Rating: 
Summary: Dad's perspective
Review: I have two young adult daughters. They say they believe in God and recognize the importance of spirituality, but up to now they have not found organized religion very relevant. I was excited when I came across this title because I though it might have some insights for my daughters. As an Anglican I find the Book of Common Prayer and the church traditions sources of enlightenment and comfort in a complex and harried world. I enjoyed reading this book and found the style refreshing. It was good to hear a young woman's perspective on God and the Judeo Christian heritage. I plan to pass my copy of this on to my daughters. It might help them along their spiritual journey.
Rating: 
Summary: BORED
Review: I had to read this book for my religion class and it was the most boring thing i have read in my intire life. She wastes her time quoting various Jewish and Christian theologians and telling you which books are her favorite, while no one really cares. Then she will tell you about her boyfriend for a chapter and you just wonder why she is telling you this because more often then not it barely fits in and it is quite obvious how she tries to force random stories into the plot.
it also bothers me how she puts of this image of being a total intelectual snob who finds herself way above anyone who has not gone to grad school or is not a fan of the venerable bede. Then she also finds herself way too cool for book nerds, though it seems to me she is one.\
all in all this book was a strain to read and i hope nobody else goes through the pain i did to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful, delightful, but tarnished by excessive piety
Review: I read this book, and write this review, as both a church pastor in a liberal denomination and a woman the same age as Winner. I really enjoyed the depth and candidness of her memoir, and appreciated the ways that she allows herself to be seen in all her imperfect humanness.That being said, I was nearly offended by the great lengths to which Winner goes to identify her "sinfulness," such as confessing to a priest her terrible "sin" of thinking about sex (which many liberal Christians -- not Winner, unfortunately -- view with gratitude, as part of God's gift). Her ideals of faithfulness don't ring as authentic for the "real" people, for example, that I have ministered to in my career, and set unrealistic standards of piousness for those who are called to a life of faith. The book is also tinged by a look-at-me-I'm-so-witty cutesiness, but that's a minor complaint. Apart from Winner's exclusive view of what Christianity is, this is a fine read.
Rating:
Summary: Finding the Spiritual Life
Review: Lauren Winner is the girl who meets God. She like the rest of us is wanting something to believe in. Winner expresses in a years time about her path to a spiritual life that shapes her Christian faith. She is the daughter of a Reform Jewish father and a Southern Baptist mother. She sees herself as an Orthodox Jew. The personal pilgrimage into her daily life as she observes the Sabbath rituals and studies Jewish laws, but only to find she is drawn closer to Christianity. So making this courageous step she converts. From here she reinvents another religious life in her small N.C. town. What she does is embraces the new but holds onto the old at the same time being spiritually whole. At this point this an account of the life one young woman's seeking the truth. Wouldn't it have been easier for her to pray to God to help her grow, and know this faith is found in His Son, Jesus Christ. Where there is no religion but finding the Cross.
According to Lauren her world she shapes by her Jewish experiences. She applies Judaism to the teaching of the New Testament and struggles to fit her Orthodox friends into her new life. She tells of her honest confession of faith. Not to compare her with Anne Lamott's bumpy road to faith and her much more indepth into the spiritual road. This journey of twists and turns is a perfect guide for those seeking spirituality in today's complicated world. As I read about her changes through disciplines of prayer and beauty of thoughts. She has the passion of Stephen Dubner. She takes in the character of C. S. Lewis, raised on Flannery O'Connor and Michael Stipe. It give you a feeling living in the ancient Holy time yet retaining modern living. Like Elijah living in a small Southern-American town without being changed by the things around her. Winner's journey between Judiaism and Christianity is humorous and poignant. She reflects much on life of those around her and how they inspire her by the town's people, her family & friends, books and her deeper relationship with God.
