Teaser Tuesday: NEVER BROKEN by Jewel

Hey, friends,

Long time, no blog from me. Today I thought I'd hop back into the bloggy world because I just finished reading one of my favorite books of the year. NEVER BROKEN by Jewel.

"I should probably not be here today. I should probably not even be alive. Being alive, I should have become an addict, knocked up as a teenager, or stuck romantically in a cycle of abuse." - NEVER BROKEN, p. 3

This was such a compelling read. It's a memoir, but there's a lot of interesting encouragements that read as a sort of self-help book/advice your best friend might give you. I really enjoyed getting to know Jewel's history and her stories about growing up in hard-scrabble Alaska. After her dad used her favorite frilly pink scarf as a filter for the faucet (bugs and worms would come through the pipes), she writes about how she learned that no possession of hers was precious.

She writes with a lot of humanity about her parents' lack of parenting and comes full circle to where they are now in life with a full understanding of forgiveness and letting go. She writes about her writing process and also how she always got recharged by the natural world.

I really loved this memoir. Jewel passes the grit test in my book. We need more song-writers with grit. In fact, after reading about her life and re-listening to many of my fave songs of hers, I can no longer really listen to some, but not all, Taylor Swift tunes. I guess I like my lyrics with weight and resonance. I don't want everything all smoothed out for my listening enjoyment. Give me a little sandpaperey sound and poetry that comes from life knocking you around and living to tell the tale. Just my preference.