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    Year of the Unexpected
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    Year of the Unexpected
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    Year of the Unexpected
    Ebook246 pages3 hours

    Year of the Unexpected

    By Erica Bauermeister

    3.5/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    Seven friends commit to a 'bucket list' that transforms their lives.
    'Moving, touching, wonderfully written, inspiring to read ... takes us on the emotional journeys of seven women seeking to transform their lives, and proves that sometimes what we really need to inspire us to change is a good, firm shove. Garth Stein, author of tHE ARt OF RACING IN tHE RAIN Seven women gather to celebrate their beloved friend Kate's remission from cancer, only to discover that she is living in dread over her daughter's unusual gift to mark the occasion, a white-water rafting trip to the Grand Canyon. torn between a lifelong fear and the thrill of doing something that terrifies her, Kate gets a little help from her friends. they pledge to help her take the leap with their own 'bucket list' - to each do the one thing that scares them most before the year is out. the only condition is Kate gets to choose what that will be. Whether it's getting a tattoo, finally letting go of a lost love or giving away a collection of treasured books and their memories, each woman discovers the unexpected joy of facing your fears - and knowing that you will always have friends to catch you if you fall.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Australia
    Release dateSep 1, 2011
    ISBN9780730497301
    Unavailable
    Year of the Unexpected
    Author

    Erica Bauermeister

    Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. She has a PhD in literature from the University of Washington, and has taught there and at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

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    Reviews for Year of the Unexpected

    3.5/5

    183 ratings50 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Enjoyable book about friendship and change
    • 4/5
      So often the way one responds to a book depends on mood. Under a lot of stress? An 800 page book on Theodore Roosevelt may not be the best choice -- too long, too wordy, too much detail, takes too much concentration to understand. Under a lot of stress? An 800 page book on Theodore Roosevelt may be the best choice -- nice and long, excellent writing, so much detail it takes one away from their current circumstance. "Joy For Beginners" was the right book for my mood -- I needed something somewhat easy to read (not too long) but with depth to it (not all fluff). Since the novel contains characters of a variety of ages there is a high probability that a reader will find some common ground with at least one of them. Add in all their stories, challenges and relationships and I found I didn't put it down until I finished. I teared up in a couple of places, felt myself nodding in others and already know to whom I shall recommend this title.
    • 3/5
      Joy for Beginners is an easy, entertaining read. Set in Seattle, the novel It tracks six women at different stages of their life as they undertake challenges as seemingly mundane as learning to bake bread or getting rid of your ex's books to whitewater rafting. The challenges are selected by Kate, who has survived breast cancer, for the friends who have helped her through her ordeal. While not overly profound or life changing, the book is life affirming. There are some wonderful passages with astute observations about the awkward shift into middle age: "The cold reality of it struck her, as if, perched on the crest of a roller coaster, the rest of the ride was suddenly, irreversibly clear. On the way up, the vista had been infinite, the time to look about sometimes agonizingly long; now there was only the certain and dispassionate knowledge that there was one set of rails to travel upon, the ending immutable and about to begin. It didn't matter that the end of the journey might take twenty, even thirty years to complete, the angle of the ride had changed." Yep, the whole seize-the-day, mortality theme gets a nice treatment in these pages. An elegant little series of upbeat stories about women bearing up, succeeding, enjoying and living life fully and freely, the book is worth your time.
    • 4/5
      I'll serve up the same disclaimer for Joy for Beginners as I did in my review of Erica Bauermeister's previous novel, The School of Essential Ingredients: you know the advice that you shouldn't go grocery shopping on an empty stomach? Well, similarly, neither should you read an Erica Bauermeister book if you're hungry.

