"MAKING PIECE" BY BETH M. HOWARD

"MAKING PIECE" BY BETH M. HOWARD
A Memoir of Love, Loss and Pie

When a story touches this reader in a sentimental way I look for the words to describe the story. I came upon the Author’s words; and included them in this review for they sum it all up. This heart wrenching story of a woman’s personal journey through life’s rain storms and finally finding sunshine at the end tugged at this reader’s heart.

“Within the first six blocks of the two-thousand-mile trip, any trepidation Id had was replaced with excitement, a sense of possibility, a sudden surge of freedom. Extracting myself from Portland really was like skydiving—first the anticipation, the terror, the leap of faith, the surrender, all followed by a peaceful calm—and then, once the adrenaline wore off, the exhaustion. I was heading toward Iowa and pie, a lot of pie, so I already had a guaranteed soft, safe landing."

As a reader and reviewer of books that are enjoyable, these words above sums up this haunting and sentimental book about a woman who lost the love of her life, her soul-mate and dives into a passion she always cherish to distract herself from the misery of her loss; it was a year of discovering and seeking healing, rebuilding her life and passion which become the lifeline to living; a dream of a fragile thread that gave her purpose to continuing living not to end it all.

This writer has taken the topic of pie and created a personal creative plot about how one suffers during the darkness periods of one’s life and find the joy of living again. She writes of her journey to self-healing to transformation by sharing imitate details on her one year journey to survive a difficult time in her life. She adds colorful characters, human emotions, life events, traveling and the importance of others, loved ones, friends, pets and strangers who she meets on the way while travelling and living out her passion making and eating pies sharing her private moments;

She is an old fashioned baker, believes in no machines, create pie just by hand, rolling the dough and adding in all the special ingredients to share with others creating memories of happiness to share with friends, superstars and strangers. She takes her passion and intertwines it into a poetic comparison of something we loved and how it all interacts together as in life, as in a cycle, to start and end in the same place with a new beginning and cherished memories.

She overcomes many obstacles, traveling across country in a RV, passing old haunts where she and her soul mate shared warm memories of their life before he passed on. So many challenges and writes with a zany sense of warmth and humor to be not a victim but a survivor to tunnel from the darkness into the light, grief is such a powerful monster and she was able to come to grips with her pain and learn more about herself by daring to be and be the best baker she desires to be by channeling her grief into positive energies.

Her words again “This is what my life had come to: grieving widow uproots herself from the security of her Portland home to travel across country in her MINI Cooper with two dogs and a bin of pie-baking supplies and in the midst of judging pies at the Iowa State Fair ends up at the Des Moines, Iowa, headquarters for Better Homes and Gardens magazine to have her photo taken for the November issue. How did I end up here?”. . .

In the middle of this story this reader had a craving to bake old fashioned apple pie, and not being a cheater I did not go to the back of the story, for this reader wanted to savor the life lessons and experiences through the author’s eyes and I did. Then surprise at the end of the remarkable tale there is the additional section of various famous delicious pie recipes, so this reader has a hankering for baking pie and think about what a sorrowful and joyful experience this writer instilled in others by sharing her life’s journey through grief to acceptance and hope.

Her popular blog, The World Needs More Pie, which she launched in 2007, regularly receives national press that has included Better Homes and Gardens, the New York Times and NPR’s Weekend Edition

Here is the link; http://theworldneedsmorepie.blogspot.com/

As she wrote on her blog “Pie is meant for sharing. Pie connects people. Pie knows no cultural or political boundaries. Pie makes people happy. And happy people make the world a better place. That’s why the world needs more pie.

And authors like her who write from the depth of their souls brings this reader to her own cross roads of thinking; stories like this are gems and are the missing ingredients. So go find it and added it to your to be read list and enjoy a piece of pie with it. Ah the scent of apple pie is calling me.

Read more: http://www.greatmindsthinkaloud.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=women&action=display&thread=1239#ixzz1q5IMmeyF