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The Lace Reader

by Brunonia Barry (Goodreads Author)

3.42 of 5 stars 3.42 · rating details · 15,364 ratings · 3,135 reviews

Every gift has a price . . .

Every piece of lace has a secret . . .

My name is Towner Whitney. No, that's not exactly true. My real first name is Sophya. Never believe me. I lie all the time. . . .

Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator of "The Lace Reader," hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarde...more

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published July 29th 2008 by William Morrow & Company (first published July 31st 2007)

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Aug 28, 2008 Gail rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you liked THE LIFE OF PI, you might like this book. I didn't, and I wasn't real fond of this one by the time I got to the end of it. If that's a spoiler, so be it. This book actually made me mad.
Okay, so this book is about a family of women with "the sight," who can read a person's future through lace. Except there's very little actual lace reading that goes on in the book. There's a fair bit of lace making, but no reading. The heroine has been estranged from her relatives, living on the oppo...more

37 likes · like · see review

Aug 25, 2008 Grace rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm biased in regards to this book, because this October, I'll be traveling to the North Shore and Salem for my honeymoon. So I was predisposed to enjoy the admittedly captivating descriptions of a city poised between the past and the (heavily marketed, witch-industry-based) future. But for everything wonderful about this book, there were other things that were muddy. Although the book warns the reader from literally the very beginning that we'll be seeing things through the eyes of someone who...more

21 likes · like · see review

Dec 03, 2008 Beth F. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, witches, vile-rapists, 2008, tnbbc-winter-2008

This book didn’t quite live up to my expectations for it but overall, I thought it was okay. That makes me a little sad because there were several elements to this book that seemed like they would be wildly interesting when they were all mixed together in the same book and I was hoping to really love it. A quick rundown of the things that happened include the mysterious death of Eva Whitney, suicide, the disappearance of a young woman, mental illness, sexual abuse, rape, witchcraft, fortune-tell...more This book didn’t quite live up to my expectations for it but overall, I thought it was okay. That makes me a little sad because there were several elements to this book that seemed like they would be wildly interesting when they were all mixed together in the same book and I was hoping to really love it. A quick rundown of the things that happened include the mysterious death of Eva Whitney, suicide, the disappearance of a young woman, mental illness, sexual abuse, rape, witchcraft, fortune-telling, eccentric women and a Christian cult, all set in the backdrop of modern day Salem, MA.

The story is not told in a linear fashion and the unusual events from the past are fleshed out through a series of flashbacks, dreams and hallucinations. So it is the reader’s job to match up the present day events with what may or may not have happened in the past. I really liked that technique. Towner Whitney is the main character and the primary narrator of the story. However, she flat out tells you on the first page of the story that she doesn’t tell the truth, that there are “holes” from the past where she admittedly does not remember what happened and that she has been hospitalized for mental illness. And so differentiating between her hallucinations, her invented history and the true facts that are slowly learned through the actions of other characters make for a very wild ride.

Overall, the story was very engrossing but something didn’t totally gel for me. Unfortunately I can’t quite put my finger on it, although I suspect my issues were with Towner herself. She never felt like a real person to me and I was never able to see her. The same for Detective Rafferty, who is investigating the death of Eva, the disappearance of Angela and trying to build a strong enough case to drive the Christian cult out of town, once and for all. He also falls in love with Towner and when that happened, I was like, “oh Rly? Um, okay, I guess.” I really liked Eva (even though she was dead before the book even started) and I also liked all the scenes with Cal Boynton, the cult leader, and his crazy band of followers.

