An Imperfect Rapture

Full disclosure: I got this book at the Decatur Book Festival (2018) because a dear friend wrote it. Even when dear friends write books, I rarely review them because of likely bias. This time, I don't care. Kelly Beard has written an amazing memoir about growing up poor (not for lack of skill or har......more

I tend to see Kelly's experiences as a result of growing up in abuse, not Christianity. She describes a brutally abusive and manipulative father. Sometimes abusers will use twist scripture to fit their narrative, but that is not the fault of God or Christianity. It is 100% the fault of the abuser. H......more

Absolutely engaging and raw. Kelly hit alot of sore spots in my childhood that I could relate. Thank you Goodreads and zone 3 press for allowing me to win this ARC.......more

A truly stunning memoir, one of the best of this decade. Expertly crafted, with an utterly compelling voice. Beard handles her difficult family story with compassion that feels hard-won, authentic. Her prose kept surprising me, in the best possible ways: simple passages suddenly blossoming into lyri......more

An affecting lyrically written coming-of-age memoir set in the 1960s and 1970s, in which Beard's parents' severe sect of Christianity meant punishment and repression, as if the poverty and financial challenges they faced were not suffering enough.......more