Blog Archives
ANDRA WATKINS: CHALLENGES KEEP US ALIVE
Not Without My Father is a very special memoir by Andra Watkins. The book describes the personal challenge of the author. Our next guest did something very tough. She admitted her pure feelings and reflections during a very rough adventure.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce to you Lady Andra Watkins.
– Andra, what is your memoir Not Without My Father about?
– In 2014, my debut novel To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis was published. Because it was set on the Natchez Trace, I thought walking the Trace would be a brilliant marketing ploy. I’d take readers into the world of the book, all while walking more than a half-marathon every day for a month. I knew my stunt would make my novel a New York Times best seller.
I needed a wingman to accomplish my dream. The only available person was my eighty-year-old father, the one person in the world who drives me absolutely insane. I didn’t want to live with his gas and non-stop talking for a month.
But I was desperate for my best seller.
Dad agreed to be my wingman while I walked the Trace in fifteen-mile daily increments. My memoir is the story of our dysfunctional family adventure, a story that asks if one really can turn “I wish I had” into “I’m glad I did.”
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LINDA APPLEMAN SHAPIRO: I DID NOT SET OUT TO WRITE SHE’S NOT HERSELF AS A MEMOIR
Linda Appleman Shapiro published her memoire She’s Not Herself last year. The book found a lot of followers, who rated it very highly and currently stands with average 4.5 Amazon stars from 50 reviews.
For more than 30 years our next guest practiced as a psychotherapist. She is an established blogger in the field of mental health. Let’s say welcome to Linda Appleman Shapiro.
– What is your book SHE’S NOT HERSELF about?
– My memoir, “SHE’S NOT HERSELF: A Psychotherapist’s Journey Into and Beyond Her Mother’s Mental Illness” is precisely what my sub-title suggests.
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PHILIP YANCEY: VANISHING GRACE IS KIND OF SERMON TO THE CHURCH
Philip Yancey is the author who dares to challenge the church with his books. His open words ask many questions that are still unanswered about the human nature. With 20 books behind our next feature guest published the latest one in September 2014 Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News. In one of the most interesting Land of Books’s interviews ever in Philip Yancey welcomes us to his personal world of writing.
– Vanishing Grace: What Ever Happened to the Good News was published four years after your previous book. What is the different in it compared to your previous books?
– Every book is different. Most of my books come out of my own questions and struggles, over issues such as “Does prayer matter?” or “Why does God allow so much suffering?” Vanishing Grace came out of my concern that in much of the world Christians are getting a bad reputation, as elitist, or as “holier than thou” as we say in English. I wrote a kind of “sermon to the church,” a reminder that we have very good news to offer a world in need.
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JULIE FREED: MY HOME WAS LEVELED BY HURRICANE KATRINA
The Hurricane Katrina changed many lives. The hell’s opening during August 2005 will be remembered as the most brutal natural disaster ever produced by Atlantic Ocean. Almost 2000 people died. The damages were counted to a monstrous number of $108 billion.
Julie Freed witnessed the nightmare. With her debut memoir Naked she shared the personal level of destruction that was caused by Hurricane Katrina. The readers gave huge appreciation to the book with average 4.9 stars in Amazon from 77 reviews.
– What is your memoir Naked about?
– Naked is a true story of parallel tragedies. What happens when a mother loses everything to Hurricane Katrina? What if her husband never returns? Surrounded by the rubble of life – I was stripped bare by love and loss.
Naked is raw and touching – a story of motherhood, choices, marriage, addictions, family love, redemption, and survival. I describe the incredible event that was Hurricane Katrina and is the context of the majority of the memoir. Most people just watched the episodes unfold on the news but my story takes the reader there, on the ground to grapple with all that I saw, felt, smelled, touched, and suffered. Even though I was stripped, left naked on the slab of what was my house holding my one year daughter – I was never alone, and we are never alone! I hope my story gives readers hope that when faced with extreme unthinkable situations there is a well of strength deep within that can quench our thirst and propel us forward.
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RACHELE BAKER: I FOUND MY MOTHER’S JOURNAL TWENTY YEARS AFTER HER DEATH
Rachele Baker’s emotion were put on one place at her book Eighteen Months To Live. She wrote a memoir about her mother, who was diagnosed with cancer. How tough is to remember once again all those moments and to combine them into a novel? Let’s hear from the author herself. I must warn you that the following lines are extremely touching.
– What is your book Eighteen Months To Live about?
– Eighteen Months To Live is the real life story of my mother, Midge Rylander, in her final months of life after being diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is cancer of the lining of the lung from prior exposure to asbestos. After her diagnosis, my mother decided to keep a daily journal to document her experiences so that her experiences could help other people. Eighteen Months To Live is the transcription of my mother’s handwritten journal as well as letters that she wrote to me during that time.
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