Leigh Rawdon's Reviews > Good Apple: Tales of a Southern Evangelical in New York

I just finished Good Apple in my second sitting, and I feel like I just had a girls weekend with a lifelong friend. I laughed a lot - and definitely had more than one tear in my eye as I read the stories. I am grateful for Elizabeth’s vulnerability, strength and transparency. I drank more than my fair share of a pot of coffee as I spent my entire Saturday morning in my sweats, bearing a bit of witness to her life stories so far.

Throughout, it felt like sliding doors - a path not taken but one that easily could have been mine. She grapples with her politics, her faith (well it seems she has a lot less grappling than mine- but still), her identity as a Southerner, a woman and a mother. The book also felt like a love letter to her home, New York — most certainly a sliding doors scenario for me.

I initially pre-ordered Good Apple to cheer on my high school friend’s little sister. That was months ago and I wasn’t sure I would even read it, to be honest. But I picked it up as I turned into bed and loved how honest, funny and open it was. So it was clear to me that I would spend my Saturday morning with Elizabeth’s story from waking up until now - and I only stopped reading to pour another cup of coffee or to read a passage to my husband. Maybe I thought it would help my NY-born husband know his Southern wife (of 20 years) a bit more.

Yes, I saw myself in bits of the story - the common history and the sliding doors story of life in Manhattan - but most of all, I had that wonderful feeling, as I said before, of lingering time with girlfriends. Hearing another person’s story, the important and the seemingly unimportant, listening, laughing, and being fully present. No judgments (despite my teenager telling me how judgmental I am) - only curiosity and empathy and acceptance and pride and connection.

We can’t have in-real-life girls weekends during these last months of the pandemic, so until then, I savor mornings like this one. And it makes me all the more happy to know that the in-real-life stories with bottomless pots of coffee will come again. Sharing stories with each other is more important than I think we give it credit for. Taking time to pause being productive, so that we can just be, in community, with each other.