Presbyterian Outlook's Page Turners - Gratitude and good reads 📚

Stories of calm, hope, and holiday grace Dear Outlook Readers,   It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow – a holiday whose sole purpose is to be grateful! Food, family, friends and football play supporting roles, but Thanksgiving leads with gratitude. So before I jump ahead to Advent reading, I'd like to share some words of thanks: for my creative and kind Outlook colleagues…the many publishers who bring thoughtful works into the world and their reps who respond to my e-mails with such enthusiasm…reviewers who eagerly collaborate with me and who occasionally drop a gorgeously written review into my inbox unbidden! For all these gifts, I am grateful. Yet, I am most thankful for you — our readers. Thank you for supporting the Outlook’s independent journalism and for engaging with the books we cover. Happy Thanksgiving — and happy reading!   With gratitude, Amy Pagliarella Book Review Editor   PS: My colleagues have outdone themselves this year with the Outlook’s Advent Devotions, Draw Near. Walk the path of hope, peace, joy and love with us this season, by sharing these daily devotions with your congregation. BOOKS OF THE MONTH All is Calmish: How to Feel Less Frantic and More Festive During the Holidays Niro Feliciano Broadleaf, 205 pages Published October 14, 2025   These days, I find joy in leading a group of parents through Traci Smith’s excellent Faithful Families. While their kids are in confirmation, we meet over lunch, imagining the values we hope to instill in our children and how to prioritize them within the busyness of family life.   Sunday, as we reflected on the “most wonderful time of the year,” we recalled the joy of Advent and Christmas traditions that our families anticipate, while owning our own tendencies to set ourselves up for “failure.” I get it — determined to wring every bit of magic out of the season, I often over-commit, arriving at Christmas Eve more exhausted than inspired.   Social worker and therapist Niro Feliciano gets me. All is Calmish is her collection of family memories and stories, and the lessons learned along the way. Some are familiar (midnight present wrapping on Christmas Eve or the perfectly planned family outing that went awry) while others are life-changing (the Christmas celebrated weeks after her husband’s life-threatening brain bleed). Feliciano invites us to reframe our stressors, so that we may either recognize our blessings or give ourselves permission to make different choices. She offers gentle wisdom and practical guidance on holiday challenges, everything from addressing family conflicts to creating new traditions following the death of a loved one.   Feliciano concludes each chapter with “Baby, Stay Calm Inside:” simple questions to encourage mindfulness, and “Soul-Full Season” prompts are scattered throughout the book, offering deeper reflection for those seeking spiritual depth. She concludes with a sweet reflection on the first Christmas, as, according to Luke, Mary pondered the treasures of Jesus’ birth. “What exactly was she treasuring?” Feliciano wonders. “Whatever it was, in the midst of the mess, Mary found something beautiful. She held it close and thought about it often, perhaps remembering that even in the hardest moments, God shows up and miracles happen.”   All is Calmish is lighthearted, though Feliciano beautifully incorporates the very real challenges families face, and how they can be amplified at the holidays. Her compassionate tone may be just what we need during this hectic season. QUOTE OF THE MONTH “God is always at work, wanting good things for us and calling us to be good to one another. This doesn’t mean the bad things don’t hurt, but it can give us hope in difficult and scary times.” Growing in God’s Love: A Family Devotional Jessica Miller Kelley, editor Westminster John Knox, 125 pages Published October 7, 2025 If Growing in God's Love: A Family Devotional caught your eye, check out the new children’s books reviewed in our December 2025 magazine. Book Giveaway!    Congratulations to last month’s winner, Joan Odonnell. Thanks to our friends at Eerdmans, she received a copy of Why Christians Should be Leftists by Phil Christman. This month, one fortunate reader will receive a copy of Growing in God’s Love: A Family Devotional, edited by Jessica Miller Kelley, generously donated by our friends at Westminster John Knox Press. If you're reading this note, then you're all set! Know someone else who should be reading Page Turners? Send them this link and they'll get entered for a chance to win, too. The contest closes on November 17. OTHER READS Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth-Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century Life Witty, dramatic, and unexpectedly relatable — "Convent Wisdom" shows how sixteenth-century nuns faced money stress, messy relationships, and big spiritual questions… just like us. — Caroline Barnet Trans Biblical: New Approaches to Interpretation and Embodiment in Scripture In "Trans Biblical," editors Joseph Marchal, Melissa Sellew and Katy Valentine invite readers to see familiar biblical figures – like Jael, Jacob and Mordecai – in new and life-giving ways. — Jo Wiersema Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year Online abbess and spiritual director Christine Valters Paintner invites us into a year-long journey, beginning with Advent. — Amy Pagliarella For Such a Time as This: An Emergency Devotional Hanna Reichel’s "For Such a Time as This" offers brief, rich reflections and concrete practices to sustain faith, courage, and community in crisis, writes Amy Pagliarella.

Draw Near by Presbyterian Outlook Editor/Publisher Teri McDowell Ott.  A digital Advent devotional with daily reflections, Scripture, prayers, and children’s artwork. Available now!