Marilyn Nelson Books

This book was first given to me at a funeral home YES... a funeral home not just any funeral home it was the funeral home where my mother in law laid to rest after a year long struggle with cancer. I felt hopeless asking myself how would I'd be able to support my husband when I indeed was a mess myself. I took the book and did not loose sight of it waited 5 months after her death to finally open it and read it. The best thing I could have done to find the answer to grievence and acceptance. I cried every night as I read it and since then have passed it one to others who find themselves lost of answers when a loved one crosses over...

I bought this book for my wife, who lost her mother to Alzheimer's a year ago. Too often, as Americans, we seem to want to move on past the loss of a loved one quickly. We've learned over the years that grief lasts for a long time. The book is loving and healing for this process.

I was given this book just after we lost our 22 year old son. It was one of two that helped me the most. It tells you to keep looking for the roses through all that you are having to endure.
"God is continually keeping His promise by providing roses, sometimes with actual flowers, sometimes through friends, and often in the form of memories as a reminder He is caring for me, and when I hurt, He hurts."
The book is about the many kinds of "roses" that God sends us. I now send it to those parents that lose children, no matter the age or circumstance; but I have also sent it to those that have lost a spouse. It is a wonderful "rose" for anyone grieving a loss.

This book is the tender, bittersweat story of a grieving mother working through her sorrow after losing her teenage son. As I read it, tears flowed down my cheeks as I found I could relate to the many emotions the author experienced. With every heartbreak, she looks for and finally discovers a "rose" - a person, a gesture, a memoery which gives her a sense of peace, and meaning and strength to carry on with life.

Grief has a life of its own. You don't know this until you are faced with it. Unless you are able to talk with someone who has experienced it or read a book such as this one, no one can understand what you are feeling. I appreciated Marilyn's candidness of all she was feeling and how she came through it. It was a comfort to find that I was feeling some of the same things she was feeling. That brings healing in itself.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who has lost someone and is grieving. You will find yourself connecting with Marilyn and it will help you know that what you are feeling is normal. I would also like to add that her Christian perspective is vital. Because it's times like this when we see our need for the Lord; his grace, strength, and presence in our lives. Many would ask: "How could God let this happen?" Well, it happens to all of us at one time or another...that is reality. The question should be: "How can God help me?" And He will.

Yet again the folks at Amazon have bungled matters. The other "review" of this book is in fact a review of (or a puff for) the Penn series of translations of Greek tragedy, not of Euripides' "Selected Fragmentary Plays," a scholarly edition offering Greek texts, English translations, and detailed notes on several of Euripides' fragmentary plays. It should also noted that the book in question is the recently published---and long-awaited---second volume of a work whose first volume appeared in 1995. Eventually, there will be a Loeb Classical Library edition of the major fragments of Euripides, but it is unlikely to replace these volumes of Collard et al., for their very full notes will remain invaluable.

I went to Columbia, with the most prominent 'great books' curriculum still in existence. 25 years later, I'm finding myself re-reading and discussing many of the titles. The Penn Greek Drama series is a handsome library of new translations that give fresh takes on the classics. It's useful to have Euripides on the shelf when you return home from the recent bravura performance by Fiona Shaw as Medea--it settled an argument too on how it 'originally' ended.

Fortune's skeleton is not on display. The exhibit about Fortune at the Mattatuck Museum includes a photographic illusion allowing visitors to see an image of Fortune's skeleton transform into a painting of Fortune as he may have looked in life. Fortune's actual bones have been carefully placed in archival museum storage, awaiting a community decision about whether to bury the remains or preserve them for future study.

There are as many ways of honoring the long forgotten as there are ways of mucking that honor up. I came to "Fortune's Bones" with just a bit of trepidation, I admit. Though I knew author Marilyn Nelson had created this book to honor a man long dead in the best way she knew how, I was still recovering from a similar, and foul, title called, "Journey To the Bottomless Pit" which also came out in 2004. In both books, a man who was a slave during his lifetime is honored with a children's book of fiction. In "Journey", the book was a simplistic version of a complicated man's life. I prayed that "Fortune's Bones" would not be the same. Those prayers were answered tenfold. Marilyn Nelson tells the story of Fortune in a manner respectful of his life, then accompanies this retelling with a requiem written in his honor. Though I would have enjoyed further factual information on the topic, this is a worthy addition to any poetry collection or non-fiction collection, for children, teens, or grown adults, anywhere.

There once was a man named Fortune. Born a slave in the 1700s, he and his wife and his children all belonged to a Dr. Preserved Porter. Later tests on Fortune's bones show that his life was not an easy one. His back was once broken and though he had a healthy skeleton, he died at the age of 60. When he did, Dr. Porter took Fortune's death as an opportunity to study human anatomy. He removed Fortune's skeleton, tapped the bones, and made himself a complete human skeleton. Every bone was carefully marked and studied by Porter and his ancestors. Years later, Fortune's name was lost and the skeleton was mislabeled "Larry" and given to the Matttatuck Museum. In the 1990s historians did research on it and found Fortune's true name once again. Now the only question that remains is what to do with Fortune's bones. Do we bury them and put him to rest at long last, or do we learn more from them about 1700s slaves and slavery? The question remains unanswered, but author Marilyn Nelson has done what she can. In this book she writes a requiem in Fortune's memory. Filled with free verse poetry, a Kyrie of the Bones, and a Sanctus at the end, "Fortune's Bones" is a text of respect.