      There's just something about the way Bauermeister writes about food that is so decadent and food pron-ish. Here's a taste:

      "It was almost midnight. The tables were cluttered with napkins and used silverware, tablecloths rumpled like bedsheets. The diners reclined in their chairs, hands drifting leisurely back and forth between espresso cups and the last sips of port. Tips of fingers caressed the surface of white plates, snaring the last flakes of chocolate left from cinnamon-dusted truffles. Smells lingered in the air, sliding across bare shoulders, nestling into curls of hair - risotto and chanterelle mushrooms, sweet and rich and buttery, the bite of Parmesan, the rosemary and white wine and garlic of a slow-cooked pork roast. And bread, of course, the long loaves having been passed from hand to hand, chunks pulled off, dipped in small white dishes of green olive oil with dark, molten drops of balsamic vinegar floating in its midst. Wine bottles had long ago lost their ownership, traveling up and down the tables like porters on a train. Artists had met book dealers had met plumbers had met research scientists, people getting up between courses and changing places. Over in the corner, a couple was forming, their heads bending slowly toward each other like candles melting." (pg. 71-72)

      Joy for Beginners opens on the eve of a joyous occasion indeed. Kate has gathered several of her closest friends together for a dinner party to celebrate her recovery from cancer. With the way Bauermeister writes, you almost want to pull up a chair and join these ladies for a glass of wine.

      "The plates were almost empty, the light gone early from the September sky. The edges of Kate's patio were lost in the foliage beyond, its contours lit by the back porch light and the candles on the wrought iron table, around which the women sat, talking with the ease of those who have settled into one another's lives. Out on the road the occasional car drove by, the sound muffled by the laurel hedge that held the garden with its green walls. Everything felt softened, the garden more smells than sights, emitting the last scents of summer into the air." (pg. 5)

      As the dinner party winds down, the conversation turns to the white-water rafting trip down the Grand Canyon that Kate's daughter has planned in celebration, and which terrifies Kate. She strikes a bargain with her friends: if she goes on this trip, each one of them must also, in the next year, do something that is equally new or difficult or scary for them - and since Kate didn't have any say in the white-water rafting trip, she gets to choose their challenges.

      In the spirit of friendship, each woman accepts Kate's challenge, which turns out to be something that is perfect for each of them and something that each woman needs. As the novel unfolds, we learn their personal stories and how the friends are connected to each other and to Kate. They're all in different life stages and circumstances, but their stories are familiar enough to be universal. There's Caroline, who is going through a divorce and needs to finally shed her ex-husband's books; Daria, who needs to come to peace with her childhood and learn how to bake bread; Sara, who needs to rediscover her identity and travel alone; Hadley, who needs to open her protective world more; Marion, who needs to become more adventureous, and Ava, who needs to embrace the spirit of survivorship.

      In all of their tasks, there is the sense that there has been something holding each woman back, preventing her from living more deeply. From the very first lines of the novel:

      "But life is persistent, slipping into your consciousness sideways, catching you with a fleeting moment of color, the unexpected and comforting smell of a neighbor's dinner cooking as you walk on a winter evening, the feeling of warm water running between your fingers as you wash the dishes at night. There is nothing so seductive as reality." (pg 1)

      This is a novel that I really enjoyed (and that I can definitely see being made into a movie). It is about the power and spirit of women's friendship, about taking risks and discovering who you are, about the moments of realization and the a-ha moments of enlightment, whether that comes from the every day moments or the big life events.

      "There were moments in life, Marion thought, when you reached back, baton in hand, feeling the runner behind you. Felt the clasp of their fingers resonating through the wood, the release of your hand, which then flew forward, empty, into the space ahead of you." (pg. 189)

      I chose this book deliberately as my first novel of 2012 after seeing it in the library and knowing how much I enjoyed Erica Bauermeister's The School of Essential Ingredients, and after seeing it on several bloggers' Best of 2011 lists. It's too early to tell if it will make it onto my year-end best of list, but although this had some similar thematic and formulaic elements as Bauermeister's previous book, it was a perfect read for the beginning of the year.

      Joy for Beginners spans an entire year and even though it begins in September, it gets the reader thinking about what changes and challenges you can accept in your own life to become a better person 12 months from now. What do you need to become happier, to grow as a person, to become more fulfilled?

      I tried to answer that question, to mentally place myself as among the guests at Kate's dinner party and have her issue the same challenge to me. Melissa, your challenge is to _______ . I think the answer is to finish the damn novel. I've been talking about that for several years now and it just hasn't happened. I've revised the same pages, over and over, but just haven't moved forward. I think I know why and what's been holding me back psychologically. Maybe this is the year to let that all go ... out into the world.

