Review: Real Women, Real Wisdom

Real Women, Real Wisdom: A Journey into the Feminine Soul is a collection of 17 essays by women "of a certain age," all reflecting on what they have learned from the stories they have lived. Maureen Hovenkotter, author of 42 States of Grace: A Woman’s Journey (reviewed here), edited the collection and contributed the final essay.

Each piece focuses on, or is inspired by, a "transformative" event in the author's life – death in the family, illness, divorce, or job loss, for example. One essay specifically examines suffering as part of our lives, and another the idea that things don't turn out as we expect, but the themes of suffering and unfulfilled expectations run throughout all the stories.

What makes these accounts of suffering and loss emotionally piercing instead of maudlin is that every writer concentrates on how her experience brought grace into her life, and how she used to the experience to move closer to God or grow spiritually. Many of the women are in a Catholic writers' group together, so they bring a Christian perspective, but none of the essays are dogmatic. One of the authors is a practicing Buddhist, another a self-described seeker, and all share an acceptance of traveling varied spiritual paths.

The authors aren't celebrities, but don't be put off by the somewhat amateurish nature of their publication. Most are professional writers; all are gifted storytellers. The collection will teach and inspire as the stories linger. It is the kind of book that many readers will turn to again and again as they face the same sorts of life challenges as the authors.

NOTES

This book is at the top of my gift list for women over 40 with a spiritual bent, which, when I think about it, is a LOT of women I know.

Teaser Tuesday: Fish With What You Find

After tripping, overtopping my waders and becoming terminally tangled in the logs and snags in the bottom of a hole I should have known about, I was startled by a voice.

"Fishing has an odd way of calming one's soul," said the old man standing midstream where no one had been when I fell.

-- from "The Old Man in the Riffle," in Fish with What You Find by Jim Gilsdorf.

This is a collection of articles, previously published in the Gilsdorf's local Trout Unlimited chapter newsletter, about fly fishing and fly tying. I do neither, but Gilsdorf tells great stories and the book has charmed me.

This would make a perfect Christmas present for any fly fisher. 

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Mailbox Monday

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia at A girl and her books (fka The Printed Page), who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit is hosting in October.  Please go by and visit her wonderful blog. 

Many books came into my house last week from a variety of sources:

First, I had lunch with Larry Dennis to discuss his company, Turbo Leadership Systems doing some work with my law firm.  Larry gave me a copy of his book InFormation: How To Gain The 71% Advantage.  I don't read a lot of business books, but I'll read this one.



Second, Bob Sanchez, author and nonfiction editor at the Internet Review of Books, sent me a copy of his mystery, Little Mountain. I don't have a Kindle, so Bob was nice enough to send a paperback, but the Kindle edition is a steal at only $2.99! It looks great -- a Cambodian refugee now homicide cop in Lowell, Massachusetts.



Third, because I completed the Vintage Mystery Challenge, hostess Bev from My Reader's Block sent me a prize -- A PRIZE! For reading books. Does it get any better than that?  I chose An Oxford Tragedy by J. C. Masterman because this challenge has me hooked for good on vintage mysteries.



Finally, showing an uncharacteristic willingness to relinquish control, I gave a copy of my "Books to Buy and Read" list to Rachelle at my favorite Second Glance bookstore.  She found several nice copies for me, so I have a stack of new (to me) books, most of them on one or another of my book lists:

The Once and Future King by T. H. White (on the Burgess list)



One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (on the College Board's Top 101 List and the MLA's 30 Books Every Adult Should Read Before They Die list)



What Makes Sammy Run? by Budd Schulberg (in a nice Modern Library edition; on the BOMC's Well-Stocked Bookcase list)



An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (winner of the Costa Book of the Year award)



Old Bones: A Gideon Oliver Mystery by Aaron Elkins (an Edgar Award winner)



A Case of Need by Michael Crichton (another Edgar winner)



The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir (in a nice Everyman's Library reissue; on my own French Connections list)



The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award)



The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling (on the Easton Top 100 list)

Review of the Day: Carry Yourself Back to Me

Carry Yourself Back to Me is Deborah Reed's debut novel under her own name, following close on the heels of the publication under her Audrey Braun pen name of the sassy thriller, A Small Fortune.

In contrast to the whirligig adventure of her thriller, Carry Yourself Back to Me is a thoughtful, intense novel with Southern gothic overtones. Set in central Florida in the middle of a freak cold snap, the story focuses on Annie Walsh, a singer-songwriter recovering from the abrupt end of a long relationship with her music producer boyfriend.

There are many threads to the story as Reed examines the relationships between Annie and her ex-lover, her brother Calder who has been accused of murdering his lover's husband, their parents, and their bachelor uncle. The story moves between the cold, snowy present, Annie and Calder's childhood, and the immediate past that left Annie alone in her cabin and Calder in jail.

By the end, as the threads come together, the reader has been woven into the tale. Reed's descriptions are so tactile – Annie's rough hands, the ice-coated branches of the citrus trees, the warm fur of her dog's coat – and her characters are so authentic that to read the book is to live inside the story.

This book is hands-down terrific.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Here is my interview of Deborah Reed, aka Audrey Braun.

Here is my review of A Small Fortune.

Here is some of the buzz on Carry Yourself Back to Me: Reed was interviewed on tv recently. The book got a Publisher's Weekly review.  It was the September choice for the From Left to Write Book Club. Library Journal praised the book and called Reed "an author to watch." And there is a sweet country song tie-in by Brush Prairie.

Opening Sentence of the Day: Fish With What You Find

On another day it's a muskrat or a mink or a squirrel or a possum, or even once a feral pet ferret in Michigan's upper peninsula.

-- from "Roadkill and the Fly Tyer," the first chapter in Fish with What You Find by Jim Gilsdorf.

This is a collection of articles about fly fishing and fly tying. I do neither, but it still appeals to me, maybe because of the cool illustrations of the flies.

A Few More Pages hosts Book Beginnings every Friday.  The event is open for the entire week.