While devout Christians revere the Bible, many tend to regard it as an allegorical text written thousands of years ago and ignore its relevance to modern life. In Meeting Girls like Us, Book 2: Old Testament Women , Barby Bailey takes the opposite approach. She analyzes the stories of six biblical heroines and uses them as inspirational examples of how modern women can cope with the many challenges around them. Not only does she bring these women to life, but she also regards them as sisters who have confronted and conquered similar problems. She tells us about Naomi, who battled famine, homelessness, death, and poverty. There’s Hannah, who used to power of prayer to cope with her infertility. Abigail deals with a wealthy but ill-tempered husband, Bathsheba struggles for forgiveness, Ezekiel’s wife was carted off to a foreign land against her will, and Gomer contended with temptation and infidelity. Bailey personalizes each of these stories, annotating them with scriptural references and amplifying their meaning by relating them to her own life. In relating these six stories, Bailey not only makes us feel that we know these women: she allows us to understand ourselves better.