      So. If someone challenged you to do something new or different or scary this year, what would your challenge be?
    • 3/5
      She writes really well, when it comes to female experiences. Each story is more of a short story within a very thin framework of a circle of friends. 5 stars for writing about motherhood, marriage,longing, and loss of self in a very realistic way (all white though). 1 star for the framework.
      The School of Essential Ingredients is much better.
    • 3/5
      This was a lovely little novel, each story linked by friendship, compassion, and hope. Kate, a breast cancer survivor, challenges her closest friends to do something that scares them. With each challenge, we learn more about the women, about the past that shapes them. The two stories that touched me most were Caroline and Hadley. While the other stories focused on redemption of sorts, I felt that these two focused on acceptance. This is the kind of novel that is passed along from friend to friend, mother to daughter. It highlights the bonds that women form, the way we band together to help one in need. It reminds us to challenge each other, to seek our happiness, to remember that we are more than just a disease, a fear, or an unhappiness. We let those things make our worlds small when we have the power to reach beyond and find our joy. Sometimes it helps to have someone point us in the right direction. I highly recommend this Joy for Beginners. Especially if you need a little hope or a little help rediscovering your joy.
    • 5/5
      For many this would be classified as chick-lit because it involves a story focused primarily on the friendship between a group of women that make a promise to one of the other characters to meet certain tasks that she places before them, due to deciding to go white water rafting after she beats cancer. For me this wasn't chick-lit, but human-lit. It weaved stories of hopes, dreams, loves, and loss all within its mere 260-some pages.

      Bauermeister alternates the chapters by being the complete story of one of the women in the group of friends. We are told somewhere within the chapter their task that was presented to them and we discover throughout why this task was such a burden to accomplish for them to that particular date and why Kate, the cancer survivor, has chosen it for them. In some cases it seems rather mundane the tasks given, but when you understand that in life the simple things are sometimes the hardest for us to accomplish it rings so much truer than if they were being told to do bigger tasks. Sometimes with the stories bigger tasks are revealed to the character and it changes their lives. That is why I call this human-lit because it is about how we must take these small moments/small steps sometimes to see what our full potential is. If you never take that first step you never know what you are capable of and sometimes you will falter, but most of the time it results in learning that would never have occurred otherwise.

