The Rules Do Not Apply

I read this book in a day. The writing sparkles with intimacy, vulnerability, and humor. Levy, a journalist accustomed to traveling the world, finds herself lost while on assignment in Mongolia. There, she experiences a miscarriage within the context of a crumbling relationship.

She writes, “The future I thought I was meticulously crafting for years had disappeared, and with it have gone my ideas about the kind of life I’d imagined I was due.” 

This memoir is like a kaleidoscope: each time I re-read it from a new vantage point in my life, I see different colours.

Ariel Levy writes with brutal bravery about a series of personal losses. She brings a candid and unconventional perspective to marriage and motherhood, career and aging, and ultimately our inability to truly control our circumstances.

I think the heart of what this book tells me is: surrender is not synonymous with giving up.  It’s deeper and more hopeful than that. Surrender is learning that power and resilience come from gratitude and acceptance, even in the face of… show more.