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MIDWIVES by Chris Bohjalian

The following is an exerpt from the beginning of the book:

“I used the word vulva as a child the way some kids said butt or penis or puke.  It wasn’t a swear exactly, but I knew it had an edge to it that could stop adults cold in their tracks.  Vulva as one of those words that in every household but ours conveyed emotion and sentiments at the same time that it suggested a simple part of the basic human anatomy for one sex or an act–like vomiting–that was a pretty basic bodily function.“  (page 1)

A WIDOW FOR ONE YEAR, by John Irving

“Iriving’s most entertaining and persuasive novel since his 1978 bestseller, THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP.” -The New York Times

The following is an exerpt from the beginning of the book:

“One night when she was four and sleeping the bottom bunk of her bunk bed, Ruth Cole woke to the sound of lovemaking–it was coming from ehr parents’ bedroom.  It was a totally unfamiliar sound to her.  Ruth had recently been ill with a stomach flu; when she first heard her mother making love, Ruth thought that her mother was throwing up.

It was not as simple as a matter as her parents having sepearte bedrooms; that summer they had seperate houses, although Ruth never saw the other house.  Her parents spent alternate nights in the family house with Ruth; there was a rental house nearby, where Ruth’s mother or father stayed when they weren’t staying with Ruth….“  (page 1)

A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey

The following is an exerpt from the beginning of the book:

“I wake to the drone of an airplane engine and the feeling of something warm dripping down my chin.  I lift my hand to feel my face.  My front four teeth are gone, I have a hole in my cheek, my nose is broken and my nose is broken and my eyes are swollen nearly shut.  I open them and I look around and I’m in the back of a plane and there’s no one near me.  I look at my clothes and my clothes are covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood.  I reach for the call button and I find it and I push it and I wait and thirty seconds later an Attendant arrives.” (page 1)

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA by Arthur Golden 

DROWNING RUTH by Christina Schwarz

The following is an exerpt from the beginning of the book:

“Ruth remembered drowning. 

“That’s impossible,”  Aunt Amanda said.  “It must have been a dream.” 

But Ruth maintained that she had drowned, insisted on it for years, even after she should have known better.” (page 1)

WHITE OLEANDER by Janet Fitch

“This is what you’re after when you’re browsing the shelves for something good to read.  White Oleander is a siren song of a novel, seducing the reader with its story, its language, and, perhaps most of all, with its utterly believable (and remarkably diverse!) characters.  The narrator is particularly memorable–there were times she made me want to cheeer and weep simultaneously.  Finishing this book made me feel gratefully bereft, and I look forward to Janet Fitch’s next work.“  –Elizabeth Berg, author of DURABLE GOODS and RANGE OF MOTION

 BACKROADS by Tawni O’Dell

“She smiled at me.  It was a beautiful smile:  one she made with her eyes, not just her mouth; one that came from her heart, not just her heat because I had touched something inside her that no one else did anymore.  Id idn’t know how I knew that but I did and even though I wanted to violate her a hundred different ways physically, I didn’t want to go anywhere near her soul.“ (back cover of BACKROADS)

I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Wally Lamb

“This big, warm, embracing book…is all about the self and about rebirth, all about creating the family we wish to belong to and making peace with the one we were given….Filled with a generous love and understanding of women….A healing vision of the way we must learn from, possess, and then undo the past in order to make a future.“ –New Orleans Times-Picayune

“Contemporary fiction just doesn’t get much better than this….It’s the kind of book that makes you stop reading and shake your head, shocked by the insights you’ve encountered.  In short, you’ll be undone.” –Hartford Advocate

“Wally Lamb can lie down with the literary lions at will:  he’s that gifted….This novel does what good fiction should do–it informs our herats as well as our minds of the complexities involved in the ‘simple’ act of living a human life.” –The Tennessean (Nashville)

BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA by Dorothy Allison

DAISY FAY AND THE MIRACLE MAN by Fannie Flagg

The following is an exerpt from the beginning of the book:

“Hello there…my name is Daisy Fay Harper and I was eleven years old yesterday.  My Grandmother Pettibone won the jackpot at the VFW bingo game and bought me a typewriter for my birthday.  She wants me to practice typing so when I grow up, I can be a secretary, but my cat, Felix, who is pregnant, threw up on it and ruined it, which is OK with me.  I don’t know what is the matter with Grandma.  I have told her a hundred times I want to be a tree surgeon or a blacksmith.“ (page 1)

“Side-splittingly funny!“ –Cleaveland Plain Dealer

“Sheer unbeatable entertainment!“ –Cosmopolitan

WHERE THE HEART IS by Billie Letts

“Talk about unlucky sevens.  An hour ago, seventeen-year-old, seven months pregnant Novalee Nation was heading for California with her boyfriend.  Now she finds herself stranded at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, with just $7.77 in change.  But Novalee is about to discover hidden treasures in this small Southwest town–a group of down-to-earth, deeply caring people willing to help a homeless, jobless girl living secretly in a Wal-Mart.  From Bible-thumping blue-haired Siste Themla Husband to eccentric librarian Forney Hull who loves Novalee more than she loves herself, they are about to take her–and you, too–on a moving, funny, and unforgettable journey to…where the heart is.” (back cover of WHERE THE HEART IS)

THE SHINING by Stephen King

BEFORE WOMEN HAD WINGS by Connie May Fowler

“So says Bird Jackson, the mesmerizing narrator of Connie May Fowler’s vivid and brilliantly written novel. 