      Bauermeister isn't the next Hemingway by any means, but who needs every single story they read to be a classic, sometimes a lighter story is more desirable. Sometimes a simpler read can touch you in more ways than a classic can ever do. "Joy for Beginners" is that, a simpler read, that will teach you a lesson about life, if you allow it to and do not get caught up on other things, like macho pride for you male readers out there. So nothing technically blows up in this story and there is little to no violence within its pages, but this book is about humanity and the lives that are touched by one singular event. How friendships grow organically and how people can do big things if they just try. Oh we may not be the best all the time, but we humans can do such beautiful and wonderful things! This book reminded me of that!
    • 3/5
      I really liked the idea of this book. It was a quick read, but very light and fluffy. No characters really fleshed out; just felt like a very cliched piece written for a creative writing class. But for a sitcom of a book, it was uplifting and pleasant.
    • 5/5
      I loved the premise behind this book. The story begins with the Victory Party at Kate's to celebrate her victory over cancer. At this party, she declares she is going to do the one thing she fears. Her fear, chosen by her adult daughter, was to go white water rafting. Then, Kate announces that everyone else needs to do the one thing each of them fears, but Kate gets to pick the adventure. From there each chapter focuses on one friend, their life and their fear. Each fear varied from the seemingly simple one of baking bread to getting a tatoo. But each one has an emotional component to it that makes the challenge that much more difficult. Each chapter flows beautifully to the next with some character's lives wrapped into the next one. You will find yourself holding your breath as each woman breaks through her fear and comes out on the other side. The book's last chapter is Kate's story. It covers her ups and downs with cancer, her adventure and why she assigned the particular fears to each of her friends. I purposely read this book slow because I could tell from the very first chapter, that I was going to love it and not want the story to end. Each woman in the story was unique in her fears, but everyone that reads this could identify with at least one of the women. I found myself identifying with Sara, the mom of 3 kids. Some of them had such pain and heartache in their lives that you felt their fear while reading their chapter; holding your breath right along with them.There is no doubt this book would be a great read for book clubs. The story offers many avenues for discussion topics. The author also leave many things to the imagination, not always tidying up every character's situation. She leaves you wondering......now what?I think this has become my favorite book so far this year. I know it is one I will pick up and read again. This book left me wanting more from Kate and her amazing group of friends. Maybe there will be more to the story. Thanks to Putnam for sending me a copy of this book to review.
    • 4/5
      I received this book from the Early Reviewers. I had enjoyed Erica Bauermeister's first novel, "The School of Essential Ingredients" so very much and looked forward to reading this latest work. This book is the story of life, friendship and pushing boundaries. On an evening celebrating her recovery from cancer, Kate makes a bargain with the 6 women friends who "held her in a circle" during her cancer treatments. She says she will do one thing that has always terrified her IF they will each also push a boundary by doing something that they hesitate to do...something that she will choose for them.Each chapter then goes on to focus on one woman and her challenge. There is Caroline who must finally pack up and dispose of her ex-husband's large collection of books. Then Marion who must get a tattoo. Sara has to take a trip to a foreign place. Daria will learn to bake bread. Hadley must create a garden and Ava has to do the breast cancer fund-raising walk. In each chapter we learn the reason behind the challenge and experience the personal growth and liberation that comes with each action. With her typical attention to detail and character development, each woman comes alive and in the end I was left wondering what boundaries have I created, what might be holding me back and what action might I want to attempt.
    • 4/5
      Kate has finally finished with chemo and recovery from her double mastectomy. She has beat Cancer and decides to have a victory dinner with her 6 friends that stood by her through her ordeal. But the celebration turns into something more. Her daughter has been trying to convince Kate to go on a white water rafting trip through the Grand Canyon but Kate is afraid to take the risk. Her friends convince her to make a bargain - she takes the rafting trip but they each have to do something that is outside their comfort zone and Kate gets to choose for each of her friends. The book chronicles each of the ladies' challenge and their emotions at facing their own fears. It was interesting because the challenges were so individual and unusual and yet match the background of each character perfectly.
    • 4/5
      Joy for Beginners" by Erica Baumeister made me squeal!How often do you find yourself in a book? As I was reading one of the chapters, I kept thinking this person is so much like me and in some case identical to me! I found myself glued to the chapter that I am in!Kate is having a celebration party for surviving cancer in a Seattle backyard. Her daughter tells her that she needs to go rafting down the Grand Canyon. That gives her the idea of giving each of her friends and neighbors who stuck with her so many years an assignment too. Daria and Maria are sisters, Sarah and Hadley are neighbors, and Caroline and Kate have been friends for a very long time. One person who was invited did not come but she still gets an assignment too. All the assignments given by Kate were what she knew that particular person was afraid of doing. Each woman is featured in her own chapter showing her personality, history,and reluctance to take her assignment.This book could be a great beach read. But for me it was a squealing read. Not telling you which chapter was like me! Who knows, maybe you will find yourself in this book. By the way, I had already done my assignment before I read this book!I recommend this to all women, aged forty and above.Enjoy!
