Friday, January 29, 2010

MARRIAGE AND OTHER ACTS OF CHARITY AUDIO BOOK: REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
MARRIAGE AND OTHER
ACTS OF CHARITY

AN AUDIO BOOK
WRITTEN BY KATE BRAESTRUP
READ BY KATE BRAESTRUP

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Kate Braestrup has been married and widowed, betrayed and betrothed, her personal spirituality constantly evolving along the way. How do God and love figure in our everyday lives and bonds with others? In MARRIAGE, AND OTHER ACTS OF CHARITY, she tackles these big questions with stories from her own relationships--romantic and familial, platonic and professional--much as Anne Lamott weaves her spirituality through her tales of parenthood. With the same compassion and warmth that made Here If You Need Me a New York Times bestseller, Braestrup engages readers fully, regardless of their path in life. She tells us about teaching sex education for her daughter's eighth-grade class, and the welcome embrace extended toward her adopted nephew from Africa. She introduces the essential concept that charity--the key to all relationships--is a whole-hearted selfless emotion, which is but a hint of God's immense devotion. Kate Braestrup's very human outlook gives anyone seeking to understand human relationships a fresh perspective on what it is to love and be loved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Braestrup's novel Onion was published by Viking in 1990, and she has since published a series of magazine articles in Mademoiselle, Ms., City Paper, Hope and Law and Order. She lives in Maine.



REVIEW:

Kate Braestrup is a minister and in her work, she counsels people on marriage. I have to say that I wasn't sure if this would be a book I would take to as at first look, a minister talking about making marriages work? Could that be a thrill ride or a dull read? Well, the audio book format is what saved this book for me. In the book, Kate Braestrup will have you laughing one minute and crying the next. This is HER memoir and there is much about her life and loves and what she learned about them to pass on to others.

She writes the book as a series of essays that include her two marriages (the first that ended in tragedy in case you didn't read her first book HERE IF YOU NEED ME), as well as a serious relationship between the two. She goes into details about what worked and didn't in all of her relationships. There are also the other couples' stories. There is a couple planning their wedding and on the opposite end of the spectrum is another man who finds his marriage is falling apart. She deals with how to start a marriage all the way to how to end one. In between she has advice on how to put up with things in a marriage as well as how to do things to make it better. The key she believes is in charity. She feels that when we give selflessly of ourselves, we will learn what we need to do to really love and have that love returned to us. While that is certainly something I agree with, I am not sure I needed to be told that BUT perhaps others will look at that differently.

I do think the one thing I took away most from this book is the stark reality in which she discusses that all marriages will end in one way or another. And if the marriage ends due to the death of a partner, she discusses that and shares how difficult that is and how brave people have to be to love someone to begin with when we all know that at some point this can and will happen to one of the partners. Braestrup does give us a very unique way of going on and what to do next. I thought of friends who have been through this and how this would be a good book for them to read but really even better to read, anticipate and plan for, before we lose a partner.

I enjoyed this book as an audio book as it seemed to sink in better hearing Kate read her own words to me. I don't think I would have stuck with the book if I was doing the reading even though it is entertaining in parts, it wasn't really a book I would have taken to but with the audio, it was easy to listen in parts and get something out of it with minimal effort.

AN AUDIO BOOK GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO ANNA AND THE
HACHETTE BOOK GROUP FOR
SPONSORING THIS GIVEAWAY,
I HAVE 3 COPIES OF THIS AUDIO
BOOK TO GIVE AWAY TO YOU!


RULES:
**U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
**NO P.O. BOXES, PLEASE
**MUST INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT
**ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO COUNT

HOW TO ENTER:


+1 ENTRY: GO TO KATE BRAESTRUP'S WEBSITE HERE AND READ ABOUT HER. THEN COME BACK AND TELL SOMETHING INTERESTING THAT YOU FOUND OUT ABOUT HER.

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT IF YOU ALREADY ARE A LOYAL FOLLOWER OF ANY KIND AND WHERE/HOW

+1 MORE ENTRY:
BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE WITH THE LINK

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE IN

BY 6 PM, EST, FEBRUARY 18


GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

43 comments:

Lacey said...

This is a great giveaway!! Especially because I just recently married my husband.

Lacey914 at sbcglobal dot net

Lacey said...

I learned that Kate is an Ordained minister!

Lacey914 at sbcglobal dot net

Lacey said...

