Trespassers Will Be Baptized by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock
June 8th, 2008Title: Trespassers Will Be Baptized
Author: Elizabeth Emerson Hancock
Publisher: Center Street Publishing (2008)
Delightful!
I spent about 2 days trying to figure out a more manly way to sum up this book in one word. Alas, I could not. Is “Wicked Awesome” hyphenated? Wicked-awesome. Yeah…I’ll count that. This book was wicked-awesome.
Trespassers Will Be Baptized: The Unordained Memoir of a Preacher’s Daughter by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock is a memoir about her life growing up as the daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher in Kentucky. The book tracks her thoughts and emotions as she analyzes everything she experiences through her strong Baptist beliefs. She was a young girl during this book…9 or 10 years old I think. And I knew it was going to be a great book from the first chapter when I read this:
God made the Wildcats, and the Wildcats glorified Him through their goal-shattering, soul-shattering play.
That is an awesome line. Just awesome…and I hate the Wildcats! As you can see, Hancock is a spectacular writer and she really draws you in with her conversational style of writing. I really felt like I was listening to her tell me these stories instead of reading them. The style of the book reminded me a lot of Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller…both are conversational and spiritual in nature. Trespassers is not about a spiritual journey like Blue Like Jazz is though.
The thing I liked most about this book was the humor. Hancock made me laugh continually throughout the book. Her descriptions of people and situations are very rich. In the first chapter she describers her little sister in such fantastic detail. In fact, everything she describes is in fantastic detail. Basically, I wish I could write like she does.
Aside from the humor, there are a number of really touching moments…especially as the book winds down. I don’t want to ruin the ending of the book for you, but there is a good chance you will get choked up a bit. Not that I did. Because that wouldn’t be very manly either.
I HIGHLY recommend that everyone gets a copy of this book and reads it. Hancock is an up and coming writing superstar…and now is the time to get in on the ground floor.
Rating: 5 out of 5
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June 16th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
[...] delightful gentleman from Letters on Pages (who is, alas a Buckeye). Perhaps he’ll visit Kentucky someday and I can make him see the [...]
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:31 pm
This looks fun. I saw something about it elsewhere and considered adding it to my wishlist, but I definitely will now.
I think delightful is a very manly word, as evidenced by the juxtaposition to the word gentleman above!
July 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Great review! Thanks for stopping by my blog. Your review reminded me again how good this book really was. Thanks.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I truly loved this book. You have done a wonderful job describing this book.