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Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings: A Mother's Search for Grace
Longing for permission to be real about your own needs and struggles? Permission granted.
As good Christian moms, we're not supposed to ask for much. Jesus meets all our needs and we're the light of the world to everybody else, right? Wrong.
Shari Zook appeared to be an overachieving supermom who deftly supported her pastor-husband and their congregation, homeschooled their children, and cared for foster children through the ups and downs of placements. But inside, her world was growing increasingly desperate as she struggled with the grief of miscarriage, parenting a difficult child, and spiraling depression.
In her darkest hour, Zook let go of her need to appear super-human and reached out to receive God's unfolding grace. With humor and artistry, Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings gives us permission to step out from behind the appearance of rose-filtered perfection and embrace the authenticity of honest need and human limitations. In the book's twelve chapters you'll find twelve practical ways to reach for a faith that includes doubt, and holiness that includes failure.
As good Christian moms, we're not supposed to ask for much. Jesus meets all our needs and we're the light of the world to everybody else, right? Wrong.
Shari Zook appeared to be an overachieving supermom who deftly supported her pastor-husband and their congregation, homeschooled their children, and cared for foster children through the ups and downs of placements. But inside, her world was growing increasingly desperate as she struggled with the grief of miscarriage, parenting a difficult child, and spiraling depression.
In her darkest hour, Zook let go of her need to appear super-human and reached out to receive God's unfolding grace. With humor and artistry, Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings gives us permission to step out from behind the appearance of rose-filtered perfection and embrace the authenticity of honest need and human limitations. In the book's twelve chapters you'll find twelve practical ways to reach for a faith that includes doubt, and holiness that includes failure.
208 pages, Paperback
Published July 6, 2021
6 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 11, 2022
This book is nothing if not powerful…The Mennonite lady isn’t messing around, even though her writing is both prose-y and poetic.
I’d recommend it to anyone; it’s less about motherhood and more about the importance + beauty of needing. Needing others, needing Christ, finding wholeness in the needing.
I’d recommend it to anyone; it’s less about motherhood and more about the importance + beauty of needing. Needing others, needing Christ, finding wholeness in the needing.
March 14, 2023
It’s not just that I’m biased. This book really is one of the best. Shari is so honest with her questions about God and what faithfulness to Him looks like. I need to read this book about 10 times.
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July 1, 2021This book punches you in the gut with its searing say-it-as-it-is manner. Shari doesn't mince words about her darkest days--as well as the pin-points of light she walked toward. Her story wrecked me and showed me Jesus, which means everyone should read it. Pretty sure I'd say the same thing even if she weren't my lovely, long-time friend, but the friendship makes this story deeper and more significant for me.
I also have to say that I'm a teeny tiny bit proud that it was the dragon wing scarf my mom made for me that found its way to the title!
I also have to say that I'm a teeny tiny bit proud that it was the dragon wing scarf my mom made for me that found its way to the title!
May 21, 2022
This is a beautiful, beautiful book. Not just for mothers- but for all Christian women. I found Shari’s words to be achingly poetic and articulate—but also powerful in application and connection.
As one who has personally walked the road of depression, Shari’s words were to me like water is to dry ground.
A beautiful work of exploring how we don’t find Jesus where we always expect to—but how we find Him in everyday moments through others and through “His omnipresence being the divine pervasion of our finitude.”
As one who has personally walked the road of depression, Shari’s words were to me like water is to dry ground.
A beautiful work of exploring how we don’t find Jesus where we always expect to—but how we find Him in everyday moments through others and through “His omnipresence being the divine pervasion of our finitude.”
May 7, 2025
wow. as I started the first chapter, it was hard to engage. but by the time I got to the end, I had shed so many tears and smiled and been inspired to share my brokenness with the sisterhood around me and reach for God through prayer and physical postures of worship/need. I want Shari as a friend.
April 26, 2021
This is a book worth reading. The message of the book and the style of writing kept me spellbound through the entire book. My only regret is that it is not published yet so I cannot hold a paper copy in my hands, flipping back and forth, and drinking in the words. For me, reading a digital copy, it is harder to go back and forth and fully take in the language and the emotion of the words in front of me. So I eagerly await the arrival of the paper copy in July.
