This is just what I needed after a year in a global pandemic and I’m sure many people have been feeling the same these past 12 months! From many weeks of isolation and stressors in the world it has been nice to escape reality to read about other people’s lives. However this is not a depressing read and Cathrin brings humour all the way. After reading this book I actually felt quite lifted and grateful for the life I live! It’s not very often I read a book and find myself laughing out load, but this certainly did it for me. Funny highlights for me were Cathrin’s two ageing parents in their 90’s and her description of the quirky electrics in her house. I think what makes it so great is that Cathrin’s writing is very believable. The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 85 Years Old is his diary for 2015 detailing his life in a care home in Amsterdam. This book follows on from The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old, which was his 2013 diary. Hendrik did NOT publish a diary for 2014. This book can be read as a stand-alone and covers similar ground to the first book. For years it was unknown who was hiding behind the pseudonym. This led to speculation about who it could be. Names from Sylvia Witteman to Arnon Grunberg were mentioned. Both De Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad revealed almost simultaneously in 2016 that Peter de Smet was 62-year-old. De Smet responded with the words that 'he is not waiting for publicity' and 'has no sense in the fuss about fame'. It's really difficult to say too much about the story without giving much away; it's written in a funny, yet touching and moving way. It is insightful into the life of many elderly people, and although I'm quite a long way off retirement, it does make you ponder slightly about your future care and of your parents/grandparents.

Bright Side by Kim Holden - AbeBooks Bright Side by Kim Holden - AbeBooks

Bradbury had an exceptional working life, as an editor of major news publications - but her personal life was more fractious, and in 2015 it imploded. This memoir recounts this period, her thoughtful connections to the past, her family and friends and the effort to find a way into a different future. As well as events of note in his daily life, Groen also remarks on current affairs, including the antics of politicians, the salaries of executives, elections, corruption, the King, the Middle East, and news in the sphere of care facilities. Sometimes the anecdotes are probably funnier if the reader is familiar with Dutch personages, but often the commentary is applicable universally: just change the names. Trivia - "His (David Frost’s) unexpected call to John Cleese in New York asking him to be on The Frost Report secured John’s future in television, away from his mother’s ambitions to make him manager of a Weston-super-Mare Marks & Spencer. Grocery’s loss was comedy’s gain. Frostie gave all of us great jobs as writers on his new BBC TV show, for which we remained highly ungrateful. This is the 2nd book in the Hendrik Groen series following the octogenarian as he records his escapades throughout the year. After reading and enjoying the 1st book in the series I was always going to read this one. These books are certainly different from the normal books I read and they bring on lots of different emotions while reading, mainly joy but also a touch of sadness.On the Bright Side - The new Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 85 years old, is the follow up to the super funny first diary of Hendrik Groen aged 83 1/4 years old. I liked how things were put into perspective by how Hendrik swapped his daily entries from pressing global and international issues to the very parochial trivia that consumed the residents of his care home. The joviality of the first book was still there in places but the overall take I got from this book was of a sadness brought about by coping with declining health, death of residents and a negative outlook on old age. The optimism of the first book has gone and I felt like the residents were just hanging around waiting to die. The second installment of the later life of Hendrik Groen finds everyone’s favorite Dutch hairy-eared Dutch pensioner returning to his diary after taking some time off. He is now 85. Und obwohl mir mein Vater das wunderbare Lebensmotto »Nicht ärgern, nur wundern« mitgegeben hat, kann ich einfach nicht aus meiner Haut und ärgere mich dumm und dämlich." (Seite 367) Like many Americans in the eighties, I became aware of Monty Python in college. Having grown up in a rather humorless, economically depressed small town, we weren’t cultured enough for British humor. Eric Idle’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is a fun, but at times poignant book. C. S. Lewis once wrote somewhere that biographies are most interesting at the beginning, and I think he was correct. Idle had a somewhat tragic childhood, growing up during World War Two, in which he lost his father. His writing sweeps you in and makes you wonder what lies behind fame. Tragedy often lies behind great comedians. To be funny you often have to be sad.

Bright Side: Twelve Months, Three Heartbreaks, and The Bright Side: Twelve Months, Three Heartbreaks, and

I have a rooted belief that has helped me build two successful social enterprises, become a Forbes top-rated speaker, 2x bestselling author, standup comedian and I want to share it with you. Hendrik Groen, pseudonym of Peter de Smet, is a Dutch writer. He is the author of the book Pogingen iets van het leven te maken: Het geheime dagboek van Hendrik Groen, 83¼ jaar ( The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old) published in 2014. That book was awarded in 2016 with the Audience Award for the Dutch Book. The sequel Zolang er leven is: het tweede geheime dagboek van Hendrik Groen, 85 jaar ( On the Bright Side: The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen) appeared in 2016.

Living in the Netherlands myself, I see how elderly people are treated here; as if they have no right to live anymore, as if they have nothing left to share, no value. Every day, there is some 'news' in the papers about the horrible influence of there living so many old people people in this country.