Monday 13 August 2007

Don't Chew Jesus: A Collection of Memorable Nun Stories by Danielle Schaaf & Michael Prendergast

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketPublished by BenBella Books, Inc

Danielle Schaaf and Michael Prendergast bring the reader a delightful collection of nun stories, or more accurately, anecdotes. This book includes ten chapters in all, as well as a glossary at the back which those readers who are not Catholic, will undoubtably find useful. I know I often found it to be an invaluable resource.

The chapters are Oh Sister, Where Art Thou?, Don't Chew Jesus!, Off to School with Publics You'll Go, Private Parts and Impure Thoughts, Shrouds of Mystery, Knuckle Cracks and Group Slaps, Eyes in the Back of Their Habits, A Sister by Any Other Name, A Legacy, and Sister, Speak Up! Each of these chapters contains enlightening information about this group of women who people understand very little about. Also included in each chapter are personal anecdotes from many different sources, which are relevent to the subject at hand.

Although I greatly enjoyed the information provided within the pages of this book, the personal anecdotes made this book for me. Regardless of whether the memories were pleasant or not, the fondness for the nuns comes shining through in all the accounts. I found myself with tears of joy, and sadness. I laughed out loud on more than a few occasions, and I learned so much about these incredible women who would often go above and beyond to teach their pupils.

A great little book, and one I will definitely read again.

To read excerpts, learn more about the authors, and even share nun stories of your own, please visit http://www.nunstories.com/

Author's website: http://danielleschaaf.com/

Some proceeds from this book will be donated by the authors to S.O.A.R! (Support Our Aging Religious), a national non-profit organization serving retired religious.

2 comments:

Katie said...

this sounds great. you always hear stories about how nun's are so mean... it makes you wonder if it is really true.

Charlene Martel said...

From what I read, it would seem just like any school system. You get the mean teachers, and the nice ones. I would definitely say though that the book does show that nuns were far more strict.