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Biography & Autobiography. New Age. Religion & Spirituality. Nonfiction. HTML:NATIONAL BESTSELLER �?� At once tough, personal, affectionate, wise, and very funny, a book that tells in exuberant detail how to shine the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life, exposing surprising pockets of meaning and hope. "Anne Lamott is walking proof that a person can be both reverent and irreverent in the same lifetime. Sometimes even in the same breath." �??San Francisco Chronicle Anne Lamott claims the two best prayers she knows are: "Help me, help me, help me" and "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She has a friend whose morning prayer each day is "Whatever," and whose evening prayer is "Oh, well." Anne thinks of Jesus as "Casper the friendly savior" and describes God as "one crafty mother." Despite�??or because of�??her irreverence, faith is a natural subject for Anne Lamott. Since Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird, her fans have been waiting for her to write the book that explained how she came to the big-hearted, grateful, generous faith that she so often alluded to in her two earlier nonfiction books. The people in Anne Lamott's real life are like beloved characters in a favorite series for her readers�??her friend Pammy, her son, Sam, and the many funny and wise folks who attend her church are all familiar. And Traveling Mercies is a welcome return to those lives, as well as an introduction to new companions Lamott treats with the same candor, insight, and tenderness. Lamott's faith isn't about easy answers, which is part of what endears her to believers as well as nonbelievers. Against all odds, she came to believe in God and then, even more miraculously, in herself. As she puts it, "My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series… (more)
User reviews
Anne Lamott writes with great honesty, wit and insight about her life. The spiraling down parts of her youth into drug- and alchohol-abuse, affairs with married men and other destructive
The book is a collection of essays that sort of fit together. Some of these essays are really poetic and heartbreaking accounts of lostness and helplessness. Others are hysterically funny. It's a relief to read how faith, peace and love - and a sweet little boy - enters her life.
“It's so awful, attacking your child. It's the worse thing I know, to shout loudly at this 50 lb. being with his huge trusting brown eyes. It's like bitch-slapping E.T.”
This book has the strengths and weaknesses of most memoirs. It's well written and goes along quite quickly, but even with some self-deprecation, it also has a strong sense of ego stroking but, interestingly, not in the sense of wearing Christianity as a badge of honor as you might expect.
The book is enjoyable and it puts a face on Christianity that is rarely seen in the mass media today and, for that alone, I recommend it to all who might be interested.
Style: Engaging, personal narrative; frank and intimate. Excellent descriptive passages and honed rhetoric.
God's In Box - I know someone else who does this, and it makes sense to me. Write it down, hand it over, and don't worry about it
The way that Lamott feels about music. I can relate. I cannot imagine a world without music. And I can totally understand someone who chooses a church home because the music drew them in.
Her fierce and passionate love for her son and her desire to beat the living snot out of anyone who hurts or disparages him in any way. I feel the same way about my children.