honest, thoughful and moving
933996
This was such a suprising treat of a book.
Thoughtful, philosophical and suprisingly spiritual, it had me turning pages desperate to know where it was all headed.
characters are fully three dimensional, each with their own distinct voice and well developed, and I found myself genuinely caring what happened to them.
It's evident that the author takes their subject seriously, and the amount of research done for this book shines through every page, lending an air of authenticity to proceedings and making the events seem all too plausable. it's surpising, reading this, to discover that this is a book from a relatively new writer, as he carries all the weight and confidence of a long established author. The authors passion for the book permeates the story, which for me lends an earnest honesty to the plot which is hard to find in much modern fiction.
if you haven't already picked up this book in 2016, grab it now for new year. You won't be dissapointed. it's not like anything else out there.
3904314
This is such an honest portrayal of the painful process of growing up or coming of age.  The already painful process is aggravated by abandonment and betrayal, which it would make this an unpleasant read for those with high sensitivities.  I don't know if its portrayal of the "foster care" system in California is accurate, but it certainly seems plausible.  The descriptions of the emotions the main character feels are honest and clear to the point of being too graphic, the descriptions of the landscape and situations that the main character goes through are almost poetic.
633581
Vicki Abelson has written a book which is as easy to enjoy as it is hard to classify. A memoir that goes beyond nostalgia and into the sometimes dark corners and recesses of the mind. Through it all, her willingness to persevere to achieve her vision of her authentic self endures, despite constant revision and change in circumstance. It is not always a happy journey, but ultimately a necessary and successful one. Proof that if you continue to ask the right questions and do not back down from where that may lead you, there is satisfaction and accomplishment on the other side. Kudos to Ms Abelson for being so honest and forthright in laying out the path less taken.
1265796
When I first purchased this book the picture on the cover reminded me of a therapy  dog who helped me during my stay at a rehab center for back surgery. Captain Montalvan wrote a book so touching and honest that sometimes it was jarring to read and comforting at the same time. I am interested and concerned about the welfare of veterans as I used to work for the VA but am now unfortunately disabled. His words led me to look at my dog differently. He is honest and genuine in his account of his journey. My literary skills pale in comparison to his but I can say that this is a book that should be put in many hands. He started me on a journey with his words in a direction that is new for me. I am not a veteran but have PTSD. In this book I cought a glimpse of a kind and beautiful soul both his and Tuesday's. I thank him for writing this book. He put me in touch with pain that I didn't know how to look at and gave me some hope. Thank you Captain Montalvan-Luis and Tuesday.

