Just Kids – Patti Smith
Patti is such a creative dynamo. I have many of her books but I really love this memoir of her early life with Robert Mapplethorpe. The writing is exciting and colorful and makes me wish I had been there.
The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
Didion “I read this book shortly after my mother’s death. I was experiencing a myriad of feelings and thoughts and this book helped me realize I wasn’t losing it. I highly recommend it to anyone going through the grieving process.
Lore – M. Stone
This is a self-published micro chapbook of poetry that I’ve almost worn out from reading. Each poem’s title is an Appalachian flower, plant, or herb and each poem tells how the plant is entwined in a woman’s life. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever read. If you ever have a chance to get this book, take it!
Only as the Day is Long – Dorianne Laux
Dorianne is probably my favorite contemporary poet. Reading her work is like having a conversation with your best friend about life, love, hardship, pain – it’s down to earth real life, sometimes gritty, sometimes poignant, but always real. I like this book because it integrates her older and newer work.
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
I’m in awe of this novel about one man’s abusive childhood and its effect on his life, his relationships, and his self image despite having a successful career and friends who love him. It’s a real eye-opener into the twisted narratives we sometimes create for ourselves, how differently we see ourselves from how others see us. It’s not an easy read (trauma warning) but I couldn’t put it down and I feel like I learned a lot by reading it.
Charlotte Hamrick’s poetry, prose, and photography has been published
in The Rumpus, Pithead Chapel, Connotation Press, Moria, and
numerous other journals. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and was a
Finalist for the 15th Glass Woman Prize for her Creative Non-Fiction.
She is Creative Nonfiction Editor for Barren Magazine. She lives in
New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets.
Follow her on Twitter @charlotteAsh.”
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