WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 61Review_NONFICTION
include conversations with Catholic priest
Tomas Halik on postmodern theology
and Barthian scholar Bruce McCormack
on Trinitarian theology, a harsh critique of
work by secular atheist Daniel Dennett,
and theological
insights gleaned
from Hart’s
translation
of the New
Testament. Hart
also examines
the relationship
between
theology and
science in the
provocative
“Should Science Think?” and ponders the
correlation between Christian aesthetics
and morality. A particularly memorable
entry is his obliteration of Edward Feser
and Joseph M. Bessette’s Catholic defense
of capital punishment. Theologians and
scholarly readers alike will find much
wisdom in this impressive work. (May)
This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace
When Suffering Lingers
K.J. Ramsey. Zondervan, $18.99 trade paper
(224p) ISBN 978-0-310-10725-5
In this contemplative debut, therapist
Ramsey, who has an autoimmune disease,
explores living with pain and explains
that she has a messy “middle story” rather
than a tidy “before and after.” Ramsey
argues that most Christians believe in
God’s ability to heal the body physically
and spiritually, and therefore have trouble
dealing with long-term suffering. She
chronicles her adult life, revealing how
suffering exposes self-sufficiency (“Our
unique ways of escaping and avoiding
suffering are rooted in a self-sufficiency
that will never be enough”) and suggesting
that though pain may seem like the
enemy, not facing it will only create more
problems. She includes many moments
taken from scripture that detail God’s
goodness and also warns against the ten-
dency to minimize or overly spiritualize
suffering. Quoting Jesus’s words to his
disciples, she refutes the perception that
suffering results from a lack of faith: “I
have told you these things so that in me
you may have peace. You will have suf-
fering in this world.” She also challenges
assumptions about repentance (described
by Ramsey as self-reflection and commit-
ment to self-betterment) by reframing it
through the perspective of grace and
communion with God: “repentance is
remembering that all of life is an oppor-
tunity for communion and choosing to
live as such right now.” Christians dealing
with pain will appreciate Ramsey’s
comforting, candid memoir. (May)The Master of the Ladder:
The Life and Teachings of
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Ashlag
Avraham Mordecai Gottlieb, trans. from the
Hebrew by Yedidah Cohen. Nehora, $28.95
trade paper (390p) ISBN 978-965-7222-12-6
Rabbi Gottlieb effectively combines
profile and theology in this accessible
and enlightening biography of Rabbi
Yehudah Leib Ashlag (1885–1954), a
master of the kabbalah, who is widely
credited with opening the study of kab-
balistic texts to ordinary people. Gottlieb,
a student of Ashlag’s son, opens in 1892,
with a legend about the rabbi, then a
seven-year-old
child in Warsaw
and himself the
son of a Hasidic
rabbi; according
to the story,
Ashlag was
lying in bed
when he was
struck in the
head by a book
that fell from a
shelf. His father told him that the volume,
a book of kabbalah, was meant only for
angels, but the precocious child insisted,
“ ‘If it has been printed, it must be meant
for everyone.’ ” Gottlieb goes on to trace
his subject’s life, including his rabbinic
ordination and marriage, prodigious
scholarly output, his immigration to what
became the nation of Israel in 1921, and
production of the essential kabbalist text-
book Talmud Eser Sefirot. Lay readers may
be most interested in the religious figure’s
teachings, which include such messages
as, “Each of us needs to learn that the
whole purpose of our spiritual work is to
come to love our fellow.” Gottlieb’s
glowing work preserves the life and legacy
of a significant, if now obscure, religious
thinker. (Self-published)FICTION
August Callan Wink. Random House, ISBN 978-
0-8129-9375-2, Mar.
Iditarod Nights Cindy Hiday. Ooligan, ISBN 978-
1-947845-13-8, Apr.
In Our Other Lives Theodore Wheeler. Little A,
ISBN 978-1-5420-1652-0, Mar.
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the
Future, Vol. 36, edited by David Farland. Galaxy,
ISBN 978-1-61986-659-1, Apr.
Money Man Nancy Herkness. Montlake
Romance, ISBN 978-1-5420-0016-1, Apr.
Queen Timothy Zahn. Tor, ISBN 978-0-7653-
2968-4, Apr.
She Has a Broken Thing Where Her Heart
Should Be J.D. Barker. Hampton Creek,
ISBN 978-1-73421-041-5, Apr.
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers José
Eduardo Agualusa, trans. from the Portugese
by Daniel Hahn. Archipelago, ISBN 978-1-93981-
048-9, Mar.
COMICS
Before the Storm (Aero #1) Zhou Liefen,
Keng, and Greg Pak, trans. from the Mandarin by
Yifan Jiang and Winni Woo. Marvel, ISBN 978-1-
302-91944-3, Feb.
NONFICTION
The Age of Football: Soccer and the
Twenty-First Century David Goldblatt. Norton,
ISBN 978-0-393-63511-9, Feb.
Brown Bohemians: Honoring the Light and
Magic of Our Creative Community Vanessa
Coore Vernon, Morgan Ashley, and Wendy Pruitt.
PowerHouse, ISBN 978-1-5768-7923-8, Feb.
Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich,
the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the
New Republican Party Julian E. Zelizer.
Penguin Press, ISBN 978-1-59420-665-8, Apr.
Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald
Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction
David Enrich. Custom House, ISBN 978-0-06-
287884-7, Apr.
Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting
Insects Gavin R. Broad et al. Smithsonian,
ISBN 978-1-58834-686-5, Apr.
The Sum of the People: How the Census
Has Shaped Nations, from the Ancient
World to the Modern Age Andrew Whitby.
Basic, ISBN 978-1-5416-1934-0, Mar.
Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life
in Music Ted Templeman, as told to Greg Renoff.
ECW, ISBN 978-1-77041-483-9, Apr.http://www.publishersweekly.comONLINE ONLY