Beginner's Grace

The tone of this book, by the author of HERE IF YOU NEED ME, is conversational and far from preachy. Narrator Susan Ericksen exactly matches it, offering a warm, breezy reading that engages listeners. The author uses humor often, and the listener can almost hear Ericksen smiling as she reads those passages. Kate Braestrup, a Unitarian Universalist minister, is chaplain to the Maine Warden Service and draws on her professional as well as personal experiences to illustrate her points. She explores a variety of situations and offers examples of appropriate prayers. Overall, though, the book is more of an invitation to prayer than a how-to. She includes numerous examples of prayers to draw from, offering listeners prayers for situations in their own lives, such as grace and thankfulness, grief and loss, and pleas for assistance. R.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from October 18, 2010
Braestrup (Here If You Need Me), a Unitarian Universalist minister who serves as chaplain to the Maine Warden Service, graciously escorts true prayer into real life. In her fourth book, Braestrup approaches prayer from 24 angles, including from the threshold, in mixed company, for enemies, before service, and with laughter. She presents prayers in lyrics or without words. She understands that prayers can be posture and presence but never formulaic: "They need not be factual, but they must be true." Braestrup's voice registers in a wide range—from scholarly to deliciously earthy (she declares God a "noodge") to motherly—as she plaits a story strand about herself with a good hank of biblical exegesis, then finishes with personal ribbons, drawing material from her family (familiar from her memoir) and her friends in ministry and law enforcement. Some disquisitions, like the one on sleep, dull when compared to richer, exemplary narratives, such as her teasing chapter on hypocrisy. By often returning to her theme of empathy and consciousness, Braestrup remains a persuasive pastor, praying right through the amen.