Your Mother Was A Person: A Work In Progress by Louis M. Palmer

I love this book more then any other book I read all year! I don't know if maybe I'm a bit partial because I know the author but maybe that just made it all the more well rounded when I could hear the person reading it in their own voice as I read it.

This book was written by a friend in my book group in Castro Valley, CA. She is getting on in years and actually is almost the oldest person I know but she earned every wrinkle on her beautiful smiling face! She is a grandmother now and wanted to share some of her childhood memories with her own children and grandchildren. She took a community college writing class a few years back and had quite a collection of stories. One time at our book group she shared a few with us. They were some of the funniest and best stories I had heard in a long time. Everyone started to give her advice on how she could get them published. She kind of just humbly blushed and didn't pay any attention...but one of my Friends just didn't give up the idea. She and her daughter convinced her to give it a try. They worked long and hard to organize and make the cover and all the other things you need to do to get a book published, which I can't even imagine. Then just before Christmas they announced it was really going to happen and we could all pre-order our books. There is even a website: http://www.yourmotherwasaperson.com/index.html

I had to wait till after Christmas to get my copy because I was out of town, when I got back I was so glad when my friend called and said I could pick it up. I did right away and didn't put it down until I had read the whole thing!

I love it!!!!! I learned that you can't judge people from what you see now. Everyone has gone through so much and people you think you know actually have very interesting pasts and experiences that help make them who they are today. I loved the stories told from a child's innocent perspective. Like the movie star glasses and the doll that was so ugly, I loved the funny car stories as different people learned to drive. I think the saddest yet insightful story was one told later after surgery and how the drugs played tricks on the mind. The poems are refreshing and fun to read. I also liked the historical perspectives and information on the area in Southern Utah where most of the stories took place.

The book has inspired me to try to write some of my memories before they are gone and can't be shared again.