{"id":888,"date":"2011-08-15T13:40:05","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T13:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/thinplaces\/?p=863"},"modified":"2011-08-15T13:40:05","modified_gmt":"2011-08-15T13:40:05","slug":"sneak-preview-of-a-good-and-perfect-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thinplaces\/2011\/08\/sneak-preview-of-a-good-and-perfect-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Sneak Preview of A Good and Perfect Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_864\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-864\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-864\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just a few weeks into her life, we discovered that Penny was quite a character . . .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>It\u2019s been in the works for oh, five and a half years now, if you count the journal entries I wrote as soon as Penny was born. Those journal entries provided an outline for <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Good-Perfect-Gift-Expectations-Little\/dp\/0764209175\/ref=pd_sim_b_1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny<\/a>. <\/em>And then the outline became a book proposal became a book contract became a book.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-style: normal\">In approximately two weeks, the book will be finished<\/span> <\/em>(click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Good-Perfect-Gift-Expectations-Little\/dp\/0764209175\/ref=pd_sim_b_1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a> to pre-order your copy now at a 35% discount). In the meantime, I wanted to invite you to a little \u201csneak preview\u201d of what is to come. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amyjuliabecker.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">On my website<\/a>, I\u2019ve posted a \u201cscrapbook\u201d which contains quotations from the first half of the book along with lots of photos from the early days of Penny\u2019s life. Click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amyjuliabecker.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a> to see it. (By the way, has anyone noticed the size of her hand compared to mine in the photo on the left!?!)<\/p>\n<p>Also on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amyjuliabecker.com\/books_2.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">books page<\/a> of the website, find a press release, praise for <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Good-Perfect-Gift-Expectations-Little\/dp\/0764209175\/ref=pd_sim_b_1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">A Good and Perfect Gift<\/a><\/em>, and questions for the author (i.e. me).<\/p>\n<p>Publisher\u2019s Weekly gave the book a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/book-news\/religion\/article\/47802-religion-in-review.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly%27s+Religion+BookLine&amp;utm_campaign=614ebacb67-UA-15906914-1&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">starred review<\/a> and included it on its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/pw\/by-topic\/book-news\/religion\/article\/47851-fall-2011-religion-listings-religion-s-remedies-humor-silence.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">list of 10 Recommended Religion Books<\/a> for the Fall. They write, \u201cReligion books aren\u2019t necessarily prized for their writing quality, but <em>A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny<\/em> by Amy Julia Becker is a happy exception.\u201d\u00a0Rachel Simon, author of the bestselling novel, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Story-Beautiful-Girl-Rachel-Simon\/dp\/0446574465\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1313415328&amp;sr=1-1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Story of Beautiful Girl<\/a><\/em>, says, \u201c<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Good-Perfect-Gift-Expectations-Little\/dp\/0764209175\/ref=pd_sim_b_1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">A Good and Perfect Gift<\/a><\/em> is loving, thoughtful, and full of just the kind of spiritual questions that so many family members \u2013 including those who aren\u2019t Christian, like me \u2013 have had, too. It\u2019s sweet and lovely, and I\u2019m very glad it exists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So head on over to my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amyjuliabecker.com\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">website<\/a> to see some more photos of baby Penny and read a few little excerpts from the book. Then <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Good-Perfect-Gift-Expectations-Little\/dp\/0764209175\/ref=pd_sim_b_1\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">order your copy<\/a> and spread the word!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been in the works for oh, five and a half years now, if you count the journal entries I wrote as soon as Penny was born. Those journal entries provided an outline for A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny. And then the outline became a book proposal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,6],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-down-syndrome","category-faith","category-family","tag-a-good-and-perfect-gift"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sneak Preview of A Good and Perfect Gift - Thin Places-Faith, Family and Disability<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It&#039;s been in the works for oh, five and a half years now, if you count the journal entries I wrote as soon as Penny was born. 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