{"id":9347,"date":"2015-02-21T06:25:31","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T14:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellejolin.com\/wordpress\/?p=9347"},"modified":"2015-02-21T14:32:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T22:32:24","slug":"books-yes-please-heres-one-you-havent-read-this-day-by-t-beautement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9347","title":{"rendered":"Books? Yes, please. Here’s one you haven’t read: “This Day,” by T. Beautement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preamble: the author is, sort of a little bit kind of a relative. Around the edges. By marriage. Still, it’s not as if we actually know each other. Really.
\nAnyway, Tiah is a writer. Her latest book, published by Modjaji Books in Cape Town, is called “This Day.” If she or her publisher had furnished me a copy of it for review, I’d have to confess it. Since I bought the book myself, I can say whatever I please. Good. Bad. Mediocre. Anything. <\/p>\n

I’m sure the very idea of me saying anything that comes to mind is terrifying to some of you. <\/p>\n

Here is the problem, though. I am not someone who reviews books. I don’t even really talk about them properly in person. <\/p>\n

“This Day” is a story about a day in the life of a woman dealing with the aftermath of the death of her child. It is the story of grief and how Ella gets through through just one day. <\/p>\n

Ella’s husband husband has been thrown into a major depression by their son’s death, and has stopped working or caring for himself or her. Her mother-in-law, who was caring for the child when he died, has also died from the side effects of grief. Ella is struggling to deal with her own grief about her son’s death while caring for her clinically depressed husband. <\/p>\n

It isn’t a cheerful, feel good book. What Tiah does amazingly well is to make you feel Ella’s grief over her loss and her anger and frustration at her husband’s depression and the impact it is having on their lives and relationship. Ella feels very real. She is not always likable, but you can understand and feel everything she does. The book doesn’t spare us from the very genuine portrayal of how frustrating it is to deal with someone who isn’t able to care for himself even though there is nothing physically wrong.<\/p>\n

Tiah writes emotion, and the physical effects of emotion very well. You can feel how tight Ella’s muscles must be. How hard she is working just to keep herself moving. How keeping her emotions inside of her is damaging her. How she keeps trying to just make it through each moment. Unlike her husband, she doesn’t have the luxury of surrendering to her grief. She is emotionally hard on herself for feeling the way she does.<\/p>\n

The day goes by, we feel Ella struggle with pain, memory, loss, anger. We feel her struggle to hold on to the things that make her who she is, trying to deal with who she was before all of the loss and who she might become. We see there is no easy fix. No one is going to wake up suddenly better. <\/p>\n

It’s not an easy book, but it is a beautiful one.<\/p>\n

Tiah’s Amazon page is here<\/a> for those who would like to pick up a copy. I would definitely recommend it!<\/p>\n

<\/u><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preamble: the author is, sort of a little bit kind of a relative. Around the edges. By marriage. Still, it’s not as if we actually know each other. Really. Anyway, Tiah is a writer. Her latest book, published by Modjaji Books in Cape Town, is called “This Day.” If she or her publisher had furnished … Continue reading Books? Yes, please. Here’s one you haven’t read: “This Day,” by T. Beautement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_2470-0.jpg?fit=341%2C391&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lr3R-2qL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5936,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=5936","url_meta":{"origin":9347,"position":0},"title":"The archeology of books","author":"Michelle","date":"May 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes I have trouble letting go of things, so I am practicing with stuff like old travel guides and technical literature. Since I am offloading a bunch of old books, I've been going through them one by one. I keep turning up all sorts of things tucked inside and in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/20140525-200840-72520908.jpg?fit=454%2C313&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":432,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=432","url_meta":{"origin":9347,"position":1},"title":"What’s Your Favorite Book?","author":"Michelle","date":"July 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cPicking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose.\u201d --Neil Gaiman \u00a0 Seriously. \u00a0 It's hopeless. For one thing, there's the sheer number of books that are wonderful. People have been writing them for a long, long time you know. The end\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":746,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=746","url_meta":{"origin":9347,"position":2},"title":"Do you (re)read me?","author":"Michelle","date":"August 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I'm writing 'bout the Book I read I have to sing about the Book I read I'm embarrassed to admit it hit the soft spot in my heart When I found out you wrote the Book I read --Talking Heads\/The Book I Read \u00a0 What does a person do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9592,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9592","url_meta":{"origin":9347,"position":3},"title":"Loaning a book","author":"Michelle","date":"March 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone who knows me at all knows how I feel about books.\u00a0In case you don't, here is a summary statement: I love them.\u00a0I learned to read before I even have memories. One of my first memories is sitting in my Mother's lap. She's holding a book about a squeaky bicycle.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3200,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=3200","url_meta":{"origin":9347,"position":4},"title":"Who am I again?","author":"Michelle","date":"December 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Well a box of red and a pill or three And I'm calling time and temperature just for some company. I wish you were here. I wish I was too. I'll drink myself to sleeplessness, I always do. --Old 97's\/Big Brown Eyes It's a little trippy, pun intended, to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7348,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=7348","url_meta":{"origin":9347,"position":5},"title":"Words with friends does NOT hate me","author":"Michelle","date":"September 5, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In a clear sign that I think too much about everything, and I do mean everything, here is a little story. A story which someone with better judgement might keep to herself, but the blog must be fed. People who read me have probably figured out that I love words.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}