Rating: 
Summary: This book CAN cahnge lives - it has changed mine
Review: 'New Habits' brings to light the real humanity of women who are nuns. It dislodges all those previous concepts of what a nun is, ie. locked away from the world, condemning of sex and sexuality, unapproacable, humorless, stern and ALWAYS Roman Catholic. In nearly every woman's story I saw pieces of myself. An alarming fact at first! The author has done a wonderful job in her interviewing, bringing out the woman in the nun. The photo and intro to each woman gives the reader a sense of sitting and having a private chat, in which there is laughter and an unstuffy, spiritual awareness. I am sure for some of them it was a difficult decision to talk in such a public way and I take my hat off to each of them for doing so and allowing us, the public, a glimpse behind those Convent doors, which are not so firmly closed anymore. The reader cannot help but be touched by and hold respect for each one of the women and their very personal journeys. I was so enchanted by the book that 3 months later I picked it up and read it again, slowly this time, allowing myself to realise and absorb the idea that I too could be and may be a nun some day. This book CAN change lives - it has changed mine.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful but with a sad undertone
Review: An excellent source for anyone in the decernment process, and thinking of religious orders. In depth, honest and beautiful personal stories of the why, how and what of religious life, by 10 sisters who generously share their inner most thoughts, fears and desires with the reader. Being Anglican (Episcopal) myself it was especially nice to read of the Anglican religious. This book was the answer to my prayers!
Rating:
Summary: CURIOUS ABOUT NUNS?
Review: I spent six years in a roman Catholic religious order, from 1966 to 1972, because I experienced a strange and unsettling call. Those post-Vatican Council years generated a wind sweeping through the world of Catholic nuns, monks and priests, a vast raising of dust in the corners of our self consciousness. We wondered if religious life was 'relevant' to a future-shocked society as we deliberated wheter to stay or leave. Refreshingly, that kind of sociological navel gazing is entirely absent in New Habits.Rather, ten Anglican novices of varying ages and orders reveal with warmth and intimacy the core of commitment to God. This personal quality, rather than a stab at psychosocial analysis, distinguishes the book. Sister Lynn, for example, typifies the ingenousness of the novices: 'What I most love about the life here is the freedom. It sounds weird because I was just moaning about the restrictions and the timetable and stuff, but at the sametime community has allowed me to be free to be who I am. I don't have to pretend.' Ten women, ten stories, ten souls laid bare. No pretense. And Losada graciously stands in the wings while she gives each nun center stage. What do we imagine about nuns and their lives? New Habits rings with faith, honesty and simplicity as each woman conveys her profound inner reflections and her humdrum daily experiences. The parallel format of the interviews - personal history followed by insights into poverty, celibacy and obedience - lends a mantra-like rhythm to the book. Through this gentle repetition , what comes across is the goodness of a life dedicated to enjoying and manifesting God's love in a faith community - which thus becomes its own excuse for existence. Relevance? Who cares? That every sister in the book was an active participant in life prior to her vocation cannot be doubted. That each of them is currently fulfilled is equally obvious. Thy will be done! New Habits may not send any readers into the convent, but minimally it satisfies our curiosity. Beyond that, it makes it eminently clear that whatever fun, joy and accomplishment life in the lay world has to offer, something intangibly deeper and quietly ecstatic lurks within convent walls, in God's world, where only a few of us ever savor it. I've had both, and I know.
Rating:
Summary: CURIOUS ABOUT NUNS?
Review: I spent six years in a roman Catholic religious order, from 1966 to 1972, because I experienced a strange and unsettling call. Those post-Vatican Council years generated a wind sweeping through the world of Catholic nuns, monks and priests, a vast raising of dust in the corners of our self consciousness. We wondered if religious life was 'relevant' to a future-shocked society as we deliberated wheter to stay or leave. Refreshingly, that kind of sociological navel gazing is entirely absent in New Habits. Rather, ten Anglican novices of varying ages and orders reveal with warmth and intimacy the core of commitment to God. This personal quality, rather than a stab at psychosocial analysis, distinguishes the book. Sister Lynn, for example, typifies the ingenousness of the novices: 'What I most love about the life here is the freedom. It sounds weird because I was just moaning about the restrictions and the timetable and stuff, but at the sametime community has allowed me to be free to be who I am. I don't have to pretend.' Ten women, ten stories, ten souls laid bare. No pretense. And Losada graciously stands in the wings while she gives each nun center stage. What do we imagine about nuns and their lives? New Habits rings with faith, honesty and simplicity as each woman conveys her profound inner reflections and her humdrum daily experiences. The parallel format of the interviews - personal history followed by insights into poverty, celibacy and obedience - lends a mantra-like rhythm to the book. Through this gentle repetition , what comes across is the goodness of a life dedicated to enjoying and manifesting God's love in a faith community - which thus becomes its own excuse for existence. Relevance? Who cares? That every sister in the book was an active participant in life prior to her vocation cannot be doubted. That each of them is currently fulfilled is equally obvious. Thy will be done! New Habits may not send any readers into the convent, but minimally it satisfies our curiosity. Beyond that, it makes it eminently clear that whatever fun, joy and accomplishment life in the lay world has to offer, something intangibly deeper and quietly ecstatic lurks within convent walls, in God's world, where only a few of us ever savor it. I've had both, and I know.
