Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Almost There
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://bekahdifelice.com/
CITY:
STATE: CO
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; husband’s name Mike; children: Molly, Conrad.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
RELIGION: Christian.WRITINGS
Contributor to publications and website, including the Outreach website.
SIDELIGHTS
Bekah DiFelice is a writer based in Colorado. She has written articles that have appeared in publications and website, including on the Outreach Magazine website.
In 2017, DiFelice released her first book, Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move. In this volume, she discusses dealing with frequent moves to different cities. When her husband, Mike, with on active duty with the Marines, he was sent to various locations, and he and DiFelice were forced to create a new life in each new place. DiFelice likens the challenges of moving to the gain she experienced while training to run in marathons. She suggests that she was forced to summon a similar type of endurance in both cases. DiFelice discusses the emotions she felt when she moved to a new city. She would sometimes be overcome with sadness, loneliness, and memories of the family members and friends whom she and Mike had left behind in other cities. In particular, DiFelice missed the shopping trips she, her sister, and their mother would take together on Sundays. She began calling them each Sunday, so that she could still be a part in a small way. Though it was difficult, DiFelice chose to cultivate a good attitude about her many moves. A devout Christian, DiFelice leaned on her faith and made an effort to find a church family in each new city. She found support from the new people she met at the churches that she and Mike attended. DiFelice includes stories from the Bible to illustrate points she makes in the book.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer asserted: “DiFelice writes eloquently about the many difficulties and benefits of moving.” The same reviewer noted that the book offered “fascinating take on life’s unexpected twists and turns.” “It contains questions that we all have dealt with at one time or another. … Bekah does a great job of exploring these issues in her own life,” suggested William Hemsworth on the Theology Still Matters website. Kate Montaung, critic on the Heading Home website, commented: “Bekah’s book, Almost There, is full of rich insights on the universal longing for home.” Montaung added: “With conversational tone and an easy sense of humor, Bekah tucks nuggets of wisdom into the telling of her story.” Montaung concluded: “Besides making me think deeply about concepts of home and belonging, Almost There also made me laugh and nod my head in agreement on numerous occasions.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, May 8, 2017, review of Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move, p. 54.
ONLINE
Bekah DiFelice Website, http://bekahdifelice.com (February 9, 2018).
Heading Home, http://katemontaung.com/ (August 8, 2017), review of Almost There.
Theology Still Matters, https://theologystillmatters.com/ (October 1, 2017), William Hemsworth, review of Almost There.
About
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Hi! My name is Bekah and, I know, my last name is hard to spell. If you and I were meeting in person, I would I tell you to pronounce it like “Di-Feliz Navidad,” because that’s what I tell all new friends to do. Also, if we were meeting in person, you would notice that I have a tendency to talk fast with eyes wide and overuse the words “like,” “um,” and “literally.” I keep forgetting I’m a grown up, so occasionally I still talk like a child.
That family to the right is mine. My husband Mike is as handsome as he is kind and in 2009 he ‘put a ring on it’ in the same year Beyoncé released her song about it us. Our daughter Molly has red curly hair that perfectly encapsulates her wild and wonderful personality. Our son Conrad is a smiley baby who has not yet been persuaded on the advantages of sleeping through the night.
For nine years, Mike was an active duty Marine, which means we moved around the country. Both Mike and I are from Colorado, so in those years we tried to like the beach as much as we love the mountains, but that was difficult. Because the mountains remind us of home. Also, they do not have sharks.
In a life on the move, we discovered how much we love adventure and building community and investing in the local church. More than that, we learned about the permanence of Christ against the transient nature of everything else. In fact, I wrote a book about this (Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move). It took a very long time and copious amounts of coffee, which is true of most things in my life.
We now live back in Colorado where it is sunny 300 days a year and many, many people drive Subarus.
I’m a passionate gatherer of people, a mediocre cook, and a writer that has a lot to say about only a few things. I think that faith is a conversation, not a finish line and I write to converse, to process, to excavate the truth of who Jesus is in the center of my ordinary life. Sometimes I get it right. Sometimes I just ask a lot of questions.
Thanks for stopping by. I like you already.
QUOTED: "DiFelice writes eloquently about the many difficulties and benefits of moving."
"fascinating take on life's unexpected twists and turns."
Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move
Publishers Weekly.
264.19 (May 8, 2017): p54. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move Bekah DiFelice. NavPress, $14.99 trade paper
(192p) ISBN 978-1-63146-471-3
Military spouse DiFelice writes eloquently about the many difficulties and benefits of moving one's home from place to place. DiFelice, a former marathon runner, draws frequently on an attitude of endurance and "pushing through the pain" to make the most of wherever she and her Marine husband are stationed. She shares how emotions can become more volatile at the most unexpected times and the ways her poignant memories of family, friends, and key life moments meld together with a sense of loneliness each time she reaches an unfamiliar city. DiFelice is particularly touching when she recalls the Sunday afternoon shopping excursions with her mother and sister that have become fewer and fewer due to how far apart they live. Instead of wallowing in her sorrow, DiFelice calls them every Sunday so she can join with them as they walk. For DiFelice, everyone who longs for a place to call home must make (and keep making) definitive, intentional decisions to create their own haven. This book will appeal broadly to those who have lived a wandering existence, and Christian readers in particular will appreciate DiFelice's tangents on the lives of biblical characters, which round out this fascinating take on life's unexpected twists and turns. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move." Publishers Weekly, 8 May 2017, p.
