Note To Self by Various Authors
by Jenners • 02/06/2013 • 3 Stars, Essays, N Titles, Non-Fiction, Spirituality, V Authors • 22 Comments
Note To Self: 30 Women on Hardship, Humiliation, Heartbreak and Overcoming It All edited by Andrea Buchanan
Genre: Non-Fiction, Spiritual, Self-Help(?)
Why I Read It: I have a hard time resisting books where people talk about the difficult parts of their lives and share what they learned. It satisfies my voyeuristic side.
My Rating: 3 stars
This book is a collection of 30 different essays by women from all different walks of life—including some celebrities (Sheryl Crow, Camryn Manheim, Mariska Hartigay)—reflecting on the lessons learned from various life-defining moments. Most of the stories fall under the three categories of hardship, humiliation and heartbreak. Each woman reflects on what brought her to the life-changing moment and how things proceeded from there. Each essay ends with a brief “note to self” about the lessons they learned.
As with all books of this ilk, the essays are wildly uneven. Also, it becomes difficult not to “compare” the hardships and heartbreaks to each other. Is it really so awful to become “ugly” when someone else writes about seeing their mother shot dead by their father? Other times, you feel like the person was bringing the problem onto themselves a bit (as with the women who couldn’t leave cheating spouses). The other problem was that the short essay format forces each woman to condense their experiences—sometimes shortchanging the agony and difficulties they faced. (The essay on the woman whose young son died comes to mind.)
Despite these shortcomings, the book held my interest as the various obstacles faced vary wildly and satisfied the voyeur side of me. It is amazing what difficulties people can face and end up being stronger as a result. If this type of book is your “thing,” then I’d recommend it. Otherwise, I think it ended up being a weaker read than I was expecting and I was disappointed.
Thank you for this review. It was really helpful and enlightening. I look forward to more reviews from you, keep up the good work!
I probably wouldn’t mind this one too much if I could read one essay at a time, put the book down for awhile and then read the next one.
I’m on the fence about this book. Part of me wants to read it and part says don’t!
Thanks for the review – I won’t be putting this on my BTBR list.
Sounds like it could have been done a little better. I definitely have to be in the right mood to read something like this.
This one sounds intriguing. I’m still on the fence about it.
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I had high hopes for this one and it has been on my TBR list forever. It would be a miracle, I think, to find a book like this where each essay was on the same caliber.
All sounds a bit grim….
I’m not sure about this one. Not really my thing but at the same time I don’t always mind reading about the trials of others as it usually puts mine into perspective. I do like the cover though – probably all that pink.
I think all readers are a type of voyeur at heart.
. It satisfies your voyeuristic side heh? I think I have one of those too. Sounds like a good read.
I’m on the fence on this one. While I do have a voyeuristic side to me, and I like to peek into lives in my reading, the fact that some of these stories are too condensed really bothers me. I am also worried that I might tend to compare one story to another, and end up being unsympathetic to some, and biased in my reading. But then again, these are generally the types of books that I like, so I am a little unsure.
Women do have a lot to overcome–this book sounds inspirational. Excellent review,Jenners!
I’ve got a big streak of the voyeur in me as well. And I agree with Jackie, books like this can make my own problems seem insignificant. That’s almost always a good thing.
I’m pretty sure this one isn’t for me at all. Oh, maybe if I had nothing else at all to read, but that’s certainly not the case!
Because of the shortcomings I’m afraid I’d have given up on this. Maybe not a few years ago when I felt I had to finish a book.
Intrigued by the title if not anything else. Great review as always, like you I think I’d end up disappointed as this really isn’t my cup of tea.
You make some really interesting points about this book. One of the reasons I read really depressing books is that it makes my problems look insignificant. It makes me feel a bit sorry for people who do spend their lives worried about being ugly etc They don’t realise how lucky they are and that does make me sad. I don’t think this book is for me, but I hope other people read it and come to similar conclusions as you. Hopefully that way they’ll see how lucky they are.
I’m not big on non fiction, but really feel I should read more of it, and since these are short stories… Thanks Jenners.
For reasons similar to the ones you mention, I love books about family dysfunction:)
Thanks for mentioning this book as I hadn’t heard of it.
The short essay isn’t all that different from a blog post. Every day, I play voyeur as I read about the lives of bloggers.
I think this is my type of book; I like the challenge of stripping down an experience to a tight narrative.
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