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ginabyeg's review
2.0
I’m not sure exactly what I expected from this book, but what I got was not it. I think I was expecting that the “dark“ to be REALLY dark, and the “light“ to be VERY light. That being said, the contradictions she talked about didn’t seem to me to be overly dark or light; as in, evil versus good, or hate vs love. They were simply just contradictions. Additionally, each chapter seemed more like her opinion then a true reflection, if that makes sense. While she had a thought-provoking nugget or two, they were few and far between, and I couldn’t bring myself to read the last 3 to 4 chapters.
katy82's review
3.0
I'm a lover of Chittister's writing, but this book was not my favorite. I like that the chapters where short making it easy to pick up and rich on many different topics, but that also meant she only touched the surface of each topic she addressed. While Chittister's prose is usually beautiful, here her metaphors and pieces of advice sometimes over-reach or end up clumsy and clunky, but overall I'm glad I read the book.
allisonjpmiller's review
4.0
This is not a self-help book or a deep dive into the struggles of the human condition—rather, it's a collection of essays that succinctly captures the many paradoxes (I know; I am nothing if not predictable) we wrestle with on a daily basis, the ones that tend to haunt us at night and, during the day, interrupt our desperate attempts at cultivating peace.
Chittister's pearls of wisdom here are valuable precisely because it's obvious that they are the result of experience, not just of contemplation. She doesn't tie questions and problems up with a nice, neat bow by the end of each essay; she leaves them intact, but illuminated in ways I found incredibly helpful.
I especially appreciate the way she busts open the myth that peace is "a state of calm":
Essay subjects range from the dark side of security, wealth, and success to the merits of poverty, failure, exhaustion, femininity/masculinity, loss, friendship, solitude, depression, the unknown... you know: All that fun everyday life stuff. I couldn't find a thing I disagreed with in any of them.
Chittister's pearls of wisdom here are valuable precisely because it's obvious that they are the result of experience, not just of contemplation. She doesn't tie questions and problems up with a nice, neat bow by the end of each essay; she leaves them intact, but illuminated in ways I found incredibly helpful.
I especially appreciate the way she busts open the myth that peace is "a state of calm":
We grasp for false calm at every turning of the day and call ourselves damned or cursed or burdened or beaten without it. And yet, if we were forced to live in the peace that is listlessness, we would die from the tedium of it all. We seduce ourselves into thinking that we like the lack of challenge. We forget how dull becalmed can be.
Essay subjects range from the dark side of security, wealth, and success to the merits of poverty, failure, exhaustion, femininity/masculinity, loss, friendship, solitude, depression, the unknown... you know: All that fun everyday life stuff. I couldn't find a thing I disagreed with in any of them.
mellthatcher's review
4.0
I actually really enjoyed reading this book. Every night I would curl up in bed and read a couple chapters. Joan had a good way of writing that made it easy to understand and enjoy even though it wasn’t a fiction book, which is usually what I read. Sometimes the chapter was actually perfect to read after what went on during the day. Her writing did get a tad repetitive and I feel her analogies sometimes made it harder to understand, such as the chapter “The Place of Tsunamis in the Ocean of Life.” I feel that that chapter just did not really get to a point and I think Joan just expected you to understand where she was going with it, and I don’t think I did. Joan Chittister did leave a lot to interpretation for you and did not just spell some things out for you.
However, there were a lot of times while I was reading that I just thought “Yes!” and wanted to shove the book at someone else so they would get the point too. I actually wanted to write down so many quotes, which made it hard because then I was writing more than I was reading. I hate to mark books, or else I would have just underlined the sentences. But again, then I’d be underlining every other sentence.
Joan Chittister did have a lot of great points in the book. Like I said, I was writing down so many quotes. This is a book that I would recommend to many people, because it’s easy to read and has a lot of good things that people really should read. It’s not a deep book, and each chapter is only a couple pages. So really it’s up to you how much this book speaks to you.
I received this book from Blogging For Books.
“Frustration lies in what we decide we have a right to demand out of life rather than in concern of what life demands of us.”
However, there were a lot of times while I was reading that I just thought “Yes!” and wanted to shove the book at someone else so they would get the point too. I actually wanted to write down so many quotes, which made it hard because then I was writing more than I was reading. I hate to mark books, or else I would have just underlined the sentences. But again, then I’d be underlining every other sentence.
Joan Chittister did have a lot of great points in the book. Like I said, I was writing down so many quotes. This is a book that I would recommend to many people, because it’s easy to read and has a lot of good things that people really should read. It’s not a deep book, and each chapter is only a couple pages. So really it’s up to you how much this book speaks to you.
I received this book from Blogging For Books.
“Frustration lies in what we decide we have a right to demand out of life rather than in concern of what life demands of us.”
in2reading's review
4.0
Joan Chittister is one of my favorite spiritual writers. She manages to be challenging, inspiring and comforting at the same time. There is a lot of wisdom in these pages.
abetterbradley's review
2.0
After watching Sister Joan on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday, I was really looking forward to reading this book. I soon discovered that Sister Joan is a much better speaker/interview than she is author. She uses a ten dollar word where a nickel word would be just as sufficient. Each chapter lays out a topic where one presumably lays awake at night wondering about but her arguments are usually all or nothing. I might not have enough life experience at 40 to appreciate this book because 95% of the chapters I barely related to or really liked. The saving grace is that the 5% of chapters I dug were such aha moments I kept reading far past the point I would have usually stopped for other books.
maryannmcdana's review
3.0
A few choice quotes, and the topics are good, but spiritual resources with too much telling and not enough showing either and die on the vine.
jes77librarian's review
5.0
Chittister writes a beautiful and lyrical book of essays about the troubles, worries and anxieties that plague us at night. She writes, not as a person who shuns the world, but accepts the world as is and how we should live in the tension. Each essay is short and they weave the narrative throughout the book that if we faced the problems we hide during the day, we will not be afraid of them come nighttime.
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