Saving Grace

Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered, and Learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts

By: Kirsten Powers

Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau, Kirsten Powers

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

The CNN senior political analyst and USA Today columnist offers a path to navigating the toxic division in our culture without compromising our convictions and emotional well-being, based on her experience as a journalist during the Trump era, interviews with experts, and research on what leads people to actually change their minds.

“Bracing, elevating, and essential.... Kirsten Powers has given us a great gift at an urgent hour.” (Jon Meacham)

For years, New York Times best-selling author Kirsten Powers has been center stage for many of our nation’s most searing political and cultural battles as a columnist, TV analyst, and onetime participant in the thunderdome of Twitter. On a good day, there will be civil disagreement. On a bad day, it’s all-out trench warfare - nothing but a cycle of outrage and self-righteousness. More and more, Powers finds herself wondering, along with countless Americans: How are we to cope with this nonstop madness?

In Saving Grace, Powers writes with wit and insight about our country’s poisonous political discourse, chronicling the efforts she’s made to stay grounded and preserve her sanity in a post-truth era that has driven many of us to the edge. She draws on lessons offered by faith leaders, therapists, theologians, social scientists, and activists working for change today. She dismantles the widespread misconception that grace means being nice, letting people get away with harmful behavior, or choosing neutrality in the name of peace. Grace, she argues, is anything but an act of surrender; instead, it is a kinetic and transformative force.

Saving Grace offers a template for a different kind of America, one where we can engage with people who hold opposing views without sacrificing our values or our passionate beliefs in the causes we care about. It’s a culture that embraces repentance and repair, a process through which those who have caused harm can take responsibility and work toward righting the wrongs in which they have participated. It’s a place where we’re empowered to see the possibility in other people, even people who are driving us nuts.

Provocative, original, and filled with deep wisdom, Saving Grace is an essential listen for anyone engaged in the struggle to live compassionately in an era of relentless demonization and division.

©2021 Kirsten Powers (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“In this deeply felt, compassionate, and sensible book, Kirsten Powers makes a case for opening ourselves up to the transformative power of grace and of goodness. Rooted in history, theology, and the lived experience of our fragmented time, Powers’s book is bracing, elevating, and essential.”—Jon Meacham, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, author of The Soul of America

“Powers brings clarity and a fresh understanding to an idea that has been too often invoked to maintain the status quo. She shows grace to be a powerful force for inner and outer transformation, and an essential companion to anyone working for a more just, equitable, and compassionate world. Saving Grace is a light on the path during this dark time in American history.”—Don Lemon, host of CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight, author of This Is the Fire 

“True to form, Kirsten Powers refuses to allow the culture wars to cost us our shared humanity. This book is a courageous call to truth and love existing side by side.”—Kate Bowler, author of No Cure for Being Human  

Grace Saved 🙏🏽🙌🏽

I found myself agreeing in all ways Kristen found grace. Grace is something I think we all try to strive for daily. Her perspective on when the transition for everything and everyone happened beginning with the election in 2016 just amplifies the need to realize that we alone together can be the change we want to see literally. We must realize we can’t change a person’s mind but we can help them see things differently if we begin to react differently. Great book about personal and public redemption, Bravo 👏🏽👏🏽

A recipe for listening to those you might hate

I'm a activist, political cartoonist, a person with strong opinions who rarely hesitates about sharing them. The author had very good and reasonable reasons for me to try to improve my listening skills. If you possibly hope to change an opinion that is very different than your own this book gives you reasonable skill suggestions. It's not preachy just helpful.I don't know if I will practice these grace filled communications, but if I really want to try this book has some simple step by step recipes.

Just another “I didn’t get my way therefore I will throw a temper tantrum” story

Highly disappointed I could not get past the 1st chapter. How wonderful is it to truly have grace and be accepting of other’s differences. Somehow the America my family and I immigrated from Cuba to no longer exists.

Good research and advice -- too much ideology

I have always appreciated Kirsten’s thoughtful views and respectful discourse, so I bought the book hoping to learn more about how to do this myself. I was not disappointed in her research and suggested approaches for disagreeing with people and offering grace, and I especially appreciated her sharing of personal stories and struggles. I was disappointed that she included so much of her progressive ideology. I expected maybe 20% ideology and 80% grace and tactics promised by the title. I estimate it was closer to 50/50, which to me made it feel like the book didn’t deliver on the promoted content.

Honest

Powers talks straight, with openness and humility. It's not often that someone dares to publicly address personal fails or misunderstandings, but she does, conveying her message of a spiritual growth inspired by her willingness to find and show grace.

Too much politics

I heard about this book on Shaman Durek’s podcast and downloaded it immediately, but was quickly disappointed when the first 3 chapters were all about politics. I understand what she was trying to say but bringing the politics and specific people in was still playing into the duality of good vs evil. I tried to skip ahead to the next chapter but each time I was met with the same issue. I chose not to continue listening.

The Content Does Not Match the Title

I was not expecting a mostly political book from the perspective of someone on the left against Trump and people that voted for him. She downplayed the effect of cancel culture and seemed more sympathetic to the perpetrators than the victims. She did support the concept of proportional retribution, but cancelling someone's career rarely is proportional. The book goes through several psychological reasons why people are so reactive going back to evolutionary advantages in the past. I bought this book based on the title, thinking of the saving grace given to us by a loving God. This is not that book. I should have read the book summary.

Changed my life

This book is refreshingly humble, wise, and honest. It truly changed my life. Thanks Kirsten for not caring how others perceive you but focusing on God’s calling and being obedient. You are an inspiration as a strong godly woman.

Felt like she was speaking up for me!

Thank you, Kirsten! I’m so grateful for your putting words to my frustration and giving me ways to move forward with boundaries and grace.

A great read!

Such a great book and audible. So many times I would 100% relate with what she was talking about. I have already recommended this to several people, and will continue to do so. I’m going to do my best to take as much of this as possible into my life.