Found

March 10, 2014
Eat, Pray, Love meets The Cloister Walk in this debut spiritual memoir. California-based mom-blogger Boyett explains that she "lost prayer" when her first child was born. The quiet mornings she had once devoted to listening and to Bible study were gone, replaced by "distraction and exhaustion." So Boyett leaves her 18-month-son in the care of her husband, and heads to a Benedictine monastery. She quickly realizes that "a monk's life is more like a stay-at-home mom's than any other lifestyle I've seen" and proceeds to study the Benedictine Rule, finding wisdom and spiritual nourishment in the Benedictine teaching of stability. Throughout, Boyett blends the Southern Baptist piety of her youth with spiritual direction and the rhythms of the liturgical year (she gives up dark chocolate for Lent), so this volume will appeal to evangelicals, Episcopalians, and everything in between. The prose is lyrical (the author holds an MFA in poetry from Syracuse), though occasionally Boyett's habit of ending the chapters with punch-lines that are presumably meant to be spiritually profound (but are in fact sometimes strained) grows old. A foreword by Ann Voskamp will attract attention to a new writer. Agent: Rachelle Gardner, Books & Such Literary Management.

May 15, 2014

Boyett comes to spiritual writing with words of encouragement and praise from the likes of Ann Voskamp (One Thousand Gifts) and Mary Karr (The Liars' Club; Lit). Hers is in certain ways an unremarkable story--finding a reconciliation between the stress and busyness of a wife and mother's life and the focus and peace of a committed spirituality. What is striking and perhaps indicative of broader trends, however, is that in order to find her center, Boyett reaches across the aisle from the Baptist faith of her background to the worship practices of Benedictine monks. Their prayer cycle, including vigils, lauds, prime, terce, etc., is the structuring principle of the book, as the author moves from a perceived loss of faith after the birth of her first child to something richer and stronger. VERDICT Boyett's easy-to-read narrative should appeal to a range of Christian seekers as well as to church study groups; pastors and priests will find use for her openness to the spirituality of the monastic life.

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