Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness
- ISBN13: 9781934633311
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
From the beloved author Dominique Browning, a humorous and moving book about losing a job and winning a life. In November 2007, former editor in chief of House & Garden magazine Dominique Browning experienced what thousands have since experienced. She lost her job. Overnight, her driven, purpose-filled days vanished. With her children leaving home and a long relationship ending, the structure of her days disappeared. She fell into a panic of loss … More >>
Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put On My Pajamas & Found Happiness
Dominique Browning’s thoughtful, sensitive writing invites us to share in deeply personal, often unshared feelings of our own. Her ability to write about her own vulnerabilities and her insight into overcoming these is moving, honest and inspiring. She leaves us feeling a voice has been put to feelings we have not quite been able to articulate, even to ourselves. Her spirit is triumphant and glorious in a meaningful way and reminds us of how we should really live this life. Life is here to be savored, not spent on false pretenses created by us and the corporations we serve. Life can be beautiful, even in its sorrow, if you take the time to allow it in. Brava for this wonderful, wonderful book!
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve clung to Dominique Browning’s previous books as a port in a storm and this one continues the tale. If you enjoyed Paths of Desire or Around the house and in the Garden you will likely enjoy this. I have different reactions to life than Ms Browning but she describes her inner life in such beautiful detail that I can follow her choices (although I would have kicked Stroller to the curb ages earlier!) and enjoy. I also felt a bit of pain at her parting with the home and gardens I had so enjoyed hearing about in the first two books, but look forward to learning more about her new life…I still cling to a set of editors letters she wrote for House and Garden, while the magazine was truly beautiful, over time I valued her editors letters most of all…and these books are a continuation of that same voice and hard won wisdom I found in them.
Rating: 5 / 5
Slow Love will strike a chord with anyone who has ever lost a job, a mate, a house, a routine. Dominique Browning tells the story of falling from one of NYC media’s cushiest jobs to a nightmare scenario that has become all too familiar to many of us: Unemployment and Loneliness (with a bit of pudginess and insomnia thrown in). Her story of picking herself up and moving forward with her life is an inspiration for all of us who have encountered uncertainty — and that’s most everyone I know. This author is honest, brave, adorable, funny, and generous. She gives us a great book that will be loved by many.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book was wonderful….I didn’t want it to end. Dominigue expresses her inner most soul so honestly and with a sense of humor and love. The way she expresses her deepest love for her two sons is exactly how I feel about my two sons, who are both grown and happy and healthy. She is so ON when she discusses briefly the horrific sense of loss when your husband leaves you and how to move forward and not crawl under the covers never to appear again. She talks about all of it. Dating — and men! I too have gone out with men who spend most of the evening talking about THEMSELVES — a monologue, and then at the end of dinner (2+ hours) they are ready to hear you talk. I would rather sit home and watch a good movie.
Great book. I am sharing it with many of my friends.
Rating: 5 / 5
Not many people who lose their jobs are able to enjoy the comfortable unemployment that Browning does.( Several houses, freelance and consulting jobs, trips to the opera, , etc.) She does have a brief period of staying home in her pajamas ( see the subtitle) -but only Lanz and Brooks Brothers, anything else would be unfashionable.
Except for recently unemployed New York media executives, who can really relate to ther position? While I understand that job loss is stressful for anyone, it is less stressful when one has no worries about how to feed and clothe and house themselves. Browning has an epiphany about baking muffins ( striking a faux naif tone -after 15 years of being single how can she have never cooked or shopped for herself?) which leads to a 15 pound weight gain ( the fancy wardrobe doesn’t fit anymore), for which she consults with a wonderful doctor ( whom she seemingly has no difficulty paying- I guess she’s not worried about the cost of health care) And she decides to sell one of her two houses- not so hard when you have another. The one portion of the book in which Browning seems truly distressed is in discussing her muffin- related weight gain- for this woman being a size 10 is worse than losing a job or ending a relationship.
But aside from being unable to relate to her privileged position, one reason I cannot see why I’d want to take advice from or lend much weight to this woman’s insights is that though she insists several times that she is lost without work, she seems to give up very easily on the idea of finding another job, and her biggest concern seems to be how to pleasurably fill her time and structure her days.
A surprisingly large part of this book is not about recovering after a job loss, or learning to live a simpler life, but recounts Browning’s lengthy relationship with a married man who demonstrates time and again that he will never commit to her, and she stays with him even after he tells her outright that he does not believe that love can last. Oh, and he goes to London to shop when she’s recovering from cancer surgery. What a catch!
So…is this someone whose advice and insight I should give much credence to? I think not.
Not a badly written book, just one that is unfocused , unrelatable and uninspiring. It seems designed to appeal to the Eat Pray Love crowd, which for all its flaws is a superior book.
Rating: 2 / 5