Review: A Year By the Sea

A Year by the Sea by Joan Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has a very meditative quality to it, which I liked. The major concern the author is wrestling with seems to be whether she has a right to attend to her own emotional/spiritual needs. She has always been a caretaker and cruise director for everyone around her and has a lot of guilt about relinquishing that role. As in her later book, (which I read first but didn't like as well)
The Second Journey: The Road Back to Yourself, there are interesting observations about the relationship she has to her grown sons and their wives. Her need to separate herself from her daily life to figure out who she is and what she wants was clearly articulated and made sense to me. The disconnect between her and her husband was sad. The quotes that start each month were well chosen, both to go with the section and as food for thought. There were some educational bits about clamming which was cool.