Now Reading, April 2011
Literary Mamas share what they are reading right now. Take your pick!
Download the list to find it fast at your local bookstore or library.
Columnist Heather Cori recommends Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses by Claire Dederer. “On a Friday night after a demanding week of work, I got the pleasure of hearing Claire Dederer speak at our local library. My friend, Amanda, had recommended this book when she heard I was getting back into yoga. I loved it the moment I heard the title Poser and was even more intrigued when the capital letter themes emerged during Claire’s reading. For example: M for Motherhood and the funky community ‘rules’ we have about being good, D for Depression that so many have and so few talk about and P for Parents coming to terms with 1970s parents as parents of the 2000s. Claire Dederer explores each of the yoga poses through her body and her honest humorous life and I can’t wait to finish it.”
Columnist Cassie Premo Steele shares, “Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya…what if these were something more than quick stories in the news? What if you had an intelligent, reliable girlfriend who had been there and wrote to you about it, through searingly poetic and personal letters full of stories that gave you wisdom and insight? This is what Megan K. Stack’s Every Man in This Village is a Liar is like. Stack reveals how America’s presence in these countries will affect our children. This book can help us move from denial to understanding and heartfelt action.”
Kristina Riggle, Fiction Co-Editor, says, “I’m reading National Book Award winning Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon, a fellow Michigan writer I had the honor of meeting in person a few weeks ago. Her visceral, engrossing tale of racetrack life and all its dirty reality is told with both guts and grace.”
Suzanne Kamata, Fiction Co- Editor, shares, “I just finished reading A Different Sky by Meira Chand, which covers a tumultuous thirty year period in the history of Singapore, through a multicultural cast of characters. Chand, a British-born Swiss-Indian writer, is at the top of her game in this well-researched, beautifully told epic tale.”
Caroline Grant, Editor-in-Chief and Columnist writes, “I’m reading Nicki Richesin’s new anthology, Crush: 26 Real-life Tales of First Love, a terrific collection of essays by writers ranging from Jacqueline Mitchard to Ann Hood, Rebecca Walker and Robert Wilder. Their essays are frank, sometimes funny and often bittersweet — after all this is first love, and the angst the relationship causes can last longer than the relationship itself! The essays are beautifully written and will stay with you as long as your memories of your own first love.”