Rating: 
Summary: It's one of those books
Review: Girl Meets God is a wonderful and insightful book. It helped to reinvigorate me mentally and spiritually. Lauren Winner is an amazing writer. She helped to put things in terms of our generation. It is refreshing to have someone our age write such a meaningful book. It is one I would suggest for anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, intelligently written spiritual journey; a great read
Review: This a spiritual autobiography in which the author, Lauren F. Winner, a very well-read and erudite young woman, has many profoundly revealing things to say about how both Judaism and Christianity can hold special places in the heart and soul of a person who strives to be closer to God. I fully expected "Girl Meets God" to be one of those books that compels me to spend time contemplating words of wisdom between every chapter; instead, I read the whole thing in two sittings. It's that good.
I have to admit that I'm as impressed with the author as I am with her story, which involves converting to Orthodox Judaism and then leaving this for a deep and abiding Christianity. "Girl Meets God" reads like a conversation rather than a sermon. Although she's as clever as she is intelligent, Ms. Winner doesn't talk down to the reader, so you won't have to worry about feeling guilt or shame as a result of religious ambivalence or spiritual shortcomings. Instead of myriad revelations, she's just telling her story, and she's happy to have you listen in. If you've ever "felt funny" about praying, there's a chapter you can relate to. Don't get as much out of worship services as you expected? She's been there. Surely, there are many far more formidable hurdles in the spiritual path. In the chapter called "Holy Week," a roadblock appears in Ms. Winner's realization that many Jews hated Christ and were responsible for His death. At this point she's a Christian who can have no malice toward Jews. Her reconciliation of her faith(s) comes later in a chapter entitled "Pentecost" which contains some rather profound words about spiritual lessons. Ms. Winner's journey through Judaism to Christianity will be particularly interesting to those who find both beliefs palatable. I happen to believe that God upholds a virtually identical set of morals and ethical values for both Jews and Christians, so it's easy for me to learn about both. Of course, the two hold some divergent precepts; however, Ms. Winner goes beyond calling them out. She studies various angles of interpretation, works her way through the Jewish and Christian history and writings (her knowledge of biblical language is extensive), finds common ground, and seems to be truly grateful for the realization that God speaks forcefully to two different sets of believers. I'm just grateful for a little understanding and a lot more to consider . . . and for the fact that she saved me from spending years in the library trying to sort this stuff out. This book is truly a gem.
Rating:
Summary: she should have waited
Review: Sure, I guess you ought to read this, if the topic interests you - it's honest, engaging, and fairly well written, even if the title is silly and has nothing to do with the book. The Jewish-Christian material is probably more useful than I, a Gentile, can comprehend. The non-linear movement is attractive (to me). And I do appreciate the messiness and the genuineness, which I suppose is what has inspired invocations of Lamott (although Lamott is miles beyond Winner in both prose skill and spiritual depth). "Girl Meets God" has a few serious flaws. The first is that Winner simply does not have enough distance on her experience to choose how it will be best presented. Some key spiritual moments are related in a coy way or skimmed over, so that you can't tell from the prose how and why they were transformative. Then on the other hand, it's hard to understand why certain other moments were included and how she thinks they contribute to the story -- this is, probably, what prompts the common criticism of self-indulgent writing. I suspect actual self-indulgence isn't the problem; I just don't think she's learned how to make meaning through judicious cuts yet. Second, though Winner clearly is spiritually serious and a person of great intelligence, she is early enough in her life as a Christian that she has an annoying habit of relating fairly common personal insights as if they were unusual. Several of her narratives (I think particularly of her tongues story and her conversation with a priest about how Christ is present in the Eucharist) reach so far to wrest A Moment Of Siginficant Insight out of a fairly ordinary occurrence in the Christian life that they are almost embarrassing to read. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they were genuine for her at the time she lived them, but the level of narrative cliche is high. And she does the same thing with her writing per se -- she's ending a passage, and you can just see her stretch for A Clever Turn of Phrase. I enjoyed reading the book, and I would certainly recommend it as a pretty-well-written personal reflection by a voice who will, I'm sure, make significant contributions to Christian writing over the next decades. However, to suggest that this transiently interesting book will take a place next to autobiographical works by writers like Lamott, Merton, Weil, or Lewis is far, far overblown.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Start, but Could Have Been More
