Rating: 
Summary: How many times can I use "fascinating" in this review?
Review: I'm really fascinated by nuns, despite the fact I'm not religious myself. I'm fascinated by their choices and by their so clearly-defined and purpose-driven lifestyles. So, when I saw this book on the shelf at the library, I snatched it up. Reed, a woman likewise intrigued by nun-dom (and even toying with the idea of marrying the Big JC herself), spent several years living at various convents around the country. Some of them housed habit-wearing, full-cloistered nuns who believe that flagellating themselves helped save lost souls; and some were home to denim-wearing PhDs living in the inner city and arguing about the old-fashioned and out-dated rules of the church. I hate to keep using this word over and over, but it was just fascinating how amazingly different all the convents were. I really had no idea!
Reed is an investigative reporter, so I will say this book lacked a little emotional depth -- reporters are trained to write about what they observe, not to analyze it or try to dig into their sources' psychology. But if you are interested in what differences are to be found from convent to convent or what a day in the life of a nun is like, I think you'll find this book very rewarding. Recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: A tremendous disappointment
Review: Intellectual honesty demands that one look at WHY those religious orders which are flourishing are attracting young women while the more progressive orders are withering.
Unfortunately, to examine the question is to dare to be politically incorrect, and the author hadn't the wherewithall, apparently, to do that.
Without rigorous honesty, what is the point of the book? Very disappointing.
Rating: 
Summary: Realistic
Review: Nuns for centuries have been shrouded in mystery and kept on a pedestal. As the title implies, Unveiled lifts the veil of this mysterious subculture and provides an upclose and intimate look at these fascinating women. Roughly 90 percent of the book is told through the sisters themselves. It's their views, and told in their own words, on everything from their perspective on the male-dominated Catholic church to their own spirituality to the future of their orders. And yes, the sisters speak openly and candidly about their own sexuality and their weaknesses as well as the strength they derive from their orders. In other words, the women are portrayed as real women--in style akin to the work of Studs Terkel. Every chapter is a unique story unto itself. So the book can be enjoyed in pieces. Yet Reed connects the stories together by trying to answer the big question: is sisterhood still a a viable calling in today's world? I especially enjoyed the chapter about the sisters who set up their order in a drug-infested and violent neighborhood in the Twin Cities, the heart-rendering look at sisters helping poor Mexican women give birth on the Texas border, and the chapters about the mystic mother superior and the fiery Sister Traxler of Chicago. There's even a chapter about an order in Indiana that has tried to become TV hip, but then doesn't like the questions Reed asks of some of the sisters. I guess the order only wants to be designer cool. But that's ok. The diversity of the sisters is amazing and helped me understand --and appreciate --these incredible women. Unveiled is an important book, written at a time when sisters are dying and not being replaced in any great numbers. Will any sisters be around in 15 or 20 years? Yet the book offers hope in providing a glimpse into what could be a new kind of order in the last chapter. I recommend this book to both Catholics and non-Catholics because it takes readers into a world that has mostly been concealed from public view or written about mostly from the exterior. This book reflects the more difficult terrain -- the interior, what the sisters themselves think and have to say.
Rating:
Summary: Unveiled is a Revelation
Review: One doesn't have to be a Catholic or a nun to find great satisfaction and life lessons in this revealing book of a subculture of women little known or understood.
Having been raised a Catholic but currently distanced from the Church, I approached Reed's book with curiosity and a bit of trepidation. The title made me wonder what deep, dark secrets Reed would reveal. I imagined the women she profiled would be shown to be uptight, sexually-repressed creatures out of touch with our modern world. This, despite the fact that I was taught by nuns in my high school in the late '70s who were, in fact, vibrant, progressive, socially-conscious and encouraging women. Of course, my fellow students and I always wondered about the path these women had chosen, and why, but it was not our place to ask, we felt.
Reed has answered these questions, and more, in a work of great compassion and depth. Having lived with and shared the lives of more than 300 nuns over several years, she comes away with not only a greater understanding of their complex lives, but with a deeper understanding of her own spirtual life.
