October, 2009
This month, Literary Mamas are finding out about running, meditation, and the human spirit. Enjoy!
Download the list to find it fast at your local bookstore or library.
Suzanne Kamata, Fiction Co-Editor, is reading Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas. “This story is about an aspiring writer dad. The narrator is an African-American man in a mixed race marriage struggling to keep his family financially afloat. At times poignant, at times humorous, but always entertaining.”
Ezine Co-Editor Jessica DeVoe Riley, writes, “I’m reading Three Cups of Tea (The Young Reader’s Edition) by Greg Mortenson. The adult version is great, but the Young Reader’s Edition can be read with kids–say, 10 years old and up. Children can find hope in Mortenson’s work, which I think is ultimately what Mortenson’s building schools is all about: inspiring the next generation.”
Irena Smith, Columns Department Editorial Assistant, says, “I’m finishing — and enjoying enormously — Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. McDougall is a journalist and a plodding, much-injured sometime-runner who wants desperately to love running but just can’t — until a five-word question to his doctor sends him on a remarkable odyssey. In seeking the answer to ‘Why does my foot hurt?’ McDougall uncovers a tribe of Tarahumara Indians in the Mexican outback who think nothing of running upward of 50 miles a day — for fun — in flimsy hurrache sandals, ultramarathoners who can cover 135 miles across Death Valley in 24 hours, maverick evolutionary biologists, hard-partying whiz kids who run to the cadences of Alan Ginsberg’s beat poetry, a vast Nike conspiracy to sell us running shoes we don’t really need, and remarkable stories of endurance that will make you want to lace up your shoes (with or without orthotics) and recapture the childlike joys of running.”
Cassie Premo Steele, Columnist, shares, “I recently read Elisabeth Hyde’s novel, In the Heart of the Canyon, which follows a diverse group of strangers who take a week-long rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. It was an engrossing look into different kinds of mothering, and I felt like I’d had a vacation by the time I finished it!”
And finally, Literary Reflections Assistant Editor, Christina Marie Speed, shares, “I am reading A Woman’s Book of Meditation by Hari Kaur Khalsa. Somehow, I thought school would magically lift some of my day-to-day stress; alas, it hasn’t. This book has offered me a reminder to be gentle with myself and with my needs. It offers women a complete meditation routine, with poses, breathing, and guided imagery. When I make the time to enjoy it, I feel more equipped to handle the day.”