Our library in Hewett Centre is open every Sunday after service during Coffee Hour in Hewett Centre, and our Library Team offers related reading lists based on the topic of the Sunday service. Here is their list for the upcoming service on “The Price of Perfection”, featuring Rev. Shawn Gauthier on Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 11 a.m. All are welcome in Hewett Centre after the Sunday service to check out some books, and to have coffee and conversation.
VanU library books related to this Sunday’s sermon:
1. The blessings of imperfection: Reflections on the mystery of everyday life, by G. Peter Fleck, 1987, 248.4 FLE [Published by Beacon Press. From LibraryThing, Susan Allen Toth writes: “A beautifully crafted series of meditations on how to live. . . . Stimulating and comforting.”].
2. The Spirituality of Imperfection: Modern Wisdom from Classic Stories, by Ernest Kurtz, 1992, 291.4 KUR [Gift of Carol Anne Owen. From LibraryThing: “The spirituality of imperfection, steeped in the rich traditions of the Hebrew prophets and Greek thinkers, Buddhist sages and Christian disciples, is a message as timeless as it is timely. This insightful work draws on the wisdom stories of the ages to provide an extraordinary wellspring of hope and inspiration to anyone thirsting for spiritual growth and guidance in these troubled times.”].
3. Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life, by Philip Simmons, 2003, 291 SIM [Gift of Gerta Moray. From LibraryThing: “… Philip Simmons was just thirty-five years old in 1993 when he learned that he had ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and was told he had less than five years to live. As a young husband and father, and at the start of a promising literary career, he suddenly had to learn the art of dying. Nine years later, he has succeeded, against the odds, in learning the art of living. … he chronicles his search for peace and his deepening relationship with the mystery of everyday life. … by sharing the wonder of his daily life, he offers us the gift of connecting more deeply and joyously with our own.”].
4. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss, 2004, 428.2 TRU [From LibraryThing: “We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? … Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. … former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. …”].
5. Prisons We Choose to Live Inside, by Doris Lessing, 1987, 823 LES [From LibraryThing: “… addresses directly the prime questions before us all: how to think for ourselves, how to understand what we know, how to pick a path in a world deluged with opinions and information, and how to look at our society and ourselves with fresh eyes.”].
6. Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, 2010, 155.23 HER [From LibraryThing: “A sharp-witted knockdown of America’s love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism. Americans are a “positive” people-cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity. … traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. … exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. …”].
7. All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews, 2014, FIC TOE [From LibraryThing: “Elf and Yoli are sisters. While on the surface Elfrieda’s life is enviable (she’s a world-renowned pianist, glamorous, wealthy, and happily married) and Yolandi’s a mess (she’s divorced and broke, with two teenagers growing up too quickly), they are fiercely close – raised in a Mennonite household and sharing the hardship of Elf’s desire to end her life. After Elf’s latest attempt, Yoli must quickly determine how to keep her family from falling apart, how to keep her own heart from breaking, and what it means to love someone who wants to die. …”].
8. Essays By Ralph Waldo Emerson First Series, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1928, 814.3 EME [From LibraryThing: “… Summing up his work, Emerson said that his primary principle was “the infinitude of the private man”, and advised to “make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” His First Series collects together the following 12 essays: History, Self-Reliance, Compensation, Spiritual Laws, Love, Friendship, Prudence, Heroism, The Over-Soul, Circles, Intellect and Art.”].
9. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, by A. J. Jacobs, 2008, 220.6 JAC [From LibraryThing, the book jacket: “… decides to attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to stone adulterers. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal and will make you see history’s most influential book with new eyes. … He wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the 21st-century brain, and he discovers ancient wisdom of startling relevance.”].