Finding God on Ancient Paths

This weekend I finished reading Flirting With Monasticism: Finding God on Ancient Paths by Karen Sloan (IVP, 2006). The had been sitting on my "to read" pile through I-Share for quite some time. The looming date finally spurred me to read it. In brief, this book recounts the story of a Protestant girl (technically a Presbyterian minister by trade but not by practice) and her friendship with a young man who is entering the Dominican order and how she is lead to learn more about the Dominicans and incorporate various monastic or Catholic spiritual practices into her life. This book read quickly and was an interesting story. However, I was not satisfied with it. I must admit that it did not live up to the high expectations I generally have of IVP books. This book was not from their academic line, but wasn't even on the par with other books in their popular line. The author takes a girl next door tone and resorts to several passages where she uses "Me: Them:" to reproduce dialogue. I expected to have more research and how-to's in addition to the story line which precipitated the writing. I was hoping the book would knock my socks off and I could then recommend it for adding to the library where I work. I will not make such a recommendation and must confess this is the first IVP book in which I have been disappointed.