Pick Your Poison by Becky Crabtree is the third in a series that began as the result of a prompt in one of my John c. Campbell classes. (I wrote about the first two HERE.)
Feisty middle-aged Stella is battling a pipeline threatening to take part of her farm by eminent domain. (Becky knows something about this, having been faced with the same problem on her West Virginia farm.) Stella takes to a tree in the proposed route, armed with supplies for a long siege. (Becky sat in an old Ford Pinto parked in the path of construction.)
Stella's evil brother is back too, working a con on a seemingly unspecting octogenarian in a nursing home. The two storylines intertwine to reach a satisfying conclusion.
Becky has done me proud!
Another book I had a bit of an editorial hand in is Keepin' On, Walkin' On by my dear friend Aleen Steinberg. Faced with a chilling diagnosis in middle age, rather than settle for life as an invalid, she began to walk. As her strength grew, she began to travel -- adventure travel that included hiking. climbing, dog sledding, and rafting. Her fascinating tales of these travels in Nepal, Peru, Pakistan, Kamchatka, the Arctic, and Tibet are by turns inspiring and humorous.
But the hidden jewel in these accounts is Steinberg's recognition of the common humanity shared by herself and different peoples she met. As she says, "having to be understood through gestures, the unspoken language of eyes and facial expressions, . . . at times frustrating, but always rewarding when an "aha" moment occurred , that sudden moment when the light of understanding shone in our eyes."
And as I write those closing words, I see the common thread: Inspiring women, here's to them!