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leah25loveslife's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death and Rape
machadamia's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
4.5
Reading Ruth’s story of her life was such a crazy journey. Each chapter of her life ended with a cute and funny story of a patron to her bookstores and that felt like a small moment of reprieve in an otherwise rather sad middle portion of the book. I feel like this book really sums up who she is as a person - been through many hard times but always looking up and never afraid of adventure.
It’s a remarkable amount of resilience she had after all she has been through to pick herself up and keep going.Getting raped, then having to give birth to that child, and as though that kind of feeling isn’t complicated enough, her child has to be given away. And later her second child dies. But each time she leaves to somewhere new and picks herself up. Though she says she is running away, I see it as a necessary means of survival. To live in a state where you break down every time you think about your life and everything reminds you of it is insane. The stories of her at the navy and at sea and then helping those people at the shelter was so inspiring, it’s like despite all the hard times, she could still have the heart to give back. I was surprised to see Singapore in it and it was so interesting to see my home country in the 1970s.
I think it’s very inspiring and gives me the feeling of those old people giving advice in those short videos on social media. I loved what she said at the end where she found her home and now happens to sell books. Read this book if you want a peek into the life of someone who is quite an ordinary yet rather extraordinary in her own way.
Reading this book makes me feel like I know Ruth and also want to have chats with her in her wee bookshops. It also made me want to learn all the stories my parents have!
It’s a remarkable amount of resilience she had after all she has been through to pick herself up and keep going.
I think it’s very inspiring and gives me the feeling of those old people giving advice in those short videos on social media. I loved what she said at the end where she found her home and now happens to sell books. Read this book if you want a peek into the life of someone who is quite an ordinary yet rather extraordinary in her own way.
Reading this book makes me feel like I know Ruth and also want to have chats with her in her wee bookshops. It also made me want to learn all the stories my parents have!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
ree333's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Addiction
tomhoffmann's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
immarit's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Amazing story, made me reflect on my own life.
alina_kolpakova's review against another edition
4.25
Such an amazing life story! The audiobook is a bit under-edited tho
saunak's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.5
This book has pirates and sailing the Atlantic, crazy ups and downs of life, story of loosing and finding, and then there is a bookseller and her wee bookshops at the end of the world. Life in all it's messy beauty is portrayed in this warm memoir. I would love to visit Ruth's bookshop at some point of my life ♥️