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Phyllis Tickle's exquisitely crafted memoir interweaves thought and action. Although written in honor of her father, this "remembrance" is also about the quiet, prayerful craft of handwork and the woes of World War II. Most of all, it is about a space interior to us all--that space where we think and can be at peace with ourselves and others.

In graceful prose, Tickle, religion editor for Publishers Weekly, recalls the lessons learned from her father's spiritual strength and evokes the power of his spiritual presence. Confronted with a sense of helplessness over the chaos and destruction of World War II, Tickle's father engages the sacred in his act of sewing a rosette coverlet. When the war has ended, and the coverlet is finished, he plants and tends a garden where the work of his hands becomes his prayer. Tickle discovers that her father's simple acts of creation provide him with a center of peacefulness and mindfulness that cannot be broken. A wonderful little parable demonstrating that joyful prayer is often synonymous with our everyday acts of making and doing. For most public libraries. Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information.