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 featuring Rev. Shawn Gauthier on Sunday, September 14, 2025 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 Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety, by Alan W. Watts, 1951, 128.3 WAT [The Julian Fears Library. From LibraryThing: “… Watts offers the liberating message that true certitude and security come only from understanding that impermanence and insecurity are the essence of our existence. He highlights the futility of endlessly chasing moving goalposts, whether they consist of financial success, stability, or escape from pain, and shows that it is only by acknowledging what we do not know that we can learn anything truly worth knowing. …”].
2. Fear and Other Uninvited Guests: Tackling the Anxiety, Fear, and Shame That Keep Us from Optimal Living and Loving, by Harriet Lerner, 2004, 152.46 LER [Gift of Dawn Stewart. From LibraryThing: “… Often unrecognised, fear and shame drive our choices and attitudes in ways that most of us never figure out. As Lerner explains, fear is not an amorphous unknown to be transcended or overcome but an emotion to be recognized, explored, decoded and embraced. Once we befriend fear, it can actually help us achieve calm, clarity and fundamental peace. Lerner teaches us the best ways to deal with fear: to expect, allow, and accept its presence in our lives, to mindfully observe and attend to how it feels in our bodies and, ultimately to own it. We can become experts on our personal triggers of anxiety, learning when fear signals real danger and when it’s best to plough through it because it comes with the territory of making necessary changes. The very worst thing we can do in the face of fear is to run from it or try to avoid it. Fear is not something to be conquered or eliminated–or even tackled, for that matter. Instead, we need to pay close attention to the message it is trying to convey. Using her wonderfully rich and inviting therapeutic voice along with personal memories and examples drawn from her practice, Lerner gives fear its due. We needn’t let anxiety, fear, and shame silence our authentic voice, close our hearts to the different voices of others, or stop us from acting with dignity, integrity and brio. We need to harness fear and put it in service to our best selves.”].
3. Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety, by Britt Wray, 2023, 155 WRA [Donated by John Boyle. From LibraryThing: “An impassioned generational perspective on why climate anxiety is completely natural and necessary, and how we can be stronger for it. Climate and environment-related fears and anxieties are on the rise everywhere, with few resources to address them. As with any type of stress, eco-anxiety can lead to paralysis, burnout and avoidance. … seamlessly merges scientific knowledge with emotional insight to show how these complicated feelings are a sign of our humanity, and acknowledging and valuing them is key to making it through present and future crises. This isn’t a simple process, and it’s not a level playing field when it comes to our vulnerability, she notes. However, with the worsening situation, we are all on the field–and unlocking deep stores of compassion and care is a crucial step in healing our relationship to the planet and each other. With openness and curiosity, Britt explores her own fears about starting a family when evidence of dangerous environmental shifts creates an especially bleak picture of what lies ahead. …”].
4. Why Do I Feel So Bad?, by Chris Williams, 2008, 158 WIL [From LibraryThing, regarding this book as part of a group called “Pick Me Ups”: “… meets the reader at a point of low mood or unhelpful thinking, and guides them through rational thought processes to a more positive mood and a healthier outlook on life. Based on CBT, which aims to change patterns of thinking or behaviour that are behind people’s difficulties and so change the way they feel (and currently the subject of major government investment), Pick Me Ups can enable readers to feel happier, to sleep better, to do more and to feel more confident. …”].
5. Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, 1997, 818.3 THO [From LibraryThing: “In 1845 Henry David Thoreau, one of the principal New England Transcendentalists, left the town for the country. Beside the lake of Walden, he built himself a log cabin and returned to nature, to observe and reflect while surviving on eight dollars a year. From this experience emerged one of the great classics of American literature, a deeply personal reaction against the commercialism and materialism that he saw as the main impulses of mid-19th century America.”].
6. The War on Terror: Taking Aim at the Anxiety Disorders: A Primer for Sufferers and Loved Ones, by David Buchanan, 2015, 152.46 BUC [Written by VanU librarian. From LibraryThing: “… is written for a general readership (e.g., sufferers of anxiety disorders and those near and dear to them, and others interested in the topic) and no prior knowledge of the topic is necessary to fully appreciate this book. This book could be used as a text for a psychology or psychiatry course, for instance. In addition, it is the author’s hope that medical and psychological clinicians and researchers will gain a fresh perspective on their fields of expertise after reading this book. Ingrid Söchting, Clinical Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia wrote: “I was impressed by the wealth of information and your ability to clearly and succinctly synthesize it all. A wonderful resource for anyone seeking help with or information on anxiety.””].
7. Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape, by Barry Holstun Lopez, 1986, 508.98 LOP [From LibraryThing: “… carries readers on a breathtaking journey into the heart of one of the world’s last frontiers … explores the ways the human imagination engages with a landscape at once barren and beautiful, perilous and alluring, austere yet teeming with vibrant life, and shot through with human history. The Arctic has for centuries been a destination for the most ambitious explorers-a place of dreams, fears, and awe-inspiring spectacle. Based on Lopez’s years spent traveling the Arctic regions in the company of Eskimo hunting parties and scientific expeditions alike, Arctic Dreams investigates the unique terrain of the human mind, thrown into relief against the vastness of the tundra and the frozen ocean. Eye-opening and profoundly moving, it is a magnificent appreciation of how wilderness challenges and inspires us. …”].