“I can’t wait to hear the rest of your story,” I say.
She answers, “Next time.”
And then I put the book down.
Dishes or laundry or a four-year-old call for me. And as I quietly attend to any or all of these I think. I’m thinking about Mary.
About her as a five-year-old suffering abuse. Alone.
About Mary as a teenager. Unsure. Hopeful.
About her as a young wife.
If any memoir author accomplishes what Mary DeMuth has accomplished with Thin Places, then they’ve succeeded.
I know it might sound weird or stalker-ish but every time I picked up Thin Places to read it, I felt as if I was sitting down with the author and she was carefully telling me her story, as if I’d stolen a few minutes with her alone in the corner of a coffee shop.
It’s that personal.
It’s that good.
Mary DeMuth writes with raw clarity and painful authenticity, but even from the beginning of her first chapter, “Amazing Grave” I can see the threads of hope and grace woven into her life. She comes to term with pain through the love of a Savior and makes peace with neglect because of the One who always sees and loves.
I’m in awe of the face-to-face closeness of her writing but at the same time the perspective at which she is able to view the difficulties of her childhood.
What an amazing example for an aspiring memoir writer (me), a beautiful picture of grace for one who has also escaped from brokenness (me) and an exercise in realness for one who wants to live just as real (also me.)
You’ll understand after you’ve read it yourself.
You can buy it here, follow Mary here and visit her here.
You can watch the book trailer for Thin Places: A Memoir here.
What great book have you read lately? OR…if you’ve read Thin Places, what did you think?
I read it, too. I’m going to blog about it and other memoirs I’ve read recently tomorrow.
I’m on a memoir kick.
I just finished Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. It’s a true story and I believe after anyone who reads this book will never be the same. It is the book we just finished with the online book club called Bloom.
http://thebloombookclub.blogspot.com/
It really is an amazing story of unlikely people to meet and how God brought them together. They have a website too.
http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/
omgosh sheena! “same kind of different of me” was one of the greatest books i’ve ever read!
The best book I’ve ever read is Angry Conversations with God!!
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers is amazing, it is one of the few books that I have read multiple times!!
Just read Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It is all about STORY and living a truly great story in the place God has you. Great read. You would probably really like it!
I’m so glad you liked the book. And I wish I were having coffee with you right now. I have a feeling we could share our hearts well.
With joy,
Mary DeMuth
I have to second Angry Conversations with God by Susan Isaacs. I’ve read it at least three times, and will probably read it again.
I got to see Susan perform part of the story from the book when she was on the Million Miles tour with Don Miller. She is hilarious!
Captivating by John and Stasi Eldridge
I haven’t read it yet but now I’m eager to go get it and start reading it.
I also recently read Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. Fantastic!
so it looks like my 2010 reading list will begin with Same kind of Different, A million miles, and A glass castle.
oh, btw i just also finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s Committed (she wrote Eat Pray Love) and I was not impressed. It was alright (she IS a brilliant writer) but I thought it fell really flat in comparison to EPL. Just a thought.
This is the second time in two days I have heard of Thin Places. My friend emailed me and told me about her and wanted me to submit my story to a constest that is being held that has to do with Thin Places. She reviewed Thin Places also. Now I read your review of it. I think I may have to go buy this book and read it. Thank you so much.
I am reading Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and doing a book study with some ladies at church.
I’ve recently read a book by the author Francine Rivers called The Atonement Child. She is also the author of Redeeming Love.
Both are books that I think you would DEFINITELY enjoy, if you haven’t read them already. They speak greatly of God’s redemption and hope, God’s love and grace, His presence during dry times when He feels so far away. Remembering these books and the messages they give gives me chills and goosebumps. I hope that I can, at some point, read Mary DeMuth’s Thin Places. Thank you for your honesty, integrity, and genuineness! It makes me want to come back for more! (Since there seems to be so little of it these days around every corner you look).