Customer Reviews

Changing Habits

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In the early sixties, three young girls make a decision that will affect the rest of their lives. For one girl, it would divide her family; for another, it would devastate her father; for the other, it would be the family's shining moment. Each girl has her own reasons for making the life-changing decision. One seeks to heal a broken heart, one feels a calling from God, and one just did what she knows her family wants her to do. The girls leave behind their families and all their worldly possession, and join into a new family and a new way of life when they enter a convent to become nuns.
In her new book, "Changing Habits," best-selling author Debbie Macomber explores a world that fascinates many but has remained a mystery for ages; the world of the sisterhood of nuns.
Three young women join the sisterhood of St. Bridget's Sisters of the Assumption. Angelina had gone to Catholic schools all her life and had a special affinity for the nuns who taught her. She felt she had a calling from God, and despite her father's objections, entered the convent determined to return the gift of learning by becoming a parochial teacher. Kathleen had known she would become a nun since she was six years old because it was what her family expected of her. Joanne entered the convent broken-hearted and searching for peace after her fiancé returned from Vietnam married to another woman.
Each woman goes through the process from postulate to novice to sister, and each finds her vocation within the sisterhood. Angelina and Kathleen become teachers, and Joanne becomes a nurse. Although secluded from most of the "real" world in their early years, as they mature and become more involved in their community each sister finds that events of the world soon affect their own lives, and eventually causes each to reconsider their place among the religious order.
Angelina loves her position as a teacher, but when she feels that she has failed a young pregnant teenager she finds herself longing to return home to help her father in the family restaurant. Kathleen helps out the young and handsome parish priest with problems with an older priest, but when evidence turns up that she helped the priest cover up money problems she is forced to leave the sisterhood amidst betrayal and shame. Joanne finds that she is drawn to the Vietnam Veteran doctor she assists at the hospital, and leaves to become a devoted wife and helpmate to the man she loves.
The stories of their individual journeys back to the world are complex and enriching. Although they are no longer called "Sister," Angelina, Joanne, and Kathleen find that they are influenced throughout their lives by their time spent as nuns.
Normally considered a romance writer, author Debbie Macomber has entered the world of mainstream women's fiction with great success. In this novel, Macomber was inspired to write this intriguing story by a cousin who had been a nun, and had also left her order to pursue life in the "real" world. Her depictions of women who lived the cloistered life and who returned to live full and satisfying lives as wives, mothers, and successful business women is realistic, warm and enlightening.

After working in a bookstore for a few years, I am ashamed to admit that I sometimes still judge a book by its cover and, more often, by where it is shelved.

Changing habits is written by Debbie Macomber, who is shelved in romance. Yet, somehow, she just doesn't fit there. This book more than any of her others shows that.

Changing habits is a group of very well told tales that are also very well blended - a challenge for any author. The stories span time and yet somehow are all contemporary. There is romance, but not in the bodice-ripping or even sassy-female kind of way one comes to expect these days.

The stories are about faith and the loss of it, religion and the turning from it, the struggles within the Catholic church, and, at its best, life, and how some very different women live it.

I enjoyed this book. More, I'm happy to recommend it as a light but deep read for women of many ages.

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A story of sisters...not just sisters of the heart, but Sisters of the Church. Three women enter religious life. Watching their journey, both in spirit and in life, makes for a tender story of faith, life...and love.

Debbie Macomber is a talented author whose stories always touch me...this one even more than most.

Addressing a subject not often found in women's fiction, Debbie Macomber has written a compelling book that is absolutely unputdownable.

It's the late sixties - a time of turmoil for many young Americans. But three young women decide to use their lives to serve God and become nuns.

Kathleen O'Shaughnessy, from a large Boston Irish family, has always known she'd become a nun. There was never any question from the time of her first communion on. And a more wonderful and devout nun you'd be hard pressed to find. But when Kathleen's naiveté allows her to get into a very sticky situation, her fellow nuns have no problem sending her away... .

Joanna and Greg became engaged before he left for Vietnam. They had become intimate before - conflicting with Joanna's morals. But she knows they are meant for each other and while he is gone she spends time planning the wedding. But Joanna is in for a shock when he returns, giving her all the impetus she needs to enter the convent. She becomes a caring nurse and in her caring ends up devoting herself to more than just her patients when a troubled young physician forces her to take stock of her life.

Angelina joined the convent despite her father's vehement protest. The young Italian girl has been primed to take over her father's restaurant business from an early age. Sister Angelina becomes a schoolteacher, caring deeply for her students. But when she is unable to help one of her favorites, leading to tragedy, Angelina is unable to forgive herself.

Debbie Macomber has given readers a glimpse into a world that has many a mystery to many. As a non-Catholic the depth of the isolation forced on the novices, especially in the late sixties, surprised me. But Macomber has chosen to set the bulk of CHANGING HABITS in a time that saw many changes in the Catholic Church and for the nuns in particular.

The poignant stories and choices made by these three women make for one of the most compelling books I've read in a very long time. In spite of the subject matter, there is romance as well, but the story really belongs to Kathleen, Joanna, and Angie.

