I read another book from Lauren Winner a few years ago, which I had randomly picked up from the table at Borders because it had a title I liked. I got lucky, and enjoyed that memoir. So it isn’t much of a stretch that I chose this book because I liked the other book… that, and it had a coffee cup on the cover. This isn’t the first time I’ve chosen a book because there was a coffee cup on its cover, but it’s the first time I’ve enjoyed the book thoroughly based on that criteria.
Basically, it’s eleven chapters based on musings of spiritual practices. Some common (prayer), some less common (doorposts? It’s actually a good chapter. Honest.) Winner grew up Jewish and later converted to Christianity as an adult. So what this book is mostly about is explained in the introduction:
“It is, to be blunt, about spiritual practices that Jews do better. It is, to be blunter, about Christian practices that would be enriched, that would be thicker and more vibrant, if we took a few lessons from Judaism. It is ultimately about places to learn where Christians have some things to learn.”
These places include: Sabbath, Food (perhaps my favorite chapter…no surprise there), Mourning, Hospitality, Prayer, Body, Fasting, Aging, Candle-Lighting, Weddings, and Doorposts.
If you’ve read my site much you know I pretty much only talk about my faith on here in terms of the books I’ve read (I figure if you really want to know what I believe we can discuss it in person – not on Simple Modern Life). So – yes, this book is about spiritual practices and Christianity, and I found the perspectives refreshing. The book is short – it literally only took me about three days to get through the whole thing by just reading before I went to bed. But it’s worth checking out, for sure, and brought to mind a few areas which I hadn’t considered – always my favorite feature in a book of any kind.
Article by Kelli. She's the primary caretaker of this here site. Hope you're enjoying your visit. 
I read this book a couple years ago and I found it a nice read too. It was interesting seeing how a faith that is also some peoples heritage can have deeper more meaningful practices. The chapter on mourning really put that into perspective for me. I think it would be wonderful if the Christian Church put an emphasis on daily living and the meaning of what we practice along with the typical Sunday sermon. Another book that you might like is The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs, he spends a year literally living by the Word. It’s a neat look into the literal Word and pretty funny too.