Review: Missing something vital
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 10 24, 2013
The book was a good read, and in fairness to the content of the book, I probably should have given it three stars. The stories are real, at least they seem so, but the writing does not fairly portray the sense of God that I believe the writer got from speaking in person with these women. Rather, you get the sense that these are women who have real lives and also believe in God; the connection between the deepness of their faith and its practical implication in their lives is not celarly communicated. At worst, this comes across as what I think is part of the problem of perception of faith - that God is the opium of the people. That is, you get the sense that for some of these women, their "faith in God" is an exercise in denial of reality, and I don't think that's what the author was going for, and I don't think that would be the impression you would get if you were to sit at tea with these women. Sadly, that is the heart of the book, which is why I only rated it as mediocre.The extra star I removed from what should have been a 3-star book is simply for the care in writing. The author has changed names to protect the identity of the women, but the names have not always been changed, particularly in one chapter where real names and fake names are interchanged multiple times. It's a glaring oversight, and when your duty is to honor the stories of women and protect their identities, this must be taken very seriously.The in-between chapters, where songs and poetry and simple thoughts are shared are valuable and really help tie the stories together in an interesting, fueling way.It's a good read, particularly for a woman who just needs to know there are other women out there who also have real lives and who also have a real God and who also don't know exactly what to do with those things at times. For me, it could just have been better done to bring out the things that I think the author intended to more strongly show.I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.