Rating: 
Summary: Sensory rewards.
Review: An inspiring and enlightening work that is very appropriate considering all the depression, anxiety, uncertainty and pessimisim we see all around us. This book is clearly written for women and truthfully I bought it for my wife. But, while she was reading it, I started scanning it and was drawn in. The author suffered a head injury that deprived her of sensory input. One by one, she regained her senses, but gained a new appreciation for life as she rediscovered the abundant joy to be found in simple everyday pleasures. It may sound trite, but I assure you, it's not. You can't help but become more aware of life's blessings when you read this book!
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful reminder to savor life
Review: As a longtime SIMPLE ABUNDANCE (SA) fan, I was excited to hear that SB was coming out with a new day book. (I have been re-reading SIMPLE ABUNDANCE for a while now!). ROMANCING the Ordinary is lovely to look at and the essays are pure SB -- comforting and informative, as always. One of the things that made "SA" so helpful and appealing was its daily entries. While "Romancing the Ordinary" is divided into 12 months, there are no daily entries -- so you simply read the essays for that month as you see fit. I am not sure why the publisher didn't encourage Sarah to make an essay for each day of the year, just as she did for "SA". For that reason alone, I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5. However, I do love the concept of day books, and I think women need them more than ever now that life is so busy, and often fraught with conflict. Writers like Sarah give us comfort and advice, and permission to enjoy and savor life instead of merely rushing through it. Sarah gives us old wisdom, new thought, and some wonderful quotations along the way. We need more of this!
Rating: 
Summary: I am not her target audience
Review: At least, I don't feel as if I am. I originally picked up Simple Abundance off of a coworker's desk while rebooting my computer for the nth time in a morning. Someone then gave me their mostly unused copy and on a lark, wrote out my response to the daily entries in my online journal, which garnered positive feedback, including someone giving me this sequel of sorts. I'm not sure I would've stuck with either without the feedback. This made both well-worth my time. (And yes, my readers gave me a 3rd daily essay book "Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much", which is already quite different. And, since I'm able to keep up with daily journal entries, possibly inappropriate.) I recommend reading this either near a computer search engine (or a classic library) and researching some of the people she mentions. Searching for some of the artists, painters, explorers and otherwise interesting historical figures mentioned in the book made it a stepping stone to a richer experience, which seems to be the goal. I also recommend a fourm that gets feedback, be it blog (I'm no celebrity, and yet I have an interested audience), discussion list or a group that periodically meets in person. Romancing the Ordinary is, as mentioned, less cute-fuzzy optimistic (I was fascinated by how she faced life changes, whether or not I agreed with her choices) and more earthy/pagan/wiccan/(women-positive). I regard this as a step forward. Nonetheless, it is a sequel. The original is still a better place to begin.
Rating: 
Summary: A Romance for All Seasons
Review: I found it impossible not to be drawn to Romancing the Ordinary, at first simply for its beautiful cover. What I found inside was even lovelier! The style os this book harkens back to Simple Abundance as it calendars the year month by month, offering recipes and cozy home remedies. Sarah's signature narrative is in full effect with her personal anecdotes and insight, where it feels more like an exchange with an intimate friend. Though there is a noted change in her tone--sometimes she's nostalgic, others she is inquisitive and even sassy!
There has been so much tragedy in the past year that I think many of us are finding renewed significance in our everyday ordinary. Sarah takes that sentiment to a refreshing new level. Embedded between fanciful ways of revamping the blah of everyday routine, are nuggets of wisdom and practical proposals.
The book's foundation focuses on her intriguing idea that we can live life fuller simply by beginning to re-appreciate the power of our natural senses. In addition to the five physical ones, she tacks on wonder and intuition. Sarah's theory of Romancing Life translates seamlessly into Romancing Yourself. A practice that begins with self-knowledge. She shares her own realization that, the more you know how to make yourself happy, the easier it will be to recognize who will make you happy. And in the meantime, why wait for that someone? Do it yourself. Now what woman can argue with that?
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've ever read
Review: I have never enjoyed a book as much as this one. I have given 3 of my sisters a copy along with all of my girlfriends. This book has changed the way I live. A must for all women over 35! I have also bought extra copies to give my daughter-n-laws when they get older!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read and Live Book
Review: I was surprised and delighted with Romancing the Ordinary for as a 53 year old woman, feeling my passion and sensuality emerge from this "sleeper" work by Sarah tickles me. I expected beautiful prose, for which we are well rewarded. I anticipated the wisdom of other eras, SBB's trademark quotes, and was delighted and comforted. I hoped for new insights and reminders of practices that work (take time for myself, baths and candles) and was grateful that SBB took the time and risk to remind me about things that work to ground me as a woman. The thrill came when I realized my passion, for life, love, sex and living my life full out, with me first, happy and joyful. Contrary to one reviewer, this is a book for all women, married and single. My husband and I are quite thrilled with my love of this book," which I read first, like a novel! Try the food of love, page 84 or read "Lead Her into Temptation", pg 408. No one but Sarah and maybe God, would know the trouble and fun a baked apple can cause. For every woman, who knows and cares about another woman, share this treasure with them and savor the "es"sensual delights that life holds for us.