    • 4/5
      I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when I read the description on the back of this book. I was not expecting much; just a fluffy story of female friendships and survival. A real rah-rah tale about a woman overcoming cancer and moving on with her life. To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. "Joy for Beginners" is a tale of friendship and survival, but it is also much more than that. The characters are deftly developed, their nuances coming through in the stories of their lives. Each has chosen her own path, each with different consequences. They are united around the central theme of Kate's victory over cancer and the ways they honor her life and survival. Perfect, feel good read for the summer.
    • 4/5
      Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister is the perfect read for any middle-aged women who needs to gather up her courage and "just do it!! This women's fiction title tells the story of 6 friends who gather to celebrate their friend, Kate, and her recovery from cancer. Kate announces that to celebrate her new lease on life she is going to do the one thing that has always terrified her-- white water rafting. Kate challenges her friends to get out of their comfort zones and Kate is going to choose their adventures. For anyone women who've questioned the should've, would've and could've in their life-- Joy for Beginners is the perfect inspirational read.
    • 4/5
      I was delighted to receive Joy for beginners through the Early Reviewer Program as I enjoyed Erica's The school of essential ingredients so much. I was not disappointed. Joy for beginners displays the same warmth, wit, and insights into women.The story begins as 6 women get together to celebrate the recovery from cancer of one of the group. She challenges them each to do something they swore they would never do, and she is going to choose each one's challenge. Each challenge is distinct to that particular person, but in completing their challenges they illustrate how women bond with one another to enrich their lives and that true friendship is a thing to be treasured.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. Every character with her own story, each unique and interesting to read about. I wanted so badly to be one of the women in the group! I felt like I was experiencing each of the challenges given to them women along with them! My favorite characters' story definetly being Daria...no Sarah...well maybe Marion.... ugh, I loved them all! The author vividly described sights, sounds and smells making me feel like I was THERE. I could feel the pain and the joy expressed through each of the womens' stories. This book was so well written. I loved it!
    • 5/5
      Kate, a recent breast cancer survivor, will accept her daughter's gift of a whitewater rafting trip only if each of her friends agrees to a task. For one, it's as simple as learning to bake bread, but each of the six friends must overcome at least one obstacle - grief, guilt, fear, etc. - to pursue the goal set for her by Kate. Each woman's story is distinct and some are more compelling and meaningful than others but, taken as a whole, they illustrate the varied ways in which women can become blocked from truly living and enjoying life.Bauermeister's writing style is lush, particularly when describing the preparation and enjoyment of food (as in her previous novel, The School of Essential Ingredients), but extended also to gardening, scenery, and emotion.A joy to read and potentially inspirational for readers who may realize their own lives could use a little risk. Readers who prefer everything spelled out will be disappointed at times - the details or the meaning behind a task are not specifically explained for some characters but the author provides enough background that the reader can make a reasonable guess.
    • 1/5
      I listened to this book during my commute to and from work. It was like listening to a Lifetime movie.
    • 3/5
      Fabulous! This was the perfect book to pick me up after reading so many sad books lately...
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I love Bauermeister's use of language; the way she makes words come alive into images. This book tells the interconnected stories of a group of women. Kate, having just survived a battle with cancer, is encouraged to go rafting in the Grand Canyon even though she's terrified. In order to encourage her each person in her circle of friends decides to do something that scares them: the only catch is that Kate gets to choose their task. Each section of the book follows a different woman completely her task. Their lives overlap and intersect. Beautifully done.
    • 4/5
      Beautiful, evocative, poignant read!
    • 4/5
      Bauermeister continues to write good women's fiction. As in her first book, she uses different narrators for each chapter and unifies their tales with a theme, in this case each is a friend of Kate, a cancer survivor, and is asked by her to do something which will challenge them. There is quite a range of women in this group, both in age, background and relationship to Kate. Each character seems genuine and I would consider myself very lucky to have a web of support like Kate had.
    • 3/5
      A good, easy read that makes you thhink. 6 women gather to celebrate their friend, Kate's, victory over cancer. While at the party, each is given a life-affirming task to complete. The book tells each woman's story in a separate chapter, almost like 7 short stories that all come together to form a friendship.
    • 4/5
      Having survived a life-threatening illness, Kate celebrates by gathering with six close friends. At an intimate outdoor dinner on a warm September evening, the women challenge Kate to start her new lease on life by going white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon with her daughter. But Kate is reluctant to take the risk. That is, until her friend Marion proposes a pact: If Kate will face the rapids, each woman will do one thing in the next year that scares her. Kate agrees, with one provision - she didn't get to choose her challenge, so she gets to choose theirs. Whether it's learning to let go of the past or getting a tattoo, each woman's story interweaves with the others, forming a seamless portrait of the power of female friendships.
