I couldn’t believe I was holding it, procured so easily from the public library: “The only known novel by a female African-American slave, and quite possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere,” read the cover jacket of The Bondwoman’s Narrative. Harvard Professor Henry Gates, Jr. who had laid hold of the original… Read More Greatness: The Bondwoman’s Narrative
So the last time I called, it was to ask the meaning of art. This time I want to talk about its source and sustenance. Would you help me through my ambivalence on this question, follow as I st r u gg le? Thinking over the things my mother worked to procure for me –… Read More Calling All Artists, Thinkers, Writers, Part 2: The Luxury of Art
Though Please Look After Mom was an international bestseller by a South Korean novelist, I didn’t care for the lackluster title or the parts that were overstated. But the well-painted portrait of a mother who goes missing redeemed the read plenty. She is a prototype of wife and mother from every culture since the dawn of… Read More The Invisible Woman
A good friend sent me this essay, saying, “Made me so sad. For the man he killed, for the family who suffered and for this man behind bars with a great gift who could have done so much.” The story is not for the faint-hearted and it’s not something you read everyday. It’s longer than the… Read More Solitary Confinement, a Window into Life
I’ve always been drawn to African-American history. This novel I picked up four years ago repaints the slave culture of Louisiana that was new to me. Something struck me about the half-white, half-black protagonist. I wrote the author, a writing professor at the University of Riverside 20 minutes away. Here are the excerpts of my… Read More A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight [Thoughts on Women and Suffering]
My husband couldn’t help read aloud parts to me. It wasn’t only about the running (the word alone bored and deterred me). He said there was all this stuff about natural health, with mention of the chia seeds I prepared for the family. In P.E., my least favorite class in school, I never could walk… Read More Born To Run by Christopher McDougall
A Holistic Journey 