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Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage
"Anne Lamott is my Oprah." -Chicago Tribune
From the bestselling author of Help, Thanks, Wow comes an inspiring guide to restoring hope and joy in our lives.
In Dusk Night Dawn, Anne Lamott explores the tough questions that many of us grapple with. How can we recapture the confidence we once had as we stumble through the dark times that seem increasingly bleak? As bad news piles up--from climate crises to daily assaults on civility--how can we cope? Where, she asks, "do we start to our world and joy and hope and our faith in life itself back . . . with our sore feet, hearing loss, stiff fingers, poor digestion, stunned minds, broken hearts?"
We begin, Lamott says, by accepting our flaws and embracing our humanity.
Drawing from her own experiences, Lamott shows us the intimate and human ways we can adopt to move through life's dark places and toward the light of hope that still burns ahead for all of us.
As she does in Help, Thanks, Wow and her other bestselling books, Lamott explores the thorny issues of life and faith by breaking them down into manageable, human-sized questions for readers to ponder, in the process showing us how we can amplify life's small moments of joy by staying open to love and connection. As Lamott notes in Dusk Night Dawn, "I got Medicare three days before I got hitched, which sounds like something an old person might do, which does not describe adorably ageless me." Marrying for the first time with a grown son and a grandson, Lamott explains that finding happiness with a partner isn't a function of age or beauty but of outlook and perspective.
Full of the honesty, humor, and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Dusk Night Dawn is classic Anne Lamott--thoughtful and comic, warm and wise--and further proof that Lamott truly speaks to the better angels in all of us.
From the bestselling author of Help, Thanks, Wow comes an inspiring guide to restoring hope and joy in our lives.
In Dusk Night Dawn, Anne Lamott explores the tough questions that many of us grapple with. How can we recapture the confidence we once had as we stumble through the dark times that seem increasingly bleak? As bad news piles up--from climate crises to daily assaults on civility--how can we cope? Where, she asks, "do we start to our world and joy and hope and our faith in life itself back . . . with our sore feet, hearing loss, stiff fingers, poor digestion, stunned minds, broken hearts?"
We begin, Lamott says, by accepting our flaws and embracing our humanity.
Drawing from her own experiences, Lamott shows us the intimate and human ways we can adopt to move through life's dark places and toward the light of hope that still burns ahead for all of us.
As she does in Help, Thanks, Wow and her other bestselling books, Lamott explores the thorny issues of life and faith by breaking them down into manageable, human-sized questions for readers to ponder, in the process showing us how we can amplify life's small moments of joy by staying open to love and connection. As Lamott notes in Dusk Night Dawn, "I got Medicare three days before I got hitched, which sounds like something an old person might do, which does not describe adorably ageless me." Marrying for the first time with a grown son and a grandson, Lamott explains that finding happiness with a partner isn't a function of age or beauty but of outlook and perspective.
Full of the honesty, humor, and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Dusk Night Dawn is classic Anne Lamott--thoughtful and comic, warm and wise--and further proof that Lamott truly speaks to the better angels in all of us.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published March 2, 2021
About the author
Anne Lamott
70 books9,678 followersAnne Lamott is an author of several novels and works of non-fiction. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, her non-fiction works are largely autobiographical, with strong doses of self-deprecating humor and covering such subjects as alcoholism, single motherhood, and Christianity. She appeals to her fans because of her sense of humor, her deeply felt insights, and her outspoken views on topics such as her left-of-center politics and her unconventional Christian faith. She is a graduate of Drew College Preparatory School in San Francisco, California. Her father, Kenneth Lamott, was also a writer and was the basis of her first novel Hard Laughter.
Lamott's life is documented in Freida Lee Mock's 1999 documentary Bird by Bird: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott.
Lamott's life is documented in Freida Lee Mock's 1999 documentary Bird by Bird: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 956 reviews
March 10, 2021
Challenging times. In times like these I try to find wisdom, comfort in other's words. Lamott is a favorite of mine. Her books are honest, humorous, tackle issues which are of concern to many. Climate change, political issues and challenges she has personally faced and continues facing. Newly married at 66, she speaks of personal adjustments as well as the adjustments required for this time in which we are living. She loves nature and uses it to soothe and see.
