Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch Full Review + Summary and Quotes

Book Summary

Nina Sankovitch, after experiencing a profound grief, writes a book titled "Tolstoy and the Purple chair" to recount the days when despair and hope confronted her, and life lost its ordinary atmosphere. This book, which was listed among the 20 best books by Goodreads in 2011, can be considered one of the best works in the realm of personal memoirs or, in other words, an autobiography. The initial part of Sankovitch's work deals with the early days of losing a loved one, making it a read that can resonate deeply with an audience experiencing significant sorrow.

The author reflects on the last days of her sister Anne-Marie, depicting her moments in the hospital and the suffering she endured. Returning to the happy days of the past, especially with her beloved sister as a constant companion, seemed impossible; however, there were certainly strategies to address this issue. Nina aimed to find a solution that would allow her to reclaim as much of her and her sister's life as possible. Ultimately, she chose to live among books and promised herself that for a year, she would dedicate time each day to reading without any interruptions.

Although it seems challenging in modern life to adhere strictly to such a commitment, Nina was determined not to miss even a single day. In her next step, she decided to gather what she learned from various books and present it as an educational guide for others, so they could use it as a strong antidote in different situations, including the loss of loved ones. In this book, she explains why and how she wants to help people remember their good past memories while simultaneously continuing their lives without letting despair take hold.

About the Author

Nina Sankovitch is an American author born in Illinois, USA. She is recognized as a bestselling writer and has collaborated with "The New York Times", "Los Angeles Times", "Vogue", "Huffington Post", and other media outlets. Her other works include "American Rebels", "Signed, Sealed, Delivered", and she is also the founder of the website "Read a Book Every Day."

Who Should Read the Book?

Tolstoy and the Purple chair is initially recommended for those who have always sought to establish a deep connection with books and then for those who carry a heavy heart due to life's events and are trying to heal from them.

Tolstoy and the Purple chair is structured into 20 short and long chapters following an introduction, based on what Nina Sankovitch envisioned. Some chapter titles include: Crossing the Bridge, Searching for Stars, Where Warmth Was Found, The Wisdom of Mystery Novels, and The Purpose of Kindness.

Book Quotes

Forgiveness is a noble form of acceptance—accepting that life is not fair.

There are friends who, out of fear of losing their treasure of books forever, never lend them out. Following Henry Miller's advice, I have always been one to lend books: books, like money, should always be in circulation. As much as possible, lend and borrow both books and money, especially books. Books have much more to offer than money. A book is not just a friend; it can bring you many friends. When you possess a book with your mind and spirit, you are wealthy, but when you give it to someone else, you are three times wealthier.

For years, books were like a window for me through which I observed how others faced life—their sorrows and joys, their boredom and frustrations. Now, once again, I will look through that window for empathy, guidance, companionship, and experience. Books will grant me these and even more.

This was the first terrifying aspect of losing Anne-Marie: she had lost herself; she had lost life and its wonders, its limitless possibilities.

Since the day Anne-Marie passed away, I started a race—a race to escape death.

Throughout my life, I have used books for awareness, to help free myself from distress, and as an escape.

If the phone rang, I would answer it. The caller would ask, "Are you busy?" Yes, I’m working. Sitting on the couch with my cats beside me, I was reading a really good book. That was my job this year, and it was a good one. There was no income involved, but its satisfaction was daily and profound.

Every moment experienced in life can shape the future. The present stems from the past; good things that happened in the past will happen again. Beautiful moments, light, and joy are always alive.

When I decided to read a book every day and write about it, I finally stopped running. I sat down, still and motionless, and began to read. I read every day, devoured books, thought about them, considered their authors, characters, and endings. I immersed myself in the world that the authors had created and witnessed new paths and the twists of life. I discovered tools of humor, empathy, and connection. Through my reading, I reached the essence of understanding.