Life has dealt me some blows and I have dealt with depression in a small scale. Reading Shari's words opened up depression for me in a much bigger, more real way. Listening to her fight against the darkness and then finally take the plunge to open up to people, to seek community, to seek medical help, to seek a loving mentor makes the journey more real, more heartbreaking and yet more hopeful. It takes courage to risk openness, to risk being vulnerable, to risk asking for help. We have been raised in a strong culture where you put a smile on your face and say you are doing fine even though your heart is shattered in a million pieces and your brain can barely process the immediate needs of the day and you are merely surviving each moment, but feeling hopeless through it all. Shari opens up a different way. She models what it means to be vulnerable, what it means to say "I need help". She shows us that we don't have to be strong on our own, we can't be strong on our own. We need community.
"I confess there are times I cannot find the hand of Christ, and I find him only when I reach for his people. I the child, and they the middleman."
"I often feel that I owe it to God to be a success story. I tell you the truth. The greatest heartbreak of Christian womanhood in my time is isolation, when we are so busy keeping our smooth images intact that we don't even notice we are imprisoned behind them. We may be lonely and inadequate and terrified and empty. But ooh we are looking good.
"Solitude is what kills us."
Along with her journey with depressions, Shari talks about her joys and sorrows and grief of fostering, of losing children you thought were going to be yours for forever. She shares about mothering struggles. I so greatly admire Ryan and Shari's willingness to admit that they couldn't be everything for their second child, for their willingness to seek help. I think that is so powerful because so often we think we have to be everything for our children and, sometimes, we simply cannot be and that does not mean we are a failure. We are a success because we are willing to seek help, because we know our child needs what we can't give.
One more thing I admired about Shari's honesty is her honesty with and about God. She is honest about her struggles with doubt and faith and she is honest with God. She tells Him how she feels and when grief has sucked her dry, she is honest about her silence with God and how she allowed her community to carry her to God. There's so much I want to quote here, but I will try to do it briefly.
"To be honest, I rarely find God when I scream into the sky, though I have done this many times in my life, but afterward, when my grief and outrage are spent and I am blown wide open, when I turn in despair at his silence to find he is at my elbow, in the river with me. Afterward is where I find him. He is always quiet then, and his eyes are steady. He is soaked through, and I cannot tell if it is river water or tears on his face, but it is all one."
"He wants me on my knees, my hands held out. He wants this word from me. Anything. Not the limp acquiescence of non-desiring, but the passion of needing and giving and surrendering and yearning all at the same time. To long without demanding. To surrender without discarding. To break without falling. Anything, my Lord. He wants me trusting when I don't know. He wants me worshiping. This is my posture."
On my knees, hands held out saying anything. This is my desire, but it is hard and I am grateful for those who have walked the road before and are willing to share their stories so I can see the beauty that can come out of this surrender.
And finally, this: "It has taken me forever to learn that brokenness and need are the believer's intended posture. That the cracks also are sacred. That the scars on the hands of Jesus are holy flesh. And that resurrection is always on the near horizon."
As you can tell, I greatly enjoyed this book. Enjoy hardly feels like the right word, it is so much more than that. It is a book that wrings your heart out dry and then fills it back up with hope as you journey with Shari through the emotions and heartache of life. It makes me stop and wonder how well I would have done if faced with the same hard things. And yet, that is not what matters. My journey will not look like hers, so what matters is how I handle my own hard things, to pour them out to God, to allow myself to be broken and scarred, to surrender to His all-knowing ways. It's okay to be honest, but it's also okay to worship in the midst or to allow others to carry us for awhile when we can't walk by ourselves.
I received this book from Herald Press via NetGalley and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed in this book are my own.
Life has dealt me some blows and I have dealt with depression in a small scale. Reading Shari's words opened up depression for me in a much bigger, more real way. Listening to her fight against the darkness and then finally take the plunge to open up to people, to seek community, to seek medical help, to seek a loving mentor makes the journey more real, more heartbreaking and yet more hopeful. It takes courage to risk openness, to risk being vulnerable, to risk asking for help. We have been raised in a strong culture where you put a smile on your face and say you are doing fine even though your heart is shattered in a million pieces and your brain can barely process the immediate needs of the day and you are merely surviving each moment, but feeling hopeless through it all. Shari opens up a different way. She models what it means to be vulnerable, what it means to say "I need help". She shows us that we don't have to be strong on our own, we can't be strong on our own. We need community.
"I confess there are times I cannot find the hand of Christ, and I find him only when I reach for his people. I the child, and they the middleman."
"I often feel that I owe it to God to be a success story. I tell you the truth. The greatest heartbreak of Christian womanhood in my time is isolation, when we are so busy keeping our smooth images intact that we don't even notice we are imprisoned behind them. We may be lonely and inadequate and terrified and empty. But ooh we are looking good.
