The 7th book of 2018, I picked up because the cover was colorful. I walked into the library, looked at the front tables, and it caught my eye. Unless it’s an author I have heard of, or someone recommended it to me, I usually struggle with the essay/memoir type of book (example: didn’t think twice about Anna Faris’s). Frankly, I tend to avoid them.
But – if you read the author information on the back sleeve, the author has been called the “voice of her generation” by O: The Oprah Magazine; when has Oprah ever been wrong?! I mean she’s Oprah! Convinced yet?
Book Read: Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say
Author: Kelly Corrigan
Number of Books Read: 7
The 12 hardest things to say… it’s hard to imagine picking only 12, but Corrigan hits the nail on the head. Some are told with a humor, some told with sorrow, some with sass, but all with an openness that will keep you reading.
While reading, there was not a single one of these 12 to which I could not relate. Each was a word or a phrase that sometimes put me in a bind. Whether it be “tell me more” where Corrigan learns about listening from a facialist, or “it’s like this” when sometimes you have to tell yourself “it’s like this” because this is the way it is, good, bad, ugly, calm, whatever it may be. (Corrigan first heard this term from a meditation guy at her husband’s office which adds a bit of spunk).
Corrigan relates each saying back to her life with a story, sometimes more than one. In “No,” she marvels that her mother is comfortable saying no. No to doing things with her husband she knows she’ll hate, no to attending away games, no to breaking a sweat. Her mother set herself free and willing to be disliked.In “Yes,” she lists things she always will say yes to – Corrigan lists grated Parmesan, her mom, sleeping in…I agree with her whole list – but I’d like to add chocolate covered Oreos.
In “Good enough,” Corrigan reflects on how sometimes, it is perfectly fine to just be good enough. Not great, not bad, just plain old good enough. Layer those between “I Was Wrong, “I Know,” “No Words at All,” and others, and you’ll find yourself turning each page, wondering what’s next.
While most of these sayings have “happier” stories, Corrigan also is very open about the hard times, like sitting with her father as he passed and the void it left in her life, only a short period of time before she lost her best friend. In a heartfelt letter to her friend Liz, titled “Onward,” Corrigan writes about her friend’s children and how they are doing without her, how Liz’s husband is both father and mother, but still does things the way Liz would anyway, how traditions are continued and new ones started to carry on Liz’s memory, and how people move onward, not away from the person they miss, but with them. It’s a wonderful thought.
It’s hard to pinpoint 12 things each of us may be uncomfortable saying, but I bet you find quite a few you have experienced. One section that stuck out to me? “Do you work. Then lean back. Rest from the striving to reduce. Life is a mystery to be lived. Live your mystery.”
Next Read: I’m Glad About You by Theresa Rebeck
