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Apr 20, 2010

Melissa rated it:

I didn't love this book... I felt like there were some great insights and thoughts, but I also felt that it was way too long and that she rambled a bit. She would make the same point over and over using different words or thoughts... honestly, it was like reading an insanely long blog post. There was a story line hidden in the meandering thoughts, but it was hard to keep track of as she jumped from past to present so often.
But, there were some good things. But not enough for me to lik More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2012

Lara M. rated it:

On the precipice of having one son in high school and the other in middle school, Katrina Kenison decides that maybe it’s time for the family to make a change. On the cusp of mid-life, she feels a tug for a simpler life. A smaller house, more open space, and the ability to focus on the next phase of life, one that entails mothering young men instead of little boys.

However, when she and her husband decide to sell their home, move to a small town in New England and renovate an old farmho More...

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Dec 31, 2011

MaryBliss rated it:

It was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end but I don't think I'll recommend it highly. Her earlier book had much food for thought about a mother's efforts to simplify and slow down a hectic life with younger children. This book read more like a mother goes off the deep end in anxiousness about time and location angst as her children become teens and it takes her three years to come to grips with her anxiety and to remedy the upheaval it has created. She's aware and articulates, b More...

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Jan 10, 2011

Carol rated it:

As a mother, I felt this was the best book out there that has been written, regarding the truth of being a parent. Katrina Kenison does a wonderful job of laying it all out there in the wide range of emotions; some are painful, beautiful, endearing and some are just plain as raw as they can be described. While reading this book there were times that I became jealous, because this woman did what I have always felt needed to be done; she took the control over her life and her family's that need More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 02, 2010

Jessica rated it:

I would have given the first half of this book four stars. I felt inspired by Kenison's forging through large changes in her life with confidence and some degree of optimism. I feel the older I get the more frightened of change I become. She helped me to think outside of that fear for a moment.
Later in the book Kenison's writing became too monotonous - writing ad nauseam in a self assessment, minutiae laden, universal truth sort of way. Too many pages that said the same thing again an More...

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Mar 12, 2010

AnnaMay rated it:

This book took a looooong time to get through. As I thought of why, I can only guess it's because of the writing style. Kenison is very 'thoughtful' in the way she puts things, so I could only read a few pages before being saturated.

There were a few 'long-stretch-reads' I was able to accomplish and that got me through the book. I asked myself a few times why I was still reading it, why I didn't just take it back to the library unfinished? Well, the 2 or 3 real 'glimpses' I was aw More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2010

Angela rated it:

I actually wanted to give this 3.5 stars. I didn't think it quite merited a whole 4, but 3 seems low. I'm never sure if I ought to be giving out stars anyway.

While I liked the book, in the end it still seemed to fit solidly in that "middle aged woman who does yoga and decides to see only the beauty in life" genre. There were some passages I dog-eared and really liked, but there were also many places where I had a hard time sympathizing (for instance, in all the places wh More...

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Oct 28, 2009

Dana rated it:

My daughter came home from school last spring and told me that the salutatorian at a nearby high school had missed being valedictorian because she had taken orchestra, which is not officially an honors class and therefore not worth 5 points on a 4 point GPA scale. True or not, my daughter internalized this story and wondered aloud if taking band and art this year would hurt her life prospects. As someone with no –torians to her credit, I told her that I hoped she would take band and art every More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2009

Christine rated it:

I immersed myself into this book over the weekend. I knew I would be offering a giveaway today and wanted to include my review. Author, Katrina Kenison (40ish) is facing a time in her life when her sons are quickly running towards adulthood and there is a yearning in her to move from their technology driven, suburban home in search for a wider spaces and a reconnection of her family. She did not expect to sell her current house before buying a new house, moving back home with her parents, los More...

