So, I've been agonizing over how to review Jennifer Fulwiler's book, Something Other Than God: How I Passionately Sought Happiness and Accidentally Found It, which is now finally in print and on the market. (I think she started writing it when she was five years old? Do I have that right, Jen?)
Then I realized that I all I really needed to do was tell my wonderful readers that if you love the logic and clarity and fun that we have in the Bubble, then this book is for you. And if you hate the Bubble with a passion, well, at least we all love a good story, right?
You will not be able to put this book down. I took it with me everywhere, reading at track meets, piano lessons, during breakfast, late into the night. Jen's is the Lay's potato chips of conversion stories.
Chapter 20 alone is worth the price of the book. Trust me.
Then I realized that I all I really needed to do was tell my wonderful readers that if you love the logic and clarity and fun that we have in the Bubble, then this book is for you. And if you hate the Bubble with a passion, well, at least we all love a good story, right?
You will not be able to put this book down. I took it with me everywhere, reading at track meets, piano lessons, during breakfast, late into the night. Jen's is the Lay's potato chips of conversion stories.
Chapter 20 alone is worth the price of the book. Trust me.
Aaaaand in my teensy-weensy way, I was part of this epic project. Here's where I was going to go into all these cool details about how I came to know Jennifer long before I had a blog (gosh, I can't even imagine why she answered my email back then??), and how we finally met in person over three years ago (when her book was in the "final stages of editing", ha ha!) and shared breakfast at the Phoenix airport (picture a six-foot redheaded bombshell in stylish boots meeting short older lady in tennies -- no wonder I insisted we both be sitting for the photo), and more recently how she asked me to read one of the earlier drafts of her book and wanted my thoughts (as if she needed them!), and then how I received an advance copy of the real deal and got all fan-girlie at the fact that my name appears in the acknowledgements (eeeeeeeeeek!), and how my husband was squealing when he saw the book, too, but not because of his wife's name, but because the book included an endorsement by none other than his favorite author, Dean Koontz (check the back of the dust jacket!).
So, you see, I was going to give you all those details, and then I realized that nobody should be spending time reading a long blog post about a book when instead they could be reading the book already!
Oh, but one more thing. As if all this were not exciting enough, Jenfed my narcissism helped me overcome my humble nature by including me in this unbelievably fun and touching video montage featuring a star-studded cast of Catholic writing and blogging luminaries reading excerpts from her book. Though I am ridiculously out of place in that august group, it felt good that Jen's husband was a banana:
So, you see, I was going to give you all those details, and then I realized that nobody should be spending time reading a long blog post about a book when instead they could be reading the book already!
Oh, but one more thing. As if all this were not exciting enough, Jen
My daughter thought I sounded funny (as in, she laughed at me) and not at all like myself (a bit stiff? And hey, the audio skipped), but I don't care because it's just a thrill to be the blip between Abby Johnson and Grace Patton, oh my!
Bottom line… This is a book you will love. This is a book that you will read in one or two sittings and then loan out to all your friends and relatives. Honestly, this is a book that will make you feel more human.
Get this book.
