Sunday Book Review--6

Another Sunday Book Review, on a Monday! Seriously, one of these days I'll get my stuff together. In the meantime, you probably know I was out of town last week at the Logger's Conference. I decided to read a book out loud while we drove. For those of you who know Matt and I personally, you know that I am an absolute AVID and self-proclaimed BOOK NERD. And Matt takes pride in the fact that BassMaster's Magazine is the only thing he has read in the past ten years. He did a critical analysis in high school on a third grade level book titled, "Touchdown for Tommy". And he passed. I"m not sure what that says about our local school system...but that's a whole other post. Anyways, I suggested that I read out loud to him while we drove and he didn't get excited, but he didn't refuse it, so I dug in and went with it. We read the entire book of "The Shack". I'm not sure this was the best choice for someone who doesn't read a lot of different kinds of books, but we stuck with it, and Matt even prompted me to keep reading in between pit stops with the kids (another blog on taking a potty training two year old on a trip to come).

So here is Matt's review--(Shoulder shrug) "Ehhhh".

And here is my review--

The Shack by William P. Young


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Not sure about this book. I figured if I waited a few days to make my decision, it might become clearer to me, but alas, it hasn't. I don't consider myself to be highly religious. I don't consider myself to "know" the bible. But I know enough to know this was a far stretch from biblical truth. Of course, it is fiction. I respect that. But when God came into the picture as a black woman making pancakes while using poor grammar, I was a bit taken aback. My main issue with this book is the fact that every time Mackenzie delved into a conversation with "Papa", I was left feeling guilty because I felt like I should be getting something profound out of the conversation, but I simply couldn't focus on the circles of words. As I was reading this outloud to my husband, it finally got to the point where I was reading ahead with my eyes and then skipping paragraphs with no meaning simply to spare him the boredome that I myself was having to experience.

I guess I felt like I would probably have gotten more out of the book if I were more religious. Or trying to find more religion. But the more I think about it, I just think it was a cheesy book.

One part that I did enjoy is the way that "God" relates his love and experiences with us much like we relate to our own small children. And I can accept this because the bible tells us the importance of "Childlike faith". So I was left feeling a little warm and fuzzy inside thinking that God probably does love us a lot like we love our small kids. Even when they are total stinkers and we're at wits end with them, we can always love and hug and kiss them and know that no matter what, they are our kids and that in itself is enough of a reason to continue to give them chance after chance after chance.

What was strange, too about this book was while we were driving to Eugene, we were passing some of the setting points from the book. The book focuses on the legend of Multnomah Falls, and sure enough, on our way home from Portland, we drove right past this place. This added to the story for sure, but not enough for me to recommend reading this book to anyone that I can think of. Sorry. I'm just as dissappointed as you are. I really wanted to love this book.

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