Title: The Wishing Year
Author: Noelle Oxenhandler
Finished: June 15, 2008
Pages: 282
Publisher: Random House
Publish Year: 2008
ISBN: 1400064856
My second ARC book.
The Wishing Year is a non-fiction memoir about one woman’s journey through research to see if just the act of wishing or different wishing experiments can materialize her three biggest goals.
Noelle is searching for her very first house to buy, a new man, and spiritual guidance. By reading many books about wishing, taking to friends and neighbors, traveling, and participating in different experiments recommended by others, Noelle searches for the truth to wishing and if it works, or if it’s just a coincidence.
May contain mild spoilers:
For example, Noelle wishes to buy her first house and while she doesn’t know if this is even a possibility or how to go about finding a house, suddenly her landlords decide they would like to see her the house she is currently living in. Through her own dialog she discusses with herself whether or not this is just by her wishing tactics or if this would have happened regardless.
She has many friends who guide her along the way through her journey and different experiences that shape how she changes and makes her decisions throughout. She tries a variety of methods, including writing down her three wishes and placing the paper between her mattresses so she is constantly in tune with them, or creating a piece of artwork that represents your deepest wishes.
I found the book very intriguing in that it explored the mythical and spiritual side of the art or act of wishing and shows you both sides and her struggle to decide which side she was really on. Even in the end, while I felt fulfilled, I still had questions and felt that maybe, as a reader, we have to decide if it was wishing that made the things in her life happen.
Were all her wishes redeemed? Did they all come true? I’m still not sure. But I loved the journey to find out and hear the research one person, Noelle, put into finding out what wishing meant to her.
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