People often talk about the importance of living in the present moment and envy children who enjoy their happy moments without thinking about the past or worrying about the future. I agree. But it is our lived experiences that allow us to remember joyful moments and feel happiness again. This is our ability to relive a moment that gives us strength and power. Our survival depends on our ability to remember, but our salvation from our inner selves depends on memories.

The whole world should tremble for every death; however, if that were the case, we could never see the color of peace. In fact, the world trembles with death and sorrow.

Words are witnesses to life; they record what has happened and give it all a hue of reality. Words create stories that become history and endure. Even stories reflect truth. A good story is truth—stories about lives remembered that remind us of the past while helping us move forward.

The existence of someone ordinary is a blessing; having them without thinking about losing them or never seeing them again is a blessing.

Has your heart ever ached because a book ended? Have you ever found that long after finishing a book, its author still whispered in your ear?

Perhaps love is just that: taming desire and turning it into something solid and permanent.

We are irreplaceable; we are unique based on how we are loved.

A shared book is like escaping with a companion.

Where there are memories, emptiness has no meaning. When I die, someone will remember me and bring me back.

It is the expression of love that keeps us warm even in the last days of winter.

There is always a solution to despair: it is the promise of beauties waiting for us in the future.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is a memoir of hope, and also a highly readable and fascinating book. Lifelong book lover Nina Sankovitch read a book every day for a year -- and wrote insightful reviews of each. Her project was her personally crafted therapy to overcome the devastating grief that engulfed her when her sister Anne Marie died suddenly of cancer.
While most people would look to non-fiction self-help books about death/dying in their search for answers and ways to cope and overcome their grief, Sankovitch took the more difficult path; she read great fiction, novels, short stories -- some intense, as well as some more distracting books -- in search of her own release from the guilt and pain that trapped her in the aftermath of her sisters death. Rather than provide clear answers, the books prompted Sankovitch to delve deeper into herself, as well as into the characters; they helped her constructively deal with her own personal grief and ultimately enabled her to find the will to move joyfully forward once again.
Book lovers will adore this book, but even for a casual reader, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair will resonate because the story of Sankovitchs grief and how she came to terms with it is something universally relatable. The simple gift of a great books lessons is the most precious to Sankovitch, and sharing what she has learned during her yearlong project is her gift to fellow readers.
Masterfully woven into her daily life of laundry and kids birthdays, reflections of time spent with her intellectual and fellow-book-loving sister, recollections of childhood memories and parents histories, come the books meaningful lessons shes uncovered during her year of reading. Quotes at the beginning of each chapter from some of the books highlight meaningful themes in her reading and provide a context for the chapter contents. Sankovitch loves to read, but more than that, she must read; it is an addiction that is positive, one that she finds motivating, meaningful, and in the case of her project, freeing. Sharing her experiences via Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is, for her, a gift to other readers so they too may glean from her experiences and be inspired to read and gain understanding and knowledge from great books and their characters.
Sankovitch tells the story not only of how she managed to read and review a book a day (dirtier house, lots of late nights) but also tells her family story as the youngest of three daughters of immigrant parents growing up in suburban Chicago; as a college foreign exchange student; as an accomplished professional in New York City; and as a wife and mother of 4 boys living on the east coast. With tales and reflections that span from her fathers own tragic legacy in war-torn Europe to her sons birthdays in their Connecticut home, Sankovitch exposes her readers to the emotions and thoughts she experienced during her reading project. Yes, there is sadness here, but there is also learning, growing, humor, love, and joyful emergence from the depths of sadness and guilty grief as Sankovitch tries to come to terms with the fact that she has been spared and granted a wonderful life while her sister was abruptly denied her own full life in a painful and unfair death.
Tolstoy and the Purple Chair highlights ideas from various books Sankovitch read during her yearlong project and relates them to her emotions and struggles while she groped her way back to her previously happy life. Reading the memoir gives not only an appreciation for what Sankovitch went through, but also a reverence for the seemingly effortless, natural weaving of literature with her emotional state, memories and reflections, and her daily life during her year of reading. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair reveals what it was like to take on this project, how it was gratifying and challenging, and especially how the books she read were able to help her find comfort and relief from her overwhelming sadness. Her gift to herself.
What is understated in this memoir is the extent to which Sankovitch reviewed each book. Imagine, if you will, writing an essay every day. And we are talking thoughtful, well written, insightful, essays that get you an `A grade, at that. These personally meaningful, incredibly insightful and thought-provoking reviews are readily available on her website [...] Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is a tribute to the power of books and authors; its a reminder that great books hold lessons for all of us if we choose to look deep enough. Of course books can be enjoyed purely for pleasure, without thinking too deeply, if that is what we need. But there is no doubt in the readers mind that this project was meaningful and healing for Sankovitch, for whom books are a comfort as well as a truly necessary joy. But shes made them into lifesavers as well, and for this simple gift of sharing that journey, her readers will be grateful.