"Solitude is what kills us."
Along with her journey with depressions, Shari talks about her joys and sorrows and grief of fostering, of losing children you thought were going to be yours for forever. She shares about mothering struggles. I so greatly admire Ryan and Shari's willingness to admit that they couldn't be everything for their second child, for their willingness to seek help. I think that is so powerful because so often we think we have to be everything for our children and, sometimes, we simply cannot be and that does not mean we are a failure. We are a success because we are willing to seek help, because we know our child needs what we can't give.
One more thing I admired about Shari's honesty is her honesty with and about God. She is honest about her struggles with doubt and faith and she is honest with God. She tells Him how she feels and when grief has sucked her dry, she is honest about her silence with God and how she allowed her community to carry her to God. There's so much I want to quote here, but I will try to do it briefly.
"To be honest, I rarely find God when I scream into the sky, though I have done this many times in my life, but afterward, when my grief and outrage are spent and I am blown wide open, when I turn in despair at his silence to find he is at my elbow, in the river with me. Afterward is where I find him. He is always quiet then, and his eyes are steady. He is soaked through, and I cannot tell if it is river water or tears on his face, but it is all one."
"He wants me on my knees, my hands held out. He wants this word from me. Anything. Not the limp acquiescence of non-desiring, but the passion of needing and giving and surrendering and yearning all at the same time. To long without demanding. To surrender without discarding. To break without falling. Anything, my Lord. He wants me trusting when I don't know. He wants me worshiping. This is my posture."
On my knees, hands held out saying anything. This is my desire, but it is hard and I am grateful for those who have walked the road before and are willing to share their stories so I can see the beauty that can come out of this surrender.
And finally, this: "It has taken me forever to learn that brokenness and need are the believer's intended posture. That the cracks also are sacred. That the scars on the hands of Jesus are holy flesh. And that resurrection is always on the near horizon."
As you can tell, I greatly enjoyed this book. Enjoy hardly feels like the right word, it is so much more than that. It is a book that wrings your heart out dry and then fills it back up with hope as you journey with Shari through the emotions and heartache of life. It makes me stop and wonder how well I would have done if faced with the same hard things. And yet, that is not what matters. My journey will not look like hers, so what matters is how I handle my own hard things, to pour them out to God, to allow myself to be broken and scarred, to surrender to His all-knowing ways. It's okay to be honest, but it's also okay to worship in the midst or to allow others to carry us for awhile when we can't walk by ourselves.
I received this book from Herald Press via NetGalley and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed in this book are my own.
May 19, 2022
I felt so seen when I read this, in a good and uncomfortable way. Thank God for brave women who lead the way, take me by the hand, and guide me towards bravery too.
June 8, 2022
This is a book I wish I could read again for the first time. It came at a time when I have been struggling with a deep neediness in my life and Shari found the words. I’m not a mom, but it isn’t just for moms. The writing style might not be for everyone, but IMO it’s a must read for anyone in any kind of grief or sorrow.
June 10, 2022
Humorous and heart-wrenching, a captivating read on doubt, devastation, grief, and the goodness of God.
April 18, 2024
Honesty like this is hard to find in the church, but if we had more of it, I believe our churches would become places of more healing and less hurt. I highly recommend this book if you have struggled with performance, depression or the goodness of God. It is real, raw and beautiful!
October 13, 2023
Beautiful.
July 2, 2022
Absolutely lovely 🌹
February 19, 2022
This book is not as it seems. At first glance it might appear to be another trite tale of finding joy in motherhood and mundanity. But there is so much more substance and depth to it than that.
Is it about motherhood? Somewhat, yes. But it spoke to me, and I am not a mother.
Shari fearlessly addresses difficult topics like depression, doubt, and loss. She doesn’t sugar coat the reality of life and hard things. She is brutally honest about her own humanity and that honesty drew me to her story.
I love beautiful words, and this book is full of poignant metaphors and articulation that reach me deep down inside. It is both gritty and lovely. It gave me a glimpse of grace clearer than I’ve ever seen before.
Is it about motherhood? Somewhat, yes. But it spoke to me, and I am not a mother.
Shari fearlessly addresses difficult topics like depression, doubt, and loss. She doesn’t sugar coat the reality of life and hard things. She is brutally honest about her own humanity and that honesty drew me to her story.
I love beautiful words, and this book is full of poignant metaphors and articulation that reach me deep down inside. It is both gritty and lovely. It gave me a glimpse of grace clearer than I’ve ever seen before.
