Gayle Haggard with Angela Hunt
Tyndale House Publishers
hardcover, $25.99
978-1-414-33585-8

A highly anticipated biography, Haggard's Why I Stayed: The Choices I Made in My Darkest Hour chronicles her life after the fallout of her pastor-husband Ted's public moral failure. The story, already spotlighted through the couple's appearances on Oprah and in the documentary The Trials of Ted Haggard , arrives on the printed page with more room for her to elaborate.

The book lands between the "tell alls" and the "tell nones" and could probably be considered a "tell some," with Haggard focusing on her husband's restoration in ministry and their estrangement from the church that began in their basement. She also discusses her husband's attempts for assimilation back into ministry that generated further frustrations.

Haggard's purpose seems to be to put a human face on a national headline and also to explain why she still supports and loves her husband. She also offers encouragement and empathy for those encountering situations just as dire, while most likely not as public.

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