Rating: Summary: congrats to Annie for all the blessings she's had!!! Review: Traveling Mercies is one of the best books of 1999-funny, wise, gentle-she can make you laugh and cry within one paragraph and that's no small feat. not only is Traveling Mercies is spending its fifteenth week on the bestseller list-Bird By Bird With Annie a documentary about Ms. Lamott has opened to rave reviews, and her other book Operating Instructions has been selected as one of the best non fiction books of the 20th century. And to those of you who think she's self absorbed or whatever-let me quote Rita Mae Brown:"If you don't like my books, find books you do like." Or as AL would say-life is too short. Meanwhile for the people who love Anne Lamott like I do-let us congraduate AL on her great success and commend ourselves on our good taste!
Rating: Summary: Wanted to like it, but just couldn't... Review: I liked Lamott's previous book, Bird By Bird, much better, even though it did have a frequently peevish tone, as if all her problems were other people's fault. At the time, I dismissed it as a legitimate literary technique, like hyperbole. In Bird By Bird, at least, she communicated some important truths about writing. However, in Travelling Mercies, Lamott really cranks up the petulancy in her voice. After a while, her self-absorbed whining grated on my nerves so much that I couldn't finish the book. What did it for me was the chapter in which she despises the mother of one of her son's classmates essentially because she is competent at parenting her child. After listening to a litany of immature criticisms of this women's alleged faults, and giving testament to her own inadequacy as parent, she finally realizes at the end of the chapter that she's been a jerk. Well, I could have told her that after only the first few paragraphs! I didn't find the voice she used humorous or insightful at all. It was narcissistic and unenlightened, and was not a voice that I expected to find in a book that purports to have something relevant to say to me about faith or spirituality.
Rating: Summary: What a fantastic book! Review: I actually bought this book for a priest friend who was on his way to Vietnam to continue his ministry. I figured it would be a good plane book. I had heard great reviews about the book and decided to borrow his book for my flight to Tampa one weekend. This book touched my heart in ways I can't describe. While everyone's faith journey is personal and unique, I felt that in addition to having many similar life experiences, Anne and I shared a similar journey of faith. I was able to finish the book during my flight down and back and presented him the book the Sunday I returned. I have not heard from him yet, but am anxious to hear what he thought, although I know he will love too.
Rating: Summary: It's not a book--It's a funny, insightful old friend! Review: A rarity--a book about spirituality that isn't preachy, doesn't take itself seriously, makes you feel better about your own struggles with faith.I loved every minute with Anne; I wish I could invite her over for dinner. But I can settle with re-reading a book that makes me laugh and cry on every other page, that makes me look at myself and my own spiritual path with more acceptance, more insight, and with more than an occasional giggle. Anne changed the way I see myself, my body, my faith, and my struggles. I'm buying copies for all my closest friends (and their aunties!)
Rating: Summary: Fantastic read, Anne. Review: I was fortunate enough to be at a Lamott reading of Traveling Mercies at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. I read the book from cover to cover within hours of the time I bought it. Having travelled similar roads, I was delighted to find someone who so clearly articulates the human condition with such honesty and wonderful, wonderful humor. Anyone who has ever felt the hand of God in the midst of sorrow knows that Anne writes from the depth of real experience! Anne brings Jesus to the lives of those who despair and she is not timid about it. Great book, Anne. Keep coming back!
