Amy Inspired by Bethany Pierce

I received two books in the mail this week and could hardly wait to start reading them.  Of course, this one I chose to read first because of the topic.  Amy Inspired, written by Bethany Pierce, is about an aspiring writer suffering a bad case of writer's block.

The book is written in twenty-nine year old Amy's point of view with her thoughts and feelings, however horrid or messed up they are.  I kept looking at the back cover to make sure it was actually from Bethany House.  This book is unlike any other Christian book I've read.  It's real.  Full of real people with pasts they aren't particularly proud of and all trying to make their way in a world that appears to cater to married couples.

"My mother had always instructed me to live life before settling down, settling down requiring a seismic shift in one's energy, from adventure to nurture.  The fault in her admonition was the assumption that meeting a man marked the end of the journey.  I grew up thinking the single life was the rising action and marriage the climax.  Every writer knows climax is followed by denouement: in other words, it's all downhill after the wedding."  (p. 94)

The author goes right to the edge and pulls the reader back again, much like our lives are played out each day - with each choice we make and every memory from our past that haunts us and shapes our futures.

The book touches on many different issues: divorce, cancer, new babies, cutting, death, sexuality...  If you are an avid reader but get tired of the feel-good, everything-turns-out-right-at-the-end in so many Christian books, I recommend you check out this author.  I certainly will be looking for other books written by Bethany Pierce.