The Waiting Place by Eileen Button

As I read the Waiting Place: Learning to Appreciate Life's Little Delays by Eileen Button, it seemed like I was reading someone's personal diary or journal.  The writing, recorded Button's own real life experiences- even the most mundane- as well as the associated thoughts that she felt. Each "essay" or entry covered a specific life event.  The overall theme that tied these stories together was the concept of waiting patiently.  The writing: the decsciptions of people, events and emotions-  was very well detailed, although the stories themselves on occasion, were not neccessarily inspirational.  Button's personality and interests clearly were obvious in this book, in fact, this book would certainly would be an invaluable family treasure or momento for her children and family, but as a reader not related or connected to the real life person - this book carried very little personal meaning or interest. If anything, this book might inspire the reader to keep his or her own journal.

Because this collection of essays is simply a compendium of the pages taken out of a woman's personal journal, there is not much to critque- as the author is simply presenting her own feelings and emotions about her life.  If the idea of picking up someones diary and reading it does not interest you, then as a reader, you will gain very little from reading this book.

Even though the author is a pastor's wife, she still holds on to some idolic remenants of her former Catholic upbringing.  Her awe at the Catholic church as she is reminded of the Catholic Church traditions are obvious- when she states "Non- Catholics don't understand the beauty, ritual and heritage. Neither can they understand the holy feeling I get when I swing open the church's heavy wooden doors and breath in the lingering scent of incense. I dip my fingers into the fount of holy water and make the sign of the cross....." (page 117).  Her humorous account of the dilema she faced when trying to remove a heavy statue of Mary, left behind by the former Catholic occupants of her new home revealed her idolic superticions that lingered as she refered to the statue as the "BVM"- which is short for Blessed Virgin Mary. Furthermore, the author apparently has an obession for menstruation - referring to a book her daughter was reading- a compendium of first menstruation stories- as it was the most common thing for an 11 year old girl to read, and thereafter refering to a young adult coming of age fictional book that focused on a girl's first period, as being the first memory she could think of when visiting her child hood home for the first time in thirty years.  Perhaps she grew up as a child- an an opressive, traditional home,  where for females- there was an undue focus on her first period as being a significant time in one's life.  If anything this book would do nothing to further the women's liberation movement and it simply furthers the common, yet antiquated sterotypes of women. Granted, some traditional female readers may relate to this author and  in fact enjoy this book- but as for me, it just wouldn't be my top choice. As a blogger for booksneeze I recieved this book for the purposes of writing this review.