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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
So pretty much I want her job. Being a game warden chaplain may be the coolest thing ever.
Also she's a phenominal story teller.
Also she's a phenominal story teller.
“According to our plan, I would have gone on writing, but I would also be a minister’s wife. It would have been a fine life.” p. 19
Someone said that life is what happens while you are busy planning. This is what happens to Braestrup. She and her husband have a arrangement for when he retires from working as a state trooper in Maine. He will go to seminary and she will continue to write. Because her husband is in a fatal accident, Braestrup is the one who goes to seminary. She also becomes the chaplain for the Maine Warden Service, something I don’t think she could have ever planned for.
This memoir is fascinating. I learned about Maine, their wardens, Braestrup’s faith and her family. Braestrup knows how to make a quiet, almost average life seem interesting and worthy of my attention. I read through this quickly because I wanted to see how Braestrup’s life evolves. I am anxious to find her other books.
I recommend this chronicle to readers who are looking for a peaceful read. Although there is pain and suffering in this tale, Braestrup’s attitude, humor and love makes for a wonderful book. I think it may become a touchstone for me. I have been reminded that every life involves unexpected change, but also that every life is worth a story.
Other memoirs that I have read that reflect quiet, faithful lives:
Altar in the World
Anthropology of Turquoise
Dance of the Dissident Daughter
If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name
On the Threshold
Practicing Resurrection
Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat
Seeking Peace
Take This Bread
Someone said that life is what happens while you are busy planning. This is what happens to Braestrup. She and her husband have a arrangement for when he retires from working as a state trooper in Maine. He will go to seminary and she will continue to write. Because her husband is in a fatal accident, Braestrup is the one who goes to seminary. She also becomes the chaplain for the Maine Warden Service, something I don’t think she could have ever planned for.
This memoir is fascinating. I learned about Maine, their wardens, Braestrup’s faith and her family. Braestrup knows how to make a quiet, almost average life seem interesting and worthy of my attention. I read through this quickly because I wanted to see how Braestrup’s life evolves. I am anxious to find her other books.
I recommend this chronicle to readers who are looking for a peaceful read. Although there is pain and suffering in this tale, Braestrup’s attitude, humor and love makes for a wonderful book. I think it may become a touchstone for me. I have been reminded that every life involves unexpected change, but also that every life is worth a story.
Other memoirs that I have read that reflect quiet, faithful lives:
Altar in the World
Anthropology of Turquoise
Dance of the Dissident Daughter
If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name
On the Threshold
Practicing Resurrection
Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat
Seeking Peace
Take This Bread
A beautiful testimony in grace. Braesrtop lost her husband in a car accident, then decided to fulfill her husband's dream to become a minister. She became the Chaplain of the Maine Warden system. I never knew that was a thing-also Chaplains to assist Police work. It makes sense, actually-when people are dealing with such stressful situations, there's a person focused on their needs-spiritual if need be, but also just being present and listening. Braestrop shares heart breaking stories of search and rescues, and telling next-of-kin news of their loved one's demise. Although grim, there's also humor, and a very open description of her spiritual journey that's a joy to read.
Touching, funny, tear-inducing, and thought-provoking. This biography was just what I needed this week. It touches on grief, life, God, love and grace. An interesting look into the life of a chaplain/game warden from Maine, who is also a law enforcement widow, and mother of four.
Picked this up off the library cart to kill time before a meeting, and ended up pretty much reading it straight through.
I think above all else the style dragged me in. It's funny because the reliance on metaphor and non-linear storytelling drove me buggy in my last book (Lighthousekeeping), but I felt it really worked here. It reflected how we don't live linear lives because of all the memories and connections and stories we tell, and for the memoirs of a chaplain, who exists by connections and stories, it was perfect, plus the author is REALLY funny.
I also really liked the author's call to service in a very practical way, I loved the bit where she was studying Iranaus' writing on Christ divinity and saying, "Yes, fine, but what do I do?" I the conclusions that she came to about where God is in times of tragedy (in the hands of the humans holding you up, much like that Mr. Rogers quote that was going around recently).
