Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things
A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Coming Home
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things--her follow-up memoir to the NYT bestselling The Mighty Queens of Freeville--America's most popular advice columnist, "Ask Amy," shares her journey of family, second chances, and finding love.
By peeling back the curtain of her syndicated advice column, Amy Dickinson reveals much of the inspiration and motivation that has fueled her calling. Through a series of linked essays, this moving narrative picks up where her earlier memoir left off.
Exploring central themes of romance, death, parenting, self-care, and spiritual awakening, this touching and heartfelt homage speaks to all who have faced challenges in the wake of life's twists and turns. From finding love in middle-age to her storied experience with stepparenting to overcoming disordered eating to her final moments spent with her late mother, Dickinson's trademark humorous tone delivers punch and wit that will empower, entertain, and heal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Syndicated advice columnist Dickinson (The Mighty Queens of Freeville) shares reminiscences in this authentic and heartfelt story of life in the small village (pop. 520) of Freeville on the outskirts of Ithaca, N.Y. One of four kids, Dickinson was raised on a dairy farm, but when she was 12, her colorful, reckless father lost the property and divorced her mother (who later inherited another home in Freeville). Dickinson writes of her first failed marriage, her life as a single mom (she lived in Washington D.C. but summered with her daughter in Freeville), her early job at NPR, and her eventual shift to the Chicago Tribune's Ask Amy column. The bulk of the memoir deals with family topics, her midlife search for her own "Mr. Darcy" (who turns out to be a "hunky contractor" named Bruno), coping with the deterioration of her aging mother, and dealing with her profound attachment to people, places, and houses. Each chapter serves as a vignette, and strung together they tell the tale of a "reliable," practical (she owns just four pair of shoes), immensely loving daughter, wife, and mother, who despite her career success remains down to earth and focused on family. Chapters on surviving her mother's death and restoring ties with her elderly father are particularly moving. Ask Amy fans will eagerly soak up this intimate memoir, and new readers will feel as if they've found a compassionate new friend.
Customer Reviews
Strangers Tend to Tell Me Things
Wise, and so truthfully written,at times funny,and then sad. This is a wonderful book and hard to put down.
I want my money back!
What a big disappointment this book is. Every page is dominated by the pronouns I, me, my and mine. Seriously, no ones life is that interesting. This book is just about mundane, routine, nothing spectacular types of things we ALL experience. The writing is average to below average. It should be a free book. Even at that it isn't anything special. Perhaps I read too much but I know a good book when I find it. This isn't that.
Save your time and money.