Böcker av Elizabeth Cunningham

The final installment of The Maeve Chronicles.

"In this nonfiction debut, Cunningham recounts both her lifelong spiritual quest and her ongoing spiritual questions. Her journey takes her from her childhood church, with its ornate liturgy, to the silence of Quaker meeting; from her ordination as an interfaith minister to an eclectic, earth-centered community where she served as priestess before becoming a hermit, of sorts, making a church of her own backyard. Candid and passionate, Cunningham's memoir invites readers of all faiths--and doubts!--to explore what it means to live life as a prayer in the beautiful, imperiled world we share"--

"First published in 1993 by Station Hill Literary Editions, under the Institute for Publishing Arts, Inc. Barrytown."

The long-awaited paperback edition of the sequel to the best-selling novel The Passion of Mary Magdalen.

Before there were supermalls, before there were hordes stampeding for Black Friday bargains, there wasThe Church of the Regeneration's Annual Fall Rummage Sale!September 1960. Kennedy and Nixon race for the presidency, and the Women of the Church of the Regeneration prepare as usual for the annual rummage sale under the imperious direction of their leader, the light-fingered Charlotte Crowley.Until she is found in the basement smothered by a bag of coats still wrapped in plastic from the drycleaners.Though the police initially rule the death an accident, Lucy Way, an older, not-quite-maiden lady with a mystical bent, has her doubts. She donated the coats and saw them to their proper department. How did they end up on top of Charlotte in the basement?Joining Lucy as amateur detectives:The Reverend Gerald Bradley, who reluctantly concedes that Charlotte makes a perfect murder victim. Who, among his errant flock, didn't want to murder Charlotte?Anne Bradley, the rector's mousy wife, a closet atheist, who is oddly flattered when she discovers her husband believes her capable of murder.Katherine Bradley, the minister's seven-year-old daughter, and her sworn blood-brother Frankie Lomangino Jr., whose ex-con father is an easy target for the official investigation.There is no dearth of suspects from the irascible organist, who guards a secret past and present, to a pious, pesky widow with a mad passion for the newly-bereaved widower. Amidst the juggernaut of the rummage sale, surrounded by a host of maddening and endearing parishioners, the self-appointed sleuths pursue the truth at their peril.';There had been murder done, and now they were all caught up in it willy-nilly,' thinks Lucy Way (please, no Miss Marple jokes!) ';whether they liked it or not. If they were all in a detective novel, this would be the point at which Lucy would want to put the book down, although of course she never did. One had to going on grimly reading to find out who done it. But that was not why she read detective novels. She chose them for their miniature portrait of a world, their cast of eccentric characters'In her debut mystery, acclaimed novelist Elizabeth Cunningham delivers both gripping plot and characters drawn with humor, compassion and psychological depth. Readers who have experienced a small town church will recognize old friendsand nemeses. Those for whom such a setting is exotic, prepare to be initiated into the arcane mysteries of parish life. A mystery in the classic tradition, Murder at the Rummage Sale brings to fresh life the timeless quirks and contradictions of human nature, the comic and the poignant, the mercifuland the murderous.

In her latest collection of poems, Elizabeth Cunningham takes an imaginative leap into a magical world that is also palpably real, a once-upon-a-time place that could exist just after our own time or long ago. Here we meet a motley assortment of people, a temple sweeper, a sword woman, a morose fool, a merry drunk, an enigmatic ancient dreamer, among a host of others. Human voices mingle with those of animals-the mouse who thinks it's an elephant, a flying pig-and also the voices of river, rain, tree, and stone. Through songs, dreams, and conversations, a story emerges, or many stories woven into one. Cunningham's hypnotically beautiful language draws us into this story, one we may dimly remember and long to hear again.

The prequel to The Passion of Mary Magdalen, now in paperback.