Take a Chance Challenge - Book Review

This is another (brief) book review for the 12 month Take a Chance Challenge.  This choice fell under the category of Blogger's Choice - where a blogger has chosen it as a 'best read' book.  I found several bloggers have chosen it for a favorite read, so I thought it was time to read it myself.

 One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Published by Zondervan 2011

240 pages

Genre: Spirituality, Christian living

Available: Hardcover, eReaders, (I borrowed it from the library)







Brief description: The author describes her continued journey with God by sharing her life experiences, bible verses, a-ha moments, and joy she finds in counting her blessings.  She begins the book describing life altering events through her eyes as a very young child.  She explains how these events change the path of her family and how she finds her way back through gifts.  The gifts are every day things; a sunset, baby birds, her children running around the yard - not necessarily tangible things.  She brings the reader along through her moments of uncertainty as well as her moments of joy.  The book is presented in 11 chapters, each focusing on a theme she hopes to share and building on the points made previously.

My thoughts: I wanted to love this book, because so many people suggested it.  I love the idea of this book and felt the energy and passion for her experience through the many pages.  However, to me, she writes in a  stream of consciousness, as if you are in her head with her.  First her memories of her sister or how she met her husband, than a jump to a bible verse or spiritual reference, then back to working it all out in her head, but on paper.  I had to set it down for several days at a time and ponder it.  Maybe that was the point.  I was with her word for word through about the first third of the book.  Then I kept reading more to try and understand her point, even if I didn't catch every detail.

The important part of this book for me was counting your gifts from God everyday in some way.  They do not have to be large gestures, just something that reminds you that being here today is in itself, a gift.  Enjoy it, share it, rejoice in it and do something good with it.  So, in the spirit of 'counting my gifts', today's gifts were: getting a sunny day to clean out my car and make it sparkle again, making plans with my friends for a mini-vacation next week, and having delicious iced red tea as the sun sets.

M.E.