I really struggled with this book. I am not a political person and I was trying to advance my knowledge. There were just terms that she was using that I couldn't wrap my head around.

Thank you Convergent Books and NetGalley for the advance read.

I was surprised just how much I connected with this book. Over the last few years, discourse in the US has been so hateful and antagonistic. Maybe we all need to read this book. It really helped me to feel a little hope for the future and the ways we communicate. Loved the premise, the writing, and the research that went into this book. I've purchased a couple of copies for the branch. Our patrons will find hope in these pages, too.

This book really delves into the everyday discourse of our current culture as well as describing what we can do to change it. It is a reminder to practice grace in our everyday exchanges, either online or in person while encouraging us to get away from the harsh crass way of words that has become so prevalent in our society. This book is well written, well researched and diligently detailed, all while Kristen exposes her own personal vulnerabilities and lessons learned on the subject.
I highly recommend. Everyone will be able to relate and apply it in someway to their own lives.

One of the best books I've read this year, Powers writes in a way that is relevant to a large audience on how to have and give grace in our day and age.

This work, focusing on the concept of grace, is a powerful, personal but universally applicable introspection into the soul of the author. Ms. Powers reveals vulnerabilities, foibles, and other life missteps that caused her to question why is it that she experienced the world the way she did. In doing such, she found that this entire concept of "grace", whether giving or receiving it, begins with the hardest step imaginable... affording grace to yourself. As she committed to the work necessary to find the tools, and the courage, necessary to strip all the veneer from her life, she could rebuild her world view as something that afforded her the grace she needed to become the person she aspires to be. In doing such, her world view and humanity transformed into the insightful and humane journalist, woman and fellow human being to us all that we should all endeavor to be. After reading this tour de force of a book, I questioned my own will, resolve and determination to allow myself to receive grace. I'm still quite a work in progress, but Ms. Powers words (which I can eloquently hear her speaking in mind as I contemplate the meaning of it all) power my fortitude to work through this essential, yet difficult, journey. The most captivating element of her narrative is that she is with us on the journey, rather than being the pretentious "expert" preaching what we should do or be. While she's done it all, her compassion makes you feel as if she's holding your hand and encouraging you on this deeply personal journey. I recommend this work for anyone who struggles to give the gift of grace to themselves, which pretty much includes us all. Thank you, Ms. Powers, for the courage to share, the ability to translate into clear, impactful words, and the power to make us feel that we are alone on the journey. Simply put, read SAVING GRACE. Godspeed, Ms. Powers.

Having the privilege of reading a preview copy of Saving Grace has provided me with so much more than the insight and tools to practice grace. The book is an honest, raw and deeply personal story of a woman who, despite her well-meaning views on a range of social and political issues, recognises that in her past, she has caused hurt to others through her often rigid thinking.

Not only do I have this in common with Kirsten, I also share a childhood of trauma caused by an unhealthy relationship with my own mother, a relationship I still work on every day. A relationship not only marred by deeply hurtful words and actions, but by our diametrically opposite views on gender, race and other socio-political issues. It is these parts of the book, identifying and processing unhealed trauma, and setting healthy boundaries, that most resonated with me.

The highest praise I can share is not in the words I use in my review but my actions in jotting down copious notes and highlighting passages that impacted me the most powerfully, I will return to these notes when I'm struggling to demonstrate the kind of grace I know I should, and am, capable of.

By sharing her life with the world, owning up to past mistakes, revealing the traumas she has lived through and detailing her journey of repentance, Kirsten demonstrates incredible courage. I have long admired her as a political commentator and I admire her even more so now.

Let me start out by saying I love Kirsten Powers. She has been the voice of reason on CNN and over the past 5 or 6 years I have always appreciated her perspectives on controversial issues. So, with this in mind, I was immediately drawn to her book.

Because she represented to me “the voice of reason” when everyone else around her seemed to be losing their heads, I never stopped to consider the severe price she may have been paying to be so reasonable. I should have guessed.

In this very insightful book she describes the damage she sustained to her mental health - and more importantly she describes how “grace” was the key to her return to a healthy psyche.

And she outlines how the rest of us can do the same.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has struggled these past few years with the constant barrage of negativity we see on cable news and in our daily lives. It’s already helped me to deal with it.

Part premature memoir, part handbook for navigating what feels like an insurmountable, divisive time in our country's history, Saving Grace gives us both. Kirsten Powers shares with vulnerability her journey to navigate a personal and professional life in a time when people almost beckon your hands around their neck--a sentiment she said in not those exact words, but a feeling that is all too familiar.

