Good soil The education of an accidental farmhand

To live wholly is to live in the knowledge that what we love most will live comfortably alongside our hardest struggles. Chu (Does Jesus Really Love Me? A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America, 2013; coauthor of Wholehearted Faith, 2021) honors this duality in his memoir centered around his time in seminary and the three years he spent at Farminary, a 21-acre farm at Princeton Seminary that aims to connect farming practices with cultivating qualities of Christian leadership. Chu structures his nontraditional memoir around the seasons. Memories of the farm lead Chu to wander into his past and meander into glimmers of the human experience. Peeks into Chu's life with his husband, Tristan, coexist with the author's struggles with his sexuality and the trauma of sexual assault. Moments of cooking with his mother are juxtaposed with Chu's strained relationship with his parents. Readers who enjoy reflective memoirs will appreciate Chu's honesty and quiet but thoughtful observations.

A gentle and poignant memoir of spiritual calling found on a community farm. Striking out from the "hustle and din" of New York, Chu finds context, connection, and growth in the burgeoning farm program at Princeton Theological Seminary. Made up of insightful and gently meandering vignettes, this memoir from the author ofDoes Jesus Really Love Me? (2013) explores the process of growing into a greater calling through slowing down and reflecting on the environments around us and those from which we have come. Chu sees in the freshly turned soil the basis for crop growth, which is itself teeming with a vibrant ecosystem, from microbes to insects, all of which collaborate to create its nutritive properties. Delving into the soils that we come from--our families, cultures, communities--we can only humbly let go of the idea that we alone shape our path; rather, our roots and those around us "are inescapably interdependent with the world." At the seminary's farm program, called the Farminary, Chu finds a community bent not on reaping the fruit of the land but on examining the growing conditions of life on the farm, from crops and livestock to the emotional and spiritual lives of fellow seminarians. The author blends subtle and rich descriptions of his colleagues with descriptions of the casual interactions with nature--egrets in a pond, earthworms tilling through the compost pile, how our cultural associations shape our connection to different produce--to form a wandering path through the farm's seasons. The author paints an emotional and personal reflection on his own path to the seminary--one that was once drawn taut between the religious principles of his parents and his personal growth and marriage to his husband. The question that recurs and will land for readers is how we support a holistic environment to sustain our spiritual lives. Sustenance for the soul found while diving hands into the dirt. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.