"Since the dawn of my quickening, I have been kicking it up." That's how June Giles Buntin, now seventy-four, describes a lifetime of stirring things up--and she isn't slowing down now.

Diagnosed with a rare blood cancer and facing a health-care system eager to usher her toward hospice, June refused to go quietly. Instead, she picked up her pen. The Fifth Season is her unflinching, funny, and deeply faith-filled collection of essays on living fully in whatever season finds you--even the one you never saw coming.

From the whispered thrill of an approaching windstorm to a hard-won argument against the business of dying, from the grace of raising strong daughters to a tribute to the lawyers who took on Plessy v. Ferguson, June writes about the things most of us are afraid to say out loud: aging, illness, race, faith, and the words we leave behind. Her voice is plainspoken and disarming--equal parts front porch and Sunday morning testimony.

Rooted in decades of rural Missouri life, a hard-won associate's degree earned in her seventies, and an unshakable trust that "the timing of my death will be decided by God," June invites you to slow down, look closer, and laugh a little more abundantly.

Faith carried her through this fifth season. It will carry you too--all the way.

Come take her hand, and enjoy the dance.