Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May isn’t a self help book, although I can see how people go into this thinkiWintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May isn’t a self help book, although I can see how people go into this thinking that. It’s more of a memoir and a help to May herself, documenting how she gets herself through a wintering.
“Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in life when you’re cut off from the world, feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider.”
A lot of times this does happen in the winter season but not always. May takes us through her latest winter, but we take multiple side trips into her previous winters and literal winters. Snow, cold, buttoning down and burrowing under. She tells stories of tribes and bees, how each uniquely takes care of themselves in winter. How her son had his own winter when he was just trying to survive school, bullies, high expectations.
A few passages really did stand out to me and speak to me. I suppose I’ve been in my own wintering that I haven’t been able to “snap out of”. I realized I had given up on cooking and baking. My latest hospital escapades with partial bowel obstructions brought me down and made me not care about food and the joy of creating food anymore.
“I have missed them, but in a shrugging kind of way. What can you do when you’re already doing everything? The problem with “everything” is that it ends up looking an awful lot like nothing: just one long haze of frantic activity, with all the meaning sheared away.”
I made excuses. My house reflected my “I’m already doing everything, some things have to slide” mentality. Even though this really is more of a memoir, what I did learn is that when we are in this wintering period, beating ourselves up for not reaching our own expectations, for not keeping the perfect house, for not making healthy homemade meals every day, for saying no to social events, is antithetical to what we should be doing. Hunkering down and treating ourselves with kindness. ...more
For the Currently Reading podcast’s Summer Reading Challenge, I picked The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan for the prompt 19 (book set in Israel or PalestinFor the Currently Reading podcast’s Summer Reading Challenge, I picked The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan for the prompt 19 (book set in Israel or Palestine). I struggled with this prompt because I had no idea which book to read, even though I knew I wanted to better understand what is happening now. I also didn’t want a dry, here’s-the-facts sort of book.
The Lemon Tree was a great pick. It is non-fiction and this version happened to be a Young Reader edition (9-11 years old) but it still packed a punch. Bashir Khairi and his family tell the story of them being forced from their home by Israel and becoming refugees. He tells their story through the time he was born until he was nearly 70.
Dalia Eshkenazi was just a baby when her parents were forced to flee Bulgaria when Hitler was out there being his horrible self. Her family ended up in Israel, formerly Palestine. They were told the houses were abandoned by the “cowardly Arabs who left on their own” so her family chose a house and moved in. Into Bashir’s old home, the handbuilt house with a lemon tree in the backyard.
Separately, you hear both of their stories along with the factual news of the wars and terrorist attacks that were of the time in the 80s. Googling both of their names now is fascinating because more injustice is still happening in modern times.
I’m not here to argue politics with anyone. It’s hard to “pick sides” of the people, but not hard at all to see where the governments did (and continue to do) wrong. ...more
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher was sooooo good. I'm seriously surprised I loved it as much as I did. It was suggested by the @currentlyreadingThe Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher was sooooo good. I'm seriously surprised I loved it as much as I did. It was suggested by the @currentlyreadingpodcast, and I, admittedly, was doubtful. It's a chonker and it's a family saga.
But what a family!! I recommend the audio as read by Hayley Atwell. Her voice is melodic and just transported me every time I listened. Nearly 20 hours of audio that tells the story of Penelope Keeling. She's discharged herself from hospital after suffering a heart attack, and her adult children are angry. Penelope is only 64, but Nancy and Noel treat her like she's a senile old woman. Her daughter Olivia is the sole child who thinks her mom is intelligent and firmly in touch with reality.
Penelope is the daughter of a newly renowned famous painter, and she owns several of her father's pieces. Nancy and Noel are strapped for cash and continuously harass her to sell the paintings.
This novel travels back and forth thru time, WWII and beyond, along Penelope's life. We learn things her children do not know, and we learn what has shaped her. Heartbreaking, beautiful, you endure because you can't not endure. ...more
I watch @Ezeekat on Instagram and, a while back, he mentioned that Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum was amazing and changed how heI watch @Ezeekat on Instagram and, a while back, he mentioned that Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum was amazing and changed how he thought about work. I picked it up from the library mainly because it's about a bookshop. This is a Korean book translated by Shanna Tan and I really, really enjoyed it.
