{"id":16807,"date":"2011-08-27T22:42:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-28T03:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=16807"},"modified":"2011-08-30T08:34:34","modified_gmt":"2011-08-30T13:34:34","slug":"book-review-conversions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2011\/08\/book-review-conversions\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Conversions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Craig Harline, Conversions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Julie M. Smith: \u201cR U there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig Harline: \u201cYes. Although I am still getting used to this \u2018chat\u2019 feature.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cCan I ask you a teeny favor?\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cSure. What do you need?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cI need a book for my book group. And I know you are a super historian, so . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cYou want me to recommend a book?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cNo, silly. I want you to write one for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cYou want me to write a book for your book group!?!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cYes! Thanks! I have something very specific in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cYou do?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cYeah. You know how you discovered that amazing daybook from the early 1600s and then wrote A Bishop\u2019s Tale<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cYes . . .\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cWell, I know how you are always hanging out in archives, so I want you to find something new! Another undiscovered, once-in-a-lifetime find that is so rare other historians will scowl at your back when you stand in front of them in line for lunch at academic conferences. That\u2019s what we need!\u2019<\/p>\n

C: \u201cI can\u2019t just . . .\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cOK, one thing, though. No offense, friend, but A Bishop\u2019s Tale<\/em> was a little uneven to me. Maybe that was your co-author\u2019s fault, I dunno, but I didn\u2019t love that book. This book, I want the writing to completely knock my socks off. I mean, really awesomely amazing out-of-this-world prose, like, more engaging than a paperback you pick up in the airport!! Knock it out of the park, man! No dry academic stuff here!\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cJulie, that\u2019s . . .\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cWhat would be really awesome is if this 400-year-old lost book that you discover was written in code! And you cracked the code! And really dramatic stuff in it, like maybe about how this young guy sneaks away from home in the middle of the night . . . and his dad is a Reformed preacher . . . and, he\u2019s running away to become Catholic! So his dad chases him down! And I know people in the 1600s didn\u2019t normally do this, but what if he wrote all of his personal stuff down so we can really get a feel for what he was thinking and what he was going through . . . how about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cLook, you can\u2019t just . . .\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cAnd you know what else you need to do? We\u2019re going to need a lot of background information because I don\u2019t know beans about Reformation Europe, so you\u2019ll need to put all that in, but don\u2019t let it detract from the pace of the book. Work it in seamlessly, make it fascinating, but give me all of the background I need to put this dude in his context.\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cJulie, this is getting . . .\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cOOO! I just thought of something! You know what would make it even more awesome? Every other chapter should be about someone else\u2019s conversion story! A Mormon! From modern America! And first he\u2019s Evangelical, but then he joins the Church! And then–go for broke, my friend–then he discovers that he\u2019s gay and leaves the church!\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cSRSLY?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cHere\u2019s the thing, though–I don\u2019t want to be hit over the head with parallels between my historical guy and my modern guy. I want them really subtle–that will give us a TON to talk about at book group. And sometimes, not so parallel, so we can think about what things change over history and what stays the same. The kind of thing where I think about the book CONSTANTLY, teasing out the similarities and differences between the two conversion stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cI . . .\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cAnd you know what would be the icing on the cake? End with a riff on biblical interpretation, the history and theology of homosexuality, issues of tolerance, and the purpose and uses of history that is simultaneously provocative and faithful!\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cWha . . .\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cOK, one final thing. I’d like a story from your own family history–and not some dusty boring archive story, but an Ensign-worthy-tear-jerker, pretty much a miracle, right up front to link everything in the book together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nC: \u201cAnything else?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cWell, you\u2019ll need to get it published by a major academic press, that\u2019ll make me look good for choosing it for book group. Yale, maybe?\u201d<\/p>\n

C: \u201cI\u2019ll see what I can do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

J: \u201cTHX!\u201d<\/p>\n

Note: While I have had the pleasure of meeting Craig, this conversation did not technically happen. But the result is the same.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another note: Although Amazon has it in stock now, the actual publication date is September 15th, so don’t despair if you have a hard time finding a copy or want to read it on Kindle.<\/p>\n

Another note: The publisher provided me with a review copy of this book.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig Harline, Conversions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16807"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16862,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16807\/revisions\/16862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}