The opening stories of this memoir had me hooked immediately. The book is written in essays which have quirky titles such as Turtles, Turtles, Turtles, Homesick and Spinning, and The Six Stages of Finding Out You Have High Cholesterol.
The book reminded me of Maggie O’Farrell’s I Am, I Am, I Am and Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking. I’ve heard Philpott compared with Laurie Colwin’s writing as well, and I also hope to read her book Home Cooking soon.
Philpott tackles some of the big existential questions about life and death and fear in her everyday stories about her family. These are stories filled with some tough stuff but also humour and hope. She rightly declares that all of the parts of our lives are “the uncertain parts.” That just about sums up the human condition. The essays are short and varied and I found them relatable and thought provoking.
Joanne's Reading Blog 
I liked this book, too. My favorite quote from the book: “No one knows how anything is going to turn out, which means you can’t get all indignant because it turned out differently. There’s only one way it turns out. There’s only the ending that was always going to happen; you just didn’t know it.” p. 80.
Thanks for that. It is a good quote, reflects her writing well.
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div dir=”ltr”>Hi Joanne.. nice you had the lovely break
Thanks Charlotte. Playing catch up now with things at home!