I am a follower through google friends

Lacey914 at sbcglobal dot net

Lacey said...

http://twitter.com/HtxAstrosFan/status/8391445596

tweet!!

Lacey914 at sbcglobal dot net

Denny, Alaska said...

Kate's late husband was a Maine state trooper. Thanks for entering my name in your giveaway!

denny dot gill at gmail dot com

justpeachy36 said...

justpeachy36@yahoo.com

Please enter me in the giveaway.

I learned she was a state trooper.

Anonymous said...

I learned that she is a minister.

rhoneygtn at yahoo dot com

Unknown said...

I find it touching that her husband's death became the inspiration for her to do the things she has.

ashleymaymott(at)aol(dot)com

Unknown said...

I get e-mail updates

ashleymaymott(at)aol(dot)com

Charleydog said...

The author is a strong woman. She became a widow with very young children and was able to continue with her life in a courageous manner.

pboylecharley AT hotmail DOT com

doreen lamoureux said...

I find it interesting that her dad (I'm guessing) was a foreign correspondent. How interesting her childhood must have been.

dorcontest at gmail dot com

doreen lamoureux said...

Follow on google friend....dor

dorcontest at gmail dot com

Anonymous said...

I learned that Kate entered the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1997, a year after her husband was killed in a car accident, and was ordained in 2004.

clctaube @ yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

I am a loyal follower by subscribe via email. :-)

clctaube @ yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

tweet:
http://twitter.com/clctaube/status/8420495886

clctaube @ yahoo.com

Benita said...

I found out Kate Braestrup is a community minister, law enforcement chaplain, and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Here If You Need Me, and Marriage and Other Acts of Charity, coming in January 2010.

bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com

Benita said...

I follow via google friend connect and subscribe to email.

bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com

bermudaonion said...

I'm glad to see this is good, because I hope to read it soon. You should join The Reagan Arthur Books Challenge since you've already read this! No need to enter me.

Jaime said...

I learned she and her husband have 6 kids
copperllama at yahoo dot com

Jaime said...

email follower
copperllama at yahoo dot com

Rebecca Orr said...

In 2006, Braestrup married the artist, Simon van der Ven.
bekki1820cb at gmail

Rebecca Orr said...

Loyal follower/reader via gfc/ google reader/email/twitter.

bekki1820cb at gmail

dsandyboy said...

I learned that she is a minister.

dsandyboy@gmail.com

dsandyboy said...

I am a follower.

dsandyboy@gmail.com

dsandyboy said...

Her husband was a state trooper and his death inspired her to do what she is doing.

walkerd@primus.ca

dsandyboy said...

I am a follower on Google Friend.

dsandyboy@gmail.com

FrankSandy said...

I found out that she became a widow with young children when her husband, a state trooper, died.

Very tragic. walkerd@primus.ca

FrankSandy said...

I am a Google friend.

walkerd@primus.ca

rubynreba said...

Her trooper husband was killed in a car accident while on duty in 1996
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net

rubynreba said...

I follow on google friend
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net

Linda Henderson said...

I learned that she published a novel, Onion in 1990.

seriousreader at live dot com

Linda Henderson said...

I am a follower on Google.

seriousreader at live dot com

Bani said...

I read Kate's bio. What struggles she's had to face in life, becoming a widow with four children. Overcoming that hardship makes her a rather inspiring figure.

wakeupangel at gmail dot com

Bani said...

I'm following you via Google Connect, name is Bani. I was follower number 600 too!

wakeupangel at gmail dot com

Bani said...

Tweeted here- http://twitter.com/baniclips/status/9045881511

409cope said...

Kate is a community minister,author and law enforcement chaplain.cardshark42(at)hotmail(dot)com

Anonymous said...

The author is a minister and Law Enforcement chaplain. What a heavy load!

teakettle58@yahoo.com

tea said...

I am a loyal follower.

Anonymous said...

I blogged by putting the gadget in my sidebar.

http://readwithtea.blogspot.com

DarcyO said...

Kate published the novel, Onion, in 1990.

dlodden at frontiernet dot net

Nancye said...

I learned that Kate was widowed in 1996 when her husband was killed in the line of duty.

nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net

Nancye said...

I am a loyal follower via Google Friend and also via e-mail.

nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net

Nancye said...

Tweet! Tweet!

http://twitter.com/NancyeDavis/status/9304032487

nancyecdavis AT bellsouth DOT net

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