Love and Dog Kisses,
Rose
463656
I found this book deeply moving and well-written and have recommended it to many people I know.  The prose and narrative arc are relatively straightforward and it can be a quick read, but the voice belies a true depth of character and an honesty that fosters a sense of connection.  This is saying a lot since I am not your typical war-time story reader (I'm a young female medical professional with relatively little interest in wartime history).  The book expanded my understanding of the Vietnam war, which was a nice added value, but the raw human-ness conveyed in the story is what made it enjoyable, poignant, and especially worthwhile.
3182734
I found Faith Interrupted to be a refreshingly honest examination of one's life - past, present and what may lay ahead. I myself am just a bit too young to have had friends or immediate family drafted into the Vietnam War - the backdrop to a good part of the book.  Lax's decision to seek CO status and all that entailed was fascinating to me as was the contrast it painted to his early years as a church acolyte.
As life proceeds, his faithful convictions, for a number of reasons explained, begin to quiver and then evaporate.  His story includes a parallel figure - a good friend in college turned warrior extraordinaire turned Bishop - and their separate but intertwined journeys provide a richness of the human experience that Lax conveys in a down to earth, approachable way. Lax, witty and unapologetic, gives us where he is today and how he got here. I could feel his sadness(disappointment?) that he didn't end up at another point - one with faith. Yet another reader may take away something different. Which is why I found this book to be particularly satisfying; nothing is neatly tied up in a bow at the end. No exclamations of 'I was lost and now I am found!'  Or, 'I was once naive and malleable and now I know better'. Rather, it is messy and nuanced, filled with compassion and honest intention to figure it all out - eventually. He repeatedly goes back to the one Christian tenant which he still firmly holds on to; 'God is Love' and it is apparent and wonderful to read about a life so clearly guided by that light.
In closing, my favorite chapter is the last one; that's the one I believe I will go back to time and time again - when my own stagnation and sense of loss need a muse - not a professor with the answer, but someone else who is still willing to look under the rocks - just in case.
905202
Plenty of Time When We Get Home is a moving and insightful memoire describing Williams' romance with her future husband following their return from Iraq, where he suffered a traumatic brain injury due to an IED. Like her previous book (which I would also recommend), Williams strives to honestly portray not only a chronology of events but her mental state at the time without the benefit of hindsight. Surprisingly, a number of reviewers of her previous book have complained about this straight forward approach. I would guess simply because Williams' honesty makes them uncomfortable. However, I found her stark honesty absolutely necessary in understanding her experiences with PTSD and her husband's cognitive impairment, both uncomfortable issues that are all too easy to pretend don't exist. Her book provides a compelling story about the experiences of soldiers as they've quietly returned home from our recent wars. That being said, I found many of her encounters with the effects of traumatic brain injury eerily familiar on a personal level even though I'm not a veteran. The task of differentiating between the mind and the brain has escaped philosophy in the form of Alzheimers, mental illness and brain injury, and I think Williams' story will appeal on a personal level to many of us even if we never served in the military.
3531539
Mathias B. Freese pours his heart and soul out in this thought-provoking memoir. The author, a psychotherapist himself, describes how Woodstock affected him and the relationships that followed. Having lived through this period myself, I found his voice authentic and touching. It wasn't an easy time for either sex, not when all of societal's rules were changing. In fact, the author weaves in as well the times he underwent therapy for his personal issues, which I found incredibly brave. A gifted writer, Freese, shares the joys and pain of love and loss from his childhood to his senior years. It's a book I could easily read again.
2041958
This is such a beautifully honest, touching and emotionally true book that i would recommend it to any adult who loves literature as well as to middle school age children. Lane manages to bring us so close to the emotional struggle of young Maggie that it's impossible not to feel her pain. At the same time, she is such a dear and sympathetic character that we can easily identify and root for her. Maggie is an anxious young girl, worried about so many things and imagining that her strategies will keep her and her family safe. We can assume she struggles with OCD (though this is never named directly) but Lane has such deep insight in to the universal human struggles and insecurities that i think anyone could relate to the painful, lonely place where Maggie often finds herself. Lane's writing style is, on the one hand, simple but this only adds to the profound effect. Her writing is poetic and unique; literary and, at the same time, accessible. Highest praise for this deeply moving and gorgeously written book.
902657
A sensitive and honest insight into how it feels to lose one's spouse.  Nothing prepares us for this journey through life. And life includes death. I think talking about how such major events affect us at the very core of our being helps us to carry forward 'on our own. '  Often we realize we have more to us than we realized.  Well written from the heart, from the soul.
682199
I am struggling to find the words to describe my experience of reading this book: it wasn't simple. On the one hand, at its core, it's a man's quest for identity, present and historical, personal and ethnic, and for redemption - and that's something that most of us can relate to, to a greater or lesser extent. On the other hand, it's an glimpse of life in Africa, the raw reality as opposed to the writer's expectations of it and how, perhaps, most of us "Westerners" imagine it. Which, to me - as someone who feels a deep if slightly inexplicable affinity with Africa and the abuse its people have suffered at the hands of the white European race that I'm often ashamed to be part of - was fascinating. But on another level, this book is a very honest and profoundly personal account of one man's experience of all this, and this is the part that challenged me. Because, as much as I enjoyed the story and the writing itself - there is no doubt that E.L. Cyrs is an accomplished storyteller, and there's not a word out of place - I didn't always like the author, the way he portrayed himself. I think I caught myself "judging" him almost as much as I empathised with him. There were times when I felt myself getting very irritated; times when - caught up in the reality of life in Senegal for which he was ill-prepared - I wanted to scream at him, "what did you expect?" And I found that quite challenging but also, paradoxically, very rewarding. Because the power of this book is precisely its honesty. E.L. Cyrs didn't set out to make himself look good, but to tell his story, and he doesn't hide from himself or the reader. And that, in the end, has the effect of creating a bond that feels much more real than the easy, superficial way we relate to a straightforward "likeable" character. This isn't a character, it's a real man, and he shares his story fully aware that he'll be judged. And I, for one, like him for it all the more. And I like his book. Which, incidentally, I read in a single evening. I recommend you read it too.
513177
I had contemplated giving this book five stars, but there are a few too many difficulties to allow me to do that. The book does not end with any proper resolution, but that reflects a basic truth. I don't think the author has resolved the issues she tries to explore. I might have some other criticisms, but it remains a very honest book by a young woman making her own difficult way through life.

There are three quite different stories here. The first is Romaine Patterson's own story. That has its own value, and it should be taken on its own merits. Part of the story is that, willingly or otherwise, she became a public figure by virtue of having been a friend of Matthew Shepard's, and having made the decision to tell his story, rather than the story of an idealized icon being manufactured after his dying and death.

His story, so far as she is able to tell it, is the second story. The third is livng with the reaction to his death.

As to the second story, there have been divided opinions.  Certainly, some of Mr. Shepard's friends have felt it is better simply to remember him as they do, and not discussing him. Others have felt that the man who existed has been buried beneath both an unrealistic idealization, and an unrealistic denegration. That is the considered opinion of his family, and Romaine shared it. They have felt, and rightly, that he holds up well under the scrutiny of truth, even in his imperfections. Knowing those imperfections makes his virtues shine that much brighter.

I don't very well know how she could avoid telling the story of his coming into her life and being blown out of it. He was one of several severe losses she had to endure, and this loss was one she found unable to bear privately. It is possible to argue, as another reviewer has, that she should have done so. I think, though, that if she honoured the man she knew in life, she was right to tell us about the real individual, and not a plaster saint who never was. She serves him well.

