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Marilyn Jenkins

Marilyn Jenkins

About

Welsh woman writer, Marilyn Jenkins was born and raised in South Wales and is a member of the WelshAcademy. She studied at Aberystwyth, Cardiff and London universities. She has worked as a teacher, lecturer and adviser in English. 

For the past twenty years her short stories and poetry have been published in magazines and her first poetry collection: Close Distances was published in Spring 2007 by Cinnamon Press. She has returned to Wales and full time writing after living in England and for brief periods in Canada and Australia. Her first novel: The Legacy of Alice Waters was published in 2009. It is a 'whydunnit' - the tragic story of a woman poisoner, executed in 1947.

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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<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

Early one morning, not long after the Second World War, a woman is taken out of her cell and hanged. How do I feel about that? The answer is: uncomfortable. The story of Ruth Ellis influenced my fictional story of Alice Waters. Like Edith Thompson, Ellis was convicted of immorality rather than weight of evidence. There were a number of extenuating circumstances where she was concerned. She also left a daughter, an innocent victim. Alice's crime is nastier than Ellis's. She poisoned her lover's wife and child. She left behind a little daughter and people who loved and suffered for her for decades. When, years later, her daughter and granddaughter go in search of the truth - will they discover a monster outside the understanding of humanity? Can she be understood and forgiven? Read the book and find out.

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Reviews

<p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#ff0000;font-size:10pt;">What Youwriteon reviewers had to say about 'The Legacy of Alice Waters':  </span></strong></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;">...this is superb - it's heart wrenching, emotional and very well written... </span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;"></span></strong></p> <p></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;">a very talented writer to keep so many balls juggling with such ease, well done. ..S. Birch </span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;"> </span></strong></p> <p></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;">a rich interweaving of plot lines. . . </span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;"> </span></strong></p> <p></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;">I loved the idea of the journals, the explanation of why Alice did what she did…gradually revealed to the reader as it is to her daughter. . . <br /></span></strong><span style="font-family:'Book Antiqua';"><font size="3"><br />G. Gibbons by email:</font></span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Book Antiqua';"></span></p> <p><font size="3"></font> </p><span style="font-family:'Book Antiqua';"><font size="3">I so enjoyed your book, which was beautifully written.  It kept me riveted all Christmas Eve after I played Santa for my daughter and Christmas Day after cooking the roast.  I loved the suspense and the wonderful female characters – Dessie, Maddie, Emily, Harriet.   It was tragic on the one hand, but triumphant on the other – I loved that Maddie walked out on her deadbeat cheating husband (none of the married men seem to have understood the meaning of fidelity) and that the truth really did set her free in so many ways.</font></span> <p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;">find further reviews at:   </span></strong><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;"><a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/8199343"><span style="color:#000000;">http://www.librarything.com/work/8199343</span></a>;  </span></strong></p> <p></p> <p><strong><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#000000;font-size:10pt;"><a href="http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=frankieshaw"><span style="color:#000000;">http://www.librarything.com/profile_reviews.php?view=frankieshaw</span></a>  </span></strong></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Book Antiqua';"></span></p> <p><font size="3"></font> </p>