5.0
Break, Blow, Burn, and Make
By E. Lily YuPublisher Description
From the award-winning author of On Fragile Waves comes an inspirational, surprising guide to creation and creativity, and how both bring us closer to God.
Centuries ago, sound theology and good fiction were friends and not strangers. Decades ago, authors strove not for self-expression and self-disclosure but for a mastery of craft and language and books that transformed the reader with wisdom and love. In more recent years, the old ideals have been exchanged for lesser ones.
Few guides to writing, which tend to focus on mechanics, point of view, and plot, address the more important matters of meaning, depth, and heart. But it is the latter qualities that make a book a blessing and gift to both writer and reader. Like Christ’s invitation to follow, they demand a risk and sacrifice of the self and all it holds dear. Writers from George MacDonald to James Baldwin understood this, but in recent years this understanding has been lost. Making old things new, this book proposes an ethics of reading, writing, and living based on truth and love.
Break, Blow, Burn, & Make returns the literary conversation to the practices of co-creation with God. Part bugle call, part compass for writing and for life, and part love song to the books that set us on fire, it offers those who are willing to receive it the courage to live, read, and write more deeply and honestly.
Centuries ago, sound theology and good fiction were friends and not strangers. Decades ago, authors strove not for self-expression and self-disclosure but for a mastery of craft and language and books that transformed the reader with wisdom and love. In more recent years, the old ideals have been exchanged for lesser ones.
Few guides to writing, which tend to focus on mechanics, point of view, and plot, address the more important matters of meaning, depth, and heart. But it is the latter qualities that make a book a blessing and gift to both writer and reader. Like Christ’s invitation to follow, they demand a risk and sacrifice of the self and all it holds dear. Writers from George MacDonald to James Baldwin understood this, but in recent years this understanding has been lost. Making old things new, this book proposes an ethics of reading, writing, and living based on truth and love.
Break, Blow, Burn, & Make returns the literary conversation to the practices of co-creation with God. Part bugle call, part compass for writing and for life, and part love song to the books that set us on fire, it offers those who are willing to receive it the courage to live, read, and write more deeply and honestly.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities1 Review
5.0
““Break, Blow, Burn & Make: A Writer’s Thoughts on Creation“ by E. Lily Yu is a book for writers and creators. Though aimed toward writers, it contains much wisdom for believers as Yu reminds us of how often the writer or artist’s call mirrors that of the Christian.
Topics are weaved alongside an admonition to deepen one’s relationship with God. It focuses on what should matter most in writing: depth, meaning, and a heart creating in sync with God, the Creator of all. This book truly delivers “the courage to live, read, and write more deeply and honestly.”
This book provoked me to more meticulously curate my reading list and to hone my writing to God’s glory. By this and the book’s wisdom and inspiration, it has an unmistakable place among my favorites!
Highlights:
“Many readers whose expectations have been shaped by screens expect a similar kind of spoon-feeding when reading books. They embrace stories that are easily digestible, with clearly labeled characters and little ambiguity.”
“Artist or Christian, when we eat and drink of the divine life that reconfigures our own . . . we become so many trees beside that river that proceeds from the throne of God, withstanding drought, fire, and frost, each year putting forth the soft green signs of resurrection.”
“Opening a book, we sink into a separate place in our own being, sometimes so deeply that the concrete world fades from our perception. . . if the author has mastered the craft and herself, if she gives out of her own aliveness, something of the eternal touches us there, in that place that is no place at all. Our fingers grasp the hem of a robe, or an angel’s hand brushes against our hip, and we are healed or stricken, changed utterly.”
“However badly or well we handle them, if we leave past hardships to the effects of time, sun, wind, and rain, rather than preserving them under glass, over time they will break down into a fertile soil that nourishes our work.”
Readability: 4
Impact: 5
Content: 5
Enjoyment: 5
Total: 4.75
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.”
About E. Lily Yu
E. Lily Yu is the author of the novel On Fragile Waves, which won the Washington State Book Award, and the story collection Jewel Box. She received the Artist Trust LaSalle Storyteller Award in 2017 and the Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2012. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Other books by E. Lily Yu
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