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Columnist's Collection Comforting

© Robert Powers

Kirsten Chapman, busy wife and mother, has been writing for The Columbus Dispatch since 1984. She started a series of personal essays for the newspaper in 1991, which evolved into a weekly column four years ago.

Her work is personal, family-oriented, and wise far beyond the usual newspaper column. She's one of my favorites, a writer whose talent shines with personality, whose sincerity and strong ethical background makes her work both inspiring and compelling.

Chapman's work has emerged beyond the boundaries of Central Ohio since she became syndicated in 1994 by the New York Times Syndicate's New America News Service. Her work deserves the widest possible audience.

A collection of her columns has just been published. The Way Home contains a generous selection of her work, which is at its best when she concentrates on matters of family. She writes glowingly of her memories of childhood, her relationship with her siblings, and with warm and funny accounts of her children.

Chapman's style is personal, yet never too revealing. She can relay emotions that strike a chord with the reader because of their everyday reality, combined with Chapman's often profound ability to see lessons or life's illustrations in the space of a few hundred words. A small tale of seeming inconsequence will aptly demonstrate the wonders of human relationships, the importance of love, the necessity for people to become involved with their loved ones and with the world around them.

The Way Home, published by Third Tree Press at $12.95, is a collection of gorgeous writing. For information on ordering your own copy, you can go to Chapman's web site at www.chapmanthewayhome.com. I suspect this book will quickly become a treasured addition to your home library, a volume to be savored again and again.

THE IMPORTANCE OF RACE

Some folks turn up their noses at reading philosophy, but K. Anthony Appiah and Amy Gutmann are the authors of one of the best philosophical books concerning the matter of race. Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race (Princeton Paperbacks, $13.95) won the 1997 Ralph J. Bunche Award.

The book contains separate sections from its two authors, presenting their views on the intricate issues of race that affect everyone. Appiah argues that "the only human race in the United States is the human race. He says there is "a danger in making racial identities too central to our conceptions of ourselves." He argues that in order to move beyond racism, we must "move beyond current racial identities."