Jennifer GrantCritiques

Excerpt from a longer article:

Synergy: Adventures in Nature

NATURE is the contents and relationships found in the material world including all life. Humans are a tiny part of the physical universe known as nature.

To understand a concept, it’s useful to read a cluster of books related to the topic. Explore these recently published nonfiction picture books for children:

FIND CALM IN NATURE by Jennifer Grant is a guide for mindful young people. From being rooted to being in flow, each chapter explores a different connection with nature. Quotes, questions, and facts are presented in sidebars. Readers are asked to observe nature, then look inward. Opportunities are provided for practice and reflection. ARC courtesy of Beaming Books, an imprint of 1517 Media.

The Discovery Series is a series of small books 6 inches high and contains about 32 pages each, thus they can be easily “lost” in the shelves. Each one is about an aspect of Christian living. We have four such books by different authors. The first is Clinging to Hope in the Storm, by Leslie Fields, (248.4/FIE). The second is Who is My Neighbor? by Marlene Graves (248.4/GRA); the third is Making Decisions God’s Way by J. Scott Duvall (248.4/DUV) and the last, Comparison: the Thief of Joy by Jennifer Grant (2484/GRA). Each one is designed to help a Christian in his daily life.

In this follow-up to the award-winning Maybe God Is Like That Too, a young girl wonders how to be a good neighbor to the dozens of people in her apartment building, the people on the street, and the other kids at the park. With help from her mama, the girl discovers that all it takes is a little kindness and creativity to show love to neighbors near and far.

Y'all know I am forty. I often forget that this age is middle-aged. I picked this book out of the review queue and thought it would be interesting to prepare for the future. As I was reading, I realized that I have or am living all of the things in this book. In many ways it was helpful and encouraging. In many ways I thought it was WEIRD and preached capital T Terrible doctrine. Here's my two cents.

Jennifer talks about why teenagers make fun of us, rebel against us, and detach from us. That is always helpful to remember because it helps us to engage the issue instead of reacting to it. She didn't give much help in the engaging area however. She also dealt with how our kids make fun of us as a way to build their independence and prove themselves separate from us.That can be helpful in affirming our children's individualism.

Really this was a strange group of essays that formed a memoir. She went from wearing glasses that her kids said look like Elton John, to losing her addict sister, to being cremated, to being Episcopalian. The part about her sister was interesting. She shares a little list of what not to say to people who are grieving. When someone loses a family member that is an addict they also grieve their life and loss of relationship. It's a grief doubled.

At the very last chapter, she lost me completely. She went on this strange rant about verses used in the Bible to clobber others. Ones that preached repentance and justice. She said that she thought everyone gets to go to heaven. Honestly, I think she took those "clobber verses" and hit people who believe in repentance and our need to be forgiven by a Holy God with them. It was some of the worst theology I've read in a while.

That leaves me to tell you that I do not recommend this book.

This book was graciously provided by Herald Press for review.

Some nice thoughts but not really funny. Sometimes the stories were a bit rambling or disconnected.

Reading this seemed like having a conversation with a good friend. The only problem was this particular friend was just a bit younger and hasn’t yet navigated that uncharted territory that is ahead for me.

While the book really wasn’t filled with what I expected, I enjoyed it and especially liked what Grant had to say in Chapter 12 and the references she made to some verses in Ecclesiastes.

This was a quick, positive read that can be finished in a weekend or less. It’s most likely more relatable to mothers and those seeking or practicing a spiritual life, but it’s definitely not preachy.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Herald Press for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Good read.

I only gave it three stars, because this is not new information. it is organized well. It is an easy read.

Jennifer Grant tells the story of adopting her Guatemalan-born daughter, Mia. She gives us a background to her family and family life which didn’t make very good reading. In fact, from time to time, the author seems to wander a bit.

Read more here: http://from7eight.com/love-you-more/

First, let me state that I was stunned at the intelligence of the author, Cary Grant's daughter. Having worked in Hollywood and seen first hand how shallow and illiterate most of the celebrity offspring are, Jennifer Grant's book is a revelation in its simplicity, elegance, and directness. Rather like her father, in fact.

Reading this book at a time when even lower middle class families raise their daughters as spoiled self-entitled princesses, it's amazing that Jennifer Grant, a child of wealth, turns out the way she does....level-headed and thoughtful. She even references Pavlov during one sentence. Yes, astonishing.

As to the book's subject, yes she discusses papa Cary, but this isn't a mere biography. In fact, she only glances over Mr. Grant's career and childhood, as she is specifically writing about fatherhood and how Cary Grant, quite frankly, hit the ball out of the park (he loved baseball) in raising his only child. Though Jennifer was a product of divorce, she grows up to be a top student (Stanford graduate) who had to learn as a child how to manage money AND work several jobs to pay for her own car. Amazing.

"He combines a vivid sense of beauty with affection for the homely, keen zest for life and adventure with a rare appreciation of the common, universal pleasures, and finds in those simple things of daily life a precious quality, a dignity and a wonder that consecrates them."