Review: Lauren Winner, a young evangelical scholar and writer, presents a non-linear "testimony" of how she converted from no religion to Orthodox Judaism to evangelical Episcopal Christianity. The shape of that journey is unique--she is not a Jews-for-Jesus style Messianic Jew, nor is she your stereotypical fundamentalist from the backwater (though Jan Karon's saccharine Mitford novels did play an important part in her conversion). Judaism strongly informs her knowledge and approach to Christianity, and those insights are mixed together with accounts of her love life, her previous experiences as an Orthodox Jew, and descriptions of her quirky, bookish habits. Winner's youth and charm go a long way in making this an enjoyable book to read, though those aspects alone cannot cover all of the book's shortcomings. Winner has not been a Christian for very long, though in a way this works in her favor because memories and insights from her Jewish past greatly enrich her more conventional Christian reflections. The interesection and tension between her Jewishness and Christianity is by far the most interesting aspect of the book, which makes the portions about her love life and her tattoos less interesting by comparison. Previous reviewers have called the book self-indulgent, which is not an entirely unfair charge--but it's offset by the Jewish/Christian insights. The book has also been compared to Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies, and they are similar in that they are highly personal narratives about cultured/educated women coming to faith, but there the similarity ends. Lamott and Winner are of different generations, and are different kinds of writers. In my judgment, Lamott does better: her novelistic skills, wacky humor, and above all her varied life experiences give her writing greater weight than Winner's, who sometimes seems to hold back when she should follow a thought all the way (for instance, when she reflects on whether there is anti-Semitic content in the Gospels). Winner has almost always been religious, and in conservative religions too; despite her apparent sexual freedom and drinking of Scotch and wearing of fishnet stockings, it sometimes sounds like she has a lot more to experience in life at this stage than to write a memoir about it. Overall, I'd take the Jewish/Christian hybrid reflections and leave behind the rest, but in any case, this is a writer to watch out for in future years. A clearly intelligent and interesting figure as Lauren Winner will undoubtedly do something great in later years.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't do it for me
Review: In "Girl Meets God," Lauren Winner takes the reader through her two conversions: first to Orthodox Judaism, then to Christianity. Although some of her ideas and stories on her faith journey are interesting, her stories are overloaded and overwrought, and she tries too hard and is too self-consciously witty for this to be a good read. (Who cares if she wears fishnet stockings?) I felt as if she needed to document everything that had to do with her faith life, whether of interest to the reader or not, which made the book "cluttered", as least for me. Her discomfort with the two labels of "Christian" and "liberal" shines through, as does her evident pain of the exile she now feels from her Orthodox community. I really wanted to hear more about why she became a Christian, what drew her to Christianity, why she felt the need to leave Judaism - was she feeling these doubts all along? If so, why not engage them *before* converting to Judaism? Part of me wonders if any faith community will ever be enough for Ms. Winner, especially since the ending was somewhat open. I think she has some interesting ideas and thoughts, but wished she'd waited to write this book until she'd matured a little more.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing book by a terrific woman
Review: Lauren Winner, half Jewish, turns Orthodox and then falls in love with Jesus and becomes an Episcopalian. A bumpy ride for sure. At the foot of the Cross in her life she rids herself of her immense Jewish library, but over time comes to discover how much Judaism contributes to Christianity, and how commentaries on the Torah have their place alongside the Book of Common Prayer. Indeed, Lauren exposes how intensely Judaism informs the Christian life. She exposes her own Christian life, and in so doing shows us a woman who lives a life infused with meaning, love, devotion, and forgiveness. An unforgettable human being, and an inner journey that is well worth the read.
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