Friday Five! - BookSparks

In this week’s edition of Friday Five!, we’re celebrating the incredible coverage and praise Joshua Safran has received for his debut memoir, FREE SPIRIT: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid! There have been two heartfelt reviews of his book from Sharon’s Garden of Books and Autumn Blues Reviews, Joshua shared two incredible stories of survival on Huffington Post Books and Salon.com, and The San Francisco Chronicle chose FREE SPIRIT as a book pick of the week.

What’s on my iPod: “A.M.” by Chris Young
What I’m reading: FREE SPIRIT: Growing Up On the Road and Off the Grid by Joshua Safran
The last person I followed on Twitter: @joshuasafran

1. “A remarkable memoir…”

Digna from Autumn Blues Reviews couldn’t stop raving about Joshua’s book, saying “Free Spirit is an incredible memoir and the most highly intense I have come across in all my memoir reviews…I was really hooked on this memoir, at times found it very difficult to put it down, mostly because this book is written from the heart, and as a reader I could tell these memories in Joshua’s past affect him now and will forever.”

2. “Fascinating and powerful…”

Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews shared a heartfelt review of FREE SPIRIT, saying, “Joshua Safran’s startling frank and brilliant written story is one that will evoke many emotions for the reader – compassion, admiration, and yes, anger.”

3. My Library Card to Redemption

Huffington Post Books featured an essay of Joshua’s on their blog where he talks about how his library card saved his life growing up. Joshua says, “The books that I found while taking refuge in a public library in rural Washington State in the mid-1980s were accessible to me, and their spiritual power changed the course of my life.” Read the rest of what Joshua had to say here.

4. “I had it in me to kill him.”

Joshua shares an incredibly powerful story of his life with Salon.com. Here Joshua talks about the time when his mother was married to an abusive husband and how they survived the constant physical and emotional abuse.

5. Recommended book of the week.

The San Francisco Chronicle chose FREE SPIRIT as one of the book picks of the week for September 15! They said, “Safran’s memoir offers engaging story after story and a healthy dose of narrative tension throughout.”