Cover Image: Of Mess and Moxie

Of Mess and Moxie

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Member Reviews

I enjoy Jen Hatmaker's style of writing. It reminds me of sitting down with a friend and having a funny and honest conversation. I do not always agree with her opinions, but she did have some good messages about loving others and how we as Christians are often more about following rules than leaving our comfort zones to love and serve others. This can deter others from church and Christianity. Guilty as charged, at times. The book was very readable but it also jumped around a lot. I found it to be worth reading, so I gave it 3 stars.

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Hatmaker's latest book is a nice mix of humor, stories and teaching advice. I appreciated the light-heartedness of the stories and the snickers that slipped out as I was reading. While not heavy on biblical teaching, I found myself highlighting a few sentences throughout the book to refer to in the future. I think that women in all walks of life will find content to be relatable.

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Cannot go wrong with Jen Hatmaker. Love reading her essays about life - marriage, parenthood through the seasons, and friendships. Perfect book for a book club to discuss.

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Jen Hatmaker never disappoints and Of Mess and Moxie is among her best works. Jen has an uncanny ability to peer into our lives and speak to us as thought we aren’t nearly as bad as we think we are. Filled with her usual wisdom, insight and humor, Jen is a REAL Christian woman and the big sister we all want and need in our lives. Refreshing, transparent, and filled with great advice and storytelling, this is an excellent addition to any woman’s library.

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This was my first Jen Hatmaker book--I wasn't disappointed! With authenticity and heaps of humour, she delivers a collection of essays about real life, particularly her life as a mom of 5 kids. I have zero children but didn't find this put me off as a single adult. All the way from how to be a "fangirl" to your friends, to the meaning of the sovereignty of God, I was drawn in by her simple but often overlooked knacks for living life well and being a better human in this messed up world. If you're looking for a quick, accessible and hilarious read for your women's group, this is the one!

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I'm clearly not the target audience for this book, but I figured I should know who Jen Hatmaker is, so I grabbed a NetGalley copy. A couple chapters in, and I was ready to give up -- I'm not in the circle of girlfriends this book is addressed to and the "dear ones" and similar language was off-putting.

I stuck it out, and was mostly rewarded. The funny stuff here is really funny, and Hatmaker's ridiculous look at parenting should be encouraging. The more serious stuff is less inspiring, oddly, and a bit of a drag.

This one wasn't for me, but I'm not surprised that people love it (or that Hatmaker has such a fanbase). I do think this writing is for a select audience that, despite Hatmaker's general inclusivity, might be surprisingly select (particularly in terms of class and privilege).

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I am a big fan of Jen Hatmaker and love following her. I appreciate that she isn’t afraid to stand for what she believes is right, and enjoy hearing her point of view. Her latest release, Of Mess and Moxie, does not disappoint.

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After listening to a podcast Jen did with Rachel Hollis, I just had to read one of her books. This was a great choice for the first one. She's uplifting, funny, and relatable. I will definitely be reading more works by Jen.

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Full of wit and humor, Jen finds a way to include religion into this book about girls and women. A fun read and light hearted but full of tremendous information.

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Jen Hatmaker does it again! Everyone's best friend has written another insightful yet hilarious and relatable book to drop all kinds of truth, put a smile on your face, and make you feel A-OK about your life. This book is chock full of laugh-out-loud stories about her family, self-deprecation, real talk, and wisdom. Jen has such a refreshing take on real life as a Christian woman...and on life as a woman in general. As always, she has found the perfect combination of sarcasm and sincerity, and she has given us all permission to be exactly who we are. Since she is a mother of five (yowza!), a lot of her book was about parenting and didn't really relate to me, but I think as a whole, women of any age and any stage of life could find some real nuggets of truth and wisdom and hilarity in her words. This one is for allllll the women out there who feel less than, like they're messing everything up, like they're disappointing people, and like they're just barely keeping it together. But it's also for all the women who feel like they're absolutely killing it and living their best life. And for everyone in between. It's for all the women out there with all their mess and all their moxie just trying to find the joy in every day life.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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This is an extremely tedious book. I laboured through pages and pages of "This book is for X, this book is for Y, this book is for this person yada yada yada". After awhile it started to sound like overcompensation. A person who's taking pride in their flaws does not need to keep labouring the point. I don't know if the entire book is so but if it's not, 10% of the book is too long to spend on promising what's to come without getting to the point.

This is not even including the super-judgemental, Mean Girls style "I've been so hard done by the world and look now I kick all their asses, DIE for making me feel bad!" attitude the words carry. There are gleeful descriptions like 'The pointy-finger old church lady' to describe someone who critiqued her earlier book. This is not positive. It's defensive, vengeful and toxic.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

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Of Mess and Moxie is Jen Hatmaker's latest book. I really, really wanted to like this book. I loved For the Love when I read it. I decided to listen to the audio of this book and I found it so very, very difficult to listen to. I think this would be a great book for someone who feels like they need to overcome their life situation. I did not get anything from it at all, as much as I wanted to like it. I definitely do not recommend the audio version. It was so difficult to listen to. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher. These opinions are entirely my own.

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Another winner by Jen Hatmaker...real...encouraging....funny....sad...pick it up to experience it for yourself.

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A delightfully real read about the living of life with family and social commitments and church and friends and God in the midst of it all. The book is a challenge to meet each day with courage and relationship with God to get you through the best and the worst circumstances, This is a very entertaining read filled with wisdom and humor.

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This book lets you partake in Jen's sometimes messy life. Encouraging!

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Practical advice for the messes we get in. Jen walks us through some very specific examples which enable us to understand what she is saying in such a relevant way. I had looked forward to reading this book for awhile, and it didn't disappoint. Jen is often laugh out loud funny, which tempers the practical advice she gives.

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I didn't care for the opinions or views of the author in this book. I wasn't even able to finish reading it.

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his book was written for ME. Page after page I found myself wanting to join Jen on her porch and have her read her words to me! It is so relatable as a wife, a mom, and girlfriend! Thank you Jen for sharing your heart and humor with us!

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Of Mess and Moxie
Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life
by Jen Hatmaker
Thomas Nelson
Christian , Humor
Pub Date 08 Aug 2017
I am reviewing a copy of Mess and Moxie through Thomas Nelson and Netgalley:


This book reminds us it's okay not to be perfect, and that it is okay for a woman to have a backbone. This book reminds us that women have been demonstrating residency and resolve since the beginning of time.


Women get the idea that because there is pain or failure they must be doing things wrong, that somehow they must have done something wrong. That when things don't go as plan women are somehow to be blamed but Jen Hatmaker reminds us with humor and heart that is not the case.


I give Of Mess and Moxie five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

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Jen Hatmaker takes the reader on the wild ride with her delightful storytelling and magical skills of being the creative wordsmith that is Jen. Her inspiration reminds us all that, no, the grass is never greener on the other side no matter the angle. I also listened to this an audiobook. I highly recommend listening to her read the book and offer some bonus tidbits along the way. It's as if you are having your own conversation with her. Fabulous!

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