Paradise Affirmed

"Write what you know," the maxim goes. Nancy Werking Poling knows the church: the sacred, the profane, the humorous. In this collection of short stories, her characters include the frustrated minister of a congregation in decline; a mysterious new family of dubious, if not malevolent, origins; the murder-contemplating wife of a philandering minister; more than one wise woman, and an older woman loath to accept a lesbian pastor. If you've ever been part of a religious body, you'll shudder, chuckle, and shed a tear or two.