A Lifetime of Impossible Days in Aussie Readers

Feb 17, 2019 Tabitha Bird rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-books

Well, I am the author so of course I've read it and can't wait for you to read it too!

I sincerely hope that readers embrace the Willas. They can't wait to meet you! They are very nervous, all three of them, but I have had a good talk to them all and we are mostly calm and ready to go. Oh, who are we kidding? We are all a ball of gumboot-tapping nervous energy, but so very keen to meet the readers none the less.

Eight-year-old Super gumboots Willa is especially excited. She's got her bravest red g ...more

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Jun 11, 2019 Brenda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-authors, sent-by-publisher, debut, 2019-release, reviewing-by-request, fantasy, own-read, arc, time-travel

Firstly, I have to say what a beautiful cover this book has! And how utterly enchanting the story is 😊

In 1965 Willa Waters was a precocious eight-year-old, trying to keep her four-year-old sister Lottie safe. In 1990 Willa Waters was a thirty-three-year-old mother of two with a loving husband – but this Willa couldn’t let go of the past that continued to hold her in its memories. And in 2050 Willa Waters was a ninety-three-year-old woman who was being taken over by dementia; didn’t want to go in ...more

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Mar 29, 2020 PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, kindle, australian-author, aa-ce, fantasy-folk-myth-super-magic, favourites-adult, aa

4.5~5★
“You don’t have to be scared if you’re a man and you can stomp around. That’s why I’m Super Gumboots Willa, because with boots on my feet, my steps are bigger.”
1965 Willa Waters, aged 8

“Everywhere I look, the house has broken bits of my memories sticking up like bones under excavation.”
1990 Willa Waters, aged 33

“There are things to say. Very important things. Was it about the swings? Was it about a platypus? My mouth is chock-full of words and so few are making it out alive.”
2050 Willa Wat ...more

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May 28, 2019 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-author, provided-by-publisher, arc-are

A Lifetime of Impossible Days is an impossibly enchanting debut from Tabitha Bird.

Silver Willa is 93 when she insists that her carer takes her into town on the first of June 2050 to post two Very Important Boxes.
Middle Willa is 33 years old when she receives a collection slip from the post office that she has every intention of ignoring.
Super Gumboots Willa is 8 years old when she finds a battered box, inside is a jar of water, accompanied by a note that says: 'One ocean: plant in the backyard.' A Lifetime of Impossible Days is an impossibly enchanting debut from Tabitha Bird.

Silver Willa is 93 when she insists that her carer takes her into town on the first of June 2050 to post two Very Important Boxes.
Middle Willa is 33 years old when she receives a collection slip from the post office that she has every intention of ignoring.
Super Gumboots Willa is 8 years old when she finds a battered box, inside is a jar of water, accompanied by a note that says: 'One ocean: plant in the backyard.', which she does, while wishing for the impossible.

“Here’s what I know about impossible things. We can’t command them, but we can allow space for them in our minds.”

When the impossible happens, Super Gumboot Willa hopes it is an opportunity to save herself, and her younger sister, Lottie. Middle Willa refuses to acknowledge that the impossible offers any chance of change. Silver Willa remembers only that the impossible is her only hope.

This is a compassionate, emotional journey of tragedy, trauma, loss, love, forgiveness, and hope. I was moved to tears more than once by A Lifetime of Impossible Days. Though sensitively handled, the pain of Willa’s experiences are at times overwhelming as Bird explores the experience of family violence and abuse, and it’s lasting repercussions. Yet those tears also came when the Willa’s achieved the seemingly impossible, for their courage, and strength.

“Because I know one thing, Willa. We are all the ages we have ever been. We carry around our trauma. And if we have unfinished business at one of those ages we can’t move on to have a healthy adult life.”

Beautifully crafted, the past, present and future are deftly woven together, a strand at a time, ensuring the impossible makes sense. It requires an extraordinary imagination to write such a complex story, though thankfully only an ordinary one to appreciate it.

