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Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life
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Average Rating:  out of 34 Reviews
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Price: $16.99
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Sale: $6.95
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Manufacturer: Zondervan
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780310273608
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Shauna Niequist
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Publisher: Zondervan
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Dewey Decimal Number: 242
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Publication Date: 2007-10-01
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Reading Level: 240
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Description: 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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Beautiful thought provoking writing |
Date: 2008-10-29 |
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Details: I loved this book, its one of the few i've gone back to the bookstore for to get extra copies to give away. Shuana wonderfully captures the beauty to be found in the good and bad of everyday life. Her writing style reminds me of Donald Miller's book blue like jazz. As the chapters are quite short i found myself picking it up whenever i needed a little encouragement. |
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Review Summary: Crunky, Quirky, and Delightful |
Date: 2008-09-14 |
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Details: I needed this book. I didn't realize it until about halfway through, but "better late than never."
Painted with a "Faberge egg" brush - stunning, exquisite and slightly outrageous - cold tangerines (lower-cased) is divided into four parts. Stand-alone, first-person stories in each section include: spark, french class, carrying my own weight, lent and television, broken bottles, writing in pencil, island, and my favorite: old house.
Cold tangerines is spunky. Profound one moment and whimsical the next. At times you feel like you're seated in the front row at the Improv; at others you're sniffling and reaching for Kleenex. In each section the author sweeps us into her everyday life with pitchy observations about family, unexpecteds, writing, Africa, vacations, friends: "True friendship is a sacred, important thing, and it happens when we drop down into that deeper level of who we are, when we cross over into the broke, fragile parts of ourselves... Friendship is acting out God's love for people in tangible ways..., an opportunity to act on God's behalf inn the lives of the people we're close to.<
Like when her calendar is crammed with to-dos, events and activities and she sees a tall tree in the park, "twice as high as a two-story house," that's "the brightest, most insane, lit-from-within red I have ever seen." Along with weddings and adoption celebrations and dinner parties, baby showers and fall colors, Niequist comments, "This is a masterpiece just here for the week, our very own wonder of the world, and I just about missed it."
Don't we all?
Maybe what I like best about cold tangerines is that the author is Real. Genuine. Humorous, hearty. Disarmingly candid. She's flawed and knows it. Niequist asks the tough questions and avoids the canned answers: "What if I've missed the cosmic bus to my best future because I was watching E!?" The author has an "eyes open" storytelling style about babies, loss, vulnerability, disappointment, being overweight, motherhood, heart attacks, "the healing effects of a barbecue" and jealousy "like a house fire." The slice-of-life vignettes are Christian themed without being preachy or pompous. They reflect an author who's cracked and chipped. Human and hopeful. Daring. Kinda kooky. Someone I can relate to.
This book is crunchy and quirky. As succulent as a cold tangerine on a sizzling August afternoon. Reading this book is like walking into a dark living room on your birthday, bummed that no one remembered, and having people in party hats jump out and yell, "Surprise!"
I'm keeping my eye out for another serving. |
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Review Summary: An easy and tough read. |
Date: 2008-08-25 |
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Details: It is so easy to read a book that comes with 2-5 page chapters each of which is a complete thought!
This book was really honest and authentic landing. It is refreshing to read a Christian book that doesn't pretend to have it figured all out, but instead let's you into where the author is and what God is doing there.
I'm grateful for her willingness to be open and to encourage it in me.
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Review Summary: great book |
Date: 2008-08-21 |
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Details: Cold Tangerines is a fantastic book. I love Shauna Niequist's writing style. I have bought this book to give to several friends. It is a Christian book without being preachy and gives you just the right amount of information to help with the day to day issues of life. Keep on writing Shauna!! |
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Review Summary: honest writer |
Date: 2008-05-27 |
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Details: Really great book about seeing God in everyday life. The author chooses to look at life, whether it is blessings or curses, with humor and with God's persepective, sometimes even by default. Her short stories are about love and common insecurities written with honesty, depth and the talent that makes a reader eager to read her next book. |
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