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Summary: stalking a good book
Review: Ms. Ohlson's book, about her own spiritual odyssey while writing about the Poor Clares religious order, belongs right on the shelf next to Kathleen Norris's "Cloister Walk."
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Summary: A wonderful book of someone searching for more.
Review: Ohlson presents herself exactly where she is in the scheme of things, and doesn't pretend to be something she isn't. She presents the Poor Clares and the shrine as they are, and as they relate to her and her search. I appreciated Ohlson's honesty throughout the whole book, and I found her telling of the nuns' stories as particularly moving.
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Summary: Divinely written
Review: Ohlson's "Stalking the Divine" is one of the most enjoyable reads that I've had in quite some time. The theme of searching for meaning and the question of faith in general is universal. Her quest -- rediscovering faith, with all its doubts and blemishes -- serendipitously leads her to the discovery of the Poor Clares, a group of cloistered nuns, the lives of whom she is eventually allowed to reveal to outsiders. What a story it is -- a beautiful explanation and examination of the lives of these women, whose story would no doubt have gone untold had it not been for Ohlson's persistence. This is a book that will resonate with the reader for a very long time after it's read.
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Summary: Great Read!
Review: Ohlson's book catches fire from the first page and sends out light for miles.
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Summary: All in the family
Review: So many of us have questioned our faith at one time or another. I found the author's struggle for belief and longing for faith to be the most compelling part of this story. It's nearly universal. And that's why "Stalking the Divine" wound its way through my family. My sister read it before I had the chance to buy it for her and was raving about the story. I knew I had to read it because it was written by a local author and I like to support their work. My parents read it after my sister and I described the author's journey and that of the nuns. While visiting family in Columbus, my grandmother picked up the book and was curious about the story. I told her a bit about it and she said she would very much like to read it. So I loaned her my copy and two days later she called to tell me it was one of the best books she had read recently.
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Summary: Stalking the Divine: Contemplating Faith with the Poor Clare
Review: Stalking the Divine is a jewel. It is beautifully written and reads like a novel. Also, the facts are correct. The nuns are presented as real women dealing with the issues all of us face with the added interest of twist that they are voluntarily cloistered. I would recommend this book to anyone - the story is compelling - how do these women maintain faith with God and each other and the world within the context of maintaining their hold on their property in a declining neighborhood? How does Kris work out her search for God in the context of a secular life? How do these interact and connect? I liked it because the interweaving of Kris' search for God and the nuns' search for God in the context of daily life speaks to all of us. The nuns are presented as flesh and blood women. I found the book to be as compelling as any novel because of the interaction of the characters and circumstances. It is well worth reading.
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Summary: No Mere Religious Tome
Review: Stalking the Divine is a memoir, where author Kris Ohlson, in a moment of personal crisis, looks at her life and sees history instead of possibilities and wonders if things might change. Who among us doesn't take a wistful look back to a time when the tropes of our life spoke to lofty accomplishments? In Ohlson's case, she recalls her childhood Catholicism while growing up in a small town. She parallels the exuberance of her childhood and the cynicism of her youth with her recent discovery of the Poor Clares, a cloistered group of nuns whose sole mission is to pray. And pray. And pray, twenty-four and seven, for improvement in the lives of complete strangers. Think, here, of J.D. Salinger's Franny and the her fascination with a small book she's found, The Way of a Pilgrim.
But think also of Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun, where Mayes stitches together the quilt of a new life from fabric bits of her past with the restoration of a Tuscan villa. Ohlson's book is likewise an inquiry into discovery. She finds a life jaundiced by experience and twists the crystal to see a different future through a prism of sublimity.
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Summary: Exquisite writing, profound topic
Review: Stalking The Divine In this exquisitely written book, Kristin Ohlson explores a common condition many of us aging Baby Boomers face: the sense that somewhere along the way, we missed the turn-off to Faith. We thought we didn't need to stop there; religion, especially the organized variety, seems somehow antiquated, illogical and just plain archaic to our modern educated selves. But as the years pass, as the miles pile up, we realize a sense of loss. Something is missing. Something others have. Ohlson is a skeptical searcher, trying out churches in Cleveland, where she lives, but never finding the perfect fit. Until one Christmas day, she comes upon an older downtown church, home of a Poor Clare sect of cloistered nuns. She is fascinated both by the nuns (what kind of women shut themselves up for the rest of their lives in one building -- in a dying part of town, in a church with a diminishing population, no less?) and by the church itself, by the priests and the community who find comfort in their regular attendance. Ohlson continues to visit the church as a journalist, researching the nuns for an article and possible book. But her task becomes more personal as she slowly finds herself becoming a member of the church and, in the end, making at least some contact with the elusive Divine. Highly recommended for any reader, but especially those who are skeptics when it comes to religion, but also feel a lack in their spiritual lives.
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Summary: A Must Read!!!
Review: This is the best book that I have read in a long time. I couldn't put it down from the time I opened the first page until I finished it. I highly recommend it!!!
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Summary: Discovering Faith From An Ancient Tradition
Review: What I liked about Kristin Ohlson's Stalking The Divine was how she was able to rediscover her lost Faith. I liked how she took me on her personal and intimate journey. Her first curiosity about the elderly man sitting behind her in the Church was the beginning. She began the search. It grew each week. She let me in on the very private and ancient lives of contempative women, who, just like Kristin, are constantly searching for their Faith. They just fully BELIEVE. I loved the simplicty of the Poor Clares' lives. I loved the humanness of everyone in her book. I like walking in Kristin's foot steps. Thanks for the journey. James Cremin, Jr.
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