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True story (5 more)
Quick read
Very humorous
Mark Sonna
Heart-warming anecdotes
"Where are they now" section
A true tale of how an American mom made a life in Mexico
Contains spoilers, click to show
A true tale of how an American mom moves from Illinois to Mexico with her two youngest sons in tow.
Lois Sonna (aka Batman) is tired of trying to be the kind of wife her husband expects her to be. She realizes this is not who she is and wishes to be free from the antiquated views of marriage and wifedom that her husband has.
She leaves her 4 children with her mother and heads for Mexico on Easter weekend and ends up securing a job and housing in Irapuato, Mexico.
She returns to the US to get her two youngest children and promptly heads back to Irapuato to move into their new apartment and report to work.
She soon discovers how different things are in Mexico from the battle to maintain more than 5 minutes of hot water, issues with plumbing, and the lack of American food choices to struggling to imbed some semblance of American culture in her childrens upbringing and making everything work out happily ever after in the end.
Due to unforseen (and not very well thought out) circumstances, she learns the Mexican ways of bribery and upcharging as well as taking advantage of the machismo culture of Mexico. This leads Lois to consider entering the world of smuggling goods from the US back into Mexico in order to make ends meet.
The memoir was written by Lois's oldest and only daughter, Linda Sonna, who recieved letters every week from her mother. The original manuscript was presented in letter form, but later changed to flow more like a story, with much of the writing taken verbatim directly from the letters.
This is a heart-warming, laugh out loud, and sometimes ridiculous story that can only be made sense of because it really happened.
Lois Sonna (aka Batman) is tired of trying to be the kind of wife her husband expects her to be. She realizes this is not who she is and wishes to be free from the antiquated views of marriage and wifedom that her husband has.
She leaves her 4 children with her mother and heads for Mexico on Easter weekend and ends up securing a job and housing in Irapuato, Mexico.
She returns to the US to get her two youngest children and promptly heads back to Irapuato to move into their new apartment and report to work.
She soon discovers how different things are in Mexico from the battle to maintain more than 5 minutes of hot water, issues with plumbing, and the lack of American food choices to struggling to imbed some semblance of American culture in her childrens upbringing and making everything work out happily ever after in the end.
Due to unforseen (and not very well thought out) circumstances, she learns the Mexican ways of bribery and upcharging as well as taking advantage of the machismo culture of Mexico. This leads Lois to consider entering the world of smuggling goods from the US back into Mexico in order to make ends meet.
The memoir was written by Lois's oldest and only daughter, Linda Sonna, who recieved letters every week from her mother. The original manuscript was presented in letter form, but later changed to flow more like a story, with much of the writing taken verbatim directly from the letters.
This is a heart-warming, laugh out loud, and sometimes ridiculous story that can only be made sense of because it really happened.
Adam Colclough (3 KP) rated The January Man: A Year of Walking Britain in Books
Apr 19, 2018
The Long and Winding Road
The relationship between fathers and sons is contested ground. An emotional boxing match with incomprehension at golden opportunities wasted in one corner, and frustration at being held to impossible standards in the other.
The sometimes awkward, but always close, relationship between journalist Christopher Somerville and his war hero father is at the heart of this hugely engaging mix of memoir and nature writing. Their shared love of walking was the bond that united two very different characters in a story that unfolds against a backdrop of profound social change.
The quiet stoicism that saw a generation of men through the war giving way to rebellion born of affluence, then morphing into the busy atomisation of twenty first century life. This could make for a maudlin exercise in chin stroking, but is saved from it by Somerville’s good humour and inherent optimism.
Added to this is a deep love of nature and the English countryside and the people who have painted, written about or made their living from it over the centuries. Somerville is able to translate this into nature writing that carries the message that we should value what we’ve got without being either sentimental or didactic.
As a memoirist, he has an eye for the eccentricities of family life and a welcome sense of empathy with the experience of his parent’s generation and how it shaped their outlook. Being reserved is not the same thing as being distant, love strong enough to last a lifetime doesn’t need to announce itself with flowers and candy hearts; it manifests in the little acts that make up a life.