Rating: Summary: A moving and funny logbook of a spiritual journey. Review: If you're experiencing a lot of spiritual "static" as I am right now, this book will immediately make you feel better. It will assure you that you're not the only one to feel doubt and need and grief, and yet it will give you countless opportunities to release those emotions through laughter.I have highlighted much of the book so that I can reread the great ways that Anne Lamott captures these experiences. She talks about grieving over her late best friend, saying she was, "thinking of how much we lose, yet how much remains." Then she says, "I thought maybe I wouldn't feel so bad if I didn't have such big pieces of [her friend} still inside me, but then I thought, I want those pieces in me for the rest of my life, whatever it costs me." Lamott writes about trying hard to translate her spiritual beliefs into everyday treatment of others, and she's particularly funny when she writes about the mother of her son's friend. She berates the woman first for wearing bicycle shorts ("because she can"). Lamott says, "...she does not have an ounce of fat on her body. I completely hate that in a person. I consider it an act of aggression against the rest of us mothers who forgot to start working out after we had our kids." Lamott tries to be better, saying, "I tried to will myself into forgiving various people who had harmed me directly or indirectly over the years--four former Republican presidents, three relatives, two old boyfriends, and one teacher in a pear tree--it was "The Twelve Days of Christmas" meets "Taxi Driver." I loved this book. I didn't want it to end. It made me laugh. It made me think. These are qualities I seek in my friends and my books.
Rating: Summary: More from Lamott on "The Wonder of Me" Review: God save us from sanctimonious and self-absorbed people like Anne Lamott. Me, me, me, me, and more about me...and what do you think about me. That's the collected works of Lamott. I wish she'd shut up for a while and and ponder pride as one of the seven deadly sins.
Rating: Summary: Thank You, Thank You, Thank You Review: I know that I'm just an ant among billions of other ants, rarely stopping to reflect on the mystery of life and this faith inside us that somehow guides us and holds us close, but I need to stop NOW and express my thanks to Anne and Sam Lamott, to V. Goines and the St. Andrews congregation and, especially, to that Great Nameless Power behind everything that allowed this book to be born. While having my heart stirred by a book is not all that rare (I'm one of those sentimental fool types), this one stands out on it's own. Way out. Far out. It's art without artifice. Well, anyhow, the seams are invisible. It is deeply honest and shines with genuine wisdom that the author would undoubtedly deny of herself. Those of us reviewing this with glowing hearts probably seem like scarey shiney people to Anne Lamott (who, thinking we know the inside of her head as perhaps we may a tiny bit, has to be reading our comments after all). But, hey, this very personal book does leave hearts glowing. So, please excuse us for sounding like we want to put you on an altar and worship your toes. It's a genuine reaction... Love escaping from opened hearts can look gosh darn silly doncha know. Please read this book folks - it's a beautiful sandcastle on the beach surrounded by life's horrors. To Anne Lamott, thanks for the terrific Merwin poem in front and thanks for surviving the fires that melded such a great artist. To others who read this review, 3 other books that touched my religious sensibilities in meaningful ways were: "Quarantine" by Jim Crace, "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu, and "The Essential Rumi" by Coleman Barks. Oh lordy, I may just have to find a way to write this author a personal letter. Then again, I bet she's deluged and she does need space to write. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!
Rating: Summary: I laughed, I cried...and all at the Procare station Review: Yes, I made the mistake of reading Traveling Mercies while waiting on an oil change. I don't recommend this for the self-conscious. I'm sure the other people there were glad to escape the lunatic who was laughing out loud one minute while crying shamelessly the next. I got hooked on Anne Lamott when I heard Michael Feldman interview her on "Whaddayaknow?" I ran out and bought Operating Instructions and Hard Laughter. Took the rest of her books out of the library and then bought the ones I liked best. When I saw the topic of her latest, I was wary, since I'm not generally fond of "those right-wing Christians who think that Jesus is coming back next Tuesday right after lunch" and I was terrified that Anne had become one. Thank God, she has not. I would love to have Anne as a friend--a high maintenance friend, no doubt, but worth it!
Rating: Summary: Oh yes Lord! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Review: Well it's taken me until I'm 42 years old to write my first fan letter and Annie it's for you. It's probably just a coincidence that I am a middle aged mother of a son, a recovering alcoholic and someone you has come to the practice of motherhood and faith, later in life. I was never quite sure if I was getting either right. Your wonderful book assures me Iam. And the "Aunties" ! Finally, respect where respect is due. A baggie of dimes for you and yours.
|