Thomas Nelson, the Christian imprint of HarperCollins, recently relaunched their blogger book review program. Previously Booksneeze, the program is now called BookLook (excellent decision, IMHO). I hadn’t requested anything from them in a long time, but when I checked out the new page, I noticed that Notes From A Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World by Tsh Oxenreider was available. Within minutes, a hard copy (!) was on its way to my mailbox.
I don’t follow Tsh’s very popular blog, The Art of Simple, but I’d seen Notes From A Blue Bike around the blogosphere and knew it was at least partially an expat story (which I love!). The book holds plenty of stories about her young family’s years in Turkey, with such vivid description that I could almost hear the sea and see the colors of the bazaar. But that’s just the beginning. After moving back to the States sooner than she expected, Oxenreider was overwhelmed by the frantic, careless, often soulless pace of American culture. She moved her family from big-city Texas to a small town in Oregon in an attempt to recapture a simpler life. Yet even there, she struggled to make intentional choices instead of running on automatic pilot.
Notes From A Blue Bike describes all the stops and starts of creating a simpler life and figuring out what works for you (and your family, if applicable). Oxenreider is confident but not pushy or narrow in her beliefs. She acknowledges that Americans who want to slow down will always have a fight ahead of them, but she makes doing so seem achievable, not like some pie-in-the-sky dream. She reminds us that every little bit counts – that whenever we take time to cook a real meal with real ingredients, or spend a whole afternoon with friends instead of rushing off to the next thing, we become a little more alive and in tune with God and the world around us.
Honestly, I spent a lot of the book thinking “This is all very nice, but I’m only one person and I don’t have time.” Yes, I don’t have time to take more time. Clearly I’m far from figuring this out for myself. But Notes From A Blue Bike has given me plenty to chew on.
Recommended for: anyone who feels burned out; Americans returning home after a long time away
[…] (Dauntless manifesto poster by Risa Rodil) Notes From a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World by Tsh Oxenreider (4 stars) I reviewed this here. […]