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Two Years of Book Group

April 22, 2015/0 Comments/in Book Recommendations/by Katherine Cowley

Two years ago I started a book group, with the help and encouragement of some friends. The advantage of starting a book group is that it runs the way I like book groups to run. Not to say that my book group is perfect, but I like it and attend every month. We have read a fun variety […]

Breastfeeding Mama, at the Tempe Community Writing Contest

April 2, 2015/0 Comments/in Homemaking, Updates, Writing/by Katherine Cowley

Question: What do breastfeeding, Aztec fire rituals, family history stories, and porcupine quills have in common? Answer: They are all in my new essay titled “Breastfeeding Mama,” which won first place for adult nonfiction in the 2015 Tempe Community Writing Contest. The History of the Essay: I originally wrote this essay in January 2012 and submitted […]

Two Years of Book Group

April 22, 2015/0 Comments/in Book Recommendations/by Katherine Cowley

Breastfeeding Mama, at the Tempe Community Writing Contest

April 2, 2015/0 Comments/in Homemaking, Updates, Writing/by Katherine Cowley

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Two Years of Book Group

April 22, 2015/0 Comments/in Book Recommendations/by Katherine Cowley

Two Years of Book Group

We have read a fun variety of books, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult, classics, and recently released. And two years later, to my surprise, people are still coming.

List of books we have read and discussed so far:

April 2013: The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
May 2013: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
June 2013: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
July 2013: These is My Words by Nancy Turner
August 2013: Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson
September 2013: Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
October 2013: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
November/December 2013: The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck
January 2014: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
February 2014: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
March 2014: Picture Book Month
April 2014: The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
May 2014: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
June/July 2014: Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
August 2014: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
September 2014: Divergent by Veronica Roth
October/November 2014: A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks
November/December 2014: Poetry Month
January 2015: Sorcery and Cecilia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
February 2015: What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
March 2015: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
April 2015: Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins

How the book group runs

Someone volunteers to host (or if no one volunteers, I recruit). That person chooses the book, either one with a book group copy at the library or one with at least a few library copies available. Everyone who wants to reads the book does so. (It’s an open invitation book group, so anyone can attend, and you’re not required to read–we’ve had been 3 and 15 people at every book group.) The hostess holds book group at her home (or at mine, if her own is not an option), leads the discussion, and normally provides some sort of treat. There’s also some socializing at the beginning and the end, but we always spend a decent chunk of time on the book.

Image Credit: Evan Bench via flickr, Creative Commons license

Breastfeeding Mama, at the Tempe Community Writing Contest

April 2, 2015/0 Comments/in Homemaking, Updates, Writing/by Katherine Cowley

Question:

What do breastfeeding, Aztec fire rituals, family history stories, and porcupine quills have in common?

Answer:

They are all in my new essay titled “Breastfeeding Mama,” which won first place for adult nonfiction in the 2015 Tempe Community Writing Contest.

The History of the Essay:

I originally wrote this essay in January 2012 and submitted it to a writing contest. It sort of worked, but sort of didn’t. It then went through a number of further revisions. I even over-revised it to the point of ruining it. I took over a year off from the essay and then rewrote it, and started submitting it again.

The Essay’s New Home:

This year was the first time for the Tempe Community Writing Contest. The contest was a collaboration between the Tempe Public Library and Arizona State University. There were three categories of writing (fiction, poetry, and nonfiction) and three categories of people (adult, college student, and teenager). Almost 200 people submitted, and my essay was a co-winner for the Adult Nonfiction category.

Last night they had a reception at the Tempe Public Library, and winners got to read selections from their pieces. My husband counted, and there were about 80 people in the audience. And everyone laughed at my writing. Which actually made me very happy, as it is a humorous essay. It’s when you write a humorous essay and people don’t laugh that you need to worry. You should also worry when people throw tomatoes at you. But there were no tomatoes in the library. Only cookies. And (perhaps unfortunately) no one threw any cookies at me.

Read the Essay Online:

The book of winners published by the Tempe Library is available for free online: Tempe Writer’s Forum Volume 1. My essay starts on page 57 of the pdf.

(If you’re interested in reading the honorable mentions, they are available online as well.)

Content warning:

There are both breasts and babies in this essay, both of which are known to make some people feel supremely uncomfortable.

Original heart image by skyler817, Creative Commons license