Helpful Score: 3
I'm still drawn to those stories about religious dysfunction and people who have "callings" or visions. This is one of the better done stories. I came to like all of the characters involved and Guterson pulls you in as he did with Snow Falling on the Cedars.
Helpful Score: 3
Completely original and unique story of a yound woman who believes she is being visited by the Virgin Mary in visions. She attracts a following and problems arise. It was completely engrossing.
Helpful Score: 3
I really liked it, very interesting story of religious fanaticism and the dehumanization of it. If you liked Snow Falling on Cedars you will like this.
Helpful Score: 2
Plot of this book was so unlike anything else I've ever read. Its a good story and one that will stick with you after you read it...maybe because the subject matter is a little disturbing!
Helpful Score: 2
I usually finish stories, however, this was so plodding and boring, I couldn't.
Helpful Score: 1
I really enjoyed this book, because it is a story about finding faith in the most unexpected places. It is the story of Ann a non-believer who becomes the chosen one in a small logging village and brings a community back to their roots of faith.
Helpful Score: 1
Just could not get into this book
Helpful Score: 1
A story of a runaway teen, who claims to have seen the Virgin Mary. AS her visions stimulate a tourism boom in a depressed town, they also draw the attention of the media and the Catholic Church. This is a beautifully written novel,--giving us a vivid look at the difficulty of being religious in a postmodern society.
Helpful Score: 1
Very bizarre book, my mom loved it and encouraged me to read it. I found most of the characters unlikeable and the story depressing. He is a good writer and if you are in the "right mood" maybe you will enjoy the book.
Helpful Score: 1
I really didn't enjoy this book.
Helpful Score: 1
a very amazing story with interesting characters & an unexpected ending.
leaves the reader to make their own conclusion
leaves the reader to make their own conclusion
Helpful Score: 1
Our Lady of the forest....it took me a while to finally finish this book. I will remember the characters for the humanity in each one of them, but I'm just not too sure if this is a good book. There were times, where I just wanted to stop reading, yet it kept me wanting to know how it ends too. Some of it was uncomfortable, some of it was funny, strange and informative on the subject of believing the sightings of MOther Mary. This is my first book by this author, David Guterson, who also wrote "snow falling on cedars" I might even try that book.
Unabridged, 12 hours
read by Blair Brown
read by Blair Brown
I really did not care much for the book. I'll stick to my Amish Fiction
Good use of descriptive language and truly enjoyed narrator. Story examines how others project their needs or desires on events so that they can interpret these events in particular ways. Story was good but I didn't identify with any characters.
enjoyed this well written story
A look at how much people today need to find something to bolster their faith. Lovely, sensitve language; a delight to the senses and something to behold for anyone who loves the written word.
This was a thought provoking book. The writing was wonderful, very descriptive without over doing it. Beautiful imagery and the storyline is intriguing and puts you right into it. A really great read.
Also wrote "Snow Falling on Cedars". "An intense and affecting jouney of faith, miracle and humanity." -- The Denver Post.
From David Guterson
bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars
comes this emotionally charged, provocative novel about what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl becomes an instrument of divine grace.
bestselling author of Snow Falling on Cedars
comes this emotionally charged, provocative novel about what happens when a fifteen-year-old girl becomes an instrument of divine grace.
I took offense of the book in regards that it was a meaningful religious aspect which I enjoyed but it had to be combined with awful street language and suggestions that were deplorable. I finished the book but went straight to the trash and threw it away. There was no way that I would pass the book on or share it with any one.
Ann Holmes seems an unlikely candidate for revelation. A sixteen-year-old runaway, she is an itinerant mushroom picker who lives in a tent. But on a November afternoon, in the foggy woods of North Fork, Washington, the Virgin comes to her, clear as day.
Father Collins - a young priest new to North Fork - finds Ann disturbingly alluring. But it is up to him to evaluate - impartially - the veracity of Ann's sightings: Are they delusions, or a true calling to God? As word spreads and thousands, including the press, converge upon the town, Carolyn Greer, a smart-talking fellow mushroomer, becomes Ann's disciple of sorts, as well as her impromptu publicity manager. And Tom Cross, an embittered logger who's been out of work since his son was paralyzed in a terrible accident, finds in Ann's visions a last chance for redemption for both himself and his son.
As Father Collins searches his own soul and Ann's, as Carolyn struggles with her less than admirable intentions, as Tom alternates between despair and hope, Our Lady of the Forest tells a suspenseful, often wryly humorous, and deeply involving story of faith at a contemporary crossroads.