I love cult members! They're so freaky!
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Jul 01, 2008 Stacey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

Recommended to Stacey by: ARC

Shelves: fiction

Ever found yourself finishing a book out of obligation, to the book itself? That vague but relentless guilt that settles in when you have figured out exactly where this story is going and where it will wind up, but you started the book, so you really ought to finish it? Go to your favorite bookseller and pick up Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader today. Now.
First, to give props where props are due, I apologize, Ms Barry. I thought I had it all figured out. I loved Towner, finding a woman I would l...more Ever found yourself finishing a book out of obligation, to the book itself? That vague but relentless guilt that settles in when you have figured out exactly where this story is going and where it will wind up, but you started the book, so you really ought to finish it? Go to your favorite bookseller and pick up Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader today. Now.
First, to give props where props are due, I apologize, Ms Barry. I thought I had it all figured out. I loved Towner, finding a woman I would love to walk with, talk with, correspond with. I loved her voice, wry and unflinching. I respected her self-knowledge and her willingness to do what she knew was right for her, no matter what her family might have thought.
It’s a good thing I liked her voice. It was the only thing that kept me reading past Chapter [the funeral]. I understood that there was a greater mystery at the heart of this story, but frankly, just didn’t care enough to wait this long to find out what it was. It was Towner’s voice, pure and simple, that kept me reading, waiting to hear what she would out with next. I’m glad that I did.
Readers will find themselves, their loved ones, their not-so-loved ones, and a host of new friends in this novel. I do hope she returns to Salem, to Towner and R----[detective], to [Mother and Local Witch]. I want to know more about them. Perhaps more importantly, I want to spend more time with them.
In the end, Ms Barry managed to overturn my expectations, take me by surprise, and yet leave me with the feeling that if I had just read a tiny bit closer, perhaps . . . but then again, perhaps not. If you are tired of knowing the end from the beginning, if you are ready to meet some people and perhaps change your point of view, you must delve into The Lace Reader.
Personally, as someone who is always looking an engrossing story, intriguing characters, and an author I can travel along with over time, the bottom line is “Would I read her next book?”
I’ll be waiting.
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Feb 23, 2008 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, february, favorites

Towner Whitney is forced to return to Salem MA, after an absence of almost 15 years, when her Great-Aunt Eva goes missing. Once she is back in Salem Towner soon finds out that she will need to confront the ghosts of her past in order to move on into her future. Through a series of flashbacks and memories the reader finds out that the Whitney family is not quite what they seem. The story is filled with a cast of eccentric characters from Towner's mother May who refuses to step a foot off the isla...more

10 likes · like · see review

Jul 08, 2010 Annalisa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Annalisa by: Melanie

Shelves: chick-lit, mystery-thriller, psychology, contemporary

There were things I definitely liked about this book, the psychology for one and the visual of Salem, MA for another, but the organization of the book bothered me.
-Over a hundred pages into it, Barry shifts POVs and even then jumps around a bit between perspectives.
-Twice, she uses documents to tell her story, which is a great literary technique, but again they come late in the book and the second one takes up sixty pages. It was a little jarring (ironically, those sixty pages were my favorite...more There were things I definitely liked about this book, the psychology for one and the visual of Salem, MA for another, but the organization of the book bothered me.
-Over a hundred pages into it, Barry shifts POVs and even then jumps around a bit between perspectives.
-Twice, she uses documents to tell her story, which is a great literary technique, but again they come late in the book and the second one takes up sixty pages. It was a little jarring (ironically, those sixty pages were my favorite part of the book).
-Maybe it's because I've read another book with the same twist at the end, but it felt a little gimmicky to me, that Barry had been withholding the information for a ta-da ending. I think if I believed more that Towner didn't get that ending that I would have been surprised right along with her, but I think, looking back, that sometimes she understood the truth, at least part of it, and didn't explain it to the reader.
-And most of the book, I couldn't figure out what the story was about, if it was a mystery or a story about redemption or a love story or just a story about the love of New England (Barry goes a little overboard sometimes in her descriptions of Salem). And yes, yes, yes, and yes, but not in the way you'd think. All of them become introspective aspects of Towner's story. If I had understood that the book was about her and what was going in her life and her head and not the external forces battling for screen time around her, I would have gotten into the story earlier.

