Customer Reviews

The Church Ladies

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have it & I'm NOT selling it!!This is by far the best book I've read in the past year! (And I read 3-5 novels every month...) The characters lives are so real you begin to think of them as your actual friends. With poignant honesty, that will make you smile, laugh til it hurts, cry buckets & pray harder. I am a better friend & person for having read this book. Buy it & keep it!!

I was peacefully reading along, enjoying some recognizable characters with somewhat predictable problems, appreciating the relationships between the church people of Mount Oak and sympathizing with Poppy's struggles with her life and her secret when, suddenly, this tame little book rose up and smacked me in the face. Like life tends to do sometimes.

This book asks the ancient question, "Why does God allow..." and offers the equally ancient answer. It's the soothing quietness of Samson's prose that contrasts so vividly with the issues she deals with here. Read it with your heart open -- it will hurt, but it will heal, as well.

I can't believe the previous reviewer read the same book I did! But she proves the message Lisa Samson was trying, I thought, to get across in her book: that Christians are all too eager to tear their brothers and sisters in Christ apart. The Church Ladies holds us all accountable to be kinder people, to watch our words and our actions and always be ready to extend grace. And yet, the characters were always human, not super-Christians who can do no wrong. I set down the novel feeling challenged to grow. You'll enjoy this. You may not feel comfortable with it all the time, but if you allow God to speak, I guarantee He'll have something to say.

The main character as a sassy first lady showed through her struggles that all is not always perfect or even as good as it seems in the parsonage. I appreciated her struggles and her victory as well as the sub-plot that showed that true Christians cooperate and work together. A wonderful victory for the power of praying women also comes through loud and clear.

As an international missionary who doesn't wear floral culottes and has found that dreadlocks bear up best for me in the tropics, I find it healing and validating for author Lisa Samson's to expose some of the church's less comely ways. Thank God for His patience and for her showing that prayer, cooperation, and concentrating on the majors of our blessed hope in Christ can accomplish much in the Kingdom!

The Church Ladies is one of the best books I've read this year. The writing is fresh and witty, and Poppy is one of the most honest characters to stroll across the pages of a book. I laughed and I cried and I was forced more than once to examine my own beliefs. I highly recommend The Church Ladies. -- Robin Lee Hatcher, author of Ribbon of Years

The Church Ladies is a welcome departure from a lot of Christian books that make all of us Christians out to be perfect. The characters in Lisa Samson's book are real enough, and flawed enough, to share an iced latte with. Lisa Samson has a unique, wry humor that permeates this book and I will be looking for more books from her!

This well-written book doesn't wrap everything up at the end like a pretty Christmas package like a lot of Christian fiction I've read. The characters are believable and the book is funny. I found her writing similar in some ways to Jamie Langston Turner which is a high compliment.

More about the pastor's wife and her journey through accepting God's grace and forgiveness than the "church ladies," this book helps us to see that although life isn't a bowl of cherries, God's grace is sufficient for His children.

This book was like a breath of fresh air among Christian fiction. The thing I liked most was that the characters were not flawless "goody" Christians, who never hide any skeletons in their closet. Instead, the characters were vibrant, realistic, and believable. I've known people like them. I found myself in tears with sadness one minute and chuckling out loud the next. Once I got past the allegorical style of writing this book was highly enjoyable. This is a perfect snuggle up for a rainy day read. The prevalent theme of God's healing power and forgiveness help the pages unfold a true life lesson anyone can use. Once I finished the book, I found myself wanting to go to Java Jane's and have a latte.

Poppy Fraser is consumed with guilt because she happily remembers the times in Baltimore when her husband Duncan was a computer geek reeling in some healthy cash. To her those were the good old days even if her spouse worked seven days a week and rarely had time for her or their children. However, his mid-life crisis was not a younger, taller, blonder siren. It was worse to Poppy as Duncan found God. This led to a radical change in lifestyle for the Fraser family.

Duncan is now the Pastor of the Mount Oak Church, but Poppy fails to adjust to the role of pastor's wife. Instead she finds the petty rivalries of the congregation and the jobs expected of her quite tedious as if she is a modern day Job. Another action also fills Poppy with remorse that she failed her spouse in other ways.

THE CHURCH LADIES is more than just a well written cheerleading inspirational because of the insightful Poppy. Although racked with guilt and remorse, the intrepid Poppy tries to do the right thing even if she fails and is not always righteous or sisterly. She is human and makes Lisa Samson's CHURCH LADIES into an enthralling modern day tale that readers of contemporary fiction will find quite entertaining.

Harriet Klausner

Lisa Samson may as well quit writing right now because I don't know how she will ever top The Church Ladies. Samson's irresistible town of Mount Oak is Mitford with a glorious edge; and the characters who populate her novel are as familiar as the man or woman who occupies the pew beside you each Sunday morning. Perhaps, as I did, you'll even catch a glimpse of yourself within the pages. This captivating, precious story of grace could not be more beautifully told.

~ Deborah Raney, author of Beneath a Southern Sky