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Summary: A One-Word Book: Me
Review: This book has as much to do with Faith as Bird By Bird has with writing. Lamott sees, and writes, nothing beyond her own self-centered view of life. She has a vocabulary of one: "me''. Well, this reader, and plenty of others, are tired of listening. Save it for your shrink, Lamott.
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Summary: The naysayers were right!
Review: I couldn't believe an author could sell so many books, and offer so little. I had to find out for myself. Well, it cost me a few bucks but I've learned a lesson. The naysayers were right: There's nothing here.
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Summary: A Perfectly Centered Author.
Review: Ann Lamott wrote Traveling Mercies in a style of simple grace and beauty. She displayed her once wounded soul for readers to judge and compare with what she is today: a perfectly centered human being. The source of her motivation to change was Sam. He is a gift who illuminated her spirit and restored Ann's inner strength to find the key to happiness: forgiveness. The act of forgiving allows our minds to see the little miracles constantly flowing in every nook and cranny of the human experience. Miracles replenish what appears to have been taken away from us, and by perceiving the world through forgiving eyes, order and purpose are restored so that we humans can say, "Everything happens for a reason." Each chapter in Traveling Mercies is like a lesson in A Course in Miracles. Take everything in life, relinquish control, release it to God and watch the healing process begin. Sometimes an outcome was not what one expected, but what may seem wrong today often turns out fine tomorrow, and the mystery of a miracle reveals its truth just a little bit.
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Summary: Should be in every hotel room drawer
Review: Many's the time when I was on the road for my job -- depressed, exhausted, eating Kettle Crisps from the minibar because I didn't know how else to fill the time/emptiness/boredom. I for one wish there were a copy of TRAVELING MERCIES in each hotel room, right next to the Gideon Bible. Except people would steal them...perhaps there should be a chain attached, like on phone books. TM is warm, hilarious, self deprecating and life affirming...it reminds us with finely crafted prose why we are here in the global asylum. There are one or two "reviewers" who have been lobbing vicious hand grenades at Ms. Lamott's sites -- Pay no attention -- this book is clearly a winner - just wonderful. Another bestseller from one of America's most cherished authors. Lammot ROCKS, and so does Travelling Mercies -- which I have given as a gift to everyone I know with a heart.
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Summary: I misssed it, too!--and I'm an Enlish lit prof
Review: I hold a PhD in English lit from Cornell and teach same, and I concur with the reviewer who "missed it" There's nothing here readers except an author who has been spoiled by herd-frenzy mentality. It's time to wake up and call ego-centric, self-indulgent writing exactly what it is. Save your money! (I gave this book one-star because there was nothing less.)
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Summary: Give Me A Break!
Review: What's next Lamott? Have you finally exhausted all of the minutia in your life that means absolutely nothing? You're B-O-R-I-N-G...We really don't care what your curls look like, or how your son shouts four letter words out the back of a car. Hang it up, woman.
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Summary: Ugh!
Review: I guess it should give all aspiring memoir writers hope that something this shallow managed to get published. Or if the book even lived up to its title and had anything to do with Christianity or "faith." This book is Anne Lamott as Ally McBeal: "Why are your problems so much more important than everyone else's?" "Because they're mine." Some people may find it charming, but her writing is smarmy and condescending. She should have billed this as a memoir, not a "book on faith."
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Summary: Here's what you missed
Review: The lovely and moving descriptions of her neighbor friend who is cancer-ridden yet life-filled; the way Jesus moved through not just her life but the life of others like a graceful wind, the hilarious stories of serendipity involving the kindess of strangers and lug nuts for a VW convertible, the beautifully crafted, warm hearted and open journey that is not narcissism, but heartfelt reportage that surrenders self. Put down the axe and reread.
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Summary: What did I miss?
Review: Or, more specifically, what has Anne Lamott missed? This book is not about faith, but about a confused and lonely person who seems to regard religion as a sort of personal improvement program, like AA or therapy. I fully agree with the reviewer who said that Anne Lamott needs to contemplate pride as one of the seven deadly sins. Since the book isn't about faith, what is it about? Well, one woman's feelings of inadequacy resulting from a rather difficult life. In the hands of good authors this can be interesting, even deeply moving, but Lamott never moves beyond the whining peevishness of a high-school girl. I had felt the same way about her "Bird By Bird" but thought I would give a book on faith another chance. But all one hears from Anne Lamott is "me, me, me." Hard to find God, or even Christian fellowship, in all this.
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Summary: A realistic journey of the Christian faith
Review: I was introduced to this book by my spiritual director and once I picked it up, I could not put it down. I appreciated Ms. Lamott's incredible honesty and her ability to weave her life experiences into lessons about God and faith. For some, her journey may be shocking but it speaks to a reality of experience that is attractive in its unvarnished approach.
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