Lynn N. (thebookcrosser) reviewed on 8/25/2009 + 16 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Every page in this little book (176 pages) shines with wit, intelligence, insight, simplicity, grace, and a pragmatism that every woman, married or single, can appreciate. Catherine is a woman other women would like to get to know.

Starting over in ones 50s is daunting. Starting over in ones 50s with a precocious 12-year-old daughter in tow is enough to send any woman into terminal panic-attack mode. When Catherines marriage ended, she realized she would have to put her house on the market and move her daughter away from her childhood home. Her daughter was NOT happy about this turn of events, but was bright enough to recognize an opportunity when she saw one. All Catherine wanted to do was sit still in a quiet room for a few months. Sounds reasonable enough. What doesnt sound either reasonable or feasible is being pressured by ones daughter to adopt a brood of baby chicks, to raise as pets, while in the midst of relocating to and renovating a ramshackle residence in a nearby salty, soggy, seaside town. Reasonable it might not have been, but the chicken-care-taking learning curve became the arch that helped Catherine transition from her old, familiar life to her new one, full of unknowns. While Catherine renovates the house with the help of several skilled workmen she reinvents herself, re-establishing her relationship with her daughter, and rebuilds her life. Literally. The woman actually learned to use power tools!

Throughout the book Catherine includes tidbits of information worthy of note things she was learning herself along the way: everything from carpentry to poultry ailments on through the unusual ramifications of beach storms. This book was a delight from start to finish.

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