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NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year
"Brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom, and wonder."—Ann Lamott, author of Imperfect Birds
"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams’s mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as it was to discover that the three shelves of journals were all blank. In fifty-four short chapters, Williams recounts memories of her mother, ponders her own faith, and contemplates the notion of absence and presence art and in our world. When Women Were Birds is a carefully crafted kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question: What does it mean to have a voice?
"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone." What author Terry Tempest Williams (Crossing to Safety; Refuge) found in those three bookshelves of beautifully-bound journals would dramatically reshape her own life. When Women Were Birds unfolds its inspiriting lessons in fifty-four self-contained chapters.
— Sallye Leventhal
“This poetic memoir continues the work Williams began in Refuge....Williams explores her mother’s identity—woman, wife, mother, and Mormon—as she continues to honor her memory....A lyrical and elliptical meditation on women, nature, family, and history.”—The Boston Globe
"Williams is the kind of writer who makes a reader feel that [her] voice might also, one day, be heard….She cancels out isolation: Connections are woven as you sit in your chair reading—-between you and the place you live, between you and other readers, you and the writer. Without knowing how it happened, your sense of home is deepened."—Susan Salter Reynolds, The Daily Beast
"Time, experience, and uncanny coincidence spiral through these pages….When Women Were Birds is an extraordinary echo chamber in which lessons about voice—passed along from mother, to daughter, and now to us—will reverberate differently in each inner ear."—The Seattle Times
“A beautiful, powerful, important book….Nothing I’ve ever read has done this to me. Is this what religious people feel when they pray, I wonder? ...Terry Tempest Williams has written something that has revealed me and affirmed me and changed me. In sharing her voice, she has summoned mine.” —Rebecca Joines Schinsky, Book Riot
"In some ways When Women Were Birds functions as a detective story, an attempt to solve a mystery. But it’s also a realization that often there are no answers…there’s only the present."—The Salt Lake Tribune
"A lyrical, timeless book that rewards quiet, attentive reading—a rare thing."—The Huffington Post
"At some point I realized I was reading every page twice trying to memorize each insight, each bit of hard-won wisdom. Then I realized I could keep it on my bedside table and read it every night."—Pam Houston, author of Contents May Have Shifted
Chapter 1
I AM FIFTY-FOUR YEARS OLD, the age my mother was when she died. This is what I remember: We were lying on her bed with a mohair blanket covering us. I was rubbing her back, feeling each vertebra with my fingers as a rung on a ladder. It was January, and the ruthless clamp of cold bore down on us outside. Yet inside, Mother's tenderness and clarity of mind carried its own warmth. She was dying in the same way she was living, consciously.
"I am leaving you all my journals," she said, facing the shuttered window as I continued rubbing her back. "But you must promise me that you will not look at them until after I am gone."
I gave her my word. And then she told me where they were. I didn't know my mother kept journals.
A week later she died. That night, there was a full moon encircled by ice crystals.
On the next full moon I found myself alone in the family home. I kept expecting Mother to appear. Her absence became her presence. It was the right time to read her journals. They were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful clothbound books; some floral, some paisley, others in solid colors. The spines of each were perfectly aligned against the lip of the shelves. I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It, too, was empty, as was the fourth, the fifth, the sixth—shelf after shelf after shelf, all my mother's journals were blank.
WHEN WOMEN WERE BIRDS Copyright 2012 by Terry Tempest Williams
The discussion topics that follow are designed to enhance your reading group’s experience of When Women Were Birds. We hope they will enrich your journey.
Anonymous
Posted Fri Apr 05 00:00:00 EDT 2013
This book is so wonderful. I took a looooooong time to read it because it was so thought-provoking and exquisitely written. You can leave it on your nightstand to read and savor when you have time. And, mark it up (mine is peppered with post-its and lightly penciled notes)! In sharing her story, Terry Tempest Williams invites one to think on a deeper level and to quietly examine one's own life journey as well as that of the natural world. I will keep this book forever. I have not loaned my copy to anyone, instead I have purchased it for friends to experience themselves.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Jane_Ramsey
Posted Tue May 29 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I took this book to the beach with me and was mesmerized by the beautiful versing and how well woven the threads are that hold this book together. Terry Tempest Williams is a very insightful writer. I recommend this book to any woman seeking to find her voice and let it be heard.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.tetonvalleyreader
Posted Fri May 25 00:00:00 EDT 2012
A short book but full of poignant insight into the Clan of One Breasted Women. Even more than that, a glimpse of educated, indepentant Morman women strugling to remain true to their faith, their families and most importantly to themselves.
Surprises start from the begining and make your heart ache along with Terry's longing to understand a mother who cannot answer.
A Teton Valley, Idaho fan
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.karatepen
Posted Sat Dec 21 00:00:00 EST 2013
it was highly recommended by people I respect and I attempted to return to it 3 times.Whatever I read, was nicely written,I found the protagonist story (I assume it was autobiographical), uninteresting,mildly insightful and the journey itself,as well as the narrative didn't hold my interest.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon Mar 04 00:00:00 EST 2013
I could not even finish this book. I am an avid reader and found the book to be horrible.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Sun Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I enjoyed the musings, even the commentaries. I learned quite a bit. The musings gave me much food for thought. I anticipate great discussion at book club.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.LosAngelesDan
Posted Thu May 31 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I'm glad I ordered it. Got both hard copy and e-book. Good premis and well written.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Wed Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2013
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Kansas City Star Best Book of the Year
"Brilliant, meditative, and full of surprises, wisdom, and wonder."—Ann Lamott, author of Imperfect Birds
"I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone." This is what Terry Tempest Williams’s mother, the matriarch of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah, told her a week before she died. It was a shock to Williams to ...