Roaming & Reading Issue 14  October 7th 2023

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Read to Roam & Step into the Setting of "The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese

Perhaps you just read that "Read to Roam" book headline and murmured, 'That was her Read to Roam book for June....!'

Yes, it was! But that was before September 14th and one of the most marvelous evenings in twenty-four seasons of Talking Volumes.
Download the podcast which has extra content from that night. https://www.mprnews.org/shows/kerri-miller

Before Abraham Verghese described the waters and mountains, flowers and food of his homeland in such luxuriant and mouthwatering detail.

And before I decided I simply could wait no longer to see the setting of "The Covenant of Water" for myself.

So, I'm creating an adventure that will allow us to step into the pages of this breathtaking and bestselling novel and revel in the beauty of Kerala, India.

The trip begins on November 18th, 2024, the day my expedition to Bhutan ends, so travelers can join me in flying from Paro, Bhutan to Kerala.

Or you can meet me in southern India for a once-in-a-literary lifetime adventure.
The trip will conclude in plenty of time to get home for Thanksgiving.

Details are coming soon. Feel free to email me about Bhutan & Kerala together or "The Covenant of Water" tour only.

So, if you haven't yet read "The Covenant of Water" put it at the top of your TBR list. And check out the soon-to-be announced enchanting details of the trip.

I am so excited!!

How "Breath Becomes Air" Author Turned to Fiction for Strength as he Died.

The late Paul Kalanithi certainly didn't bury the lede in his exceptional memoir.

In the opening pages of "When Breath Becomes Air," the sixth-year neurosurgery resident describes the moment he saw his own CT scan--the tumors, the spreading cancer-- and knew immediately that he was dying.

"And with that, the future I had imagined, the one just about to be realized, the culmination of decades of striving, evaporated.

Urgency abruptly defined what Kalanithi and his wife, Lucy, also a medical student, had hoped would be time to repair a fraying marriage after grueling academic schedules.

Instead, together they are researching treatments to prolong his life, discussing the prospect of having a child and Paul begins to write a memoir that Lucy will have to finish when he dies in March of 2015.

I've long loved this book and recommended it many times to readers, particularly for Kalanithi's appreciation for literature. He had studied it in college.

But I recently caught a conversation with Lucy Kalanithi that brought Paul's deep love for fiction into sharper focus.

In a podcast interview for "A Slight Change of Plans" hosted by Dr. Maya Shankar, Lucy Kalanithi described her husband's preparations for entering the hospital.

Instead of medical texts Paul Kalanithi packed novels from which he would draw sustenance and wisdom. Tears came to my eyes as I listened to Lucy describe what it meant for Paul to have those books nearby.

Here's the link to the interview. I hope you find it as moving as I did. https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/a-slight-change-of-plans/i-will-never-leave-you

Luis Urrea's New Novel is Drawn from His Mother's Experience as a Donut Dolly.

Writer Luis Alberto Urrea had already embarked on writing a novel based, in part, on his late mother's World War II experience.

Then he found his mother's wartime buddy living just a few hours away.

https://www.nextavenue.org/his-mothers-combat-buddy-luis-alberto-urrea-new-novel/