A Book You Need to Know About

Quite a few number of years ago, my wife and I and a few friends were standing up to leave an Over the Rhine concert in Philadelphia when I started talking with a kind young woman behind me. It turned out that this was none other than Christie Purifoy–the two of us both wrote for the same online blog (Deeper Story, how I miss you!), so we knew of each other but had never met. Serendipity!

Ever since then, we’ve crossed paths at various writers conferences, our families have gotten together a few times, and she helped me launch The Day the Angels Fell back in the fall of 2017 by having a carnival-themed book party, equipped with corn dogs and popcorn. She shared her friends with us, her husband Jonathan is one of the really good guys in the universe, and her kids are wonderful.

Can I tell you what I love about Christie? She is a writer. She is the real deal. She can string together words in an incredible way. Her first book, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons, reminded me so much of Madeline L’Engle’s nonfiction. Something along the lines of A Circle of Quiet or Walking on Water.

And today her second book is going out into the big wide world. It’s called Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace.

In Placemaker, Christie Purifoy invites us to notice our soul’s desire for beauty, our need to create and to be created again and again. As she reflects on the joys and sorrows of two decades as a placemaker and her recent years living in and restoring a Pennsylvania farmhouse, Christie shows us that we are all gardeners. No matter our vocation, we spend much of our lives tending, keeping, and caring. In each act of creation, we reflect the image of God. In each moment of making beauty, we realize that beauty is a mystery to receive.

Did I mention that when I launch my new novel in the summer, Christie is coming to the party to do a little reading from Placemaker?!

Do yourself a favor and go order Christie’s beautiful new book, wherever books are sold.

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