Book Review - Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts of Life Unarmed, Glennon Melton

Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts of Life Unarmed

 

Glennon Melton

Category: Nonfiction: Memoir

Synopsis: Melton discusses her life and what she’s learned along the way.

Date finished: 30 April 2013

Rating: *****

Comments:

I can’t tell you what I’ve gotten from this book, and from the author’s website. It’s like going to a therapist who sees God much the same I do. It’s like getting advice on your life without her knowing what your life is like or what your problems are. Without saying so overtly, she is teaching that we’re all the same, it’s just a matter of degree.

And did I mention that she’s hilarious? Goodness, I laugh until I cry sometimes. She has an Anne Lamott-like voice, more bubbly than neurotic, though.

What strikes me about her work is how honest it is. It’s like honest wrapped in honest. She can take a hard honest truth and split it open and light spills out. Most people are afraid to be that honest. Or more likely, they don’t know you CAN be that honest. It’s quite an education.

These essays come from her blog, so if you’re a long-time reader, they’ll be familiar. I was really hoping for more new stuff. But I guess that’s what second books are for.

Her main themes, both here and on her blog are these:

• We can do hard things.
• Love wins.
• We belong to each other.
• Do the next right thing.
• Show up.

Some favorite moments from the book:

People who need help sometimes look a lot like people who don’t need help. (page 15)

These things don’t fill me completely but they remind me that it is not my job to fill myself. (page 21)

Maybe the fact that [parenting is] so hard means she IS doing it right, in her own way, and she happens to be honest. (page 113)

Elephants gotta be elephants and people gotta be people. (page 118)

The problem is always me, and the solution is always me. (page 138)

Reading is my inhale and writing is my exhale. (page 51)

After reading the sixteenth parenting book that contradicted the first fifteen, I quit trying to become a better parent and decided to try becoming a better person. (page 173)

And that’s what I do. I think of the most beautiful thing I can imagine and then try to do that thing. It’s an interesting but difficult way to live. (page 254)

My only gripe with this collection is that the organization didn’t make sense to me. It wasn’t chronological, which threw me for a loop more than a couple times.

But I can’t be disappointed. This book uplifted me, became a friend and guide to me, and, in a small way, cured me.

Would you recommend this to a friend?

Yes. Yes. Yes.