August Reads

A Duke of Her Own by Eloisa James: Trying to decide between passion and what’s best, Duke of Villiers must choose between smart, beautiful Eleanor and Lisette rumored to be mad.
The book has everything: passion, impropriety and a duel. It’s a fun read.

Bridegroom by Linda Lael Miller: Miller is one of the few writers still doing Western Historicals and doing it well. This is my favorite genre and I mourn the absence of more in the bookstores.

Bridegroom revisits Gideon Yarbo last seen in A Wanted Man and his childhood friend Lydia Fairmont. Gideon is now an undercover detective on a tricky assignment when he receives a letter from Lydia asking for help. Another fun read.

The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux: This book was the text we used in the Poetic Passion Workshop. As we didn’t read the whole book for the class, I did. The book is a must if you want to write poetry well. Best of all are the assignments. I think you could spend a whole year going through each assignment and in the end; you would be so much the better poet. I highly recommend this guide.

Woven on the Wind edited by Linda Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier, and Nancy Curtis: This another book edited by these three woman that haunts me, takes my breath and quilts my heart with the whole of it. Essay by essay, poem by poem this weaves through my heart. This book is about friendship of women in the Sagebrush West.

I would like for every woman I know to read all three of these books: Leaning into the Wind, Woven on the Wind, and Crazy Woman Creek. Why? Because the books are like the best sleepover with best life friends. There is crying, laughing, healing and nostalgia through the pages of these books. I just can’t say enough other than to say how glad I am I found them this last two years. I needed them and they delivered.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion: Another great book. I’ve wanted to read this book for quite some time. When I saw it for sale at the swap meet for a quarter, there was no reason not to buy it.

The book is mentioned many times in the books I’ve read on how to write memoirs and by Michael J. Fox in his memoir. I know why.

Mostly, the book is about grief-how grief unfolds, how it affects even the strongest people. Didion doesn’t come out and give advice but I don’t think I will ever grieve again without thinking about this book. And I’m not just talking only about grieving the loss of a loved one.

There are so many things to grieve, so many things we lose along life’s road. I think that is why Fox mentioned this book. A devastating illness is a loss that must be grieved in order to grasp hope and move past it. And that is the thing about Didion, though she paints grief with a sharp pen there is no self-pity. She just lays out the facts until you know grieve almost intimately. Lovely book.