Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott

Anne Lamott

This is a brief review of a brief book. Anne Lamott's treatise Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers takes a look at her pared-down prayer life that consists of:

Help: When things are bad.

Thanks: When things are good. 

Wow: When the abundance of beauty in the world overwhelms her.

Ms. Lamott writes headlong and breathless throughout the book's 102 pages and her words can make you laugh and cry at the same time. This is not the first book that takes the reader along with her as she creates a spiritual life for herself. Others include Traveling Mercies, Plan B, and Grace (Eventually).

You can read Help, Thanks, Wow in an hour. Then go forth, read Bird by Bird (her book on writing), and live your life with an appreciation of the good, the bad, and the beautiful.

Three Prayers and a Murder Mystery

I received notice from the library that two books I had on reserve have arrived: 

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott.

I am crazy about Anne Lamott. I think her book on writing, Bird by Bird, is one of my favorites and I have often recommended it to others. She is so honest and funny. This is her newest - on faith, not on writing - and is a slight book at just over 100 pages. 

Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley

This is the newest mystery starring young amateur detective Flavia de Luce. Flavia and her widowed father and two older sisters live in a decaying mansion in England in the 1950s. Flavia has a penchant for poisons and chemical experiments in her deceased uncle's laboratory on the top floor of the house. She tracks down murderers on her trusty bicycle which doesn't seem to slow her down one bit. A fun series.