of Beloved Community, these essays will inspire them to seed and nourish a new way.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

You can join Justice and Spirit: The UU Book Club on Goodreads.

In Held: Showing Up for Each Other’s Mental Health, community minister and mental health advocate Rev. Meyers illustrates how members of liberal religious congregations can be supportive to those living with mental health problems, and their loved ones, in our congregations and society at large.

Rev. Meyers addresses the fundamental elements of spiritual support—truth, hope, presence, acceptance, encouragement, authenticity, public witness, and pastoral care—with stories from real life situations and suggestions for how parishioners can provide and advocate for support in their congregations. A study guide for congregations and a list of resources for more information round out this thoughtful and necessary resource.

Held is available from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Happy publication day to our newest title, Searching for Solid Ground: A Memoir by Reggie Harris with Linda Hansell. It's available to order wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Before renowned musician Reggie Harris was a sought-after performer, educator, cultural ambassador, and civil rights advocate, he was a low-income Black kid in Philadelphia with a love of music. He was transported by the vibrant sound that filled the air in his church, the voices calling out with passion, the rhythm and the release, and the powerful sense of community.

Searching for Solid Ground is a captivating and deeply personal chronicle of Harris’s extraordinary life, from his early years, when his love of music was fueled by singing everywhere he could—at home, at church, and in the school choir—to performing across the world for over forty years as one half of the folk duo Kim and Reggie Harris, to his current work blending his musical gifts with a commitment to promote justice and peace and heal the racial divide.

Harris shares his triumphs and his struggles, his hard-won wisdom and insights, including the challenges he faced launching a career in folk music as a Black musician, his transformative experience hearing James Baldwin speak and the beginnings of his own justice work, and a harrowing journey back to health through the gift of a liver transplant, among many other remarkable moments.

In her books, award-winning author and teacher Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew guides writers through the writing and revision process with insight and grace. Writing the Sacred Journey and Living Revision work together seamlessly:

In Writing the Sacred Journey, readers will discover how to construct a well-crafted spiritual memoir—one that honors the author's interior, sacred story and is at the same time accessible to others. Andrew provides practical advice on how to overcome writing obstacles and work through drafts.

And after your first draft? Andrew helps with the revision process in Nautilus Award Winner, Living Revision: A Writer's Craft as Spiritual Practice! Her expertly honed techniques, exercises, and personal examples will help writers invigorate their work and themselves as they engage the human heart within and across the page.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Run, Run

"This body is a wild one: love ripping through these veins like fire across a prairie, eager and hungry and holy.

Wilder still are the humming bees that make this garden their home, the sharp sunset color in the dying autumn leaves, the river running so fast it trips over its own feet and tumbles down a mountainside.

This heart is chasing that river, chasing the fish swimming downstream and the leaves about to touch soil and the tide pulling away from the shore. This heart is sprinting down dirt paths, breathing so hard she might crack open.

All this running, and all for this: She wants to love like thunder, love like the smell of honeysuckle, love with all the reckless abandon of summer afternoon rain."

—Jess Reynolds Love Like Thunder

Love Like Thunder is available at inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Too often in U.S. culture—and notably in faith communities—a culture of white supremacy is reinforced in damaging but unexamined ways. In The Darkness Divine, minister and poet Kristen L. Harper confronts and unpacks the language, imagery, buzzwords, and cultural touchstones that demean and dehumanize Black people but are so commonplace they can easily escape notice.

More importantly, in a brilliant arrangement of essays and poems in the vein of Claudia Rankine, Harper lifts up the strength, beauty, and resilience of Black people and outlines a path forward. She invites readers to explore what they have learned and assimilated so they might de-center whiteness and stretch their understanding and imagination to radically transform perceptions of blackness.

While directed at her own Unitarian Universalist tradition, The Darkness Divine is a powerful and loving challenge to all those committed to the work of dismantling white supremacy.

Available now from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Groundbreaking in its depictions of joy and community, Authentic Selves celebrates trans and nonbinary people and their families in stunning photographs and their own words. Foreword by transgender activist Jazz Jennings and her mom and fellow activist, Jeanette Jennings. Developed in collaboration with PFLAG National and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. It's available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

So often trans and nonbinary people’s stories are told only through the lens of their struggles and challenges, including their political battles for legal rights, but trans and nonbinary people live rich and fulfilling lives full of joy and community too. Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families is a sweeping compilation of life stories and portraits of trans and nonbinary people, as well as their partners, parents, children, siblings, and chosen family members.

The compelling stories in Authentic Selves provide a glimpse into the real lives, both the challenges and the triumphs, of these remarkable people and their families—people like Senator Sarah McBride, disability justice advocate Parker Glick, drag entertainer TAYLOR ALXNDR, September 11th first responder Jozeppi Angelo Morelli, model Lana Patel, youth activist Elliott Bertrand, and so many others—all of whom are working to create a more just, diverse, and compassionate world.