I chose "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair" because it was supposed to be of a kind I like, books on books. I didnt read much about it other than the editorial reviews, so thats what I expected when I started reading: books. I had read, but not carefully, about the authors experience of fighting cancer in the family and eventually losing a loved one. I started reading and quickly found out that this was a very important part of the book. As I was facing the same situation, someone very close with cancer, I first thought it might not have been the wisest choice of reading. I feared that might not be the best time to read such a story, but I went on, which proved to be a good decision after all. Hard as it may be to read about similar situations, doubts and even certainties, the book is a very good read indeed.

Nina Sankovitch deals with her problems and finds a way to overcome by means of learning from human experience. There is nothing new under the sun, so it seems, but we have to learn that, and a lot of that experience is in books to draw from. Thats where she goes for what she needs, and she finds it through a huge and enviable project of reading a book a day for one year. Quite a goal, truly magical in another way, hats off for such an accomplishment. Next thing you think, however, is that you may not got through such an extensive account without getting a bit tired, and you are soon aware that many other books read before this special year are mentioned too! No worry. Its all very well balanced and I was able to keep interested till the end.

The books are there, plenty of them. Its actually a book on books, and also a personal story about illness, grief and mourning. Which was good to read as well. But there is a lot more. It is a family memoir, which goes back to the authors family story in Europe during WW II, and thats a surprising and very good part of the book as well. A highlight in my view, but there are several other parts in her process of extracting wisdom from her reading that may appeal more to other readers, like her years as a teen or as a mother.

Half of the book read, I was still being pleased at every page, but by then I had understood her approach. It looked like I was more familar with the author, her family, her reading, her conclusions. And as for the conclusions from each book read, I was starting to think that I already knew that, that I wouldnt have needed to read that book to come to that understanding. Pretension, Ill admit to that.

But the Big Brother was watching me. Just a while after having finished the book and still in the "I already knew that" mood, I was delivered a book ordered from The Folio Society. Together came a nice book marker, with this: "The best books... are those that tell you what you know already."(George Orwell)! Like the books to Nina, this quote conveyed a precious idea to me. Even if I was not in need to read those particular books and come to those specific conclusions, I was, and I am, we are, always, in need to read, even if we read about what we already know.

I may not want to read many of the books on Sankovitchs list (you expect to get some reading suggestions from such books, and you do), but Ill certainly want to read more books by this author! And yes, you learn something or get some very good ideas, like "better not to criticize a friends favorite author".

Nina Sankovitch is not the first person to lose someone very dear to them, but she is the first person to read a book a day for a year to help her overcome her grief. Ninas sister, Anne Marie, died a few months after being diagnosed with cancer. During those months Nina read to her, sometimes to make her laugh, sometimes to encourage her to be strong, and sometimes because it took their minds off the hospital room that they were both in. But mainly because it was a lifelong bond between the two of them and every moment spent together was precious. Their parents had always encouraged them to read when they were young, visits to the local mobile library were frequent, and as the girls grew older, books were constantly discussed and exchanged. Books were a thread that held the Sankovitch family together

Anne Marie was only 46 when she died, so when Nina celebrated her 46th birthday she decided that she had to make her year a special one. She had spent the last few years immersed in school PTA committees, soccer coaching and being everything to everyone, but still the sorrow she felt every day weighed down her heart. She naturally turned to the world of books and decided to read a book a day for a year. It wasnt always easy to juggle her family, school commitments, social life and her love of books, but she found a way, just as we all do when we really want and need to do something.

