This is a true story of courage and determination. Waris Dirie is now a model, but this is a far cry from her childhood.

Born into a Somali nomadic family Waris spent her days "farming" the animals that belonged to the family. She would spend hours trying to find water and food for them. At the age of 5 she had to undergo female circumcision and by the age of 12 her father had found her a husband, many years her senior. Once introduced to her future husband Waris decided to break the rules and run away. By the time she reached her uncle, who lived in the city, she had survived an arduous journey through the desert, rape and nearly being killed by a lion.

Her story could have ended there but after living with other members of her family she makes it to London where she works as a maid for 4 years. After working in McDonald's she is "found" by an agency and her first modelling job is for Pirelli, along with the then unknown Naomi Campbell.

Apart from modelling she is now also a UN ambassador fighting against female circumcision. Her book is an eye-opener into another culture and Waris should be an inspiration to all women. She has stood up for what she believes and is making us aware of an issue that has been largely hidden from society. Shockingly 75,000 women in Great Britain are threatened or affected by FGM.

She has set up the Waris Dirie Foundaiton (www.waris-dirie-foundation.com) to aid her in fighting FGM.

My partner says that in Britain it is easier to come out as gay than as a Catholic. If the first is likely to spark some curiosity, the second sounds dull. The publication reviewed here is exactly about being gay and … well, if not always Catholic, then at least having a taste of religion.

Disclosures: Conversations Gay and Spiritual by Michael Ford is a very simple read. It is a collection of interviews with gayand lesbian people, mostly Christians from Britain and USA and few from other places in the world. A lot of these peoplewere or are engaged in different ministries in their faith communities. An Anglican priest who left his Church after a [straight]bishop made clear that no personal talents he had could overweight his homosexuality. Two mothers, Catholic women, withchildren in their teens fell in love with each other. A boy, whose family belonged to a fundamentalist Christian community, at thefirst opportunity went to look for Christians who would not be disgusted with him for being gay. Among the twenty five stories there is one of a person with whom many of us in Quest came across – James Alison, a theologian from London. The last chapter is a particularly touching interview with Sister Eva, a Catholic nun who for some ten years worked for the Terrence Higgins Trust,  the first HIV agency in Britain.

This book is not about prayer or transcendental experiences of two dozen gays and lesbians. “Spiritual” in its title refers to broadly understood fundamental questions, like: Who am I? Why does it happen to me? What should I be like?

A lot of the stories Michael Ford has collected are dramatic. They touch major struggles and decisions: coming out to one’s parents, or wife, or bishop; leaving the seminary or priesthood, separating from a spouse or accepting that one’s relationship would never be accepted, celebrated and supported by the Christian community, etc. Some of those to whom the author spoke, were still struggling to come to terms with who they are. Others spoke about being at peace with what they had discovered about themselves. All these interviews explored, in one way or another, stories of being a gay person in the context of faith, in a  community of believers or of leaving such a community. This book gives a voice to those whom many of our brothers and sisters in the Church would prefer not to hear at all. Especially, because it is not a discussion, or a series of arguments, but a sincere witness to the joyful and sad experiences of these men and women.

Let me explain. In 2003, I moved to China with my possessions (I call this true love - my boyfriend had accepted a job there and even though China is just above, say, Iraq in desirable places to live, I was raring to go join him). 'Possessions' means no books, as my clothes and shoes alone weighed a lot.

And I didn't know that Xiamen, the city we moved to, did not sell English language books or magazines, except trashy ones in the 'cultural' bookstore in one of the malls. After a couple of weeks I was ready to tear my hair out. I had a friend who offered to send me a book (he would surprise me).

The book was Life of Pi. When I received it, I DEVOURED it. Three times in the first week upon getting it in the mail. I LOVE Piscine Molitor Patel. I love Richard Parker. I love the Japanese guys. I love the old man who told Pi's story. I was so close to the edge of insanity without any books that I desperately wanted to believe this was a piece of non-fiction!

The parts that struck me the most were Pi's accepting that he had to stop being a Hindu vegetarian when he was starving and how he learned to hunt, and the carnivorous green island. They have stuck in my head all these years.

I find it hard to put Peace Like a River into the words of a review, but I'm still compelled to try. As far as plot goes, I made the mistake of reading the jacket flap and knowing too much of the story in advance. While the story fits together in perfect pieces, the real strengths are the characters and the tone. Reuben Land is telling us the story of when he was a boy of eleven, a boy with bad lungs and a close family and an adventure in front of him. The first chapter tells how he came into the world, how he wasn't breathing and how his father, Jeremiah, commanded him, "in the name of the living God," to breathe.

"Real miracles," Rube tells us, "bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature. It's true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in. Lazarus obeying orders and climbing up out of the grave - now there's a miracle, and you can bet it upset a lot of folks who were standing around at the time. When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up. A miracle contradicts the will of earth...I believe I was preserved, through those twelve airless minutes, in order to be a witness, and as a witness, let me say that a miracle is no cute thing but more like the swing of a sword."

