Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far by Amy Grant Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far
Book Review: A Fine First Effort
Summary: 4 Stars
Amy Grant's first book is a fine first effort.
It can be read a little at a time as your schedule permits.
Little stories are woven around the songs she has written.
As always, she is transparent, vulnerable and real.
I recommend it.
Book Review: Honest writing in the usual Amy look at life!
Summary: 4 Stars
I have followed Amy's career since I first starting to go to a youth group at age 16. Her Unguarded album was big at the time and was the first album I bought that wasn't mainstream. 'Wise Up" was the first song I sung in public with a band. So I feel like I know Amy, even though I've never met her! She's always had a remarkable way of writing. You only have to look at the lyrics of her songs to understand that. Mosaic is not just some biography of her life. In true Amy style, she's created a book of musings if you like. She has a clever way of looking at life. very reflective. She uses stories about her children and families and nature and career to help her (and us) remember the important things in life. yes, I too, was expecting some insight into why her and Gary divorced. And of course, this book doesn;t give the answers. But you know what? By the end of the book, I didn't care any more. i didn't want to know. I appreciated how honest Amy was about herself and she doesn't "owe" us, the public some pet answers on why she decided to end her marriage. By the end of the book, I closed it feeling satisfied and alittle more in tune with my own life. Thanks again Amy! PS I so get the song "Hats"!Book Review: Not What I Expected or Hoped For
Summary: 1 Stars
To write a book about her walk with the Lord and not admit to any faults expecially when they are public knowledge is amazing and disappointing. I was expecting her to talk about what God has been doing in her life in dealing with her divorce and her stepping away from her Christian walk and she basically doesn't deal with them. Only when we admit our faults to each other can we all be healed. Very sad that she didn't. Disappointing book, both in content and writing. She uses her songs as a lot of the writing so there is not much content in this book. I would not recommend this book to anyone. Book Review: Quintessential Amy Grant
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are an Amy Grant fan, as I admit unabashedly to being, you will love this book because it so quintessentially Amy. Her personality comes through on every page, whether song lyrics, prose or poetry. This is a loosely woven look at Amy's life and what has been, and is, important to her as Amy Grant Gill, daughter, sister, wife, mother, co-worker and friend. If you are not already a fan, you'll find that this book offers intimate insights into the life of a major recording star and public figure turned memoirist.
At age 48, Grant is defined more by her relationships than she is by her music or her career. Indeed, those are but a reflection of the person she has become. She says of this stage of her life: "The beauty of being in the middle of my life is the vantage point it provides. From my forties I can look ahead to my parents navigating old age at full tilt and take mental notes about what lies ahead. Even from here I can see that growing old is not for the cowardly. At the same time I can look back to childhood and the young-adult years with more understanding and compassion for myself in retrospect, for my children and for all the young people I know who are swept up in the swirl of the early decades of life." (p. 117)
The book is full of vignettes about important people in her life, from Uncle Larry, whom she never knew, to a friend ill with cancer, to her greatly valued crew of managers and musicians. Inserted throughout are song lyrics and poems which serve to highlight her musings and recollections. She shares uplifting accounts of her journey, beginning as an awkward 16-year-old singer and becoming an accomplished mega-star in both Christian and contemporary music. Grant has certainly won her share of awards. She has dined with, entertained for, and been a personal guest of presidents. Still, she seems at times in awe of all she has achieved.
Grant never denies that there have been rough times in her life, including a divorce from first husband Gary Chapman, father of her three older children. She never asks for the reader's sympathy nor does she offer excuses. She doesn't mention the very public outcry when it was learned that a Christian artist was divorcing. She easily could have slipped into self-pity when she was maligned by those who were more interested in her supposed sin than in her singing. She mentions the divorce only in terms of how she struggled with her own failure and rebuilding her broken family. Her marriage a year later to Vince Gill became more fodder for the gossip-mongers, since these Christian stars, both divorced, were now marrying. They could have retreated from the public eye but both chose to stand with their heads high and proclaim publicly how blessed they were to have found one another. Now, years and their daughter Corrina later, their relationship is quietly serene.
Amy's attitude toward hard and trying times is reflected in something her dear friend Sarah Cannon (aka Minnie Pearl) told her. "Black is most important color for an artist. You see, without black there is no depth. Without black everything appears flat." (p. xvii) Having endured bleak times,Amy found this to be true in her own life . These, she says, "add depth to every other experience...Seasons of darkness have made the landscape of my life richer, but I am grateful to say that my days are overwhelmingly filled with light." (p. xvii) These black "lines" have served to pull together the mosaic that is Amy's life so far.
For those of us to whom writing is important, what she had to say about writing and writers seems at first whimsical and then very perceptive. "I've always believed that real writers are formed from the ground up. They know from the beginning that they want to write, they dream of writing, they keep their noses to the grindstone for years, they suffer rejection after rejection from publishers, and finally one day, miraculously, they get a breakthrough. Real writers emerge from some magical, solitary existence, having lived an otherworldly life." (p.xv) Still, she decided to write although she was unsure how to start. She discovered, as oftentimes happens to those who dare to put their pen to paper, several unexpected blessings.
"Compiling this collection of memories has had two profound effects on me.," she writes. "The first and most obvious would be that I have spent a lot of time reminiscing, and that has made me grateful for all the people and experiences in my life." Then she says: "Thanks to writing and remembering, I'm reinspired to value both the mundane and magical moments. Some days are crowded with details and others with sweet hours of peace and beauty, but whatever they hold, I don't want to miss a thing. In trying to capture a few memories as best I can, I give myself the gift of treasuring what has been so far a very full and meaningful life." Not bad for someone who didn't think she was a writer.
by Susan Ideus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Book Review: You'll want to write Amy a thank you letter
Summary: 5 Stars
After you read this book you will truly want to write Amy a Thank you Letter. Through touching stories of her own life she is able to remind you what life is truly about...connecting with people, allowing yourself to feel both the good and the bad and learn from it all. She continues to truly inspire. I felt like I could breath easier after I read her book.
So...Thank you Amy.
Maureen