If you were thinking about picking up Eat, Pray, Love for your Summer reading list, I recommend Anne Lamott’s Help, Thanks, Wow instead. I am ashamed to say that this was the first of her many revered works that I had the chance to pick up.

Anne has a brilliant talent for selecting the most perfect and profound words to depict an authentic prayer life. If you are exploring Christianity or not, or if you feel like your prayer life is odd or wanting, you will likely find this book both refreshing and affirming. When I read this book, the author created a space where I felt like I was having a candid conversation steeped in the kind of deep honesty that one can only typically have with that rare longtime best friend who has seen you at you worst and still loves you anyway.

Below are two of my favorite quotes from the book:

“If we stay where we are, where we’re stuck, where we’re comfortable and safe, we die there. We become like mushrooms, living in the dark, with poop up to our chins. If you want to know only what you already know, you’re dying. You’re saying: Leave me alone; I don’t mind this little rathole. It’s warm and dry. Really, it’s fine.”

“…The three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.”

Anyway, if you want to borrow the book from me please do. In fact, I will give it you. While it was a great read, it is not the kind I expect to go back to again and again.