Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake Free Download

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake [Kindle Edition]

Author: Anna Quindlen | Language: English | ISBN: B005OCYR9E | Format: PDF, EPUB

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INCLUDING AN EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION BETWEEN MERYL STREEP AND ANNA QUINDLEN

“[Quindlen] serves up generous portions of her wise, commonsensical, irresistibly quotable take on life. . . . What Nora Ephron does for body image and Anne Lamott for spiritual neuroses, Quindlen achieves on the home front.”—NPR

In this irresistible memoir, Anna Quindlen writes about a woman’s life, from childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age, using the events of her life to illuminate ours. Considering—and celebrating—everything from marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, parenting, faith, loss, to all the stuff in our closets, and more, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves. As she did in her beloved New York Times columns, and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen uses her past, present, and future to explore what matters most to women at different ages. Quindlen talks about

Marriage: “A safety net of small white lies can be the bedrock of a successful marriage. You wouldn’t believe how cheaply I can do a kitchen renovation.”

Girlfriends: “Ask any woman how she makes it through the day, and she may mention her calendar, her to-do lists, her babysitter. But if you push her on how she really makes it through her day, she will mention her girlfriends. ”

Our bodies: “I’ve finally recognized my body for what it is: a personality-delivery system, designed expressly to carry my character from place to place, now and in the years to come.”

Parenting: “Being a parent is not transactional. We do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward endeavor: We are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.”

Candid, funny, and moving, Lotsof Candles, Plenty of Cake is filled with the sharp insights and revealing observations that have long confirmed Quindlen’s status as America’s laureate of real life.

“Classic Quindlen, at times witty, at times wise, and always of her time.”—The Miami Herald

“[A] pithy, get-real memoir.”—Booklist

Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

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File Size: 1594 KB
Print Length: 226 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0812981669
Publisher: Random House; Reprint edition (April 24, 2012)
Sold by: Random House LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B005OCYR9E
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,209 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #4
  in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood
- #12
  in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood
- #32
  in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies
#4
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood
#12
in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood
#32
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies

Anna Quindlen has always seemed like a friend to me. She doesn't know me, but I know her, and we are very much alike. She was born one day before me, July 8, we both married young and maintained our profession. We each had three children. We have grown older together, and I have followed her through her New York Times articles, her novels and her Newsweek blogs. I have missed her writing, and now, here she is, writing about the times of her life.

Anna talks about her times of life from a child to young woman to aging adult. And, as she says, she realized that when one of her children told her 68 was elderly, and she tried to refute that and make her own definition of elderly, that 'Old is whatever you haven't gotten to yet'. Oh, I agree with that phrase. I am in my sixties, but I don't feel much older than forty, except that some parts of my body are lower than they used to be.

This is a book for all of us. A guidebook of sorts, of where we have been, where we are now and where we might be going. Anna tells us her story, but if you are of her age, it is all of our stories. With our time from early adult to an aging one. We have all collected 'stuff', and like Anna I could do without most of it. They are things that meant a lot and still do, but are only things. My computer holds most of the pictures I value. My children have the important things from their childhood. We raised our children the best we could. I was not a helicopter mother, I was too busy and that came years after. Like Anna, we were trying to raise our children, keep our marriage intact and work at the job we loved. This was after the women's revolution, we were the lucky recipients, but at an early age we felt the sexism inherent in our jobs.

There are so many take away quotes from "lots of candles, plenty of cake" that it's hard to choose which ones I connected with the most. Anna Quindlen has such a reassuring, knowing voice that reading these essays is a bit like getting advice from your most level-headed friend. You know she's been where you are, and probably had the same problems you had - but she made it through and is wiser for the journey.

"Maybe that's why we give advice, when we're older, mostly to people who don't want to hear it. They can't hear it because its in a different language, a language we learn over time, the language of experience cut with failure, triumph and tedium."

These essays are filled with wisdom and humor and self reflection - they sound the way I hope to someday. Quindlen still admires and appreciates the amazing time that is youth, but she now looks at it through the eyes of one who has been there, and is seeing it for a second time through the eyes of her children.

"Every once in a while we meet our long-ago selves across a dining table or a desk, when younger women come to ask for advice or interview for a job." "It's so hard to tell them the truth, that there is no formula, there is no plan." "It often seems, looking back, that so many of our plans are honored mainly in the breach, that it is the surprises that define us, the paths we didn't see coming and may have wandered down by mistake."

Towards the end of the book, I found myself a bit weary - although I love her words and agree with pretty much all she has to say, as with any book of essays, there was a bit of repetition. Said in different ways and about different situations, the themes are pretty similar.

But in the end, I took a great deal from this book.

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