54. PowerSearch, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491949133/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=b5d55f06. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.
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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491949133
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QUOTED: "it contains questions that we all have dealt with at one time or another. ... Bekah does a great job of exploring these issues in her own life."
Book Review: Almost There
When I read the book Almost There by Bekah DiFelice thee were many emotions running through my mind. I served in the Army on Active duty for over six years, and I saw many young military spouses struggle. They were struggling with being away from home for the first time, their spouse being deployed, etc. Military spouses are truly the unsung heroes of the United States.
In the book Bekah is honest about her struggles. She discusses the loneliness she felt during her husband’s deployment, how infrequent communication with her husband made her feel, and a struggling to regain a sense of normalcy when he came home.
During those hard times when it seemed she was at the end of her rope she discussed how she reached out to God. She discusses how it is ok to struggle, it is ok to question, and doubts are a normal part of the Christian life. She discusses how through these trials and periods of questioning that our faith grows to new heights.
I recommend this book because it contains questions that we all have dealt with at one time or another. We all have experienced loneliness. We all have experienced doubt, and we all have struggled in our faith. Bekah does a great job of exploring these issues in her own life, and encourages others who are experiencing them now.
[Note: This book was received free of charge from Tyndale in exchange for an honest review.}
Tagged book critique, book review, book summary, books, christian, christianity, doubt, encouragement, faith, theology
Published by William Hemsworth
Husband and father of four. My goal is to spread the Gospel and make theology less intimidating.
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QUOTED: "Bekah’s book, Almost There, is full of rich insights on the universal longing for home."
"With conversational tone and an easy sense of humor, Bekah tucks nuggets of wisdom into the telling of her story."
"Besides making me think deeply about concepts of home and belonging, Almost There also made me laugh and nod my head in agreement on numerous occasions."
Kate Montaung
When I saw the monthly book reviewers’ email from Tyndale Publishers advertising all of the new books they had available for review, I almost didn’t open it.
Almost There“I’m way too busy to commit to reviewing any books right now,” I reasoned. But something (or should I say Someone?) prompted me to open the email, and my eye caught the title, Almost There: Searching for Home in a Life on the Move, by Bekah di Felice. (Don’t you just love the title and the cover?)
Although I’d never heard of the author before, the description sounded all too familiar — because she was telling a story I knew inside out.
I hesitated again, fearing I wouldn’t have time to read and review the book within the time frame requested. But again, Someone prompted me to click “request” … and I’m so glad I did.
Bekah’s book, Almost There, is full of rich insights on the universal longing for home.
Right after college, Bekah married into the transient military life. She describes the complex emotions of leaving home, including the spiritual component: “It’s as if the act of leaving is part of the equipping, as if God personally leads people out of familiar territory so he can tell them who they are.”
In her book, Bekah shares the ups and downs of moving frequently and living in vastly different parts of the United States. She is honest about the challenges of her husband’s deployment: the loneliness, the awkwardness of limited communication, the surprising realization of established independence, and the adjustment back to a new normal after reunion.
“My faith tends to grow the fastest when I get to the end of myself.” ~@bekahdifelice
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With conversational tone and an easy sense of humor, Bekah tucks nuggets of wisdom into the telling of her story.
“The timing is different for everyone … but it happens: Your sense of belonging outgrows its previous residence. …In the search for home, we all try on different places and relationships and hobbies that make us feel pretty, all along lamenting the fact that belonging refuses to be nailed down to exact coordinates. It denies us permanence. And that feels like betrayal.
I think that by nature we are agitated by this restlessness, by the enigma of belonging. We’re pestered by the notion that people and places and things are all important pieces of home but not the whole thing, at least not in themselves. Deep down we know there is a permanence of home that exists somewhere. There is a whisper of eternity that beckons in the heart of every one of us.”
The above quote perfectly captures what I hope to articulate through my upcoming memoir, A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging. And I’d venture a guess that you can relate, too.
Again, Bekah captured the struggle in my heart with these words:
“Home doesn’t begin or end with a mailing address or a change in surname. I don’t think it is ever a total reboot. It is more of an ellipsis than a period, a continuation rather than a conclusion. It tends to be an ongoing list of people and places and experiences that have mattered, that have changed us in one way or another. It is an echo of the good legacies we have witnessed.
In fact, home is a lot like a poorly, categorized box containing all sorts of odds and ends: the surprising and familiar, the old and new, the bitter and sweet. It is mismatched in so many ways–not a start and end but an overlap, a tangle. We move away from it and bring it with us still.”
Besides making me think deeply about concepts of home and belonging, Almost There also made me laugh and nod my head in agreement on numerous occasions.
“Home is sacrificial. It always costs something to build and maintain.” ~@bekahdifelice
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If you’re looking for a light read that will also make you think and relate, I can highly recommend this book.