Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake [Kindle Edition]

Anna Quindlen (Author)

Book Description

INCLUDING AN EXCLUSIVE CONVERSATION BETWEEN MERYL STREEP AND ANNA QUINDLEN

“[Quindlen] serves up generous portions of her wise, commonsensical, irresistibly quotable take on life. . . . What Nora Ephron does for body image and Anne Lamott for spiritual neuroses, Quindlen achieves on the home front.”—NPR
 
In this irresistible memoir, Anna Quindlen writes about a woman’s life, from childhood memories to manic motherhood to middle age, using the events of her life to illuminate ours. Considering—and celebrating—everything from marriage, girlfriends, our mothers, parenting, faith, loss, to all the stuff in our closets, and more, Quindlen says for us here what we may wish we could have said ourselves. As she did in her beloved New York Times columns, and in A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Quindlen uses her past, present, and future to explore what matters most to women at different ages. Quindlen talks about
 
Marriage: “A safety net of small white lies can be the bedrock of a successful marriage. You wouldn’t believe how cheaply I can do a kitchen renovation.”
 
Girlfriends: “Ask any woman how she makes it through the day, and she may mention her calendar, her to-do lists, her babysitter. But if you push her on how she really makes it through her day, she will mention her girlfriends. ”
 
Our bodies: “I’ve finally recognized my body for what it is: a personality-delivery system, designed expressly to carry my character from place to place, now and in the years to come.”
 
Parenting: “Being a parent is not transactional. We do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward endeavor: We are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.”
 
Candid, funny, and moving, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is filled with the sharp insights and revealing observations that have long confirmed Quindlen’s status as America’s laureate of real life.
 
“Classic Quindlen, at times witty, at times wise, and always of her time.”—The Miami Herald
 
“[A] pithy, get-real memoir.”—Booklist
 
Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Anna Quindlen
 
“A reporter by training, a storyteller at heart, [Quindlen’s] writing is personal, humorous, and thought-provoking.”—The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
“Quindlen is an astonishingly graceful writer.”—San Francisco Examiner
 
“Thank goodness for Anna Quindlen. [She] is smart. And compassionate. And witty. And wise.”—Detroit Free-Press
 
“[Quindlen is] America’s resident sane person.”—The New York Times

About the Author

Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, nonfiction, and self-help bestseller lists. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times she won the Pulitzer Prize and published two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear. She is the author of six novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, and Every Last One.

Product Details

• File Size: 1226 KB
• Print Length: 224 pages
• Publisher: Random House; Reprint edition (April 24, 2012)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005OCYR9E
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,486 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood
  • #8 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Motherhood
  • #20 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

209 of 215 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars More Candles, More Cake March 11, 2012

By Jeanette TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

At age 60, Anna Quindlen has already had plenty of candles and birthday cake, but she wants more. A lot more. Her own mother died in her early 40s, when Anna was just nineteen. That early loss has made her grateful for every additional year she gets that her mother was denied.

Anna's gratitude is the common ingredient that ties together these ruminations of an aging feminist baby boomer. She seems amazed, even somewhat astonished, at how fortunate she has been. She has reached an age where she can look back and recognize the combination of ambition and serendipity that allowed her to "have it all" in terms of marriage, motherhood, career, and friendship.

These essays will of course have the most appeal for those in Quindlen's age range whose life paths have somewhat paralleled hers. But if you've read her work before, you know she always shares observations and wisdom that are universally relevant. I like her spunk. I like her honesty. Most of all, I like the way she always manages to say the things I feel but cannot put into words. I recommend the book for all connoisseurs of life.

108 of 118 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You Are Never Too Old To Have The Best Day Of Your Life February 22, 2012

By prisrob TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Anna Quindlen has always seemed like a friend to me. She doesn't know me, but I know her, and we are very much alike. She was born one day before me, July 8, we both married young and maintained our profession. We each had three children. We have grown older together, and I have followed her through her New York Times articles, her novels and her Newsweek blogs. I have missed her writing, and now, here she is, writing about the times of her life.

Anna talks about her times of life from a child to young woman to aging adult. And, as she says, she realized that when one of her children told her 68 was elderly, and she tried to refute that and make her own definition of elderly, that 'Old is whatever you haven't gotten to yet'. Oh, I agree with that phrase. I am in my sixties, but I don't feel much older than forty, except that some parts of my body are lower than they used to be.

This is a book for all of us. A guidebook of sorts, of where we have been, where we are now and where we might be going. Anna tells us her story, but if you are of her age, it is all of our stories. With our time from early adult to an aging one. We have all collected 'stuff', and like Anna I could do without most of it. They are things that meant a lot and still do, but are only things. My computer holds most of the pictures I value. My children have the important things from their childhood. We raised our children the best we could. I was not a helicopter mother, I was too busy and that came years after. Like Anna, we were trying to raise our children, keep our marriage intact and work at the job we loved. This was after the women's revolution, we were the lucky recipients, but at an early age we felt the sexism inherent in our jobs.... Pinched bottoms and all, the bosses were usually all men, and we had to work very hard to get to a level that was satisfactory.

