Books

Exciting News!

• Grumble Hallelujah: Learning to Love Life Even When It Lets You Down is available. So excited. Hope you’ll check it out.

Here’s what some people have said about Grumble:

“Reading Grumble Hallelujah is like having coffee with a wise, warm, honest friend when you’re having a horrible day. I felt both understood and challenged in just the right combination.”

“Grumble Hallelujah is an authentic book about what it means to thrive in the daily-ness of life. Through its pages you’ll be inspired to live with an expectant, open heart.”

“Genuine humility, refreshing honesty, and a tremendous sense of humor: a trifecta of qualities as powerful as it is rare in the communion of saints. Blessedly, Caryn possesses this magical combination and expresses it with well-earned gravitas in Grumble Hallelujah.”

“Grumble Hallelujah will challenge you to love the life God has for you, not with trite cliches or easy answers, but from a woman who displays the grace and mercy of one who is desperately seeking to live like Jesus…even in the grumbling.”

“Rivadeneira tells it like it is…on life and the struggles to make sense of heartbreak. Whether relating a recent (or past) event (or season) of life fueled with fear, desire for control, grief, or discouragement, she hits the heartstrings with deadly (life altering) precision.”

What Others Are Saying:

• “Caryn Rivideniera is a real mom. With refreshing honesty, she casts vision and shares a perspective that every mom needs. If you’ve ever felt like you’ve lost yourself in the midst of raising a family, this book will help you find yourself again!”
  – Jill Savage, mother of five, founder and CEO of Hearts at Home
• “Caryn writes with humble and heartfelt authenticity, understanding the mixed emotions of motherhood. She unfolds a new and deep perspective for what it means to understand our real identity in Christ and why this is imperative to our lives as we navigate our passions and the potential to imprint our communities with God’s hand.”
  – Dr. Liz Selzer, director of leadership development and events for MOPS International and executive editor of FullFill magazine
• “Finally, a book to shatter stereotypes that shackle moms! Caryn honors motherhood while challenging moms not to lose their unique personhood in this overwhelming stage of life. As a woman who has experienced this identity crisis myself, I’m grateful to Caryn for creating an insightful and much-needed book with the potential to empower moms to become all God designed them to be.”
  –Dr. Sue Edwards, assistant professor of Christian education at Dallas Theological Seminary
• “I’ve met many moms who passionately love their kids, yet struggle with feeling marginalized. Does being a good mom really require them to surrender the goals and gifts that make them all God created them to be? The good news is, it doesn’t. With wit and wisdom, Caryn guides women who love being a mom through the process of rediscovering and reclaiming their full identity in Christ.”
  – Jane Johnson Struck, executive editor of MomSense magazine; former executive editor of Christian Parenting Today
• “While moms love their kids more than life itself, there is more to every mother than the title ‘mom’. God wants mothers to live their fullest lives, and Caryn reminds us that in the throes of motherhood we can still continue to find our true identities in God.”
  – Tracey Bianchi, coordinator of women’s ministries at Christ Church of Oak Brook and speaker for MOPS International and other organizations
• “I’ve heard mothers say that sacrificing their identity is part and parcel of being a good mom. Caryn shows us that the exact opposite is true. With humor and delightful insight, Caryn reveals that Jesus is thrilled to help every mom discover her unique identity. This is not a selfish side project but an essential way to worship God.”
  – Jonalyn Grace Fincher, apologist and author of
• Ruby Slippers: How the Soul of a Woman Brings Her Home
• “Caryn speaks for a lot of moms by openly discussing the difficulties of reducing a woman’s identity to one label and a single season of her life. This book will be a refreshing read for moms who share that struggle. This book gives startling evidence that we need to reclaim God’s richly multi-dimensional calling on His daughters’ lives.”
  –Carolyn Custis James, author of The Gospel of Ruth
• “With a fresh mix of humor and understanding, Caryn speaks to the women I’ve heard from through the years: the women who feel invisible beyond their roles as moms. Caryn gives moms who struggle with their ‘fake I.D.s’ a voice and a way to find their true selves.”
  – Ginger Kolbaba, editor of Today’s Christian Woman magazine
• “Caryn has given us back those little pieces of ourselves we thought were gone for good. With a clear, biblical reminder that we are first and foremost the daughters of God, Caryn gently nudges us out from behind the false faces of maternal perfection and shows us how to reveal the women God created us to be, women of strength and vision and creativity and depth.”
  – Carla Barnhill, author of The Myth of the Perfect Mother and former editor of Christian Parenting Today
• “This is a great read: humorous, straightforward, deeply theological, encouraging, and challenging. It will change the way you see yourself, other moms, and God himself. Once you start reading, you’ll be changed and you’ll discover new ways you can change the world.”
  –Amy Simpson, vice president of the Leadership Media Group of Christianity Today International and author of Diving Deep: Experiencing Jesus Through Spiritual Discipline.
• “This is a conversation long overdue. Are there outside pressures to fit in? Yes. Is there just as much pressure in the faith world to fit in or conform? Sure. Thank goodness for an honest dialogue that takes women deeper as we celebrate the roles in our lives while exploring who God made us to be.”
  – T. Suzanne Eller, author of The Woman I Am Becoming: Embrace the Chase for Identity, Faith, and Destiny
• “Caryn’s fresh and practical perspective captured my attention–so much so that I let dinner burn as I tore through pages that reflected myself. This work is invaluable not just to mothers, but also to churches and families desiring to respect and appreciate moms for who we really are. I am grateful to Caryn for finally providing moms with such a soul-affirming resource.”
  –Julie Clawson, author of Everyday Justice
• “This delightful book is written for women like me. We are like Cinderella’s stepsisters, who tried on the glass slipper of mommyhood and discovered a less-than-perfect fit. With humor, grace, and candid self-disclosure, Caryn encourages moms to embrace their God-inspired identity–never ‘just a mom’ but ‘a mom and _______.’ Find out how you might best fill in the blank.”
  – Eileen Button, columnist for The Flint (Mich.) Journal
• “Did the picket-fence, ‘I’m just a mom’ role lose its paint in the fifties, and you’ve been waiting for someone–anyone–to point that out? Wait no longer. Caryn Rivadeneira and a whole new generation of Christian moms are trading paintbrushes for backhoes. Rebellious and deeply affirming, Mama’s Got a Fake I.D. will help you explore the life-giving, Christ-empowering world after the picket fence comes down.”
  –Sally Morgenthaler, author of The Emergent Manifesto of Hope