Sophfronia Scott's Blog: Sophfronia Scott, Author, page 13
April 1, 2021
The Seeker and the Monk-Officially Launched!
March 29, 2021
Review: Flight of the Diamond Smugglers
Flight of the Diamond Smugglers: A Tale of Pigeons, Obsession, and Greed Along Coastal South Africa by Matthew Gavin FrankMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
While reading this book I kept thinking of the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, specifically the scene where Bond, played by Sean Connery, is briefed on diamond smuggling in South Africa. Miners are shown hiding diamonds in their teeth and then having them extracted by a dentist who is in on the heist. Flight of the Diamond Smugglers tells the real-life version of the same issue—diamond mining and smuggling in South Africa. However, the intricacies of the stylized Hollywood plot of the Bond film seemed heavily complicated as I thought of the boy that author Matthew Gavin Frank meets and of the homing pigeon the barely teenaged miner keeps in his lunchbox. When watchful eyes are elsewhere, he ties little bags of purloined diamonds to the bird’s legs and body before sending it to fly home to the waiting hands of the boy’s mother.
One of the cover endorsements for this book called it “…smartly researched by someone with a big heart and a beautiful mind.” The author’s heart is what makes this book deeper than the usual exposé. There’s an undercurrent of vulnerability running throughout the narrative, springing from a tremendous personal loss that opens the book. By the end you learn Frank’s connection and sympathy is not only authentic, it is deeply ingrained within his being from a time when he was about the same age as the boy miner.
The prose is lyrical, the research tight, the arc of suspense masterfully constructed. Frank examines the history of diamond mining and its horrific effects both for the people and the landscape of coastal South Africa. Unexpected moments of beauty rise from the garbage and fossil-strewn sand of the beaches as the author turns his sympathetic heart to the ghost towns that once teemed with life and the bloody cough of the boy miner that he knows will never heal. Frank especially soars, literally, when writing from the point of view of a smuggling pigeon whose flight home may or may not be completed. This is an absorbing and, at times, sad and painful read. But Frank’s heartfelt investment makes it an unexpected treasure.
View all my reviews
March 13, 2021
Allowing Celebration
For this morning’s walk, I’m saying this to you so I can remember for myself: We must take time to celebrate accomplishments. I don’t always do it. Thanks to Bonnie Marcus for reminding me! You can join me for the March 16 book launch party for The Seeker and the Monk by registering here.
The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton will be published on March 16, 2021. You can use this link to order from the publisher, Broadleaf Books (group discounts available). You can also order it from wherever books are sold. I loved writing this book. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.
Be well,
Sophfronia
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An excerpt from Sophfronia Scott’s The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton, appears in the March 24, 2021 issue of The Christian Century. The article, “After indignation,” is taken from the chapter “Hopeless Eyes on a Hopeless Issue” and features the author engaging with the writings of Thomas Merton on race:
[image error]Thomas Merton (Used with permission of the Merton Legacy Trust and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University)I want to talk to Thomas Merton about race. One might doubt whether a cloistered White man who lived in Kentucky in the middle part of the last century would have anything useful to offer, but this particular monk knew that such a conversation is never about race alone. Talking about race means, among many things, sharing our fears and frustrations about our place in the world, about how people are treated, about a hope for better opportunities that never seem to materialize. In other words, it’s about dignity, respect, a shared humanity, and ultimately our hearts and souls. Racism is not just about White people treating people of color badly; it is about how the repercussions of that treatment reverberate for everyone, to the detriment of us all.
There is something so intuitive about Merton’s views that I think talking to him about race would be helpful. I have a hunch that he, unlike many White people, would be willing to go to the heart of the matter in a way that doesn’t focus on him.
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Not Done Yet!: How Women Over 50 Regain Their Confidence and Claim Workplace Power by Bonnie MarcusMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book could easily have been a downer full of dire warning, but author Bonnie Marcus takes the tact of "face the facts and get yourself moving!" The pages are invigorated with Marcus's energy from her opening rant declaring her value and the value of all women in the workplace over the age of 50, to her closing determination to her readers that "You got this." It's exactly what this book needs to be because the facts about the "double whammy" of sexism and ageism that Marcus lays out, through thoughtful research and interviews with women currently in the thick of it, are depressing. And we women don't make it any easier on ourselves when we buy into the limiting beliefs placed on us by the marketplace. But Marcus slices through these beliefs and then provides her readers with the tools to build themselves anew, confident in their experience and in the determination that they are "not done yet."
Marcus's tone throughout the book is fresh and energetic while at the same time encouraging and nurturing. It's like spending time with a friend who gives excellent advice. I'd recommend women of all ages read this book because younger women, already grappling with sexism, will want to prepare for the inevitable. Those already in the throes of the double whammy will find Marcus addressing what's going on within themselves and without to help them navigate the tricky terrain. A most necessary and well-written book.
