True Tales

If You Want to Write
A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
by Brenda Ueland

It must be a few years ago, just when I began to really write that a friend recommended that I read If You Want to Write. I bought it, leafed through it and then tucked it away on a bookshelf until just this last summer. I have been putting a manuscript together of my capsule-size essays on art, spirit and navigating every day life and I needed some encouragement to gird myself for the journey to publishing this work. I found it in abundance in this little book that was originally written 1938 and reissued in 1987. I won’t go into great detail but suffice it to say that with the first chapter heading of Everybody Is Talented, Original and Has Something Important to Say, you know the woman believes in the power of writing and the human spirit. Brenda Ueland was a passionate believer in writing from who you are, that although it is important to have a well-crafted essay or story, the true delight we take in reading comes from connecting with the writer and that connection is gained when the writer speaks authentically in their natural "voice." This is an intelligent and heart-centered approach to the art of writing and I highly recommend it to enhance relaxation and acceptance of what you write and how you write it. -Hari Bhajan Kaur 2/07

What It Takes to Get to Vegas
by Yxta Maya Murray

I enjoy looking into the worlds of other cultures and gaining new understanding. Most of all, I love to read about the experience of transformation; the journey to "getting it" that enables one to look deep within and grow. I found all of these and more in this bittersweet story that is alive with streetsmart dialog and characters that tear your heart out. It brings us into the life of Rita Zapata, a sassy young Chicana in East L.A. who struggles to break out of the box of her rough neighborhood and her reputation as a trashy hottie, to find "real love." In the process she finds something even more valuable. -Siri Ved Kaur 1/7/07

My Antonia
by Willa Cather

My Antonia is poetry in a prose form. The gentle and yet powerful voice of Willa Cather comes through her main character, Jimmy, a young boy living with his grandparents on a farm in Nebraska, sometime in the early to mid 1800’s. This beautiful novel has a strong story line and it moves like a river winding through the countryside. It is not a straight line, as so many novels are today. This I love, the meandering, the noticing by the characters of their environments and their emotions. -Hari Bhajan Kaur