HACKER SAFE certified sites prevent over 99.9% of hacker crime.

Taras Grescoe Read the INK Q&A with Taras Grescoe and save 30% on Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood.

Bottomfeeder $17.49
Hardcover Add to Cart



 
Ships free on qualified orders.
$12.95
List price: 24.95
You save: $12.00
HARDCOVER, USED
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 BurnsideChristianity- Inspirational


Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith Cover

Only 1 left in stock at $12.95!

Powells.com Staff Pick

Anne Lamott's books give me the sensation of a refreshing spring rain. Suddenly, everything looks clean, bright, and just plain noticeable again. Her surprising turns of phrase, her wit, and her ability to write with a light but insightful hand make this collection of essays a joy.
Recommended by Danielle, Powells.com

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The world, community, the family, the human heart: these are the beautiful and complicated arenas in which our lives unfold. Wherever you look, there’s trouble and wonder, pain and beauty, restoration and darkness — sometimes all at once.

Yet amid the confusion, if you look carefully, in nature or in the kitchen, in ordinariness or in mystery, beyond the emotion muck we all slog through, you’ll find it eventually: a path, some light to see by, moments of insight, courage, or buoyancy. In other words, grace.

Anne Lamott knows and lives by this belief, most of the time. In Grace (Eventually), her brilliant new collection, she recounts the missteps, detours, and roadblocks in her walk of faith.

It's been and erratic journey, and some days go better than others. "I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra kinds of things," she writes. "Also, that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace’s arrival. But no, it's clog and slog and scotch, on the floor, in the silence, in the dark."

In Grace (Eventually), Lamott describes how she copes. The challenges seem alternately inconsequential and insurmountable — the anger engendered by an obstinate carpet salesman or president; the engulfing envy at friend's professional success; the bewilderment at discovering that a child has grown up or that a friend wants to die on his own terms — and they are also universal.

Wise and irreverent, poignant and funny, Grace (Eventually) is a primer in faith, as we come to discover what it means to be fully human and alive.

Review:

"It would be easy to mistake this book for more of the same. Like Lamott's earlier spiritual nonfiction, Traveling Mercies and Plan B, it's a collection of essays, mostly previously published. The three books have strikingly similar covers and nearly identical subtitles. The familiar topics are here — Mom; her son, illness; death; addictions; Jesus; Republicans — as is the zany attitude. Not that repetitiveness matters; Lamott's faithful fans would line up to buy her shopping lists. But these recent essays show a new mellowness: 'I don't hate anyone right now, not even George W. Bush. This may seem an impossibility, but it is true, and indicates the presence of grace or dementia, or both.' With gentle wisdom refining her signature humor, Lamott explores helpfulness, decency, love and especially forgiveness. She explains the change: 'Sometimes I act just as juvenile as I ever did, but as I get older, I do it for shorter periods of time. I find my way back to the path sooner, where there is always one last resort: get a glass of water and call a friend.' Here's hoping that grace eventually persuades this older, wiser Lamott that her next nonfiction book should be wholly original." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Lamott is most effective when talking about her spiritual beliefs and how they developed over time....Constant references to her sobriety, weight issues, and curly hair are getting a bit repetitious after the two other books, but it's part of her charm, and fans won't be disappointed." Library Joyurnal

Review:

"It is true that Lamott has been mining the same themes for quite a while. And she does rely on similar motifs, such as sorting things out on long walks with her dog on Mount Tamalpais....What keeps me coming back is the writing — the imaginative imagery, the telling metaphors, the clever turns of phrase imbued with passion, heart and wit." San Francisco Chronicle

Review:

"When much of a book is drawn from previously published work...there is a risk that a regular reader will be disappointed. Not so here. Re-read as a collection, these earlier online and magazine pieces combine for a greater weight, like so many coins saved up to buy something long awaited." Seattle Times

Review:

"What makes Lamott's writing powerful isn't her unconventional faith. Rather, it's the profound message about God's grace and redemption often lurking underneath all the carping, poor me whining and brutal honesty." Chicago Sun-Times

Review:

"Lamott...follows in the tradition of the most authentic spiritual mentors of the last 50 years, among them Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen." Charlotte Observer

Review:

"I had the same initial reaction to this book that I always have to Lamott's work. I began with a suspicion that her pieces were going to be too obvious, too sentimental, and then found myself suddenly disarmed by an unexpected turn of phrase, a flash of humor or a psychological insight." Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Anne Lamott is the author of the bestsellers Traveling Mercies, Operating Instructions, and Bird by Bird, as well as six novels, including Crooked Little Heart and Rosie. Her column in Salon magazine was voted Best of the Web by Newsweek. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Lamott lives in northern California.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
steffercat, April 9, 2007 (view all comments by steffercat)
This is a more reflective book than Lamott’s others. The tone is deeper, darker at times, and more reverent. It is just as honest and almost as funny, but the maturation that is going on inside her is so palpable that it trumps all else.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(8 of 12 readers found this comment helpful)
halofriendly, March 10, 2007 (view all comments by halofriendly)
The third in a "series" by Lamott, Grace (Eventually) is compiled of new writings, several writings that were featured on Salon.com, and gives all of us fans a chance to further read Lamott's attempts at grace, forgiving Bush, and learning how to be a parent to a teenager who can drive. She's a bit more mellow in this book than she's been in the past two books, but it's still Lamott through and through. There were certain times while reading this that made me catch my breath and then just as quickly, I was laughing out loud on my bus commute home.

Highly recommended.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(10 of 19 readers found this comment helpful)
Maystar17, January 13, 2007 (view all comments by Maystar17)
I am once again captured by potent and subtle "slight of hand" found in Anne Lamott's book title. If one really reads her stories of 'real life faith', it's impossible to ignore how deeply her works are solidly grounded in "good theology". This fine title speaks to the nearly universal God-idea of sychronous "promised abundance"; the idea that all our stories, however steeped in struggle, come to a mystically "rich" end. Grace. In her darkly wry way, she stamps all she writes with a stubborn "meaning making", most of which is only possible with "grace", as she sees it. Lamott "evangelizes" (a word she would never use) for this "making meaning" in the God of "Grace, eventually".
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(9 of 18 readers found this comment helpful)
View all 3 comments

Product Details

ISBN:
9781594489426
Subtitle:
Eventually: Thoughts on Faith
Author:
Lamott, Anne
Author:
Lamott, Anne
Publisher:
Riverhead Books
Subject:
General
Subject:
Religious
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Women
Subject:
Christian biography
Subject:
Faith
Subject:
Spirituality - General
Subject:
Biography
Publication Date:
April 2007
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
253
Dimensions:
8.26x5.58x1.04 in. .76 lbs.