    • 4/5
      I couldn't put this book down once I got into it. The writing is wonderful and the descriptions make you feel as though you are sitting down to coffee or traveling to Italy or going white water rafting with the women in this book. There were different aspects of each of the main characters that drew me in and made me feel like I was friends with them. Such a great book! I would recommend it for a great summer beach read! Enjoy.
    • 4/5
      Terrific book. I bought this one because I had read Bauermeister's The School of Essential Ingredients and had enjoyed it. What Bauermister excels at is relationships. For me that is what this book is about whether it's the relationships between a husband and wife (good and bad), sisters, mother's and daughters or those that are in the midst of dealing with a possibly terminal illness there was one relationship you could connect with. The story is about Kate, a cancer survivor and her friends who are meeting for what Kate calls a get-together but what her friends call a victory dinner. They didn't want to have her going to a lot of work to hostess and used their role in Kate's victory to allow them to share the work of a dinner as they shared in her healing. During the dinner one of her friends see a pamphlet about white-water rafting and asks Kate about it. When they find out its something her daughter wants her to do they all challenge her to do it. She agrees but only if she can choose a challenge for each of them. As I started reading this book I wondered how the heck the author came up with the title, Joy for Beginners as none of the women seemed joyful, - drained, relived, a little aloof but not joyful. But as the author leads us through the women's stories I understood that somewhere along the line duty or some event or just life got in the way of that joie de vivre, the basic joy in living and that by completing the challenge Kate sets for them she helps them to see or find that joy in life. Kate's challenge is something her daughter asks of her - to go white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon and Kate is left wondering why when she has just come away from a near-death experience she would want to voluntarily risk her life? The joy she finds during the experience, that all the women find, is still with me as I write this review. This book didn't make me want to create a bucket list as some reviewers discussed (although I could understand where they came from) - what it did make me want to do is to find my joy and pull it into my daily life and my career.
    • 4/5
      I just finished reading Joy for beginners by Erica Bauermiester. The book was a pleasurable change of pace for me. I usually read Young Adult and Fantasy books, but getting this as an ARC was a surprise. I read this book, and could not put it down. I absolutely love how she wrote each chapter using a different person but shows that they are all tied together in the same story. She has written this book well. I really did enjoy the characters, the way they were connected to each other. I loved how Kate gives each friend a challenge that they must accomplish and to see how each one goes through that challenge was fun.I would highly recommend this book to everyone, because this books makes you think about the little things in life, and not to sweat the small things really. I really enjoyed that.
    • 4/5
      After surviving her battle with breast cancer, Kate's friends throw her a "victory party" to celebrate. As her friends gather around her in her Seattle home, a challenge is made for Kate to do something daring with her new life; to go white water rafting with her daughter in the Grand Canyon. Kate counters this challenge by informing her friends that she will impart on this adventure, only if each of them will also try something new or challenging outside of their own comfort zones. So begins a interconnected series of short-story like chapters of each of the women, that describe their experiences with Kate and their attempts to conquer the challenges Kate has set for them. As with "The School of Essential Ingredients", this novel is very sensory and verges on magical, with each woman's experiences fully described in visceral terms. Though a quick read, this story is joyful and heartwarming, the perfect type of book to take to the beach. A loving celebration of friends, family, passion and love.
    • 5/5
      Have you ever lost someone and you just know their unique smell void of any perfume? Author, Erica Bauemeister touches on a very intimate knowledge I share with one character in Joy for Beginners. I was amazed to read the words!Surviving cancer taught Kate that life should be embraced, chances should be taken & there is joy to be found when a challenge is won. To celebrate her recovery, Kate gives herself & 6 friends different challenges. Each woman, through their challenge learns to overcome fears, embrace love & enoy life to its fullest. This is a book of friendships. Life is breathing in!! I don't always do well with the standard chick lit but this was far more reaching into the minds healing. Will read author's other book "School of Essential Ingredients" based on her writing style.
    • 5/5
      Finished reading this last night, I fell in love with the story and characters. Kate survived her bout with cancer, and to celebrate she meets up with 6 of her close friends. It was during then that Kate's friends dares her to go white water rafting, something she's terrified to do. Kate accepts the challenge but only if each of her friends agrees to do a challenge of their own that Kate assigns. As each woman takes on their dare, they discover something about themselves and the special friendship that they all share. The book is divided among the 7 characters, their stories told from their own pov. Beautifully written, I saw myself in each of these women, the story resonates with me long after I read the last chapter. Joy for Beginners is definitely one of my favorite novels this year.