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A review by me_alley
Where Do We Go From Here by Nick Alexander
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
You can’t really punish someone’s lack of interest in you. Specifically, you can’t starve people into missing you."</i>
A very readable book with a thought provoking premise. A woman escapes into a rural cottage in the south of France. While there she comes to terms with the trauma she has experienced as she lost her mother, dealt with a rapidly deteriorating marriage, her older children becoming more distant, and the wounds as she worked as an emergency nurse during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Working in healthcare during the pandemic was like living in two different worlds- at the hospital you were seeing people die in front of you, you were protecting yourself and feeling helpless. Like a war nurse, it was easy to become overwhelmed by the unending supply of care. But instead, you would leave a shift, and enter a world where people were blind to the dangers, some of them fighting precautions, and terrified to pass the virus along.
<i> I thought about my job and wished for a moment that I could take my family to work with me, for one day, so they had some conception of what I was dealing with.</i>
So Wendy started staying at her friend Jill's AirBnb. It was empty anyway, she would rather not deal with worrying about the virus and her family's exposure, and it didn't seem like they wanted her around anyway. That's when she saw a photo on Facebook of a lakeside home with the challenge "could you live here with no internet, no people for a year for $100,000". I have seen that before, and when you are knee deep in the stress and pressure of the world, that really seems like a great idea. And Wendy had a small amount of inheritance from her mother, so she quit her job and went to France.
Today I am celebrating, by the grace of God, 14 years of sobriety thanks to AA. This book reminded me how lucky I am to have connection in my life, and how isolation plus trauma plus alcohol is a recipe for a rapidly deteriorating addiction.
Friends, you are not always going to like Wendy as you read this book. And you shouldn't. It is very easy to disconnect and think that numbing your pain is the best way to overcome it. But over time she journals, takes walks, and, apart from the real world, she learns who she is and how she needs to connect with her family and the broader world. I highlighted not only the touching lines but also those that made me laugh. Her relationship with her high school daughter and college son are very relatable.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC. Opinions are my own, I was not compensated for this review. Book to be published April 23, 2025.
A very readable book with a thought provoking premise. A woman escapes into a rural cottage in the south of France. While there she comes to terms with the trauma she has experienced as she lost her mother, dealt with a rapidly deteriorating marriage, her older children becoming more distant, and the wounds as she worked as an emergency nurse during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Working in healthcare during the pandemic was like living in two different worlds- at the hospital you were seeing people die in front of you, you were protecting yourself and feeling helpless. Like a war nurse, it was easy to become overwhelmed by the unending supply of care. But instead, you would leave a shift, and enter a world where people were blind to the dangers, some of them fighting precautions, and terrified to pass the virus along.
<i> I thought about my job and wished for a moment that I could take my family to work with me, for one day, so they had some conception of what I was dealing with.</i>
So Wendy started staying at her friend Jill's AirBnb. It was empty anyway, she would rather not deal with worrying about the virus and her family's exposure, and it didn't seem like they wanted her around anyway. That's when she saw a photo on Facebook of a lakeside home with the challenge "could you live here with no internet, no people for a year for $100,000". I have seen that before, and when you are knee deep in the stress and pressure of the world, that really seems like a great idea. And Wendy had a small amount of inheritance from her mother, so she quit her job and went to France.
Today I am celebrating, by the grace of God, 14 years of sobriety thanks to AA. This book reminded me how lucky I am to have connection in my life, and how isolation plus trauma plus alcohol is a recipe for a rapidly deteriorating addiction.
Friends, you are not always going to like Wendy as you read this book. And you shouldn't. It is very easy to disconnect and think that numbing your pain is the best way to overcome it. But over time she journals, takes walks, and, apart from the real world, she learns who she is and how she needs to connect with her family and the broader world. I highlighted not only the touching lines but also those that made me laugh. Her relationship with her high school daughter and college son are very relatable.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC. Opinions are my own, I was not compensated for this review. Book to be published April 23, 2025.