My review of Terri Cheney's book, "Manic: A Memoir" is in today's Birmingham News.
"Very little insight is given to these embarrassing situations until late in the book. Chapters resemble cocktail stories, with small doses of horror and humor. But in the end there's a payoff. Cheney wraps this string of situations into a thematic bow that makes complete sense."
Read the rest here.
I'm late in posting this but...
My review of "Final Journeys: A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life" by Maggie Callanan was published in the Birmingham News.
"Sensitively written, Callanan outlines in precise detail what a family should know about saying goodbye to a loved one. It is a deeply compassionate and moving book."
Read the rest here.
I reviewed Pamela Aye Simon's "The Book of Blah: Random Thoughts for Boring Days" several weeks ago for the Birmingham News.
“Simon's book is filled with free-verse poetry on the peculiarities of modern life. Her topics are diverse, ranging from technology to clothing, diet and the aging process…The theme throughout the text is of loss and compromise. The narrator is conflicted between her inner life and external circumstances. This underpinning accounts for the sadness that occasionally overwhelms these verses.”
Officially, it falls under the “humor” category, and that was my main quibble with it. Books like “The Book of Blah” are tough to categorize – not quite humor, not quite literary, not quite… You get the idea.
The free verse form fascinates me because of its economy - taking the most important words in the sentence and cutting out the rest. I think my eyes do that quite naturally. Using too many words dilutes the impact of a statement.
Anyway, read the review here.
My review of The Baby Void: My Quest for Motherhood, by Judith Uyterlinde was in yesterday's Birmingham News. An excerpt:
"I know that I have had a miscarriage, but I cannot comprehend the meaning of what has happened. All I feel is physical relief. I stand up to look, but I cannot identify an embryo in the glistening bloody mass." So begins Judith Uyterlinde's journey into infertility. Her book, "The Baby Void: My Quest for Motherhood," describes what it feels like for a woman to gradually lose her ability to conceive a child.
Her family and friends speak in whispers as, one by one, everyone around her begins to bear children. Meanwhile, Uyterlinde tries to conceive with her husband. As the book progresses, she experiences one miscarriage, two ectopic pregnancies, four failed in vitro fertilization attempts and the removal of her only functional fallopian tube.
My review of Distorted: How a Mother and Daughter Unraveled the Truth, the Lies, and the Realities of an Eating Disorder, by Lorri Antosz Benson and Taryn Leigh Benson was published in Monday's Birmingham News
"The book is told as a dual narrative, with each author recalling the same events from a different perspective. This structure provides readers with a grim view of this disintegrating relationship. It is hard not to admire their honesty, as well as their eventual forgiveness. This is an important book for families battling this illness."
Read the whole review... or not.
My review of The Genie in Your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention, by Dawson Church was published last Monday.
"Citing more than 300 medical studies, he proposes that DNA can be altered through the power of belief."
It's a bit heavy into the physics, biology and science realm. If that's your thing, then check it out. The most fascinating passage in this book dealt with the idea of "retrospective prayer," meaning you can pray for someone today and it might've helped them 10 years ago. Wrap your head around that one...
My review of The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets by Kym Douglas and Cindy Pearlman was publishing in Monday's Birmingham News.
"Kym Douglas and Cindy Pearlman know the value of a guilty pleasure. "The Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets" is both naughty and bold."
Click happily and try not to feel too guilty.
Monday was so last year, but I'll post it anyway. My review of The Chase for Beauty by Robert Mendelson was published in The Birmingham News.
The book reminded me of one of those Saturday night true-crime shows. Here's an excerpt from the review:
"Hurwitz's life took a shocking turn when his daughter was savagely murdered in the family backyard. The case shook Pittsburgh and made Hurwitz question his faith in God and himself. Before that terrible night, he was a supremely confident surgeon with innovative approaches to difficult cases. In grief, he wondered what was left of a family after their only child is taken from them. On top of that, Hurwitz was then hit with a controversial malpractice suit. He lost, and it almost bankrupted him."
Maybe, almost.
I'm trying to wrap up 2007, and it looks like I forgot to post links to a few of my Birmingham News book reviews. Some of these are not web-formatted, so they look a little weird. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Ready?
"Grief's Courageous Journey: A Workbook," by Sandi Caplan & Gordon Lang appeared November 12th in the health section.
"Unlike other books that only talk about the grieving process, the authors gently guide readers through journey. It's a necessary trip."
"New Stories from the South: The Year's Best - 2007," editor Edward P. Jones appeared on the book page November 25th.
"In "New Stories from the South: The Year's Best - 2007," editor Edward P. Jones looked for stories that would leave a lasting impact. "I should confess," he writes in his introduction, "that I did not feel I could choose any story that seemed to have been built solely around some anecdote, a story of one note, as it were." His selections for this annual anthology resonate, and together, the stories describe an area of the country in transition."
I didn't like this book, so no free advertising on Gasp. NO SOUP FOR YOU either. Readers should proceed at their own risk. It appeared November 26th in the health section.
"You've seen those prescription drug commercials on television: Medical terms, scary symptoms and statistics mingled with small talk, as if it were normal to rattle off complex data while eating croissants. That's exactly what it's like to read..."
And finally, on page 2D of today's Birmingham News, "Living Well: 21 Days to Transform Your Life, Supercharge Your Health and Feel Spectacular," by Montel Williams.
"When talk show host Montel Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis he thought his life was over. Doctors told him to quit his show, avoid stress and all physical activity. Instead of preparing to die, he learned to manage his disease through healthy living. His book, "Living Well: 21 Days to Transform Your Life, Supercharge Your Health and Feel Spectacular," provides a sound plan for people looking to drop weight and feel great."
Two months before getting my MFA, I envisioned a door shutting. It was the door to my own voice. Three difficult years followed. I could edit my poems, and I could write in my journal. I made an attempt at writing short stories. Playwriting, my most comfortable creative outlet, was a completely closed door.
Whenever people talk about writer's block, they usually think that it has something to do with a lack of discipline. "Just do it. Sit there and write." But it wasn't that easy. For me, the block had a slew of extenuating circumstances that went far beyond discipline. It had to do with violence and identity, being in hiding and worthiness. The past, the "back there." I didn't want to do anything that reminded me of who I was previously, and I certainly didn't want to found.
Still, when you silence yourself - whether by choice or fear - the part that remains will continue to speak. It will chase you down the street, slide into bed with you at night and wrestle you until you listen to it.
That's how I became familiar with Julia Cameron's work . Her books on creativity, coupled with attending a meditation and healing school, got me writing plays again. Once I allowed myself to do the exercises in The Artists Way, it freed my voice enough that I could yell out a primal scream on the page.
So is her newest book,The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size as good as The Artists Way? Read my review and find out. It appeared on newstands in Monday's Birmingham News.