After that first chapter pulled me in, I found the book curiously hard to pick up, until I got near the end and finished it in a swoop of held breath. There are journeys, and miracles, and the epic Western poems of Rube's sister, Swede. The ending, pitch perfect with more joyfulness than I expected, is a testament to the fact that a book can be about faith without being preachy. This is one to save up and reread.

When I was 8 or 9, my mom read these books out loud to me. Not that I couldn't read, but it was one of the things we did together. I loved the stories then, and ever since I've read all seven books on an almost yearly basis (I'm 23 now). All seven have been and still are a significant part of my life in many ways. When I became a follower of Jesus as a teenager, I realized the powerful things these books say about the nature of God, and of humanity. One can engage these stories in a powerful way when one reads them in this light.

It's easy to find out what parallels there are: Aslan is a type of Jesus, the Emperor-Over-the-Sea is a type of God, the White Witch and the Emerald Witch are types of Satan, the Stone Table is a type of the Cross, there's a resurrection, etc. etc. etc. Those are what you hear in shallow sermons now that the stories are popular again with the making of the movies (which I have mixed feelings about). The things you don't hear, though, are the things that can really touch you. In "The Horse and His Boy," for example, Shasta is riding his slow, lazy horse through the mountain pass, and he's talking to Aslan thinking he's a giant about to eat him, and feeling sorry for himself. The whole time, Aslan's keeping him from riding off the cliff that he can't see. When day starts to break, and he can see him, he falls at his feet and experiences a powerful encounter. This has, obviously, stuck with me. I am able to see myself in this story. Examples of this abound in all seven books.

These are the deep connections that can be made, and they're where the power exists in fantasy. A different world can exist, and we can enter it and find ourselves there, and we can find Jesus there.

The recent decoding of the human genome surprised many in the scientific community that something so huge and so complex has finally been unraveled. The human genome, the DNA coding for every hereditary trait that influences the development of any individual, is carried in every living cell of the human body. If it were printed in English, it would consist of three billion characters. A printed English version would make a book as thick as the Washington monument is tall. Cracking the human genome paves the way for scientists to identify genes that cause hereditary defects and makes possible a cure for these defects.

Francis S. Collins started his education as an agnostic. During graduate study, when he was twenty-one, he became an atheist. When he was twenty-six, someone caused him to reexamine his beliefs. His was a challenging journey, being a well-informed scientist considering the presence of God when many scientists are convinced that there is no God. Collins gradually became convinced that God does exist. The complexity of the human genome helped him realize that something so complex and so effective in determining the human bodily and physical abilities as well as the bodies and instincts of every living creature simply cannot be the product of pure chance. It’s a glimpse of the God that cannot be seen creating the physical universe that can be seen. We see the physical result only after God has created it.

Collins described his journey to faith by explaining the human genome. Then he reviews current scientific theories explaining the origin of the universe and the solar system. He shows that these theories are not inconsistent with what is revealed in Scripture. He cites polarization of both religious apologists and scientists and argues that the conflict between religion and science stems more from misstatements from both sides than it does from any true conflict between the two fields of study. He quotes St. Augustine’s warning: “In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.”

Collins finishes his book with a cogent discussion of bioethics that will give the reader much food for thought. “The Language of God” is a well-written, very informative book that shows that there is no real contradiction between the discoveries of science and the existence of God.

Maurice A. Williams

I began reading these books with my mom when I was ten years old. Ever since (I'm 23 now), I've read them at least once almost every year. They've been a foundational part of my development as an artist, a thinker, a Christian, and overall as a person. It's a powerful story in every way. When the movies came out, books and shallow sermons talked about blatant types, like Gandalf as Christ, Sauron as Satan (which, he's only a servant of the one that's really a type of Satan, according to the Silmarillion), etc. etc. Just like the Chronicles of Narnia, though, the real depth is elsewhere.

The depth is in finding myself in Aragorn, as the light from the shadows that springs, seeing the power that lies in him, Gandalf, various Elves, and others who see themselves as servants of something beyond themselves. Knowing the story of the Silmarillion, that something is a type of Yahweh. The awesome thing is that Tolkien's never cheesy about his faith, never outright about it, but it weaves itself naturally through everything in the story. That's a powerful thing.

While I'll obviously never live many of the specifics of the life of Aragorn, or anyone else in the story, there are powerful principles. I admire the way he, and the rest of the Rangers for that matter, walk in the shadows of the Wilderness, defending the lands of people who know nothing about them, and who are afraid of them and gossip about them when they even know of their existence. There's a power in that hidden sacrifice. There's a power in knowing the darkness so well, but being entirely other than that darkness. I love the idea of the appearance of a dark, mysterious man who walks in the shadows, but while he looks foul, he feels fair; and proves himself to be so by his actions, and his words, and the radiance of something other than his surroundings. That speaks volumes of how I want people to see me, and how I want to live my life.