Still Life with Chickens: Starting Over in a House by the Sea | Catherine Goldhammer

Still Life with Chickens: Starting Over in a House by the Sea | Catherine Goldhammer | The Tao of Chickens

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Still Life with Ch...

	Still Life with Chickens: Starting Over in a House by the Sea Catherine Goldhammer Hudson Street Press, 2006 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

For the millions who loved A Year by the Sea comes a memoir of a woman who awakens at midlife to find wisdom in a most unlikely place

In this lovely, unconventional, often funny memoir, we meet Catherine Goldhammer, newly separated and several tax brackets poorer, forced by circumstance to move from the affluent New England suburb of her daughter's childhood into a new, more rustic life by the sea. Against all logic, partly to please her daughter and partly for reasons not clear to her at the time, she begins this year of transition by purchasing six baby chickens-whose job, she comes to suspect, is to pull her and her daughter forward, out of one life and into another.

As she gradually transforms her new house, nine hundred feet from the sea-with its tawdry exterior but radiant soul-tile by tile, flower bed by flower bed, as she watches her precocious twelve-year-old daughter blossom into a stylish and sophisticated teenager, and as she tends to the needs of six enigmatic chickens, Catherine's life starts to slowly shift from chaos to grace. Beautifully written and ultimately inspiring, Still Life with Chickens is an unforgettable lesson in hope, in starting over, and in the transcendent wisdom that can often be found in the most unlikely of places.

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Beautiful memoir for midlifers

It's rare to find such a sweet, satisfying read on the topic of midlife changes and detours. While there's nothing terribly new in this memoir -- we've all read about painful divorces and renovating ramshackle houses in far-flung locations -- Catherine Goldhammer's voice and the clarity of her writing make this book highly relatable to women in the throes of change. As an empty nester facing transitions of another kind, I melted into the pages of this book and found comfort. Wish I could find more like it.

The Tao of Chickens

There are numerous self-help books on the market that enable people to cope with major life transitions - divorce, the death of a spouse, the move to a new neighborhood, the onset of empty-nest syndrome. Nothing attacks life changes better, though, than the wit and mirth of Caterine Goldhammer's "Still Life With Chickens". Her conversational style is hilarious and reads as if she is sitting across the table from you over coffee and talking about her move to a fixer-upper house by the sea. My favorite paragraph is her observation about the simplicity of life as seen through the eyes of her brood of fluffy chicks: "The chickens went about their little chicken lives, eating and drinking and pecking. When I picked them up, they settled into the hammock I made of my shirt and went to sleep. Their beady little eyes drooped and they leaned their little heads against my thumb. Chickens are masters at living in the moment. I should stop worrying about them, I told myself. I should bow to their greater wisdom."
A must-buy book for giving to friends who need a good laugh during difficult times.

Christina Hamlett
Author of "Movie Girl" and "Screenwriting for Teens"

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Delightful

This is a charming little book,with a happy ending..Perfect reading for a long trip on a plane, train, automobile..or a waiting room.

Good book

I bought this book because I have pet chickens. The story was great and I really related to the chicken stories.

Still Live with Chickens

I enjoyed the book. It combined my love for chickens, divorce plans from my husband, and my teenage daughter as personal links to the author's story. Well written overall, and it is always comforting to read a book that has such strong connections to your life.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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