Editors' Picks
See the ten reviews our editors have chosen this month:
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Being a full-fledged farmer or fully self-sufficient is not possible for most of us who live an urban or suburban life. Yet creating a modern homestead is not a role-playing game, but an effort to do what we can to lessen our dependency on modern conveniences. Homegrown and Handmade: A Practical Guide to More Self-Reliant Living gives you the tools needed to create a lifestyle that honors the planet, helps you eat healthy foods, and lessens your dependency on global resources.
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Kamakwie was a very difficult book to read. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Kathleen Martin to write.
"When I went to Sierra Leone...I knew I would see things that would make me sad. And I knew...that I would also find happiness growing like determined wildflowers—seemingly oblivious to the troubles all around. But there was so much I did not know. I did not know the vast darkness of war.
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It's hard to believe now that women once wore dead birds on their hats. Even more gruesome, were hats sporting parts of birds. The story of The Plume Hunter is set against the backdrop of this practice, which sadly consumed much of the water bird population, as well as other species, on both coasts of the United States in the waning years of the 19th century. Contemplating huge profits, hunters who normally shot birds for the restaurant trade began to focus on the demand for the glorious plumes of egrets, herons, grebes, and more.
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"All stories are true. Some stories happened." This is how I intended to begin this review. As I read Elephant Girl, from the initial gut-wrenching description of elephant training to the enigmatic conclusion, I kept reminding myself that even though this story sounded for all the world like memoir, it was really fiction: fiction with a political agenda to show the enduring evils of child abuse compounded by governmental insanity and other quasi-support systems that have safety-net holes large enough for 747s to fly through.
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In the introduction to her memoir, Off the Beaten Path, Ruth J. Colvin writes, "Why can't the people of this world live together peacefully? I submit that one reason is that we know so little of one another: of others' histories, cultures, traditions, and religions."
She should know. As the founder of Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA), she traveled to twenty-six developing countries. In Off the Beaten Path she writes about meeting the people she's teaching and training on their own turf.
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A captivating historical presentation of the Ojibwe women in communities that settled the Great Lakes area of the United States, this book by Ms. Child is a chronicle of change and survival. She chronicles family and physical changes in geography from early settlements, to fur trading, to reservations, culminating with urban migration.
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In Contents May Have Shifted, Pam Houston invites the reader into her intimate circle of friends and takes us along on a wild ride to Ireland, Canada, Bhutan, Argentina, many US destinations, home bases of California and Colorado and more. We learn about her (often) difficult relationships with men and the constant support from her (often) wise friends.
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Sometimes, laughter is the only way to deflect despair. Robyn Michelle Levy knows it from personal experience. Her memoir Most of Me is simultaneously amusing and poignant. From the first word, the story pulled me in and never let go, and the pages practically turned themselves. But it was a harrowing read, too, because of the subject matter: a serious, life-altering illness. Or rather two of them at once.
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Jamuna Devi Advani has created a beautiful family history in poetry. Land of the Dancing Deer begins with reflections about her memories and beliefs and continues with stories of her life's journey. Throughout the book she includes beautiful watercolors and photos of those who were important to her.
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I admit it. The first thing I did after receiving Mary Albanese's book, Midnight Sun, Arctic Moon: Mapping the Wild Heart of Alaska was look at the photo inserts. Most of the photos featured a sweet-faced, slender woman sporting a wide smile and (depending on the picture) a large, mushroom-shaped stocking cap, a very feminine straw hat and flowing skirt and blouse, a gigantic backpack, or a gun, among other things.
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Review of the Month
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Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching, edited by Carol Smallwood, Colleen S. Harris & Cynthia Brackett-Vincent
Unlike the reclusive Emily Dickinson in her Amherst room, modern day poets have a need to reach out to teachers, a creative community of other poets, and to have our voices heard. Support for all aspects of a poet's life come in the form of 59 essays in Women on Poetry.
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Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore
I am a poet, writer and creativity facilitator in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Ever since carrying them around, for the feel and smell of them, I have loved books—before I had yet learned to read! Writing book reviews comes out of my life-long love of sharing stories. Writing a review involves a closer examination of a book and further learning about its subject and it author. How DID she make it work? In the ten years I have been offering women's writing circles, I have found it an honour to give women a voice, where they awaken to their full potential.
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Our Favorite Authors
Celebrating SCN's 2011 Sarton Women's Memoir Award Winners!
Read Paula Stallings Yost's interview with Leila Levinson, author of Gated Grief and winner of the 2011 Sarton Memoir Award.
Read Susan Wittig Albert's interview with Jamie Patterson, author of Lost Edens and 2nd place winner of the 2011 Sarton Memoir Award.
We're getting up close and personal with our favorite writers. Check out our author interviews to read what these great writers have to say.
Now you can listen to interviews with authors as well. Linda Wisniewski, previously on the editorial staff at StoryCircleBookReviews, talks about her memoir, Off Kilter. Go to our podcast page for the link, and check out all the other interviews there.
We have reviews of books by over seven hundred authors. You're sure to find your favorite here. If not, contact us and request a review or, better yet, join our team and write one.
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Briefly Reviewed...
We receive more wonderful books than we can possibly review. Here is a selection of titles, briefly described, that represent the wide range of recently-published memoirs written by strong women who have been there, done that, and lived to tell the tale. Recommended!
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Reviewers' News
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Susan Wittig Albert's 20th China Bayles mystery was published this month by Berkley Prime Crime. She also published an article in Wildflower Magazine: "When In Drought." You can read the online version here.
Judy Alter's 1994 novel, Libbie, a fictional account of Libbie Custer's years with General George Armstrong Custer, will be available for e-readers soon. And watch for Judy's latest mystery, No Neighborhood for Old Women. It launches as an e-book April 8 and will be available in print by May 1.
SCN board member and Star Blogger Susan J. Tweit is looking forward to morphing into "writer-on-the-river," teaching a floating creative writing workshop for Colorado Art Ranch's inaugural Green River "Floatposium," July 6-9. What's a floatposium? A traveling workshop, says Tweit, who invites SCNers to join her to float the Green River through the spectacular red-rock canyons of Colorado and Utah's Dinosaur National Monument while honing your writing skills and creative direction. Tweit also reports that she has spent what seems like thousands of hours over the last six weeks Tweit "renovating" her website and blog, combining the two here.
We're looking for strong reviews of books by, for, and about women. If you'd like to join our review team, check out our guidelines.
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Join Our Review Team
We're looking for strong reviews of books by, for, and about women. If you'd like to join our review team, check out our review guidelines.
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Have a Book You'd Like Us to Review?
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About Story Circle Network
This book review site is sponsored by the Story Circle Network, a non-profit membership organization that serves women who want to tell their life stories in diaries, journals, personal essays, poetry, and memoir. The Network is for every woman who aims to claim the power of her experience, who wants to map her journey, and who is determined to name herself. If you're that woman, please join us.
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