Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change by Maggie Smith ★★★

[Jenni Elyse]

3.5 stars, round down.

Keep Moving is my IRL book club's pick for January. I picked it up from the library yesterday and I read it really quickly, in a few hours, as it's mostly pages of affirmations. (It was the perfect book for me to read yesterday as I'm not feeling well and my brain usually doesn't work when I'm not feeling well.)

I liked a lot of the affirmations, but my favorite parts of the book were the parts where Smith went into more detail. Where she talked about her loss from losing her grandmother, miscarriages, and divorce. Those were the times I felt a kinship toward her. Even if I hadn't quite experienced loss the way she had, I could still empathize with her and think of ways to apply her advice to my own life.

I really liked her perspective on things, like serotinous pinecones and how they only open and provide growth from fire. Or, how she likened her trauma to kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with gold. The ceramic piece is beautiful because of its flaws or brokenness instead of in spite of it.

The reason I gave Keep Moving 3.5 stars, rounded down, is because there weren't enough of the parts I wanted to read more of. Otherwise, I would've give it 4 stars.