29 Comments

Rebecca! What a pleasant surprise to see this in my inbox today. You are so generous and kind. Thank you for the wonderful review and support. WOW— I can't thank you enough.

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Such a pleasure, Julie! I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I felt as if I was with you every step of the way. Thank YOU for the great read!

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This makes my day! I'm so glad you felt that as you read, I truly was hoping my readers would. Thank you again Rebecca.

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Wow, how interesting to hear a different kind of “voice” from you Rebecca. I actually had to go to the top and reassure myself that it was you! I liked this somewhat unconventional book review.

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Thanks so much, Tom!

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Mar 21, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

I'll take inspiration wherever I can find it! Thanks, Rebecca.

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😊

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I’ve been following the Boston Marathon my whole life, and had never heard of the scream tunnel before. But I know about Aunt Phoebe. Don’t we all have one? Or more? “Thank you for noticing” is an elegant dismissal!

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Read all about the scream tunnel starting on page 139, Peter!

I absolutely have an inner judge, but until getting to know Julie in her writing it hadn't occurred to me to name mine. So, one of the things I've learned from reading this book is that getting to know our challenges - including that nagging, inner voice - is absolutely the right thing to do to be able to better tackle them.

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One of the things I’ve FINALLY learned to do is to stop apologizing for and deprecating my self-expression. No reason to be sorry for any of it. So I’m not Picasso or Thurber. They’re not me either!

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🙌

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Mar 21, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

I'm so inspired by this post! To run Boston is such an amazing accomplishment. I'm a New Yorker, but the Boston marathon is *the* marathon to run if you're a serious runner. I'll definitely never qualify, but I'm so impressed that Julie did!

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🙌 'Impressed' is absolutely the word, Jillian! 🏃‍♀️

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What a great review, Rebecca. As someone who considers it an achievement to run for a bus I was inspired to subscribe to Julie's newsletter. The book sounds great. I look forward to reading more of your book reviews -- you have no excuse now!

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That's ever so kind of you, Terry - thank you! 😊

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Such a lovely review. I hope you'll do more of these in the future :-)

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That’s so kind, Jacquie - thank you!

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Oh this is the book you mentioned to me a while ago! Yes?

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Yes, that's right! 😊

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Nice to see an unexpected newsletter from you. And a great book review.

I applaud anyone who can run a marathon. It always looks grueling. I've watched many on tv.

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Thanks, Matt! Ditto - marathoners are awesome! I love watching the London Marathon on telly every year, and one of my best memories ever was being in NYC for the New York Marathon in 1982 - I'd never seen anything like it!

On that trip we kept diaries - we wrote every day what we'd done and where we'd been, and stuck in tickets and badges and leaflets and labels and photographs and all sorts of things - I'm ever so sad that although I'm sure we DID keep them, they're now nowhere to be found four decades later. There's a part of one of the foil blankets that they give out to finishers in there. Happy memories, though!

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That's too bad that you can't find all of the stuff. It would be interesting to look back at everything. I like looking at old stuff and reminiscing about good times.

I'm curious, how did you get a piece of the foil blanket? I'm guessing one was discarded and you grabbed it.

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Yes, it's a shame. Hindsight is a brilliant thing, isn't it? There are so many things I wish I'd taken better care of in my earlier years now that I'm at the stage of wanting to reminisce about them! Oh well!

I remember my mum catching the discarded foil blanket as it blew past us in Central Park on that windy October day. Quite the trophy! We did take care to look around to see if anyone around us had dropped it - they hadn't.

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If I hadn’t just received Julie’s book this very day, I would have ordered it from the sheer energy and inspiration of your review, Rebecca. Nicely done.

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Oh that's so nice of you, Amie - thank you! The book is a terrific read!

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Mar 24, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

I loved this review, Rebecca! I'm not a runner, but I have subscribed to Julie's newsletter and will buy the book based on what you've shared here. Plus, I'm pretty into impossible projects right now, so this is right up my alley! Thanks for sharing! 💖

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Oh, that's brilliant, Kerri - thank you so much! If you're free for half an hour in about 7 or 8 minutes, Julie's about to host today's half-hour 'Friday Write Along'. That means I'd better quickly just put the kettle on so that I'm back at my desk in time, armed with a cuppa! That's 30 minutes in which to start writing the opening number of 'Dust: The Musical'!

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Mar 25, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

I'm sad I missed this! Maybe I'll be able to make it next week. Thank you for the heads up! Watch out, Broadway, I'm about to kick up a whole lotta DUST! 🤣

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Yes, Kerri - STARdust! 🙌⭐️😊

Julie runs her sessions most Fridays so I'm sure you'll get the chance again - I'm not going to be able to make it next week, but I join in as often as I can!

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