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Summary: There must be a God. Only she could give us Anne Lamott.
Review: Books about spirituality usually turn me off because the authors write as if spritual people should be above things like living. Anne Lamott knows, however, that living is all we've got, and that we find God in making through the chaos of life. And as she details her path, and her small epiphanies, she lets me know that small victories are all we need to keep going. Her essay on forgiveness is a small gem. Her essay on realizing that your father is really dead 20 years after the funeral is a large gem. A book to read and reread, and find new meanings in.
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Summary: Well-written and moving
Review: I guess everybody falls into pain and crises during their life, and it seems to be my turn right now. As Anne said, to quote preacher Veronica, ". . . the world sometimes feels like the waiting room of the emergency ward and that we who are more or less OK for now need to take the tenderest possible care of the more wounded people in the waiting room, until the healer comes. You sit with the people, she said, you bring them juice and graham crackers." Traveling Mercies has brought me juice and graham crackers. I am most appreciative.
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Summary: Great in pieces that don't always add up
Review: Anne Lamott's latest nonfiction work is not her best yet, but it's still a very satisfying read. Traveling Mercies works best in parts; many individual chapters and essays are excellent. Some of them, however, just seem drawn out and indulgent. And, as a collection, it doesn't seem to add up the way I was expecting. I must say that it's refreshing to read a Christian writer who doesn't attempt to bully or rationally argue the reader into converting to her belief. One of Lamott's real strengths is to share stories of herself, to indicate how things affect her and why, and to let the reader take or leave it as she will. As an atheist, I don't share Lamott's belief in Jesus. Anyone with an open mind, however, should find much value in this book, whether or not he agrees with her views on life. Definitely worth reading, but not as good as Bird by Bird or Operating Instructions. (I also have to mention that one of Lamott's best stories dealing with her faith doesn't appear in this book, although you can find it in the archives of Salon Magazine. Search the archives for "My Advent Adventure.")
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Summary: I can't stop sharing this book with others!
Review: I am not a writer but I recognize genius when I read it. It's amazing to read prose like writing about the very things that I've had in my head for so long. As I journey on my own spiritual path I will refer to this book and be grateful Thank you Thank you Thank you to Ms. Lamott for her willingness to share her insights and life experience via this medium of writing. What a talent. I will be looking for the other books. This is my first by Annie Lamott and I'll be reading others!
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Summary: This is writing talent at its most brilliant.
Review: Lamott's metaphors, similies, anologies and just plain description take my breath away. She paints pictures with words that are so real that I am there. I am more there than here. It is a gift and rare talent she has. Also a gift is her at-times brutal, at other times beautiful, honesty. It offends my own personal sensibilities when she refers to the omnipotent, onmiscient God that I worship as "him or her" and even more so when she uses His name as an obscenity, a curse. But it doesn't take away from the fact that her writing skill is light years ahead of everybody else's and that going where she takes me is an excellent thing, a rare blessing and opportunity.
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Wonderful! Just wonderful. I will read this over and over again
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Summary: I'm glowing
Review: When I finished this book, I stopped to thank God for Anne Lamott
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Summary: Another One to Re-read Periodically
Review: I bought this book after reading Bird by Bird and absolutely loving it. I have to say the Bird by Bird is still my favorite, but Traveling Mercies is also a great book. Anne is so likeable to me, I feel like I would love to just hang out drinking coffee with her and discussing our paranoias. I also agree with another reviewer that you don't have to be religious to like this book, though if you are profoundly un-religious you may be turned off. This is a great book to keep around and just pick up and flip through every now and then. At a time when I have been questioning my own faith, Traveling Mercies provides a wonderful reminder of the power of faith when you are consistently faithful. If only I could find a Saint Andrews where I live!
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Summary: Humor and love shine equally in Lamott's wonderful book
Review: I pounce when I see a new title by Anne Lamott. Her sensitivity, her sharpness, her humor (she's especially able to laugh at herself, a trait I place at the top of the list) and, above all, her very "humanness" as she struggles to live, love and make sense of what we're all about hit a chord deep inside me. The book's title, TRAVELING MERCIES, refers to the wishes that the members of Lamott's church send with their pastor when she goes on vacation. Although the subtitle of the book is "Some Thoughts on Faith", Lamott ranges beyond the confines of the stereotypic response to talk of love in all its manifestations - Her child and the celebration of his being; her parents; the lives and deaths of close friends; the difficulty and wonder of day-to-day existence. How can you not love someone who can write self-deprecatingly of issues as disparate as (to name a few) her early alcoholism, her achingly beautiful friendships, a worrisome mole and anger at herself for speaking too softly as she witnesses a man abusing his dog? Although I do not subscribe to the religious convictions of the author, I wholeheartedly agree with her politics and think she is one of the truly grand voices writing today.
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Summary: Oh my God, Oh my God.
Review: This is not a review, but a crass and hopeless attempt to tell this writer how much I love her. Annie, you are marvelous. This book is about the Jesus who has dogged my steps, too. I think the three of us should get together. I want you to meet my wife, my children, preach in my church. You are so fine. Yes! Yes! Yes!
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