How Strong Women Pray

by Bonnie St. John

Bonnie St. John profiles some of today's most prominent women and how prayer has impacted their lives.

Genres: Faith, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2007

About the author

Bonnie St. John is one of the nation's leading inspirational speakers and has been featured on the Today Show, Montel Wiliams, CNN, Good Morning America, as well as People magazine, the New York Times, Essence, and many others. Despite the amputation of her leg at age five, she became a silver and bronze medalist in downhill skiing in the 1984 Paralympics at Innsbruck, Austria. She went on to graduate from Harvard University, win the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and was appointed to the White House National Economic Council.

Reviews

[ELIZABETH DAVID · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read and an insight on how powerful women dedicates their lives to prayer

Prayers still works. These strong women validated this fact as they allowed us into there most intimate relationship with God.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collection of powerful narratives is uplifting and inspiring
Amazed
Refreshed
Recommending
Its a pick up put down draw you into it type of book
I didn't read cover to cover in a night
But I went back and read some twice
its that good

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for those of faith. It was interesting to hear how other people view prayer and thier perspective. Each chapter is a different story, with Bonnie's story being every other. That was nice to read a chapter here and there.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, loved the insight, structure of the book, and variety of contributors.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this from my good friend Kelly when we went to our church women's retreat, and it was a really lovely read. St. John shares the stories of inspirational women, famous and regular (but not average), in their own words about how they use prayer to get through their lives. It changed the way I thought about prayer--which was a more formal, get-down-on-your-knees act at a certain time of day (which frankly, has been difficult for me for me to do). But these women do it anywhere, anytime, for as long (or short) as they need it. Basically they use it as a conversation starter with God. From Edie Falco, Amy Grant, Christine Todd Whitman, Vonetta Flowers, and others, you get a series of varied life experiences involving prayer. Bonnie St. John intersperses her own, heartbreaking story of surviving child sexual abuse and then becoming an award-winning skiier and successful speaker throughout the book and how she became closer to God through prayer. Thoughtful, inspiring words from real women.

[Nalene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever thought about having discussions about praying. Praying for me is one of the hardest things... always has been. But this book came along at the perfect time... my sister gave it to me for Christmas. It was an eye opening book on how prayer figures into so many peoples lives of every religion and station in life. And by reading it, I feel like I haven't been so bad at praying as I always thought I was. Praying doesn't have to be formal all the time, and it made me think of different ways to pray when kneeling down is an impossibility. I enjoyed the vignettes, and although it does deal with some tragedies and hardships, I believe it can help anyone feel the importance of developing a relationship to God through prayer.

[Teri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonnie St.John tells her personal story, and interspersed is other women sharing their experiences with prayer. Kathie Lee Gifford, Amy Grant, Barbara Bush, Martha Williamson(producer of Touched by an Angel) are a few of the women who are highlighted. This might sound strange, but I was just so thrilled that prayer is so important to these high profile and successful people. (You never hear about it much in the media).Some very touching stories, and great perspectives.

[Margaret Schiller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heard the Rev. Ed Bacon interview the author on a long car trip - found the book to be very comforting, no-nonsense, applicable to most anyone, save the hardened cynic. It was truly poignant to read the Edie Falco chapter post the Gandolfini demise. Is it easier for women, even strong, well-educated, successful women to assume supplication before the Grand Designer to ask for help or honor the gifts we've been given?

[Keisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thank God for blessing me to be able to read this book. It has truly inspired me to pray even harder. The different stories shared in this book are testimonies that there is truly "power in prayer." I was able to take something away from every story shared."How Strong Women Pray" has blessed my life!!

[LaSchelle]

I saw Bonnie at the Women of Color luncheon in September before the book was released. I bought a number of copies and gave them as gifts to dear friends.

I like that she spoke to women of all types to gather the information about how they pray.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the different perspectives in this book and the author's journey. It was interesting to think about some of the different ways that people pray. I never thought about dancing around the house.

[Corrine]

Fabulous book, great advice, wonderful true stories of how prayer helped in difficult circumstances.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really good! It was a quick read and very inspiring. It was kind of my comforting, curl-up-in-a-ball and read it book.

[Adrienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were two women who really moved my soul in this book. I added one of the women's testimony as research to one of my books that is not published yet "Unleashing the Spirit".

[Ceci · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book 10 stars I would! Not preachy and SO encouraging! It has literally REVOLUTIONIZED the way I pray. Thank GOD for this book, and thank you Nicole for the gift :)

[Evangeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this book in a week, couldn't put it down , such great stories about great women and their lives and how prayer plays an important role at the center of everything

[Terri Manley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as it talked about all sorts of women and their prayer lives and wasn't too preachy.