Mark your calendar for a collaborative discussion in our corner of the blogosphere. As mentioned over a few previous posts, we’ll be reading and discussing Avalanche, a new memoir.
In the words of novelist, filmmaker and Avalanche author Julia Leigh:
“This book felt incredibly necessary to me. This is always the test. The writer asks herself: is this truly a story worth telling?” she says. “And in this case, it was a yes, definitely this is a book I really want to write mainly because I feel there is so much IVF failure out there and it’s not really spoken about.”
Book: AVALANCHE: A Love Story
Author: Julia Leigh
Start Date: August 5
Have A Question for Julia? Send it my way by September 18
Post Date: September 21
Blogger Participants: Click on any of the participating blogs, below, on September 21 for a stop on this book tour. Jump from post to post to read opinions and thoughts on Avalanche. I will keep adding to this list as more join in the tour. Here’s how the book tour works:
(1) let me know you want to participate by emailing me at ptsigdinos (@) yahoo (dot) com or ping me on Twitter or Messenger. I will add your blog to the list so people know to head over for a visit September 21.
(2) read Leigh’s AVALANCHE: A Love Story
(3) write a review for the book–your reactions, your feelings, what you learned, etc.
(4) post it on your blog on September 21. People can find your review via a link from this list.
(5) read and drop a comment on everyone else’s post on their blog
(6) Julia Leigh will read the reviews and answer comments and questions in an additional post I’ll put up on my blog on September 30.
Happy to report that unlike the review that ran in The New York Times Book Review last weekend (I posted my full response to that here on Medium), we’ll have subject matter experts on this tour sharing their response to Julia Leigh’s story. These fine women are participating in the tour – are you? (if you want to join in, see step #1)
Bent Not Broken – Kinsey
Different Shores
Gateway Women – Jody
Inconceivable – Katherine
Infertility Honesty – Sarah
Life Without Baby – Lisa
No Kidding in NZ – Mali (she shared a review earlier this Winter – June 23)
Pursuit of Motherhood – Jessica
Searching for Our Silver Lining – Cristy (book giveway winner)
The Road Less Traveled – Loribeth
Lesley Pyne’s Blog – Lesley
Need a few thought starters? You might find this Slate piece on The New York Times Book Review misfire helps get the ideas flowing:
“There is, however, some incidental value in the review. Cusk’s sideways dismissal of the experience of women going through infertility treatment, the sharpest corner in a largely amorphous piece, is a great illustration of why we need more writing on the subject. The review may not be an endorsement of the books themselves, but it stands as proof as to why they are necessary. Our collective understanding of reproductive challenges is so limited, so lacking in nuance, that even the most perceptive thinkers land in hackneyed, and insensitive, terrain when exploring the subject.”
While you’re waiting for your own copy of Avalanche: A Love Story
I’ll write more about this, but want to make my own plug for the book here. For anyone who has considered, is going through or even healing after fertility treatments, this book is a must read. Julia beautifully describes the raw emotions mixed with observations on the fertility industry. By reading her book, I was transported back to my own experience and reminded (yet again) why it’s important to talk about our journeys.
Nodding vigorously! Could not say it any better — thank you, Cristy xo