A lot of the story is about transition, and about mourning, and that was beautifully and unflinchingly written. How unbearable that is, and how others carry us through. I loved her relationship with her kids, and the rest of her family, the hypothetical and sceptical e-mails from her agnostic brother.
Mostly though, I loved reading about how people carry each other along, and find compassion and grace in the worst times. The author tells a story about how she comforted a man whose sister had killed herself, and her words to him moved me to tears. That is the kind of God I want to see working in the world.
(On a side note, there's a casual side-swipe at Islam that I didn't really appreciate. It's only about a page long, and it's more ill-informed than anything, but it really didn't fit the tone of the rest of the book).
I think above all else the style dragged me in. It's funny because the reliance on metaphor and non-linear storytelling drove me buggy in my last book (Lighthousekeeping), but I felt it really worked here. It reflected how we don't live linear lives because of all the memories and connections and stories we tell, and for the memoirs of a chaplain, who exists by connections and stories, it was perfect, plus the author is REALLY funny.
I also really liked the author's call to service in a very practical way, I loved the bit where she was studying Iranaus' writing on Christ divinity and saying, "Yes, fine, but what do I do?" I the conclusions that she came to about where God is in times of tragedy (in the hands of the humans holding you up, much like that Mr. Rogers quote that was going around recently).
A lot of the story is about transition, and about mourning, and that was beautifully and unflinchingly written. How unbearable that is, and how others carry us through. I loved her relationship with her kids, and the rest of her family, the hypothetical and sceptical e-mails from her agnostic brother.
Mostly though, I loved reading about how people carry each other along, and find compassion and grace in the worst times. The author tells a story about how she comforted a man whose sister had killed herself, and her words to him moved me to tears. That is the kind of God I want to see working in the world.
(On a side note, there's a casual side-swipe at Islam that I didn't really appreciate. It's only about a page long, and it's more ill-informed than anything, but it really didn't fit the tone of the rest of the book).
Kate Braestrup tells her story of how she became a minister serving as chaplain for search-and-rescue missions in the Maine woods. She has humor and faith as she tells of failed and successful efforts and the men and women who serve. She speaks of faith and love, humor and frustration. She has a nice clear voice and speaks in straightforward prose.
This is a little weepy, but a great book. The author is not preachy or woe-is-me, she just tells her story with just enough sentimentality to make you like her, but balances it with a matter-of-fact tone.
Here if You Need Me is not a long book, but you'll come out thinking it was very worth the short time it takes to read it...
Here if You Need Me is not a long book, but you'll come out thinking it was very worth the short time it takes to read it...
I don't know quite what to say about this book other than: GOOD. I was trying to explain this to a coworker, and they gave me the "sure, right, uh-huh" look. It hits one of my fiction kinks, what with all the heroic actions undertaken by real people who care about the people they're trying to help. But it's better, because it's real.
Within the first thirty pages or so, I had cried at least twice, but had laughed out loud considerably more. She comes across as incredibly genuine; the loss of her husband and her determination to continue with her life was present but was not forced on me. She didn't force a strong narrative, either, which I appreciate in a memoir; there are very few periods in someone's life that can be told mostly sequentially and create a complete story with a defined ending. Her story doesn't have an ending yet, so she doesn't really give it one. Wonderful.
She's a quasi-local author, and I'm sure we'll be having her in for a signing at some point. She stopped into the store about a week after the book came out, and checked the bestseller list. She was so excited to see that she had hit number three!
Within the first thirty pages or so, I had cried at least twice, but had laughed out loud considerably more. She comes across as incredibly genuine; the loss of her husband and her determination to continue with her life was present but was not forced on me. She didn't force a strong narrative, either, which I appreciate in a memoir; there are very few periods in someone's life that can be told mostly sequentially and create a complete story with a defined ending. Her story doesn't have an ending yet, so she doesn't really give it one. Wonderful.
She's a quasi-local author, and I'm sure we'll be having her in for a signing at some point. She stopped into the store about a week after the book came out, and checked the bestseller list. She was so excited to see that she had hit number three!