It is not that I like reading of others misfortunes but so often they/she can show me the way through. This provides comfort. I also love the humor, she doesn't spare herself, her often outlandish, anxiety ridden thoughts seem funny in retrospect. Above all she has a strong faith, not in any particular religion, but in the Bible stories, in the kindness of man, in the hood that we can leave and live a better future.
"Seeing is a form of pure being, unlike watching or looking at. Seems why we're here."
"We rise up to help the best we can, and we summon humor to amend ghastly behavior and dismal ongoing reality."
"Friends save us, service to others save us. Books, nature, community, and music save us."
"Kindness anywhere gives me hope; it changes us."
ARC from Edelweiss.
It is not that I like reading of others misfortunes but so often they/she can show me the way through. This provides comfort. I also love the humor, she doesn't spare herself, her often outlandish, anxiety ridden thoughts seem funny in retrospect. Above all she has a strong faith, not in any particular religion, but in the Bible stories, in the kindness of man, in the hood that we can leave and live a better future.
"Seeing is a form of pure being, unlike watching or looking at. Seems why we're here."
"We rise up to help the best we can, and we summon humor to amend ghastly behavior and dismal ongoing reality."
"Friends save us, service to others save us. Books, nature, community, and music save us."
"Kindness anywhere gives me hope; it changes us."
ARC from Edelweiss.
March 22, 2021
This was the balm my soul needed. I loved every word in every essay and I have a new mantra: "The kitten isn't dead. The kitten is in the living room." Read this wise and moving book and you'll understand.
March 13, 2021
I have been a little disappointed in her latest 2 or 3 books. I felt like she was just rehashing old ideas, but in this one, the old Anne Lamott is back. The biting humor and the honesty that has always been her trademark is back.
March 22, 2021
’Where on earth do we start to get our world and joy and hope and our faith in life itself back?'
Love, perfectionism, emotional scars, marriage, life, frustration. In other words - life, in a general sense, through the eyes and thoughts of Anne Lamott. Urging, softly, for us to remember to be ‘our better selves’ - at least as often as possible. She doesn’t shy away from sharing when she falls short of achieving this goal. She also shares some messages that offer a somewhat soothing reminder that life, and the people living, is often messy, disappointing and difficult to navigate on our own.
’My comedian friend Duncan Trussel once said nine words onstage that changed me. He said that when you first meet him, you’re meeting his bodyguard. I wrote it down and later taped it to my bathroom mirror, where all truth resides at least briefly. His bodyguard is smart and charming, and keeps people out. Deep inside, his true self is very human, which is to say beautiful and kind of a mess --needy, insecure, judgmental, like most of us. It is full of love, warmth, and rage.’
Even the children in her Sunday school class are somewhat aware of the flaws of this world.
’Even now, they know that the world leaves grubby fingerprints all over everything: our hearts, minds, hope.’
This is, I think, the tenth of her books that I’ve read. There is a comfort, for me, in reading her books, in feeling that sense of acceptance in imperfection, even in love. Life isn’t perfect, and her words are not necessarily profound in a ‘new’ sense, but - especially in this last, crazy, year that we’ve all been affected by - it helps to be reminded that life can, indeed, be messy.
’I know the secret of life. If you want to have loving feelings, do loving things.’
These days life seems so fragile, I can’t avoid seeing or hearing the daily death count. Daily reminders have left most people feeling vulnerable and fearful, while others seem to believe they are immune. I believe, as most do, that life is precious.
’Some poet once wrote that we think we are drops in the ocean, but that we are really the ocean in drops, both minute and everything there is.’
The antidote to hate and fear is love. Love is patient, love is kind. Not arrogant, dishonorable or selfish. It delights in truth.
Love is hope in action.
Love, perfectionism, emotional scars, marriage, life, frustration. In other words - life, in a general sense, through the eyes and thoughts of Anne Lamott. Urging, softly, for us to remember to be ‘our better selves’ - at least as often as possible. She doesn’t shy away from sharing when she falls short of achieving this goal. She also shares some messages that offer a somewhat soothing reminder that life, and the people living, is often messy, disappointing and difficult to navigate on our own.
’My comedian friend Duncan Trussel once said nine words onstage that changed me. He said that when you first meet him, you’re meeting his bodyguard. I wrote it down and later taped it to my bathroom mirror, where all truth resides at least briefly. His bodyguard is smart and charming, and keeps people out. Deep inside, his true self is very human, which is to say beautiful and kind of a mess --needy, insecure, judgmental, like most of us. It is full of love, warmth, and rage.’