As Nina went through her journey of reading a book a day, she reinforced her personal challenge by writing a review and posting it on her website. ([...]). As the year went by, people from all walks of life and from all around the globe contacted her. Books were recommended, dialogues were exchanged discussing characters, story lines and plots, strangers became friends and as the piles of books stacked up around her, she discovered that she had become a part of a literary family.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair is a true story of how a family overcame many obstacles, survived and learned how to embrace life. As well as being a memoir, it naturally encourages the reader to pick up a pencil and paper and make a note of the odd book to read - dont get me wrong, I love going to book shops and browsing, but more often than not, I go in and buy a particular book because it has been recommended by a family member or friend. Nina Sankovitch is your new friend. Far from giving you just a list of 365 books, she mentions certain books that she could relate to throughout the year, some characters were encouraging, enthusiastic and jovial, others more dramatic and direct, but with each book Nina learnt something, and in turn so do we.

As Nina says "there is no remedy for the sorrow of losing someone", but she took time out to do something for herself (something many of us never do but should). At the end of her year of reading she learnt to hold on to memories and that the power of love is great enough to survive death. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair was a joy to read.

I was attracted to this book by two themes that I noticed in the ads and newspaper review: A story of grief and of literature - reading one book a day for a year to recover from a profound grief. I think by now the outline of the book is familiar: the author, Nina Sankovitch, is in long-term grief over the premature death of her older sister from cancer. Two years of throwing herself into activity has only left her more at a loss so she decides to spend one year where her "job" would be to read a whole book a day and review it using literature as her grief therapy. She has a blog where she logs much of this (I have not seen it). She tries to keep up her family life (4 young boys + a husband and all the usual chores) as best she can, but reading becomes both her escape and vocation.

It is an intriguing premises, but it ultimately disappointed me. Of course the sections about her sisters advancing illness and ultimate death are quite poignant but as she reflects almost endlessly on the whole history of her familys lives, it became boring. Going over all the family get-togethers and holiday celebrations over the years just lost interest for me. I think this part of the book could be shortened. I almost gave up on the book at this point (something I rarely do) but decided to doggedly push on, but I did do a lot of skimming. I kept hoping the lists of books would yield some treasures.

The second issue was the books she decided to read. None could be very long but they seemed to be of a respectable size. The title mentioning "Tolstoy" led me to believe there would be a lot of great classics that would lure me to go back and read them again, but she chose other books for this venture. Because she is of Eastern European origin and has relatives who have suffered greatly in wars and oppressions, she is much attracted to books about people from anywhere in the world who have survived such catastrophes. They give her courage to heal and go on. These are very profound and frightening books - far beyond my comfort zone. So in the end, I did not end up with a long list of books I MUST read, but just one or two and that was a disappointment.

I really wanted to like this book and there is no doubt of the authors sincerity and gifts but I didnt enjoy it. I am happy to report though that the year of reading was a great therapy for HER and that is good news.

One final point: I read this book in the Kindle edition and there were no pictures. I dont know if the paper book has any but they would have added to the story.

"Tolstoy and the Purple Chair" is a testament to the restorative power of books. After losing her beloved sister to cancer, Nina Sankovitch sets out on an ambitious journey of hope, joy and healing as she vows to read an entire book everyday for 1 year.

