"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Friday, July 30, 2021

Review and quotes: STITCHES


Title:
Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair by Anne Lamott

Book Beginnings quote:

It can be too sad here. We so often lose our way.

Friday56 quote: 

Only together do we somehow keep coming through unsurvivable loss, the stress of never knowing how things will shake down, to the biggest miracle of all, that against all odds we come through the end of the world, again and again -- changed but intact (more or less).

Summary: In this book Anne Lamott explores how we find meaning and peace in times of upheaval and despair and how we start again after personal and public devastation. She addresses how we can recapture our wholeness after loss and ways we can collect all the ripped and shredded aspects of our lives and sew them back together, one stitch at a time.

Review: I am the "librarian" of my little church library. I was new to the job, just two months on "duty" when COVID hit and our church, like everything else in life, went into lock down. Right before lock down I had just purchased a few new books for the church and the week before everything closed I held an open house for members to check out a new book and to see the improvements to our precious space. Stitches by Anne Lamott was one of those new books. When no one else took it home that day, I decided I would, since I have always enjoyed her writing. Little did I know that the book, published in 2013, was perfect for our time, for the circumstances we've been living through this past year and a half. 

As we start to emerge from our long isolation, or as we are force to return to some more restrictions due to the Delta variant it is good to be reminded that together we can stitch our lives back together... that we don't need to live in the despair and the loneliness it has caused.

This was also a perfect "transition" book. Having completed two really good novels I needed some space in my head before I launched into another demanding book. This one, at 96 pages, did the trick. It provided the space for a clearing of my head and like a salve on a burn it provided solace to frayed nerves caused by the pandemic.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City ReaderShare the opening quote from current book.
Th
e Friday56 is hosted at Freda's VoiceFind a quote from page 56 to share. 

Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.   
   

Challenges:

  • 20-Book Summer Challenge: 13th book

 

-Anne

11 comments:

  1. Sounds interesting! Happy weekend!

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  2. Sounds like a good book! I hope you enjoy it :)

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  3. It's so great when a book is read at the perfect moment whether that is because of the length, the genre, the subject, or the writing. It sounds like this fit on a number of levels.

    And how fun that you get to be the church librarian!

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  4. What a timely message is contained in this book! Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Sounds hopeful and comforting. And yes, it does sound suitable for the times we're living in!
    Visiting from Book Beginnings

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  6. Sounds like the perfect book to read right now. Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a great weekend! :)

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  7. Very nice. A member of my book club recently shared about another book by the same author. also quite inspiring

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  8. Oh! Don't you just love when a book touches your heart with healing and encouragement? I'll be checking this one out very soon! Thank you so much for sharing!

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