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Summary: Wish Fulfillment
Review: This book is about the need to believe. If you want something badly enough you can convince yourself of almost anything. For example her experience after getting an abortion was an example. She had to find some kind of meaning to it so out of a deep wish, she convinced herself she was feeling the presence of Christ. I was in the hospital myself faced with death. Jesus wasn't there for me. I prayed and all I felt was coldness. For every Anne Lamott out there, there is a person like myself, and if that is true; is it that Jesus is only interested in half the people that need him? I don't think so I think it's nothing but fantasy. In other words it is a bunch of head tripping nonsense.
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Summary: Lamott; the fragrance.
Review: If only Anne Lamott could be bottled and sprayed onto the pulse points every day, then one could walk around and know for certain what Truth smells like. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith is simply stunning. It's laugh-out-loud funny, profound in a down-to-earth-BLT-with-mayo sort of way and it's required reading for anyone who has a hunch there might be some sort of "glue' that holds everything in the universe together. The opposite of pastel, sun-drenched "religious" text, Traveling Mercies is an invigorating, refreshing chronicle of Ms. Lamott's own spiritual journey; and what a wonderful thing it is to be in the passenger seat beside her for the ride. Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Mormon, atheist, etc., it doesn't matter. This book is as universal as water and just pure, assuming you don't live in New York. Thinking about buying it? Stop thinking about buying it and just order. The sooner you do, the sooner you'll be glad you did. Lamott's Traveling Mercies is quite the trip.
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Summary: A book that touches the core of your being
Review: Ann Lamott is a prophet. I'm sure she would laugh at that statement and heartily deny it but it is the truth. Reading Traveling Mercies is a transforming experience. I can feel the words on my heart.
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Summary: a book crucial to the well-being of humanity and misfits
Review: Once more, Lamott has applied a poultice for the soul with her words. She possesses the ability to make people laugh out loud, to incite a placid and mildly depressed reader to spew beef vindaloo over the pages of a book while discovering a hilarious passage from the pool of truth. This is an author who makes some of us queasy when one considers her first book, Hard Laughter, which was great and got great reviews and which was published at 23, an age when most of us are trying to find a waitressing job in a fancy restaurant. From then on she continued cutting her swath of Hell, with wonderful novels like Joe Jones and Rosie and All New People, which I've read three times. Ironically enough, this is a woman who has professed to knowing no cosmic reason why she should contiunue writing. If I, like all people created, am a part of God, and I've heard that I am, then I hereby decree that Lamott must continue to write books. Although she need not do it at breakneck speed, she must definitely do it (I would also like to abolish January and Howard Stern). So there's your cosmic reason, Ms. Lamott. Additionally, any of you out there who consider yourselves Lamott fans but have not read All New People and Joe Jones are not being completely honest...so read them after you read Traveling Mercies (its Tribute to Jennie Holzer book jacket must also be admired -- at least it's not a white dove in a shaft of sunlight or some other religious type book jacket, fleecy cloudy blue sky with a hand coming out of it or whatever.) Anyway read it. Read it all, preferably with Indian food.
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Summary: What a lift!
Review: Oh, my gosh, I love this book beyond description! I read through it once (often crying and laughing at the same time) and am now halfway through my second reading. There are nuggets of wisdon sprinkled throughout, as well as sentences that say exactly what I'd like to think I would say - about faith, life, and children - if I were half as clever as Ms. Lamott. It's SUCH an uplifting book.
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Summary: Her Most Uplifting Work to Date
Review: I ordered this book before it was available; it arrived at my office as the single bright spot in a truly horrible day. While my computer was rebooting for the 20th time that day, I picked the book up, opened it at random, read a paragraph, and promptly confirmed my co-workers' suspicions that I am, in fact, completely mad. I started laughing out loud and couldn't stop. This is a joyful, touching book, and I've just ordered 6 more copies because I want to share this book with friends, but I'm not about to part with my copy. ps - you don't have to be religious to love this book; please don't be put off by the religious theme!
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Summary: More great insights into life
Review: If you liked Bird by Bird and Operating Instructions, you'll like Traveling Mercies, too. I have to admit, I am a bit disappointed that I have read some portions of the book before, in the form of columns for online magazine Salon. That is only because I read them so hungrily online that I selfishly wanted all-new material here. Lamott captures a moment or sensation so perfectly that you may wonder why no writer has ever described it that way before. If you don't agree with Lamott's politics, I like to think you can still admire her technical prowess as a writer (I guess that is easy to say when you do agree with her more often than not). Even though I have to admit that my life seems nothing like Lamott's on the surface, I find it comforting that we all seem to find ourselves seeking for answers to the same problems. Lamott's anxieties and celebrations mirror those of many people, and her unique way of expressing them connect us all.
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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.
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Summary: Hooked
Review: This is the book that got me hooked on Anne Lamott. Most poignant and precious are the insights about life as a recovering alcoholic. Raw facts about motherhood were astounding, too. Her word choice at times caused my gut to spasm, but I survived and went on to read all of the book she had previously written. To my delight and the benefit of mankind, Lamott's newest book, Blue Shoe, avoids profanity.
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Summary: like having a conversation with a best friend
Review: I love all of Anne Lamott's nonfiction. She touches on so many real life topics and highlights with so much humor our neurosis. I have two best friends that also loved this book. We each came away with something personal that spoke to us. I just found out that Anne has a new book coming out this March and I am going to give it to my best friends as a gift in celebration of our friendship.
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