All About Books discussion

Please discuss our winner here.

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I’ve just started reading these essays and I wanted to post my thoughts on the ones I really liked.

Three Fathers:

This was excellent. Five stars! Such a great look at the fathers (biological and two step fathers) in her life and how they shaped her into who she is today, especially in terms of her becoming a writer. One gave her strength to press on in the face of rejection. One gave her adoration to sustain and assure her that her writing was important. One gave her acceptance and showed her that she’s a person who is valuable even apart from her career.

I like how she was able to see the positive things in each relationship with each man. I think this takes years of growing up and maturing yourself. It’s hard when you’re still growing up to see your parents as people in their own right. This essay inspired me to look at people to see the gifts they can give me, even when the interactions I have with them aren’t always positive.

How to Practice:

I think those who are older would like this one more. I’m around the same age as the author, so I understood how she felt. Getting rid of excess possessions is freeing, especially when it’s those items that no longer define you.

Two More Things I Want to Say About My Father:

The author's complex relationship with her father is perfectly and lovingly written. Anyone who's taken care of a parent through a long drawn out illness at the end of their life knows that final joy due to the end of their suffering (and of your long sorrow).

These Precious Days; A Day at the Beach:

Two emotional essays about her friend Sookie's cancer journey. Very heart felt. A great tribute to her friend.

Starting it tomorrow!

I really enjoyed this book, I felt that there was so much crammed into the essays. It made for an interesting way to set the book out because I felt I learned so much about Anne, or maybe it's because I had just finished Matthew's Perry's book which only focused on his career and substance abuse. But the last essay, dedicated to her friend Sookie broke me. I was crying once pancreatic cancer was mentioned because I knew it wasn't going to be a happy ending.

Alannah wrote: "I really enjoyed this book, I felt that there was so much crammed into the essays. It made for an interesting way to set the book out because I felt I learned so much about Anne, or maybe it's beca..."

That's it!!! So many things in a little book! And the story of her friend reminded me of a sma story with my best friend, now 8 years ago; it was as re-living it again!

Another thing I liked about the book was that the author chose to focus on the postitive, even though she talked alot about death. It wasn't a depressing, angry outlook she had, but she focused on the lives of those who died and celebrated that. Even in the "Three Fathers" essay, she focused on how her biological father made her determined to focus on being a writer. It probably sounds weird, but this was a very uplifiting book.

Cheryl wrote: "Another thing I liked about the book was that the author chose to focus on the postitive, even though she talked alot about death. It wasn't a depressing, angry outlook she had, but she focused on ..."

I agree, Cheryl. It was a lovely, uplifting view on those the author focused on.

Cheryl wrote: "Another thing I liked about the book was that the author chose to focus on the postitive, even though she talked alot about death. It wasn't a depressing, angry outlook she had, but she focused on ..."

Indeed! Appreciated it as well