Even the children in her Sunday school class are somewhat aware of the flaws of this world.
’Even now, they know that the world leaves grubby fingerprints all over everything: our hearts, minds, hope.’
This is, I think, the tenth of her books that I’ve read. There is a comfort, for me, in reading her books, in feeling that sense of acceptance in imperfection, even in love. Life isn’t perfect, and her words are not necessarily profound in a ‘new’ sense, but - especially in this last, crazy, year that we’ve all been affected by - it helps to be reminded that life can, indeed, be messy.
’I know the secret of life. If you want to have loving feelings, do loving things.’
These days life seems so fragile, I can’t avoid seeing or hearing the daily death count. Daily reminders have left most people feeling vulnerable and fearful, while others seem to believe they are immune. I believe, as most do, that life is precious.
’Some poet once wrote that we think we are drops in the ocean, but that we are really the ocean in drops, both minute and everything there is.’
The antidote to hate and fear is love. Love is patient, love is kind. Not arrogant, dishonorable or selfish. It delights in truth.
Love is hope in action.
January 30, 2021
I am usually a huge fan of Anne Lamott’s writing. That is not the case with this book. It just feels random and disjointed. Maybe because she wrote it during the time of Covid when most of our brains are feeling random and disjointed, and hers is feeling that way as well. Looking forward to her next right in the post Covid world! Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
March 30, 2021
Lamott’s best all-new essays (if you don’t count Small Victories, which reprinted some greatest hits) in nearly a decade. The book is a fitting follow-up to Almost Everything in that it tackles the same central theme: how to have hope in God and in other people even when the news (here, Trump, Covid, and climate breakdown) heralds the worst.
One major thing that has changed in Lamott’s life since her last book is getting married for the first time, in her mid-sixties, to a Buddhist. (“How’s married life?” people can’t seem to resist asking her.) In thinking of marriage she writes about love and friendship, constancy and forgiveness, none of which comes easy. Her neurotic nature flares up every now and again, but Neal helps to talk her down. Fragments of her early family life come back as she considers all that her parents were up against and concludes that they did their best (“How paltry and blocked our family love was, how narrow the bandwidth of my parents’ spiritual lives”).
Opportunities for maintaining quiet faith in spite of circumstances arise all the time for her, whether it’s a storytelling evening that feels like it will never end, a four-day power cut, the kitten going missing, or young people taking to the streets to protest about the climate crisis they’re inheriting. A short postscript entitled “Covid College” gives thanks for “the blessings of COVID: we became more reflective, more contemplative.”
The prose and the anecdotes feel fresher here than in several of the author’s other recent books. I highlighted quote after quote. Some of these essays will be well worth rereading and deserve to become classics in the Lamott canon, especially “Soul Lather,” “Snail Hymn,” “Light Breezes,” and “One Winged Love.”
One major thing that has changed in Lamott’s life since her last book is getting married for the first time, in her mid-sixties, to a Buddhist. (“How’s married life?” people can’t seem to resist asking her.) In thinking of marriage she writes about love and friendship, constancy and forgiveness, none of which comes easy. Her neurotic nature flares up every now and again, but Neal helps to talk her down. Fragments of her early family life come back as she considers all that her parents were up against and concludes that they did their best (“How paltry and blocked our family love was, how narrow the bandwidth of my parents’ spiritual lives”).
Opportunities for maintaining quiet faith in spite of circumstances arise all the time for her, whether it’s a storytelling evening that feels like it will never end, a four-day power cut, the kitten going missing, or young people taking to the streets to protest about the climate crisis they’re inheriting. A short postscript entitled “Covid College” gives thanks for “the blessings of COVID: we became more reflective, more contemplative.”
The prose and the anecdotes feel fresher here than in several of the author’s other recent books. I highlighted quote after quote. Some of these essays will be well worth rereading and deserve to become classics in the Lamott canon, especially “Soul Lather,” “Snail Hymn,” “Light Breezes,” and “One Winged Love.”
February 8, 2021
I have read a couple of Anne Lamott books in the past, and Bird on Bird is one of my most favourite books on writing. I'm always recommending it to other writers. However, I found this particular book a little disappointing. There were odd moments when something spoke to me, but these were rare, and I found myself rushing to get to the end. Some of the stories felt long-winded in my humble opinion.
