Thursday, April 1, 2010

Devotion



I think I learned about this book from Oprah's monthly list of recommendations. Read it on my trip and loved it. It takes me forever to write an actual review, so will borrow this review from Booklist:

Approaching her mid-forties, novelist Shapiro (Black and White, 2007) finds her life dominated by a seemingly unending list of to-do’s and a constant feeling of anxiety over which she has no control. Much of her unease comes from the effort to make sense of certain events in her past—including her father’s death and a frightening health condition that affected her infant son—along with struggling to understand the turmoil that defined her relationship with her mother. While her childhood had been infused with religious tradition, Shapiro doesn’t consider herself a believer or a nonbeliever. Yet, she is pulled to understand and deepen her own personal sense of faith as a means to calm the deep-rooted uncertainty and chaos of everyday life. In doing so, she seeks out a variety of different experiences and practices, such as yoga and silent meditation retreats, along with visits to the local synagogue and her Orthodox Jewish relatives. Shapiro’s journey is a deeply reflective one, and her struggles are as complex as they are insightful, philosophical, and universally human. --Leah Strauss