Cold Tangerines

My friend Andi started a book club for women at our church. Our first meeting is this Sat. morning and I'm really looking forward to it. The sign up started out pretty small, but now there are 30-40 women of all ages in this thing! I'm excited to hear what other women think about the books we'll read, especially those not my age.

The first book on the list is Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. I didn't really know what this book was about at first, but by the first chapter I loved it. It's basically a book of short stories about her life, what she's learned through her experience & how they relate to God. I like that not every chapter talks about God, but you can see her faith throughout. She is such a honest writer & bravely talks about her fears, jealousies & insecurities as well as her moments of grace, pure joy & freedom. It's a book about celebrating life everyday...finding the good in every moment that you can. I was a little skeptical at first & afraid it would be a "feel good" book that our boy Joel Olsteen would write (no offense to Joel), but I was pleasantly surprised. I loved seeing God's graces throughout her life & it helped me see a little more of them in mine. I highly recommend it!

Being the dork that I am...after finishing the book I went online to see if she had any others. She doesn't, but does have a website/blog including her email address. Before I go further, let me remind you that I've already warned you I'm a total dork. You guessed it, I wrote her & thanked her for her awesome book! :) I would have totally kept that to myself except for the fact I'm kinda proud she wrote me back. Here is her response (no you don't get to see mine):

"Dear Lisa--
Thanks so much for your message. I'm thrilled that you connected with the book, and so thankful that you took the time to tell me about it. The warmth and kindness of your words made my day.
I hope your book club discussion goes well-- there's a reading group guide for the book on my site, if that's helpful...and I'm hard at work on Book Two--thanks for the encouragement to keep working hard on that! :)
Blessings on your day, whatever the day may hold--
Shauna"

No big deal...we're basically BFF. So support my girl (said in a ghetto voice) & buy her book, you won't be disappointed!!