lamott

lamott
Originally uploaded by amy joy.

as i mentioned earlier, this weekend i had the chance to finally read anne lamott's new book, "plan b: further thoughts on faith"... anne is one of those women whose writing makes me want to write more, and who makes me want to be her best friend. she's extremely honest and funny and smart, and isn't afraid to laugh at herself. anne is also a christian - evangelical, jesus is lord kind of christian. but she's also very politically liberal, and that combined with her honesty can make some evangelicals doubt whether or not she truly is a sister. i'm happy to call her my sister, though.
i was a little nervous when i started reading plan b - her earlier books are so good that i was afraid i'd be disappointed. "traveling mercies," her previous memior about faith, is one of the three books i took with me to india, and one of those i'm constantly trying to get others to read. this one will be the same.
anne is older than she was when she wrote her earlier books - just over fifty. and her son sam is a teenager now, which definitely impacts the tone of her writing.
anne is not afraid to express her fears, and to ask hard questions. this is reflected in most of her essays, which were written around the time the war started in iraq. her questions and thoughts reflected a lot of my own, as i was reading them on the two-year anniversary of the invasion. be warned - if you are a republican, you may disagree with a lot of her political thoughts. but there is much more than politics to think about as anne reflects on growing older, learning to forgive, following a call, building community, etc.
in short, this one is a keeper.