Rating: 
Summary: A surprisingly fascinating read
Review: Many of us view nuns as they are presented in pop culture--from the Flying Nun to Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, nuns are often portrayed comically, as characters in a story, not as real people. But Isabel Losada's NEW HABITS introduces the reader to "real life" nuns and let's them tell their own stories. The result is a transcription of interviews that holds attention remarkably well and allows insight into the mysterious and and otherwise unknown lives of nuns. I recommend this book for two main reasons. 1. As mentioned earlier, when pop culture distorts or exaggerates an image, it is important to discover the truth. If for no other reason, this book is important in that it allows these women to speak for themselves, free from the contraints of media portrayals. Fortunately for us, they have interesting things to say. 2. While these perspectives might be limited to a particular order, they are interesting perspectives nonetheless. No nun claims to speak for all nuns--they each realize they are telling unique, personalized story. Finding the similarities and differences in the stories, then, only adds to the complexity of this book. I was skeptical when I began this book--skeptical that it would hold my interest. It is a topic I know little about. But through the author's carefully worded questions and the apparent candid way the nuns responded, I finished the book with a greater understanding of a popular, misunderstood group, and greater understanding is no small feat.
Rating:
Summary: Direct, Witty, Profound
Review: Simply the best thing I've ever read on the religious life. It's wonderful that the author has kept herself out of the picture and just let the Sisters speak. On the other hand she has asked all the right questions. I found the book moving and challenging. A really beautiful collection of interviews
Rating:
Summary: Direct, Witty, Profound
Review: Simply the best thing I've ever read on the religious life. It's wonderful that the author has kept herself out of the picture and just let the Sisters speak. On the other hand she has asked all the right questions. I found the book moving and challenging. A really beautiful collection of interviews
Rating:
Summary: Great Book! Journey with women to the heart of God's love
Review: This is a book for those who want to go below the surface and see lives transformed by the power and love of God. Beautifully written, with photos of the sisters, you'll go on a journey with these dear souls - where they reveal their intimate feelings. You'll hear the stories that tell what brought them to God's door. Gentleness and gratitude fill the pages of these courageous lives. If you want to read why people can find meaning in living for and with God - buy this book. You'll be inspired, laugh and share the integrity of women who find God irresistable and a lover of their souls. God wants us as much as anyone in this world - but only a few people hear His voice and come. Find out what kind of people these are who find a vision that goes beyond this life. This book will help you see that suffering and disillusionment can be overcome and are often springboards for real joy. The sisters portrayed here transcend mere human limitations. In discovering why they find personal meaning in religious life, the sisters share the presence of God. They become a link in the chain of faith that goes back to the beginning of time. We are blessed when we share the vision. You'll love the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe, they have not realized it yet.
Review: This is one of the books I read intially when I began my research on nuns. Admittedly, I had a preference for researching the opinions and motivations from an Anglican prospective as I was a former novice in an Anglican order. My motivation for entering was similiar if not exactly the same as those in the book. I found the honest sharing the positive point in the book but although it did interview each individual novice sister about her motivation for entering it did not discuss her present life in any real depth. Perhaps each were still in the throws of romance. I wonder if the author and the novices themselves will realize a life of such restriction leads not to childlikeness but to childishness. It also leads to an ossification of the body/mind and soul of the nun at the time she entered. (That is if she stays.)This result has both documentation by sociologists and therapists as well as testimonies from former nuns themselves. It is even found within the writings of former nuns as early as Monica Baldwin's moving biography I Leaped Over the Wall and her later novel the called and the Chosen written in the 50's-60's. Even at this early date the resulting behaviours resulting from the restriction are alluded to. The same result is evident in R. Lynch's, a nun, Inside Convent Walls, which sounds like a high school soroity. However, I found the book refreshing as most religious in the past have swathed their former lives and their present lives in secrecy. The text leaves me asking how the orders and novices were selected as several orders,including some of the most powerful in the Anglican Church were not represented. An earlier reviewer wrote she was dissappointed in not finding Roman Catholic sisters. For her I suggest Mary Loudon's book
Unveiled, Nuns Talking. I wonder if such a book will be written about Episcopalian orders... both male and female.
Rating:
Summary: Happy, well adjusted women sharing their stories.
Review: What a concept! So often these days it seems that we only hear from those people who are unhappy and seem to want to make everyone else feel unhappy, too. And these women share something deep and meaningful about what is really important in their lives. And to be able to say that what is so meaningful is God! I am truly amazed. I enjoyed the book very, very much.
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