Junction, Utah written by Rebecca Lawton and reviewed by Kathy Myers: Madeline is a woman of few words. She chokes and stumbles awkwardly when asked to express her emotions. But put her on a river and it’s another story. Her actions speak louder than any words could express—she is in her element. Rebecca Lawton has translated Madeline’s words and world in her first novel Junction, Utah and one can tell that she knows whereof she speaks. The river is a metaphor for danger, thrills, anger, and fear — four dominant emotions in Madeline’s “Seven Dwarves” of feeling words. In the midst of white water chaos and confusion she can avoid the reflective eddies of painful emotions: longing, sadness and grief. When she finally steps on shore and meets her unlikely match in Chris: a land locked farmer and self described ‘Jack Mormon’ who has been held underwater by his own…
Category: Book Reviews
Reading Water by Rebecca Lawton
Reading Water, Lessons from the River by Rebecca Lawton is written with superb eloquence . . . insightful, honest, focused and entertaining, making it fun to read. Her elegant writing illustrates how to write a book that has enduring interest. Reading Water was published in 2002 and found a new audience in 2008. I wonder if 2014 will see renewed interest in this timeless book. Rebecca describes her love for water: “Raised in the city and having just burst out of high school, I ached for wilderness, and the lovely, unleashed river instantly called to me. . . . rivers led me to countless unspoiled places, challenged me to be strong, and introduced me to lifelong friends. Moreover, the river taught me to read water — to psyche out where rocks hide in riffles, find safe runs in inscrutable rapids, and keep moving through the flatwater.” Note from Marlene. ….
The Granny Diaries by Adair Lara
The Granny Diaries by Adair Lara is an entertaining and light-hearted look at being a grandmother interspersed with smart messages to mothers and grandmothers. Readers are drawn into Adair’s world with her quick wit and keen sense of observation. Advice for the mother: “Remember, that grandmother is your mother, and she’s just trying to help. Talk to her about what you expect, and what she expects, and try to notice the good stuff. A grandmother who bought your child noisy green and pink clogs that the day-care teacher had to write a note about is a grandmother who went into a store, pondered choices (those boring white tennies, formal black Mary Janes, or those cool clogs?), bought the crazy clogs, and looked forward to presenting them. ” This is an easy book to read, especially if you appreciate Adair’s wicked sense of humor. I enjoyed slogging through my day, knowing…
Adair Lara Week . . . . And A Day
May 17, 2002 was declared Adair Lara Day in San Francisco by proclamation of Mayor Willie Brown. Today, Mother’s Day 2014, I’m declaring May 11 through May 18 Adair Lara Week And A Day on The Write Spot Blog by proclamation of it’s my blog and I can do it if I want to! Cheshire Cat grin. We’re starting off Adair Lara Week And A Day with a review of her book Hold Me Close, Let Me Go, about “A mother, a daughter, and an adolescence survived.” Hold Me Close, Let Me Go spoke to me on a deep emotional level. I was so moved by Adair’s story of a mother’s and daughter’s struggles that after reading the last page, I sat at my kitchen table, sobbing. Adair’s writing is honest, poignant, brilliant. Hold Me Close, Let Me Go grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Thank you, Adair, for your…
Body On The Wall by Michelle Wing
Michelle Wing’s captivating book of poetry, Body On The Wall — is divided into four elements: Wind, Fire, Earth and Water. Michelle delves into the complex array of emotions with an artist’s eye and sure hand, transporting the reader from piece to piece with honesty and intensity. In Wind, readers feel the breeze, the cleansing air, the playfulness, despair and hope. In Fire, the rich texture and complex layers travel a labyrinth of emotional experiences. In Earth, more ups and downs on the emotional ladder of pain, humiliation, awareness, hope, reality. In Water, new life, satisfaction, rejection, sharp pain, settling, calming and humor. Joanna McClure, an original San Francisco Beat Poet: I enjoyed reading Michelle Wing’s poetry — full of her rich and varied multi-cultural life — its sensual pleasures as well as its dark depths. Kathy Myers reviews Body On The Wall: I wish I could reach through the cover…
Catching Light: Collected Poems of Joanna McClure
