Books By Gina
Disclaimer: Because Amazon provides quick and convenient service, links to Amazon have been included. However your independent bookstore can also obtain copies of books for you.
The Hidden Letters Of Velta B
A fantastically touching and poetic story about family relationships, THE HIDDEN LETTERS OF VELTA B. is a story within a story. Inara is dying, and during her last moments on earth she shares her grandmother Velta's letters with her son, Maris, named after his uncle. Young Maris-who has the gift of near-ultrasonic hearing thanks to a pair of remarkably large and fuzzy ears learns of the sacrifices made by his family, Latvians who must learn to share their country with an influx of immigrants. "Artful in Inara's beautifully realized voice and in the characters Ochsner brings to vivid life," (Booklist) THE HIDDEN LETTERS OF VELTA B. is utter magic.
The Russian Dreambook of Colour and Flight
"Heartbreaking and funny and deeply moving, this beautifully wrought novel matters from first word to last..."
Bret Lott
Pleased to Be Otherwise
The Ploughshares Solo series allows us to publish long essays and stories in a digital format. Timi, a boy in Uzbekistan, navigates a strange world of camel breeding, half-understood Islamic doctrine, Mexican soap operas dubbed into Uzbek, and the legacy of widespread pollution from the Soviet era, all while dreaming of doing death-defying stunts on his rickety motorcycle.
Lonely and accident-prone, Timi befriends an American humanitarian worker in a struggling marriage, tries to avoid his father's frequent rages, and plans out the astonishing motorcycle jump that will give meaning to his life. A brilliant, comic look at an almost unknown country and its fascinating contradictions.
People I Wanted to Be
"Remarkable stories...a world that's magical, merciful, and infinite"
Booklist, starred review
The Spirit of food: 35 Writers on Feasting and Fasting
You are invited to a feast for the senses and the spirit! Thirty-four adventurous writers open their kitchens, their recipe files, and their hearts to illustrate the many unexpected ways that food draws us closer to God, to community, and to creation. All bring a keen eye and palate to the larger questions of the role of food--both its presence and its absence--in the life of our bodies and spirits. Their essays take us to a Canadian wheat farm, a backyard tomato garden in Cincinnati, an organic farm in Maine; into a kosher kitchen, a line of Hurricane Katrina survivors as they wait to be fed, a church basement for a thirty-hour fast; inside the translucent layers of an onion that transport us to a meditation on heaven, to a church potluck, and to many other places and ways we can experience sacramental eating. In a time of great interest and equal confusion over the place of food in our lives, this rich collection, which includes personal recipes, will delight the senses, feed the spirit, enlarge our understanding, and deepen our ability to "eat and drink to the glory of God."
Shadow & Light: Literature and the Life of Faith, 2nd Edition
Including Ochsner's fairy tale of faith "Song of the Selkie".
Writers - poets and novelists, playwrights and bards - have always been essential witnesses to the ambiguities…the all-encompassing mysteries of birth and death, primary witnesses to matters of God and the soul. Unfortunately many of these witnesses have been sidelined in the curricula of our schools for the last fifty or so years, depriving us of ready access to the very language that is essential for living humanly. thanks to this new edition of Shadow & Light they are back on the playing field, taking their rightful place as witnesses to unexpurgated life.' - Eugene Peterson, Professor of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, BC
The Necessary Grace to Fall
Gina Ochsner's first collection, The Necessary Grace to Fall, won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction and was published by the University of Georgia Press.
The Female Complaint: Tales of Unruly Women (edited by Rosalie Morales Kearns)
"This is more than women being unruly: this is women being courageous, outrageous, brutally honest, and more than anything, talented. The stories sing off the page-and then turn into a howl of rage, delight and hope. THE FEMALE COMPLAINT is a collection that deserves to be taught, and read, for years to come." - Rene Denfeld, author of The Enchanted
Oregon Reads Aloud: A Collection of 25 Children's Stories by Oregon Authors and Illustrators
The twenty-five stories in Oregon Reads Aloud are a celebration of all things Oregon, including a great food cart feud, the dance of the Chapman Swifts, the creation of Oregon's mountain ranges, and a legendary African American cowboy at the Pendleton Round-up. The book is a tribute to twenty-five years of SMART's work empowering Oregon children for reading and learning success.
The Wonder Years: 40 Women Over 40 On Aging, Faith, Beauty, and Strength
Leslie Leyland Fields, editor
We're all getting older. How do we make the second half of our lives the best half? Forty incredible women of faith from 40 to 85 tackle aging anxieties head-on—and upend them with compelling first-person stories full of humor, sass, and spiritual wisdom. Including:
Elisabeth Elliot on Sacrifice and Offering
Jennifer Dukes Lee on Drinking in God’s Love
Jennifer Grant on Diving In
Jen Pollock Michel on Facing the End
Joni Eareckson Tada on Pain and Provision
Kay Warren on Joy and Holy Fun
Kendra Smiley on the Freedom of Fun
Lauren Winner on Living with Intention
Elisa Morgan on Dogs and Belonging
Luci Shaw on Embracing Adventure
Lynne Hybels on the Necessity of Pleasure
Madeleine L'Engle on Honoring Touch
Patricia Raybon on Answering the Phone
Paula Huston on Living Outdoors
Shannon Ethridge on the Miracles in Mistakes
Sheila Wise Rowe on Following God's Lead
Vina Mogg on the Beauty of Mess
And many more
In three thematic sections—Firsts, Lasts, and Always— these women provide much-needed role models for aging honestly, beautifully, and faithfully, with surprises all along the way. These are indeed the Wonder Years!
Jennifer Dukes Lee
Brené Brown
Michelle Novak
Jill Kandel
Laura Lynn Brown
Lauren Winner
Luci Shaw
Amy R. Buckley
Charity Singleton Craig
Heather MacLaren Johnson
Elisa Morgan
Sheila Wise Rowe
Amy K. Sorrells
Leslie Leyland Fields
Shelly Wildman
Julie Owens
Jeanne Murray Walker
Shannon Ethridge
Amy F. Davis Abdallah
Andrea Stephens
Michelle Van Loon
Luci Swindoll
Margot Starbuck
Nancy Stafford
Jennifer Grant
Suanne Camfield
Win Couchman
Lynne Hybels
Joni Eareckson Tada
Jen Pollock Michel
Elisabeth Elliot
Vina Mogg
Kay Warren
Kendra Smiley
Paula Huston
Martha Levitt
Madeleine L’Engle
Gina Ochsner
Jill Kandel