Review: One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Title: One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
Author: Ann Voskamp
Released: January 17, 2011
Publisher: Zondervan
Pages/format: 240 (Hardcover)
Source: From the publisher.

Quick Synopsis: Voskamp chronicles her journey towards a life of thanksgiving and invites readers to join her on a quest for holy joy.

From the back cover:

One Thousand Gifts beckons you to leave the parched ground of pride, fear, and white-knuckle control and abandon yourself to the God who overflows your cup. As Ann Voskamp invites you into her own moments of grace, she gently teaches you how to biblically lament loss, turning pain into poetry; intentionally embrace a lifestyle of radical gratitude; slow down and catch God in the moment.

Quick Review: One Thousand Gifts is beautiful, powerful, and full of wisdom–the best book I’ve read on the topic of thanksgiving.

Long Review:

One Thousand Gifts is a small hardcover divided into eleven titled chapters, each of which begins with a relevant quote. The story of this book is centered around a dare: record one thousand gifts, one thousand blessings, one thousand everyday graces that God showers on you. This is what a friend challenged Ann to do, and Ann obliged, not realizing that this simple act of thanksgiving would change her life forever.

This book is unique in many ways. For one, Ann’s style isn’t exactly prose, nor does it qualify as poetry. It’s more like prosetry, a hybrid between the two that is beautiful to read and highly expressive. It’s the perfect style for word-mining the depths of the human soul, which is exactly what Ann does. She bares her heart, her hurt, and her happiness, which allows her to drive points home without projecting any guilt on the reader.

Ann has a knack for connecting theological dots. She examines the link between grace, thanks, and joy; pride and gratitude; faith and fear, and the role of eucharisteo–giving thanks–in the whole of the Christian life.

The act of sacrificing thank offerings to God–even for the bread and cup of cost, for cancer and crucifixion–this prepares the way for God to show us His fullest salvation from bitter, angry, resentful lives and from all sin that estranges us from Him. ~page 40

Another thing I love about this book is the abundance of foot notes. For a foot-note-a-holic like myself, the many references to Lewis, Chesterton, Nouwen, and others was delicious.

One Thousand Gifts is full of wisdom. It’s the kind of book you’ll want to purchase two copies of–one to earmark, highlight, and pencil-mark into oblivion, and the other to lend out to friends, family, and the occasional passerby. (I found that having a bound manuscript of the book was perfect for the former purpose. The wide margins left ample room for scribbling notes.)

I love the simplistic elegance of the cover design. It fits the mood of the book perfectly. The interior layout is likewise attractive. I’m glad that they didn’t make the book larger and thinner. The small size is perfect.

About Ann Voskamp:

Ann Voskamp is a writer with DaySpring’s (in)courage, a contributing editor to Laity Lodge’s The High Calling, and a global advicate for the poor, traveling for Compassion International. With an educational background in psychology and education from York University and the University of Waterloo, Ann and her husband are farmers in the Mennonite countryside of southwestern Ontario, raising a half dozen kids, crops of corn, and the roof of praise.

Note: My review of the text is based on an unproofed galley. The final hardcover book was consulted so that I could comment on the formatting and verify quotes.

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