The Music of Emotion
By: Ron Biela
Book: Nonfiction, 325 pages
Summary: This book presents a different way to relate to emotion and to experience its dynamic and aesthetic qualities. The approach is an alternative to the simplistic, mechanistic model of emotion prevailing in mental health professions. Conceptually blending music and emotion allows one to feel alive, non-aural music always playing in the body and mind, with rhythms, tones and themes of:
• vulnerabilities and the protective forces they trigger.
• the capacity to center oneself from music that’s disturbing, stuck, or self-defeating.
• the capacity to play beautiful, passionate music.
Biela researched and developed this approach during his 25 years as a therapist and life coach.
Author: Ron Biela practiced as a therapist and life coach for 25 years in Denver, Golden and Boulder. He’s the author of “Discovering Soul: Beauty, Virtue and Play in the Artwork of Being” and writes at possibilitesofbeauty.substack.com. He lives in Boulder with his wife, who’s a scientist and rock climber.
Embodied Unconscious: the feminine space of sexuality, surrealism, and experimentation in literature
By: C. M. Chady
Book: Nonfiction, 464 pages, CMChady.com
Summary: Springing from the audio archive of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, “Embodied Unconscious: the feminine space of sexuality, surrealism, and experimentation in literature” is an anthology that embraces these questions.
This collection of transcribed lectures from the experimental, Beat-lineage writing program enlightens readers to prominent women figures such as Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, Lorine Niedecker and Clarice Lispector who opened spaces for new forms of language and poetry to emerge. Discussions engage with feminist and psychoanalytic theory alongside contemporary contemplations for a robust exploration of what it means to write of and through a feminine body and experience.
Grounded in the spirit of the Jack Kerouac School, the collection invites readers and writers to experiment and grow in their own practices. It is an approachable tome to expand consciousness for those interested in literature and writing.
Author: Editor C. M. Chady, was an Anne Waldman Fellow of the Jack Kerouac School’s MFA Creative Writing and Poetics. She completed her undergraduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the founding co-editor-in-chief for Tiny Spoon Literary Magazine and member of Wisdom Body Collective.
Ripple Effect
By: Amy Rivers
Book: Fiction, 292 pages, amyrivers.com
Summary: Psychologist Kate Medina is on a mission to dismantle the human trafficking ring that has plagued her hometown for decades. As the investigation leads to several arrests, the traffickers become more desperate, escalating their violence and brutality.
When the ring abducts her sister Tilly and murders a potential ally, Kate seeks help from a person who she knows to be complicit in the abuse. In this final installment of “A Legacy of Silence,” time is running out, and Tilly’s life is on the line. Will Kate uncover the truth behind the trafficking ring in time to save her sister?
Author: Amy Rivers is an award-winning novelist, as well as the director of Writing Heights Writers Association. She was named 2021 Indie Author of the Year by the Indie Author Project. Her psychological suspense novels incorporate important social issues with a focus on the complexities of human behavior. Amy was raised in New Mexico and lives in Colorado with her husband and children.
The Curse of the Crow
By: Melissa J. Roche, Ressa Draco and Gabriel M. James
Book: Children’s fiction, 220 pages, melissajroche.com
Summary: What could be better than selling lemonade to stave off the summer doldrums? Try swashbuckling adventure on the high seas! Captain Gabriel has done both before, the lemonade and the adventures, so he’s pretty good at it despite the fact that he still has no idea what a swash even is, nor how one would buckle it.
Never mind that; he’s setting sail with his quirky crew to embrace the unknown, including a magical unicorn and her warrior-girl companion, a harrowing side quest in search of the elusive “Macguffin flower” and a crow-girl haunted by an old curse. Do Cap and the crew of the Dawn Horizon have what it takes to break the Curse of the Crow? (“Of curse!” promises Elliot, the ship’s cook and official crafter of groan-worthy puns.) But the real question is, do you have what it takes to join them?
Author: This author team consists of a mom and two elementary-age kids from Lafayette publishing their first book in the Explorers series, juvenile adventure fiction for ages 6-11 and their adventure-loving parents. The family has lived in Lafayette for 8 years, and the kids are in third and fifth grade at Escuela Bilingue Pioneer. Melissa J. Roche also writes contemporary sweet romance, and her debut novel “Skate Cute” features a small-town (based on Lafayette) astronomy graduate student who finds love in a meet-cute at the local skating rink.
