This Is How I Speak: The Diary of a Young Woman

Rating:
Summary: tilting
Review: an interesting book. Memoirs by their very nature lack perspective and balance and this one is no different. It has a certain effervesence to it and you admire her perseverence through all her challenges - many self inflicted. It sure isn't a advertisement for the benefits of therapy though.

Rating:
Summary: A Young Woman In Pursuit
Review: Initially planned as a side read, I was immediately engrossed in the text, completing this book in one evening. Within This Is How I Speak, readers follow this 24 year old woman as she struggles to find her place within a society that lacks appreciation of artists, their aspirations, and accomplishments.

Interestingly, little was changed from the journal format that initially held these musings, to the actual publication. Although she was often encouraged [via publishers] to rewrite large portions of the content, Sandi Sonnenfeld explains that she didn't want to alter the presentation, and held out for a publisher that would work with her. This reader is glad that she did! Her perseverance ensured that the material was presented as the thoughts and feelings from the particular timeframe intended, versus what would be her current interpretation of occurrences. The result is an intimate snapshot of actual events and the feelings that accompanied them.

This is How I Speak: The Diary of a Young Woman offers well-written prose, with good organization. I was surprised that the majority of entries related to dance, versus being direct references to writing, but I wasn't disappointed. In actuality I felt that the content of this book showed how creative endeavors interlace, and allowed realistic glimpses of the disappointments and elation's that artist's face.

I recommend This is How I Speak to those that appreciate diary glimpses that are well presented. Aspiring young artists, particularly women, are likely to enjoy this book. This truly is a book full of emotion, that is portrayed well by Sandi Sonnenfeld. I felt her fear, clinched her disappointments, eagerly read toward the results of her auditions and creative writing submissions, and celebrated her successes. A message laces the pages with regard to finding your own voice within a world full of voice, hence the title, This is How I Speak.

Rating:
Summary: A Young Woman In Pursuit
Review: Initially planned as a side read, I was immediately engrossed in the text, completing this book in one evening. Within This Is How I Speak, readers follow this 24 year old woman as she struggles to find her place within a society that lacks appreciation of artists, their aspirations, and accomplishments.

Interestingly, little was changed from the journal format that initially held these musings, to the actual publication. Although she was often encouraged [via publishers] to rewrite large portions of the content, Sandi Sonnenfeld explains that she didn't want to alter the presentation, and held out for a publisher that would work with her. This reader is glad that she did! Her perseverance ensured that the material was presented as the thoughts and feelings from the particular timeframe intended, versus what would be her current interpretation of occurrences. The result is an intimate snapshot of actual events and the feelings that accompanied them.

This is How I Speak: The Diary of a Young Woman offers well-written prose, with good organization. I was surprised that the majority of entries related to dance, versus being direct references to writing, but I wasn't disappointed. In actuality I felt that the content of this book showed how creative endeavors interlace, and allowed realistic glimpses of the disappointments and elation's that artist's face.

I recommend This is How I Speak to those that appreciate diary glimpses that are well presented. Aspiring young artists, particularly women, are likely to enjoy this book. This truly is a book full of emotion, that is portrayed well by Sandi Sonnenfeld. I felt her fear, clinched her disappointments, eagerly read toward the results of her auditions and creative writing submissions, and celebrated her successes. A message laces the pages with regard to finding your own voice within a world full of voice, hence the title, This is How I Speak.

Rating:
Summary: An absorbing, high-impact coverage
Review: It's difficult to easily categorize This Is How I Speak: The Diary Of A Young Woman. It is somewhere between a diary, biography, literary memoir and confessional lies a captivating story of one woman's winning literary achievements and her recovery from a sexual assault. Her diary is filled with insight, from her work in the arts to her blossoming skills and identity. This Is How I Speak is an absorbing, high-impact coverage.

Rating:
Summary: Authentic and passionate
Review: The author, then 25, finds her place as a dancer and a writer as she struggles to overcome a sexual assault set up by a close friend. The diary form maintains the youthful voice with its passions and questions in a way that an older, wiser narrator-looking-back could not. Written with aching clarity, the book captures what it is to be 25, to be violated and to find one's strength for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: Authentic and passionate
Review: The author, then 25, finds her place as a dancer and a writer as she struggles to overcome a sexual assault set up by a close friend. The diary form maintains the youthful voice with its passions and questions in a way that an older, wiser narrator-looking-back could not. Written with aching clarity, the book captures what it is to be 25, to be violated and to find one's strength for the first time.

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS HOW I SPEAK HELPS ALL OF US FIND OUR VOICES
Review: The Diary of Anais Nin meets The Paper Chase is this intimate, entertaining and moving portrait of an ambitious dancer turned writer coping with love, loss, sex, competition, endless Seattle rain, and a bad therapist at one of the nation's leading creative writing programs. THIS IS HOW I SPEAK offers a little bit of something for everyone--stories about relationships, about ambition, about the pain of sexual assault, about healing, about finding one's own voice in a world already filled with the voices of others.