Book Review- Bittersweet

Bad Diner Book Club's read for the month of July, chosen by the lovely Kristen Meredith, is Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist which I read mainly outside on our deck, over several cups of Intelligentsia's Breakfast Blend. Bittersweet is a collection of essays that chronicle Shauna's thoughts on marriage, her miscarriage, her husband's rough dealings with the church and her love of food. Each chapter was a small vignette with little to connect her essays together. While I loved the chapters on food and friendship, I struggled to get through this book, often finding the stories a bit slow.
I appreciated the honesty that was represented in the writing. I think her voice is likable. I want to be Shauna's  friend and eat risotto at one of her many dinner parties. I enjoyed her musings on motherhood. As a young mama, I can relate to that desire for other mothers to marvel at your multi-tasking skills and the polite nature of your child. There was a wonderful chapter on a trip she took to visit a few of her girlfriends in California. They drank lattes, talked about books and babies, took walks and sat outside by the beach with each of their respective newborns...sounds like a dream to me.
Other memories though left me feeling confused and detached. A large portion of the book was devoted to her family's relocation to Chicago after being badly burned by a church in Grand Rapids. My husband works at a very large church in the Chicago suburbs, and I could relate to her many statements about always running into people from the congregation and feeling as if your reactions to situations are on display. But, I felt like the chapters dedicated to this time in her life were a bit thin- perhaps because she spent no time on the events leading up to the run-in with the church or the event itself, but rather focused solely on her grieving. I had a hard time joining her in her grief.
I'm anxious to hear what the other bookies think about this read when we meet for book club later this month. For me, I give Bittersweet a solid B.