It took me ten days to find time to read the first 200 pages and a day to read the last 185. Once I got into the story, I liked it. I loved that Towner was an unreliable narrator. I loved that I could "see" this story, that the setting and characters were all vivid and fleshed out and flawed. And I liked that even though I got that Towner's history was off and I thought I'd figured her out, I was still surprised by the revelation at the end. I liked what it changed about the characters I thought I already understood, particularly May, and how much it made me empathize with Towner and her family. The book is lengthier than it needs to be and has some stylistic issues, but it was still a good read.(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Oct 10, 2008 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Women who are open to mysticism

I wanted to read The Lace Reader because it is set in Salem, Massachusetts, and it's about a family of women with the gift of reading fortunes in lace. Each chapter starts with a little excepts from "The Lace Reader's Guide" about how to make or read lace as we follow Towner Whitney's return to Salem after a decade's absense following the suicide of her twin sister.

Towner returns when her great-aunt Eva, a gifted lace reader, goes missing. Towner has the gift, too, as well as hallucinations and...more

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 04, 2008 Carey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Salem, Massachusetts is an unusual town. And the Whitneys are the most unusual family in Salem. Their family roots in Salem go back hundreds of years. They fit right in with the eccentric witches, most of the Whitney women have the ability to sense bits of people's thoughts and see glimpses of the future when they look through a piece of lace.

Towner Whitney is in her early thirties and she has just returned to Salem from her self imposed exile in California because her beloved Great Aunt Eva ha...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 13, 2008 Carmaletta Hilton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My biggest issue with this book was the switching of points of view. I don't feel that it added all that much to the story, except to leave us all the more confused by the end. This story would have best been told completely in 3rd person, saving us the momentary pull out of the story when we get to a new chapter and realize that this isn't Towner's point of view. In the end, it feels as though the only reason for the chapters in Towner's pov were solely to give us the effect of confusion at the...more

8 likes · like · see review

Sep 02, 2008 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

The concept gets an A, the execution gets a C. The book is just a mess! In serious need of editing and rearrangement. I was often confused because it was hard to tell reality from dreams from hallucinations from delusions from memories. There were a lot of good ideas, but so many of them were totally unnecessary and others weren't fully fleshed-out. The author should have saved some of those ideas for other stories and developed them further (and maybe she will). As the book went on, the author...more

25 likes · like · see review

Dec 31, 2008 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My boss forced me to read this, and I'm really glad she did. A fabulously unreliable narrator leads to a lovely twist at the end. And Barry's descriptions of Salem, Mass., are so spot-on that anyone who has ever toured there even once will recognize certain landmarks.

5 likes · like · see review

Apr 14, 2011 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: creepy-mansions-eerie-seascapes, j-adore-favorites

When I first saw this book cover, I had a mental Will Smith moment: “Awwww, hell no!” I thought it was the same as those novels centered around knitting or quilting but that lace was the new vehicle. Boy, was I wrong! It’s about so much more than lace reading (a kind of fortune telling based on the reading of lace), but I’m not here to plot summarize. I’ll say what I always say when I think a story is full of excellent twists. Be careful which reviews you read! I loved, loved, loved this story....more

4 likes · like · see review

Aug 28, 2008 Juushika rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: status-borrowed

All of the Whitney women can read the future in a piece of lace, but Towner hasn't read lace since her sister committed suicide and she was institutionalized. But Towner is confronted again by her prophetic past and convoluted family history when she returns home to Salem, Massachusetts after her great aunt Eva goes missing. This book has a promising premise of a complex family history, prophecies, and unreliable narrators; the setting is realistic and detailed, and Barry has a haunting narrativ...more All of the Whitney women can read the future in a piece of lace, but Towner hasn't read lace since her sister committed suicide and she was institutionalized. But Towner is confronted again by her prophetic past and convoluted family history when she returns home to Salem, Massachusetts after her great aunt Eva goes missing. This book has a promising premise of a complex family history, prophecies, and unreliable narrators; the setting is realistic and detailed, and Barry has a haunting narrative voice. However, a weak plot, constant head-hopping, and an unbelievable twist ending drag the book down to mere mediocrity. I expected better from this novel, and I don't recommend it.

