The Book: Kaleidoscope: Seeing God’s Wit and Wisdom in a Whole New Light, by Patsy Clairmont
The Story: The idea here is that kaleidoscopes are kind of whimsical and just offer up random little pictures and yadda yadda. In this book, Patsy Clairmont does a similar deal only out of the book of Proverbs. She just takes random verses here and there and illustrates them and what they have meant in her life and the lives of her friends and family.
The chapters are each like short, concise little sermons and each one is followed up by questions (”Bits and Pieces”) to make you think about the verse and story that was presented.
What I Thought: I have two confessions: First, I got this book from the publisher. I’m not sure if they contacted me or if I contacted them, or really how I ended up with this book. I should write things down. Second, I have had the book for probably two months. Maybe longer. I actually have no idea. I lost it and forgot all about it. Recently, it floated to the top of the pile of stuff in the back of my car and I didn’t even recognize it. I’m a mess and Shaun says that the baby has stolen every single one of my brain cells. So there are my confessions. If you are the one who sent me this book, I apologize a thousand times.
I thought that this book was just kind of… sweet. Patsy Clairmont is kind of one of those hip older people who realizes that she’s getting old and just kind of goes with it. She has a little witty sense of humor and is pretty self deprecating, which I love. She also has a Kindle and she’s like 60-something. I love that even more. All that to say: I want her to be my grandma or my aunt or something. Parts of it were kind of cheesy and some of her stories were a little over-done, but it wasn’t distracting or anything. In fact, it kind of made me like her more.
The chapters were short but really got to the point. Some of the little stories didn’t really seem to tie into what the verse was saying, but somehow she kind of made it work. While this was a book about the book of Proverbs, it really wasn’t very “meaty.” It was just kind of light and inspirational.
I read this by myself and actually didn’t do the questions at the end or really slow down enough to think many of the points through. The whole time I was thinking that this would be a really great book to go through slowly and think through each question, either alone or with a small group.
Conclusion: A fun, sweet little book by a great woman. I would recommend this to any woman, although older women may enjoy it even more.