Through discussions with theologians, sociologists, therapists, and social activists, she has given us the gift of understanding where some of our human behavior has helped and hindered us when dealing with an elevated and sustained period of stress and uncertainty--and the people who may be causing it. This gift is a--her-- guidebook on how to put more good--grace--in the world. And more importantly, it is the push we need to recognize the grace, in the forms of attention, self-awareness, and protection, we need to give ourselves.

Kirsten Powers has always been one of my favorite political analysts. She is straightforward, concise, and she has never hidden her contention; written across her face, it is what has made her feel relatable. Kirsten discusses the thoughts and personal struggles behind these nonverbal cues with candidness and vulnerability. To be honest, it took me a while to finish this book because it was so relatable. That is a good thing. The best parts of the book come with her accounts of repentance and discovery of unhealed trauma. Powers makes a case for this in the final pages of the book: the minds and hearts of people are more affected--and possibly changed-- by personal stories.

The familiar feelings about a path we have both walked down also made it difficult to want to read. But that is completely on me and not Saving Grace.

There is a tinge of religiosity throughout the book. The author has leaned into her faith on her journey to achieve inner and outer peace. I am not religious, but one does not need to be to benefit from and incorporate the lessons that have biblical origins. The concept of grace from the Bible is that God gives us something because he wants us to have it, not because we have done anything to deserve it. My criticism and doubt come in the fact that many of the people that irritate and stress me have labeled themselves Christian--righteous in all opinions and self-created facts.

Kirsten does a fantastic job of illustrating grace as an almost superpower. Not one we are born with, but a skill that has to be strengthened through practice, and one that is WANTED in theory, but almost always practiced wrong. It almost seems comical that a God would give this gift to a culture that does not embrace anything that is not earned.

The checklist of duties and points of accountability she lists that need to be achieved to start healing our country are accurate. We need more empathy and mutual respect for others and their experiences and truths. We need to set boundaries for what we allow into our lives and what we have accepted in other people's behavior--towards us and in society. We need to SEE each other, but we also need to recognize our own needs and power.

While Powers points to grace as the key to possibilities, I am still left wondering what happens when we have extended all the grace we have to give. She points to this as the catalyst for canceling--marginalized communities publicly calling out people or companies for the pain they have caused. But what about the people that we have rightly decided are not worth our energy? The people that are not going to change. The ones that are being misled and those doing the misleading? We cannot "cancel" half the country. It feels almost impossible to imagine the set of circumstances that need to happen for those who profit from this division to stop.

Can we proceed in peace if the people who drive us nuts are still proceeding with their peace-destructing behavior? The book stops short of addressing that as part of the reason we are in the situation we are in is BECAUSE people have used personal stories and anecdotes to further destructive behavior and ideologies, and further divide us. For now I will use it as a tonic and salve for the wounds of stress and heartache the past five years have caused myself, and use it to help promote awareness and conversation within the world around me.

"Saving Grace" is just what the doctor ordered for my ailing spirit. Kirsten Powers has written a deeply personal book that highlights her own journey during the ups and downs of her life amidst the chaos of our world. As a former seminary student I felt that I had a pretty firm grasp on grace. Kirsten, however, has opened my eyes and my heart to a deeper, more spiritual understanding of what grace truly is. Arming her reader with this deeper, more intimate revelation about grace, Kirsten gently calls each one of us to move forward in our lives seeking to live a life of grace. Kirsten Powers provides a road map forward in the pursuit of just how each one of us can live a life of grace.

Thank you Kirsten for sharing your story, for being so vulnerable and open with your readers!

- John M. Knight

Excellent book - have recommended to many friends and colleagues - very current and deeply thought-provoking in these turbulent times - thanks for allowing me to read and review an advance copy.

This was an incredible book and was one of my favorite things that I have read this year. Saving grace has opened my eyes and my mind on how to interact better and more positively with both friends and family.

If I could give the book 10 stars I would. The book challenged me to think out of the cliched box. The arguments at times were hard to follow but well written. Ms. Powers challenged me to remove my biases of which I have many. It was a come clean book about her experiences and endeavors to right the wrongs of society. To Ms. Powers, thank you for sticking with it to the end. I know Ms. Powers credited associates but it was ultimately up to her tenacity to follow through. Thank You Ms. Kristen Powers!

"Saving Grace" by Kirsten Powers is a good dive into the subject of grace, what it seems to be and not be, and explores the misconceptions that have led to abuse, isolation, and a misunderstanding of what it can look like in honest, authentic relationships. We can disagree with each other with grace, we can tell the truth with grace, and we can stand up for ourselves and those we love without toxic behaviors or mindsets.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.