Please consider supporting the work of our authors—and inspiring friends in 2024
THIS WEEK, as Editor of ReadTheSpirit magazine, David Crumm has written a special personal tribute to the long and prophetic career of our Faith & Film critic Edward McNulty. And, we are inviting our readers to subscribe for a new year of Ed’s monthly Visual Parables Journal, which expands on his movie reviews with inspiring discussion guides to current (and occasionally classic) films. Please, take just a moment to read this reflection on Ed’s remarkable career—and consider subscribing to his Journal.
THROUGHOUT DECEMBER, we have been encouraging our readers to “double up” on their gift giving: First, by giving family and friends (or yourself) some inspiring reading for the New Year—and, second, by supporting the men and women from many different faith traditions who have been a part of our publishing community over the past two decades.
Here are more of our recommendations this holiday season:
Last week, our Front Edge Publishing column focused on the reasons readers love to connect with cozy mystery series—especially when a new author is emerging with a brand new series. In this case, we’re hoping you will connect with Laura Elizabeth and her new island cozy, All Is Now Lost.
During Hanukkah, earlier this month, we highlighted books by some of our Jewish authors—and shared 10 reflections from authors on why Hanukkah was so important this year.
We started our 2023 holiday gift guide even earlier, this year, with a story headlined: Two good deeds in one: Please, give the gift of reading this holiday season.
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From Our Authors—
Thinking about New Year’s Resolutions?
MAKE ‘EM GOALS YOU CAN GO GET—That’s the advice Debra Eckerling shares with Shining Brightly’s Howard Brown in this week’s episode (No. 57) of his podcast that now reaches thousands of readers around the world every week. (When you visit Howard’s page, scroll down to the podcast list and you may wind up enjoying a number of them this week!) Debra Eckerling is the award-winning author of Your GoalGuide and founder of something she calls the D*E*B METHOD® system of goal-setting simplified. She’s a speaker, consultant, and workshop leader for corporations and nonprofits.
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And Speaking of the Brown family—
READERS CONTINUE TO ASK ABOUT EMILY BROWN, Howard Brown’s daughter and now a TV reporter in Montana. Emily plays a major role in Howard’s memoir Shining Brightly and, for a while, Emily was a contributing columnist for ReadTheSpirit. So, as a year-end family update, we can report that Emily is doing very well as a TV journalist. Currently, she’s reporting on the ski industry in her part of the country. If you watch that TV clip, Emily filmed as well as reported the story, including interviewing one man while both were riding a ski lift high above the slopes.
Holidays & Festivals
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Yule Enjoy This Column, too
OUR HOLIDAYS COLUMNIST STEPHANIE FENTON writes about how the solstices have been marked as auspicious turning points in the calendar since ancient times. For our Northern readers, this is the winter solstice! Often termed Yuletide or Yulefest, the days surrounding winter solstice have long been marked with cold-weather festivals and warm feasts, celebrating the reversal from increasing darkness to increasing light and giving thanks for the “rebirth of the sun.” And, yes, of course Stephanie has some delicious links in her column as well.
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WANT TO SEE ALL OF THE UPCOMING HOLIDAYS & FESTIVALS?—It’s easy to find our annual calendar of global observances. Just remember the web address: InterfaithHolidays.com
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Click on this poster for the 2003 movie Love Actually to read film critic Edward McNulty’s review.
Faith & Film
ED McNULTY, for decades, has published reviews, magazine articles and books exploring connections between faith and film. Most of his work is freely published. Ed supports his work by selling the Visual Parables Journal, a monthly magazine packed with film reviews and discussion guides. This resource is used nationwide by individuals who love the movies and by educators, clergy and small-group leaders.
Here are some of Ed’s most recent free reviews and columns:
- A SPECIAL DECEMBER TREAT from Ed is his recap of three now-classic holiday films:
- This is the 20th anniversary of Love Actually.
- And who doesn’t love Will Ferrell in Elf.
- However, too many folks overlook the heart-warming gem of a family homecoming tale, Katie Holmes in Pieces of April.
- WISH—Ed writes, “This new Disney musical fairytale pays reference to traditional classics of the studio but rejects their paternalism by focusing upon a young woman who is not waiting for a prince to come to her rescue.”
- SHIFT—“What an incredible combination of sci-fi, faith and romance writer/director Brock Heasley serves up in this utterly engrossing film!“
- RUSTIN—Ed writes, “The overlooked civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), often called the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, is finally getting his due, thanks to the new film directed by George C. Wolfe.”
- JOAN BAEZ: I AM A NOISE—Ed urges us to see this new film and writes, “Like most of my generation, I loved Joan Baez, her clear soprano voice uniting us as we listened to her at civil rights events or played her records alone in our rooms at night sometimes so drawn in that we sang along.”
- THE HOLDOVERS—Ed gives 5 stars to this unusual “Christmas movie” about a disgruntled teacher (Paul Giamatti) stuck with students who can’t go home for the holidays.
- JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM—Ed writes, “Director/co-writer Adam Anders and writer Peter Barsocchini have served up an interesting Nativity Story by combining the Gospel accounts of Christ’s birth and then adding to them a lot of fanciful material that includes singing and dancing.”
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