Customer Reviews

A Year Of Questions: How to slow down and fall in love with life

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
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Fiona Robyn's new book is a great read for those who appreciate a sympathetic companion on the road to intentional awareness.

I have enjoyed Fiona's sharp eye for the overlooked and missed treasures of each day regularly recorded on her "a small stone" blog. Fiona has the enviable ability to capture salient feelings, insights, and humour in a few choice words. Her gentle encouragement to face the complexities of being who you are is a happy antidote to the many voices trying to convince you to be someone you're not. Her friendly voice and cheerful enthusiasm are infectious.

I also like Fiona's honesty, and she starts her book the way I wish all books started, with a clear outline of what to expect from, and how best to use, the book. She wonders aloud about her reader, and through this wondering I felt included. What a thing to be included right from the start of a book. She gives her credentials, and answers the "why should you listen to me" question. Have you ever wondered, "Is this author's advice coming from an academic understanding, personal experience, or both?" Fiona tells you right from the start. Like a good writer should, she has ingested whole years of words, ideas, observations, and poetic turns of phrase, from countless books, and synthesised it all into accessible prose, studded with observations from her daily life. The beauty of literature married to the experiential.

Each selection starts with an anecdote or experience from Fiona's life, followed by some questions and a suggestion for the week, and a couple of choice quotes. The questions are not the sorts that have yes or no answers, they are the kind that make you look into space while your inner eye probes the neural web of your heart, coaxing out answers that you want to find. There are themes that run through the book such as simplicity, the importance of reflective thinking, and making friends with the difficult bits of you.

As part of the age-old and newly discovered wisdom of adequacy, Fiona appears to believe that her reader has the answers to the questions she put forth. Think how nice it would be to spend a year with a fellow traveler like that!

It's amazing how fast a year flies by. So this year, I've deliberately taken time each week and month to reflect on what's happened and record it for myself: the emotional ups and downs and what I've learnt about myself and those around me. In this book and the accompanying e-course Fiona offers suggestions for valuable questions to ponder, just like having a coach beside you encouraging you to think and act differently. I've found it a gentle and powerful companion along the way. Thank you, Fiona, for the wisdom and guidance.

This book is a lovely treat for any writer or anyone who wants to create more time for reflection. I joined the online "Questions" course (run by Fiona at Writing Our Way Home) in January 2012, a little bit midstream (the book is divided by seasons and starts with autumn), but the beauty of the book's structure -- and of life -- is that a year can start whenever you want it to. You can jump into "A Year of Questions" any time and return to it forever. It is truly a keeper.

As a bonus, I think Fiona might be a touch psychic -- I find that one question naturally leads into the next, and the themes often dovetail with ideas that have already come up in my own life. Or it could be that the course has raised my antennae for paying attention in general, which I'm sure is true.

Each week has a two-piece set-up -- a short but sweet essay in which Fiona shares her personal insights and experiences around a theme, such as "Feeling Lost and Being OK with Feeling Lost" or "The Secret of Life." She adds a few questions to live with for the week, along with inspirational quotes, prompts for writing and suggestions for how to explore the questions in the real world.

The book and the course have a gentleness that is carried over by the Rilke quote on which they are based: "Have patience with everything unresolved and try to love the questions themselves."

Two thumbs up for this deeply felt and expressed, juicy and accessible treat.

Such a gorgeous book, but also one to make you really think about the way you spend your days... Excellent; a book you will keep coming back to.

Don't read this book unless you're prepared to do some serious thinking. It acts a bit like detox for the soul. Sometimes it had me exploring questions I was slightly uncomfortable with - though I found the process hugely useful and ultimately deeply rewarding.

Fiona writes in such a way that you feel she is speaking to you or that the book has been written just for you. It's very pleasurable and feels quite sad when you finish (though this is one you could visit again and again).

Fiona Robyn has a very special gift that I recognise from reading her fiction, and now this soulful guide. She delicately shows you the world without telling you how it is. In 'A Year of Questions' she shows you how to enter into a deeper relationship with yourself without telling you how to do it. The questions are gentle yet searching, inviting you explore the world with curiosity.

I intended to read the book all the way through and then return to go through the book week by week following the time of year. Instead I couldn't resist diving into the questions straight away and found the process incredibly helpful and illuminating. My favourite activity? Week 44. I hope you'll try it for yourself.

P.S. I was inspired to buy her novel 'The Blue Handbag' after reading this. Once you've had a little taste of Fiona Robyn's writing it's hard to settle for anything else.

I'm a huge fan of Fiona's novels and her blog entries, which are always very truthful and honest in their reflections of problems and issues we face every day. Reading her novels or her blogs are like taking a dip in a cool lake on a really groggy hot day and feeling a surge of comfort.

What I particularly like about A Year of Questions is how each weekly offering is concise yet eloquent. Each is structured with a personal story from Fiona's own experiences to explain her ideas about life, further explanation in the "things you might be curious about" sections, followed by suggestions on how to look at your own life more closely that week and some relevant and inspiring quotes.

I've not followed the format of the book and instead of reading one a week, I've been devouring the whole lot whenever I get the chance. It's the kind of book that you can use in many ways - you can follow it weekly for the year or you can delve right in at any offering and still glean something from it. I find myself nodding and thinking "I know that feeling", and then I start to be more aware of these feelings and in touch with them.

I highly recommend this book; a discussion of thoughts, a diary of relate-able experiences and a guide to "taking the next step", as well as a breath of fresh air in the world of self-help books. It's like having a friendly coach there with you, sharing anecdotes and letting you know that we're all human and we all have flaws, and that's OK.

This book is helping me to slowly make sense of my life and how I live it;it can be opened at any week and the questions, musings and ponderings for that week will give insights and have great relevance to your life, thank you Fiona - a real delight.

I first read this book some years ago, and more recently have been using it as a guide throughout a whole year. I have found this profoundly valuable. Fiona's short essays are thought provoking and beautiful to read. The questions work on many levels: some weeks I have simply read them and have only been able to leave them quietly percolating in the background. Other weeks I have actively meditated and journalled about them. Often my interaction has been somewhere in between.

Having the support of the online group Fiona has set up has been an added dimension - reading other people's thoughts adds interest and richness and often takes me back to the book as well as off to explore new aspects.

I can recommend this book for anyone who goes through life with questions in their mind.

This book is like an artful little poetry book - even though it's not a book of poems. Simple and profound at the same time. I love Fiona's way of saying so much with carefully chosen words. I read her other book The Most Beautiful Thing and loved her writing style. Her writing is so beautiful that I kept reading and reading this book, rather than stopping to do the exercises on my own! Ah well....I really enjoyed this thought-provoking book of joyful questions and was able to reflect on how they apply to my own life. If you like intriguing party conversations or contemplating the simple joys and gifts of your life, definitely check this book out!