This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
In Conjurations, Christopher Wise traces the religious inheritance of his Oklahoma family through travels that take him into West African Sufism. Raised in a Methodist minister’s household, he grows up hearing his father speak of their Jewish ancestry while his mother’s roots in the Muskogee Nation offer another way of understanding the spiritual world. As an adult, his search for the reclusive Malian novelist Yambo Ouologuem introduces him to Sufi scholars whose teachings transform his understanding of what words can do. On his return visits to West Africa, he witnesses the changes brought about by militant violence in Mali, a country whose history he has come to know through local scholars. Across this journey, memories of a divided family bring the meaning of belief back to the intimate question of what we inherit.
Christopher Wise’s Conjurations gets you thinking about how much of what we believe comes from the people who raised us. The conversational tone is so inviting that even the most extraordinary family discussions seem perfectly natural to everyone involved. Take the long drive through South Dakota when Todd, the author’s brother, describes a duplex for two wives, complete with a doorway joining their homes. The ease of that conversation says so much about how belief enters everyday life. I was moved, too, by the way sacred words acquire an almost physical presence through the devotion people invest in them. In Senegal’s holy city of Touba, manuscripts by Sufi founder Amadou Bamba sit behind glass, since devotees believe consuming his writing could bring blessings. That understanding of the living power of words gives the entire book a distinctive spirit. Readers interested in memoirs about faith should absolutely pick this one up. Very highly recommended.
