INSIDE OUT

When Sister Ann Edward, O.P., ""leaps over the convent wall"" it is only because her work as a teaching sister leaves her far too little time for the contemplation she regards as essential for her religious vocation. Inside Out is Sister's autobiography- a true Nun's story -- written with wit, warmth and love. Emilia Blum, one of a family of eleven in rural Wisconsin, seemed a most unlikely candidate for a vocation since her one ambition was to become a lawyer. But a chance remark by her pastor started her seriously thinking about the religious life. At the age of nineteen she entered the Convent of St. Catherine of the Racine Dominicans. The author chronicles her career as a novice and a teaching sister with rare good humor and affection. She deals forthrightly with the problems which led her out of the convent just prior to taking final vows. Working in the diet kitchen of a Milwaukee hospital, she decided that the life of a nun was the only life for her, and she applied for admittance to the Monastery of the Cloistered Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary. And it is there that she now writes books and articles, and also guides young postulants in her role as Mistress of Novices. Inside Out is the life story of a very happy nun. Delightful to read, it comes far closer to describing what life as a religious entails than do its ""disillusioned counterparts"" of recent years.