Book Review – Kathy Boles-Turner

Dearest Lost, Found, And Forgotten: Shedding Tears Only Clears Your Vision, Not Theirs. Forgiveness Frees You, Not Them. Revenge Isn’t Any Sweeter If You Write A Poem About It.

Rejection is something a person can feel right through bone to soul without ever being able to spell the word. Loneliness roots deeper than any tree and grows without a sense of direction or knowing the science of sunrise and sunset. Justice may be slow to come, but it’s inevitable. Happiness isn’t a daily choice, […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

Dearest Shattered Heartbreakers: Sing Me A Song That Bares All Your Secrets

Perfect feminine face, flawless untrained voice, broken soul. Homegrown handsome, natural showman, easy-going control freak. Together, who are they? The chosen ones, front and center of a 70s rock band that changed the world if just for a little while. Daisy Jones & The Six explores the possibility of damaged people creating momentary perfection for […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

Dearest Daytime Readers: If You Carry A Vengeful Heart And A Pocketwatch, Meet Me In The Library At Half-Past Noon.

Imagine waking at sunrise with no memory of who you are, and yet a woman’s name is on your lips as you gain consciousness. You are in an unfamiliar wilderness, damp, cold, injured, mind blank except for some urgent, shadowy need to find Anna! Who is Anna? Who are you? Why is your arm bleeding? […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

For The Wanderers Who Walk The Line Between And Know When To Take A Boat Ride

Dearest westward lights, nighttime fires, fellow wanderers who walk the line between and know when to take a boat ride. We, the few, clever enough to know better than to ask for a sign. Signs can be so ambiguous; interpretations can be dangerously loose. In times of trouble we need a snug fit and sturdy […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

The Witch Elm by Tana French and Do You Really Know Yourself At All

Truth is there’s darkness lurking. The unmeasured capacity for pain and shame, selflessness, self-preservation, and great voids of unanswerable questions. Or, answers that might be better left alone. People are mysteries, even unto themselves. I’ve always marveled over that old phrase usually employed with a sheepish or dumbfounded tone: “I lost my temper”. Well, maybe the more truthful […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

Reading In My Future Haven

Imagine a room with pine plank floors and inset shelves painted a lush white, nine feet tall, three feet wide, six inches apart, running the length of a room on either side of a broad picture window. On each shelf there are of course well used books from every era of modern literature, spines of […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

A Week of Reading Binges & Good Customer Service

Yesterday I met a man who by way of introduction told me he was born in 1938 and his first job paid fifty cents per day. In customer service this sort of thing happens frequently. Some folks just want to stir up conversation, state their opinion or ask someone else’s to measure the contrast. Sometimes […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

Reading Everything: Butler, Bradbury, Didion

The air has been sweet, breezy, and clear, the mornings cool and the afternoons bright but not the hot wet blanket that can happen this time of year in this part of the country. We’re in June’s sweet spot right now, a pleasurable time that can’t really be predicted from year to year but it […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

Reading Octavia Butler

Like many good things, I came to Octavia Butler’s writing late in life. Two weeks ago as a matter of fact. Two glorious weeks ago. Of course, I had heard about her work, heard her mentioned by feminist writers and scifi aficionados. Taking so long to seek out her books can only be attributed to […]

by Kathy Boles-Turner

See The Pretty Girl. The Pretty Girl Has Blue Eyes. The Pretty Girl Is Happy. See How She Smiles And Smiles.

Originally posted March 20, 2018 The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison They say that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. If the beholder is born into a world that has forcibly narrowed the definition of beauty down to a handful of irrefutable criteria, what then? Like all trends, the definition of beauty is […]