BOOK OF THE DAY:
SISTER GOLDEN HAIR, by Darcey Steinke.
Dear Ones —
Here's a novel that I love…which just came out in print TODAY.
HOORAY!
The author, Darcey Steinke, is an old friend of mine. (Longtime followers of this page may recall that I have many times recommended her spiritual memoir EASTER EVERYWHERE — a book that I also deeply adore and admire.)
Darcey has written a really wonderful, haunting, emotionally-accurate, richly-crafted novel here. It's about a 12 year-old girl in 1972, who is struggling to come of age at freaky and unsettled moment in American culture (when the country was suffering a hangover from the 1960s, and seemed a bit lost and confused and distracted — just like every adult in this story.)
If you click on the link below, you'll see an interview I did with Darcey about her inspiration for this novel. I think the book is really incredible, and I've been waiting eagerly for this day to arrive, so I can finally recommend it to you!
Just one more piece of personal background…just to let you know what Darcey means to me, I will say this: I wrote EAT PRAY LOVE to her. I have a practice, before I begin writing any book, to decide specifically who it is for. I think it's important that books be written to people — to one person, actually — in order to bring out the most intimate voice of the writer. The question I have to ask myself with each new project is, "Who am I talking to here?" Each one of my books has been written to a different person. It's a very important decision to make, because the way you feel about that person will completely determine the voice and tone of the book you write, since you are essentially speaking directly to that one reader. Darcey was the one person I was speaking to in every word of EPL — a friend I love, a writer I admire, a deeply passionate spiritual seeker. EAT PRAY LOVE is basically a letter I wrote just for her.
So…that's who SHE is! A rather important figure in my life, to be sure!
And SISTER GOLDEN HAIR is, I can say with delight, my book of the day!
Happy Reading,
LG
Sister Golden Hair
https://www.darceysteinke.com
When Jesse’s family moves to Roanoke, Virginia, in the summer of 1972, she’s twelve years old and already mindful of the schism between innocence and femininity, the gap between childhood and the world of adults. Her father, a former pastor, cycles through spiritual disciplines as quickly as he cycl…
