Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding memoir
Review: If you're interested in Christian conversion, especially the faith's Jewish roots, you may find this fascinating and worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: from the halfway point
Review: I write this response only about halfway through "Girl Meets God." I may very well edit my review after the last page is turned, but I have some comments for the meantime.As an Anne Lamott-, Madeleine L'Engle-, Nora Gallagher- reading liberal Christian type, I was interested in all the buzz about "Girl Meets God." Most reviews describe Winner as an intellectual evangelical who can write a memoir with the best of them. And this is true. Winner is quite smart, and she articulates her spiritual path (first to Orthodox Judaism, then to evangelical Anglicanism) with literary panache. One especially enjoyable aspect of the book is its vivid language and imagery. The book (as of yet) is lush with the smells, sights, tastes, and sounds of the two faiths at hand. These sensory details are what make the divine palpable in religious life-- particularly a religious life rooted in incarnation-- and Winner's celebration of this truth is made beautifully apparent as her story unfolds.
However (and this however accounts for the missing fifth star), Winner loses me through her negative references to liberal Christians. She makes her disdain for liberal Christians a little too clear, referring to the lot as "wishy washy." I am tired of the incorrect assumption that liberal Christians are less faithful than evangelical Christians, and I had hoped that Winner wouldn't fall into this false notion. The book, at places, is shadowed by Winner's unfounded judgement of liberal-leaning Christians. I must admit that this only adds a layer to my own judgements regarding evangelical Christians (always telling the rest of us that we just aren't Christian enough).
Overall, from this halfway point, I am glad that I purchased the book, and more than a little convinced that Winner and I would probably get along swimmingly once we got over the liberal/conservative rift. As an emotionally responsive reader, one of the aspects I most enjoy about the memoir genre is simply hearing another person's story. I've adopted Anne Lamott as my pretend aunt, and I hereby adopt Lauren Winner as my pretend friend.
I reccommend.
Rating: 
Summary: For fans of Anne Lamott
Review: I stayed up all night reading this book! I bet a lot of people will make this comparison, but readers who enjoyed Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies will also love Girl Meets God. A unique story of conversion to Christianity, this spiritual autobiography has the same honesty and humor that Lamott brings to the subject of faith. Lauren Winner does not pretend to be a perfect Christian -- she shares her questions and doubts, and, unlike some spiritual writers, she seems to live a real life in the real world -- she worries about her boyfriends, wears hip glasses and fishnets, reads voraciously. I really related to this book, and many beleivers and seekers alike will as well.
Rating:
Summary: Page Turner
Review: It is not often a person can say a religious book is a edge of chair page turner; BUT, Lauren's book was just that. I read it in three evenings, and quickley ordered her book Mudhouse Sabbath, and can't wait to read it. Lauren's religious "travel" from reformed Judaism to orthodox Judaism to Episcopalism was both insightful and thought provoking. I highly recommend this book if you are searching spiritally, or want to learn basic tenants of Judaism and christianity from a person who lived both.
Rating: 
Summary: And Next.. A Girl talks to Bhudda
Review: Girl Meets God is a bodice-ripping tome on religion, or rather, religion-lite. It titilates, confesses, talks of food, sex, drink and,top it off, a little "Electra" thing going on with Daddy- Ms Winer wrote a little fairy tale for spiritual seekers- Jew or Christian- lost in the big woods, etc., etc. all egos are attended to.
Her theological choices seem to plucked out of a hat- let's see- - I am a non-observant, by name only, Jew--I think I'll become a Jew who stepped out of the middle ages- I will dress to call attention to my piety- observe the most obscure holidays- and find God- Why???- Why would one go from being a practicing nothing to a super religious Jew practicing customs the majority of Jews put aside at least 3 generations ago?--But- you know how it is with teenage girls- Well, she caught on pretty quickly; it isn't too easy to live like that. H'mm how about something a bit more mainstream; Church of England.- WoW! That one ought to get Papa's attention! And what better place to be Christianed an Episcopal than in England. That sweet chapel, the history, the organ, ahh. Ms. Winer's writing is amusing,lively and very simplistic theologically for such aself-described intellectual. The book makes short shrift of both Christianity and Judiasm; and diminshes both faiths. Perhaps she should have completed her Doctorate on religious history before she began competing with Venerable Bede and the esteemed Rabbis she refers to. Ms Winer might consider writing some "Chick Lit". I think she has just what it takes. Like "Prada went to Church"
Rating:
Summary: A very easy book to relate to.
