Me, My Hair, and I

Twenty-seven women untangle an obsession
Edited by Elizabeth Benedict

Deborah Hoffman played a crucial role in my NYC experience (and Balin's) and Myra Goldberg (and her daughter) were a part of my Sarah Lawrence time.

I have thought about writing a hair essay too and I enjoyed getting to know the experiences that these woman have had through this thing. Fascinating.

Spinning Straw Into Gold

Spinning Straw Into Gold
by Joan Gould.

So far, 13 pages in, wonderful.
Feels like an SLC project coming on and this book is lighting the tinder.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

by Amy Chua


"This is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs.

This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising their kids than Western ones.

But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old."



ooooh, love me some Asian/American 2nd generation immigrant family stories.  Plus, she is a smart mother/writer and is outlining the difference between Western & Asian mothering/parenting.  Yep.  I am hooked.

When She Woke

by Hillary Jordan

A rewriting of The Scarlet Letter yet set in the future.  I was not aware when I picked this up of the redo of a familiar story...  When I read the first few lines of the back once home I was disappointed.  Yet, I kept reading and was hooked.  The story differs quite a bit and I do so love speculative fiction.  :)

Born to Run: a hidden tribe, superathletes, and the greatest race the world has never seen

by Christopher McDougall

Awesome.  Once I got over the man-view of how it was written...  ugh, that was hard.  I just wanted the story told to me and not outlined and relayed in a stopping-for-the-backstory kind of way.  But, once in, I was hooked.  Plus, it even interested my husband in barefoot running! Yay!

Passing For Thin: losing half my weight and finding myself

by Frances Kuffel

Interesting issues regarding obesity in the US and what stems from childhood to make it a continuum.  I was surprised and also somewhat not surprised to see how I have a lot of these same issues.  Yes, a one woman, one story type of read but on a greater scale it does shed light on a not often talked about inner story.

Wide Awake: a memoir of insomnia

by Patricia Morrisroe

ugh.  This book put me to sleep.  Some interesting data on sleep and the finguring-out-why-we-don't-sleep saga but I really didn't care for her standpoint on herself.  Victim!  Victim!  Victim!  ugh.  Didn't even finish the whole thing because, in the end (or at the 3/4 mark) I really didn't care anymore.  Too bad - all that research and data and ending up with crappola.

Loving What Is: How four questions can change your life

by Byron Katie.


Blew. My. Mind.
I use these principles every day when I encounter "problems."

She has an amazing story to tell about her life but it is what she has done with every moment afterwards that is really amazing.

Sand in my Bra and Other misadventures: funny women write from the road

edited by Jennifer L. Leo


Ugh.  Totally not what I was expecting.  I picked this up because it was a book club recommendation and I was thoroughly unimpressed with these women.  Such victims!  No fun!  No sense of adventure laced with happiness to be out and about!  Just ugh, blugh, grub...  on and on about what didn't happen and what should have...  oh, woe is you.  I had to put it down and try, try again - not believing that this whole book by these "funny" women was this bad.  Ugh.  Awful.

What would have been amazing was if it had been what I thought it was going to be - an account of women on their own in the world on real adventures.  I want to read that book.  Maybe perhaps research and write it.  :)  That makes me happy.

he Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

I read this for a book club meeting that I never made it to but had no idea about the subject of the book when I picked it up.  It was a little single-minded for my tastes and if it hadn't been on the list I never would have taken it home from the library but, even so, it had some interesting parts.  I am fascinated by race relations in the US and how they are developing still.  This book holds a place on a shelf of some obscure thought process regarding that - yes, we still are screwy with this topic.  Oh yes.