Book Review: Listening to Africa by Diana M. Raab

Journey to the heart of Africa with poet and essayist Diana M. Raab. This thought-provoking, moving poetry collection captures the essence of all that is Africa and more. Travel alongside Raab and her family as they take off from America, visit Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, and ponder the author's reflections of all she's learned as her family heads back to the States.

Listening to Africa is an eloquent collection of poems that begs you to savor every word. From how she was drawn to Africa to reminders of her father, from balloon rides to how little things become big ones, and from giraffes to hippos, Raab's words make you want to embrace and understand a culture different than your own. Numerous photos from the family's trip are the pefect accompaniment to the lyrical prose.

This is a collection you'll read more than once. The stunning cover art makes for a great conversation starter.

I look forward to Raab's next collection.


Paperback
Price: $16.00
Pages: 80
ISBN: 9781936482184
Publisher: Antrim House
Release: April 18, 2012

Amazon buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936482185?tag=tributebooks-20

Antrim House buy link:
http://antrimhousebooks.com/raab.html

Diana M. Raab is a memoirist, essayist and poet. She has a B.S. in Health Administration and Journalism, and an RN degree from Vanier College in Montreal, in addition to an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from Spalding University’s Low-Residency Program.


Diana has been writing from an early age. As a child of two working parents, she spent a lot of time crafting letters and keeping a daily journal. A journaling advocate and educator, Diana teaches creative journaling and memoir in workshops around the country. She frequently speaks and writes about the healing powers of writing.


She’s the award-winning author of eight books, and the author of over 500 articles and poems. Her release is Writers on the Edge: 22 Writers Speak About Addiction and Depression, co-edited with James Brown, which is a compilation of essays by renowned writers discussing how addiction has influenced their literary lives. She is also editor of Writers and Their Notebooks, a collection of essays written by well-known writers who keep journals.


Raab is the author of two memoirs, Regina's Closet: Finding My Grandmother's Secret Journal, winner of the 2008 National Indie Excellence Award for Memoir and Healing With Words, the 2011 Mom's Choice Award Winner for Adult Nonfiction.


She is also a registered nurse who teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and at various writing workshops across the country. She is the author of four poetry collections, My Muse Undresses Me (2007); Dear Anais: My Life in Poems for You (2008), winner of The Reader Views Award and an Allbooks Review Editor's Choice Award; The Guilt Gene (2009); and Listening to Africa (2012).


Her poetry and prose have appeared in national journals and anthologies such as Rattle, Rosebud, Litchfield Review, Tonopah Review, Writers' Journal, A Cafe in Space, the Toronto Quarterly, Common Ground Review, The Smoking Poet, Snail Mail Review, New Mirage Journal, Lucidity, Blood and Thunder, Jet Fuel Review, Ascent, and The Huffington Post.

Diana Raab's Web Site:
http://dianaraab.com/

Diana Raab's Blog:
http://dianaraab.com/blog/

Listening to Africa's Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/ListeningToAfrica

Diana Raab's Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/dianaraab

Diana Raab's Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/512931.Diana_Raab

Listening to Africa's Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13579750-listening-to-africa

Diana Raab's Red Room:
http://redroom.com/member/diana-raab/blog

Tribute Books Blog Tours Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tribute-Books-Blog-Tours/242431245775186

Listening to Africa blog tour site:
http://listeningtoafrica.blogspot.com
 

This is the 35th book I've read for the following challenge:

Healing with Words by Diana M. Raab -- Book Review

Beautifully written, powerful, and inspiring, Healing With Words: A writer's cancer journey by Diana M. Raab will touch your heart and encourage you to use your writing to ease your suffering and improve your overall health.

In this emotional memoir, author Diana M. Raab shares the story of how her life was shattered by her first cancer diagnosis. Raab would face her mortality again, five years later, when she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma; a battle she continues to wage and is determined to win.

I had selfish reasons for requesting this book. For those of you who might not know, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 45. Cancer returned a year later, and she died a week before Christmas at the age of 47. I found the first lump in my breast when I was 25.

Writing helped me cope with the grief of losing my mother when I was a young teen. I still keep a journal, though since I began blogging, it hasn't seen as much time as it used to.

Healing with Words made me cry, it made me sympathize with what the author had to--and still has to--endure. The majority of patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma will die from it. Perhaps this is why Raab can share her story with such grace and compassion. Whatever the reason, I admire her for it.

When she spoke of the anxiety over waiting for test results, I understood her. The three weeks I waited for the results of my genetic testing to see if I had a mutated gene that would highly increase my risk for breast cancer, were the most difficult weeks of my life. Not knowing how my life would change if the test came back positive seemed unbearable at times. And then when Raab discussed the sense of loss before and after her mastectomy, I thought of my mother, and also what might have been in my future--could still be.

