Children of God go Bowling

I was sifting through my bookcases and wanted to read something different that I had been throwing on the back burner for awhile, which is basically most of my books, which then makes it sound like the books I own have grown dull to me. I mean, maybe. Children of God go Bowling sounded like an interesting title with the premise on the dust jacket sounding like a Bridget Jones kind of book, so off I went.

Children of God go Bowling is a short book about a woman named Shannon living in Minnesota who is in her 30’s, single, has personality conflict with her mother, and is kind of in a rut of life. Shannon is very caught up in being single and wanting to be in a relationship that it sometimes became too much for me. Right away, though, she includes episodes of seeing her therapist and, reluctantly, group therapy sessions, which challenge her to grow and become content with herself.

This was a pleasant read even with the drawn out “maybe this is why guys don’t like me” or “maybe I won’t ever find the right guy” mentality. Shannon was a relatable person, going through a time in her life where she feels stuck in a plethora of ways: maybe wants to move to a different town or state but is unsure of the unknown, wants a different job but isn’t too tortured to leave, struggles to connect with her mother but is willing to continue to contribute to a toxic behavior with her own, wants to be in a relationship so badly but doesn’t see that part of the problem is her own insecurities or lack of confidence in being single and independent. We all have gone through at least one of these things, myself included. All that it came down to it was to figure out and resolve my own toxic traits, and get over the fear that can cripple a person so that I can do what I want to do with my life. While reading, you want to praise Shannon when she discovers things about herself and begins to resolve the toxic things. You want to yell at her for being dumb. Then when the book got to the end, it wrapped up like a nice bow.

I enjoyed how quick of a read this was. It feels good to accomplish a read when it seems like it takes longer than necessary to read. I don’t know if you’ve noticed in my reviews, I worry about the time it takes for me to read something. It’s a performance expectation of mine where I should really just enjoy the ride.

Anyway, I would recommend reading Children of God go Bowling. I would encourage a self evaluation as you read, especially if you find that, like me, you relate to Shannon in the sense of allowing fear to dictate how you grow, change, and live your life productively. If you want to check it out, you can find it here.

8/10