Thérèse

A day late and a dollar short, but whatcha gonna do? Most of the women in our group are not Catholic, and I had never heard of St. Therese before; she had written her own memoirs prior to her death in 1897, and Day excerpted a lot of Therese's own words, which usually irritates me - because why would I want to read Day telling me about Therese's writing if I can just read Therese in her own words? We collectively agreed that this maybe wasn't the best introduction to the saint, though one of our members who had read Therese's memoir said that it doesn't include much about her family and early life, so I dunno.

It took a long time to get into this because you don't actually start hearing about Therese herself until like 40% in, because there's so much about her family (her mother and father originally wanted to become a nun and a monk, but were rejected by the convent and monastery, so instead got married and had a whole bunch of daughters, all of whom ended up becoming nuns). I'm torn because, some of this was interesting, and then I'd look at the percentage on my Kindle and go, we're 30% in and Therese hasn't even been BORN? and then the end also felt really rushed, considering she died of TB at like age 24. So I alternated between being really into it and being bored and skimming sections that were just Day expounding on Therese's own words.

So I don't know if I'm glad I read it, necessarily, but I'm glad it was a good discussion. 2.5 stars.