Sosienski, Shanti. Women Who Run. Emeryville: Seal Press, 2006.
This wasn’t on any “to read” list but it turned out to be just as important as any list book. I took Women Who Run with me to Baltimore which turned out to be the greatest strategy for the shortest flight I have ever been on. Less than an hour air time (each way) afforded me the luxury of quick chapter reads. I could start and stop without feeling disconnected. Since each chapter is “stand alone” and completely unrelated to the next one I could bounce around from story to story. I didn’t have to read them in order (and I didn’t). 16 different women (counting the author) have shared 16 different running stories. How they started running, when they felt they could officially call themselves runners, their biggest triumphs and their hardest-to-swallow defeats. These women recount the relationships they gained from running as well as the ones they lost; how running saved their lives and even, on some occasions, their souls. There are stories about how mothers juggle family life and how career women stay driven and how the lines blur when family and business are a part of their lives. There are stories of women driven by competition while others are driven by something more personal, something more spiritual. There are stories of women who society labels as “unlikely” runners yet run, they do. There are so many different stories I am willing to bet every reader will find a little of herself in one of them.
~*LunaSea*~ 