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Jan 07, 2011

Heidi rated it:

I bought this at my 4th grade son's Scholastic Book Fair in December 2010, for myself. I read it over Christmas vacation and savored all the lovely, true parts she mentions that come with being a wife and a mother. I read slowly so that I could drink in every moment and feeling the author shares with her reader. It was wonderful to connect with her on many levels. I too left the city for the country with my husband, children and pets, and have never regretted the decision and choiced we've m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 15, 2011

The Reading Countess rated it:

Katrina Kenison's in depth (perhaps too lengthy?) look at what it is to parent nearly grown sons, how to fashion a life worthy of living in midlife, and to live in harmony with those around her spoke to me from page one. Though admittedly a bit long and repetitive, I found myself sticky noting too many pages for the sheer beauty of the words.
Slow down. Enjoy. Don't over parent. Be in the moment. Seek who you are.
I needed to read this book.
Your children are not your children. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Jana rated it:

This book is so beautifully written, and I can't believe Kenison pulled off what feels like little more than a meditation while keeping her reflections intimate, spiritual, and fresh.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2009

Michelle rated it:

Wow. This book was an excellent but wrenching read for me right now. I loved Kenison's earlier book, Mitten Strings for God, and loved how it reminded mothers to focus on the moments while parenting young children. How much more we need the lessons in the teen years and while we are struggling to learn how to parent almost-adults who are about to leave. I identified so strongly with the emotions and the feeling of impending loss that I cried all to often during this book.
A few quotes More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

I am a fan of memoirs on motherhood. As Katrina Kenison writes in her epilogue of this book, "every time we have the courage to say, "Hey, this is hard for me, too," we find out that we aren't alone." I survived my first year of new motherhood by devouring Vicki Iovine's "Girlfriend's Guides," Andrea Buchanan's "Mother Shock," and, my very favorite of all (so much so that I send this to pretty much every friend who's expecting), Anne Lamott's "Operati More...

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Nov 23, 2010

Tracy rated it:

I read Kenison's book Mitten Strings for God, her memoir about mothering her young children, when my own children were preschoolers, and it struck just the right chord with me then. Now, in The Gift of an Ordinary Day, she continues sharing her parenting journey when her sons are in high school and the oldest is applying to college. I am just a few years behind her in the parenting/life schedule, so this book struck just the right chord with me now.

Kenison's memoir is weakened by More...

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Jan 04, 2010

Rhonda rated it:

This is written by a mother, reflecting on her years of raising two boys and preparing them for adulthood, while preparing herself for the time they will leave the house. She has so many amazing thoughts and memories that ring true with my own thoughts and feelings. I had about 28 sticky tabs on the pages when I was done reading, marking passages I wanted to remember, passages that were poignant to me, some several paragraphs long.
It really is a bittersweet process, raising children, on More...

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Dec 09, 2009

Margaret rated it:

If you like sentences like "Contenment and grace may be two sides of the same coin." or "One reason I am happy here is because I've decided to be." or Mend the part of the world that is within your reach.", you will probably like reading The gift of an ordinary day.

Katrina Kenison decides to leave the hectic world of suburban Boston for the simple life in rural New Hampshire, dragging her 3 "men", sometimes kicking and screaming, with her. When h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 28, 2009

Tracy rated it:

This book grabbed me as the premise was a mother watching her children become teenagers and eventually college bound. That is many years off for me, but this passage caught my attention and held it throughout the book:

"It seemed to me during those early years of child raising that my sons' childhoods would go on forever. I couldn't imagine any life other than the one that consumed me right then, a life shaped by the joys and demands of raising young children."

More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 19, 2011

Dhara rated it:

The ‘Gift of an Ordinary Day’ by Katrina Kenison examines in excruciating detail the longings of a mother whose children have grow-up. The potent concept of family is ‘idealized’ in this meditative memoir. The book the combines the writing style of Willa Cather and a non-descript Zen Buddhist monk. A brief synopsis will suffice. Katrina lives in an affluent New England suburb. She uproots her family and decides they need a more holistic life. They land in her parents’ home. After her extensive ‘ More...

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Dec 05, 2009

Ashley rated it:

I believe this book had good intentions, but it just didn't leave a great impression. While I enjoyed the insights the author had to offer on motherhood and all the grief and triumphs that go along with the title, it was rather monotonous. Several of the authors insights, while initially good, lost their passion when reiterated again and again.
The fact that I am facing family transitions much like the author is the only thing that kept me interested in finishing the book.
On the pos More...