Starstruck by a dime-store picture of Jesus, Bird fancies herself ‘His girlfriend’ and embarks upon a spiritual quest for salvation, even as the chaos of her home life plunges her into a stony silence.  In stark and honest language, she tells the tragic life of her father, a sweet-talking wanna-be country music star, tracks her older sister’s perilous journey into womanhood, and witnesses her mother make a courageous and ultimately devestating decisions.

Yet most profound is Bird’s own story–her struggle to sift through the ashes of her parents’ lies; her meeting with Miss Zora, a healer whose prayers over the bones of winged creatures are meant to guide their souls to heaven; and her will to make sense of a world where fear is more plentiful than hope, retribution more valued than love….“ (back cover of BEFORE WOMEN HAD WINGS)

*TAKE A BATH

don’t have bubbles? dump a few spoonfuls of baking powder in there to soften the water.

$18.00.  Hot Mustard Bath.  BathandBodyWorks

“Mustard baths are time-proven for opening the pores and clearing the body of toxins. This is the ultimate in a detoxifying bath remedy – perfect for easing congestion and tension or for cleansing the body of impurities.

• Made with natural aromatics.
• Contains active levels of therapeutic apothecary ingredients.
• Contains no artificial colorants and not tested on animals.
• Developed by Bigelow Chemists.“

$7.11. Vaseline Intensive Care Botanical Garden Scent Enriched W/Aloe Moisturizing Bath Beads 24 oz, 3pk. Walmart

one of the reasons that bathing causes relaxation physically, is the warm water generates more circulation in the body by dialating the blood vessels.   Oh, and soothes those sore muscles like no other.

So, what is it that we’re doing?…

*A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

“Hydro-and hydrothermal theraphy are traditional methods of treatment that have been used for the treatment of disease and injury by many cultures, including those of ancient Rome,  China, and Japan.  Water therapy has been around for centuries.  The ancient Greeks took therapeutic baths.  Water is an important ingredient in the traditional Chinese and Native American healing systems. 

There are now many dozens of methods of applying hydrotherapy, including baths, saunas, douches, wraps, and packs.

Saunas and steam baths are similar in effect; the decision to take one rather than the other will be guided by personal preference. In a sauna the heat acts more quickly to eliminate toxins through the skin, though some consider the moist air of a steam bath to have a more satisfying effect on the respiratory system. Saunas are deeply relaxing and are a great way to melt away stress.

A sauna is an eliminative procedure; it stimulates blood flow, increases the heart rate, has an immune-modulating effect, promotes hormone production, encourages mucosal secretions in the respiratory system, opens the airways, reduces resistance to respiration, regulates the vegetative system, relaxes, and can improve mental outlook. Children can start to take saunas at two or three years of age.” (continue reading here: holisticonline)

*TRY MEDITATION
start learning more today, click here and go to: learningmeditation.com
 

what are the benefits?  it’s been shown (proven) that people who are avid, life-long meditators, actually have a different brain that people who do not meditate. 

“The brain waves of meditators show why they’re healthier. Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex—brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. In other words, they were calmer and happier than before.” (read more here: psychologytoday)

-reduce anxiety by lowering levels of blood lacerate

-slows heart rate

-higher skin resistance because there are lower levels of cortisol/lacate (which are chemcials related to stress in the body)

-easier breathing, more air to the lungs

but for some people, it might not be all benefits, peaceful mind, sound body & soul…“But greater awareness about oneself can be a double-edged sword. Mark Epstein, M.D., a New York City psychiatrist in private practice and a meditation practitioner, extends a caution about one of the ironies of meditating. “It could actually raise your level of anxiety if there are certain feelings you are not owning.” In other words, there’s nowhere to hide when you’re practicing “bare attention.” And this, for some people, is both the good and the bad news.

That’s why some experts suggest marrying meditation to psychotherapy. “Both allow the person to be present for the moment, open and nondefensive,” says Thomson, who explores the complementary nature of the two in a paper published in the American Journal of Psychotherapy. “In both meditation and psychotherapy, we are trying not to get caught up in internal preoccupation, but to be intimately present with what is happening here and now.”

To explain his thoughts on the connection, Thomson compares Zen to relational psychoanalytical theories. He writes that it “encourages its practitioners to become aware of the fundamentally distorted aspects of an overly individualistic view of human experience. Recognizing that the true nature of all individuals is emphatically non-individual, neither lasting nor separate, is the wisdom of Zen.“(read more here: psychologytoday)