Rating:
Thin Places by Mary DeMuth is authentic, brave, and convicting!
On my About page I write, “You can become attached to characters that make you laugh, or have you buying stock in the Kleenex company. Then there are books you walk away from finding your life forever changed.” Thin Places by Mary DeMuth is a book I walk away from finding my life forever changed.
Thin Places is Mary’s memoir, but I believe every woman will find herself somewhere among those pages, despite varying life experiences. There is one chapter in Thin Places that I had to read and re-read because God was speaking to me, through Mary’s writing.
This is Mary’s raw account of being repeatedly raped by two neighborhood boys at a young age, DeMuth details her traumatic and disturbing childhood in the memoir. Raised in a broken home, she lost her biological father when she was ten and was stripped of her innocence growing up in an unstable environment where drugs were commonplace. I stand in awe with how God has worked and continues to work in Mary’s life. And despite the fact that my life experiences have been very different, I found her teaching and ministering to me with her story.
So what exactly are thin places? According to DeMuth, thin places are “snatches of time, moments really, when we sense God intersecting our world in tangible, unmistakable ways.” Mary does not sugar coat her life’s experiences and shows that despite the hell life can throw your way, you are a precious child of God.
DeMuth’s desire is to see readers set free from their family secrets. In light of that, she’s started a blog for readers to anonymously share their family secrets. Since the blog launched in February 2009, over 200 survivors have emailed their family secrets for DeMuth to anonymously post, and the blog was featured on Christianity Today’s blog, Her.meneutics. For more information, visit: http://blog.myfamilysecrets.org.
Mary is also encouraging others to write about a thin place they have experienced. She is offering a Kindle to one winner. See details here. I shared one of my thin places on my personal blog here.
Thin Places by Mary DeMuth can be purchased here.
About:
Author and speaker Mary DeMuth helps people turn their trials to triumph. Her books include Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God; Building the Christian Family You Never Had; Watching the Tree Limbs; Wishing on Dandelions; Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture and the first two books in the Defiance, Texas Trilogy: Daisy Chain and A Slow Burn.
National media regularly seek Mary’s candid ability to connect with their listeners. Her radio appearances include FamilyLife Today, Moody Midday Connection, Point of View and U.S.A. Radio Network and is frequently featured on Chuck Colson’s BreakPoint. She has published articles in In Touch, HomeLife, Writer’s Digest and The Writer. Mary lives with her husband Patrick and their three children in Texas.
FTC Disclosure: Special thanks to Zondervan for sending me a review copy of Thin Places by Mary DeMuth.
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Mary is an amazing writer. I really enjoyed her book “Daisy Chains” …and I don't read many novels. I can not wait to read her book “Thin Places”. Thank you for sharing your insight of the book.
I have read your novel, Daisy Chain and am nearly finished with Slow Burn, the first two of the Defiance Texas Trilogy. Is there not a third and if so what is the name of it? I want to know who killed Daisy!
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