Rating: 
Summary: This is a wonderful spiritual journey.
Review: I loved "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamotte,and "Traveling Mercies" is just as good if not better. In this series of interconnected auto-biographical essays, Lamotte delineates her stuggle to find faith in an atheist, humanistic home and how she found it. While this is definitely a spiritual book, she uses occasional profanity, discusses her addictions and bulemia, and gets down to the nitty gritty, rather than bringing a "God wants us to be happy and if we aren't, we aren't good enough people" attitude. This book is real. Lamotte is a liberal Christian, which is an anomaly in today's world of those who have found the one true way, and believe all others are condemned to eternal perdition if they don't follow in lockstep. Lamotte preaches love, especially of self, and mindfulness of the moment. She is a wonderful writer and this is a wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: This is a wonderful book!
Review: Really, everything that should be said has been about Anne Lamott. Her work is her - funny, sad, ferocious, crabby, tender, insightful, hopeful and ultimately about love and faith. She is one of the few authors I buy in hardback, read, then buy many more to give to friends. As a single mother of teenagers, I must warn her that if she doesn't write about that I am gonna get on her case. My kids are OK, but you have no idea. Thank you Anne, you yourself are a mircle!
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: Unlike other reviewers, I didn't find the book hilarious or tearfully moving. Lamott has been a terribly injured person most of her life (eating disorders, adulterous relationships, alcohol and drug abuse), and she doesn't seem particularly sorry for any of it. Her relationship to faith seems to be about community within her church and sophomoric prayers to God about things like her fat thighs: no real depth here. I didn't find the writing particularly insightful or inspiring. If Lamott's life is one to emulate, should we all be teaching our seven-years-olds to yell "fuck" out the car window at other people? I don't think so. It's difficult to see what distinguishes Lamott's faith from no faith, besides her jewelry, "a little gold cross," and childish supplications to God. If this is Christianity, humanism is far nobler. The book has its endearing parts, notably the kindness of some of Lamott's childhood friend's parents toward her while growing up, and the selflessness of fellow parishoners. Maybe one of them could write a better book about faith.
Rating:
Summary: Lily Pad Metaphor
Review: This book has advanced me to the second lily pad on my own path of spritual understanding. I hung on every word. The best part was the gut-wrenching honesty. I could relate to every experience and I mean every experience. She wrote about my life! Thank- you Annie.
Rating:
Summary: Lamott's honesty was exhilerating and refreshing
Review: Reading Lamott's book made me long for her friendship. I could identify with many of her musings...her ambivilent feelings toward her mother....her excitement about her faith. She made me laugh and sometimes I felt like crying. Having an adult son who is a recovered alcoholic helped me to understand her struggle. I'd love to be able to hear her speak someday.
Rating:
Summary: This book is Great! I bought 3 copies
Review: A wonderful book. I will read it over and over
Rating:
Summary: liberating, hilarious, serious, selfish, real.
Review: I have not laughed out loud while reading since Mad magazine as a child. On the other hand, no spiritual guide has affected my thinking about how we learn to relate to God like Lamott. My best excuses for salvation-procrastination are now exposed and no longer valid. Thank you, Anne!
Rating:
Summary: Too good to be not read again and again.
Review: I've always had 5 favorite books...until now...now I have 6. I can unabashedly say I love Ann Lamott. Her humor, her doubts, her witticisms, her one-liners that will zing you into the next dimension. Through every chapter I laughed til I cried and then I cried the whole last chapter. Finishing her book was like saying good bye to a great friend. A better book you'll not find, a cast of characters I wish I had for friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best, but still worth reading
Review: Anne Lamott is a good writer, so I understand all the five-star reviews she's getting here. But this book doesn't really work as a collection, or as anything but a mere surface-level look at faith. I share her beliefs and her style of humor-filled, laid-back Christianity, but after a while I got tired of her whining. Lamott should have been much more ruthless in editing a book about God and faith. And she should have tried to delve deeper than she did. But...still worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Lifelong learning and lessons to remember.
Review: I found this book to be most inspiring. As a Christian, I realized I am not the only one out here trying to hang on to my faith. One of my favorite passages from the book was "courage is fear that has said it's prayers." Through all of her trials and tribulations the reader finds her to be a living, breathing, mistake making mother, friend, daughter,and lover. But, always a child of God. I have my own "God box" now and it is filling up quickly. Loved her humor and straight, although sometimes rough, language. This is by far, one of the best books I have read this year. Do something nice for yourself. Buy it. Read it. Higlight it. Keep it as a reminder of God's amazing grace.
|
