Forest Walk on a Friday - by Lynne Golodner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Since she was six years old, Lynne (Cohn, Schreiber) Golodner has turned to writing to make sense of the world, figure out her feelings and process experiences. In this riveting, heart-spilling collection of personal essays, Lynne takes the reader on a journey with her through travel, religious exploration, parenting, relationships and intimate encounters with the natural world.

Forest Walk on a Friday contains 28 essays-20 of which have been previously published in literary journals and magazines-articulating the ache of lost love, embarking on a soul journey to find happiness alone on a mountaintop, making peace with the loss of a father and examining what work is.

The Detroit-based author of award-winning novels, poetry collections and nonfiction books, Lynne opens her heart to readers in a daring and brave way, inviting them to contemplate how humans find happiness and what makes life worth living. As with all of her books, Lynne shares the beauty of her Jewish identity and the ancestry she inherited, through food, visits with beloved relatives and quiet walks in the cemetery to visit those she's lost.

She details her two marriages, showcasing the courage it took to leave one that didn't work and sharing the gratitude she found in discovering new love at midlife. As a parent of four children, Lynne is candid about the joys and challenges of being an attentive parent and the emotions that come with letting go of her grown children as they prepare to leave home.

And Lynne writes about connecting with the earth, finding herself in the soil and on the river, and discovering the happiness of coming home to oneself. Readers will salivate over descriptions of oysters fresh from the ocean, just-picked strawberries staining mouths with their sweetness, blueberries bursting off the bush and the familiarity of a grandmother's chicken soup, fragrant and flavorful.

Forest Walk on a Friday is an exquisite wander through one woman's life, offering universal lessons about how to be happy with what you have, how to cherish the identity you inherit and how to be open to possibility as one walks through life.

Review Quotes

Praise for FOREST WALK ON A FRIDAY:

"Get swept away in the beauty of Lynne's writing, and the care in which she crafts each and every story."

Danny Hankner, Editor-in-Chief & Founder, Story Unlikely

"This is a beautiful collection of landscapes geographical and biographical - from Michigan and Hawaii to Scotland and Budapest; Israel to India and back again. With reflections ranging across family, food, faith and more, Lynne Golodner excels at capturing the messy reality of being human: being a woman; being Jewish; being a parent; being a lover. And the exact tastes and textures of eating a tomato off the vine."

Elizabeth Gowing, prize-winning author of six books and co-founder of the Ideas Partnership

"An inspiring meditation that engages every one of the five senses...A writer who is called to make meaning out of the mundane, Golodner shows how to wonder, to recognize beauty, and to embrace life's glorious details."

Jessica Fein, author of Breath Taking: A Memoir of Family, Dreams and Broken Genes

"Lynne Golodner takes us on a journey of forging her path that breathes meaning into life and bathes the soul. In each of the lyrical and lush essays in Forest Walk on a Friday, Golodner weaves a tapestry of moments that includes riveting adventures, passionate introspection and often to destinations most have never known."

Kim Kozlowski, writer and journalist, The Detroit News

"Lynne Golodner is one of Michigan's true renaissance writers. I highly recommend this original book of experience and contemplation. The book is filled with experiences of joy, adventure with some sadness. Forest Walk on a Friday is well worth lacing up your hiking boots to follow along."

M. L. Liebler, author of Hound Dog: A Poet's Memoir of Rock, Revolution and Redemption