Gordon Parks

Last week, I wrote about reading Gordon Parks' memoir: "A Hungry Heart."

Well, I just finished, as evidenced by the tear streaks on my face. No, it's not particularly a sad book. It's just so beautifully crafted. Seriously. (He writes "After ninety two years I still don't know who I am" ..... GENIUS and SO honest! AMEN Gordon!). Parks is a master of photos, film, music and words.

I first was introduced to Parks (quite literally) the day I graduated from high school. I was at an exhibit of his work at WSU. He was there to meet and greet and sign autographs. The line was long, and I left, disappointed. In the parking lot, I basically talked myself into getting in line. "When are you EVER going to have a chance like this again, Karen?" I said to myself. The line was crazy-long, but I met him, and skidded into high school graduation just in time.

Then while living in Southeast Kansas, I went to his boyhood town of Ft. Scott. I'd read some of Parks' love poetry from the library and disliked it, but the poems on the walls of Mercy Health Center moved me nearly to tears. For example:

THE FUNERAL by Gordon Parks

After many snows I was home again.
Time had whittled down to mere hills the great mountains
of my childhood.
Raging rivers I once swam trickled now like gentle streams
and the wide road curving on to China or Kansas City
or perhaps Calcutta
had withered to a crooked path of dust
ending abruptly at the county burial ground.
Only the giant that was my father remained the same.
A hundred strong men strained beneath his coffin
when they bore him to his grave.

--It's online HERE

I'm so ashamed it took me 2+ months to pick up this book (I checked it out from the library about 3 months ago). And now? I don't want to take it back!!!!! You can just BET this is on my wish list of books to own!

So ..... you photographers/photojournalists out there: YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!!!!! And for those of you who like a guy who goes against insurmountable odds ... you also must read this book!

"A Hungry Heart"

Wow.

So I'm sitting in the Denver airport waiting for a training for a group I volunteer with. But that's neither here nor there.

A month or more ago, I checked out Gordon Parks' memoir, "A Hungry Heart" from the library.


I'm embarrassed to admit I had the book for probably 2 months and hadn't cracked the cover. I extended the matearial from the library ... twice ... and now I'm FINALLY reading it. I read it during the entire flight here, and it's UUUUUUMAAAAAAZING! I'm only about 70 pages in and I've been teary about a half a dozen times. Parks is such a craftsman of words. I remember reading his love poetry and not being enamoroed. But on a trip to Fort Scott, I read his poems about the Kansas landscape .... and they're breathtaking!

As I said, I'm only a short distance into it, but Parks' drive to follow what he is passionate about is just so moving! (Dad, you NEED to read this book!).

For more information about the book, please CLICK HERE!

Book break!

I don't know how I stumbled across this, but I recently learned a fabulous book I read, "My Sisters Keeper," is being made into a film! How exactly I stumbled across the book, I'm not sure. I think I was living in Indy and grabbed it on CD to listen to in the car.

Anyhow, it's INCREDIBLY powerful and EXTREMELY thought-provoking.

I'm COMPLETELY aware this will spark a LOT of backlash when the film incarnation comes out. And I have to say, I agree some of the issues presented in the book ARE troubling. If you had an ill child, would you opt to have a child who genetically matched that child ... it's a slippery slope, and with the way the new administration is heading ... yeah. Anyway.

More info about the upcoming film HERE and HERE.

I suspect a LOT of misinformation will be spread in the ultra-conservative circles about this one ... and I just urge you to GET INFORMED. Seriously. Nothing irks me more than people blindly opposing something. There's plenty of lead time ... go to the library and check this one out. Read it IN ITS ENTIRETY. This is NOT one of those books you can read a fraction of and form an opinion.

"The Poisonwood Bible"

Wow.

That's the only word I have for the book I'm currently reading ("The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingslover).

I could not even do justice to explaining the book/plot. But, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.

My friend, Jeanel, gave it to me two years ago during my trip to Africa.


I don't know why it's taken me two years to really delve into it ... but I SO love it! Getting the characters all straight in my head took awhile, but once I got it down, I have had a hard time putting the book down.

Just last night, I was reading ... and here's a quote that just hit me like a ton of bricks.

"The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes." ~ p. 496

So powerful.

So true.

(and for those of you who might be curious, it's not sacrilegious or anything like that .... it's about a Baptist family and Poisonwood is a type of tree ... and that's all I'm going to say ... other than go check that book out from your local library!!!!!)