Read Yes
Length 291
Quick Review I am in love with this book. It is the perfect story all wanderers will lust after whether single or coupled.
I am completely in love with What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding. The best way I can describe it is: If there were ever a book that could be a mirror of my soul’s desire, this would be it. (There are only two differences between Kristin Newman and I: 1) She saw herself getting married and having children, and I don’t. 2) She had a career at 26… Yeah, nope.)
Newman is hilarious. I don’t laugh out loud often while reading, but I did. She is able to give words to feelings I have had for a very long time. The biggest theme throughout this book is when things get rough, she takes a trip. Which, now that I think about it, sounds like running from her problems. Anyways, it did end up working out for her, and I am jealous.
The book follows her through a decade or so worth of trips around the world both solo and with girlfriends. Through telling her travel stories, she lets the reader into her life. Allowing the world to see her deepest fears, her desires, her heartbreaks, her aspirations, and her inadequacies. With an almost too honest narration, she shows the world it’s ok to be alone and be both happy and sad about it.
It is the narration of a woman who won’t settle for less than awesome. When awesome comes along, it’s ok to be sad when trading awesome for awesome. Her unique brand of feminism screams “This is who I am, and I’m not that ashamed of where I’ve been.”
Memorable Quotes
“I didn’t think being in a relationship with someone I didn’t want to marry was a problem, mostly because, as I’ve said before, I had never really wanted to get married, period.”
“…as tempted as I would be by the completeness of his love in the face of a new world surrounded by men who seemed to see me as some sort of little brother, something deep within me was screaming that I wasn’t ready to be half of a whole.”
“I realized they didn’t look at travel the way I looked at it, like medicine, like my chance to right all the wrongs that might exist in my life.”
“ I think that, generally, most of us have a total of about twenty thoughts. And we scroll through those thoughts, over and over again, in varying order, all day every day.”
Title: What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding; A Memoir
Author: Kristin Newman
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780804137607