The plot (which is quite difficult to summarize) didn't intrigue me when a friend recommended this book, but the atmosphere did. The book is chock full of family secrets and twisted genealogies, prophetic powers, and past trauma, and Barry writes it all in a haunting, lyrical voice. It's a shadowed story, rich with memory and detail, introverted and intensely personal. The Salem setting is integral to the story and adds realistic dimension; the characters are vivid (almost too vividtheir bright coloring is out of place in the dim hues of the rest of the book) and unrelenting forces in Towner's life. The protagonistsTowner, and a policeman investigating Eva's disappearanceprovide different points of view and also conflicting information which casts the story in a shadow of doubt, leaving the reader to second guess the narratives and the facts.

The Lace Reader has all the potential to be an atmospheric, absorbing readbut it's not. The book is hampered by its execution. The plot moves slowly and stalls often, and it's hard to follow or care about a story where nothing is going on. The book has multiple narrators, but Barry doesn't move smoothly between them: instead, she switches erratically from first to third person, inserting journals and police reports as well as odd moments of omniscient narration, and these head-hops and narrative changes fragment the flow of the book and make it difficult to follow. Finally, the book has a twist endingan ending that could be foreshadowed via the conflicting narrators, but is instead left unpredicted and unbelievable.

I expected better from this bookit has so much going for it, and I truly loved the atmosphere and the premise. With so much potential, it's disappointing to see the execution fall flat. The book feels unfinished: it wants editing to streamline and flesh out the plot, and intentional foreshadowing to integrate the twist ending. As it is, I just couldn't enjoy The Lace Reader and I don't recommend it. The potential is there, but it's undeveloped; the novel that remains is disappointing.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 15, 2008 Myridian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, book-crossing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 20, 2008 Rosee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: All of my best friends!

Recommended to Rosee by: HarperCollins

As a librarian and a lover of the written word, I read hundreds of books every year. Some of those books stand out as exceptional, and then there are those that I will never forget. The Lace reader falls into this last category. Protagonist Towner Whitney journeys back to her hometown of Salem, Mass. to try to heal old wounds and spend time with the person who understands her most – her beloved great aunt Eva. Eva understands all to well the burden that Towner carries – the ability to see the fu...more

6 likes · like · see review

Aug 14, 2008 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book wasn't as good as I thought it would be, given all the press it's been getting. I mean, come on already! I hear about it all the time. I do think it's pretty amazing how this self-published author has now signed with HarperCollins or some other big publisher...but about the book. It was a pretty good story with lots of plot twists and an interesting theme exploring truth and reality, but the "surprise ending" is dumped on you like a ton of bricks, and besides, I had already figured it...more

6 likes · like · see review

Aug 18, 2008 Bess rated it 4 of 5 stars

At the end of a perfect summer day when the setting sun casts that net of skin-kissing balmy warmth over the land, if you're lucky enough to be driving down a traffic-less country backroad with all the windows open -- or just looking out the window of a city bus at that light hitting the sides of buildings at new and interesting angles, illuminating parts of them you rarely get to see -- you know how sometimes it actually feels like you're on drugs? This book lulls you into exactly that pleasant...more

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Feb 27, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked this book. I liked the combination of mystery, suspense, romance, family, psychology. It really grabbed my attention at the beginning and kept it all the way through. There were surprises I didn't see coming and now I want to go back and read it again with that perspective! It is provacative and challenging in many respects, so be prepared for that. It isn't an easy, entertaining read--but one that makes you think, hypothesize, and wonder. I enjoyed it a lot.

