Review GPA: HELP, THANKS, WOW by Anne Lamott
Publication Date: November 13, 2012
Publisher: Riverhead
Genre:Religious non-fiction, spirituality
Publisher’s Synopsis: “Readers of all ages have followed and cherished Anne Lamott’s funny and perceptive writing about her own faith through decades of trial and error. And in her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow, she has coalesced everything she knows about prayer to these fundamentals.
It is these three prayers – asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us – that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward. In Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamott recounts how she came to these insights, explains what they mean to her and how they have helped, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas.”
_________________________
Lynette Lamb from the Star Tribune
Gold Star: “Prayer is a topic that can quickly turn treacly, but the reader needn’t fear that in Lamott’s irreverent hands.”
Demerit: “If you seek a pithy explication of prayer, as understood by one reliably funny Christian, this is your book. But if you’re hoping for fully realized stories about Lamott’s own wrestling with religion, like those found in her previous books on faith, you’ll be disappointed. This is more self-help manual than essay collection.”
Grade: A-
_________________________
From Publisher’s Weekly
Gold Star: “Equal parts 12 Step meeting in the church basement and walks on the beach, it’s a prayer manual for people who wouldn’t be caught dead reading prayer manuals.”
Demerit: ” It reads like it needed longer gestation or one more rewrite to go from casual-casual to casual-polished…”
Grade: A-
_________________________
From Kirkus Reviews
Gold Star: “In what at first may seem like a jumbled mashup of stories and reflections, Lamott manages to deftly convey the idea that in trying to control things, we’ve largely lost our ability to see the good and the miraculous in everyday life.”
Demerit: None
Grade: A+
_________________________
Colette Bancroft from the Tampa Bay Times
Gold Star: “Lamott is, as usual, funny and self-deprecating…”
Demerits: None
Grade: A+
Review GPA: A- (3.85)
