Wednesday, August 20, 2008

7/7 Day Two: Heather King's REDEEMED

Heather King can write. Her style is raw and confessional, beautiful and poignant, absurd and funny...it's the real deal. Her memoir, REDEEMED is on my short list of go-to sources when I want to dive into the world of how writing should/could/would be done. She even does subtitles well. I mean, "A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace that Passes All Understanding"? How could anyone not want to read that?

REDEEMED covers a wide swath of life: alcoholism, law school (she's perhaps the only person I know who went into law school a drinker, rather than picking up the habit as a survival tool sometime in the middle of her first year...kind of makes me wonder if I might have done better with a similar approach?), breast cancer, marriage struggles, her father's death...it' s a doozy of a book. And yet somehow, she manages to weave humor through these stories, and hope, and an overall sense of life that's hard for me to describe.

Perhaps the best compliment I can give Heather King is what happened when I gave REDEEMED as a gift to my friend Midwest Girl: the next time I saw her, she brought the book out to dinner with us and we spent the better part of the evening talking about King's words and stories and experiences, sometimes just saying to each other, "I can't believe how well she captured that...I thought only I felt that way..."

If I had the chance to sub-subtitle this book, I'd call it DRINK, PRAY, LIVE.

Heather is a fellow New Englander (which is not at all relevant to this blog post except that it means I'm a tiny bit like her and I'm dorky enough to think that might someday make a better writer...) She'll be sending me a signed copy of REDEEMED to share as part of our "Seven Books in Seven Days" adventure. Presuming I can overcome the urge to keep it for myself (and I won't lie; that's a fairly big presumption...) I will be passing it along to one of you next week when I draw the winners. So leave a comment!

Have a great day :)

15 comments:

Krissy said...

Oh my goodness, I want to read this book. I think I NEED to read this book. I'm all about the memoirs right now... hoping they'll help me when by book deal comes through. Pick me! Pick me!

hckygrl said...

We have to wait all the way until NEXT WEEK?! The anticipation has me crazed already! OK, here is my best begging to be picked for REDEEMED.

WOW, is this a coincidence, or what? I am also a Midwest girl but living in your beloved New England. A little more crazy and close to home than that....I'm watching the Maine Blackbears play Iowa in football August 30th!

Did I win? Did I win?

Grits said...

I can't wait to see what your other picks are, since the first two are so intruiging! Count me in for the drawing please! :-)

tootie said...

This sounds like an awesome book! I'd love to be in the drawing :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Trish,

Oh boy -- when you mentioned humor and hope, my heart started to dance. I've been working to focus my energies on both of those and sometimes I'm succeeding and sometimes not. Your 40 Days blog certainly helped. I'd love to read Redeemed to keep my efforts going.

mslizalou said...

I really would love to read this book, so much that I'll go buy it even if I don't win. Please count me in the drawing.

Unknown said...

Sounds like a great book. Please count me in the drawing.

Unknown said...

Sounds like a great read - count me in!

Chesh said...

This looks like a great book to read. I have added it to my reader's list.

Aimee said...

Wow - what a great testimonial for the book. I'd love to win it and can't wait to read it!

Unknown said...

this book sounds really good and funny i hope i get a chance to read it thanks!

lc_intocable at yahoo.com

Laura said...

This sounds great. Please count me in! :-)

BTW, I just noticed that you went to Kennebunk HS. I'm from the Bangor area - Hampden, to be precise. I didn't realize you were from Maine too!

Melanie said...

So, I'm just doing what you said and leaving a comment on the posts for the books that I want to be registered to win. :)

Kristen said...

Am I too late? I'm really interested in this one! If I don't win, at least I know what book I'll be buying in the not too distant future. :-)

LEstes65 said...

Wow. I think that will have to go on my must-buy list. And you know me - I don't buy books unless someone I know wrote them. Good write up, girl!