Product Description

In a genre all her own, Sandy Gingras mixes prose, poetry and artwork to delight readers with witty observation, reflection, and a depth of feeling in her deceptively simple series of books. In a House by the Sea -- a collection of short essays, stories, prose and illustrated vignettes, inspired by a metaphorical beach house -- is about emotion and feeling as much as place, mood and memory as much as the beach. In the essay ''This is What Makes Me,'' she writes of being ''oriented in life by a beach (more emotional than geographic) that I keep walking on; a summer (more attitude than season) that I keep longing for.'' ''A is for Attitude'' offers a whimsical beach womans A-to-Z (A is for Away. Away, beach woman, away with you to the beach! You've had enough reality.). ''A Beach House -- What the Realtor Should Have Told You'' and ''What the Beach House is For'' remind us that what we really desire at the beach (or anywhere) can not be bought. This book is a sweet, gentle reminder that simplicity and happiness emerge from living in the moment, from finding beauty in one's surroundings and an awareness of the moods and feelings that make life whole.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1655604 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 70 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Message to stressed-out moms: let your mother watch the kids, and head to the beach. "Away, beachwoman, away with you to the beach! You've had enough reality," says Gingras, author of five previous inspirational gift books, including The Uh-Oh Heart. Once beachside, she advises, read without interruption, drink a piña colada, eat out, veg out and let "him" do the work. This book-an amalgamation of prose, poetry and illustrations-is a reminder to readers that happiness and the beach go hand in hand. Short essays give loose pointers on living simply; poems explain "what a beach house is for" and offer things to remember when building a sand castle; lists chronicle the joys of summer at the beach, from the Good Humor man to the blast of the lifeguard whistle; and watercolors memorialize everything from flip flops to an open window letting the breeze in. Gingras's book is at times personal, as when the author relates sitting with a man on the beach, he reading and she watching as they exist "so close and so separate," but its overarching message will be enjoyable to any woman in love with the beach.
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About the Author
Sandy Gingras is the author and illustrator of the ''How to Live'' series of inspirational gift books, including Reasons to be Happy at the Beach, In A House by the Sea, How to Live on an Island, At the Beach House: A Guest Book, The Uh-Oh Heart, and How to be a Friend. With a masters in English from Duke and another in counseling, she has also received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant for her poetry, and her writing has been published in anthologies, including the books Shore Stories and Four Seasons at the Shore. She owns How to Live, a retail gift store on Long Beach Island, NJ.