Walking Through Hell

“We are comrades, you and I, walking the same road through hell. We are the ones who carry our guilt like a cancer.”

Jake Durant wrote this book for people who have messed up big time. Embezzlers, alcoholics fired from their jobs, the unfaithful partner who lost a treasured marriage, and on. The great mistake causing the suffering may even have been entirely unintentional. Either way, he’s been there, and writes of the two years that he walked back from the mess he created. The pain he felt is evident as he starts his story. This is real stuff. And then he gets to work.

The beauty of this book is that it’s written by someone who has experienced failure and remorse. It’s not a professional giving advice, though the writing itself is both first quality and compelling. He offers his way as picture of one path “back into the sunlight.”

Really, this book would be helpful to anyone. We might know someone in Durant’s situation and would profit from a vision of what they are experiencing, but also, we all experience guilt, and there’s everything to be gained from making amends and letting it go. This is a good friend of a book.

Copies may be purchased from Amazon

Author: Jake Durant

The Train From Greenville

If you were to travel across America by train, you couldn’t imagine the people you would meet. You’d probably laugh, you might hear a confession. Maybe you are not a traveler. Don’t worry. If you were sitting beside someone who was rude, you could ask to be moved. And don’t worry, most travelers are really nice. At least that was my experience, and I can’t think it was atypical.

If you are a reader, think of the reading you could do. When it’s time to pause, what a view you have, what conversations you overhear.

You could move around, go to the Dining Car, go outside during the long stops.

Amtrak people are really helpful, I found.

I crossed the country in 2011. I think I learned - in talking with others, in accepting some nervousness, in reading - some things about being human. I’m not so different from other people, I learned. We’re not a bad bunch.

                                                                                                   - Anna Raglan

Copies may be purchased from Amazon and Blue Ridge Books, Waynesville, NC

Author: Anna Raglan