A Round-Heeled Woman - Jane Juska

I would love to meet this author. Very adult subject matter - not in a lurid way, but in a you-have-to-be-an-adult to relate to her story.

Here is the review from Publishers Weekly:

Contrary to the lurid title (a "round-heeled woman" was once slang for a prostitute), Juska is a semiretired English teacher with refined tastes: Trollope novels , opera and museums. "Before I turn 67-next March," she wrote to the personals column of the New York Review of Books, "I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like." While her adventures meeting these men frame her narrative, she's no geriatric Emmanuelle on a coast-to-coast fling, in spite of proclamations like "I adore p****es." It's just that she was raised by repressed Midwesterners and had never managed-given her spiritual and physical bulk-a truly fulfilling love affair. Married to a loveless man, she then spent years in social retreat as a single mom. By the time she emerged from her chrysalis, she realized she'd never had a chance at pleasure, hence the ad and her comic adventures with the assortment of men culled from the daily mail. While it's no surprise that the best man comes last and that he's a hunk with a brilliant mind, this Harold-Maude liaison is hardly the most compelling chapter of this quirky little memoir. Surprisingly, it's Juska's accounts of visiting the Berg collection at the New York Public Library, or the stories of her writing classes at a prison, that remain in mind, long after her personals game has faded. Old women looking for sex may not seem a hot topic, but there's something universal in this woman's love affair with the written word.

She might enjoy 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' by Annie Dillard.

Here is a summary from e.notes.com:

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, published in 1974, is a nonfiction work that defies categorization. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, it is often read as an example of American nature writing or as a meditation. Annie Dillard, the author, resists these labels, preferring to think of the book as a theological treatise. The book is frequently described as a collection of essays, but Dillard insists that the work is an integrated whole. Perhaps it is because the book succeeds on so many levels that it has been so widely read and admired.

The book is a series of internal monologues and reflections spoken by an unnamed narrator. Over the course of a year, she walks alone through the land surrounding Tinker Creek, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Roanoke, Virginia. As she observes the changing of the seasons and the corresponding behaviors of the plants and animals around her, she reflects on the nature of the world and of the God who set it in motion. The narrator is determined to present the natural world as it truly is, not sentimentally or selectively. Therefore, she is as likely to reflect on a frog being sucked dry by an insect as on the slant of light that strikes a certain springtime tree. Whether the images are cruel or lovely, the language is beautiful and poetic, and insistently celebratory.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.enotes.com/pilgrim-tinker/

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott may satisfy the spiritual quest bent.

"The Cloister Walk" by Kathleen Norris, or any of her other books.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby - a beautiful, moving memoir written by a man who suffered a brainstem stroke and was left with his mind fully intact but unable to move only his left eye. (Yes, really). I know it sounds like a downer, but it is lovely and uplifting. Also quite short and can be read in a sitting or two.

I second Traveling Mercies, and also Anne Lamott's other books on the same theme: Plan B and Grace (I think that's the title of the third one.) Very funny, as well as spiritually inspiring.

A Patchwork Planet by Tyler.

mary. My son's friend has served 2 tours in Afghanistan. Fresh reading material is always welcome...and don't forget magazines. Anything that you send will be read by someone, probably many someones. We sent books, magazines, even newspaper that had topics of interest to his friend (the baseball playoffs and world series!)

Of course, you want to match your friend's interests, but if you miss once or twice, someone else will appreciate it, and your friend will appreciate your efforts.

Don't overlook classics. And puzzle books.

It may be hard to find, but W.G. Ilefeldt's Thoughts While Tending Sheep is beautiful and thought-provoking.

Big yes to everything veronica says - my brother has been involved with sending reading material to our troops and he says he is repeatedly told that anything, anything at all is very welcome. He works in a high school and has mobilized the students to donate/buy/beg books, magazines and newspapers. He gets lots of young adult books and classics (cast offs from required reading lists) and they are all popular.

How about TILL WE HAVE FACES by C.S. Lewis? A warrior queen on a spiritual quest.

I mail books to my daughter, who is an Army officer. My tip is to pack only books in a parcel and then mail them book rate. The USPS no longer advertises its book rate and it is not on their web site. You have to walk up with your parcel and insist that they mail it book rate. (To mail overseas you need to fill out a customs form anyway, so a post office trip is a given.)

The main problem with book rate is that it's slow. When you're at the PO, ask for their special priority mail box for APO addresses. This is actually more expensive than book rate, but it's faster. Anything you can cram into the box goes for a flat rate. If you're going to be doing it regularly, ask them to give you several boxes to pack at home.

Brenda

Brenda-media mail is on the web site, under "package"-it is now $2.23 for a small package under 1 pound. Any printed matter, actually, not just books. I do it from home all the time when I am sending Bookmooch or paperbackswap books-just write "media mail" in big letters. A customs form is not always required-depends on where and on how big the parcel is.

There is also a letter-writing campaign, at least in our area, to Senators and members of Congress, about the high cost of shipping to servicemen and women. At my school we did a drive among students and their families to coincide with Veteran's Day-we had a list of foods, toiletries, and "entertainment" things that would be welcome. We gathered an amazing amount of materials and it cost a fortune to send it. That isn't right. I am not sure if the campaign is local or national-but another letter to your representatives wouldn't hurt.