From the strictest cloistered nuns to the most radical feminists, Reed describes the choices they made, and why, and how they live their lives today. These women open up to Reed and reveal their daily lives, their joys, their regrets, their faith or lack of it, their frustrations with the Church and their hopes for the future. Their choices and current situations are as varied and complex as those any modern woman faces. Some nuns are passive and joined to escape the world, others to embrace it and make a difference. Some believe they can make the world better through prayer and silence, others through working with the poorest of the poor, the substance-addicted and the hopeless. Some of the nuns rebuffed Reed and what they considered an intrusion into their lives, other welcomed her with open arms.
Unveiled accomplishes a great thing: it provides a fascinating look at another culture while compelling the reader to examine his or her own life choices and spirituality more critically. It is a deeply satisfying read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent research and very readable
Review: The author researched her subject for 5 years and presents a fine review of the women she met during that time. She captures the wide array of different kinds of "religious life," from very traditional cloister (Passionists) to something that can only loosely be defined as "catholic" (IHM community) with all the different places in between. She presents a loving and honest look at each group she describes, but doesn't flinch from anything she sees as a negative. Actually, I thought she was pretty hard on folks who weren't so welcoming to her -- repeating the comment that the IHM traditionalists were "warped old women" was cruel, I thought). But, all in all, I found this book fascinating. As one of the 100,000 or so convent women who didn't survive the '60s, it was a real pleasure to read a book that presented such a straightforward, and genuinely human, look at the sisters and their work. I was especially moved by the chapters on the birthing clinic and the raw poverty of the folks who were served by the clinic. This was truly beautiful writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time or money
Review: This is not "investigative reporting." The book is filled with nonsense. The author did not do any basic research into the teachings or traditions of the Holy Catholic Church. Her title is even wrong, all religious women are NOT nuns.We need to thank most of these Sisters who gave their life to Christ. Mercy Sisters founded the first hospital in Chicago. Catholic Sisters came from Europe and immediately went to the Civil War battlefields nursing soldiers from the north and south. I could go on and on about the schools, hospitals, universities founded by these great women.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time or money
Review: This is not "investigative reporting." The book is filled with nonsense. The author did not do any basic research into the teachings or traditions of the Holy Catholic Church. Her title is even wrong, all religious women are NOT nuns. We need to thank most of these Sisters who gave their life to Christ. Mercy Sisters founded the first hospital in Chicago. Catholic Sisters came from Europe and immediately went to the Civil War battlefields nursing soldiers from the north and south. I could go on and on about the schools, hospitals, universities founded by these great women.
Rating:
Summary: Fear and Loathing at the Cloister Gate.
Review: When I picked up this book, I was hoping for a look at contemporary Catholic sisterhoods. I was looking forward to some insights on subject from a thirty-something woman who had converted to the Orthodox church. I would have almost been better off randomly calling numbers in the phonebook.
To be fair, Ms. Reed does a good job of exploring the attitudes and issues that dominate various progressive orders (both religious and lay). She takes enough time to discuss feminist and post-feminist views in a sympathetic light and to explore with her subjects the trials of obedience to a church whose doctrines they no longer always share. Had the title been called "Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Progressive Nuns", a little editing could have made this an informative book.
Unfortunately, Ms. Reed attempted to cover too much territory and too much of it completely unfamiliar to her. Her treatment of traditional orders is a combination perplexed inquiry, generous seasoned with faint repulsion.
Although the author admits several times that progressive orders are shrinking while traditional orders are growing; she doesn't take the next step and ask why. As an example, she sees the habit in a very conflicted light: acknowledging it's visual power while treating it as either an object of superstition or a nod to some vacuous need for fashion. The idea that an order which retains the habit might also retain a more reverential spirituality and a different concept of God seems never to have crossed her mind.
The author also shows a certain inexperience with traditional Catholic concepts when she tries to frame the traditional commitment to poverty, chastity and obedience in a way that is "relevant". She does a beautiful job doing this for the progressive orders she discusses but is unable or unwilling to learn the language of her more traditional subjects.
Overall, this is a sympathetic introduction to the progressive orders even if it lacks the courage to examine the reasons behind their decline. It is a poor introduction to traditional orders. Oddly, the author makes no mention at all of Orthodox orders. It may be that they are too traditional.
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