The Book Show #1243 - Terry Tempest Williams

Terry Tempest Williams is the award-winning author of fourteen books, including Leap, An Unspoken Hunger, Refuge , and, most recently, Finding Beauty in a Broken World.

Before she died, Terry Tempest Williams’ mother told her: “I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won’t look at them until after I’m gone.” Readers of Williams’ memoir, Refuge, well remember that mother. She was one of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah who developed cancer as a result of the nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them. Her new book is When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice .

Music: "Pretty Little Bird" - Balthrop, Alabama