Her "Year of Magical Reading" is a bit of a take on Joan Didions "Year of Magical Thinking" written several years ago after the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Joyce Carole Oates also has written beautifully about her intense grief at the loss of her husband recently. The big difference here,however, is that while Didion and Oates wrote of the paralyzing trauma that is experienced upon the immediate loss of a loved one, Sankovitch has already suffered for 3 years. The shock and surreal feelings have passed and she has realized that her grief will not end. The feeling of surviving her sister leave her bereft and guilty. This is a concept that all of us who lose a dear loved one who cannot be replaced must come to eventually. How do we learn to live in tandem with the sadness that will never leave us? Nina decides that the same passion that has carried her (and bonded her and her sister together) through all of the good and bad times of her life will be her therapy. She takes us along on her journey...while having one epiphany after another which all originate within the pages of her carefully chosen books. Using the wonderful Cyrill Connolly quote "Words are alive,and literature becomes an escape,not from,but into living." as her inspiration she reads on and slowly and thoughtfully reclaims her life and her joy.

Being a voracious reader who reads a book a week and has for 20 years, I found her journey absolutely delightful. If you have not experienced the type of debilitating grief that the author is writing about here.....you will. It is the universal equalizer, unfortunately. I doubt that this kind of pain can be preempted...but keep this beautiful book in mind....and for those of you in pain...read it immediately. I lost my Mother 4 years ago. She was my reading partner...we bonded over discussing the books that we shared and I miss her exponentially. While she was sick, neither one of us could concentrate enough to read...which left us both totally without the comfort that we had depended upon for so long. After I lost her I was afraid that I still could not read. I plunged in apprehensively...starting with the late Elizabeth Edwards latest book...and a great choice it was. She gently brought me along with her on her own journey through lifes heartbreaks and victories. I will never forget that reading experience...and will be forever grateful to Elizabeth for her extraordinary open and peaceful heart and amazing wisdom. She helped me return to reading...my passion.

I think that Nina Sankovitch is the Eckhart Tolle of her genre here....and that is the ultimate compliment. Dont miss it.....

Being a book lover and someone who has known the grief of losing a close relative, I purchased this book with a lot of hope. That being said, it was a book that left me feeling bored at best and irritated at worst. First, let me say that I do not intend to sound mean-spirited. Perhaps I just missed her message. But I first found myself irritated by her whole quest of reading a book a day for a year. Reading the whole year, fine. But a book a day when you are a wife and mother? She makes the statement that they really could use her income but she seems to experience no remorse for being out of work. Instead the burden rests on her husband and she doesnt seem to be aware or even care to know his true feelings on the subject. Her attempts to rationalize her reading as "work" dont "work" either. But even more than her income, it seems that she is able to push her familys needs to a back-burner. She described her youngest sons illness with stomach flu and you can sense that she is just itching to get him asleep so that she may return to her books. I am a passionate book-lover and consider some of my favorite titles to be friends, but I can never imagine them taking the place of my family, especially when they need me. It is not until page 57 or so that she casually mentions the fact that her husbands sister died but she never acknowledges her husbands need to grieve. Instead, she expects him to continue working, continue watching the kids, cooking meals, etc. It just smacks of selfishness to me.

In addition to that, I was equally irritated by her naive notion that only she has known such terrible grief. That only she needs time to recover, to process that grief. Since she is posting reviews online of the books she reads, she frequently receives communication from others, people who express their own favorite titles and their own painful circumstances. The surprise she expresses when this happens has me questioning a lot of her thinking. This is also made worse by the choppiness in the interwoven memories. Like other reviewers, there was no obvious link between the books she read and the memories that she supposedly connected with them.

All in all, I was disappointed in the book, did not feel enriched by it and frankly, regretted spending my money on it.

This book has been on my TBR wishlist since its release a few years ago and Ive finally gotten around to reading it! Not gonna lie, it was mostly that purple chair on the cover that sucked me in -- I want one!! -- but also because Im all for books about books, reading, book culture, booknerds, etc.