This might prove inspiring for another reader, of course, just not for me this time around.
This might prove inspiring for another reader, of course, just not for me this time around.
February 21, 2021
I pretty much just wept the entire time I read this. Just because it felt very nice and not many things feel very nice these days. A nice reset and reminder.
March 31, 2021
I have read almost all of Anne Lamott's nonfiction, so I was expecting this to be more of a good thing. But this book was disappointing. While I encountered one laugh-out-loud section, most of it was complaining and overwrought prose. The subtitle is "On Revival and Courage." I didn't come across anything that could be described like that, nor was this "an inspiring guide to restoring hope and joy in our lives." If anything, it was kind of depressing. Lamott honestly describes her current health issues, her relationship with her new husband, how bleak the world is becoming with climate issues, etc. I found very little to encourage me, and no real references to faith. Yes, she's honest about where she is with her life right now, but if you're expecting something uplifting, be prepared to look elsewhere.
March 6, 2021
When would Anne Lamott ever get less than 5 stars?
Never!
For those of us that skew toward anxious as in hope for the best and plan for the worst case scenario, Anne Lamott is our leader.
Yet, she convinces us that “the center will hold” and sometimes knowing this is sufficient unto the day.
And let’s not forget that...
LOVE IS THE ANSWER.
every. single. time.
Never!
For those of us that skew toward anxious as in hope for the best and plan for the worst case scenario, Anne Lamott is our leader.
Yet, she convinces us that “the center will hold” and sometimes knowing this is sufficient unto the day.
And let’s not forget that...
LOVE IS THE ANSWER.
every. single. time.
March 22, 2021
I wanted to like this but didn't; maybe it's me that's changed over the years though and not Lamott. I just couldn't tolerate the self reflection, neurotic tangents, and over sensitivity in this book. It felt indulgent in places and I'd give it one star but am giving two out of respect for her as an artist and knowing that perhaps it's not a fair assessment.
May 2, 2021
Anne Lamott can be A Bit Much for me at times--but then, I think she can be a bit much for herself at times. This book seemed all over the place to me, and not as strong as some earlier ones I've read. I did like what she had to say about forgiveness, that it is a grace we can't really will ourselves to have. We have to set our receptors to the right frequency (something like that) and wait for it to come along. Every once in a while I like to check in on how she's muddling through life, as I muddle through mine. Nothing will top Bird by Bird for me, though.
June 10, 2022
DNF. I started with optimism, having heard wonderful things about her book on writing. This book came to me through a search for books on grief, which I’ve been researching in a desultory way. Maybe she got around to grief eventually, I’ll never know; I made it only 50 pages in.
I got uncomfortable pretty quickly. There’s a particular kind of northern California upper-middle-class liberalism that can imagine no other universe of thought or feeling, and that’s clearly where the author dwells. Even to a liberal like me it comes off as smug, and I can only imagine how much a nonliberal would hate it. So I became wary early on, when she spoke unselfconsciously of helping “the poor.” Then the potted wisdom started kicking in, the self-help-guru pronouncements intended to be deep. Some landed okay—I rather liked the idea that “the world leaves grubby fingerprints all over everything: our hearts, minds, hope.”
But then the gibberish began: “When I am seeing him [her husband], I intuit something deep inside him, wounded and perfect. Seeing is a form of pure being, unlike watching or looking at. Seeing is why we’re here.” That paragraph marked the end of my patience.
I gave it two stars for the occasional chuckle, and because I always feel I’m being unfair to a book if I don’t finish it. But for me, life’s too short to finish this.
I got uncomfortable pretty quickly. There’s a particular kind of northern California upper-middle-class liberalism that can imagine no other universe of thought or feeling, and that’s clearly where the author dwells. Even to a liberal like me it comes off as smug, and I can only imagine how much a nonliberal would hate it. So I became wary early on, when she spoke unselfconsciously of helping “the poor.” Then the potted wisdom started kicking in, the self-help-guru pronouncements intended to be deep. Some landed okay—I rather liked the idea that “the world leaves grubby fingerprints all over everything: our hearts, minds, hope.”
