More About Books

Here is a “book” report from Cathy Kodra who last year concentrated on reading memoirs:

I read: The Liars’ Club and Lit by Mary Karr
The Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto
The Nazi Officer’s Wife by Edith H. Beer
Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd
The Winged Seed: A Remembrance by Li-Young Lee
The Things We Carry by Tim O’Brien
Barefoot to Avalon by David Payne
The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan

My favorites were those memoirs by Amy Tan, David Payne, Tim O’Brien, and Sue Monk Kidd.

The interesting thing that occurred was that as I began reading from my list of memoirs, I started being drawn to various other nonfiction titles–not memoir, but nevertheless nonfiction, which has not been a strong choice for me until 2014 / 2015 (except for writing craft books and some metaphysical publications).

I read:
The Grain Brain by David Perlmutter(not convinced), Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (not to be missed),          
The Age of Miracles by Marianne Williamson,
Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin,             On Becoming an Artist by Ellen Langer (she’s become one of my favorite authors, and I’m currently reading another book of hers titled Mindfulness),
We Know Nothing by Tim Kreider(best and most honest book of personal essays I’ve ever read),
The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama XIV,     Bluebird:Women and the New Psychology of Happiness by Ariel Gore,                                           The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rub,               Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin, and               One Mind by Larry Dossey.

 

C. Ann Kodra works as an independent editor in Knoxville, TN. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in journals and anthologies including Blueline, Cavalier Literary Couture, Common Ground Review, Cutthroat, drafthorse, MOTIF (vol. 1 & 3), New Millennium Writings, Now & Then, Prime Mincer, RHINO, Still: The Journal, Yemassee, and others. She is a contributing editor for New Millennium Writings and an associate editor for MSI Press, California.