WOW Book Tour

WOW-Women on Writing were so gracious to let me review a book they had available. Don't forget to look at the next post for a guest blog from the author.

Title: The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life
Author: Nava Atlas
Publisher: Sellers Publishing
Published Date: 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4162-0632-3
Pages: 175

I received a free copy of this book for my honest review.


About the Book:
In The Literary Ladies' Guide to the Writing Life, acclaimed author Nava Atlas presents twelve celebrated author and draws on their diaries, letters, memoirs, and interviews to show how they expressed their views on the subjects of importance to every writer-from carving out time to write, to conquering their inner demons, to developing a "voice," to balancing the demands of family life with the need to write. Atlas provides her own illuminating commentary as well and reveals how the lessons of classic women writers of the past still resonate with women writing today.

About the Author:
Nava Atlas is the author and illustrator of many well-known vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, including Vegan Express, Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook, and The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet. Her first book was Vegetariana, now considered a classic in its field. In addition, she has published two books of humor, Expect the Unexpected When You're Expecting! and Secret Recipes for the Modern Wife.

Nava is also a visual artist, specializing in limited-edition artists' books and text-driven objects and installations. Her work has been shown nationally in museums, galleries, and alternative art spaces. Her limited-edition books are housed in numerous collections of artists' books, including the special collections libraries of The Museum of Modern Art (NY), National Museum of Women in he Arts (Washington, DC), National Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and dozens of academic collections.

Learn more about Nava's work at her various websites: VegKitchen.com, navaatlas.com, and dearliteraryladies.blogspot.com. Nava has two grown sons and lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York State with her husband.


My review:
Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Willa Cather, Edna Ferber, Madeleine L'Engle, L.M. Montgomery, Anais Nin, George Sand, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, and Virgina Woolf. All of these women were writers and kept diaries or letters of their writing lives. They all expressed their feelings on being a writer, conquering self doubt and rejection, the issue of money, and fitting in their love of writing with everyday life of taking care of family. Nava Atlas had delved into the writing lives of these women to share their insights on such issues and express how women have struggled in the writing world, yet they still can make it. The book contains direct quotes and pictures of the authors, yet they are mixed with commentary from the author of her thoughts on what these authors had to say.

I found the book a joy to read and loved the information on the authors that was provided. The reader is able to hear from the authors' own voices of what they thought about the writing process and how it worked in their individual lives. The book is a must-read not just for the reader or writer, but for anyone interested in the literary past.