Somehow
Thoughts on Love
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4.3 • 21 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
One of Publishers Weekly’s Best Religion Books of 2024
“Anne Lamott is my Oprah.” —Chicago Tribune
From the bestselling author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow, a joyful celebration of love
“Love is our only hope,” Anne Lamott writes in this perceptive new book. “It is not always the easiest choice, but it is always the right one, the noble path, the way home to safety, no matter how bleak the future looks.”
In Somehow: Thoughts on Love, Lamott explores the transformative power that love has in our lives: how it surprises us, forces us to confront uncomfortable truths, reminds us of our humanity, and guides us forward. “Love just won't be pinned down,” she says. “It is in our very atmosphere” and lies at the heart of who we are. We are, Lamott says, creatures of love.
In each chapter of Somehow, Lamott refracts all the colors of the spectrum. She explores the unexpected love for a partner later in life. The bruised (and bruising) love for a child who disappoints, even frightens. The sustaining love among a group of sinners, for a community in transition, in the wider world. The lessons she underscores are that love enlightens as it educates, comforts as it energizes, sustains as it surprises.
Somehow is Anne Lamott’s twentieth book, and in it she draws from her own life and experience to delineate the intimate and elemental ways that love buttresses us in the face of despair as it galvanizes us to believe that tomorrow will be better than today. Full of the compassion and humanity that have made Lamott beloved by millions of readers, Somehow is classic Anne Lamott: funny, warm, and wise.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Anne Lamott meditates on love’s ability to transform, heal, and strengthen us in this insightful essay collection. Lamott’s life hasn't been easy—both she and her son are recovering addicts—but as she beautifully describes, she still drew strength from neighbors, friends, and her faith communities. As to be expected from an author who wrote one of the definitive guides to writing, Bird by Bird, each piece here is eloquent and thought-provoking, whether she’s writing about her relationship with her son and grandchild, a shameful incident from her past, the wisdom of a dying friend, a vacation to Cuba with her husband, or her neighborhood in Northern California. Somehow is a terrific read for when you need a little comfort or reassurance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lamott (Dusk, Night, Dawn) brings her signature wit and warmth to these effervescent meditations on matters of the heart. Drawing from across her life, Lamott details how seemingly lost love can be transmuted into different forms, recalling how friends and family stepped in after she was broken up with while pregnant in her 30s: "Love pushed back its sleeves and took over.... We were provided with everything we needed and then some"—even if that love "was a little hard to take." Elsewhere, Lamott explores the gap between the way one wants to give love and how another wants to receive it, illustrating the point with a humorous account of how she tried to foist a swag bag from her church onto a skeptical unhoused person. Turning to love that inflicts pain, Lamott delineates in wrenching detail how her parents' stony marriage affected her childhood—"It was uncertain whether they cared for each other, so I took it upon myself to try to fill the holes this left them with." A topic that might feel trite in the hands of a lesser writer takes on fresh meaning in Lamott's, thanks to her ability to distill complex truths with a deceptive lightness. This rings true.
