Story Archives of 'Books'

Like many children of the 1960s, Heather King went to church, in her case, in a New Hampshire Seacoast town. But she grew up not believing in much of anything. Alcohol, she says, became her god. And she spent decades in devotion.

Her acclaimed memoir Parched tells the story of sleeping around, morning drinks in crummy bars, stumbling through law school and finally hitting bottom and getting clean. Heather stayed sober, got married and raked in the dough as a hard-working L.A. lawyer, until she hit the wall with that life too. Middle-aged and exhausted, Heather King found a model for transforming suffering in the teachings of the Catholic Church - the last place she thought she’d end up.

Author and NPR commentator Heather King joins Word of Mouth live in the studio to discuss her latest memoir, Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding.

We also hear from younger people facing different challenges to finding and keeping their faith. Balancing peer pressure and individualism can put belief to the test for teenagers and college students. That may be especially true on a campus like the University of California-Berkeley, where "subverting the dominant paradigm" is a popular rallying cry. Some Christian students there feel they have to lose their religion just to fit in. Producer David Gelles reports on a small organization that's having a big impact on the spiritual lives of some Berkeley students.

The ancient profession of helping women deliver babies has evolved and adapted to modern demands and concerns. In New Hampshire, this is especially true. Midwives are widely used – in settings ranging from the hospital to the expectant mothers’ home. We’ll find out where the profession of midwifery is today both in New Hampshire and in the nation. We’ll also explore the challenges it faces and why midwives may be in even greater demand in the future.

Guests

• Carol Leonard, a New Hampshire certified midwife and foremother of the modern midwifery movement, co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America and author of Lady’s Hands, Lion’s Heart: A Midwife’s Saga
• Rebecca Keller, certified nurse midwife with Full Circle Midwifery at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua

In the aftermath of September 11th, we heard about the clash of civilizations between Muslim and western societies. Rhetoric focusing on those differences fueled America’s fear of Islamic jihad and further attacks. Talk of Islamic radicalism drove political campaigns, and some argue, justified a protracted war in Iraq.

Former New York Times religion reporter Gustav Niebuhr covered the 9/11 aftermath, which included violent attacks against Muslim-Americans, and even those mistaken for Muslims. But he also saw people come together in synagogues, churches, mosques, temples, schools and town halls, struggling to understand what went so disastrously wrong. Niebuhr's new book, Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in America, examines the accomplishments and the limits of building bridges between faiths. Niebuhr joins Word of Mouth from Syracuse University, where he is associate professor of religion and the media.

We also hear from Geneive Abdo, author of Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11. She’s currently a fellow at The Century Foundation. Her article "False Prophets" is in the current issue of Foreign Policy. In it she says the organizations at the forefront of interfaith dialogue gloss over serious differences, and are a hindrance to curbing religious violence and countering extremism.