New American Best Friend is a book that makes me want Olivia Gatwood as my new best friend. Mostly because maybe then they can explain a few things to me. While the poems are straight forward, there are a few images I am trying to figure out what they mean as they can be interpreted a few ways. Then again, maybe that is the point? However, there is no real question about Ode to My Bitch Face (and trust me, if you say you did […]
A Shattering and a Shame
“We cannot go abroad as Americans in the 21st century and not realize that the main thing that has been terrorizing us … is our own ignorance — our blindness and subsequent discovery of all the people on whom the empire-that-was-not-an-empire had been constructed without our attention or concern.” This book is well-planned and well-paced although it covers both the histories of America’s interventions in other countries ranging back 80+ years, and the author’s personal journey of awareness. It is deeply heartfelt without being egocentric. […]
Shoulder Shrug – The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers, and Life
Richard Russo is one of my favorite authors, so when I saw this on the “HOT PICKS” shelf at my library I was intrigued. It was fun to get some insight into his life, inspiration and musings, but I won’t be recommending this as much as I recommend his fiction. I enjoyed the stories on writing and life, in particular where he shared the graduation speech he gave to the graduating class of 2004 of Colby College. As that is also my graduation year that […]
It is not the light element alone that does the healing
Johnston is a Jungian psychologist who has written a book about being human, yet feeling a duality. Owning your own shadow jumps off from Jungian philosophy. It operates from the notion that as part of our assimilation into society we are forced to leave large parts of ourselves behind, in the shadow. It is not really a self-help book and not quite a philosophical treatise, it is more a loosely formed essay detailing the process of forming the shadow, the need for expression of the […]