How to Fix a Broken Record
Thoughts on Vinyl Records, Awkward Relationships, and Learning to Be Myself
Thoughts on Vinyl Records, Awkward Relationships, and Learning to Be Myself
Allow God to heal the broken record of your soul, so you can step into your calling, speak up for what's right, and dance your own story of God's grace. What does the soundtrack in your head sound like? The hurtful words of others and the failures of your past often determine what record you play the most in your mind. Those painful repetitions often keep us from speaking up, standing up for what's right, being loved, pursuing our dreams, and growing closer to God. Spoken word poet Amena Brown's broken records played messages about how she wasn't worthy to be loved. But after years of playing those destructive rhythms over and over, How to Fix a Broken Record chronicles her journey of healing as she's allowed the music of God's love to play on repeat instead. From bad dates to marriage lessons at Waffle House, from learning to love her hair to learning to love an unexpected season of life, from discovering the power of saying no and the freedom to say yes, Amena offers keep-it-real stories your soul can relate to. Along the way, you'll discover how to . . . Recognize the negative messages that play on repeat in your mind Replace them with the truth that you are a beloved child of God And find new joy in the beautiful music of your life.
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I have seen Amena Brown perform her spoken word poetry live twice I think. She mixes deep thoughts with humor and great writing. I picked up How to Fix a Broken Record on audiobook when it was on sale a few weeks ago. I moved it to the top of my list after listening to Amena Brown interview Hillary Yancey about Yancey's book Forgiving God.
How to Fix a Broken Record is the type of young-ish Christian memoir that I really like to read every once in a while. The 30-something's thoughts on life and love and what is really important. I get down on Christian Publishing at times, but Christian Publishing does print a number of books that are really good but do not get wide readership.
How to Fix a Broken Record is a roughly chronological spiritual memoir, early life, dating, church thoughts, career, eventual marriage, more thoughts on art and calling, miscarriage, the learning to be an adult, health issues, maturing. I am guessing, but I think I am probably about 7 to 10 years older. Some of her experiences are ones that I have lived through myself, many others are not. But they are still identifiable as common to the human condition. But like many other memoirs it is the telling and thoughts on them that matters, not the uniqueness of the experiences.
What continues to be important in my quest this year to keep 2/3 of my reading by Black or other authors of Color is that I see that experience does matter. It matters that when Brown goes on a mission trip to Africa, that she has to think about slavery and what it means to be descended from slaves. It matters that she has to think about hair differently than I do. It matters that as a woman, she experiences thoughts about pregnancy and miscarriage differently than I would.
How to Fix a Broken Record was well written. The mix of deep spiritual thoughts and life advice with lots of humor makes the whole book a pleasure. Her narration of the audiobook is excellent, but equally good in print. She has five spoken word albums and I need to check those out as well.
This is cross posted at my blog at http://bookwi.se/how-to-fix-a-broken-record/
