Ruth Thompson's Extraordinary "Quickwater Oracles"

Ruth Thompson's extraordinary Quickwater Oracles (out Dec. 4 from Saddle Road Press) is a unique and ultimately joyful exploration of life's challenges and triumphs. Her channeling calls forth delightful and in many ways prescient voices providing wisdom and advice to Ruth and to all of us. They belong to her sweet pup Duffy, long departed, but still with Ruth every moment; the Dolphins, who gently remind Ruth not to take life too seriously; Bear and Crow, the Singers, the Faeries, the Dragons and other beings who converse with her. They talk of life, of love, of fear, of joy, and offer advice that rings true throughout.

Read the rest of the review on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4357713972

A Great Review of Face on Brevity!

Many thanks to the incredible Lisa Rizzo for this beautiful review on the Brevity magazine blog. And thanks, too, to Dinty Moore and reviews editor Debbie Hagan. Here’s an excerpt:

“Many of the book’s chapters open with epigraphs using excerpts from the surgeon’s notes of her procedures. In much the same way that Joan Didion returns again and again to her husband’s heart attack in her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, these notes create a circular pattern, returning to the little girl in her hospital bed before spiraling into future events. The repetition of medical terms reminds the reader of the terror Meier as a child must have endured, even as she deals with how that suffering influenced the adult she became.”

You can read the entire review here.

New Books to Recommend: RenWomen, Where are Pat and Ernie Now? and Five Sextillion Atoms

As many of you know, I have a new book out—Heart on a Fence, which you can see here. And I have several friends who also have new books out—books I think you would love to have and read.

Dale Griffiths Stamos’ new book is a compilation of the life stories of sixteen “Renaissance women”—modern-day superwomen who have lived lives of purpose and service to humanity. Written with her twin brother, W. Scott Griffiths, RenWomen, What Modern Renaissance Women Have to Teach Us About Living Rich, Fulfilling Lives incorporates a bit of history about past RenWomen, the stories about sixteen modern RenWomen, and how we can encourage young women to follow their own dreams of exploring many different paths.

Simply put, RenWomen are women who excel in many different fields—from arts and literature to math and science to philanthropy and mentoring. I was especially delighted to see that one women profiled in the book is a dear friend of mine—Eva Haller, truly a RenWoman if there ever was one. Eva was born in Hungary and escaped the Nazis at the age of 14, finding her way to Ecuador and ultimately the United States, where she quickly realized she needed an education and work. She found both, and also the first of two great loves of her life. Her third husband, Murray Roman, was an entrepreneur marketer and public relations genius who made a fortune advising presidential candidates in the mid-1960s. Murray and Eva turned to philanthropy and charitable giving, but in 1975, Maury was diagnosed with cancer and died in 1984. Eva was devastated. Three years later, she met Dr. Yoel Haller and the two have been inseparable ever since, traveling the world and continuing the mentoring and philanthropy that Eva and Murray began together.

Eva’s is just one of the many inspiring stories in RenWomen. Pick it up. You won’t be disappointed.

My buddy Ernie Witham’s latest book of humor is Where are Pat and Ernie Now?, a compilation of his many essays on their worldwide travel adventures. I love Ernie’s voice, kind of a combination of self-deprecation, fun and husbandy idiocy. Pat is always the long-suffering spouse in their various escapades, but the last laugh is always on Ernie, and with us. Where are Pat and Ernie Now? is Ernie’s third book. He’s written columns and essays for numerous publications over many years, including several editions of Chicken Soup for the Soul. You don’t want to miss this chronicle of their latest fun-filled explorations of the world.

And last, but certainly not least, my dear friend Jayne Benjulian’s beautiful debut collection of poetry is out. It’s called Five Sextillion Atoms, which is how many atoms are in a drop of water. Her poems are both spare and powerful; she holds back no punches as she explores her past and her childhood, her experiences as a mother, and her relationships with stepsiblings.

I especially love the poems in Part Three, which seem more accessible, perhaps because she herself has finally become more comfortable emotionally with the material. I don’t know. But this I do know: Five Sextillion Atoms will wow you.

A Lovely Poetry Debut - Beth Marshall Jack

Reading Beth Marshall Jack’s lovely debut poetry collection, These Worlds Between Us, is like sitting down to a cup of tea with a wise and gentle friend. Her poems are intimate and lyrical, letting us into an interior landscape that mirrors our own fears, yearnings, joys, disappointments, and wonders.

Jack’s deep command of language and imagery allow us as readers to enter the poems easily and with confidence that what we encounter will enlighten and lift us to some greater understanding of a universal truth. In one of my favorite poems, “With a Click of My Heels,” Jack confronts loss and the helplessness one feels over the inability to make things different.

With a Click of My Heels

I hold your shoes and close my eyes,

the long pause of your absence

languished all afternoon.

Tissue paper stuffed in heels and purses

seemed unfamiliar.

