Jesus, My Father, The CIA, And Me

Jesus, My Father, The CIA, And Me: A Memoir... Of Sorts by Ian Morgan Cron is one of those special books that will make you laugh hysterically on one page and cry on the next. As I read this book, I felt like I was reliving my childhood - I was raised Catholic in an alcoholic home, although the CIA wasn't involved! I could relate so much to the dynamics of his family and what he went through growing up. I appreciated his honesty in writing about his own struggles with alcohol and his sobriety - I could relate there, too. The title of this book is a bit misleading. The CIA angle of the plot line is thinly developed and doesn't play much of a role in the story. He doesn't delve into the details of his father's work in the CIA at all. Since "CIA" was in the title, I expected him to tell more stories about it, but he didn't. That was fine, the book was still great, it just wasn't what I had quite pictured when I picked it up. Overall, this was an amazing book. I picked it up and was hooked, and I read it in less than 24 hours. I had only two complaints about this book - I wanted MORE! I wish he could've gone into even more detail and included more stories from his life. Trying to write a book from your birth to your adulthood in 252 pages must be difficult. I feel like he could've written 500 pages and still not feel like the book was "finished". I'm hoping he writes another book about his life. My other complaint was that there were no PICTURES. I have never read a memoir that didn't contain at least some black and white pictures. He described certain scenes, people, and his parents so vividly, but I felt like not including pictures of these people and events was very lacking. I was disappointed because I wanted a face to put with the name, so to speak. All in all, I highly recommend this book. It was truly excellent. It wasn't just a memoir, it contained so many nuggets of spiritual truth that I am still absorbing. One of my favorites was the touching story of his conversation with his priest when he stole a Eucharist; and later in life, his conversation with Miss Jackie when he told her his story of being asked for forgiveness by who he thought was Jesus. The spiritual truths in those stories will stay with me for a very long time. Please put aside any preconceived denominational notions and read this book (Cron was raised Catholic, and is now an Episcopalian priest - I didn't realize he wasn't "evangelical Christian" when I picked up the book, but it didn't effect my enjoyment of this wonderful book one bit). I received a copy of this book from BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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