The book signing at the Pitot House was fantastic! Thanks to all who attended the Second Saturday event!
Michelle Freret Prather, author of My Family, gives us a peak of what she’s been reading.
“I’m one of those people who has a stack of books going at once. They range from profound to funny and everything in between. I gravitate toward memoirs and history, but I love a good novel and am awed when a poem resonates in my heart. I’m planning a trip to Charleston this summer, so Pat Conroy, the King of Memoir, and Patti Callahan Henry are among the authors I’m reading. Books by David Whyte, Peter M. Wolf, and Rachel Naomi Remen complete the stack.
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy was a gifted storyteller and a master wordsmith. He used metaphors to express emotions that are too broad and deep to be conveyed using ordinary descriptions. He reveled in the beauty of language and its ability to help us understand the human condition. In My Reading Life, Conroy revisits the books that shaped him as a writer and a person.
Unclaimed Soul: A Memoir by Patti Callahan
Unclaimed Soul: A Memoir recounts a journey of healing, self-discovery, and acceptance. Callahan writes with raw emotion about betrayal and deception, feeling invisible and unworthy of love, and discovering her true self.
Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte
Poet David Whyte nudges us to take a nuanced look at seemingly ordinary words and discover the power of language to set us free or encapsulate us. After reading and rereading Consolations, I am convinced more than ever that writing is an art, and its most important tool is the heart.
The Sugar King: Leon Godchaux, A New Orleans Legend, His Creole Slave, and His Jewish Roots by Peter M. Wolf
Peter M. Wolf is from my hometown of New Orleans and is an award-winning author. The Sugar King chronicles the life of Leon Godchaux, Wolf’s great-great-grandfather, who came to New Orleans in 1837. When Godchaux, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy, arrived in New Orleans from France, he was alone, penniless, and illiterate, but by the end of his life, he had built a sugar empire and a wildly successful clothing business. I was initially drawn to Wolf’s book because he wrote about how Norbert Rillieux, a free man of color whose invention revolutionized the sugar industry, was instrumental in Godchaux’s success. I wrote about Rillieux in my book and was thrilled to see that others are waking up to his genius and telling his story. I had the pleasure of meeting Peter Wolf at a book signing, and his passion for this complex tale goes far beyond the simple recounting of a success story. Peter Wolf lays bare the complexities of the South, particularly New Orleans, and the man who was Leon Godchaux.
Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories that Heal by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
Rachel Remen is a retired physician, a professor of medicine, a therapist, and founder of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness. Dr. Remen has lived with chronic illness most of her life, profoundly changing her approach to medicine and healing. In Kitchen Table Wisdom, Remen shares what she has learned about life through her own struggles and the stories of her patients who faced serious illnesses. Remen sees the work of medicine as a spiritual practice and has made it her life’s work to help doctors treat the whole person rather than just the disease. She believes understanding our stories is part of healing, even without a cure. “She writes, “The places in which we are seen and heard are holy places. They remind us of our value as human beings. They give us the strength to go on. Eventually, they may even help us transform our pain into wisdom.”
Like Dr. Remen, I have also lived with chronic illness for many years. If we take the pause that chronic illness or adversity gives us and notice the themes that emerge in the narratives of our lives, we can unchain ourselves from our limited ideas of who we are. The personas we have built fall away, and our hidden parts emerge. We rediscover parts of ourselves that help us move forward on a new path and expand our understanding of our true natures. Reading the stories in Kitchen Table Wisdom and other memoirs inspired me to examine my own story and invite others to share theirs. I created
Living Well When You’re Not for people who want to live well with chronic illness.”