Yeongju fled her life and started brand new in the Hyunam-Dong neighborhood by opening a bookshop, her lifelong dream. At first, it was awful, she sat in the bookstore crying everyday until a customer had to tell her that’s bad for business. Once Yeongju gets herself together, she starts really focusing on the bookshop and the little cafe within it. Thankfully, she starts getting busier and needs to hire a barista, Minjun.
Yeongju has so many ideas to get customers in and ends up really working and pushing herself. Her regular cast of customers are all what you’d expect to hang out in a bookstore (including a crocheter/knitter) and authors stop by for talks. Every character is really well formed and, as you get their back stories, you start getting attached.
Jungsuh, the knitter, is unemployed because she was overworked, overlooked, and generally treated terribly by her employer. The breaking point was being denied a promotion for a project she did when her manager took her name off the documents and added someone else’s name. Her anger overtook her so she quit and decided to learn to crochet and knit. I related to her extra hard.
Everyone revolving around the bookshop is dealing with their own internal crisis and they found family in the shop to help get them through and move forward. Working to exhaustion, even on something you love, is not a healthy way to live. Most people have jobs because they have to, they need money. It’s a dream to have a job you are passionate about and are good at, but even then it can go wrong when it consumes you. ...more
The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child came out in October 2023 but is set in 1992. I didn't know that fact when I started reading, so my confusion The Secret by Lee Child and Andrew Child came out in October 2023 but is set in 1992. I didn't know that fact when I started reading, so my confusion on why Reacher was still an MP in the Army was considerable. Where is the loner who carries a toothbrush?
Scientists are dropping dead, supposedly by suicide but, we learn early on that 2 women are killing them. We have no idea why, and neither does the Secretary of Defense because he pulls together a task force to figure this out. Our man, Jack Reacher, is on the task force.
As usual with a Reacher book, shit gets handled, people get beat up or die, and Reacher pulls the entire story out of a few clues. Case closed....more
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes came to my attention in a book group on Facebook (I cannot,for the life of me, Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes came to my attention in a book group on Facebook (I cannot,for the life of me, remember which one). When I saw the audiobook was read partially by Neil Patrick Harris, I put it on hold at my library and forgot about it.
To whomever posted about this book, I thank you. It was FUNNY and so good. Our main protagonist is Cliff (voiced by NPH) who is trying to kill his old boss. The more we learn about his boss, the more we’d like to kill him as well. Cliff botches his first attempt and is “kidnapped” by some ex-cops and taken to McMasters, an elite school to teach students how to properly delete someone from this world. Cliff has a benefactor paying his tuition and he meets a cast of characters, notably Gemma and Doria, who are also trying to delete their bosses (again for really good reasons).
The entire book is not set at the school. Once they’ve prepared for their final thesis (aka their homicide), they are let loose in the world to do so. Failing to pass their thesis could result in their own deletion. Anything to keep McMasters a secret!
I was actually impressed with the measures they learn to cover their tracks, get alibis, and perform their thesis. And, again, it was funny! ...more
This sounds like a bizarre book, nuns in outer space inside a giant slug. I guess that's the gist but it's oh so much more than that. This small groupThis sounds like a bizarre book, nuns in outer space inside a giant slug. I guess that's the gist but it's oh so much more than that. This small group of nuns are in outer space inside a living slug ship but their back stories, why they became nuns, where they are trying to get to and what they are trying to atone for, is the heart of this small book.
Deadly disease is wiping out colonies and the sisters discover nefarious government intervention. What? Government using religion for their own means and not for the good of the people they are meant to take care of? Why! I never!
The audiobook is about 4 hours. Well worth the time to take a listen....more
Someone in a book group mentioned how Paris Hilton's memoir was so much better than they expected. I grabbed the audio from my library.... and they weSomeone in a book group mentioned how Paris Hilton's memoir was so much better than they expected. I grabbed the audio from my library.... and they were right.
Honestly, toss aside what you think about Hilton. What you see is a carefully crafted persona that covered up some horrific damage. Hilton was sent to "boarding school" during her wild, teen years. Except the school was a scam, and she, along with hundreds of other kids, were starved, abused, and emotionally tortured. She was there for 2 years and came out of it determined to be independent and to depend on no one.
And that's what she did.
She's taken her fame and used it to advocate for other kids who are in that same position, including testifying in Congress to get legislation passed for more oversight into these "schools". Think what you will of her, then read her story....more
Loading...