“We’re all stories, Willa. How else do you tell a story if you don’t make it all up? Sometimes, when everything seems lost, you just have to keep making stuff up”

A whimsical, heart-rending, and insightful novel, i was captivated by Willa’s journey. Amaze-a-loo, Tabitha Bird. ...more

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Feb 19, 2020 Kim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, australian-author, australian-women-writers, australian-fiction, fantasy, 2020-read, aus-women-writer

An overall charming novel that deals with difficult dysfunctional family issues, but there are also some beautiful inventive elderly characters that I really warmed to.
I'm not normally keen on time jumping novels, or time travelling novels but this one has introduced some order to that sort of chaos with the judicious use of chapters.
It's a library book that I was able to read quickly and return in a couple of days.
Very pleased to have come across it.
It may need to include a trigger warning fo ...more

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Jun 21, 2019 Nikki Sims-Chilton rated it really liked it

I have no doubt that this book will be picked up by many due to the beautiful eye-catching cover and the gorgeous illustrations at the beginning of each chapter. A Lifetime of Impossible Days was recommended to me by a book loving friend and it was then that I was lucky enough to meet the author at a local bookshop launch.

I have been thinking about how I would describe this book and the words that come to mind are ‘sweet’ and ‘deep’. There are some heavy-going topics but it’s told in a way whic ...more

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Jun 16, 2019 Jenny (Bookbookowl) rated it it was amazing

Many thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of A Lifetime of Impossible Days for review!

Willa Waters is 93 years old and her memory isn’t what it used to be. But she’s been writing down Things She Knows For Sure in a notebook, so she knows she must post two very important parcels on a specific date, and stay out of the nursing home. Because note one and two tell her so.

Willa is 8 years old and desperately trying to protect her sister and herself, in a household where she never knows w ...more

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Aug 19, 2020 Annie rated it it was amazing

Heart-achingly beautiful. A flight of fancy direct from the mind of a fractured childhood. Healing and deeply meaningful. Discusses childhood abuse and trauma but through the lens of someone learning to rescue herself 💔💜

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Sep 30, 2020 Bree T rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, australian, literary, magical-realism, time-travel, family, aww2020, trauma

This book has been on my TBR bookshelf for quite a while. I’ve been wanting to read it but I knew I’d have to be in the perfect mood to be able to do so, having been warned that it does contain reference to some pretty dark stuff. The perfect day came recently when I spotted it and somehow just knew that it was the right time.

This is an ambitious debut, taking in three different times in the life of Willa, who is 8, 33 and 93 in this novel. At 93, she urgently posts two boxes: one to her childho This book has been on my TBR bookshelf for quite a while. I’ve been wanting to read it but I knew I’d have to be in the perfect mood to be able to do so, having been warned that it does contain reference to some pretty dark stuff. The perfect day came recently when I spotted it and somehow just knew that it was the right time.

This is an ambitious debut, taking in three different times in the life of Willa, who is 8, 33 and 93 in this novel. At 93, she urgently posts two boxes: one to her childhood self and one to “middle Willa”, who is as the name suggests, in the middle. The boxes contain “one ocean: plant in the backyard” and when both 8yo Willa and 33yo Willa do so (33yo Willa reluctantly/inadvertently), the mango tree in the backyard allows the three Willas to travel between the timeframes. For 93yo Willa, she’s desperate to “go back” and fix things in her life, change the outcome. For 8yo Willa, it’s the chance to get away from the lurking danger and if she’s successful, it may change the way that 33yo Willa feels and the damage she is about to do to her life.

This is a really difficult book to review because the three Willas cross in and out of each other’s times and interact in different combinations a lot of the time. However despite this, you get a clear picture of each of them and where they’re at in their lives – and in terms of the later Willas, how they got there in a way. The youngest Willa is defiant and angry but also desperately scared and traumatised as well. She’s blocked out a significant event and is struggling with the meaning of that as well as trying to protect her younger sister. Middle Willa has carved a life for herself away from her childhood home but she struggles with the events that shaped her. When her son spills the jar of water, “planting” the ocean, her life as she knows it shifts and changes and it takes her a while to find her equilibrium with what is happening. At first Middle Willa doesn’t want anything to do with the mango tree or the ocean that allows the Willas to interact with her each other, much to the frustration and anger of Super Gumboots Willa, the 8 year old. All the Willas are brilliantly rendered but I think 93yo Willa for many reasons, sticks with me. It’s her determination, her single-mindedness to do this, even though she’s at a time in her life where she’s very forgetful. She has to write everything down so she doesn’t forget and as the story unfolds, it’s clear that some of the things she’s forgotten are perhaps her mind’s way of coping with what has happened. She’s trying to avoid going into an assisted living facility (nursing home) at all costs even though it’s becoming apparent that she’s a bit of a danger to herself on her own. Her interactions with her carer and also her daughter and son are so powerful and set the scene of her age and determination so well.

