In Beulah, Iowa, widow women all over town garden in the clothes of deceased husbands. From a distance, they often look like small–framed men. They keep their husbands' clothes because it's wasteful to throw away hats and shirts that still have wear in them. They wear the clothes in memory of the men they have survived, even after the scent of them has been laundered away.
 From its remarkable opening lines to its satisfying, redemptive close, Dwelling Places is a novel of plain beauty and profound emotion. 
 When Mack Barnes arrives home from a stay in the psych ward, he is just beginning to name his troubles, and the entire family must recognize their collective wounds. After six generations of farming, Mack's family has had to call it quits – just barely saving the family home, but at the cost of Mack's brother Alex and father Taylor Sr. Mack's mother Rita perseveres by trying to take care of everyone, everyone that is, except herself. Jodie, Mack's wife, has survived so much and coped for so long that she cannot recognize her own desperation. Her only remnant of religious faith consisting of old hymns she sings just to keep herself from total distraction, Jodie seeks solace in an ill–advised affair with a local teacher. Kenzie, Mack and Jodie's fourteen year old daughter, has turned to an idealized Jesus for comfort, while Taylor, at seventeen, deals wtih his troubles by becoming a Goth, convincing his little sister that he's given over to Satan.

Dwelling Places: A Novel (VINITA HAMPTON Wright)

Literature & Fiction

Wright, Vinita Hampton

United States

HarperOne

Mack and Jodie have no idea how much their lives are going to change when they decide to give up farming. Mack is hospitalized with depression, Jodie finds herself tempted by the affections of another man, and their teenage children begin looking for answers outside the family—Kenzie turns to fundamentalist Christianity, and Taylor starts cavorting with Goths. Told in the unforgettable voices of each family member, this powerful story of family life reveals the stubborn resilience of love and how sometimes the very thing we're looking for has been waiting at home all along.

Dwelling Places: A Novel (Plus S)

Grace at Bender Springs: A Novel

Literary

B & H Pub Group

As the town's chief cook and part-time janitor for Jerusalem Baptist church, Velma Brendle has never done anything more outstanding than putting on a good meal at Velma's Place, the one restaurant in Leeway, Kansas, but she takes good care of her customers, neighbors, and friends. However, in the midst of these two jobs, Velma's husband stops talking, Cousin Albert comes to live with her, and she finds herself dealing with the town's problems. As memories of past troubles plague her, she grows weary from even the tasks she loves the most. Old Sunday School lessons take on new meanings, and new problems illuminate trials Velma thought were long over. In sudden leaps of faith and moments of tragedy, Velma and all those she loves journey toward facing their sins and finding forgiveness.

Velma Still Cooks in Leeway: A Novel

A Book Of Grace-Filled Days 2006

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Loyola Pr

Be your true self—and get ready for a dynamic friendship with the Divine. It’s time for women of faith to quit apologizing—for who they are or who they’ve been, for what they feel and know, and for their powerful ability to connect with spiritual reality. When a woman is free to be herself and to express to God—without fear—her loves, dreams, pains, and passions, she can embark upon a friendship that is stunning in its wisdom and delightful in its daily unfolding. Using Scripture, meditations, stories, and written exercises, Days of Deepening Friendship encourages women to radically rethink their approach to friendship with God and to explore the deeper regions of this very special relationship. Throughout forty brief chapters, author and spirituality-workshop leader Vinita Hampton Wright taps the proven wisdom of Ignatian spirituality by employing prayer, imagination, action, and reflection, making the book an ideal spiritual workshop for women. Days of Deepening Friendship will free any woman to fling wide open the door to the Divine and become friends with the God who has loved her all along for who she really is.

Days of Deepening Friendship: For the Woman Who Wants Authentic Life with God

Self-Help

Relationships

Loyola Press

It's only natural to want to move forward: in our careers, in our family lives, in our faith. . . . But how do we begin moving forward when there is so much weighing us down and holding us back? In Simple Acts of Moving Forward, author and workshop leader Vinita Hampton Wright offers simple but profound solutions to the problem of getting stuck in our lives, providing us with the help we need to move forward again. Wright, who has learned in her own life how to avoid gridlock, lists 60 suggestions for taking a step, making a change, and becoming the whole person each of us was meant to be.

Simple Acts of Moving Forward: 60 Suggestions for Getting Unstuck

Personal Transformation

With meditations, imaginative techniques, and prayer exercises, Praying Freedom is a Lenten devotional book that can help improve your prayer life and guide you towards spiritual freedom. In Praying Freedom, author Vinita Hampton Wright discusses how being spiritually free requires self-awareness and prayer, imagination as well as good intention, and practical activity in addition to belief. Through Ignatian spirituality principles, imaginative techniques, and the power of God’s grace, we can become more spiritually mature and free to live as God wants us to live.

Praying Freedom: Lenten Meditations to Engage Your Mind and Free Your Soul

There’s a constant hunger in the world for books that explore the spiritual aspects of life, but writing about spirituality is far more complex than simply sharing personal reflections about God and the life of faith. Editors and publishers who specialize in spiritual writing find that what is important to work out for yourself on paper may not always be the best way to connect to readers. Because of its personal nature, it can be difficult to find the balance in spiritual writing between what is good writing for you and what is good writing for others.Incorporating her 20+ years of publishing and writing experience, Vinita Hampton Wright provides a practical and straightforward look at spiritual writing for a broader audience in The Art of Spiritual Writing. This slim volume is loaded with writing tips, advice, and exercises to help the writer hone and craft his or her personal thoughts into an engaging, inspiring, and publishable piece. Readers will learn such things as why authenticity matters, how to find their authentic voice, and how to engineer their creativity so that it resonates with readers. The Art of Spiritual Writing demonstrates that by taking the time to learn and implement the process and craft of writing, we can begin to uncover new ways to connect with ourselves, our readers, and God. And as we grow in our writing ability, our spirituality blossoms as well.

The Art of Spiritual Writing: How to Craft Prose That Engages and Inspires Your Readers

Journal Writing

Women everywhere are invited into a moment of inspiration and reflection with The Daily Inspiration for Women. Relevant and fresh, this book is a collection of shared wisdom among four women in various stages in life, providing the reader with an abundance of experience, knowledge, perspective, and support. Told through the lens of changing seasons, four women share their individual, spiritual wisdom in this daily source of strength, solace, and celebration that happen in the seasons of a woman’s life.

Daily Inspiration for Women

Moyer, Ginny Kubitz

Silf, Ms. Margaret

Griffith, Jessica Mesman

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Books by Wright, Vinita Hampton