BitterSweetLife

Time for a review of an refreshingly atypical book that mixes themes of death, feminism, heaven, materialism, and the gospel with lots and lots of narrative flavor. Heaven Without Her by Kitty Foth-Regner is unlike any other apologetics book I've read because of its very personal first-person approach. And it's unlike any other autobiography I've read because of the prevalent threads of evidence for belief in Jesus. Think of it as a soulful, funny blow-by-blow story well-dosed with intellectual arguments.

Heaven Without Her was the rare book that Lindsay and I both read cover to cover simultaneously. Essentially, Kitty starts the book at her mother's death bed, and traces the impact that her mother's death had on her life, acting as a catalyst for serious exploration of faith(s). From page 1, you realize that this won't be a book in "clinical" apologetics that offers the arguments for belief in Jesus in their most basic and streamlined forms. Instead, Kitty chooses a lived-out approach. It works splendidly.

What I enjoyed most about Heaven Without Her was the realistic, sometimes random-seeming way Kitty traced her journey toward eventual belief in Jesus. Factors like a Packers football game, Intelligent Design, Google searches, and visions of Heaven that evoke European adventures are sketched with an eye for the moments of epiphany. The help she gained from people like C.S. Lewis and John MacArthur are thrown into the mix in a way that reflects the infinitely-varied ways that God steers people toward him. Kitty's journey toward Christ was passionately researched and studied—but at the same time, she depicts the way that God swept her up in a story that culminated at the cross.

I mentioned Kitty's imaginative moxie earlier. Her voice is unpretentious and disarmingly honest, making you feel like you know her pretty well as you put the book down. Very readable, with lots of self-deprecating humor, Heaven Without Her is an apologetic wrapped in a memoir. We recommend it for open-minded skeptics or for people who know Jesus, but could use a warm reminder of the monumental difference that the gospel makes.

*** 3 out of 3 stars, Don't Miss It.