Shadle
San Diego Writers Festival
The San Diego Writers Festival in Coronado, CA, on April 5, 2025, was an unforgettable event featuring over 100 inspiring speakers. The wealth of knowledge and creativity shared was both stimulating and invigorating. I was thrilled to be there.
BOOK LAUNCH
In February, 2025 I LAUNCHED THE BOOK at the La Jolla Riford Public Library, formally introducing my book and celebrating the value of memoir writing. Several dozen friends and neighbors came to learn about the book and offer their reflections. Many resonated with the doubts disclosed in my writing. Older readers connected with the events of the last eight decades which influenced my thinking. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the evolution of thoughts and beliefs as well as the wonders of writing, especially memoir writing.
After diving into the pages of the book, we came together to share thoughts and insights, while enjoying delicious cake and refreshing lemonade. It was a delightful way to connect over our shared love for reading and writing.
BOOK REVIEWS
I have learned that authors seek reviews. They offer good feedback for the author, and also alert readers to book worth reading.
I would welcome your review on Amazon. Click the link to take you to the Amazon review page. Amazon Reviews
Kirkus Reviews are considered notoriously honest and harsh. Given that reputation, I was honored to receive their following review:
In Shadle's account, her journey from the Christianity of her parents and upbringing to her current beliefs began in earnest in 2011 when, visiting the Louvre, she first encountered the stele containing the Code of Hammurabi, dating from the 18th century B.C.E.—at least 300 years before Moses and his Ten Commandments. "That," she reflects, "was when I first doubted what I'd been taught about the infallibility of the scriptures”…. As the author's reading and thinking broadened, and as she had more experiences like the one with the Code of Hammurabi, she began to question the existence of God. "I determined my beliefs based on reason, not on faith," she writes, concluding that reason and science have reduced more human suffering than any religion…. Shadle writes with a brisk energy that makes for smooth reading, and her narrative is given a good deal of extra texture by her frequent quotes from and allusions to the many books she's read, including fundamental texts like John Dominic Crossan's The Historical Jesus and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong's Morality Without God…. Virtually any erstwhile believer who has left Christianity behind will find some aspect of their own experience relatably recounted in these pages….
I appreciate this review from Wisconsin Bookwatch:
Informative, insightful, candid, thoughtful and thought-provoking, "From Religion to Reason: My Journey" is an extraordinary and emotionally engaging read from start to finish. A deftly crafted and intensely personal life story with universal resonance and relevance for readers with an interest in Religious Fundamentalism and the role of Critical Thinking, Rationalism, and Faith. [The book is] unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Contemporary American Biography/Memoir collections.
I’d like to share with you excerpts of two reviews I received from Online Book Club:
By Kutlioana Makhuvhal
Nowadays, it is either you are a believer or an atheist. Not that you are forced to be either, but you can tell that almost everyone is curious and expects you to pick a label and stick to it….The author wrote it all in a tone that was as calm as the river in its middle stage. I loved the most how the author wasn’t preachy in everything she talked about. She was not lecturing either. She just told it as it was and how it affected her at the time….
The author took us on a journey to show us that there was more to the spectrum than we thought there was. One word to describe the feeling I got while reading the book would be ‘relaxed’. Reading the title of the book, it is easier to think you know where the author will end up, but that is not the case….
It sounds like a refreshing and open-minded take on personal growth and belief, without the usual pressure to pick a side. The relaxed, honest storytelling makes it even more appealing….