Well, that is not at all what I was expecting.
Alice Asks the Big Questions, was a novel about an atheist PR consultant, Alice, who sets out to help her friend who is a priest revamp his parish. In the process, she studies Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, modern science and modern inspirational teachings only to find that at the core, they all teach similar concepts.
As a liberal Protestant, I found this books fascinating and thought provoking, but to a conservative Christian or Catholic, I could see this being infuriating. However, that might be the point. My biggest criticism of this book is that the storyline and novel aspect of this book really feel superfluous. I really think that this book would have more impact as a non-fiction research based piece. Especially considering the author clearly put in a lot of effort to study and analyze so many religions.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher. My review opinion is voluntarily given and my own opinion

Alice is in Public Relations and has had moderate success at revitalizing her clients businesses. When her friend who is a Priest ask her help with his failing church she becomes interested in studying Faith and Faith beliefs. She not only delves into Christianity but also other avenues of Faith she wants to understand.

This was not just a Christian based book although it does appeal to Christians. I liked that she was finding herself through studying Faith based beliefs and helping the church. As for any other part of her charcter she did leave me flat as a reader as someone very self involved.

ALICE ASKS THE BIG QUESTIONS by Laurent Gounelle is an international best-seller which somehow did not resonate with me. Gounelle developed a NOT very likeable character named Alice who decides to apply her PR skills to help an old friend, Jeremy, revive attendance at his parish church. Unfortunately, Alice thinks that she knows better than everyone else and is less than reverent when she plots to "get Jesus back in the saddle." For example, "the general public was mad about confessions, and to Alice, that was clearly a marketing tool to exploit. All she had to do was reshape the church act to make it more attractive." What?!! Give this title a pass.

This book introduced the most absurd religious ideas in comparison to Christianity and the Bible. The Author's main character, Alice is a professed atheist who attempted to fuse several Religious and Scientific theories together to make one religion and then claims to successfully transform a Catholic Church to these ideas. She tried to explain away the Biblical account of Creation with the Big Bang theory, but the absurdity was her attempt to prove that Jesus himself agreed with this and all the other theories within the Universe. I had to laugh at her attempt to teach a Priest new ways of handling confession. I'm not Catholic, but any one would be hard pressed to think someone who does not even believe in God or the Bible could influence any congregation, much less one that is Christian based. The absurdity continues when the Priest was detained, and Alice conducts the Mass in his absence, even baptizing a baby. In the end, she heard Jesus tell her, You are the light of the world. When elephants fly!

Thanks to publisher Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for a digital advance reader's copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

I just don't know where to start my review. I felt the description of the book was misleading. This was not a novel, but more like the transcript of a collection of lectures, a series of articles, or a very wordy treatise on faith. Alice, a pubic relations consultant, decides to help her friend Jeremy, a priest, promote and grow his Catholic parish church in a small French town, but since she claims to be an atheist, she needs to educate herself first. She reads the Bible, meets with Jeremy, attends a series of self-help workshops, and interviews a Hindu Taoist. Most of the book consists of the conversations she has with these people, as well as her experiments in putting Biblical precepts into practice. It is not a humorous story, nor is it interesting, moving, or illuminating. I have read and enjoyed many faith-based books, but I decided after reading 60% that I couldn't spend any more time with this book. I was disappointed the author couldn't have written a real novel using Alice's search for meaning in her life, and am still surprised it was published and promoted as moving and captivating. The only thing good was the description of the small French town of Cluny. I can't recommend this book to anyone.

Could not finish this book. I read the first few pages but could not get farther than that. Guess it was the writing style that did not draw me in.

Interesting review of Christian vs other philosophies incorporated into a fictional account; this book is perhaps more into the philosophy than the fiction. I read the whole book but really couldn't identify with the main characters and found the quotes from philosophical works a bit tedious. Since I didn't really care for the book, I won't be sharing my opinions outside of NetGalley. Too bad, because I would have loved to have found an interesting French author.