Kind of like a quiet evening stroll - lovely, leisurely, aimless, not terribly memorable.

It's that kind of gentle and unassuming experience that often passes by without leaving a profound mark. But you know what? I love you anyway, Annie.

Sometimes, in the midst of our ordinary lives, these simple moments occur. The soft breeze caresses our faces as we walk along, and the world seems to slow down.

Even though this particular evening stroll might not stand out as an extraordinary event, it holds a certain charm. And perhaps that's the beauty of it all.

Because with you by my side, Annie, every moment, whether memorable or not, becomes precious.

I cherish these unassuming times with you, and I know that our love will continue to grow and flourish, no matter what.

So, here's to many more quiet evening strolls and countless other ordinary yet wonderful moments together.

I love you, Annie.

Nanny Goodman is a young girl who finds herself living in a tumultuous time.

She has a home filled with love, yet it is far from traditional. Her father, a writer, is constantly striving to eke out a living for their family of four. Meanwhile, her mother battles with depression and the injustices of society.

Nanny's brother, on the other hand, experiments with alcohol and drugs, presenting a significant challenge for the entire family.

While I found many of the characters in this story likable, I wasn't completely satisfied with the plot line. It seemed to me that there was so much more depth and potential that Lamont could have explored.

The story had the makings of something truly remarkable, but it felt as if it scratched the surface of what could have been a much more profound and engaging narrative.

Perhaps with a more in-depth exploration of the characters' relationships, their inner turmoil, and the impact of the external forces at play, the story could have reached a whole new level.

Nonetheless, there were still aspects of the story that I enjoyed, and I look forward to seeing what else Lamont has in store for us in future works.

A month after my dear mother passed away, I decided to spend one night alone at the beach house she used to rent. It was a place filled with her memories. As I was there, I noticed a book on the shelf. I had only briefly glanced at the beginning of "Bird by Bird" before, but this time I wanted to truly explore it.

Two years have passed since then, and I have now upgraded my rating of this book from 4 to 5 stars. The impression it left on me keeps returning like the ebb and flow of the tide. I think, in a sense, it offered me a glimpse into my mother's own childhood.

Moreover, while reading it, I discovered a kind of permission. It made me realize that a book can be whatever it needs to be. It can be free of a traditional plot and yet be full of rich characters and the most intimate details of life. It can be as unrestricted and as true to life as it desires or requires. This book has truly had a profound impact on me.

This was just lovely.

It was simple and sweet and real, truly a delight to read. I now have an insatiable desire to read more of her works. I absolutely love it when, out of nowhere in the middle of the narrative, a phrase suddenly leaps out at you. It forces you to close the book, search for a pen, and either underline it, dog-ear the page, or write it down in your reader's notebook (assuming you all have those, right?). In the case of library books, this becomes a necessary step. It's the beautiful combination of words that may not even have much to do with the sentiment of the surrounding paragraph. That happened several times with this book, making it all the more captivating.

And I have a particular affinity for women's voices. I'm not suggesting that all women write differently from all men. It's just that, for the most part, they feel distinct to me. Right now, I needed a woman's voice, a woman's story. And while Nanny's story was a blend of sadness, humor, typicality, and uniqueness (much like most all humans' stories), the aspect that made me the saddest was the description of all the development that occurred during Nanny's growing up. Somewhere across from San Francisco on the Bay, there were once large working class communities, swamps, estuaries, wildlife, vast, unsettled rolling hills, and lively railroad yards. These were places where a kid could go exploring and develop a sense of self connected to the land. However, now there are million dollar condos, all the swamps and estuaries have been filled in, the railroad has been pulled up, there are no more hillsides covered with wildflowers as far as the eye can see, and certainly no more thriving working class neighborhoods. Poor Nature.

ALL NEW PEOPLE: I Didn’t Get It

A girl's journey through her childhood and adolescence in 1970s Marin County is the focus of this work.

Told partly in sketches during hypnosis, it's a fictive memoir. However, I just couldn't understand how it could be considered a novel.

Perhaps the idea is that she reaches a certain peace with her childhood. But the author seems overly preoccupied with strange details like the size of Nanny's mother's nostril.

The story unfolds through various events such as her uncle's marriage, her own search for belonging in adolescence which leads her to make unsavory friends, and the sexual revolution causing marital upheaval among her parents' set in California. There's also an element of religion, but it's more about the character's mother's experience rather than proselytizing.

In some ways, it's similar to how we recall our own childhood and adolescence.

Yet, it's a floating narrative that didn't engage me. I managed to get through it once and attempted a second listen, but I couldn't. I even had to skip several minutes when a pet had a tragic incident as I couldn't handle such scenes.

Maybe the essence of the whole book was in those skipped minutes.

The narration by Vacker is fine, sounding like what one might expect from a drifty-dreamy, sometimes poor, 1960s-1970s California girl from Marin County.

Perhaps it's just me and I wasn't deep enough to appreciate it. Or maybe it was those ten minutes I skipped. Since it's a contemporary classic being reissued in audio, it's entirely possible that your experience will be better than mine.

Wandering and listless, the days seemed to pass in a blur.

However, there were some nice, memorable moments that shone through the haze.

These moments, like precious stars in the night sky, provided a glimmer of hope and beauty.

Of course, what was memorable didn't quite make up for what was so unmemorable.

The countless hours of boredom and aimlessness still loomed large.

But perhaps those memorable moments were enough to keep one going, to give a reason to look forward to the future.

