It's my blog and I'll review what I want to

So, changes are afoot on this space!

Since late 2006 I've been writing about eating disorders here, with occasional forays into my other interests. Until recently I wrote purely under my pseudonym and kept the rest of my writing elsewhere. Okay, I did let the tap dancing slip through now and then.

Well, pretty soon I will change the name of this site, and some of my focus, to my broader interests. Because my full-time job is still eating disorders related - as the Executive Director of F.E.A.S.T. - I'm likely to yammer about that more than other things.

But I do have other passions and projects: documentary, film, African American history, poetry, my area of the South, Asia, being a woman of a certain age at a certain time, my writer friends, a novel about a town with a secret, a book about infertility and snakes, soapmaking, books, books, books.

And on that topic I want to recommend two books I just finished. One by my writing mentor, Phyllis Theroux, and one by a family friend.

I've studied writing with Phyllis as one of her devoted Nightwriters and had the honor of meeting her mother - a central character in this book. But the personal connection only added to the pleasures of Journal Keeper for me. The observations of life, writing, small town life after big city life, finding love at all ages, and being both mother and daughter - all with a dry wit and keen eye for human behavior. A satisfying and nourishing read. (oops, I let food come into it, sorry)



I am of mixed race. I'm pretty equally comfortable among black and white folk. I'm sorry to say that living in both worlds makes me aware of how uncomfortable people are with race - on both ends. I'm so used to this I stopped really hoping for great improvement in the near future. I fell back on believing things would be the same until we were all so intermarried that race didn't exist. Reading Kaolin's book I had a bit of a breakthrough. I actually envisioned black and white people talking openly to one another. Kaolin doesn't shy from how awkward and vulnerable and sometimes painful that would be, but her optimism that it can happen and her experience with making it happen in a classroom setting was really inspiring. I felt a bit of cynicism fall off.

Comments

  1. Laura,

    Speaking of book recommendations, I have a few for you:

    "The Help" (can't remember the author, but it's fiction)
    "We've Got Issues" by Judith Warner
    "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot
    (the last two are non-fiction and relatively new)

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  2. Oh, Carrie, thank you! I love personal recommendations. I tend to get buried in the review copies I'm sent and ED lit.

    Read The Help and had lots of thoughts - good and bad. Love to discuss!
    Will put the other two on my list. I've met Rebecca, btw!!

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