But then the gibberish began: “When I am seeing him [her husband], I intuit something deep inside him, wounded and perfect. Seeing is a form of pure being, unlike watching or looking at. Seeing is why we’re here.” That paragraph marked the end of my patience.
I gave it two stars for the occasional chuckle, and because I always feel I’m being unfair to a book if I don’t finish it. But for me, life’s too short to finish this.
March 11, 2021
Anne Lamott takes on themes familiar to her fans (me, for example) that include addiction, recovery, spirituality, relationships, struggle, as well as the revival and courage named in her title.
I think I most liked how she would call a friend when she was struggling. The friend was able to allow her to speak a bit about what was bothering her. Every time she was able to restore her equilibrium after speaking with another person.
I think I most liked how she would call a friend when she was struggling. The friend was able to allow her to speak a bit about what was bothering her. Every time she was able to restore her equilibrium after speaking with another person.
March 29, 2021
Sigh. Well, I've always loved Anne Lamott and her writing is still good and can make me laugh out loud. I've read all her non-fiction and have been known to say she is one of my favorite writers. But, but, but......maybe it's just me or where I'm at in my life right now. I didn't find this book all that interesting or new. It seemed mostly like rambling stream of consciousness mixed with typical Annie angst and how she tries to talk herself out of all her obsessions. It is memoir-ish and includes new experiences and stories with her new husband and old stories about her parents and her dark pre-recovery days. It's pretty Jesus-y, which is fine by me - I'm Jesus-y also so that wasn't a turn-off at all. Her brand of California old-hippie spirituality is always a presence in her books to some extent and makes me smile. We are the same age, so I've always felt it was easy to relate to her ways of thinking even though we don't have similar early life experiences at all. I love her short Facebook posts. Maybe a whole book of them just isn't what I needed right now. I kind of just wanted to finish reading this book quickly instead of savoring it, as I used to do. I'll still read everything she writes, though. Reluctant 3 stars.
April 9, 2021
my girl Anne did it again, delivering her signature soul and sass and Spirit-filled goodness, packing a strong punch in a small book, making me laugh and think and settle deeper into truth. forever a favorite author. 🤍
April 7, 2021
Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage contains readable, poetic meditations by Anne Lamott – a great Book club pick to dissect and pick through. I read it with #zibbyvirtualbookclub and found the ruminations interestings and good starting points for my own…
How can we recapture the confidence we once had as we stumble through the dark times that seem increasingly bleak? How do we cope as bad news piles up? When do we get our sense of ourselves and our safety back? And how did we get so much older so fast? Is there anything we can do about climate change, do our small steps really amount to anything ?
We begin, Lamott says, by accepting our flaws and embracing our humanity. The book is rooted in our current moment and the past year, how hard it is to find hope in the middle of it and how we can do it anyway. As usual, Lamott is interested in justice, and spends a lot of time meditating on things like the climate crisis, but her best writing is inward as she dissects her recent marriage (fort he first time at age 65), alcoholism, getting older and, God. It was inspiring to hear Anne Lamott speak in the pandemic intimate setting of a Zoom Bookclub Meet.
How can we recapture the confidence we once had as we stumble through the dark times that seem increasingly bleak? How do we cope as bad news piles up? When do we get our sense of ourselves and our safety back? And how did we get so much older so fast? Is there anything we can do about climate change, do our small steps really amount to anything ?
We begin, Lamott says, by accepting our flaws and embracing our humanity. The book is rooted in our current moment and the past year, how hard it is to find hope in the middle of it and how we can do it anyway. As usual, Lamott is interested in justice, and spends a lot of time meditating on things like the climate crisis, but her best writing is inward as she dissects her recent marriage (fort he first time at age 65), alcoholism, getting older and, God. It was inspiring to hear Anne Lamott speak in the pandemic intimate setting of a Zoom Bookclub Meet.
April 12, 2023
I really liked this book.
I can't say that I align with Anne Lamott in a political way (okay, maybe a little), but I can sure relate to her every day description of living with grace, caring for others, caring for ourselves ...
She reminds me that much of what we feel, struggle with and worry about are the same things that the girl or guy next door are struggling with. We're in this together. I absolutely adore her perspective.
Note: Some language and descriptions of substance abuse
I can't say that I align with Anne Lamott in a political way (okay, maybe a little), but I can sure relate to her every day description of living with grace, caring for others, caring for ourselves ...
