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alisarae 's review for:
I like Jen Hatmaker. She is funny and honest, and sometimes she is being honest just to be funny. For the Love is for Jen Hatmaker fans. It doesn’t really give you a good scope of what her life is about and it asks you to have a lot of insider knowledge about her already. For example, she makes a couple jokes that reference Ethiopia but she never mentions that two of her kids are adopted from Ethiopia.... although she does mention in passing that one of her kids is adopted. So there are little things like that where she and her editor assume the only reason you picked up the book was because you were already a fan.
The other reason why this book is not good for initiates is because it is a collection of what I would consider to be blog posts. Sorry Jen, I know you call them essays, but these are 80% funny comments about your life and 18% two-word motivational sentences. Still a fan here, but it is a stretch to call these essays. They are not even connected to each other other than they all feature Jen. She is capable of writing in a more profound way, but none of that is showcased here.
The other 2% from my above percentage equation are quotes from Quiet and Daring Greatly and I sincerely hope that readers go search out those books for themselves instead of relying on Jen for the highlights. They are not hard or boring books.
The best part of the book for me: “If your theology is not true for a poor single mother in Haiti, your theology is not true anywhere.” Meaning, if what we teach about God’s blessings, how prayer works, women’s role, or our “calling” cannot also apply to that woman, then our understanding of these things didn’t come from God. I really liked Jen’s rant about how finding and having a “calling” is a privileged white person invention.
This book is aimed directly at middle class white American Christian moms of young children. I know that is a very specific group of people, but it was abundantly clear to me that if you are in that group and in need of a good pep talk, this book will speak to you. If you are not in that group, it is still funny but most of the advice doesn’t apply and the humor won’t hit north so well.
The other reason why this book is not good for initiates is because it is a collection of what I would consider to be blog posts. Sorry Jen, I know you call them essays, but these are 80% funny comments about your life and 18% two-word motivational sentences. Still a fan here, but it is a stretch to call these essays. They are not even connected to each other other than they all feature Jen. She is capable of writing in a more profound way, but none of that is showcased here.
The other 2% from my above percentage equation are quotes from Quiet and Daring Greatly and I sincerely hope that readers go search out those books for themselves instead of relying on Jen for the highlights. They are not hard or boring books.
The best part of the book for me: “If your theology is not true for a poor single mother in Haiti, your theology is not true anywhere.” Meaning, if what we teach about God’s blessings, how prayer works, women’s role, or our “calling” cannot also apply to that woman, then our understanding of these things didn’t come from God. I really liked Jen’s rant about how finding and having a “calling” is a privileged white person invention.
This book is aimed directly at middle class white American Christian moms of young children. I know that is a very specific group of people, but it was abundantly clear to me that if you are in that group and in need of a good pep talk, this book will speak to you. If you are not in that group, it is still funny but most of the advice doesn’t apply and the humor won’t hit north so well.