My Head Is Full of Books: Review and quotes: STITCHES

"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 Reader. Share the opening quote from current book.
The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Find 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.