Best this month


By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Mid-August Lunch


Available in DVD, this wonderful Italian film is directed by Gianni Di Gregorio about Gianni, a 60-year-old who lives with his 93-year-old wid- owed mother in central Rome. In the opening scene, he is reading to her and they are wrapped in a cocoon of mutual pleasure and ease with one another. Gianni cooks, cleans, shops and takes care of her medicine. Being a caregiver is almost a full-time job for him. But soon, in circumstances beyond his control, he finds himself also looking after three other elderly women who have their own idiosyncrasies and foibles. He manages to win their approval with his top-drawer cooking. Mid-August Lunch is a delightful character-driven drama that provides a


balanced and inspiring look at a nurturing male and the kindnesses he lav- ishes upon his mother and elderly guests. Gianni is no saint: his alcoholism is revealed and he has trouble handling family financial affairs. The direc- tor plays the lead role and draws out nicely delivered performances from the women, all of whom are nonprofessional actresses (Zeitgeist Films, not rated).


Lots of Dots


Craig Frazier begins this book with: “Some dots are big (a drum), some dots are small (a ladybug), and some dots float (balloons), and some dots fall (apples


from a tree).” In this playful and


The Brussats pub- lish the website www. SpiritualityandPractice. com where you can find more information about the items reviewed in this column.


wildly colorful picture book for children ages 4 through 8, we follow the dots as they are spotted in traffic lights, scoops of ice cream in a cone, weights on a barbell, and dots doing their thing elsewhere. The world is filled with visual delights and it is a lark to reach the end of this book and to catalog all that we have seen. Frazier’s illustrations feed our imagination and appreciation for our world of wonders. Children will want to return to this cheery and clever picture book again and again (Chronicle Books, www.chroniclebooks.com).


42 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


The Art of Curating Worship: Reshaping the Role of Worship Leader


This is a fine resource by Mark Pierson, a Protestant minister in New Zealand who has been doing pioneer work in wor- ship as art for 15 years. He has little patience for many of the so-called experimental worship services that use popular music, dance or videos as gimmicks to jazz up the experi- ence. Pierson sees himself as a “worship curator” who puts the elements of the service in a creative setting and chooses the right context for praise, wonder, awe, silence and any other element deemed appropriate. He seeks to appeal to a large cross section of people and is adverse to a “one size fits all” approach to worship. Pierson’s curator philosophy includes participa- tion, open-endedness, slow worship, integrity, fail- ure and questions. He also lays out a new language for worship, including silence and other spiritual practices, segues and takeaways/takeouts. Pierson’s theological, pastoral and creative admonitions are fol- lowed by concrete examples, including community worship, transitional worship, guerilla worship and the stations of the cross (Sparkhouse Press, www.wearesparkhouse.org)


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