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The Specific Ocean: 03/15/17

The Specific Ocean

The Specific Ocean by Kyo Maclear is a picture book about a family going on vacation to a cabin at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The daughter doesn't want to go but ends up falling in love with the ocean.

The daughter calls it the Specific ocean, originally as an accident. But as she comes to understand the ocean on her own terms, it becomes her ocean, her specific ocean.

This picture book — or rather the process of writing it — is mentioned in Birds Art Life, Maclear's memoir. Like the memoir, this book highlights the importance of those quiet moments and the art of waiting.

    A few of my favorite quotes from the book are:
  • The ocean is a mystery of mysteries.
  • If people ask, I'll tell them the ocean is full of noises. Then I'll tell them that if they listen very carefully, they might even hear the ocean in their own breath.
  • The ocean is so big that it makes every thought and worry I have shrink and scatter.
  • There is no late or hurry or racing in ocean time.

Five stars

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