by Anne Lamott
An unmarried mother with dreadlocks and a healthy sense of irony, Lamott is not the prototypical born-again Christian. Yet she is a true believer: "I'm probably about three months away from slapping an aluminum Jesus-fish on the back of my car," she admits in one of 25 essays in this quirky, life-affirming volume. As she did in Operating Instructions (about her son's first year) and Bird by Bird (on writing), Lamott fills her text with remarkable detail and a refreshing sense of humanity that has you guffawing on one page and bawling on the next. Reflecting on her alcoholism and eating disorders, on losing loved ones and gaining them, she explains how she found God. Why does she drag her 8-year-old son to church? "To give him what I found in the world, which is to say a path and a little light to see by." (Pantheon, $23)
Bottom Line: Hallelujah, an irreverent spiritual journal
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