Breathing Lessons | 
pick82 || Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler
“It was amazing, Ira often said, how people fooled themselves into believing what they wanted to.”
This one made me laugh and cry. A story about family and love that persists despite imperfections.
The mere fact that her children were children, condemned for years to feel powerless and bewildered and confined, filled her with such pity that to add any further hardship to their lives seemed unthinkable. She could excuse anything in them, forgive them everything. She would have made a better mother, perhaps, if she hadn't remembered so well how it felt to be a child.
Past is past…no it‘s not! People are always fond of saying that, but what‘s past is never past; not entirely 🕰🚙
pickAll you have to do is spend one day with quirky, comical and compassionate Maggie and Ira Moran to see how love keeps us going through all the nonsense life throws at us. 😅❤️ Joanne Woodward and James Garner were the perfect match in the touching TV adaptation. Mark this Pulitzer Prize winner and my #TripleBookSpin as another Anne Tyler gem! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
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Maggie and Ira set out on a road trip to attend the funeral of an old friend and on the way a lot is revealed about them, their marriage and their family. I absolutely loved it. In my memory Ira spends a lot of the book #BehindTheWheel #MayMovieMagic
so-soHonestly, I had a hard time liking the characters in this novel. When I started it, I was looking for an easy, light read but I'm not as satisfied with the book as I hoped. Maggie's character got on my nerves and I saw a lot of myself in Ira. Mr. Otis was probably my favorite character!
I thought I was the only one who experienced this!!!
pickMy first Anne Tyler and it won't be my last. A middle-aged couple take a short road trip to attend a funeral but the events of the day are entwined with their recollections, chiefly those of goofy, meddling yet somehow lovable Maggie. Warm, moving and very funny about marriage, parenthood, and family. Enjoyed it a lot.
pickThis book is quiet and slow moving but in a very poignant and beautiful way. A couple take a car ride to an old friend's funeral and an exploration of their family, life, and love for each other unveils itself along the way. Set in a 24 hour time period, Anne Tyler demonstrates how much power she has in crafting characters you want to know forever. A great read.
She had a tendency to fall into other people's rhythms of speech while she was talking to them.
Like all Anne Tyler joints, it's compulsively readable.
She'd been so intent on not turning into her mother, she had gone and turned into her father.
pickTyler's Pulitzer Prize winning book. I'd seen some less than stellar reviews on this, but I think he missed the mark. There is a lot to pull apart in this one. Takes place across one day, but Tyler somehow managed to weave in memories and back story. Masterful in that way. Life not being what you'd thought, hoped for, or wanted. A mother's unflappable support of her family. A great read, and a quality way to remove yourself from today's reality.
panA veritable celebration of traditional gender roles and cliched femininity. The nagging wife, the shrewish mother, the "free spirited" friend, the tomboy, the waif; they're all there. This book was a total embarrassment.
To be clear: I did not hate this book because Maggie is "annoying." She is annoying, but she is so precisely drawn you cannot help but give kudos to the author. It takes quite a bit of skill to find such nuance in a character.
