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A review by inthecommonhours
Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life by Karen Maezen Miller
5.0
My treat for the drive to Boise. Loved Momma Zen and looking forward to this.
ETA: Finished, though it's in the car & I wish I had it to quote correctly. Best thing I've read in ages. Thank you, self, for the gift, Thank you, Karen Maezen Miller for writing it, and thank you Brian for doing all the driving so I could read it in one long stretch.
You know when it feels like everything you come across is conspiring to tell you the same message? I feel like Brene Brown, Katrina Katison and Karen Maezen Miller have formed some sort of superhero tribunal that will change the world through their readers.
And yet the book isn't anything like that, isn't one of those "stand up and change your life or the world" reads, but more of a wake-up and see the world in front of you. I had read her first book, and I enjoy her blog, so I didn't expect to be blown away. I was---especially while sitting across from Bri on a 9 hr drive with three boys in the backseat, days away from celebrating our 17th anniversary, and silently steaming over trivial things.
I wouldn't describe it as an easy read---I know I need to go back and reread. Is she suggesting we give up story? Story---that which I've spent my life studying, teaching, reading, writing? It's a bit of a paradox, because I know what she means, this year of mom being sick has been so much about letting go of the old stories...yet it is the stories that stay with me much more than the fleeting insightful truths. The story of her dishwasher, the magical moment in a garden with a realtor, of her father's dog.
I loved it. And will be invoking it all week as I try to give my boys the attention they crave.
ETA: Finished, though it's in the car & I wish I had it to quote correctly. Best thing I've read in ages. Thank you, self, for the gift, Thank you, Karen Maezen Miller for writing it, and thank you Brian for doing all the driving so I could read it in one long stretch.
You know when it feels like everything you come across is conspiring to tell you the same message? I feel like Brene Brown, Katrina Katison and Karen Maezen Miller have formed some sort of superhero tribunal that will change the world through their readers.
And yet the book isn't anything like that, isn't one of those "stand up and change your life or the world" reads, but more of a wake-up and see the world in front of you. I had read her first book, and I enjoy her blog, so I didn't expect to be blown away. I was---especially while sitting across from Bri on a 9 hr drive with three boys in the backseat, days away from celebrating our 17th anniversary, and silently steaming over trivial things.
I wouldn't describe it as an easy read---I know I need to go back and reread. Is she suggesting we give up story? Story---that which I've spent my life studying, teaching, reading, writing? It's a bit of a paradox, because I know what she means, this year of mom being sick has been so much about letting go of the old stories...yet it is the stories that stay with me much more than the fleeting insightful truths. The story of her dishwasher, the magical moment in a garden with a realtor, of her father's dog.
I loved it. And will be invoking it all week as I try to give my boys the attention they crave.