What ties all this together nicely, is that in Healing with Words, the author shows how journaling can impact your overall health. Included are some poems Raab wrote since her original diagnosis and on through her continuing journey. In addition, each chapter ends with thought-provoking questions and plenty of blank space for the reader to write. On Page 7 it says, "Write about the day you first thought you had cancer." While I have been fortunate never to actually have been diagnosed, let me tell you, that first lump scared me as if it was already a forgone conclusion that I was going to lose a breast.

Healing with Words is a phenomenal book. Not only will you read one woman's story, you will be changed by it.


Title: Healing with Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey
Author: Diana M. Raab
Publisher: Loving Healing Press (May 12, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1615990100
ISBN-13: 978-1615990108
SRP: $19.95

Author Spotlight: Healing with Words by Diana M. Raab

Healing With Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey is a compassionate and wry self-help memoir written by an award-winning prolific author, nurse and poet, who at the age of forty-seven found her life shattered first by a DCIS (early breast cancer) diagnosis and five years later by another, seemingly unrelated and incurable multiple myeloma. This book includes the author’s experiences, reflections, poetry and journal entries, in addition to writing prompts for readers to express their own personal story.

Raab’s journals have provided a safe haven and platform to validate and express her feelings. Raab views journaling to be like a daily vitamin – in that it heals, detoxifies and is essential for optimal health.

Readers will learn to:

Understand the importance of early cancer detection and how to take control of their health

Discover the power of writing to release bottled-up emotions

Learn how the process of journaling can facilitate healing

See how a cancer diagnosis can be a riveting event which can renew and change a person in a unique way.

Watch the Trailer!




Read the Reviews!

“Though I am a professional writer, it's hard to find words for the admiration I feel for Diana Raab and her inspiring true story: Healing With Words. Time after time, Diana articulates incisively the thoughts and feelings that convey hoped-for meaning and encouragement. She is a woman who knows what it is to live fully in the face of mortality. She will add value to the life of every person who reads this book. That she includes the creative impulse to write and the solace offered by contemplating the beautiful as a vital part of human existence resonates at a spiritual level for me.”

~ Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab's Wife and Abundance, a Novel of Marie Antoinette

“One woman's story, beautifully told and inspiring to those for whom journaling will ease a breast cancer diagnosis.”

~ Barbara Delinsky, New York Times bestselling author of
Uplift: Secrets From the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors


“Healing With Words: A Writer's Cancer Journey by Diana Raab offers unique therapy for cancer patients. Raab is a registered nurse, author, mother of three and happily married woman. Her compelling and inspirational book reflects her two episodes with cancer over several years. She expertly tells her story and captures the reader with her feelings, frustrations and fears that overwhelmed her from diagnosis of breast cancer through reconstruction and recovery through her subsequent bout with multiple myeloma.

Descriptions of her personal journey are accompanied with powerful poetry and journal entries she wrote at various stages. What is unique about this book is that its messages are universal. Any cancer patient or survivor can relate to and learn from what she experienced.

Included in the masterfully written book are writing prompts to encourage the readers to write about what is happening or has occurred in their lives.

As a college writing professor, I give Diana Raab an A+ for her writing. As a twotime cancer survivor who has taught Writing for Wellness classes for patients at City of Hope Cancer Center for eight years, I congratulate her for her significant contribution to the field of writing-to-heal techniques.

Her book is a must-read for any woman diagnosed with breast cancer.”

~ Julie Davey, author of Writing for Wellness: A Prescription for Healing

You'll find more reviews posted on Diana's website.



Diana M. Raab is an essayist, memoirist, poet and author blogger who teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and at various conferences around the country.
She’s editor of the anthology, Writers and Their Notebooks (University of South Carolina Press, January 2010).

Her memoir, Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal (Beaufort Books, 2007) won the 2008 National Indie Excellence Award for Memoir and the 2009 Mom’s Choice Award for Adult Nonfiction.

She has three poetry collections, My Muse Undresses Me (2007), Dear Anaïs: My Life in Poems for You (2008), winner of The Reader Views Award and Allbooks Review Editor’s Choice, and The Guilt Gene (2009).

She’s the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Book Award for best health and wellness book for Getting Pregnant and Staying Pregnant: Overcoming Infertility and High Risk Pregnancy which has been translated into French and Spanish. In 2009 the book was released in its 20th anniversary edition, under the title, Your High Risk Pregnancy: A Practical and Supportive Guide updated in collaboration with Dr. Errol Norwitz of Yale School of Medicine.

For more information about Diana and her work, please visit her online at www.dianaraab.com and at her blog: www.dianaraab.com/blog.

Look for our review of Healing With Words coming on August 24th!