She reminds me that much of what we feel, struggle with and worry about are the same things that the girl or guy next door are struggling with. We're in this together. I absolutely adore her perspective.
Note: Some language and descriptions of substance abuse
March 8, 2021
Anne Lamott’s newest collection of essays was written during the early days of the pandemic, and her wise vulnerable words that lovingly confront the fear and anxiety of our current age seems especially appropriate and well timed. Her stark questions and hilarious turns of phrase (like comparing an agonizing family conversation to reading Wikipedia’s entry on PMS) disarms the listener to probe more deeply into the soul’s layers underneath the seemingly endless reasons for anxiety. Lamott, who always narrates her own audiobooks, is known for saying that “laughter is a bubbly, effervescent form of holiness”, but her witticisms don’t come cheap or without cost. Her meditations on her late father and mother’s influence are her most grace-filled, thoughtful and wise words she’s written yet. Her voice gets rougher as she shares how she separates the trauma they left her, while also holding onto the good she still clings to. Her distinct, slightly raspy voice is more grandmotherly, enlightened, and wry as ever as she attempts to remind the young generation of protesters that her generation still has something left to offer--they know all the protest songs, after all. This newest collection of essays is the perfect antidote to the constant doom scrolling of social media. Recommended for lovers of memoirs, essay collections, and spiritual wisdom seekers.
March 26, 2021
I still love her work, but maybe I've changed too much since last I read her? It sometimes felt like she was glazing over the hard parts in service of always hitting her mark (happy messages). I did love her analogy about how we hire dread as our governess when we are children, and her essay based on her friend's line that was something like, "when you meet me for the first time, you're meeting my bodyguard." And I'm still so taken by the image of "butterfly soup" inside a cocoon. There was good stuff here, but I am just tired and jaded in this moment.
May 25, 2021
“Where on earth do we start to get our world and joy and hope and our faith in life itself back?”
Anne Lamott’s words are always wise and thought-provoking and comforting and amusing and clever.
A book of essays lends itself to unevenness in execution or at least in response, and this is no exception. But the whole thing is definitely worth the read.
Anne Lamott’s words are always wise and thought-provoking and comforting and amusing and clever.
A book of essays lends itself to unevenness in execution or at least in response, and this is no exception. But the whole thing is definitely worth the read.
March 9, 2021
Her best book yet. Her vulnerability and her love shine through. I cried, I laughed. I sighed. I thought, I prayed. I related. I learned. And I loved the wisdom.
March 14, 2021
Thank God for Anne Lamott forever and always.
March 16, 2021
Perfection. Beautiful. My only regret is that I read it so quickly. I wish I had 100 other books just like this to read right now. The absolute perfect medicine for the pandemic weary soul.
May 27, 2021
The book has a very optimistic point of view towards life. I like the concept of “intimacy”, which describes that parters or couples should truly should be seen and see the other.
The book makes you feel good and I like it. Unfortunately, there is some limitations in value-add for me personally. Therefore, I rate the book with three plus stars
#blinkist
The book makes you feel good and I like it. Unfortunately, there is some limitations in value-add for me personally. Therefore, I rate the book with three plus stars
#blinkist
September 25, 2021
Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage
Anne Lamott has come into my life at exactly the right time! I needed some humor to coax me into caring again about living.
Lamott has that California sense of life, something that not all other states “get” and it’s so refreshing to hear it again. It’s one of the very few things I miss about living there.
Highly recommend this for people who’ve been around a while and those finding love a second time, or third, or ninth in the case of my mother.
Anne Lamott has come into my life at exactly the right time! I needed some humor to coax me into caring again about living.
Lamott has that California sense of life, something that not all other states “get” and it’s so refreshing to hear it again. It’s one of the very few things I miss about living there.
Highly recommend this for people who’ve been around a while and those finding love a second time, or third, or ninth in the case of my mother.
May 6, 2023
Book 9/12 (for me) of Anne Lamott's collections of essays. She's my go-to contemporary essayist, always reliable when I need a healthy mix of inspiration, sarcasm, and humor.
February 5, 2021
A friend messaged me the other day, telling me Anne Lamott's newest book is coming out soon. We both agreed we needed her words now. NetGalley read my mind - thank you for the ARC in exchange for review. And I truly mean it. Thank you.
