A Place at the Table: A Novel (Paperback) - Common

by Miranda Harris

A Place at the Table is a profound book, lyrically written, and subversively humorous in its observation of daily life lived in community. Carved around the shape of a meal, the book is written in part by Miranda Harris, whose tragic death in 2019 was a shock to many around the world who found her approach to hospitality and community a life-long inspiration. Miranda’s daughter, Jo Swinney, writes alongside her, and together they explore the transformative way in which sharing food is at the heart of a shared life. ‘The hope for this book is that you will be encouraged to make hospitality a more routine part of your life. That the pot on your stove will always be full enough to feed an extra mouth. That your schedule will have flexibility for an unplanned coffee and a chat. That your door will be often open and that, in all these small acts of welcome, you will see God at work, knitting you into closer, deeper and more life-giving relationships than you could have dreamed possible.’

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Faith

Unknown Binding

Reviews

[Erin Pollard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miranda Harris died in a tragic car accident in 2019 and never got to finish the book she’d been writing about hospitality drawn from her many years of faithfully practicing it. Her daughter, Jo Swinney, found her mom’s journals and notes, added some thoughts of her own about hospitality, and this book is the beautiful result. You’ll be inspired and encouraged to open your home and share life with others.

[Mackenzie Stalcup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart warming and beautifully written. Was so beautiful to go back and forth between Miranda’s personal journal entries before she passed and her daughter’s writing.
Made me even more excited to live a life of hosting, loving people through opening my home, and squeezing one more chair at the table when needed.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“True hospitality offers a welcome into imperfection and messiness, a place to belong and be embraced.”

This is a wonderful invitation to every Christian to embrace the practice of hospitality.

Jo has bought together this book, which consists of passages of her mothers words, her mothers journal as she worked with A Rocha, and retellings of biblical stories, and tied them together with her own thoughts and stories, in a way that feels natural and complete.

I found Melinda’s journal entries very inspiring, both in their honesty (hospitality isn’t always easy) and in their simplicity (hospitality can be found in everyday little moments).

As not much of a cook or a natural host I was interested to see how this book would resonate with me, and I was surprised at how moving and inspiring I found it. It reminded me that hospitality isn’t just fancy meals and guest lists, it’s also surprise visitors and frozen pizzas surrounded by overflowing ironing baskets and dirty dishes. It’s in the every day moments, it’s sharing a flask of coffee or serving up food in your best pottery, it’s both in the big and small, it’s setting an extra place at the table, it’s community and it’s what we were created for.

[Conrade Yap · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is hospitality? What has the practice of hospitality got to do with faith and hope? How does that help to cultivate friendship and community building? These basic blocks of community are covered in this fascinating book about the life and work of the founders of Arocha. Containing many stories of people in the Arocha community as well as from the Bible, one gets to see how ordinary objects like a house, a table, and a meal can help one build impactful relationships. It touches the core of what it means to be human: The need for DMC, or Deeply Meaningful Conversations. In fact, the core reason for acts of hospitality is to enable such connections to take place in an ordinary setting. The authors make a powerful case to learn to host meals out of our real ordinary selves instead of trying to present a perfect version of ourselves before we can learn to offer hospitality. Not only can we offer others a place at the table, we too can learn to be comfortable in our own skin when at the table. With the table as the centerpiece of conversations and connections, the six chapters in the book cover a range of activities from the preparation to go to the table to the activities after the table. Interspersed throughout the book are snippets from the late Miranda's journalism where she shares insightful observations about her challenges and rewards of ministry, reflections on the Bible, and spiritual lessons learned. There are also poems, prayers, and brief meditations on Scripture. The six chapters with my brief annotations are:

1) Hunger: Not just for food but for deep human connections
2) Preparation: The way we open our homes for others should parallel the way God opens His heart for people
3) Welcome: The importance as well as the consequences of using one's home for hospitality
4) At the Table: Connecting with people over food and friendship
5) The Clean-Up: Reflections on the clean-up process and how we need inner cleansing as well
6) The Forever Feast: The Perfect feast and fellowship to look forward to.

The gist of the book is essentially summed up by the title and subtitle of the book. 

My Thoughts
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I was shocked when I first heard the news of the Harris' accident. What was more numbing was the passing of Miranda. Together with her husband Peter, they have led A Rocha and pioneered a lot of good work in terms of caring for the environment. Undergirding such efforts is a caring heart for people. Through the stories and narratives shared by the author of this book and the late Miranda's journals, readers get to experience a bit of the amazing hospitality and goodwill coming out of the family's work of love. It is also a book that honours the life of Miranda. As a Regent Alum who has benefitted from the community attributes under the green roof, many of these attributes resonate with me, especially Community. 

I like the constant reminder of the power of hospitality. Like the word "hospital," hospitality is a powerful word to help us reconnect with fellow sufferers or people with various struggles in life. What I find helpful is the exhortation that anyone of us can begin a hospitality ministry without having to be perfect. Sometimes, we let our desire for perfection becomes a barrier to hosting other people. Sometimes, it might even be an excuse to hide our fear of opening up our homes. While hospitality is a great way to open up new conversational opportunities, not everyone is comfortable with opening up their homes. For that, I will suggest they work with others who are willing to offer their homes, while we work as facilitator. Just as there are those who are more comfortable facilitating discussions, there are also people who are more comfortable just making available their homes. One of the things I often teach is that "Hosts do not lead." That frees hosts to let others take charge of programs while they make available their homes. 