This is the authors memoir about her project to read one book a day for an entire year. Sankovitch explains how after tragically losing her sister to cancer, she went for some time doing anything and everything to keep herself busy, not wanting to face those emotions of grief, loss and the like. Eventually though she comes to a point where she admits she cant live like that anymore or shes bound to break, physically and emotionally. Remembering how her sister and she shared a love of books, Sankovitch decides to embark on this project to read one book a day for an entire year, but with a few rules she gives herself:

1) No reading any writer more than once for the course of the year.
2) Pick all new titles -- No re-reading books youve already read previously
3) Must review everything you read

While shes not exclusive about it, Sankovitch does also incorporate titles that her sister especially liked -- as a sort of way to honor her life and memory. She also decides to go for books under 300 pages, explaining that while she is able to knock out a 300 pg book in about 4 hours, she is also a working mom, so she has to work the project schedule (reading, reviewing, trips to the library, etc) around her kids school schedules, dinner and laundry, as well as personal time with her husband. Amazing how fast hours of the day can slip away from you!

This memoir ended up reminding me of another bookish memoir I read recently -- The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe -- where he talks about doing a reading project with his mom who was battling terminal cancer. While I did have a casual enjoyment of Sankovitchs story, I wasnt riveted. This may in part be due to some of the memoir bordering on TMI for me. I laughed at some parts (even through the ick visuals) like how she talks about trying to write up a review one day when one of her young sons is sent home from school with a surprise stomach bug. So shes trying to maintain this project schedule while cleaning out vomit buckets and bring down her childs fever. Then theres the night shes wrapped up the project work a little ahead of schedule so she tries to go "give some attention" *wink wink* to her husband, only to find him passed out on the couch, tv blaring. But the part that really had me cringing is discovering that this famous purple chair she did her reading in was not the one you see on the cover. Nope...hers, she describes, is "a muted purple with a pattern of flowers and vines." Thats not what had me cringing though. No, it was the detailed description of how one of her cats would repeatedly tinkle on this chair to the point of it being so offensive in stench, no one could be near it for more than a few minutes. This was to be her throne of literary escapism. Blech!

It wasnt just that. Largely, I just didnt find it that gripping. There were parts I liked, parts that made me sad, and I left with some nice additions to my TBR. Im content. Glad I read it, just not favorited.

When Nina Sankovitch lost her elder sister Anne-Marie to stomach cancer, she also lost the person with whom she most regularly shared new books and authors. Sankovitch, her two sisters, and her brother were lucky to have grown up in a home in which books were so appreciated, but now one of them would be missing from the conversation. It was only after three years of living life at a frantic pace in which she tried to live both for herself and for Anne-Marie that Sankovitch finally decided to try something different in order to deal with her grief. She would read a book per day for the next 365 days – and she would spend two or three hours writing a formal review of each and every one of those books. Believe it or not, she did it - Tolstoy and the Purple Chair tells us how she managed it and what she gained in the process.

From the beginning, Sankovitch set a few firm rules for herself:
• She would read only one book per author,
• She would not re-read any books she had already read,
• She would limit her choices to books that were no more than one inch thick, ensuring that they would, for the most part, be in the range of 250-300 pages each,
• And she would only read the kind of books she and Anne-Marie would have likely enjoyed together if her sister were still alive.

In Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, Nina Sankovitch devotes time to Anne-Marie’s story, to what it was like growing up in her family, to how she dealt with her sister’s death both before and after beginning her reading year, and to many of the 365 books she read that year. Reading enthusiasts will be intrigued by the book choices that Sankovitch made during the year, as well as by how often, and how regularly, she was able to find something in those books that spoke to her personally about the grieving process. Readers seeking new ideas about dealing with the grief associated with the loss of a family member are likely to be equally enthusiastic about the Tolstoy and the Purple Chair because Sankovitch is frank and open about her own experiences following Anne-Marie’s death – starting with the question that so often haunted her: “Why do I deserve to live?”

Coming in to her year of reading, Sankovitch knew exactly how lucky she was that her family was willing to support her effort to find comfort through such a time-consuming project. As she says in the book’s second chapter:

“For years, books had offered me a window into how other people deal with life, its sorrows and joys and monotonies and frustrations. I would look there again for empathy, guidance, fellowship, and experience. Books would give me all that, and more…I was trusting books to answer the relentless question of why I deserved to live. And how I should live. My year of reading would be my escape back into life.”