View all my reviews
March 5, 2021
Offering Your Heart and Soul
For this morning’s walk: What to do when “cold” describes your work as well as the weather!
The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton will be published on March 16, 2021. You can use this link to order from the publisher, Broadleaf Books (group discounts available). You can also order it from wherever books are sold. I loved writing this book. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.
And here’s a heads up on something new I’m doing. In these fraught times you may need spiritual renewal like never before. Author Lisa Deam and I are ready to take the journey with you back to your heart. Join us each Wednesday evening in Lent for this free online #Lenten retreat “Pilgrimage of Renewal.” You can learn more about it and register here.
The worldwide pandemic has disoriented many of us spiritually as well as socially. Lent is an ideal time to find your way back to the path that connects you to God and to your own deep well of spirituality. I hope to see you onscreen!
Sophfronia on Spark My Muse
From Lisa Colón DeLay, author of the forthcoming The Wild Land Within and host of the “Spark My Muse” Podcast: Enjoy my conversation with Sophfronia Scott today as we converse about her book “The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton”. This is an enriching and down-to-earth interaction with the private journals of the famous author monk of the mid-20th Century in conversation with Sophfronia’s own life and spiritual growth. We also talk about the Lenten online retreat Pilgrimage of Renewal she and writer Lisa Deam are offering and the resources available for anyone interested. Listen using the audio player below.
This book is our selected reading for MARCH. Sophfronia will join us LIVE for a discussion of her book on Wednesday, April 7th. Come with your questions or just listen in. It is free to attend, but registration is needed. Join us for what will be a wonderful time! https://www.crowdcast.io/e/sophfronia/register
February 27, 2021
Decision First, Support Will Follow
Do you know the quote by William Hutchison Murray about making decisions? It’s what my morning walk this week is all about! Quote goes like this:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”
Note he says “committed” which means you have to make a firm decision. Let’s take a walk about talk about why.
The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton will be published on March 16, 2021. You can use this link to order from the publisher, Broadleaf Books (group discounts available). You can also order it from wherever books are sold. I loved writing this book. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.
And here’s a heads up on something new I’m doing. In these fraught times you may need spiritual renewal like never before. Author Lisa Deam and I are ready to take the journey with you back to your heart. Join us each Wednesday evening in Lent for this free online #Lenten retreat “Pilgrimage of Renewal.” You can learn more about it and register here.
The worldwide pandemic has disoriented many of us spiritually as well as socially. Lent is an ideal time to find your way back to the path that connects you to God and to your own deep well of spirituality. I hope to see you onscreen!
February 20, 2021
On Honoring Time
For this morning’s walk: Bringing awareness to time and how we spend it makes time a special, intentional gift we give to others and ourselves. Shout outs to Barbara Brown Taylor, Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins, and Lisa Deam.
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Links for what I mention in my video. First, here’s the video review by Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins of chapter 1 of The Seeker and the Monk:
And here’s the video review by Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins of chapter 2 of The Seeker and the Monk:
The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton will be published on March 16, 2021. You can use this link to order from the publisher, Broadleaf Books (group discounts available). You can also order it from wherever books are sold. I loved writing this book. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.
And here’s a heads up on something new I’m doing. In these fraught times you may need spiritual renewal like never before. Author Lisa Deam and I are ready to take the journey with you back to your heart. Join us each Wednesday evening in Lent for this free online #Lenten retreat “Pilgrimage of Renewal.” You can learn more about it and register here.
The worldwide pandemic has disoriented many of us spiritually as well as socially. Lent is an ideal time to find your way back to the path that connects you to God and to your own deep well of spirituality. I hope to see you onscreen!
February 12, 2021
The Seeker and the Monk Reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly
The Seeker and the Monk by Sophfronia Scott was reviewed by Publishers Weekly (circ. 16.5K, 1.3 million uvm).
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-50646-496-1
Referring to the book as a “pleasing introduction to the thinking of Trappist monk Thomas Merton,” the review goes on to sum up: “Part biography and part spiritual meditation, this enjoyably amorphous work will appeal to Christians and general spiritualists alike.”
Publishers Weekly, as described on its website, is known as “the bible of the book business,” and is “a weekly news magazine focused on the international book publishing business. It is targeted at publishers, booksellers, librarians, literary agents, authors and the media. It offers feature articles and news on all aspects of the book business, bestsellers lists in a number of categories, and industry statistics, but its best known service is pre-publication book reviews, publishing some 9,000 per year.”
The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton by Sophfronia Scott is now available for pre-order.
ISBN: 9781506464961
Price: $17.99
Paperback
Publication date: March 16, 2021
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