Wintering
A very disappointing read.
It doesn’t form a whole, it’s more like a collection of short anecdotes and non-stories, which frequently don’t convey too much.
At the risk of sounding like a sandal-wearer, I will be brutally honest and admit that I was triggered on multiple occasions while reading this book. I recently became very interested in (and probably too concerned about) sustainability (environmental, financial, social) and so to me, someone who drives a car, eats lamb chops, travels to Iceland (one of the most over-touristic and pricey destinations) and to Norway to see the Northern Lights yet complains about financial insecurity, drinks martinis yet complains about their health, mental health - this all comes across as being spoiled in a way in which Westerners are often times spoiled and privileged while not even realising it, and which is frankly repulsive, and missing the point - the notion that we can live healthily while abusing our environment is present big time and it’s truly gross.
I liked that there were quotes from some pieces of literature and that I learned some things about bees, and I agreed with the sentiment that sometimes you just have to winter out the bad times and be patient and wait for better times to come, and that you are not obliged to be cheerful and happy go lucky all the time. I also liked the description of the singing lessons which the author has taken to get back their voice after it mysteriously weakened. And that was about the value of this book to me.
