Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs

Well although only two of us managed to read this book we can enthuse suitably about it to you all. Ms Higgs is very witty and readable in this interesting journey through some of the less heralded ladies in the Bible. The book's chapters are laid out with a fictional retelling of the woman in the chapter, an analysis of her story and then some application points in summary with an additional optional bible study bit at the end. This makes this book an enjoyable and thought provoking read and it has the potential for a very interesting bible study group.
I was impressed with the fictional stories about the woman in question at the beginning of each chapter. Ms Higgs uses a more modern day setting to relate the lesons from the Bible through her story telling. Two of the most evocative for me were the retelling of Lot's Wife and of Jezebel. The stories conveyed so much more than the 'well known' story, unpicking the motivation behind the mistakes. The book was particularly good at picking up relevant points from these tales and applying them to us twenty first century women. I was surprised and shocked at times to see elements of myself in many of these women.
As British readers we did wince at some of the writing, particularly being called 'girlfriend' on occasion by the writer, however this is a picky point. In general we would highly recommend this book as a readable and at times challenging book for any woman (or man for that matter) to enjoy. There are sequels to this book and I for one am inclined to explore reading more of this series as it proved really encouraging and challenging to read, while also giving me laugh out loud moments and a range of well written short stories.