The #6degrees meme is hosted at Books are my Favourite and Best.
This month the chain begins with What Are You Going Through? by Sigrid Nunez. I have not read this book, I did check it out of the library but determined pretty quickly that it was not for me. The title reminded me of (1) Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb which was a wonderful book about a therapist whose life is falling apart and the patients she is trying to help. A similar book is (2) Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate. They are both good books; I personally found Gottleib easier to identify with than I did Tate. Moving away from the theme of professional help and toward caring for yourself brings me to the inspiring, yet practical, An Invitation to Self-Care (3) by Tracey Cleantis. If part of caring for yourself is finding a slower more thoughtful existence (4) World Enough and Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down by Christian McEwen will give you lots of ideas and inspiration for doing this. If you want a model to follow, (5) My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl is basically a diary of Reichl healing her own spirit through quiet, seasonal cooking after losing her job at Gourmet Magazine. If you want to hear all the stories about being the editor of Gourmet then(6) Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl is the book you want.
How interesting that you followed the therapy/self-help theme. I've not read any of these books but I do have Ruth Reichl's 'Comfort Me With Apples' - though I still haven't actually read it. 'My Kitchen Year' sounds really appealing, I will look for that in our library catalogue. I do think food and its preparation can be very therapeutic (provided it doesn't go disastrously wrong! Pastry making was the opposite of comforting for me until I finally accepted that buying it ready-made was actually OK...)
ReplyDeleteThe Gottlieb book also sounds fascinating - I do occasionally wonder how therapists manage their own crises, especially when they have to spend all day listening to other people's. There must surely be a temptation, just sometimes, to say 'for goodness sake, you think you've got problems!'
I'm also attracted by the Christian McEwen book. Some people just seem so serene as they float through life - I always feel like I'm running aroung like a healdess chicken - I thought once my children had grown up I'd be so much calmer, but now I see that it's probably in the blood, and I just don't have that blood type!
My chain, if you have time to read it, is here: https://sconesandchaiseslongues.blogspot.com/2021/11/six-degrees-of-separation-november-2021.html