Calling My Name Relays The Sensuous Journey To Self-Love And Empowered Spirituality

Calling My Name by Liara Tamani is a lyrical and sensuous story–at times, reading more like poetry than prose. A richly detailed narrative immerses you immediately in the life experiences of Taja Brown: from neighborhood kickball games and sibling rivalry to tumultuous first love and the promise of life to come after high school. While … Continue reading Calling My Name Relays The Sensuous Journey To Self-Love And Empowered Spirituality →

Rereading Childhood Classics: Are You There God? It’s Me, Renee

As the first stop on my reunion tour of Judy Blume’s classic children/YA novels, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was a really sweet–albeit somewhat outdated–dash down memory lane. It tells the tale of Margaret, a 12-year-old city girl who must adjust to the suburbs of New Jersey and make new friends, while on … Continue reading Rereading Childhood Classics: Are You There God? It’s Me, Renee →

How the Imaginary Lives of Childhood Helped Me Reinvent My Adult Reality

When I was a child, I lived and breathed fiction, inventing detailed characters and complex worlds everywhere I turned. In my fiction, I was a ballerina, a mini Indiana Jones or a resistance fighter. I was an only child growing up with a single father, an orphan raising my three siblings, or I was the … Continue reading How the Imaginary Lives of Childhood Helped Me Reinvent My Adult Reality →

A Letter From My 10-Year-Old Self

As I wrote about a few weeks ago, my childhood best friend gifted me a masterclass with Judy Blume for my 40th birthday. As part of our first assignment, we were asked to write a letter as our childhood self. I've written letters to my childhood self from my present-day self, and vice versa, each … Continue reading A Letter From My 10-Year-Old Self →