“When the two plus signs on the pregnancy test turned pink, I reached for the church phone directory. Well, first I reached for the phone book (this was before internet searches were common) and looked up abortion services, the very first listing in the heavy, yellow tome.”

Little Did I Know is a beautiful and inclusive anthology of reflections on the spiritual gifts and challenges of raising young people. In reflecting with others, editor Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern found an array of life experiences, choices, struggles, and insights—including the choice to not have children as in Rev. Kate Landis's powerful essay "Two Pink Lines" in which she writes about her decision to have an abortion. You can read this essay online.

If you'd like to read more about Rev. Kate Landis's life, we recommend her memoir Stubborn Grace: Faith, Mental Illness, and Demanding a Blessing. With unflinching honesty and humor in the vein of Cheryl Strayed and David Sedaris but a raw tenderness all her own, Landis chronicles the hardest parts of her young adulthood as well as her poignant journey to faith and community.

Little Did I Know and Stubborn Grace are available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

“May this power of love you find in these pages change your life and your Unitarian Universalism.”

Forged at the intersection of faith and justice, BLUU Notes: An Anthology of Love, Justice, and Liberation is the first publication from Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU). Editors Dr. Takiyah Nur Amin and Rev. Mykal Slack, both on BLUU's Organizing Collective Board of Directors, have collected original poems, prayers, and short prose pieces by Black Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist writers, musicians, worship leaders, and liturgists. This rich and profound collection can be used for personal study, private meditation, and worship that amplifies a Black Unitarian Universalist perspective and worldview. Selected music and additional resources round out this transformative collection.

Available wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org

We’re thrilled to announce our newest title, Searching for Solid Ground: A Memoir by Reggie Harris with Linda Hansell. It's available to pre-order wherever books are sold and from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Before renowned musician Reggie Harris was a sought-after performer, educator, cultural ambassador, and civil rights advocate, he was a low-income Black kid in Philadelphia with a love of music. He was transported by the vibrant sound that filled the air in his church, the voices calling out with passion, the rhythm and the release, and the powerful sense of community.

Searching for Solid Ground is a captivating and deeply personal chronicle of Harris’s extraordinary life, from his early years, when his love of music was fueled by singing everywhere he could—at home, at church, and in the school choir—to performing across the world for over forty years as one half of the folk duo Kim and Reggie Harris, to his current work blending his musical gifts with a commitment to promote justice and peace and heal the racial divide.

Harris shares his triumphs and his struggles, his hard-won wisdom and insights, including the challenges he faced launching a career in folk music as a Black musician, his transformative experience hearing James Baldwin speak and the beginnings of his own justice work, and a harrowing journey back to health through the gift of a liver transplant, among many other remarkable moments.

April

"The symbols of the season are all in place: The sacred sift of morning light through red-bud branches, the drift of rain-clouds sailing along the dark north sky serving as a robe for a feast day, the minarets of yellow tulips ringing the call to prayer, the young bees chanting their sunrise communion service as they sip nectar from the chalice of the narcissus flower, the newly packaged seeds and burrs reciting their Passover maggid of strange travels and quick escapes on the wind. Once again the tapestry of family dinners and the peculiar loneliness of holidays. Once again the jarring of murky world events set against the soft pastel butterflies of spring.

Oh Love, the time is tender and sweet here on the earth, but the orbit of its passage is tough and jagged, filled with sorrows that silence themselves. Therefore come, Silence deeper than our speechlessness, rock us close in your silent arms for a while."

Mark Belletini Sonata for Voice and Silence

Available at inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

In Held: Showing Up for Each Other’s Mental Health, community minister and mental health advocate Rev. Meyers illustrates how members of liberal religious congregations can be supportive to those living with mental health problems, and their loved ones, in our congregations and society at large.

Rev. Meyers addresses the fundamental elements of spiritual support—truth, hope, presence, acceptance, encouragement, authenticity, public witness, and pastoral care—with stories from real life situations and suggestions for how parishioners can provide and advocate for support in their congregations. A study guide for congregations and a list of resources for more information round out this thoughtful and necessary resource.

Held is available from inSpirit: The UU Book and Gift Shop at shopinspirit.org.

Recommended Resources for Earth Day:

Earth Day: An Alphabet Book—Children and adults will delight in Earth Day, a poem of gratitude that celebrates life on earth. In alphabetical order, the wonders of nature leap from the page, reminding readers that every day is a reason to give thanks and that miracles are as simple as ABC. For ages 3 and up.

Justice on Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class, and the Environment—Fourteen activist ministers and lay leaders apply a keen intersectional analysis to the environmental crisis, revealing ways that systems of oppression intersect with and contribute to ecological devastation. The 2018-19 UUA Common Read. A discussion guide is available online.

The Sustainable Soul: Eco-Spiritual Reflections and Practices—A poignant and inspirational guide for a journey toward ecological spirituality and sustainable culture. Each chapter contains an essay and spiritual practices designed for both group and individualized reflection.

These titles and more are available at shopinspirit.org.