Thrift Store Graces Finding Go

This “ridiculous” religious thinking—that when we help the poor, they end up helping us—is at the heart of the 30 stories that Jane Knuth shares in Thrift Store Graces, the sequel to her popular Thrift Store Saints. Similar to the first book, Thrift Store Graces contains personal accounts of Knuth’s experiences serving as a once reluctant, now enthusiastic volunteer at a thrift store in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

What sets Thrift Store Graces apart from her first book is that Knuth introduces us to some far more challenging personal situations that emerge as a result of her volunteer work. Additionally, she invites us to join her as she hesitantly embarks on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in war-ravaged Bosnia. Through it all, her delightful sense of humor keeps her going, along with her conviction that some of God’s greatest gifts come disguised as difficulties.

Witty, inspiring, and thought-provoking all at once, the stories in Thrift Store Graces subtly compel us to redefine what it means to volunteer and to rethink why it is that we volunteer in the first place.

JANE KNUTH is a longtime volunteer in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In 2011, Jane's first book, Thrift Store Saints, was awarded first place from the Catholic Press Association for Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith and she writes a monthly column for The Good News, the newspaper of the Diocese of Kalamazoo. She and her husband, Dean, live in Portage, Michigan and have two daughters, Ellen and Martha.