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Oct 12, 2011

Stephanie rated it:

I truly loved the first half of this book. Kenison is a lifelong editor, and it shows: her writing is beautiful and evocative. The premise is a little bit Eat-Pray-Love-ish (Kenison and her husband decide abruptly to uproot their family from their yuppie Boston suburb and begin again in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire, renovating an old cottage and living with her parents in the process. Though it was too lengthy and the second half of the book dragged a bit, I found myself marking so m More...

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Oct 01, 2011

Amy rated it:

I finally read this book after buying it when it was first published in 2009. I loved Mitten Strings for God, so I rushed to Kenison's follow-up. Yet, I found it hard to get a footing to read it until now. It was solid with many aspects to appreciate, but it felt a bit long at times. She has a beautiful way of wording ideas, and I agree with her statement on page 255, "A good conversation can't be hurried, it needs time in which to meander its way to revelation and insight." True. So I More...

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Jul 11, 2011

Laura rated it:

This book is a perfect antidote to a culture that encourages 8th graders to start building their resumes for college. Kenison writes about the move from their affluent Boston suburb to rural New Hampshire as she tries to find a high school that is a good fit for her child. Of course all does not go as planned: she loses her job that allowed her to work from home, the "house" she falls in love with has to be demolished and rebuilt, her family lives with her parents for several years, More...

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Jul 19, 2010

Benay rated it:

Katrina Kenison is a gifted writer who takes us through her angst of shepherding her husband and
sons through a midlife shift that involves a literal move to a new town and a new house. I could easily identify with her hunger for change. But the fight for change collides with resistance to change by family members. Who can blame children for resenting an uprooting from what seems to be a perfect home, garden and neighborhood? We follow the author as she watches her two sons move into te More...

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Feb 10, 2010

Polly rated it:

I was impatient at first with all of the morose musing by the author about "I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing it anyway, but it is making us all so unhappy." I almost vowed never to write another personal essay. When she started looking outside herself and introducing other characters in the community, I felt like it got more interesting. There were many ways I could relate to the author's sadness about growing out of a phase of life that she had enjoyed, and about adjustin More...

1 comment like

Sep 01, 2009

Sara rated it:

The ordinary of the title is apt as this book relishes the bittersweet moments we all experience: new home, new career, growing older, giving way to our children’s growing independence. The most triumphant parts of the book is where Kenison focuses on the aspects of motherhood that all mothers face. Her grapples to redefine her relationships with her kids as they grow and their needs change are moving for any mother.

Her chapters are more like mini essays then a typical memoir, and More...

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Jul 20, 2009

Lain rated it:

I picked up this book expecting a ho-hum collection of musings on the meaning of motherhood, the need to grab on to the present, and the desire to have just one more "ordinary" day with your offspring. What I got was so much more. In the hallowed tradition of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's "Gift from the Sea," Katrina Kenison offers readers a glimpse of the world we wish we could capture on our own; one in which each day and each moment is treasured like the most valuable of jewels More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2009

Eva rated it:

There are no words in my vocabulary to describe this book. I'm not ashamed to admit that I just can't work the words up to explain my feelings.
I received this from GR or I probably never would have even looked twice at it despite my loving memoirs and being a very involved mother myself. I believe everything happens for a reason and I think I was meant to have this book.
If someone would have tried to explain to me what the book was about beforehand, even Kenison herself, I probably More...

4 comments like

Aug 24, 2011

Alison rated it:

This was an emotional read for me and took some time! The author writes of her drastic move to a new house when her children are at High School and her coming to terms with the fact that her parenting responsibilities were changing and she was getting ready to be an "empty nester". This somewhat mirrors a lot of what has happened to me and is happening to me and so I found that I related so much to Katrina.
On the whole it was a book I thoroughly enjoyed, with the exception of a More...

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Nov 13, 2010

Irene rated it:

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would!!! One of the most beautifully written, thought provoking books I've ever read. Picked it up while passing time at Borders waiting for my daughter, and it really spoke to me -- about the joys and challenges of raising teens, letting go when they leave for college (my oldest is now a freshman and I haven't seen her since August!). Dealing with midlife career changes, worries, learning to find joy in what IS even if it isn't what you expected or More...

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