The above description was actually about the poet W.H. Davies, but I thought of Cary Grant when reading Davies, as his daughter makes a fine point of emphasizing her father's love of the simple life. In fact, Cary Grant made a point of retiring from movies forever so he could focus on his only child and the result was that he saved almost everything about her childhood, including audio recordings, drawings, and letters. Jennifer Grant uses this treasure trove to focus each chapter, and the reader walks away with a guide to parenthood and life and everything it throws at you.

These were my favorites:

1. Value the middle stuff (not every day is graduation day).

2. Wabi-Sabi (the art of seeing beauty in imperfection).

3. Active silence (preparation for the real world).

4. Sense the apex (there's a natural limit for everything).

5. Jazz is one note from chaos (you may miss the mark, but you're close).

6. Don't get mad at the cookies (chemistry can ruin a friendship).

7. The bread of shame (if you haven't earned what you're given, it can work against you).

Jennifer has a wicked sense of humor and uses it throughout the book to describe film stars ("like Ben & Jerry's ice cream"), herself, her mother Dyan Cannon and her father.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book for the concept and originality. I walk away with a fuller appreciation of Cary Grant as a man who "chose to celebrate life...instead of expecting life to celebrate him."

Jennifer did a fantastic job on relaying her life eith her father. I've read other biographies on Cary and this by far is my favorite! I look forward to reading her mother's book in the fall.

This is a wonderful memoir of family life in all of its (sometimes) messy glory. It's definitely not your normal book about raising a child! It's not about being the perfect parent, its about being a REAL mom. I think that's whats so appealing about this book. The author uses her real experiences(and that of friends etc.) of being a parent, the good, bad, and the ugly. The stories that she uses to illustrate are pretty dog gone funny, and I think most parents have a story or two that's pretty similar from their journey through parenthood.
;)

Even though I'm not a Mom myself, I really liked this book. The heartfelt stories, and the realness of the author, made this a fun, interesting, and educational read.
If you are a mom (or about to be), I would definitely recommend that you pick up this read.
I'm sure you won't regret it!

This is a wonderful memoir of family life in all of its (sometimes) messy glory. It's definitely not your normal book about raising a child! It's not about being the perfect parent, its about being a REAL mom. I think that's whats so appealing about this book. The author uses her real experiences(and that of friends etc.) of being a parent, the good, bad, and the ugly. The stories that she uses to illustrate are pretty dog gone funny, and I think most parents have a story or two that's pretty similar from their journey through parenthood.
;)

Even though I'm not a Mom myself, I really liked this book. The heartfelt stories, and the realness of the author, made this a fun, interesting, and educational read.
If you are a mom (or about to be), I would definitely recommend that you pick up this read.
I'm sure you won't regret it!

Jennifer Grant writes about her childhood growing up in Hollywood with American movie icon, Cary Gant. Her free-form reminisces flow from anecdotes to story to photo. While relatively unstructured, isn't that how our own memories come to us? Cary came to fatherhood late in life, with his fourth wife, Dyan Cannon. Divorced soon after the birth of his only child, then retired Grant focused almost every waking moment into daily interaction with his beloved daughter. Everything was apparently recorded and lovingly labeled, every scribble and note saved. Jennifer's book includes a remarkable archive of video and audio recording transcripts, photographs and written material. While the writing may be uneven, the deep and demonstrative love they shared is palpable. There are relatively few anecdotes here for the general film aficionado. It will certainly fill in any Cary Grant fan's library. On a larger scale, this intimate slim volume is an appealing reflection on the strength of connection between fathers and daughters.

This memoir is about a woman's journey through adopting a daughter from Guatemala and the changes in her life along the way. Grant already had three biological children of her own, but answers God's calling and adopts fourth child - a little girl. This book is written for parents of all kinds, but couples that are thinking about or have been through adoption will find Grant's personal story inspirational, but also very real.

Grant shares herself very openly throughout the book and does not hold back on sharing her insecurities, doubts and battles with her own perceptions (as well as society's) of parenting. Grant does a great job of keeping God at the center of her story and sharing her real struggle to do God's Will. I enjoyed hearing her "voice" pour out of the pages. It felt very much like I was having a conversation with a close girlfriend. I appreciate that she does not hold back on the challenges of the adoption process.

Also, I appreciated that Grant shared her heart for children living in poverty around the world. She provides resources for those interested in adoption, but also for those wanting to support organizations that work to positively impact the lives of children around the world.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was that I felt like she jumped around a little bit and at times it was hard to figure out if she was flashing back or not.

Overall:
It was a great read for a new mother like myself even though God has not put on my heart to adopt. I definitely recommend it to parents of all kinds.

I loved Jennifer's voice. She made her personal story accessible and related well to her reader. I would recommend for all who are wanting to adopt, thinking about adopting, know someone who is or just want to be an advocate for adoption in general.

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