Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace

by Anne Lamott

Hardcover, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

248

Genres

Religion & Spirituality

Collection

Your library

Publication

Riverhead Books (2014), Edition: Signed Copy, 304 pages

Description

Essays. Literary Criticism. Religion & Spirituality. Nonfiction. HTML:The New York Times bestseller from the author of Help, Thanks, Wow, Hallelujah Anyway, Almost Everything, and Dusk, Night, Dawn. Lamott's long-awaited collection of new and selected essays on hope, joy, and grace. Anne Lamott writes about faith, family, and community in essays that are both wise and irreverent. It�??s an approach that has become her trademark. Now in Small Victories, Lamott offers a new message of hope that celebrates the triumph of light over the darkness in our lives. Our victories over hardship and pain may seem small, she writes, but they change us�??our perceptions, our perspectives, and our lives. Lamott writes of forgiveness, restoration, and transformation, how we can turn toward love even in the most hopeless situations, how we find the joy in getting lost and our amazement in finally being found. Profound and hilarious, honest and unexpected, the stories in Small Victories are proof that the human spirit is irrepres… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member debnance

t’s no secret that I adore Anne Lamott. I’ve had this book on my wish list for months, and the truth is that anticipation can provoke disappointment.

Well, go ahead and breathe….No worries. Anne Lamott just gets better and better. Wiser and wiser.

Yes, read this book. If you are like me and

love Anne Lamott, read this book.

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LibraryThing member The_reading_swimmer

I enjoyed the format with short stories, despite their sadness, she finds hope. Great if you're going through big trials in your life.

LibraryThing member porch_reader

Anne Lamott tells it like it is. She doesn't sugarcoat situations, but it is clear that she has spent a lot of time thinking about faith and friendships, family and failures. In this series of essays, she continually finds a fresh approach to the challenges with which we all deal. Bird by Bird will

also be my favorite of Lamott's book, but I enjoyed Small Victories too. She reads the audio, so I felt like she was in the car talking to me throughout this book.

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LibraryThing member bexaplex

I had a moment of doubt about this book when I picked it for my week of reading: the Christianity doesn't bother me (religious people of all stripes are often pleasant to be around, unless they're the haranguing sort), but baby boomers writing about motherhood — sigh. I have a thing about baby

boomers, and of the concept I'll call demographic privilege. Boomers use the first person plural a lot, without thinking about it. They have plenty of friends in their own age bracket, who confront the same kinds of issues in the same general time period. Issues that matter to them often matter to a lot of other people, too, and there are enough of them that they can write to an audience of themselves, without trying to be accessible to the rest of us. It's a bit much, sometimes.

Anyhow, this book has only a small amount of that annoying tendency, and a lot of genuine emotion, and hard-won wisdom. Anne Lamott has had a lot dying friends, and seems to have spent at least a little while just being with each one of them, which is so unbelievably difficult. She doesn't paper over the difficulty, and writes with wit about her mixed motives for generosity and forgiveness. I loved the essay about the Ham of God, in which she is the completely unwilling and grumpy instrument of aid to another family.

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LibraryThing member homeschoolmimzi

I give this a 2/5 rating. Mainly because several of these essays were previously published in Anne's other book. Even though on the cover it says " new and selected pieces", many were old! I feel a bit cheated having bought this, thinking it would be all new.
The writing was typical Anne Lamott-

funny, inspiring, insightful, instructive. But the subjects were revisited ones.

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LibraryThing member DeborahJade

The parts about forgiveness and family deserved 5 stars.

LibraryThing member jepeters333

Anne Lamott writes about faith, family, and community in essays that are both wise and irreverent. It’s an approach that has become her trademark. Now in Small Victories, Lamott offers a new message of hope that celebrates the triumph of light over the darkness in our lives. Our victories over

hardship and pain may seem small, she writes, but they change us—our perceptions, our perspectives, and our lives. Lamott writes of forgiveness, restoration, and transformation, how we can turn toward love even in the most hopeless situations, how we find the joy in getting lost and our amazement in finally being found.

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LibraryThing member marquis784

I couldn't finish this book. It started off in a good note and the expressions and experiences seemed applicable across the spectrum. Somewhere along the way into her story I was not able to maintain interest. Life is too short to read book that make you yawn.

LibraryThing member amandanan

This was a book I wanted to savor, to read a chapter a day and reflect on it. Then I read it straight through, not even stopping for pee breaks, food breaks, etc. I didn't realize I needed someone like Lamott in my life until reading this book. I constantly found myself laughing in a way as if she

were talking to me and telling me the stories herself. Or how many times her thoughts on religion and God had me agreeing with her, wanting to tell everyone, THIS IS HOW I SEE GOD AND MY RELIGION. SHE SAYS IT BETTER THAN I CAN.

I really cannot say enough how much I truly love this book. Will be buying a hard copy so I can mark it up and read it over and over. Then give it to someone and start the cycle all over again. I will shove this book on you. I will be that person. NO SHAME.

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