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An excerpt from On the Brink of Everything appears following the introduction, courtesy of Parker J. Palmer and Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Dear Friend, This fall, we're excited to share not one, but TWO inspirational life stories with QuakerBooks readers - author Parker J. Palmer and abolitionist Benjamin Lay. Parker's latest book, On the Brink of Everything, is a reflection on life and embracing the gift of getting older. The Fearless Benjamin Lay, now available in a new paperback edition, describes the fiery activism of a Friend who would passionately witness (sometimes with props!) on the evils of slavery. Both men are remarkable...

Dear Friend, Standing at the podium in the University of Toledo auditorium at the FGC Gathering a few weeks ago, the Reverend Doctor William J. Barber II gripped the lectern in front of him and leveled a quietly piercing look at the nearly one thousand Friends gathered around him. He had just reviewed what he called the heresy of government, the wickedness of people in high places, and the malpractice of theology among faith leaders who have preyed upon the poor, the sick, the old, the disenfranchised. And he had a question for us.“So what should we do?” he asks gently, looking...

“Sometimes God is hard to hear,” writes my friend Michael Wajda in the Pendle Hill publication Expectant Listening: Finding God’s Thread of Guidance.
A Friend who travels in the ministry under the care of Goshen Meeting in Pennsylvania, Michael’s words carry a message that resonates deeply.

Yes. But, fortunately, God reaches out to us through others who, like my friend Michael, will use the printed or digital word to tap us on the shoulder and ask, “How goest thou, Friend?”

Such is the gift of—and from—an author who writes in the Light.

In this month’s Book Musings, those of us who have care of QuakerBooks offer you a selection of books written by authors who do just that:

Seeds that Change the World, a collection of 13 essays by traveling minister Debbie Humphries.

Hiking Naked: A Quaker Woman’s Search for Balance, a lyrical memoir of midlife discernment from award-winning author Iris Graville.

And The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom, written by Denver Quaker and New York Times prize-winning contributor Helen Thorpe, who spent 18 months closely observing 22 teens who spoke 14 different languages as they entered the disorienting world of teenage America and its memes, sitcoms, and Snapchat.

Three Quakers. Three books. Three perceptive views into the inner and outer work of living into our faith.

In the Light,
Ellen Michaud

How do these newcomers survive? How do they acclimate? How do they preserve what was good and just and life-giving in their own cultures yet find their way through the confusing labyrinth of expediency and greed that defines our own in the era of Donald Trump?