This is also a resolutely practical book, something Somerville senior would have approved of, with several associated walks that can be downloaded. Even if the journey from the bookcase to your easy chair is the closest you get to hiking, it is still worth reading.
The sometimes awkward, but always close, relationship between journalist Christopher Somerville and his war hero father is at the heart of this hugely engaging mix of memoir and nature writing. Their shared love of walking was the bond that united two very different characters in a story that unfolds against a backdrop of profound social change.
The quiet stoicism that saw a generation of men through the war giving way to rebellion born of affluence, then morphing into the busy atomisation of twenty first century life. This could make for a maudlin exercise in chin stroking, but is saved from it by Somerville’s good humour and inherent optimism.
Added to this is a deep love of nature and the English countryside and the people who have painted, written about or made their living from it over the centuries. Somerville is able to translate this into nature writing that carries the message that we should value what we’ve got without being either sentimental or didactic.
As a memoirist, he has an eye for the eccentricities of family life and a welcome sense of empathy with the experience of his parent’s generation and how it shaped their outlook. Being reserved is not the same thing as being distant, love strong enough to last a lifetime doesn’t need to announce itself with flowers and candy hearts; it manifests in the little acts that make up a life.
This is also a resolutely practical book, something Somerville senior would have approved of, with several associated walks that can be downloaded. Even if the journey from the bookcase to your easy chair is the closest you get to hiking, it is still worth reading.
Bookapotamus (289 KP) rated Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter's Memoir of Love after Loss in Books
May 29, 2018
An intimate portrayal of Lisa Romeos larger-than-life father, Starting With Goodbye is so raw and emotional it gave me all the feels. All of them. This narrative hits particularly close to home, realizing how hard it is to come to terms with aging parents, and our aging selves.
This is a hard book to rate. You watch Lisa go through these feelings, ups and downs, and roller-coasters of emotions, yet I see the privilege and the money and just can't connect, and in some instances - I can't feel for her. But this is her story - I can't fault her for having what I did not.
Having this intimate look inside of her grief feels almost like spying, like we don't belong here, this isn't our story to read. But it's all part of it. But loss is loss, and it's sad all around and it's so very interesting to see inside someones head at their most painful moments.
I marvel in how she processes the loss of her father. It's brave. It's commendable. The things she does, and admits - I don't know if I could. I feel like I learned a lot, yet I'll still be unprepared as the same moments in life come for myself.
I believe if every person wrote the memoir of a beloved parents passing - they'd all be so different. Different stories and heartfelt memories of the past and completely unalike ways of grieving and how one handles it. But they'd all be the same: raw, sad, and beautiful.
I read this because I was curious... who would write something so personal, and so private? But I didn't find myself all that sad reading this. I was sad FOR her, but mostly I admired Lisa (and her eloquent prose), I adored her "mobster" dad, Tony, and I smiled at her story - because she wrote an ode to her hero and was courageous in doing so. It was like the ultimate love story between a daughter and her father.
This is a hard book to rate. You watch Lisa go through these feelings, ups and downs, and roller-coasters of emotions, yet I see the privilege and the money and just can't connect, and in some instances - I can't feel for her. But this is her story - I can't fault her for having what I did not.
Having this intimate look inside of her grief feels almost like spying, like we don't belong here, this isn't our story to read. But it's all part of it. But loss is loss, and it's sad all around and it's so very interesting to see inside someones head at their most painful moments.
I marvel in how she processes the loss of her father. It's brave. It's commendable. The things she does, and admits - I don't know if I could. I feel like I learned a lot, yet I'll still be unprepared as the same moments in life come for myself.
I believe if every person wrote the memoir of a beloved parents passing - they'd all be so different. Different stories and heartfelt memories of the past and completely unalike ways of grieving and how one handles it. But they'd all be the same: raw, sad, and beautiful.
I read this because I was curious... who would write something so personal, and so private? But I didn't find myself all that sad reading this. I was sad FOR her, but mostly I admired Lisa (and her eloquent prose), I adored her "mobster" dad, Tony, and I smiled at her story - because she wrote an ode to her hero and was courageous in doing so. It was like the ultimate love story between a daughter and her father.
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