Thursday, May 15, 2008

Sweet Home Alabama

Vacations are wonderful - especially when you are allowing yourself to forget about everything and enjoy the precious time away. Unfortunately, the first 5 days of my recent Alabama vacation I was unable to ground myself into my new surroundings and my yoga practice was anything but consistent.

Fortunately, when we travel, my husband reads and reads and reads. We make many trips to the book store. One store had a display with books by Southern writers. I found two books about the area written by authors who also live there. The first book, Point Clear by Jennifer Paddock, was written so vividly about Point Clear and The Grand Hotel I just had to visit. It was exactly as she described it and so fun to be there.

The second book, The Poet of Tolstoy Park by Sonny Brewer, was set back in time in the real Alabama town of Fairhope and gave wonderful descriptions about the area and the history. It is a wonderful read and for that very reason I have chosen it for our next book club read.


After reading these books and visiting the nearby towns I was able to fully appreciate the history and the beauty of this area.

I was also finally able to fully integrate my yoga practice into my "vacation life". I did poses on the balcony, I did poses on the beach and in the water. I find it so interesting that once I took the time to learn about the history and about the area, my asana practice bloomed. I was grounded!

And a side note - I love reading about the south and especially Alabama in particular. I found a book about an Alabama author which I highly recommend. It is called Mockingbird written about the life of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Remember that book from 8th grade?

Do you know of any other good books about the south? Always looking for good reads in the summer time :-)

2 comments:

Kevin said...

There are so many great books about the south!!! You can't go wrong with a Faulkner novel. A good one to start with: "As I Lay Dying." Once you get the hang of the short chapters it's very easy to read. Then maybe "Sanctuary" or "Absalom, Absalom" would be next. I'm envious of you -- you still have the chance to read these books for the first time. Have fun!

--Kevin

SAS said...

Can't wait to read your book club pick.