Your seven metal hangers looked empty and sinister.

Somehow I must find a way back

from this empty closet and rows of elegant shoes.

I must summon the child who remembered to be brave,

like Cinderella,

or that girl from Kansas,

who recognized clues, knew slippers were the answers

to everything, a sure guarantee that one could escape

a fire, a witch, poisoned flowers,

even tragedy.

I stand alone, barefoot.

Jack’s imagistic language soars, sometimes eliciting an audible “oh!” as in these lines from “Compass”: “…every breath sags heavily, as I squeeze the sponge/tighter and tighter, as if stanzas were turned/inside out from me, how my body/half-turned, still expected him.” Or these lines from “Figurante”: “I am crumpled, worn out like an old ballet slipper/with ribbons bleached, once carnation pink/…Even the mirrors seem to leer/deliberate satyr teeth.

Many of her poems have mythic allusions, including the lovely “Circe,” which was awarded second prize in poetry from The Writer’s Journal.

Jack is an accomplished writer whose poetry has been honored many times over the years. This worthy collection reflects her careful attention to language, rhythm, imagery and story.

Review - Thrive, by Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington’s latest book, Thrive, the Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-being, Wisdom and Wonder, is the Huffington Post founder’s effort to get us all to stop and smell the roses.

Huffington decided to write this book after she collapsed from exhaustion in 2007, two years after founding the Huffington Post. She realized, she writes, “my life was out of control. In terms of traditional measures of success, which focus on money and power, I was very successful. But I was not living a successful life by any sane definition of success. I knew something had to radically change.”

Thrive offers Huffington’s advice on how to do just that, working through what she calls the three metrics of Well-being, Wisdom and Wonder. In the section on Well-being, she recounts copious research reminding us to get plenty of sleep, eat well, and slow down. Our succeed-at-any-and-all-costs culture is killing us, she says, and burnout, stress and depression have become worldwide epidemics. She recommends daily meditation, walking or some kind of daily exercise, and getting a full night’s sleep as first steps toward countering burnout.

Her sections on Wisdom and Wonder offered deeper insights into living a full and balanced life, exploring spirituality and faith, death, and the development of an inner life that allows one to really thrive. Ultimately, she reminds us that giving to others is the way to give to yourself.

Anyone who struggles with today’s constant barrage of doing more and consuming more would benefit from reading Huffington’s story of how she was forced to put down her smartphone and pay attention to her inner world instead.

(Disclosures: I have known Arianna Huffington for many years as a friend and colleague. I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.)

Review - Anne Lamott's Help Thanks Wow

My God box

Anne Lamott’s new book, Help Thanks Wow, The Three Essential Prayers, is a sweet, moving guidebook to what Lamott considers the three most important prayers one can utter. I love Anne’s books. Her Bird by Bird has been on my bookshelves for many years, and I especially enjoyed Traveling Mercies. One doesn’t have to be religious, or even particularly spiritual, to appreciate Help Thanks Wow, as Anne mentions in the introduction. You only have to believe that something is bigger than you, and that if you ask for help and express gratitude, things will happen in your life that will make you say “wow.”

What I love about Lamott is even though she is a firm believer in Jesus, she also knows that neither she nor Christianity (or any other organized religion) has the answers. In fact, she says, no one does, and if they try to tell you they do, they’re delusional.

Anne Lamott's Help Thanks Wow

She had me close to tears with the first section on “Help,” because what she describes is so perfectly the human condition. We all go through difficulties, and most of us will not be spared life’s harshest experiences. But, she says, just uttering the simple entreaty, “help,” can shift things within us, can allow us to give over the suffering to something bigger than we are, and that can make all the difference in our ability to handle whatever we face.

“Most good, honest prayers remind me that I am not in charge,” she writes, “that I cannot fix anything, and that I open myself to being helped by something, some force, some friends, some something. These prayers say, ‘Dear Some Something, I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t see where I’m going, I’m getting more lost, more afraid, more clenched. Help.’”

And then, she says, let it go.

Lamott says she has a “God box” that she puts her prayers into, then closes the lid and lets whatever universal power is out there take care of it. It could be anything, a glove box, a crayon box. I like this idea.

For my birthday last week, a dear friend gave me a lovely wooden box with the tree of life and birds carved into the top. I have made this my God box (I just mistyped God as Dog – that works, too).

I also especially believe in the second prayer, “Thanks.” Gratitude is a powerful emotion, and I can attest to its ability to shift perspective. Every day I mindfully say thanks, for everything, and more often than not something even more serendipitous or fortuitous comes into my life. 

The final prayer, “Wow,” is a wonderful expression and acknowledgement of how wondrous life is.  Look around. You will always find something, even if it’s just a tiny hummingbird flitting around a bottlebrush tree – to be amazed about. Wow.

Help Thanks Wow is a slim volume – I read it in about an hour or so – but it packs a powerful message. And with the world we have today, it’s a message many of us need to hear.