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Lori Stephens

Lori Stephens

About

Lori Ann Stephens’s debut novel, Song of the Orange Moons,will be released in October 2010 by Blooming Tree Press. When she's not writingor teaching writing, she reads, dances, and eats the best gourmet, home-cookedmeals. She is not the cook. She lives in Plano, Texas with her family.

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness

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Description

<p><b>The absorbing, definitive account of CrossFit's origins, its explosive grassroots growth, and its emergence as a global phenomenon.</b><br /> <br />One of the most illuminating books ever on a sports subculture, <i>Learning to Breathe Fire </i>combines vivid sports writing with a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human. In the book, veteran journalist J.C. Herz explains the science of maximum effort, why the modern gym fails an obese society, and the psychic rewards of ending up on the floor feeling as though you're about to die. <br /> <br />The story traces CrossFit’s rise, from a single underground gym in Santa Cruz to its adoption as the workout of choice for elite special forces, firefighters and cops, to its popularity as the go-to fitness routine for regular Joes and Janes. Especially riveting is Herz’s description of The CrossFit Games, which begin as an informal throw-down on a California ranch and evolve into a televised global proving ground for the fittest men and women on Earth, as well as hundreds of thousands of lesser mortals. <br /> <br />In her portrayal of the sport's star athletes, its passionate coaches and its “chief armorer,” Rogue Fitness, Herz powerfully evokes the uniqueness of a fitness culture that  cultivates primal fierceness in average people. And in the shared ordeal of an all-consuming workout, she unearths the ritual intensity that's been with us since humans invented sports, showing us how, on a deep level, we're all tribal hunters and first responders, waiting for the signal to go all-out. </p>

Story Behind The Book

SONG OF THE ORANGE MOONS is a mosaic of stories that follow the intertwined lives of three girls coming of age. Two young girls and an elderly widow try to find happiness in a seemingly cruel world. In spite of their different cultural and economic backgrounds, Rebecka, Helen, and Adelle all share the delicate, self-conscious journey to womanhood. All three search for love and meaning in a variety of places-- a charismatic church, a Depression-era orphanage, a moonlit Savannah park, an orthodox Jewish boarding school-- and end up finding lasting strength in the power of their friendships.

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Reviews

<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span><span style="font:7pt 'Times New Roman';"></span></span></span></em><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">Nuanced and lovely, written in three pitch-perfect voices of narrators aching for a self, <em>Song of the Orange Moons</em> is an enchanting debut novel from an exciting new writer. ~ Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <em>A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain</em></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span style="color:#000000;">In this premiere novel, Lori Ann Stephens offers a poignant allegory of our time. Each of her characters seeks the true nature of the woman within; each must recognize and accept both the bitterness and the sweetness of life’s deeper truths.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#000000;">            Clay Reynolds, award-winning author of <em>Monuments</em> and <em>Franklin’s Crossing</em>.  <br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">The characters and, just as importantly, the words in Lori Ann Stephens’s debut novel will stay with you long after you close the cover. Full of heart and startling images, <em>Song of the Orange Moons</em> is a haunting book about love and loss. The interwoven stories of a widow and her two young neighbors are humorous and horrific, and crafted with bittersweet honesty. I highly recommend it.<span>  </span><span> </span>~Robert Nelsen, president of the University of Texas-Pan American</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:150%;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a book about love, loss, reclamation.  Stephens reconstructs the brutal, vivid experience of childhood with startling clarity.  A fine, exquisite novel full of feeling and careful observation.<span class="il"></span><br /> ~Claudia Smith, Pushcart Prize nominee and author of <em>The Sky is a Well</em>, and <em>Put Your Head in My Lap</em></span></p>