A review by gadrake
The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life by Frederick Buechner

4.0

Here is a meditative book that could or even should be read with a pause between chapters. Buechner is perhaps best described as a writer first and a theologian second. An ordained minister, he nevertheless has never headed up a church, but rather teaches and writes on topics of spiritual discernment.

Here his message is not mind blowing exactly, and at first I was not sure it was something to value, but fortunately a few hours of quiet reading time changed that first impression. Buechner's own father committed suicide in the Great Depression era, and this influenced him greatly. While experiencing great intellectual and publishing success, his own daughter nearly died from anorexia. So there is a very practical part of life he addresses as well as the need to notice God in the ordinary acts of living, i.e., in nature, art, music, grandparents, friendships, and more.