5 likes · like · see review

Apr 20, 2009 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reading this book is like falling asleep in a moderately interesting class. A moment flutters by that briefly captures your imagination, but mainly things are just droning along. Droning, that is, until the last moment when the teacher starts ranting and throwing things. Wow! I'm awake, I'm awake--what's happening? This book has one of those crazy twist endings that just doesn't make sense, and you suspect that you missed something since you were, after all, practically asleep. But you didn't. I...more

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Aug 28, 2009 Joan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book at first because of the visual setting of Salem and Marblehead, the unusual dysfunctional family, and the mystery of the aunt's death. As the story progresses it just gets tangled in its own web or lace as it were, a story in search of a flashy ending which is provided but somehow unsatisfying.

9 likes · like · see review

Apr 11, 2011 Janice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, audiobooks

I'm not sure how to review this book. It was a ride - sometimes confusing and bumpy. At other times it was mezmerising. I loved the characters. Each had unique but complex personalities.

The book begins with Towner Whitney stating that she is crazy and that she lies. She returns to Salem when she learns that her great aunt is missing. In no time, she is immersed in the confusing family dynamics that surrounded her as a child.

To me, the story is about perceptions, from the lace readings the Whit...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 31, 2012 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Sometimes when you look back, you can point to a time when your world shifts and heads in another direction. In lace reading this is called the "still point. Eva says it's the point around which everything pivots and real patterns start to emerge" (28).

"You're an interesting woman," he says. "You walk that line." What line is that? The line that by its very definition is not a line but a crack. One I slipped into a long time ago. He thinks before he speaks. "The one between the real world and...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 06, 2010 Ryan G rated it 3 of 5 stars

Like a lot of books I've had on my wish list, I first heard about this book on NPR while driving in the car. It was August 4th, 2008 and I was listening to The Diane Rehm Show and she was interviewing Brunonia Barry on her show (click the link to listen to the interview). I fell in love with the book then, but it took me about two years to finally read it. I wish I had read it the very next day.

This was a haunting story the plays around with reality while exploring identity and family secrets. T...more

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Jan 17, 2009 bookczuk rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, give-me-my-time-back, made-me-uncomfortable, read-on-recommendation, yikes

There were a couple of things that drew me to this book -- the idea of lace reading as a way of prophecy or fortune telling of sorts, the setting of Salem and the islands nearby, a hint at mystery and supernatural things. But I should have been warned off by two things. First the friend who gave this to me gave it a lukewarm recommendation, and second, the author comes flat out and tells us in the beginning that the narrator should not be trusted. I guess if there had been more of the lace-readi...more

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Oct 08, 2008 LJ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: female_author, massachusetts, contemporary_post_1945, novel, suspense

THE LACE READER (Novel/Susp-Towner Whitney-Mass-Cont) - VG
Barry, Brunonia – 1st book
Wm. Morrow, 2008, ARC – ISBN: 9780061688584

First Sentence: My name is Towner Whitney.

Towner Whitney grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, a town known for the witch trials in the 1600s and where, in the present, witches have become a major economic asset; except to Cal and his group of “Calvinist” religious fanatics. Tower descends from a family of women who read the future using lace as the medium.

Having lived in Ca...more THE LACE READER (Novel/Susp-Towner Whitney-Mass-Cont) - VG
Barry, Brunonia – 1st book
Wm. Morrow, 2008, ARC – ISBN: 9780061688584

First Sentence: My name is Towner Whitney.

Towner Whitney grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, a town known for the witch trials in the 1600s and where, in the present, witches have become a major economic asset; except to Cal and his group of “Calvinist” religious fanatics. Tower descends from a family of women who read the future using lace as the medium.

Having lived in California for the past 10-years and recovering from surgery, she returns to Salem after being notified that her Aunt Eva, who principally raised her, is missing. Coming back to Salem is memories and relationships, including Cal, whom she believes is responsible for Eva’s disappearance.

The story begins with our being told that everything Towner tells us is a lie and everything told by the narrator is true. It is important to keep that distinction in mind. But rather than it being a lie, it’s about memory and a distorted perception of what is true. This changes as the story unfolds.

