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She made my “Favorite Things” list, I’ve blogged quotes from her books and gushed over how excited I was when Bittersweet arrived in the mail and now here it is- Just A Chi Town Girl’s official review and giveaway of Bittersweet!

Bittersweet is author Shauna Niequist’s second book and truly the best book I’ve read in the last year.  Here’s what I think: anyone can write a book with their knowledge, sharing what they’ve experienced.  The difference about Shauna and Bittersweet is that she not only shares her experiences both gracefully and with humility but she also gives helpful tips that are actionable.  The difference about Shauna and Bittersweet is the “Me Too!” factor: her writing transcends the specific experience she’s sharing; it’s relatable even if you haven’t exactly been where she’s been.  The difference?  A book that is as appetizing as the cover and filled me up far after I had finished the last page.

“Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace and Learning the Hard Way” chronicles recent history in Shauna’s life that had challenging and often painful seasons, the kind that hurt like hell when you’re in them but you live through anyways because, well, you have to.  And when you emerge on the other side, you have grown and changed in ways you maybe never wanted to but, with the grace of God, have strengthened you in ways you could not imagine. 

Bittersweet introduced me to the “home team”, a concept that has literally changed my behavior. 

“Everybody has a home team: it’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens….These are the ones who tell you their secrets, who get themselves a glass of water without asking when they’re at your house.  These are the people who cry when you cry.  These are your people, your middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what people.”

My “home team” is comprised of people I love deeply and fiercely; people who have stood by my side through anything and everything.  And when it really comes down to it, these are the people I need to be putting my resources into, my time, effort and money.  That’s not to say that I don’t have people in my life who are very important and whom I love…it’s that when push comes to shove, my “home team” sustains me and it’s those relationships that I have to make sure are right and invest in.  When making decisions, I really rely on this “home team” concept and I feel now, more than ever, deeply satisfied with my decisions. 

Bittersweet also makes things okay.  Far too often, we frantically try to paint over the ugly in life because, well, it’s hard to deal with or a “right” answer can’t be found.  Bittersweet puts it out there: sometimes, bad things happen to good people, sometimes, life doesn’t turn out the way you penned it to paper in your master plan.  And sometimes, that can really suck.  But Bittersweet reminds us and makes it okay to just sit still with those imperfect parts- let it be ugly and go from there.  I had a painful, super ugly relationship end several years ago.  Part of what made that so difficult to move past was that I didn’t have an answer.  I didn’t have anything that fixed it or prettied it, validated it or made it anything other than what it was: something bad I needed to get away from as fast as I could.  Blame it on my youth but gosh, I wish it had occurred to me that it was perfectly fine to sit with the pain, sit with the suckiness of it all and just live my way into my future, into something better.  Not everything can be “fixed” and that’s okay.  As bad as something may hurt, you’re going to rely on the “home team”, make it through the day and grow anyways. 

The bottom line?  Change, grace and learning the hard way is a beautiful, if not challenging, part of life and Bittersweet gives a beautiful, relatable, humble voice to that.  At the end of every chapter, I cheered, I laughed or I teared up, at the very least.  But most of all, I said “thank you”.  Thank you, Shauna for writing about things that matter, about things that are hard to say and for giving an unwavering reminder that through it all, we have our “home teams” and serve a God that is full of grace.

Giveaway: If you would like to win a copy of Bittersweet, please leave a comment on this post or shoot me an email at justachitowngirl@gmail.com.  A winner will be selected at random and have a copy of Bittersweet delivered to their door!