She was better prepared for this than were many others, but anybody who has ever been in the public light will understand her feelings about the media sympathetically. If you're not careful, they can eat you alive, not because they are evil, wicked or iniquitous, but have a job to do by their standards. It is not difficult to make some errors of judegment, and Ms. Patterson faces the internal doubts that she has had about some of her actions and reactions. That allows some to find fault where she considers, after the fact, that she did make some. But that is a measure of the honesty of this book.

I repeat that those of us who have had to be in the public light will have shared a lot of her feelings and reactions, and also her misjudgements. And we may reminded of a few she managed to avoid, but which others have made. But, as a newspaper editor in my corner of the world wisely wrote: "All the world's a stage where the audience sits and chucks things at the actors."

The book does not have a satisfactory ending because the author has not yet worked out a number of things in her life, including the direction of her career in the future. It will include some form of political activism, but she is searching for the kind which will fit her nature and ethics best. Her (satellite) radio show fills her need not to become an imaginary angel either. Perhaps she overdoes the "bad angel" part, but that's another issue. If she found that she was rushed through some stages of maturing faster than most of us, it has been at the cost of overlooking other points of personal development. It is better, I think, to leave the book in the state it is, given that there is a lot she remains to write in her own life.

This is an honest and revealing book. It is also one of the necessary sources for an understanding of Matthew Shepard. Not a complete source, but a necessary one. And we're richer for her having written it.
3465567
Through excellent use of words, the story was easy to visualize, like a movie going through my mind.  The hardships were "felt" and the journey to overcoming poverty was realistic, not easy or candy-coated.  The healing process from "losing" a child, especially to a disgruntled parent, the drawing close of the family to find the daughter speaks clearly, especially in a culture that has valued girl less.  Poverty is no excuse for not living a life full of love in the midst of sorrow and hardship. The heart is  (can be) greater than the sadness that surrounds it. Very moving.
1141483
This gentle, moving book has many lovely symmetries: as Harold moves forwards, his memories work backwards; the growing physical distance from his wife slowly heals the emotional distance between them. The tender observations of life are deliciously written, and the reader is drawn to see the beauty of the ordinary and flawed. In the end, simple human connections are the conduits to redemption.
4043804
This is a touching and beautifully written memoir. Before receiving it as a gift, I hadnt read Andies blog, and I had no prior interest in her or the issues she writes about. I decided to read it on a whim, and, within the first five pages, she had drawn me in.
The book opens on Andies working class childhood in Massachusetts. Andie doesn't whitewash anything; she lays it all on the table, sweet nostalgia and family disorder alike. The narrative is sad, at times heart-wrenching, and, though her love for her father comes through her descriptions of his alcoholism and temper, her admiration of her mother, who worked two to four jobs her entire life to keep the family afloat, is even stronger.

Thankfully, Andie backs her moving narrative with carefully crafted prose. It was a true pleasure to read, and, if you're a fan of her blog, the quality of her writing will come as no surprise. Her book meets the standard that all memoirs strive for: I was always eager to read more about Andies life, even without any prior interest in her story. Im so glad I set aside the time to read this book and that it led me to Andies equally wonderful blog.
2930616
Honest, Candid, Real. These are only some of the adjectives that I would use to describe Katherine Willis Pershey's book. In her poetic prose she guides us vulnerably through the intricacies of life together, the challenges and opportunities that come from living in and through an institution such as marriage.

Unlike many religious leaders she wades through the waters in humility, honesty, and openness. She does not claim perfection instead she invites us to think deeply about what marriage means and about the ways that living life with another is at the core of what it means to live willingly yoked with another human being.

Katherine Willis Pershey does not shy away from the difficult topics connected to married life. From pre-marital sexuality, infidelity, and submission to same-sex marriage, divorce, and death, Pershey guides us with humor, humility, and understanding. Like a faithful pastor, she shines a light behind the closed doors of covenant life. Along the way she gives us hope that in the midst of the many challenges that marriage faces today [t]heres no shame in needing covenant to live.(210)

As pastor, husband, and fellow sojourner I say: take up and read! In Very Married we are gifted with an invitation to a new-old way of living life together.

(Although I have purchased a book this review is based on the reading of an advanced copy provided to me by the publisher)
3437290
For anyone who's lost a loved one, this book will move you in more ways than you can imagine. It's the email journal of Jim Beaver (actor on Supernatural, Deadwood, Harper's Island)that recounts the struggles, hopes, fears, and above all, the incredible love and support Jim, his wife and their young daughter experienced during the year his wife battled cancer before succumbing to it. I lost my own mother when I was young to cancer, and this book really hit home and spoke to my heart about recognizing and appreciating the tough times as well as the good times in life. Jim's honesty in telling this story will have you in tears at times and laughing out loud in others. Life's That Way is Jim's way of saying that even in the darkest times, the human soul can find the strength and love to go on. A very moving, beautiful read.