April 18, 2022
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings is a unique, artistic, soulful, and poignant look at parenthood (motherhood, specifically) that offers readers permission to be real about their own needs, shortcomings, struggles, and doubts. Mostly memoir, somewhat reflective self-help, author Shari Zook relates her story to readers in an attempt to begin the honest conversations we never have.
From the outside, she was the Pastor’s Wife supermom. But inside, she struggled with the grief of miscarriage, parenting a difficult child, an increasing weight of depression, and thoughts of suicide. Amid it all, Zook let go of the image she’d been projecting and allowed herself to be broken—and then healed in God’s grace.
The book is divided into twelve chapters, each thematically relating to an aspect of Zook’s life and weaving in the lessons she’s learned for persevering in faith amid the struggle. The chapters end with discussion questions and other prompts that invite further reflection and offer the reader to really immerse themselves in the material—either by themselves or in a group.
There’s this really powerful chapter at the end of the book where Zook details a failed adoption from foster care. Failed being a relative term, because while the adoption failed, it did so because the first family was reunited. I’m a parent who has been in that situation. And it sucks. And it’s a loss. And it’s redemptive. Zook captures the emotions perfectly, getting both the logical understanding of the redemptive nature of family reunited and the emotional longing of a new family now lost.
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings is written in a flowery, meandering prose that shuffles between stream of consciousness and crisp, incisive narrative. It’s an obvious stylistic choice, one that you’ll either love for its “homey” feeling or disdain for its sense of melodrama. Looking at the endorsements from the opening page, I can see that it’s called “charming, interactive” and Zook as having “an ear for beautiful language.” It is Jen Hatmaker-esque in its writing approach, though more to the tone of her Facebook posts than her books. It vacillates between light-hearted and deep, silly and serious, punctuated with excessive colons, (parentheticals), and ALL CAPS and italics. It all comes together to give the book a unique flavor, but one that might not be the best flavor for all. (You may have noticed that the tone of this review somewhat mirrors the tone of the book.)
I also found that the tone had the tendency to downplay the seriousness of some events, or engage them with a sense of melodrama instead of the gravitas they deserve. Again, this is a decision that Zook makes to bring levity to difficult situations and to lure readers into reflecting on their own pain (and to think about their own healing). It’s an artistic choice, making this book more powerful for some readers but a turn-off for others.
Overall, Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings does the job it sets out to do. It’s an intensely personal, artistic memoir of momhood that lays aside the Instagram filters to get real about parenting and mental health and foster care/adoption and faith and any number of things that we often hush up and keep quiet. It’s a beautiful testament to a faith that perseveres amid doubt and a holiness that is upheld amid failure. It’s a story of love and loss, of weeping and laughter, of despair and joy. In other words, it’s the story of life.
From the outside, she was the Pastor’s Wife supermom. But inside, she struggled with the grief of miscarriage, parenting a difficult child, an increasing weight of depression, and thoughts of suicide. Amid it all, Zook let go of the image she’d been projecting and allowed herself to be broken—and then healed in God’s grace.
The book is divided into twelve chapters, each thematically relating to an aspect of Zook’s life and weaving in the lessons she’s learned for persevering in faith amid the struggle. The chapters end with discussion questions and other prompts that invite further reflection and offer the reader to really immerse themselves in the material—either by themselves or in a group.
There’s this really powerful chapter at the end of the book where Zook details a failed adoption from foster care. Failed being a relative term, because while the adoption failed, it did so because the first family was reunited. I’m a parent who has been in that situation. And it sucks. And it’s a loss. And it’s redemptive. Zook captures the emotions perfectly, getting both the logical understanding of the redemptive nature of family reunited and the emotional longing of a new family now lost.
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings is written in a flowery, meandering prose that shuffles between stream of consciousness and crisp, incisive narrative. It’s an obvious stylistic choice, one that you’ll either love for its “homey” feeling or disdain for its sense of melodrama. Looking at the endorsements from the opening page, I can see that it’s called “charming, interactive” and Zook as having “an ear for beautiful language.” It is Jen Hatmaker-esque in its writing approach, though more to the tone of her Facebook posts than her books. It vacillates between light-hearted and deep, silly and serious, punctuated with excessive colons, (parentheticals), and ALL CAPS and italics. It all comes together to give the book a unique flavor, but one that might not be the best flavor for all. (You may have noticed that the tone of this review somewhat mirrors the tone of the book.)
