A review by sethy
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

4.5

What a mosaic of a book!?? Being a compilation of an advice column, I had some reservations in the beginning thinking - Dear Sugar seems like a cutesy idea but won’t this be a bit trite? - this thought evaporated real quick. 

The advice is SO GOOD and heartfelt and at times gut wrenchingly tender. The one written as a list from the father and its response hit me the most - holy shit it was amazing. The cool thing is that this is also very much a memoir as Strayed explains and gorgeously articulates the moments in her life that inform the advice she give - she’s a stellar storyteller and is flawless at calling back to the themes and motifs she introduces. ( I think that is one of my top writing absolute loves) I also loved how she would hold a mirror to people and take apart the words they used to describe their situation, down to the latin roots. 

I wanna take her up on the advice to twenty something: get ten poetry books and read them over five times. 

The only detractor is that some of the stories are inevitably stronger than others and I feel the extra stories in the 10th anniversary edition undermined it (just skip it or read it before the finale chapter)  - the ending without them is so strong (the titular letter to younger self is AMAZING). I'd say skip the preface and the introduction for that matter too. 

Nonetheless, this is the type of book that begs a reread - loved it a lot.