This book is very highly recommended not only for its interesting subject matter but also for the compassion with which Macomber tackles controversial issues, as well as her trademark poignancy. It certainly proves why she is one of the most beloved authors writing today.

In the 1960s, three young women from diverse lifestyles enter St. Peter's Parrish in Minneapolis with the belief they are destined to become nuns. Angelina Marcello, Kathleen O'Shaunessy, and Joanna Baird had different reasons for becoming "Brides of Christ", but shared an idealism to serve God and help the community.

In 1972 the three nuns struggle with crisis of faith. For Sister Angelina, it was the simple failure of the Church to deal with the problems of a pregnant teen Corrine that sent her back to her father's restaurant. Temporarily taking over the accounting journal led Sister Kathleen to Father Brian Doyle with both wrestling between their vows and a very human love for one another. For Sister Joanna, the return of Viet Nam vet Dr. Tim Murray reminds her that she joined for the wrong reasons as she begins to fall in love with the still recovering medical practitioner. Will the church lose three more dedicated people or will the vows prove strong enough to keep these Sisters within the fold?

CHANGING HABITS is not the typical fare from Debbie Macomber, but is an insightful look at some of the problems the modern day Catholic Church is confronting in America. The story line is well written as the trio of nuns seems so genuine and human. The support cast enables the audience to understand their motives from entry into the Church until the individual crisis of faith occurs. Readers will feel strongly what each one of the Sisters contends with as Ms. Macomber powerfully focuses on the critical loss of nuns facing the Church today.

Harriet Klausner

I just finished reading "Changing Habits," by Debbie Macomber, who is, to me, a new author. I'd never read her books until recently, when I read two of the books in her Blossom Street series, which, while they aren't deep writing, are feel-good and satisfying. It seemed she gives some of her characters more depth than others. In both of the books I read, there were 2 or 3 characters that I felt I 'knew' and could see in my mind but others that just weren't developed beyond the basics.

So I wasn't expecting that "Changing Habits" would be deep and extremely detailed in the way of character development. It wasn't. BUT, the author does have a gift for developing a good storyline and hooking the reader. This book follows three women in three different states and in different situations, as they each decide they are called to be nuns. I learned so much about nuns that I never knew, and I was raised Catholic during the time in which this book is set.

I enjoyed reading this; it was light reading, great stories for each character. I thought the ending was kind of untidy. Some of the dialogue was stilted (particularly between one of the characters, Joanna, and her husband, who have been married 30 years. The conversations between them sound like talk between a couple that's just met! I just didn't find it believable.) and I was left wondering about parts of the story lines.

Anyway, if you want a quick, interesting read, give it a try. I loved the author's Blossom Street series and will continue reading Debbie Macomber's books.

I absolutely loved this book and the author's style of writing. It was the first book I read by her but it won't be the last. In my opinion, this author works very hard to make her characters believable and interesting. Great book.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, three young women decide to become nuns. Angelina has a sudden calling while on a school retreat. Kathleen had always planned on being a nun. And Joanna had planned to marry but felt her calling when her fiance came home from Viet Nam with an Asian bride. As noviates and as nuns, the three learn a great deal about themselves and their faith. Yet, even behind their cloister walls, the events of the 1960s and 1970s cannot leave them unaltered. Each suffers a crisis in their faith--for one, the realization that the Church's views on birth control can be destructive; for another, desire for a man; for a third, the sisterhood's unwillingness to stand up and defend her when she needs it most. Somehow, the three women must learn to reenter the common world and make their place in a nation that has been transformed while they had turned inward.

Author Debbie Macomber has a knack for developing fascinating characters and seeing them through traumatic life changes. CHANGING HABITS, with its emphasis on the three women and their shared journey to faith and beyond, lets Macomber run with this strength. Each of the three women is interesting and becomes more interesting as they leave their youth behind them and struggles to find their place in faith and back in the profane world. Macomber's deft touch lets her bring in the events of the 1960s and 1970s (the assassinations of Kennedy, King, and Kennedy, Watergate, and especially Viet Nam) and the transformations of the Catholic Church (Vatican II, the debate over birth control, and the Church's self-inflicted wounds as it tried to hide renegade Priests from their punishments) in a way that will resonate with those who remember them, yet without detracting from the fundamental issues of the novel itself (this is alway a challenge in dealing with issues that remain controversial today).

CHANGING HABITS is sometimes episodic. Rather than a continuous story line, Macomber gives highlights of the lives these women experience, focussing on the key transitions and decisions that each must make. The language is occasionally simplistic and CHANGING HABITS sometimes reads like it was intended for young adults. The interesting characters and the decisions they face, though, will appeal to all ages. Macomber delivers an enjoyable Woman's Fiction story.

It is one of the best books I have read of Debbie Macomber's. The three girls and their stories kept me up all night reading.

Debbie Macomber presents an honest look at the lives of three young women who discover that there are many ways to "serve God". Without resorting to the all too common Church bashing attitude, "Changing Habits" shows the complex interaction of individuals, family and the world in shaping institutions and the people working within them. Although a bit predictable, this book does an excellent job of portraying the evolution of the Catholic Church and the efforts of people to remain faithful to themselves and to the truth in an ever changing world.