I also found that the tone had the tendency to downplay the seriousness of some events, or engage them with a sense of melodrama instead of the gravitas they deserve. Again, this is a decision that Zook makes to bring levity to difficult situations and to lure readers into reflecting on their own pain (and to think about their own healing). It’s an artistic choice, making this book more powerful for some readers but a turn-off for others.
Overall, Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings does the job it sets out to do. It’s an intensely personal, artistic memoir of momhood that lays aside the Instagram filters to get real about parenting and mental health and foster care/adoption and faith and any number of things that we often hush up and keep quiet. It’s a beautiful testament to a faith that perseveres amid doubt and a holiness that is upheld amid failure. It’s a story of love and loss, of weeping and laughter, of despair and joy. In other words, it’s the story of life.
May 28, 2021
Shari Zook, a mother, foster mother, pastor's wife, and firefighter's wife, shares candidly about her own struggles with works-based religion, postpartum depression, and a God Who does the last thing you think you want Him to. Each chapter outlines an unexpected, even difficult grace that God gives us to navigate this world.
Human, humorous, and convicting--a book every Mennonite mother should read & quite a few other humans should, too.
Human, humorous, and convicting--a book every Mennonite mother should read & quite a few other humans should, too.
February 1, 2023
This is raw and beautiful, but also does something few memoirs manage well: the emotional arc, the ebbs and flows within the story, bring the reader along as the author experiences her life. We feel the pretense, then we feel the breaking, then we feel the hope in the brokenness.
I loved this, and even in places I didn't technically relate at all, I was relating my own experiences.
I loved this, and even in places I didn't technically relate at all, I was relating my own experiences.
August 28, 2021
I did not completely connect with the writing style, but I did enjoy reading the author's candid reflections on difficult experiences in her life. She emphasizes being vulnerable and developing close relationships with women.
July 7, 2022
Real. Heart-rending. Healing.
May 31, 2025
I’ve had this book for a couple of years but refused to read it because I hated the cover. Once I got through the first chapter, I couldn’t put it down. She even had me crying a few times.
December 14, 2021
Possibly one of the most well written and relatable books I've read in a long time. Shari gives us hard truths and rich wisdom in loads throughout this book. We need more of the bravery it took to address the issues in this book.
October 27, 2024
Probably the most relatable book I've read and certainly the best book of 2024.
May 8, 2021
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings by Shari Zook is a story of heartache through mothering a difficult child, giving up two precious foster children, an unspeakable betrayal and more. Her feelings are raw and she is honest about her battle with depression. But this is also a story of hope. Hope and trust in Jesus.
At the end of each chapter there is a section called Looking Inside which are questions to have the reader dig deeper into her own experiences from what was read. I didn't like the questions. Not because I don't like questions but rather they forced me to really think about my own feelings inadequacy as Christian wife and mother and struggles with my own experience with depression.
One of the questions she asks is on fear. From the 1st chapter: Place your hiding on a sliding scale, somewhere between nervousness about looking bad at one, and straight up terror at ten. Where are your particular places of fear? I'm going to be honest and say ten for me. But this review isn't about me.
If you are going to read this book I suggest you get a pretty journal for writing your thoughts and answers to the questions to what you've read.
I plan on reading this again and getting a journal to record my thoughts
At the end of the book there are great resources for the topics Shari talks about in her book. Topics like foster care, spiritual healing, mental health resources and more.
I believe this book is for any woman regardless of age who is struggling spiritually, mentally and physically.
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released on July 6th.
I received a review ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.
At the end of each chapter there is a section called Looking Inside which are questions to have the reader dig deeper into her own experiences from what was read. I didn't like the questions. Not because I don't like questions but rather they forced me to really think about my own feelings inadequacy as Christian wife and mother and struggles with my own experience with depression.
One of the questions she asks is on fear. From the 1st chapter: Place your hiding on a sliding scale, somewhere between nervousness about looking bad at one, and straight up terror at ten. Where are your particular places of fear? I'm going to be honest and say ten for me. But this review isn't about me.
If you are going to read this book I suggest you get a pretty journal for writing your thoughts and answers to the questions to what you've read.
I plan on reading this again and getting a journal to record my thoughts
At the end of the book there are great resources for the topics Shari talks about in her book. Topics like foster care, spiritual healing, mental health resources and more.
I believe this book is for any woman regardless of age who is struggling spiritually, mentally and physically.
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be released on July 6th.
I received a review ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.
March 30, 2025
This book is fairly autobiographical, which I enjoy. It was also written for a very narrow audience. White. Female. Middle/Upper Class. Christian. Stay at Home Parent.
