Drops Like Stars: A Few Thoughts on Creativity and Suffering
Rob Bell
Zondervan, 160 pp., $34.99
zondervan.com
Who but Rob Bell would compose a coffee table book on suffering? Drops Like Stars combines minimalist prose with corresponding images as thought-provoking as the text.
Though fans of Velvet Elvis and Sex God will recognize Bell’s sparse, meditative style, here he goes positively zen, often paring his musings down to a mere handful of words per page. You could read it in 15 minutes flat—and miss the point entirely. The design-driven medium is part of the message to slow down and let the rawness of life affect us deeply, especially when it hurts.
Bell relies heavily on others’ anecdotes and extended quotations, making this less a work of dazzling personal insight than a shared experience of loss, attuning us to what matters and emptiness that makes room for fullness of life.
