Audiobook5 hours
Thin Places: A Memoir
Written by Mary E. DeMuth
Narrated by Mary E. DeMuth and Mary E. DuMuth
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
In her moving spiritual memoir, Mary DeMuth traces the winding path of “thin places” in her life—places where she experienced longing and healing more intensely than before. As DeMuth writes, “Thin places are snatches of holy ground, tucked into the corners of our world, where we might just catch a glimpse of eternity. They are aha moments, beautiful realizations, when the Son of God bursts through the hazy fog of our monotony and shines on us afresh.”From losing her earthly father to discovering a heavenly Father who never leaves, from singing Olivia Newton-John songs to the sky to worshiping God under a French sun, from surviving abuse as a latchkey kid to experiencing the joy of mothering three children, DeMuth’s story calls readers to a deeper understanding of their own story. With unusual spiritual wisdom, she looks for God in the past so that she might experience him more profoundly in the present. Her powerful words invite readers to know God in a new way—a God ready to break through any ordinary day or extraordinary pain and offer a glimpse of eternity.
Author
Mary E. DeMuth
Mary DeMuth is the author of several southern novels, including A Slow Burn, Life in Defiance, and the Christy award finalists, Watching the Tree Limbs and Daisy Chain. She’s also written four parenting books and a memoir, Thin Places. She’s passionate about the written word, teaching, and mentoring writers. Mary lives in Texas with her husband, Patrick, and their three children.
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Reviews for Thin Places
Rating: 4.062499933333334 out of 5 stars
4/5
24 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I put this book on a "to be read" list many years ago--so long ago that I no longer remember where I saw it or why I wanted to read it. The title refers to the author's belief that at times in her life there have been "thin places" that allowed her to glimpse lessons from God more easily than she might at other times. Her memoir is an attempt to recount those times and the lessons she's learned.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Really enjoyed this 'spiritual memoir' I loved the stream-of-consciousness writing style, and usually I *don't* like that at all. I'd love to read other books like this one. DeMuth's other books are novels though, so .. I'm not sure I'd read that genre right now.
Just started this book yesterday and I'm loving it already. The author goes back and forth between the present and the past and makes it work beautifully w/out it seeming too jumpy and disconnected. I have a feeling I'll be finishing this in a short time! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I don't think I have ever read a book by a Christian woman who is so honest, open, and raw with her life. She experienced sexual abuse at 5 years, was devastated by the death of her biological father, saw her mother divorce 3 times, was saved at 15, struggles with trying to earn her way into God's love rather than accepting it as a gift. She married a Christian man, had 4 children and served 2 years in France in a church plant. Each chapter has a different theme of a crisis in her life that she directs to see hope in God. A thin place is holy ground where she experiences God.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In this heartbreakingly raw story, Mary DeMuth delves into the painful details of her past, including the loss of her father, the emotional absence of her mother, and the sexual assault that still plagues her to this day. Her honesty and her faith are refreshing and uplifting, proving that through God all things are possible.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I don’t know how I got so lucky, but a pre-release copy of Mary DeMuth’s Thin Places arrived in the mail, together with a request that maybe I could read and review it and join in with the “social media tour.” So this is me, joining in.Thin Places is billed as a memoir, which isn’t really my kind of thing. But I already knew (from reading A Slow Burn) that Mary DeMuth is a really excellent writer. She has the knack of writing about seriously sad and difficult topics with a lightness that’s more to do with creating light than making light of anything. With words as beautifully constructed as her stories, she pulled me straight into the second book of a series and kept me so entranced that I wished it wouldn’t end. But a memoir?The “thin places” of this book’s title are made from those times when the world around us grows thin, where glimpses of heaven slip in through those cracks in the clouds. And the author leads her readers fairly quickly to the sort of thin place that we might not wish to go—except, of course, so many of us have been there, been nearly there, or been comforters to others who’ve been there.As in her novels, Mary writes about deep and painful subjects. But her writing has a beauty that allows even the most agonizing tale to let in the light. She shows how God takes those cruel memories and paints eternal glory and forgiveness into their fabric, transforming that which we’d rather forget into a source of curious blessing.There were parts of this memoir that resonated with me, and left me eagerly looking for God’s light in my life. I too have chased after signs, delighting in those days when it seemed like God really spoke to me, and mourning their loss when I should be rejoicing in the fact that God gave, God takes, God is sovereign, and God might give again. I too have lived with my inner critic declaring I’m never good enough. I too…But Mary’s not me, and in some sections I just felt frustrated with circumstances that dictate I can’t be more like her. The cynic in me asks, but what if this, or what if that lets Mary down. But I know that as God is in all of Mary’s thin places now, He’s here for me too, not making the tough places smooth, but making them thin, if I’ll just let Him in.Thin Places is more than a memoir, and more than a teaching moment. It’s a series of essays, built on the author’s memories, and bound by their message of God’s faithfulness. It’s a call to readers to see things differently, to recognize healing, and to look for God breaking in through an ordinary day. It’s a beautiful book, and however it was that I got lucky enough to receive it, I’m really glad I’ve read it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thin Places is a spiritual memoir, although not a typical coming-to-Jesus story nor solely Mary DeMuth’s story of childhood rape and loss and their ramifications in adolescence and adulthood. Rather, it’s a memoir of her realization that, while she found God at age 15, He has always been with her.She relates what she calls the “thin places” of her life -- moments of God's presence that nearly erase the distinction between spiritual and physical. Looking back, she finds thin places long before she knew God; looking ahead, she strives to recognize and appreciate them now as they occur. She organizes her experiences as a series of vignettes around incidents and themes -- some heartbreaking; a few veering toward testimony; all empathic and inspiring. Reading them created thin places of my own.