One of the many things I loved about this book was the fact that as an author/poet, Nelson tells us why she wrote what she did. One poem is entitled, "Not My Bones", in which Fortune states clearly, "I am not my body", to anyone who cares to listen. This phrase comes from the Vietnamese Buddhist leader Thich Nhat Hahn, a fact that could well have gone uncredited by a less careful author. Each poem in this book is accompanied by factual information pertaining to Fortune's story, along with photographs, papers, tapestries, maps, and other important documents of the period. As a whole these poems speak beautifully together, forming a single Requiem. I especially liked "Dinah's Lament" in which Fortune's wife speaks of the cruel injustice of being forced to dust the bones that once would, "hold me when I cried; to dust where his soft lips were, and his chest what curved its warm against my back at night". Nelson, the accomplished voice behind her other great book, "Carver: A Life In Poems", is at her best here.

Admittedly, there were aspects of this book left unspoken that I (and I'm sure others) would have liked to have heard more about. The book is a Requiem and doesn't dwell on the fascinating process scientists took to discover Fortune again. There's a small series of three pictures on one page that shows three stages of facial reconstruction of Fortune, taken from his bones. That's something that would have made for a fascinating story in and of itself. Or how did the researchers and historians eventually discover who Fortune really was? Who did they talk to? What did they read? Sadly, such information will have to wait for another book. It's not answered here.

"Fortune's Bones", will obviously be snatched up by any child and/or teen assigned to read a book of poems since it's a mere 32 pages altogether. This is a great good thing. In spite of its scant length, this is a title that will teach a lot of information to a lot of kids in a wonderfully stirring way. The poems are mindful of the past and give the greatest of respect to a man of whom we know so little. A wonderful publication

If anyone had a reason to curl up into a corner and cry, it would be Marilyn Meberg. She has experienced things in her life that many of us will NEVER go through nor understand. Instead of hiding under the banner of "I have a right to my pity party", she chose to rise above it all and find laughter and joy in the most desparate of circumstances. Her anecdotes had me nearly rolling on the floor with laughter and tears in my eyes. Everyone needs to learn how to laugh. It is a necessary skill in life. The Lord provided this means for stress relief and we should embrace and learn to use it.

Marilyn's humor is wonderful. She gives day-to-day events a new look...like how her washing machine when on spin cycle threaten to march thru the laundry doors out into the neighborhood. A very fun, easy book to read. Inpiration as well, gives the lighter side of losing someone close.

Marilyn mentored me while I took the Christian Leaders and Speakers Seminar. I used this book to mentor my own daughters while each of them was a senior in high school (1994 & 1999). My daughters are now 26 & 21 years old. For all 3 of us this was a highlight in our relationships. We were closer because of this additional planned time together. As I sent each girl off to college before they were 18 years old, I felt confident that my leadership/discipleship was complete. Thank you Marilyn & Marie.

I've read this book several times, and it helped me every time I read. As a young Christian woman, I had to know how I have to manage a relationship with people, family, and my loved one. Also I needed some direction about my spiritual life -- the relationship with my God. Ms. Heavilin helped me by sharing her experiences in her youth, in her motherhood, and in her marriage. (It was so inspiring that her prayers for her future husband and for her children's future spouses were wonderfully answered by God! I'm very encouraged to pray for my own too.) I can see God's guidance in her life and family, and I really see that our God is so great! Thank you, Ms. Heavilin for sharing. (I feel so bad the book is out of stock. I certainly hope all my friends read this book!)

I just love Marilyn Meberg. The really cool thing is that I have actually seen her speak several times over the last several years. She is truly an inspiration. If anyone has a right to be down, it would be this woman...but she chooses a life of joy, love, and encouraging the women around her. I own each of her books (At least I think I do), and I have been blessed by them all. I highly recommend this read!!!!

I am constantly impressed by the brilliance of Marilyn Meberg. In her latest book "The Zippered Heart," she tactfully tackles many issues that Christians face today, unwrapping the concept of living free from guilt, resisting temptation, and unlocking the truth to set your soul in flight. By revealing some of her "darker intentions" she makes us realize that those black thoughts and shameful memories and ideas that we hold "just to the left of the zipper" are the same guilt and fears that plague all mankind; that we are not something to be ashamed of, but rather a daughter of the King.

Gently treading on painful issues and areas of life, she unwraps the mysteries of the heart like a velvet ribbon, and when the last page is turned and the book lain aside, we remember the freedom we have been given in Christ, and the journey that lies before us toward learning to forgive ourselves. Long-time fans of Marilyn will not be surprised or insulted by some of the examples she uses to prove her point, having already become familiar with her sometimes dark but appealing sense of humor. But for those who have never read "the rapscallion brilliance" of Marilyn Meberg before, I suggest you begin with "I'd Rather Be Laughing."

Marilyn has done it again!! A truely wonderful book! The book begins by telling you the story of how a salesman sees her with a baby pacifier in her mouth...and how she tries to explain to him that she is breaking it in for her baby. (Ha!) And this is just one of the many humorous stories. This is my second book of Marilyn's, the other was "I'd rather be laughing". Both of these book are endearing! And very uplifting reads. I highly recommend both of these books, plus the ones done with Luci Swindoll and Patsy Clairmont.

Excellent companion to the book, "God At Your Wits' End." Requires researching and writing scriptures for one's study and spiritual growth. Focuses on pertinent faith issues and ridding oneself of faulty thinking. Excellent for Bible Study Groups.

Marilyn Meberg does a wonderful job of "unwrapping one's remaining graveclothes" in this book. Full of spiritual insight from her own personal struggles with faith issues, she enables the reader to understand how "faulty thinking" can rob one of the true concept of God and shows the way to embark on a path full of truth and freedom.
A "must read" for anyone having difficulty with faith issues!

This is a fascinating collection of stories by a great cross-section of writers. My favorite story was the touching and funny "Destiny" by Patricia Wallace. Ms. Wallace has written numerous outstanding horror and mystery novels, including the Sydney Bryant private eye series.

This offbeat anthology should find a permanent place on many bookshelves.