Go Home for Dinner: Advice on How Faith Makes a Family and Family Makes a Life

Author: Mike Pence and Charlotte Pence Bond
Genre: Christian / Non-fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2023
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Go Home for Dinner is an in-depth, practical guide to balancing the demands of life with the long-term satisfaction that only a commitment to your family can bring. In this personal account, former Vice-President Mike Pence champions one of his most deeply held beliefs: that faith makes a family, and family makes a life. And, through straightforward advice and personal storytelling, he shows readers how to do the same.

Review: I liked this book. I had no idea what I was going to read a follow-up to The Women so I had to choose a non-narrative genre. Go Home for Dinner worked because it's chapter was its own anecdote and it was a easy reading. 

The title resonated with me when I saw it on the library shelf. Growing up we ate dinner as a family, and although my dad was out of time or away quite often, the majority of the time, my mom still cooked for and ate with us kids. Despite having kids in sports and crazy schedules in general, we eat dinner as a family almost every night. Even when a kid has to eat by themselves due to her schedule, I sit with her while she does.

I remember a dinnertime a couple years ago, we were all just sitting at the table, each of us lost in our thoughts, and my youngest said, What's going on? Why isn't anyone talking about their day?"  We all kind of looked at him in surprise. It struck me then that the kids have expectations for our dinnertime, and we do generally talk about our days and ask about the kids'.

There's more to this book than dinnertime conversations, and I enjoyed each chapter.

I agree with most of Mike's lessons learned and advice, and learning more about him was interesting. You forget sometimes that there are real people with actual lives behind the persona we see on tv. I liked this book.