Rating: 
Summary: We Were Highly Disappointed
Review: I've been a fan of Sarah's work for several years now. In the mid-90's, when Simple Abundance hit the bookstores, I was first in line to get my copy and still love the book to this day. I've been a member of an online Simple Abundance group list for the last 4 years and we've worked through SA twice as well as Sarah's second offering, Something More. We were eagerly anticipating Romancing The Ordinary and couldn't wait to get started on working through it last January. However, as the months of this past year wore on, everyone on our list grew increasingly disappointed with this book to the point that list participation dropped off and some people even left the group out of sheer disinterest or exasperation. Being diligent fans, many of us persevered, hoping that we might see glimmers of Sarah's former brilliance and confidence in her subject matter... or, when that wasn't forthcoming, just something new that she hadn't decided to rehash and repackage in this beautiful to look at but disappointing read. We had so many problems with her concepts: her melancholy that clouds her musings with a dark cast due to our speculation that she was down in the dumps from her divorce when she wrote this book, the doubt and misgivings she seems to cast on concepts she wrote about with such confidence in Simple Abundance and her desperation for love and assurances of future happiness that clearly weren't present when she wrote this as she writes about pie in the sky concepts like luck, hope, and all kinds of silly ways to divine the future and control what seems was out of her control at the time. We wondered who she was more trying to convince with the romance theme - us or herself? We didn't feel a sense that she was convinced, so we weren't convinced. We found ourselves shaking our heads in disagreement with her ideas - often totally contradictory to what she wrote with assurance in SA - and we all experienced and expressed such a lack of resonance with her down in the dumps frame of mind that we began to use the book as a prompt for exploring why we totally disagreed with her and what we actually believed instead. That proved to be very enlightening - but I don't think Sarah wrote the book to be used in this way. I've heard it said that we teach what we most need to learn. Maybe Sarah was trying to find Romance again in her ordinary life and that's how this book evolved into being. Unfortunately, her bumbling to find that romance wasn't conveyed to us through the pages. There was nothing in this volume that was said that wasn't said better, more convincingly and with more depth and insight in Simple Abundance. But if you like weird recipes and truly ridiculous notions of things to try or do because you have no life and are looking for the absurd to fill up your time because you've nothing better to do... maybe this is the book for you. Personally, the most disappointing thing for me about this book was that it cast doubt in my mind on Sarah's work in general. I still love and highly recommend Simple Abundance. I really liked Something More, too. But in my eyes, Romancing the Ordinary was a total flop and not up to par with what I've come to expect of her. After muddling through this work over the course of a year with others who have come to love and respect Sarah's work just as much as myself, I will now have a shadow of a doubt about purchasing future books by her for fear that she'll be producing yet another volume that is unenlightening, disappointing and contradictory of her former wisdom as this bound volume of fluff was. And I was left wondering - did she write this due to publisher pressure to ride the wave of her success? If so, it was a sad effort that, unfortunately, I and others bought but found that it only scantly clung by a thread to the coattails of her previous and exceptional former efforts. How many ways can I say this book was such a disappointment???
Rating:
Summary: Enjoy each moment
Review: Like so many women my age, I spent way too much time looking for a mate. Sarah reminded me that my lover just might be life itself! How intriguing! As I'm reading this book, my eyes and ears and nose..every sense is being reborn. Sometimes we have to be reminded to appreciate all that surrounds us. Life is hard but it doesn't have to be negative. Thank you Sarah
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read and Live Book
Review: Romancing the Ordinary is a continuation of Sarah's (and our) quest for happiness and joy in this short time that we have on planet Earth. Although I have read, and re-read, all of her books, I am never tired of what she has to say. I don't care if she says "toots," talks about her divorce or daughter, or reiterates a point that she made in a previous book. To me, the bottom line is, Sarah touches my heart. I think that most women who are on the "simple abundance" path will find great pleasure in Romancing the Ordinary. It is truly an "essensual" book from cover to cover.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't get opened often
Review: This book remains on my nightstand, but its proximity to me still is not enticement enough to open it more. Breathnach's first book (S.A.) is hard to beat.
|
