It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway

I don't remember how I came across this book, or why I got it from the library, but definitely the right book at the right time. I'm trying my best to stop looking back at what I miss about living in Virginia, and start moving forward so that I can be happy where I'm at again. It takes more work than I'd like it to.

Passarella writes essays about the loss of her dad, the loss of her way of life when Covid hit, the way our relationships change and grow over decades, and a big chunk is about her family's long acquisition of an abandoned apartment in their NYC building and the relationship she built with the woman whose husband had owned it before his passing. On paper, I don't know that we have a whole lot in common, she and I - but we have similar sensibilities, and I can say that I suspect we would be friends IRL, except probably I would just be really intimidated if I met her IRL. I appreciate the way we similarly feel like our more human-focused politics can co-exist with our religious beliefs - which shouldn't be a radical idea, but sometimes makes me feel like I'm crazy to think they could. (In which case I call my friend Jeananne, who is way more liberal than I am and also probably loves the Lord more too.)

I will be looking for her other book of essays once we get back from vacation. 4.5 stars.