Joanna McClure’s poems reveal the story of a central woman writer of the San Francisco Beat generation counterculture. Married to Beat poet Michael McClure soon after she arrived in San Francisco in 1954, Joanna McClure became a significant figure in the Beat poetry scene. Growing up on a ranch in the Arizona desert, Joanna developed early on a deep sensitivity to the beauty of nature. Her move to San Francisco as a young woman in 1951 launched a lifelong love affair with that city and the poetry it engendered. Thriving on the energy of the Beat movement, the young poet found herself inside a circle of famous poets and great writers in American poetry and American literature, including San Francisco Renaissance poet Robert Duncan and his lover, artist Jess Collins, as well as the Beats Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Gary Snyder. She heard Ginsberg’s first public reading…
Write From The Heart by Hal Zina Bennett
Write From The Heart, Unleashing the Power of Your Creativity by Hal Zina Bennett is one of my all-time favorite books on writing. It’s a perfect title for Hal’s easy guidance that inspires deep writing. Hal welcomes and invites us on a relaxed journey to travel inward and discover ourselves through our writing in an unruffled manner. The opening paragraphs are much like the in-person Hal: gentle, quiet and encouraging. The “Writing Explorations” sections invite contemplative writing. The “Core Concepts” support calm and tender writing. This week, I’m going to settle into my reading corner and rediscover Hal’s gentle encouragement with my well-worn copy of Write From The Heart. Photo of my post-it noted copy of Write From The Heart.
Pack Up The Moon by Rachael Herron
Pack Up The Moon by Rachael Herron packs a powerful punch. I was completely transported into the world of the characters who inhabit this story, who felt so real, as if I could reach out and touch them. During the last few pages, I was able to crawl back into my own skin. This deep and provocative story may be a difficult book for many people to read. Rachael writes powerfully and thoughtfully about sensitive subject matters with an expertise of juggling several characters and their emotions. She weaves in backstory seamlessly with smooth transitions. Because Pack Up The Moon is such a sensitive and deep book, I don’t want to give you just my opinion. I want to share what others think of this book. If you have read this many-faceted book and want to share your thoughts and reactions, I would love to hear from you. You can…
Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch by Constance Hale
Guest Book Reviewer Kathy Myers nails a review of Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing. If a mousy English teacher yanked the hairpins out of her tight bun, slammed down a couple of boiler makers, and shimmied around the dance floor at a biker bar, she could blame it on the copy of “Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch” tucked in her Borders Book bag. Constance Hale stimulates writers to accentuate and resuscitate their sentences with better verbs—the “little despots” that dictate what happens in the sentence. But it’s not just about verbs; it’s about better writing. It’s about smashing bad habits, and flirting with new ones. It’s about the rich history of our mutt of a mother tongue, and appreciation of its ongoing evolution. And because “the antidote to anxiety is mastery” each chapter includes prompts to “try, do, write, and play”, and thus makes this a worthy…
Sin and Syntax: How To Craft Wicked Good Prose by Constance Hale
Kathy Myers sits in the Book Reviewer seat today. Thank you, Kathy, for an excellent review of Sin and Syntax: How To Craft Wicked Good Prose by Constance Hale. A book with “sin” and “wicked” in the title is more apropos of a vampire romance, but Constance Hale excites the reader with her own personal passion for words— words in all their glory. She tackles topics that for centuries have induced narcolepsy among students such as: sentence structure, grammar, misplaced modifiers, or word choices, making them stimulating, arousing and well…downright sexy. She puts the sin in syntax indeed. Her chapters are organized like a Catholic autopsy: bones, flesh, cardinal sins, carnal pleasures, and a catechism. Her wealth of knowledge is shared with wit and brevity. Why have your character go into a “house,” when they can enter a bungalow, A Frame, adobe, Victorian, or a rancher? Why “walk” when they…