tolstoy and the purple chair my year of magical reading

A moving story of recovery, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is also a resonant reminder of the all-encompassing power and delight of reading. She finds a lesson in each book, ultimately realizing the ability of a good story to console, inspire, and open our lives to new places and experiences. My father finally wrote out his memories for a reason. And only now am I grasping the importance of looking backward. My father was in his eighties, and my sister was in the ocean, her ashes scattered there by all of us in swimsuits under a blue sky. With grace and deep insight, Sankovitch weaves together poignant family memories with the unforgettable lives of the characters she reads about. I was in my forties, reading in my purple chair. For once in her life she would put all other obligations on hold and devote herself to reading a book a day: one year of magical reading in which she found joy, healing, and wisdom. Nina ultimately turns to reading as therapy and through her journey illuminates the power of books to help us reclaim our lives.Ĭaught up in grief after the death of her sister, Nina Sankovitch decided to stop running and start reading. In the tradition of Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project and Joan Dideon’s A Year of Magical Thinking, Nina Sankovitch’s soul-baring and literary-minded memoir is a chronicle of loss, hope, and redemption. She makes reading seem accessible, relaxing, inspiring, fun.” -Los Angeles TimesĬatalyzed by the loss of her sister, a mother of four spends one year savoring a great book every day, from Thomas Pynchon to Nora Ephron and beyond. “The beauty of her project lies in seeing how books intertwine with daily life, how very much they affect our moods, interactions, and, especially important for Sankovitch, how we recover and process our memories.

Tolstoy and the purple chair my year of magical reading