Window Over the Desk

by Liz Flaherty

In 2020, I released the first collection of Window Over the Sink columns. It was for my family, really, and to give my own ego a boost. (Any writer who says she doesn’t need that now and then is lying, by the way.)It was so much fun.Which is why I decided to open the Window Over the Desk. My view out this particular window is a favorite—even today, when I’m drying…things…on the clothesline. Also today, the hay bales in the field that have given me pleasure for several weeks have been gathered and stored for the long winter.I hope the essays in this book give you some pleasant reading time over that winter. I hope they make you remember things, laugh sometimes, and refill your cup and sit down and read “just one more.”As I mention way more often than is necessary, I’m kind of old. The years have dimmed some reflections through the window, brightened others, and changed a whole bunch of them. What a trip it’s been.Thanks—again—for joining me on the journey.

196 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 12, 2021

About the author

Retired from the post office, Liz Flaherty spends non-writing time sewing, quilting, and doing whatever else she wants to. She and her husband Duane live in the old farmhouse in North Central Indiana they moved to in 1977. They’ve talked about moving, but really…40-plus years’ worth of stuff? It’s not happening. It would require removing old baseball trophies from the attic and dusting the pictures of the Magnificent Seven, their grandchildren.
Liz thinks one of the things that keeps you young when you quite obviously aren’t anymore is the constant chances you have to reinvent yourself.

Reviews

[Cathy Shouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays are like having a conversation over the back fence with a neighbor, if people did that anymore. The author covers a wide range of subjects, and whether you agree with her or not, it's soothing and interesting and mostly non controversial anyway. It's a good book to go back to and read a chapter or two to relax before bed or to pass the time in between appointments. There are thoughts on love and loss and struggle, as well as victories and triumphs. She shares memories that remind me of my own memories, which makes this book especially enjoyable.

There are also nuggets of gold like this: It's about finding the good and enjoying it until you have to let it go. And then finding the good again. It's about loving when you don't feel like it, laughing when crying would be easier, and to put it into social media language, scrolling on by if it's something you can't change.