springdellgirl

Book Review #4

I finished this book last month. It was our book club selection for March. I just kept forgetting to do my "review". This book according to my "movie" style reviewing gets a rating of...OK.


The first time I heard about the author, Anne Lamott, was on a talk show with Ashley Judd (my favorite Judd). She was raving about the Anne Lamott book she was reading...I can't remember which book she was talking about...maybe this one. I had been wanting to read one of her books for a while to see what Ashley Judd so ga-ga about. When Karri picked this book I was excited to get reading. Anne Lamott is a former drug addict, alcoholic, liberal, dread-lock wearing, single mother...this is about how she found her faith. It started off as a very intriguing read. It was interesting to me to hear about her childhood and adolescence in the San Francisco area in the 1970's. Her parents were very liberal and were "yellow dog democrats"...I can relate...my mother is one. She, too, would rather vote for an old yellow dog than for a republican. Her "Utah Democrat" (is that an oxymoron) hat holds a place of prominence in her house even though she no longer lives in Utah. :)



I didn't grow up LDS. I was active in the LDS church until right after I was baptized and then didn't come back to the church until my senior year of high school. I was raised by liberal parents who felt that we should be free thinkers and decide for ourselves when we got older what religion we wanted to be...if we wanted to be religious at all. (My family classifies themselves as "spiritual but not religious") In high school I attended all kinds of churches with my friends...Catholic, Protestant, Baptist and even a Jewish synagogue. I was active in Young Life and K-Life (kind of like mutual...there were activities and bible studies with a youth pastor). I remember feeling like I was searching for something...just like Anne Lamott in her book. Thankfully I didn't take the road that adolescent Anne does by becoming a drug addict and alcoholic...I "rebelled" and became a conservative Mormon!! :)



During the dark days of Anne Lamott I kind of stopped being interested in her story. There were quite a few times when she truly annoyed me. But then I would read a chapter that had me laughing out loud...the spandex wearing mom from school and the chapter on her saddle bags (which she named "the aunties" are not to be missed)!! By the end of the book I enjoyed her again. It was a great reminder that there are all "types" of Christians...even dread-lock wearing liberals...we don't have to all fit the same mold to share the same basic beliefs and it also reminded me that we all come to God in our own way and at our own time...and that he loves us and is there for us even if we are drug addicts, alcoholics, or a teenager in Kansas City just trying to figure out where she belongs.