This book definitely helps us refocus on the power of hospitality and how we can turn this into opportunities for sharing and caring. The first step might be scary but ultimately it is rewarding for the privilege to connect more authentically and openly with another person. We need hospitality more in this increasingly divided world. Perhaps, read this book to learn tips on how to start one. 

The late Miranda Harris was a co-founder of A Rocha. Married to Peter, she had four children and eight grandchildren. Miranda loved hosting the ever-expanding A Rocha family and was known for her prolific letter-writing, engaging communication style and ability to connect deeply with anyone she met. This is her first book.
 
Jo Swinney is Miranda’s eldest daughter and mother of two of her grandchildren. Jo wrote her first book in her twenties and has continued writing and editing books, articles, and Bible notes ever since. She has inherited her mother’s love of hospitality, food, and the God from whom all good gifts come.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Nicholas Brealey US, Hodder & Stoughton, and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

[Zoe Matties · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine a beautiful table, white lace tablecloth, beeswax candles flickering, and a feast of delectable dishes. This book feels like that feast: cozy, inviting, nourishing. Yes, this is a book about hospitality, but it's really a book about life, about the people we want to become, and the lives we want to live. "We talk a lot in A Rocha about 'joining the dots' - the ongoing exercise of connecting facets of life that are artificially segregated: prayer from work from worship; money from soil from flavour; humans from nature from God." The book did a good job at connecting the dots between hospitality, welcome, grief, life, caring for the earth, and more.

Reading Miranda's musings and journal entries was really lovely. I had the opportunity to meet her a couple of times, and she was always incredibly attentive and caring, though she didn't really know who I was. She definitely embodied the things written about in this book. It was inspiring to hear about the joys and the struggles of starting A Rocha and the journey through the years.

The book did feel slightly disjointed as it transitioned between the different sections of the book.

[Anna(Mariee.Readss) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so gracefully written, I felt as though I was a guest in their own lives. It was such an honoring feeling to read Miranda’s journal entries and just learning how much she loved gatherings and inviting people into her home. This really encouraged me to do the same in my own home. I treasured how much Miranda was so transparent with her circumstances and just seeing her faith through it all was very inspiring. Also, Jo Swinney's fictional attributes were very helpful in seeing hospitality being shown in the Bible , I am not usually a big fan on retellings of the Biblical stories but the way Jo Swinney added her perspective into it was beautiful and carefully written to which I really respect. Both of these wonderful ladies together bringing God's word and the heart of hospitality together in one book was lovely. Overall though, I will say it is a bit harder to get into because of all that was put into the book but by the end of it all I was very captivated.

[Meagan | The Chapter House · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this book was unfortunately misrepresented. The NetGalley category was (correctly) Biographies/Memoirs, but the book description read much more like "let's talk about hospitality!"

The book is very much heavier on the biography/memoir element, and I think I'd have enjoyed it more if the category and back-cover copy were more in alignment. It got better once I switched from Kindle format (awful) to NetGalley Shelf format--I could actually see the different typefaces/fonts used to differentiate between Miranda's and Jo's stories, and read the book more as intended.

There's a lot of promise here--just not what I expected. I had a hard time getting into it as a result, as I went into it hoping for more crossover from their lives to my own and not really finding it.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Caroline Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not only very insightful and enthusing on the subject of Christian hospitality, but it’s a wonderful read and felt more like chatting with two godly, fun, and inspirational friends. I felt my heart had grown a little jaded, cold and weary of hospitality recently, but this has been such a lovely honest, practical and encouraging read. My tank feels refuelled, and in particular I am encouraged to have been reminded that simplicity, imperfection and vulnerability are actually some of the most valuable, barrier-breaking aspects of hospitality that we can bring. Grateful for this excellent book, which I really enjoyed reading.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been an inspiring read. It was at times uncomfortably challenging but those challenges were delivered with disarming personal honesty and humility. The book brought out the development of A Rocha with rightful place given to the core visionaries and their family with grateful references to those who significantly encouraged the process.
The core value of hospitality and its potential for sharing the love of Christ was consistently and beautifully demonstrated.
I feel grateful to have a glimpse into the life and calling of a remarkable woman and the family so dear to her.
I recommend this book with absolutely no reservations whatsoever!

[KatieK · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good and had an interesting format, but I just found it too bitty. I felt the book couldn't decide if it wanted to be journal entries (but too far apart to actually build up a proper understanding of biography) a Christian living book on hospitality or a fictional account of some Bible stories. Having finished, I feel I know a bit about the authors and their lives, but not enough about their work and motivation for starting and running A Rocha. I got a few good take aways (pun intended) from the book about hospitality and welcoming others in Jesus' name.

[Sherry Bendorf · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not what I had expected it to be. I was under the impression that it would have more to do with actual hospitality than it really did. While I enjoyed the journal entries, I was still missing the foundation and wondering what these things had to do with hospitality. I guess I wanted more than I received. It just wasn't the book for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-arc of this book. This opinion/review is my own.

[debbie-anne Hogarth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written from the heart... just like opening someone's personal journal.