She found what she was searching for.

The death of a loved one is invariably traumatic and destabilizing. It also, after a time, can provide incitement toward greater meaning. Eternal questions press forward, through grief and loss. Why? Toward what end? Does life have any lasting purpose and significance, against the specter of mortality? This endeavor, for some, leads to renewed (or discovered) spiritual faith, or the coherence of a philosophical framework. For others, to practical methods of equilibrium, such as increased commitment to work.

In Tolstoy and the Purple Chair---in response to the premature death of her sister Anne-Marie---Nina Sankovitch embarks on just such a quest. Her solution? Read one book per day for an entire year, "to engulf myself in books," as she says, "and come up whole again," then relate the experience to readers.

But her effort, and the memoir that resulted, is rather more expansive and ambitious than it lets on, or as one might suppose from her description. For Nina (her first name seems fitting because her account is so unguarded and personal) reading is much more than a source of escape and distraction; it is a search for meaning in the broadest sense. Rather than gravitating toward one creed or system, with its clear-cut answers but associated limitations, she explores the largest horizon possible: literature. For what conveys both the totality and diversity of human experience more than that?

Accordingly her book-a-day approach is far more than mere therapeutic sampling, or an excuse for a series of literary disquisitions on specific authors. It serves, rather, as a means for maximizing and intensifying her insights, even when they are abstracted and general. She allowed herself a year for this exercise, with distinct beginning and end points---finite, just like life itself. She sets out to make the most of it, and invites the reader to accompany her.

And the results are infinitely worthwhile. About halfway through, she writes: "And now I understood why it was important to read these books. Because being witness to all types of human experience is important to understanding the world, but also to understanding myself." Later, she resists hard conclusions---which are elusive in any case---save recognition of the commonality of human joy and suffering, and the corresponding imperative of empathy, as long as we are alive. What remains most of all with the reader afterward, though, is more sweeping: enriched perspective, new insights, added awareness. Its extra illumination of the intangible, the sublime and uplifting, counterpoints to mortality for which literature is the most abundant possible source.

Nina Sankovitch set out to benefit herself from her year of reading, and succeeded. Through this extraordinary book, she extends the same, untold service to her readers as well.

I have often thought that my dream vacation would be to go to a remote mountain cabin by a babbling stream with a stack of books (or my Kindle) and spend most of the day in a comfortable spot reading. When I discovered this book and realized it was about a woman reading a book a day for year, I felt like I had found a kindred spirit. Unfortunately, the authors project was prompted by her sisters early death, and the web of activity she had wound around herself to put off dealing with the grief. What a delight it would be for us to tackle something like this without such a negative prompt and to just do it because we wanted to. While I am sorry for the reason behind her project, I am grateful she undertook and was willing to share her experiences.

A great deal of the book deals with her sisters illness and death as well as how she responded to it. The reader is privy to their relationship as youngsters as well as how it developed as they grew into adulthood. That background was very helpful in understanding Ms. Sankovitchs reaction and the range of emotions she went through. We are also able to be a fly on the wall with her nuclear family and get a peek at her life at present time. All of this helped develop the framework for the reading project and helped me understand that this had deeper meaning for her - not just an interesting or intriguing idea that was a lark.

I really enjoyed reading about how she structured the year, what her criteria was for book selection, how people in her life reacted to an unusual goal ---- all fascinating stuff for someone like me. While she sprinkles the narrative with references to books she read, not all are mentioned but the back of the book lists all 365 books that filled her life for that time period.

It was a bit heavier read than I initially anticipated since I didnt fully grasp at the beginning how much ink would be devoted to her sisters struggles and passing. Once I readjusted my thinking a bit, I found myself quite enjoying it and highlighting many passages that I thought were wonderful.

For those of us who think books are the answer to just about every problem, this is a great read and one I would recommend