"Realistic, warm and enlightening"

In the early sixties, three young girls make a decision that will affect the rest of their lives. For one girl, it would divide her family; for another, it would devastate her father; for the other, it would be the family's shining moment. Each girl has her own reasons for making the life- changing decision. One seeks to heal a broken heart, one feels a calling from God, and one just did what she knows her family wants her to do. The girls leave behind their families and all their worldly possession, and join into a new family and a new way of life when they enter a convent to become nuns.

In her new book, "Changing Habits," best-selling author Debbie Macomber explores a world that fascinates many but has remained a mystery for ages; the world of the sisterhood of nuns.

Three young women join the sisterhood of St. Bridget's Sisters of the Assumption. Angelina had gone to Catholic schools all her life and had a special affinity for the nuns who taught her. She felt she had a calling from God, and despite her father's objections, entered the convent determined to return the gift of learning by becoming a parochial teacher. Kathleen had known she would become a nun since she was six years old because it was what her family expected of her. Joanne entered the convent broken- hearted and searching for peace after her fiancé returned from Vietnam married to another woman.

Each woman goes through the process from postulate to novice to sister, and each finds her vocation within the sisterhood. Angelina and Kathleen become teachers, and Joanne becomes a nurse. Although secluded from most of the "real" world in their early years, as they mature and become more involved in their community each sister finds that events of the world soon affect their own lives, and eventually causes each to reconsider their place among the religious order.

Angelina loves her position as a teacher, but when she feels that she has failed a young pregnant teenager she finds herself longing to return home to help her father in the family restaurant. Kathleen helps out the young and handsome parish priest with problems with an older priest, but when evidence turns up that she helped the priest cover up money problems she is forced to leave the sisterhood amidst betrayal and shame. Joanne finds that she is drawn to the Vietnam Veteran doctor she assists at the hospital, and leaves to become a devoted wife and helpmate to the man she loves.

The stories of their individual journeys back to the world are complex and enriching. Although they are no longer called "Sister," Angelina, Joanne, and Kathleen find that they are influenced throughout their lives by their time spent as nuns.

Debbie Macomber built her following writing romance novels, but in recent years she has moved into the emerging field of women's fiction. She was inspired to write this intriguing story by a cousin who had been a nun, and had also left her order to pursue life in the "real" world. Her depictions of women who lived the cloistered life and who returned to live full and satisfying lives as wives, mothers, and successful business women is realistic, warm and enlightening.

Reviewed by Sharon Galligar Chance
Posted May 8, 2003