faith and you volume 2

by Terry Pluto

More from "the sportswriter who writes about faith" . . . Here's a second helping of Terry Pluto's plain and personal musings on topics we all face in everyday life: insults and what they really mean, prayers that don't seem to get answered, endless sibling rivalry, figuring out how to relate to our fathers . . .

"My goal is not to convert anyone reading the paper," Terry writes. "It is to make them think, and to bring some comfort. I write for people who are struggling with faith, or people in pain--physical or emotional. My job is to give them a voice, and to talk about the kind of faith we need to get through what life throws at us each day."

Terry already had a dream job: getting paid to write about sports for a daily newspaper. But when the opportunity arose to write about more spiritual topics, he embraced the challenge. Readers are glad he did. His "Faith and You" column now regularly touches the lives of thousands of loyal readers.

Terry writes for people who aren't always confident in their beliefs but know faith is still important to them . . . For people who sometimes get mad at their church or disagree with their pastor yet don't want to lose the spiritual side of their lives . . . For people of different faiths or backgrounds or who aren't even sure they're religious. These essays don't claim to have all the answers. But the questions they raise give readers something to think about all week.

197 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Terry Pluto is a sports columnist for the Plain Dealer. He has twice been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors as the nations top sports columnist for medium-sized newspapers. He is a nine-time winner of the Ohio Sports Writer of the Year award and has received more than 50 state and local writing awards. In 2005 he was inducted into the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame. He is the author of 23 books, including The Curse of Rocky Colavito (selected by the New York Times as one of the five notable sports books of 1989), and Loose Balls, which was ranked number 13 on Sports Illustrateds list of the top 100 sports books of all time. He was called Perhaps the best American writer of sports books, by the Chicago Tribune in 1997. He lives with his wife, Roberta, in Akron, Ohio."

Reviews

[Linda George · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Terry Pluto's Sunday columns in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and love these expanded essays. I can tell that my husband is reading them too because he is using some of Terry's suggestions for married couples.

[April Helms · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terry Pluto is a local sports columnist who also writes a regular column on faith and religion. This is an interesting read for people of all faiths - whether they be athiest or agnostic, Muslim, Jewish or Christian. Pluto never comes across as preachy and he tells from the beginning that his columns are not meant to convert people, but rather to make them think. He covers a lot of family aspects - marriage, relationships with parents, frienships, as well as issues of jealousy, handling a crisis such as the school shootings or a diagnosis of illness. His writing style flows well and is easy to read, very conversational. He shares many anecdotes from his life - his relationship with his parents (especially his father), and his wife, and is not ashamed to confess his personal shortcomings. A side note, he is a very popular author. When I was done reading this book for an article, two coworkers asked to borrow my review copy.