The writing was also distracting for me at times but maybe it really works for you. Each chapter started with a poem, most of which I did not connect with, but I’m not really a poetry person. Each chapter ends with some self reflection questions.
That said, there were some really, really good chapters and the author clearly experiences personal growth over the length of the book. The first half of the book focuses on Zook in early adulthood: marriage, moving, making new friends, new neighbors, having kids, post partum depression, seasonal depression, loneliness, not fitting in, friendships, etc. The second half of the book is much more focused on grief, God, growth, anger, prayer, frustration, acceptance.
I really appreciated her raw honesty in all aspects of the book. When she says “this is really hard” or “I need to do less, but I can’t allow myself to” or “getting out of bed each morning was a win” or “I am so mad at God”.
The writing was also distracting for me at times but maybe it really works for you. Each chapter started with a poem, most of which I did not connect with, but I’m not really a poetry person. Each chapter ends with some self reflection questions.
That said, there were some really, really good chapters and the author clearly experiences personal growth over the length of the book. The first half of the book focuses on Zook in early adulthood: marriage, moving, making new friends, new neighbors, having kids, post partum depression, seasonal depression, loneliness, not fitting in, friendships, etc. The second half of the book is much more focused on grief, God, growth, anger, prayer, frustration, acceptance.
I really appreciated her raw honesty in all aspects of the book. When she says “this is really hard” or “I need to do less, but I can’t allow myself to” or “getting out of bed each morning was a win” or “I am so mad at God”.
February 17, 2023
After a strange six-month hiatus from reading any books outside the Scripture, I read this.
I cried. I laughed.
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings became a gateway for me, back into the world of books. Back into life as well, with all its rawness and humor, its glory and grit, its passion and peanut butter. In a book about a search for grace, I discovered I wasn't the only one searching. And did I find grace?
Grace found me.
Here be dragons, yes, perhaps, but here also be a compassionate tour guide, an author of wit and genius, to accompany the wary into uncharted lands of motherhood, foster care, marital betrayal, and unrelenting humanity.
I cried. I laughed.
Peanut Butter and Dragon Wings became a gateway for me, back into the world of books. Back into life as well, with all its rawness and humor, its glory and grit, its passion and peanut butter. In a book about a search for grace, I discovered I wasn't the only one searching. And did I find grace?
Grace found me.
Here be dragons, yes, perhaps, but here also be a compassionate tour guide, an author of wit and genius, to accompany the wary into uncharted lands of motherhood, foster care, marital betrayal, and unrelenting humanity.
November 19, 2025
This was not the gushy yay-me motherhood book I was expecting it to be. The author explores a surprising array of topics, from seasonal affective disorder and depression to foster care, to having the will and courage to say no despite expectations that housewives and mothers should always go to the events, casseroles in hand. She discusses the healing that came from unlearning the false teaching that the physical is bad and the “spiritual” is good. The central message, that to be human is to need, and that we shouldn’t overextend ourselves, is relevant irrespective of whether or not you are a mother.
June 2, 2021
The fact that I, not a mom, could connect with Shari's struggles, speaks for itself. This book is not only about fostering and parenting, but also about depression, marriage problems, and friendships. To me, this book is outstanding because Shari is so honest about the ugliness we desperately try to hide or imagine away. It's helped me realize I can do that too. She truly makes broken look beautiful.
November 20, 2021
Such a beautifully written book. The prose is stunning. And while Zook is theologically more conservative than I am, there was so much in this book with which I could resonate. I appreciate her willingness to open up her heart to the challenges she's faced as a mother to children whose lives went off-script, and as a mother to foster children as well.
January 3, 2022
I loved this book! Shari is raw and honest about difficult subjects, and she approaches them with such insight and wisdom. This book is a work of art. Shari writes in beautiful prose yet makes the topic fully understandable. This isn’t just a book about motherhood. It’s about life. After reading this book I want to sit down with her over a cup of coffee.
May 2, 2022
Shari writes with such an honest, candid approach to the messy, hard things in life. While she was very open and raw, she has a way of not taking herself too seriously. It puts the Very Hard Struggle into perspective of the future and of eternity.
While this book was written primary to mothers, it has a message for all women of all ages.
While this book was written primary to mothers, it has a message for all women of all ages.
March 4, 2024
I really appreciated her raw honesty and the way she helps us see that it is okay to need. Actually it's our key to allowing God to enter and heal the most difficult parts of our existence. We can so easily have the mindset that we do the reaching out to "the needy", but we live as though we have no needs of our own.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews