BlogHer Book Club: Slow Love

Slow Love by Dominique Browning is my third BlogHer Book Club read and my least favorite so far.  It is the first book club selection that I chose to read that I thought was just okay. There were some good insights and tidbits to chew on, but as another reviewer @yesnofilms commented on Twitter and I agree, at times Slow Love felt like I was “reading a friend’s ramblings.”The author would jump from one topic to another and by the time she got back to where she started, I was not clear where she was trying to go with her story.Then she would go on yet another long and often seemingly random and disjointed tangent.

Slow Love started strong for me with the back story of how the author, once the managing editor at House & Garden magazine lost her job when the periodical folded in 2008. I really bought into the premise of Slow Love, that it “is about knowing what you’ve got before it’s gone.” When I first started reading it I couldn’t stop highlighting inspiring and thought-provoking quotes in my Kindle. However, unfortunately that did not last very long.

Slow Love deals with some universal themes about when our lives feel out of balance. Often a significant event will cause us to review, reflect and reevaluate our priorities and especially how (and with whom) we chose to spend our time. I appreciated Dominique’s perspective and insights as the mother of two grown sons, as my oldest child is almost eight years old and I often wonder how my son’s personality will evolve in the years to come. I also liked what she shared about the nature of adult friendships, especially those we form and/or strengthen when our “worlds collapse.”

Another connection I felt to Dominique’s story was the experience of selling and moving from the place that was her home for many years, where she raised her sons and which she thought would be her “forever house.” She talked about how it was full of memories and happy moments, the bittersweet experience of packing it all up and the transition of settling into a new space. Since my family and I moved to a new house this summer, I could relate to some of what she shared.

However, the further along I got into Slow Love, unfortunately the less engaged I felt. Dominique focused a lot on a relationship with an old lover,whom she calls “Stroller” in her memoir and though I appreciate that it took her a long time to realize that he was not a good match for her long term, it was tedious to have to read through the experiences she shared before finally coming to that conclusion.

I do believe that the heart of life is found in the journey, however Slow Love’s path didn’t work for me. I loved the concept, enjoyed the beginning and found redemption in the end, but the middle left me lost and uninspired.

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As I mentioned in my review above, though I didn’t love this book, I was able to relate to many of the topics that Dominique covered in Slow Love. Please join our discussion about Slow Love over on the BlogHer Book Club page, regardless of if you read the book I think it is worth checking it out, as the facilitator has tried make the questions engaging to both those who have read Slow Love and those who have not. To share your thoughts and find out what others are saying about Slow Love click here.

Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book to read for this review and to participate in the related BlogHer Book Club discussion. However, I was in no way encouraged to write a positive or negative review about Slow Love.