Anna writes in chapters, and they are all significant and meaningful. She begins with "Life in the Fifties'. We were the most liberated of American women, and we knew it. The early years, through our first job and then marriage and children. Then to the era of our 'Solitude', knowing that we can get through one more terrible day. She says:

"We women spend our whole lives going up and down hormonally, being one thing on Wednesday and another on Sunday, feeling bloated and then svelte, juicy and then played out. And our bodies have changed so often during our lifetimes- puberty, pregnancy, menopause, premenstrual, post menstrual, post hysterectomy, sometimes post mastectomy- that having a different body than we had at thirty, comes as less of a surprise to us than it does to many men."

Anna talks about Faith, she was brought up a Catholic, but as time has gone by religion per say has not played as important a part in her life. She began to question why women were not allowed to be Priests, and the topper was the sexual abuse of children by Priests. This resonates with me, it is not that we don't have Faith, we just don't practice it in a church. We give the fundamentals to our children and let them choose what is next.

Retirement was a natural progression of one generation to another says, Anna. But nowadays we are living longer and working longer, and the young are waiting for their chance, for us to leave. Some have to work longer and some want to. And, then we think of our death, and what we want. Most of us want to live longer. It is inevitable, but not quite yet.

Anna Quindlen has written an honest, thoughtful book about life, her life and experiences, but it also mirrors many of our lives. The writing is superb, and I was sorry to see the last sentence, but as Anna says, To Be Continued.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 02-23-12

A Short Guide to a Happy Life

Every Last One: A Novel Read more ›

139 of 169 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit melodramatic in places March 19, 2012

By Isadore Ann VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I really enjoy this author's work, and have read previous essays and books and left with a somewhat hopeful feeling. I didn't get that one so much with this one. In fact, I found this book a bit melodramatic. The tone was like listening to a friend who you know has it better than you and yet who focuses on what she doesn't have. She might have wealth and a husband that loves her, but she'll focus on one or two things in life she thinks she missing. This book gave me that same feeling, that you want to embrace her and love her and tell her it's going to be all right, but at the same time you can't understand what she is grousing about.

Quindlen is such a talented author, and I have enjoyed many previous works. I actually made a cup of tea and sat down to enjoy this book with excitement, but something in it really lacked. It's hard to pinpoint something other than the "tone" or the lack of an emotional pull, but that's what it comes down to for me.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delight (4.5 Stars) March 11, 2012

By Karie Hoskins VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

There are so many take away quotes from "lots of candles, plenty of cake" that it's hard to choose which ones I connected with the most. Anna Quindlen has such a reassuring, knowing voice that reading these essays is a bit like getting advice from your most level-headed friend. You know she's been where you are, and probably had the same problems you had - but she made it through and is wiser for the journey.

"Maybe that's why we give advice, when we're older, mostly to people who don't want to hear it. They can't hear it because its in a different language, a language we learn over time, the language of experience cut with failure, triumph and tedium."

These essays are filled with wisdom and humor and self reflection - they sound the way I hope to someday. Quindlen still admires and appreciates the amazing time that is youth, but she now looks at it through the eyes of one who has been there, and is seeing it for a second time through the eyes of her children.

"Every once in a while we meet our long-ago selves across a dining table or a desk, when younger women come to ask for advice or interview for a job." "It's so hard to tell them the truth, that there is no formula, there is no plan." "It often seems, looking back, that so many of our plans are honored mainly in the breach, that it is the surprises that define us, the paths we didn't see coming and may have wandered down by mistake."

Towards the end of the book, I found myself a bit weary - although I love her words and agree with pretty much all she has to say, as with any book of essays, there was a bit of repetition. Said in different ways and about different situations, the themes are pretty similar.

But in the end, I took a great deal from this book.... It's so nice as a somewhat younger woman than Quindlen to hear from someone who has lived a life similar to mine and appreciates the richness of it at the same time she wholeheartedly acknowledges the crazy aspects of it.

"We live in a perfection society now, and nowhere has that become more powerful - and more pernicious - than in the phenomenon of manic motherhood...the overscheduled mom who bounces from soccer field to school fair to music lessons until she falls into bed at the end of the day, exhausted, her life somewhere between the Stations of the Cross and a decathlon."

Maybe not QUITE that crazy? But a-men! Read more ›

More About the Author

Anna Quindlen is the author of three bestselling novels, Object Lessons, One True Thing and Black and Blue, and three non-fiction books, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud and A Short Guide to a Happy Life. Her New York Times column 'Public and Private' won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992. She is currently a columnist for Newsweek and lives with her husband and children in New York.