Anne Lamott's words are always a salve, but after the last four years in this country, I wasn't even sure her words could touch my inner wounds. I was wrong. Mostly because my inner wounds are nothing compared to what so many are going through. But really, because Lamott has this gift of knowing my soul, and the souls of my friends, and the souls of strangers...which leads me to believe we are all more alike than different.
Fans know Lamott is still a newlywed at 60ish. She spends a good deal of the book talking about imperfections, what love is, and what it isn't. I'm guilty of looking for perfection in love. I'm also constantly disappointed. I do have the love Lamott describes and I just needed her words to remind me.
In addition to her new marriage, she opens up about her childhood and her alcoholism. In those chapters I found a forgiveness for my own parents and an appreciation for those struggling with addiction.
But the most personal part of the book came at the very end. Here, Lamott talks about a retreat she attended. As she was talking, it reminded me of a "life changing/mountain top" retreat experience I had 20 years ago. A week that changed my life. I fondly compared my week to what she was describing. As I ended the book, I kept reading, looking at the acknowledgements - which I don't usually do. This time, I saw a name I will never forget. She thanked Mark Yaconelli, the retreat leader of my life changing experience 20 years ago.
What are the odds? I'm not sure. But a good friend told me we needed this book. NetGalley offered it immediately. Lamott's words entered my inner being. And I was reminded of a spiritual guide who helped shaped my life. Dusk, Night, Dawn is fate.
*PS I just noticed my goodreads profile picture I put in years ago. Yeah, this is the book for me at this time.
Anne Lamott's words are always a salve, but after the last four years in this country, I wasn't even sure her words could touch my inner wounds. I was wrong. Mostly because my inner wounds are nothing compared to what so many are going through. But really, because Lamott has this gift of knowing my soul, and the souls of my friends, and the souls of strangers...which leads me to believe we are all more alike than different.
Fans know Lamott is still a newlywed at 60ish. She spends a good deal of the book talking about imperfections, what love is, and what it isn't. I'm guilty of looking for perfection in love. I'm also constantly disappointed. I do have the love Lamott describes and I just needed her words to remind me.
In addition to her new marriage, she opens up about her childhood and her alcoholism. In those chapters I found a forgiveness for my own parents and an appreciation for those struggling with addiction.
But the most personal part of the book came at the very end. Here, Lamott talks about a retreat she attended. As she was talking, it reminded me of a "life changing/mountain top" retreat experience I had 20 years ago. A week that changed my life. I fondly compared my week to what she was describing. As I ended the book, I kept reading, looking at the acknowledgements - which I don't usually do. This time, I saw a name I will never forget. She thanked Mark Yaconelli, the retreat leader of my life changing experience 20 years ago.
What are the odds? I'm not sure. But a good friend told me we needed this book. NetGalley offered it immediately. Lamott's words entered my inner being. And I was reminded of a spiritual guide who helped shaped my life. Dusk, Night, Dawn is fate.
*PS I just noticed my goodreads profile picture I put in years ago. Yeah, this is the book for me at this time.
June 5, 2021
What was endearing decades ago is cloying now: dysthymic humble bragging interwoven with what might be, in the right hands, significant inquiry. This all seems like so much recycled twelve step talk interlaced with accounts of conversations with professed religious.
Lamott has a talent for the occasional fetching trope but the charms of such word pictures are dwarfed by a display of the remarkable leftist gift of being sanctimonious and condescending at the same time, i.e., referring to a former president in faux Christianese as "Brother Trump."
Life is no doubt difficult in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. Perhaps in time Lamott will recover as the title of this work portends. One might hope.
Lamott has a talent for the occasional fetching trope but the charms of such word pictures are dwarfed by a display of the remarkable leftist gift of being sanctimonious and condescending at the same time, i.e., referring to a former president in faux Christianese as "Brother Trump."
Life is no doubt difficult in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. Perhaps in time Lamott will recover as the title of this work portends. One might hope.
May 22, 2021
Worst Book Ever
In chapter 7 where she talks about how much she hated listening to and wanting to shoot the people that read their “poetry” I thought to myself “That’s exactly how I’ve felt the entire time reading her book!”
In chapter 7 where she talks about how much she hated listening to and wanting to shoot the people that read their “poetry” I thought to myself “That’s exactly how I’ve felt the entire time reading her book!”
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