Some view the Christian life as a regimen or method, but Niequist sees it as a daring dream, a feast, or a masterpiece! Written by a young woman who believes in God and the power of language, this collection of stories offers refreshing glimpses of hope, redemption, and celebration mingled with everyday heartache, boredom, and shattered glass. 224 pages, hardcover from Zondervan.

Cold Tangerines is a collection of stories that celebrate the extraordinary moments hidden in our everyday lives. It is about God, and about life, and about the thousands of daily ways in which an awareness of God changes and infuses everything. It is about spiritual life, and about all the things that we have called nonspiritual life that might be spiritual after all. It is the snapshots of a young woman making peace with herself and her life, and trying to craft a life that captures the energy and exuberance we long for in the midst of the fear and regret and envy we all carry with us. It is both a voice of challenge and song of comfort, calling us upward to the best possible life, and giving us room to breathe, to rest, to break down and break through. Cold Tangerines offers bright and varied glimpses of hope and redemption, in and among the heartbreak And boredom and broken glass.

Shauna Niequist is the author of Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet. She studied English and French literature at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, and lives outside Chicago with her husband, Aaron, and their son, Henry. www.shaunaniequist.com. SPANISH BIO: Shauna Niequist es autora de Mandarinas frias y Agridulce. Estudio Literatura Inglesa y Francesa en la Facultad Westmont en Santa Barbara. Luego trabajo en Willow Creek en el ministerio de estudiantes durante cinco anos y fue directora creativa en Mars Hill en Grand Rapids, Michigan durante tres anos. Shauna reside en la afueras de Chicago con su esposo, Aaron, directo de alabanza en Willow Creek, y su hijo Henry. Para mas informacion visite: www.shaunaniequist.com

Niequist, a 30-year-old mother and first-time author, wants readers to look around their ordinary lives and celebrate all their manifold, quotidian blessings. To that end, she offers 40 short essays, each an exploration of something mundane and wonderful: getting pregnant, throwing parties, collecting champagne flutes. She recalls a breakup that deepened her relationship with God, and explains why moving into a fixer-upper helped her learn that God loves us as we are. A lovely, honest and wistful tone characterizes the title piece, an ode to living a life of gratitude and joy. Essays on a friend's health scare, the power of art and experiencing Christmas with a newborn are especially powerful. Yet Niequist's relentlessly first-person reflections would have been leavened by more fully developing some of the other characters, the relatives and friends who pop up. Sometimes her prose is annoyingly abstract (“if we cultivate a true attention, a deep ability to see what has been there all along, we will find worlds within and between us”), and there are clichéd observations. Still, with a bit of seasoning (and more vigorous editing), Niequist could be a writer to watch. (Oct.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

http://www.christianbook.com/tangerines-celebrating-extraordinary-nature-everyday-life/shauna-niequist/9780310273608/pd/273608

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Author: Shauna Niequist
Located in: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Submitted: April 30, 2008

    Tell us a little about yourself.  My husband Aaron and I live in Grand Rapids, and we have a son named Henry, who is eighteen months old. Aaron is a songwriter and worship leader, and he just finished an album called With Broken Fists. I love to read, and throw dinner parties, and and spend as much time as possible on Lake Michigan--I think the lake in the summer is the best part of living in Michigan.

    What was your motivation behind this project?  I'm really captured and inspired by everyday life. I think normal life is beautiful and compelling, and that God's fingerprints are all over our lives, if we choose to see them. I love books that tell stories about daily life-- about meals and fights and children and dreams and grocery lists. Ideas and concepts are so important, but I love the texture and smells and sounds of real life, so those are the things I write about.

    What do you hope folks will gain from this project?  Books have been so important to me, and many authors have become friends through the pages of their books. I'd be honored to become a friend to someone in the same way, to help them to feel not so crazy or alone, and to see God's fingerprints in their normal lives, too.

    How were you personally impacted by working on this project?  The process of writing this book changed my life, because I literally had to learn to write as I went--there are easier ways, I'm sure, but that's how it happened for me. It forced me into solitude and patience and honesty, and those are things that transform you. Also, I had a baby right in the middle of the writing process, so I learned to be a mother and to be a writer right at the same time. So much of both those roles are about seeing, listening, slowing down. I've learned to quiet my mind and my heart and my screaming anxiety, and to listen, and that's affected my entire way of living.

    Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists?   Anne Lamott's 'Traveling Mercies' just stunned me. I didn't know you could do that-- tell the truth like that, tell your own story like that, use language and image like that. Sara Miles' 'Take this Bread' really affected me. I highly recommend it. Right now I'm reading Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary' for my book club, 'The Memory Keeper's Daughter,' and Erica Jong's writing memoir, 'Seducing the Demon.' I recently read Sue Monk Kidd's 'When the Heart Waits,' and Pete Scazzero's 'Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.' Also, my friend Nancy Ortberg's 'Looking for God' is amazing.

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