Review: This book is a quick read and well as an interesting read. I read this book for a church book discussion group and was very glad we chose it. I felt that even though it's about her struggle with Judaism and converting to Christianity, it is so very applicable to me as a Christian who did not convert from anything. It reminds me of the basics of being a Christian and the struggles that we all face. The reason not for 5 stars is that even though there is a great deal of information from the author about the 2 religions, it was not a challenging book to read - but that's just my preference.
Rating:
Summary: The Christian story about God being the True One (p. 189)
Review: And what an interesting story it is, as told by Ms. Winner. If you want to get an idea of what a religious brain on Christianity looks like, this is a great place to start. I must say that by p. 176, I was suffocating. Christianity is really not for the faint-hearted.
One puzzling aspect of this book is the complete lack of interest displayed by Ms. Winner about the historicity of what she talks about. This strikes me as odd considering that she is reported to be a doctoral student in... the history of religion. I will take two examples to illustrate what I mean.
On page 159, we are told about Palm Sunday in the following terms: "The crowd - the Jews - lines up to watch this donkey-riding healer, they wave palms and sing hosannas. It is the same crowd that, a few days later, will demand Pilate to crucify Him." Most historians find the account of the triumphal entry as described in Mark 11:1-10, Matthew 21:1-10, Luke 19:28-40, and John 12:12-19 hard to accept as historically accurate. They figure that if a large crowd had indeed welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem with great fanfare in the days before Passover - a period of high tension in the view of the Roman authorities due to potential uprisings - he would most likely have been arrested and taken away immediately. But this is of no interest to our author. Symbolism primes all.
But this is small stuff you will say, and I might well agree with you. More problematic is our author's statement on page 161 when she discusses the trial of Jesus as recounted in John (John 19:1-15). She comments: "I don't know what to do with this text. [...] I don't mean we should deny that this chapter of John is sacred writ, or stop reading it. But we shouldn't just act out charges of deicide, and then leave them sitting there." But most historians agree that John is the last of the gospels to have been written, after the definitive split between Judaism and Christianity, and that it shifts the responsibility of the death of Jesus from the Romans to the Jews for political reasons. Once you become aware of this, it is not that difficult to challenge the status of the chapter as sacred writ. But of course, if you do that, you might have to challenge many other statements found in the New Testament and undermine its credibility as the inspired word of god. Clearly our author is not willing to take that step. For somebody who claims to spend that much time thinking about god and his will, she does not display many critical thinking skills and comes across as rather casual.
I would like to make one last point. When you talk to some Christians, they tell you that you have no choice about truth, you must embrace it even if and when you find it uncomfortable and when it makes difficult demands on you. In other words, you can't pick and choose: Christianity is an all or none proposition. What this book clearly demonstrates is that Christianity is, just as anything else, about personal preference and convenience. In the final analysis, out author abandons Judaism for Christianity not because god wrote the law on her heart, but because it works for her (or so she claims). So long for the myth of absolute truth.
Rating:
Summary: A Dizzying Journey
Review: You might have a friend who is pretty bright, likes to talk about their struggles, desperately tries to defy any and all 'categorizations', and comes across as passionate but erratic. Chances are this friend is great at dinner parties, but you don't exactly give them the keys to your house and ask them to water your plants while you're on vacation. Maybe this is because you fear that they would suddenly, inexplicably, or tirelessly pursue a 'spontaneous' life, a life that maybe didn't include sustaining your African violets. If you don't have that friend, I encourage you to read this book. After which, Lauren Winner can be that friend. The book is not a bad read. It's a faithful mimicry of Anne Lamott - even when it comes to sentence construction. You'll have lots of long, rambling, free-flowing sentences (with parenthetical expressions) that will be showing you the many divergent paths that her intricate mind is capable of exploring...and you'll see that she's young, hip, and flippant because there will be the necessary punctual follow up fragment. Like this. Overall, I found her a story a little suspect, in part due to the author's note that let's us know certain "details - names, professions, chronology, and so forth" were changed. Also in part due to the freshness of the material; she's so stuck in the churn that I don't think she's fully reflected on her journey. The dust-jacket comparisons to C.S. Lewis (because he wrote a spiritual autobiography?! What about St. Augustine while we're at it?) made me want to puke.
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