I can’t remember the last time I read a book in a day… Particularly of this length. But since I was laid up with a throat infection (and Sam was away) yesterday, I had nothing better to do really! It’s one way to get through my reading challenge…

This book comes highly endorsed by Elizabeth Gilbert (Of eat, pray, love and Big Magic fame), Brené Brown (Queen of vulnerability) and Oprah (it was selected for her book club) so you just KNOW it’s going to be good. Plus you can probably tell what kind of book it is with fans like that. It is a memoir, so one of the rare nonfiction books I’ve read this year. It follows Glennon Doyle Melton from her early childhood struggles with bulimia to her struggles with alcoholism, to her finding God, finding a husband, having children and then having the rug pulled out from under her feet when her husband reveals his infidelity. This book is honest, raw, messy, incredibly vulnerable and not always the easiest book to read. However, amongst all the mess, I found myself smiling at witty things Melton says, as she reveals her personality so evidently in the book, and finding hope and truth which I can apply to my own life. I think I would go as far to say that God used this woman’s words to say some important things to me. Mainly that he loves me a heck of a lot.

There are many things I underlined throughout the whole book and I can’t put them all here. But I’ve picked a couple of my favourites:

“I wonder if the one holding together this sky might also be capable of holding together my heart. I wonder if the one making this sky so achingly beautiful might also be working to make my life beautiful, too.”

“These are the ones who know that faith is standing naked before your maker and asking what Craig asked me in the therapists office that day: I just need to know if you can really know me and still love me. God’s yes to us is free and final. (I underlined this about 5 times) Our yeses to each other are harder to come by.”

There are many many more quotes I could pick out. But then you might as well just read the book. 

This book is not going to be for everyone. There were some times where I had to forgive the author for maybe being a bit thin on her Theology (though it did just make me think about what I really believe about some things, which is a challenge in itself). Plus if you’re not so much of a feeler, you may find bits of it quite sentimental and mushy. But I really enjoyed it and I took a lot from it. In its very essence, it is a book about truth and being true to yourself. The final sections about love made me just want to yell “yes that’s it!” SO I would recommend this, but only to some people…