Notes from a Blue Bike

Tsh Oxenreider (that first name gets me every time...what is it about having no vowels?) tells her family's story of trying to make a simple, real life amid the chaos of American culture. Oxenreider and her husband move to Turkey and start their family there. They love so many things about living in Turkey: time spent with family and friends...choosing fresh foods at the market and preparing meals together...lack of media intrusions. They long to bring these things with them into their lives when they return to America but again and again they face difficulties.

Oxenreider is a blogger and one has the feeling these little stories began in her blog. But don't mistake the author for being an amateur; Oxenreider is a good writer and the stories are well told.

This book has lots to offer those of us looking for a little more simple in our lives.

I enjoyed this book. Tsh and I see eye-to-eye on many things and it was refreshing to have my personal beliefs affirmed. I recognize that previous statement leaves me vulnerable to accusations of confirmation bias. I can't deny that but I'm also not going to apologize for it.

Intentional living is important and Tsh explains how her family has chosen to live with intention. She gives just enough context and backstory to help the reader get a full (enough) understanding of her decisions. Those details also enrich and add texture to the narrative. I never thought her inclusion of a particular piece of context was overindulgent or self-aggrandizing.

The book is broken up into topics, such as food, entertainment, and work. This forces the reader to keep tabs on various pieces of the chronology and it was a bit hard to keep up with at times. I also see how/why a chronological presentation would have been far less effective in some ways. That's one of the only criticisms I could offer about the book itself.

I listened to this on audio and my only other piece of criticism has to do with the recording itself. When Tsh would end a chapter, her words were carefully selected to pack a certain punch. However, the force was blunted because the next chapter began even as the echoes of the previous sentence were still reverberating in my head. It was jarring and confusing and I wish it wasn't true.