Overview

Jennifer Anne Moses left behind a comfortable life in the upper echelons of East Coast Jewish society to move with her husband and children to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Searching for connection to her surroundings, she decided to volunteer at an AIDS hospice. But as she encountered a culture populated by French Catholics and Evangelical Christians, African Americans and Cajuns, altruistic nurses and nuns, ex-cons, street-walkers, impoverished AIDS patients, and healers of all stripes, she found she had embarked on an unexpected journey of profound self-discovery. In a keenly observed memoir that embraces both pathos and humor, Moses takes us into a world that is strange and sad but also suffused with the holy. As witness to dire poverty and extreme adversity, Moses discovers a deeper commitment to her own faith - a Judaism that asks not for blind belief, but rather daily commitment. She recounts the challenges of taking on a life committed to God in a postmodern world that has little use for the divine. Telling her story of redemption with an honesty that goes right for the guts, she leaves the reader with new hope.

Full Product Details

9780299224400

Table of Contents

Reviews

Bagels and Grits is one of the most moving spiritual memoirs I've ever read. From beginning to end it held me enthralled. - James Wilcox, director of creative writing, Louisiana State University and author of Heavenly Days and Hunk City

Author Information

Jennifer Anne Moses is a writer living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her essays, reporting, reviews, and travel and opinion pieces have appeared frequently in the New York Times, Washington Post, Baton Rouge Advocate, Notre Dame Magazine, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Salon, Mademoiselle, Commentary, and many other popular publications. She is the author of the book Food and Whine: Confessions of a New Millennium Mom. In addition to her work as a writer and mother, she volunteers at St. Anthony's Home, a residence for AIDS patients in Baton Rouge, and teaches Hebrew at Beth Shalom Synagogue.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available