Be Reckless: Joshua Tree Calling

May 21, 2010

Joshua Tree Calling

Yes. It's another desert road trip tomorrow. Please, no more road kills, though. I have enough animal company with live coyotes, giant spiders, rattlesnakes and desert rats. Can't wait to see that incredibly starred sky again.

This is Enea. Pic taken by Vinny in Lone Pine, incredible place in the Alabama Hills just above Death Valley. Not far away from Mount Whitney.

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My All-Star Team

In Reckless, I tell the stories of nine kick-ass women. I chose these nine among the many others I met because they touched my heart more than anybody else, for one reason or the other. Here is how they are described on the back cover by my reckless editor, Brooke Warner, whose enthusiasm for my project shaped it into a book published by Seal Press in October 2005:

Reckless recounts the stories of nine women who made unconventional choices that sent their lives down determinably unique paths.

Author Gloria Mattioni chose nine women, all of whom she spent time with at different periods over the course of more than a decade.

The women include: Julia Butterfly Hill, who lived alone for 738 days atop an ancient 200-foot-tall redwood tree she named Luna;

Wilma Mankiller was chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma for more than ten years;

Gevin Fax left a promising career in Ohio, jumped on her Harley Davidson, and cruised to California, where she became the ambassador of women bikers;

Annie Duke, the queen of professional poker, beat out her older brother and eight other poker legends to win $2 million and the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions in November 2004;

Libby Riddles was the first woman to win the legendary Iditarod, the grueling, thousand-mile dog sled race across Alaska, after a century of male victories;

Angelika Castaneda, along with her twin sister Barbara Warren, age 61, are Ironman, X-Treme Games, and Triathlon multi-champions who continue to compete.

Lisa Distefano, former Playboy model and captain of a “pirate” vessel, challenges those who threaten the lives of the whales, dolphins, and seals she’s vowed to protect;

Polly Matzinger, Ph.D pursued careers as a waitress and a dog trainer before returning to school in her late thirties to become a world-renown biologist with her theory about the immune system that could revolutionize the way we treat disease.

Mattioni’s own story is detailed in the introduction, where she describes the reasons she left everything in the pursuit of interesting, daring women who continue to be one of the sources of motivation behind her own very unconventional life.

Stay tuned for more news about these nine kick ass women’s lives.

Bookshelf

Daniele Bolelli: 50 Things You're Not Supposed To Know: Religion
Fun. Witty. Informative and enlightening. Not just because my son wrote it :)
Don Winslow: Savages: A Novel
Raw. Cruel. Mind-bending. Innovative writing. Don Winslow at his best, so far. Leave you wishing for more, and then more. More punches in your stomach.
Thaddeus Russell: A Renegade History of the United States
It is on the Los Angeles Times booklist for Christmas gifts, with a reason. Cool research and refreshing style by the renegade professor, who's a lot of fun in person too. Great way to discover new things while learning more about the history of the American nation. I loved it.
Kem Nunn: The Dogs of Winter
I loved Tapping The Source and I'm always down for a good surf noir. But this Kem Nunn's left me with a feeling of deprivation. Instead of giving you energy, like a good surfing session or The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow does, it sucks it out of you. Not what I'm looking for in a book, definitely. It gets better in the very last 30 pages, trying a desperate redemption of the main characters, but it's kind of too late. The damage remains. Unforgivable sin.
Thomas Pynchon: Inherent Vice
Halfway through the book, and I am once more amazed at the geniality of Pynchon, this time challenging the hard boiled stereotypes. Reading that is a memory exercise for the Sixty lingo and definitely brain storming about the usual big questions. I just wonder how the writer who never write real endings will manage to avoid ending a thriller!
Daniele Bolelli: On the Warrior's Path, Second Edition
I loved the first edition and I was even more impressed with the second. I am not saying this just because I am the mother of the author. I am a fan of the warrior that I've seen to walk his talk and remain on his very own path every day of his life. Martial arts were my passion long before they became my son's but I never forced him to embrace them. He did by his own choice and went much farther than I've ever been. Martial arts gave Daniele balance and taught him to be strong but graceful and generous in life. Daniele shares all he learned in this book with his typical humorous, knockout style.
Gloria Mattioni: Reckless
Since I'm the author, I can't say anything about it. But I'd like you to do that. You can order it clicking on the Amazon link.