Official Review: God, Red Shoes and Chocolate Pudding

[pyb]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "God, Red Shoes and Chocolate Pudding" by Hayley Hart.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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In God, Red Shoes and Chocolate Pudding, Hayley Hart tries to explain her philosophy on life and faith to us. The memoir begins telling the story of how she lost her faith in God when she was seven years old, then explains how she found it again as a young adult after the birth of her child, and ends with her searching for it once more after another break with her belief system.

Although I slowly started to realize this book was not for me, by the fourth chapter I found it difficult to continue. Hart goes from describing some of the life-changing events in her life, to discussing the Holy Trinity in a very confusing “essay” on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The only way I can think of to convey the essence of this section is to use the author’s words to do the talking. First, she describes the Holy Trinity as, “Three people; entities, beings, concepts that if anyone was just a little out of line would bring the house of God down like tumbling (sic) house of cards.” I’m not sure what she is trying to say, but I’m positive I don’t know what she means in this next statement about the Father: “If he is there life can form, and therefore does this negate the existence of Jesus as the son of God and the one messiah as, if God is the seed of life, we are all his children and so Jesus just spoke more freely about what he believed than others did in his time.” What? Sorry, but the writing just went downhill from there.

In addition to my not being able to make neither heads nor tails of the fourth chapter, the book, as a whole, does not flow. Each chapter feels ‘separate,’ and many begin with some sort of build up to a dramatic event that we never learn enough about or are told will be explained later. Then it isn’t.

Finally, as you can see from the quotes I have included, there are quite a few errors with grammar and punctuation. This is something that I, personally, have a very difficult time with when reviewing a book.

On a positive note, Mrs. Hart seems like a very strong woman who has dealt with a lot in her life and is taking the time to share what she has found to be valuable. I am sure the act of writing this memoir was very cathartic for her; something she simply had to do.

While I knew I was taking a chance on a book with “God” in the title, based on the excerpt I had read prior to agreeing to review it, it seemed as if it was going to be based mostly on life lessons and offer various perspectives on religion. Instead, I found its message to be confusing, not really knowing in the end what life lessons were imparted on me. Unfortunately, I have to give God, Red Shoes and Chocolate Pudding 1 out of 4 stars.

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God, Red Shoes and Chocolate Pudding
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[lily_kh87]

The title of the book seems interesting. Too bad you did not like it though.

[pyb]

It is an interesting title lily_kh87, but it just was not for me.
It was quite short (only about 44 pages), but the chocolate pudding was actually never mentioned until the epilogue.