a Literary Treasure

Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequest

It is incredibly cliche that something has 'changed your life,' but this book comes pretty darn close.  My best friend in the entire world, Bee (she'll probably be mentioned in 90% of my posts if I keep up this blog), happened to run across this book in a bookstore around the end of our senior year in high school.  She kept talking my ear off about it and finally just bought me a copy.  I am so thankful she did!  We quote this book constantly, and have even come to refer to the author as simply 'Shauna,' as if we know her.  The quote under the title of this blog is from Shauna.

A summary: "Cold Tangerines is a collection of stories about God, and about life, and about the thousands of daily ways in which an awareness of God changes and infuses everything.  It offers bright and varied glimpses of hope and redemption, giving us room to breathe, to break down and break through, calling us to our best possible lives."

This book is definitely in my top 5! I would recommend it to absolutely anybody.  Here's just a few of my favorite quotes from Shauna:
---"I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud... I want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing... I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift."
---"To me, the Bible is a manifesto, a guide, a love letter, a story.  To me, life with God is prismatic, shocking, demanding, freeing.  It's the deepest stream, the blood in my veins, the stories and words of my dreams and my middle-of-the-night prayers."
---"The world is alive, blinking and clicking, winking at us slyly, inviting us to get up and dance to the music that's been playing since the beginning of time, if you bend all the way down and put your ear to the ground to listen for it."