I have been on a reading spree, till my head hurt. I have read books I enjoyed, ones I did not as much but this spree left me a little tired. At the end of continuous reading, it is hard to switch tacks and focus actually putting words on paper, however much I enjoy writing with my Ink pen(to make my rough drafts which I hoped would spur the following posts). I ended up just making more varied versions of my to-do list instead of fulfilling any actual task on said list! I am hoping to end April on a high note and this is my last ditch effort to review a bunch of stuff and schedule them (I did it three times this month and each time it was more effective than trying to get one out at a time!)
I picked this book because I am trying to expand my genre list, and this seemed like something completely out of my comfort zone. I found out exactly why these stay out of my usual reading list, though. That is not to say it doesn’t have good writing, but overall I feel personal relations with a parental figure would change how different people would view the book.
The author is an adult with grown children of her own when one day she gets a call about her mother. This starts a chapter of her life that redefines a lot of her perspectives. She has a genuinely complicated relationship with her mother but has a sustaining love and feeling of responsibility for her well-being. Long term care (of any duration) of anyone ill and chaffing at the loss of their independence is something that is universally acknowledged to be complicated. In this particular book, the author has vented in the form of catharsis. She uses that description when discussing the possibility of the work’s contents with her mother before she went ahead with it.
It is a short work, and the descriptions swift and straightforward, making it easy to see everyone clearly in just a few short pages. This meant that despite being a small work, I would have liked it even better if it had been even more concise.
I liked the author’s style, and this book can spark a lot of conversation over people and how they view their ‘responsibilities’ to their parents irrespective of how they were themselves raised by said parents.
Finally, I received this book as an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.
Superfluous Reading 