Thanks, Jeanine! Is that a challenge to one-word review your book? Happy to connect here. I have a friend that followed a parallel line to Merida and opened a boutique hotel there (The Diplomat). Looking forward to following on your flip-flopped heels around Yucatan.
And the same, Jules. No, probably not a challenge to one-word review Where the Sky is Born. (I can think of 2 but I'm the dang author, haha). I just love that you did it w/ your list. Just made me laugh, some of the 'reviews.' I don't know The Diplomat though Merida has grown so much. But I loved it then when it was like Miss Haversham in Great Expectations (I actually wrote a review once relaying to that) b/c it's gone through highs and lows. Now on the highs--and well deserved. As said in Mexico, Mucho gusto.
Your memoir sounds like the exact thing I love to read. I recently read a House in Fez: Building a Life in Ancient Morocco by Suzanna Clarke (you will relate, I know this already. House-building obstacles are universal!). If you haven't plowed through Open House: A Life in Thirty-Two Moves by Jane Christmas I'd insist on it too! She buys a wreck of a house in Bristol and flips it upright again. I seem to attach myself to books about uprooting and transplanting--especially when they involve real estate (and gorgeous far-off places). My wife and I looked at 88 houses before finding our current sleeping giant in the woods (the search became the restless guts of my first published book: Free to a Good Home). We were ready to give up on a Canadian address and park/collapse ourselves on Caye Caulker, Belize. I'd fallen under the prey of A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad (ed. Don George). As for my friends' hotel, they opened 10 years ago. I've spent the last 10 years promising to stay and drink grapefruit margs around their pool! https://www.thediplomatmerida.com/
Wow. 88 houses! And it inspired a book, cool! Will definitely check out yours as well as Clarke and Christmas' works. Don George isn't a bad influence to follow. Our lives sound like we've ridden the same wave though in different places. Caukler Caye, Merida, and the love of fabulous places to land, even sometimes just for a little while. I totally agree w/ finding a perfect spot to land. Place is ever so important. Houses and where we settled has always been a big deal for me.
Jeanine, together we could drink coffee makers and teapots and beer kegs dry! Home--is it a person, place or thing? Is it where our parents our? Where they were? Where we establish our own dreams and home with relics of our childhood walls. I've read so many books about this and obviously, chasing that necessary frisson of "home" is one that you fully understand! I gave so many copies of Elizabeth Berg's Open House to friends. I kinda miss writing about real estate--I did that for a few years. It was a great way to explore all the neighborhoods and whims I wondered about from off-grid and #vanlife to heritage homes and church conversions. "Houses and where we settled has always been a big deal to me." Yes to all of that.
Hola Again! yes, houses are home to me for sure. I've always, since adulthood, lived in neat ones. Have become more minimalist as I've grown and moved around, a lot, over the years. I like minimalism now but also loved having my stuff around too. Loved going to garage sales and finding treasures. When we owned the bookstore in MX, used and new, in summers we'd go back to CA and do all the thrift shops and friends of library sales and garage sales and found great books. I had to curb my desire for stuff though as couldn't take too much back.I like ELiz. Berg - didn't know how prolific she is! I'd read her earlier books. If you're a reader check out Lessons in Chemistry. A friend turned me on to it. At first I thought it was too popular to read but I am loving it Just great. Trying to figure out some stuff on my next post. Want to add an additional 'story' and trying to figure out how to do 2 for 1. Take care!
These one word book reviews made me laugh plus very utterly? succinct! Bravo!
Thanks, Jeanine! Is that a challenge to one-word review your book? Happy to connect here. I have a friend that followed a parallel line to Merida and opened a boutique hotel there (The Diplomat). Looking forward to following on your flip-flopped heels around Yucatan.
And the same, Jules. No, probably not a challenge to one-word review Where the Sky is Born. (I can think of 2 but I'm the dang author, haha). I just love that you did it w/ your list. Just made me laugh, some of the 'reviews.' I don't know The Diplomat though Merida has grown so much. But I loved it then when it was like Miss Haversham in Great Expectations (I actually wrote a review once relaying to that) b/c it's gone through highs and lows. Now on the highs--and well deserved. As said in Mexico, Mucho gusto.
Your memoir sounds like the exact thing I love to read. I recently read a House in Fez: Building a Life in Ancient Morocco by Suzanna Clarke (you will relate, I know this already. House-building obstacles are universal!). If you haven't plowed through Open House: A Life in Thirty-Two Moves by Jane Christmas I'd insist on it too! She buys a wreck of a house in Bristol and flips it upright again. I seem to attach myself to books about uprooting and transplanting--especially when they involve real estate (and gorgeous far-off places). My wife and I looked at 88 houses before finding our current sleeping giant in the woods (the search became the restless guts of my first published book: Free to a Good Home). We were ready to give up on a Canadian address and park/collapse ourselves on Caye Caulker, Belize. I'd fallen under the prey of A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad (ed. Don George). As for my friends' hotel, they opened 10 years ago. I've spent the last 10 years promising to stay and drink grapefruit margs around their pool! https://www.thediplomatmerida.com/
Wow. 88 houses! And it inspired a book, cool! Will definitely check out yours as well as Clarke and Christmas' works. Don George isn't a bad influence to follow. Our lives sound like we've ridden the same wave though in different places. Caukler Caye, Merida, and the love of fabulous places to land, even sometimes just for a little while. I totally agree w/ finding a perfect spot to land. Place is ever so important. Houses and where we settled has always been a big deal for me.
Jeanine, together we could drink coffee makers and teapots and beer kegs dry! Home--is it a person, place or thing? Is it where our parents our? Where they were? Where we establish our own dreams and home with relics of our childhood walls. I've read so many books about this and obviously, chasing that necessary frisson of "home" is one that you fully understand! I gave so many copies of Elizabeth Berg's Open House to friends. I kinda miss writing about real estate--I did that for a few years. It was a great way to explore all the neighborhoods and whims I wondered about from off-grid and #vanlife to heritage homes and church conversions. "Houses and where we settled has always been a big deal to me." Yes to all of that.
Hola Again! yes, houses are home to me for sure. I've always, since adulthood, lived in neat ones. Have become more minimalist as I've grown and moved around, a lot, over the years. I like minimalism now but also loved having my stuff around too. Loved going to garage sales and finding treasures. When we owned the bookstore in MX, used and new, in summers we'd go back to CA and do all the thrift shops and friends of library sales and garage sales and found great books. I had to curb my desire for stuff though as couldn't take too much back.I like ELiz. Berg - didn't know how prolific she is! I'd read her earlier books. If you're a reader check out Lessons in Chemistry. A friend turned me on to it. At first I thought it was too popular to read but I am loving it Just great. Trying to figure out some stuff on my next post. Want to add an additional 'story' and trying to figure out how to do 2 for 1. Take care!