Book Review: A Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

I didn't want to like this book.

Is it bad that I'm prejudiced against the books written nowadays by Christian women? No doubt I've been soured by the likes of Captivating. Gag.

I kept hearing glowing reviews of A Thousand Gifts from Christian woman in the blogosphere. People said it was like The Love Dare only with God. Meh. Sounds corny. And goodness gracious, the author writes for the Christian division of Hallmark? That clinched it. I'd give this book a try...but only to make fun of it.

And so I bought it---not an actual copy of the book, mind you---but the Kindle version. And this from the girl who insists that if a book is worth owning, it's worth the space on your bookshelf. But with this silly book? I figured I'd buy the digital copy, read it, mock it, and promptly forget all about it.

Well. A hard copy of her book is currently on my desk, with a bookmark halfway through. Why? Possibly because I read the Kindle version, decided I wanted to actually own the thing, and have now started to read through it a second time so I could underline all my favorite parts.

Possibly.

Ok, so maybe I was wrong about the author. And maybe I did judge the book by its cover--a cutesy photo of two robin's eggs in a nest.

The title comes from a dare her friend gave her: write down 1,000 gifts you're thankful to God for. I expected a list of trite little happinesses. I didn't imagine she'd tackle the problem of evil--that theological quandary that's plagued people throughout centuries--because after all, this was a just another hokey Christian book, right?

But then she opened the book with her earliest childhood memory: the sight of her baby sister crushed by an oncoming truck.

Not exactly Hallmark material, folks.

And against that backdrop, she asks: where is God? Where is grace? How can we give thanks in all things in a world like this one?

Even without her footnotes and quotations, her influences were obvious: Annie Dillard, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Alexander Schmemann. Um, I'm not sure why I put the least-known guy last. Emphasis fail. But I really, really, really liked what I read of Schmemann last year...and he's got an awesome name, so there you go.

Occasionally her writing veers into overly-flowery territory, making her poetic prose sound forced...and boy, did I have to resist the urge to dot her sentences with commas. (Do Canadians have different rules??) But for a first book...well-done.

It's #11 on the New York Times Bestseller List...and I'm excited. I want people to read this book. It's a defense of joy, beauty, and gratitude. It's inspirational, but not in the Thomas Kinkade everything-is-all-light-and-happy sort of way. It's about finding beauty in the shadows, about being grateful for God's story--whatever that entails-- and your part in it. It's about living sacramentally. To be honest, this book sums up most of what I've come to learn in the past few years here at school...just packaged in a different way. Which means it can reach other people...especially those women who like the schmaltzy Christian books. ;)

And just a sample from the first chapter...

From all of our beginnings, we keep reliving the Garden story. Satan, he wanted more. More power, more glory. Ultimately, in his essence, Satan is an ingrate. And he sinks his venom into the heart of Eden. Satan's sin becomes the first sin of all humanity: the sin of ingratitude. Adam and Eve are, simply, painfully, ungrateful for what God gave . . . we look and swell with the ache of a broken, battered planet, what we ascribe as the negligent work of an indifferent Creator (if we even think there is one). Do we ever think of this busted-up place as the result of us ingrates, unsatisfied, we who punctured it all with a bite? The fruit's poison has infected the whole of humanity . . . but from that Garden beginning, God has had a different purpose for us . . . He means to fill us with glory again . . . that's grace. It is one thing to choose to take the grace offered at the cross. But to choose to live as one filling with His grace? . . . Could I live that--the choice to open the hands to freely receive whatever God gives? If I don't, I am still making a choice. The choice not to."

Ok. Spring Break has ended, and I'm officially getting back to work. Enough of this blogging silliness!