They were like tiny seeds of possibility, waiting to be nurtured and grown.

And so, despite the overall sense of wandering and listlessness, there was a glimmer of something more, a hint of a better tomorrow.

Maybe with time, those memorable moments would multiply, and the unmemorable would fade into the background.

Until then, one could only hold onto those precious memories and hope for the best.

Amazing book

This book is truly a remarkable piece of literature. It contains the most elegant and expressive descriptions that I have come across in many years. The author's use of language is simply outstanding, painting vivid pictures in the reader's mind and evoking a wide range of emotions.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. It was engaging from start to finish, filled with interesting characters and unexpected plot twists. The relationships between the characters were well-developed and added depth to the narrative.

Moreover, the book also had profound meanings that made me think and reflect. It explored themes such as love, loss, friendship, and self-discovery. Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone who appreciates good literature.

Like most people who have had the privilege of coming across her, whether it be through her books, her online presence, or in person at book readings, I truly have a deep affection for Anne Lamott.

She is a remarkable individual, tough yet funny, vulnerable yet ultimately an optimist. Just like Joni Mitchell, she perhaps reveals too much of herself, but that is precisely what makes her art so unique and captivating.

And as she so skillfully demonstrated in 'Bird by bird', she has an undeniable talent for writing. She writes with such clarity and precision that it is truly a joy to read her work.

I have a particular preference for her memoirs as they are told in her actual personae, allowing the reader to get a more intimate and personal understanding of her life and experiences. However, her fiction also has its own distinct appeal, adding a strong descriptive sense of place. That place being Marin county, which I have a somewhat mild connection to, and this connection only serves to enhance the overall pleasure of reading her works.

Anne Lamott is truly a gifted writer whose works have the power to inspire, entertain, and move the reader.

When I first embarked on this book, during the initial chapter or two, I was convinced I had made an error. In fact, two mistakes, to be precise.

The first misstep I believed I had made was selecting this particular book to read. Secondly, I thought I had been overly hasty in proclaiming my affection for Anne Lamott after merely reading "Bird by Bird" and watching her speak in a number of YouTube videos.

I wasn't instantaneously drawn into the narrative. There isn't a clearly delineated plot. Instead, the book is more of an exploration of characters, of fragmented memories from these characters' lives.

However, by the third chapter, I was completely hooked. Anne Lamott's writing is truly lovely. Her descriptions of the town where she lived as a child (somewhere near San Francisco) were so vivid and lush. My heart ached as I read about the changes that occurred in the town as she grew up - with strips of condominiums and pricey homes replacing the pear trees and the dark green of the mountains.

The characters are exquisitely painted. The main character is Nan (or Nanny), who shares a great deal in common with what I know of Anne Lamott's life. I adored Nan's mother, Marie, who had one rather large nostril and always advised people in difficult times to find rest in the solution, with God being the solution. Each of the characters has his or her own distinct charm, each one so real and well-developed. And Anne Lamott's humor is simply wonderful.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time within the pages of this book. If you're a fan of a strong plot and abundant action, I wouldn't recommend this book. But if you appreciate rich descriptions of people and places, characters that will linger with you for a while, and subtle stories of the ebbs and flows of people's lives, then I would highly recommend it.

I truly do love Anne Lamott.

This was my very first encounter with an Anne Lamott book.

I have a desire to explore more of her works, mainly because I was rather disappointed by this particular one.

To my perception, there wasn't a very engaging story line.

I believed that many of her characters and their circumstances seemed somewhat typical of the era.

I even contemplated not completing it, yet I persisted mainly due to her reputation.

It was as if I constantly thought, "There has to be something more to this. I'll just keep reading and it will all lead somewhere."

However, in the end, I felt like it didn't really progress or reach a satisfying conclusion.

Perhaps her other books will offer a more fulfilling reading experience and prove to be more in line with my expectations.

I'm still willing to give her work another chance and see if there are hidden gems within her other writings.

Maybe the next book will have a stronger plot and more complex and unique characters that will draw me in and keep me hooked until the very end.

Only time will tell if my initial disappointment with this book was just an anomaly or a sign of what to expect from her other works.

The ending was a little abrupt for me.

It felt as if the story just suddenly stopped without a proper conclusion.

I had been following the family's journey throughout the narrative, but as the story came to a close, I found myself losing sympathy for them.

Maybe it was because their actions and decisions towards the end didn't seem to make much sense or were not fully developed.

Or perhaps it was because the lack of a more detailed and satisfying ending left me with a sense of dissatisfaction.

Whatever the reason, I couldn't help but feel that the story could have been better if the ending had been more thought out and the family's situation had been resolved in a more meaningful way.

As it stands, I'm left with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and a feeling that there was more potential in the story that wasn't fully realized.

Nan casts her mind back to her upbringing in Northern California during the 1960s.

Her family's values were in line with those of the progressive Californians. However, beneath the surface, Nan's family faced numerous difficulties.

Her mother endured chronic depression, while her father was an unsuccessful writer. The family just managed to scrape by and reach the middle-class.

Inspired by her own life experiences, Lamott's novel shares a similar style with her non-fiction works.

It is composed of chapters that progress in chronological order. Nevertheless, this is a book of memories that are interconnected by the theme of family.

The story weaves together the joys and sorrows, the hopes and dreams of Nan's family, painting a vivid picture of their lives during that era.

Readers will be drawn into the narrative, empathizing with the characters and their struggles, and perhaps finding parallels in their own lives.