There’s a creeping darkness in this book, it’s not immediately obvious although there’s things that 93yo Willa wants to change but it takes a while for everything to be revealed, what Willa has been through and how it affected her life, the life of her younger sister, the lives of her children, her husband, her grandmother. The bond young Willa shares with her grandmother is an incredible one and it’s clear that her grandmother is perhaps the biggest and most positive influence in her life. Willa’s mother is not in a good place, struggling with grief and coping with violence and at times she seems to demand too much of her daughters and I can’t decide if she wasn’t able to face the reality of their situation or just didn’t want to. The scenes from Middle Willa’s life seem to suggest probably the latter.

It took me a little while to settle into the story and the changing narrative of the three Willas and the ways in which they were popping in and out of each other’s specific times but when I did, I found myself really invested in this powerful novel and the story of Willa trying to help her younger selves so that they might live better lives. It’s really well written with strongly defined characters and despite some of the subject matter, there’s such a feeling of hope about the story, like you feel like anything is possible. Will definitely read more by Tabitha Bird in the future.

***A copy of this book was provided by the author for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more

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Jun 28, 2021 Dee-Ann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: australian-authors, five-star, warm-fuzzy, romance, movie-material, sci-fi-fantasy, domestic-violence, weird, mental-health, strong-women

This is one of the best books I have read. Loved Willa … all of them. If only this could happen in real life … to be able to go back and advise your younger self. This is a book that I did not want to end, but also I did at the same time. We should all have some Super Gumboots Willa in us.

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Jan 24, 2024 Catsalive rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnf, 2021

Failed the 100p test. I just couldn't get into it. ...more

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Feb 06, 2021 Rhoda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This story is about Willa at three different ages: Super Gumboots Willa who is 8, Middle Willa who is 33 and Silver Willa aged 93. When 8 year old Willa finds a box containing a jar of water and the instructions: one ocean: plant in the backyard, she discovers she is able to time travel to meet her 33 and 93 year old self.

Middle Willa is haunted by events in her past and is really only just hanging in there. Meanwhile Silver Willa is finding it difficult to capture all her memories as her mind This story is about Willa at three different ages: Super Gumboots Willa who is 8, Middle Willa who is 33 and Silver Willa aged 93. When 8 year old Willa finds a box containing a jar of water and the instructions: one ocean: plant in the backyard, she discovers she is able to time travel to meet her 33 and 93 year old self.

Middle Willa is haunted by events in her past and is really only just hanging in there. Meanwhile Silver Willa is finding it difficult to capture all her memories as her mind deteriorates. She buys gumboots in every colour and orders cows off the radio 😂 This story sees the three Willas come together to try to heal the past before a tragic event occurs.

Ok, so this book is quite simply amaze-a-loo (one of Super Gumboots Willa’s favourite sayings). This is deep trauma, wrapped in frivolity, whimsy and big imaginations. Whilst my description might make you think this book trivialises trauma, the opposite is actually true. You can still see the pain behind every action and story and I felt quite emotional at the lengths that Willa would go to to protect her sister and try to distract her from the reality of their life.

Silver Willa provides some comedic relief....on the surface. However the reader can see that dementia is taking hold and it is comedy mixed with sadness. Having said that though, the book made me laugh out loud as well as making me cry on several occasions.

You do have to embrace a bit of magic to appreciate this book, but I think the author has accomplished something very special with this book. Despite the sadness and trauma, it is also somehow uplifting and beautifully whimsical which are things that I never considered would pair well....yet somehow they just do. I also feel that it encourages the reader to remember and embrace the child within.

Normally I’m pretty stingy with dishing out 5 stars, but I’ve been giving them out left, right and center so far this year! And guess what? Here’s another one! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for a deeply touching book with absolutely beautiful and lovable characters.

...more

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