“We write to taste life twice.” — Anais Nin

As usual, the pile of books is teetering by the bed, the magazines are dogeared and tagged and I’ve bookmarked a thousand things to follow up on…yeh, right. It’s daunting. So instead, I’m taking to heart the quote from the founder of Confucianism, Lao Tzu, who said, “The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.”

In light of that, I’m not going to recommend a bunch of this and that. This is my one step, a short plug for a very different memoir called[amazon_link id=”0609609912″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ] Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck.[/amazon_link] It’s been out for awhile so maybe everyone but me has already read it, but if you haven’t, please add it to your own bedside pile.  I found it riveting.

And it’s not just Martha’s story of surviving her family that got me. More than that was all the background information on the Mormons that grabbed me…especially in light of all that’s going on in Bountiful, British Columbia right now. It’s chilling and creepy stuff. It is not just innocuous young men in suits doing their mission work, though I’m sure there are those innocents too, but there is also a very dark underbelly to those shiny surfaces. All is not as it appears.

And just so I can tick off another book on my list, I’d like to also recommend (now that I’ve apparently become a fiction writer), [amazon_link id=”0771041985″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]A Passion for Narrative by Jack Hodgins[/amazon_link].  Great advice using good examples; practical and meaty…like a perfect steak dinner.