There is a theme of circles throughout the story; the circle of women whether they be the lace makers, the witches or the Red Hat Ladies, and the circle of past and present. For Towner, it’s her life, memories and the relationships with those around her.

Towner is a fascinating protagonist and certainly unusual. She is a seer and a lace reader, but you never quite know where things stand with her. When young, she and her sister broke into a house and cleaned it. “The kind of thing only a girl would do.”

It’s not the easiest book to follow But it is a compelling story with a wonderful sense of place, wry humor, a paranormal element that I very much enjoyed, and some very good suspense that kept me turning the pages wanting to know how it would end.

It’s not a perfect book. There were some threads begun and left hanging. But I was reading the ARC and can hope those were corrected in the final version. I may just be curious enough to buy the final to find out.

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Sep 09, 2008 Leanna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. After finishing Brunonia Barry’s The Lace Reader, I have to question what all the buzz is about. Although the book’s premise is intriguing, the execution leaves much to be desired.

Towner Whitney returns to her home near Salem, Massachusetts for the first time in about 15 years. She fled after her twin sister’s suicide, and her own emotional breakdown, and only returns when her step-grandmother goes missing.

Much of modern-day Salem is populated with witches, and no one in town—or out—seems surpri...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 12, 2008 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Readers willing to give an author the benefit of the doubt.

Recommended to Katie by: Bookpage among other publications

So I kept hearing great things about this book and I picked it up from the library based on several recommendations.

I usually give a book about 50 pages before I decide if I continue, but I found myself on page 75 still deciding. The book starts out kind of slow, despite some exciting events, but since you don't know the characters you're not quite invested yet. I'm glad I stuck with it because there's a fun ending (predictable, but fun) and I enjoyed the setting (Salem) and plotting (interesti...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 16, 2008 Blair marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I'll admit it: I was first drawn to this book because of the story behind it. A "woman of a certain age" publishes her first book and has unimagined success. Good for Brunonia Barry! I love to see a writing "sister" have this kind of fairy tale ending.

I can certainly identify with the struggle to get published. I never considered taking Barry's path, though. She and her husband self-published originally, and a year later "The Lace Reader" was picked up by Harper Collins.

I will confess that I a...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 15, 2008 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who likes Alice Hoffman novels or magic, but beware it's dark!

Textiles are magic blah blah blah, anyone who knows me knows why and how I can say that with a yawn. However, I'd recommend this one because, it's (for lack of a better way to say this) "well-designed." Some reviewers didn't like the structure but I did, it's three-fold in that there's Towner's voice in first person, the narrator's voice in third person and then the "excerpts" from Eva's book on lace reading, which are sort of like the recipes in "Like Water for Chocolate." The comparison to Ali...more

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 02, 2008 Jackie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: work-review-related-reading, 5-star

The imagination of Brunonia Barry seems limitless--from it she creates a whole history and methodology of divination (lace reading is her brainchild), then weaves it through a complex family tale full of surprises. This book is extremely difficult to put down once you dive into it--the cast of characters could keep a bookclub busy through many pots of coffee. Especially the late in the game major plot twist and what it means for all of the characters. It's set in modern Salem, with all of it's n...more

1 like · like · see review

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About Brunonia Barry

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain College in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire and was one of the founding members of the Portland Stage Company. While still an undergraduate at UNH, Barry spent a year living in Dublin and auditing Trinity College classes on James Joyce's Ulysses.

Barry's love of theater led to a...more

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Quotes from The Lace Reader

“There is lace in every living thing: the bare branches of winter, the patterns of clouds, the surface of water as it ripples int he breeze.... Even a wild dog's matted fur shows a lacy pattern if you look at it closely enough.” — 16 people liked it

“I'll pit my God against your god any day, I say to the Calvinists. It's not their god I'm praying to.... The God I'm praying to is neither male nor female. My God is the one who exists apart from all of men's agendas, the God who takes you away when there is no possible place you can go.” — 15 people liked it

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