Books of my travels

When you travel around the country and tell people are you writing they suggest books, they loan you books, they give you books. So here are the books I have acquired in my travels:

A great batch of books from Jerri (who suggested I make this list):
Revenge of the Paste Eaters: Memoirs of a Misfit – Cheryl Peck
Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs – Cheryl Peck
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Before Women Had Wings - Connie May Fowler

One I bought in Iowa City after I met Jerri’s hilarious friend Barb in KC:
Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter – Barbara Robinette Moss

I finally got hold of Marge Piercy's memoir, Sleeping With Cats, at a used book store in Ann Arbor. Interesting stuff, but the workshop with her turned out to be a bit disappointing. She's a great writer, but a somewhat cantankerous person who did not seem thrilled to be teaching.

Jim Kates is a high school friend of my mom’s and the head of Zephyr Press. He gave me a few books:
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East – Sandy Tolan
Say Thank You: Poems by Mikhail Aizenberg, translated by Jim Kates

Lucy gave me a memoir she liked:
Jesusland: A Memoir – Julia Scheeres

Kate and Jen in DC gave me a copy of their friend Shauna’s first novel (which is great so far): When We Get There – Shauna Seliy
(I just saw that Shauna will be at Wordstock in November!)

My grandmother, Happie, gave me this novel the other day: The Elegant Gathering of White Snows – Kris Radish

And my other grandmother, Netta, sent me this novel about a small village just before the creation of Israel for my birthday this week (she can usually be counted on for something on the topic of Israel from a conservative perspective): The Blue Mountain – Meir Shalev

A book I need to mention here that I read in June is The Wholeness of a Broken Heart by Katie Singer. It's a book about four or five generations of Jewish women that feels something like what I hope to write.

And last but not least, my friend Deidre gave me a slew of amazing audiobooks from Sounds True, where she works in Boulder. I won't list every single one, but she gave me CDs from Ram Dass, Natalie Goldberg, Julia Cameron, Jack Kornfield, Clarissa Pinkola Estes and several others. Such a great gift for the road!

I think that's it, but the list of books I need to get from the library is very long now! I have so much reading to do! Please leave any further book suggestions in the comments.

Stay tuned for pictures from Seattle and a Best & Worst of my trip list (feel free to email me additions to that, too).