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Still Moving: a memoir
WHO DO WE BECOME when we've lost the things that defined us? When Linda Durham shuttered
her internationally acclaimed art gallery after thirty-three years, she found herself navigating a sea of bewilderment.
Risk-taking had long been the tour de force of her life. But had she failed, or had she succeeded?
Change always comes at a price.
Through delicious and dark, scintillating and salacious true
tales of planned and accidental intersections with the exotic
and quixotic, Durham pits her real self against her ideal self in
a lifelong journey as serpentine as the Mobius strip her father
made for her more than seven decades ago.
On stage and off, Durham creates and is created by story. Raven spirit tattoos on
both shoulders, wanderlust in her eyes, she danced in ceremony with tribal Kachin
women, chanted "Free Gaza" from aboard the seized Audacity of Hope ship, was cured
by a Voodoo priest in a Haitian cemetery, slogged through the tempestuous lands'
end at Tierra del Fuego, and breathlessly summitted Kilimanjaro. Everywhere this
around-the-world traveler wandered, she chased the ghosts of her own ignorance
and arrogance, culled clarity from confusion, and dug herself out from the crushing
numbness of defeat.
Durham unabashedly pulls back the curtain on loves lost and found and on a life
lived richly and openly amid fair fields and foreign wars, in places sacred and profane.
Her incurable optimism gives inspiration and voice to the struggles of women worldwide, empowers those of us who feel derailed by a world out of control, and frees us to open the door to love.
her internationally acclaimed art gallery after thirty-three years, she found herself navigating a sea of bewilderment.
Risk-taking had long been the tour de force of her life. But had she failed, or had she succeeded?
Change always comes at a price.
Through delicious and dark, scintillating and salacious true
tales of planned and accidental intersections with the exotic
and quixotic, Durham pits her real self against her ideal self in
a lifelong journey as serpentine as the Mobius strip her father
made for her more than seven decades ago.
On stage and off, Durham creates and is created by story. Raven spirit tattoos on
both shoulders, wanderlust in her eyes, she danced in ceremony with tribal Kachin
women, chanted "Free Gaza" from aboard the seized Audacity of Hope ship, was cured
by a Voodoo priest in a Haitian cemetery, slogged through the tempestuous lands'
end at Tierra del Fuego, and breathlessly summitted Kilimanjaro. Everywhere this
around-the-world traveler wandered, she chased the ghosts of her own ignorance
and arrogance, culled clarity from confusion, and dug herself out from the crushing
numbness of defeat.
Durham unabashedly pulls back the curtain on loves lost and found and on a life
lived richly and openly amid fair fields and foreign wars, in places sacred and profane.
Her incurable optimism gives inspiration and voice to the struggles of women worldwide, empowers those of us who feel derailed by a world out of control, and frees us to open the door to love.
252 pages, Paperback
Published December 28, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 22, 2021
Chronicle of a life fully lived and beautifully embraced
Most of the memoirs I have read clearly show a path from a defining moment but this collection of life stories doesn’t seem to follow a definitive progression and that is a beautiful thing. Life is often messy, unpredictable and when we pull ourselves out of a crisis of identity our path can resemble that of a drunk baby more than a mountaintop monk. In one of the chapters Linda Durham says time is not linear when describing how one moment of her life folded in on itself and as I watched her shed the layers and labels of her old self and move forward I couldn’t help but be impressed with her moxie.
Memoirs and biographies are often taste driven but this one seems to go a little beyond one person’s story and may just open a window to let you examine where you have been and where you want to go.
Most of the memoirs I have read clearly show a path from a defining moment but this collection of life stories doesn’t seem to follow a definitive progression and that is a beautiful thing. Life is often messy, unpredictable and when we pull ourselves out of a crisis of identity our path can resemble that of a drunk baby more than a mountaintop monk. In one of the chapters Linda Durham says time is not linear when describing how one moment of her life folded in on itself and as I watched her shed the layers and labels of her old self and move forward I couldn’t help but be impressed with her moxie.
Memoirs and biographies are often taste driven but this one seems to go a little beyond one person’s story and may just open a window to let you examine where you have been and where you want to go.
April 14, 2021
Still Moving, an engrossing memoir, could alternatively have been titled The Unsinkable Linda Durham. The author relates the ups and downs of her eclectic life as a longtime art dealer, and we go from the serendipity of her establishing her eponynous contemporary art gallery in Santa Fe, previously the land of cowboy and Indian art, to it’s wistful demise, c. thirty years later. Her story is that of a dreamer and irrepressible optimist, left with debt, an identity that no longer fits, and the need to reinvent not only her life, but herself. Immensely readable, with its anecdotal chapters, Ms. Durham’s self-effacing honesty is refreshing. A narcissist by her own admission, she is also a magician of sorts, who has conjured up her own life, rising out of her fear of being “ordinary." The story highlights meaningful interactions and adventures with family, friends, and acquaintances, of course, but it’s the author’s indomitable spirit, always propelled by imagination, curiosity, wonder, and humor that soars on the page. She is constantly confronting her own wavering yin-yang, that of aspiring to both “doing” and “being." Her ability to reinvent herself after various downturns, as well as her meaningful interactions with myriad strangers during her extensive, fascinating (and sometimes dangerous) world travels, brings to mind Eat, Pray, Love, minus the food. A fun & poignant read.
January 21, 2021
Memoirs certainly are a category of their own. There are plenty out there, and I always think it is very brave to publish one's life story with all it's bumps and imperfections for the world to read.
The start of this autobiography was very relatable and offered some truly scrumptious writing. The ordinary writing is interlaced with journal entry excerpts from the author's actual journal, which is a great touch. I was instantly fascinated and eager to see where the story would go.
Unfortunately, fiction has spoiled me. As soon as I lost the ability to relate to the author's experiences and actions, contrasting them to how I would personally have reasoned in a plethora of situations had I been in her shoes, the book became less appealing to me. There was a lot of name dropping, and while the author experienced many life-changing events it did not appear as though there was a coherent life lesson that was learned or communicated. The stories, while loosely connected by theme, did not follow any particular chronological order, which sometimes caused confusion.
It is easy to judge someone's life by their book, but it must be remembered that there always are nuances that are lost when summarizing an entire lifetime into a few hundred pages. I can imagine that those who are acquainted with the author or her endeavors would enjoy reading her experiences, but I would personally not read this book again.
This book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The start of this autobiography was very relatable and offered some truly scrumptious writing. The ordinary writing is interlaced with journal entry excerpts from the author's actual journal, which is a great touch. I was instantly fascinated and eager to see where the story would go.
Unfortunately, fiction has spoiled me. As soon as I lost the ability to relate to the author's experiences and actions, contrasting them to how I would personally have reasoned in a plethora of situations had I been in her shoes, the book became less appealing to me. There was a lot of name dropping, and while the author experienced many life-changing events it did not appear as though there was a coherent life lesson that was learned or communicated. The stories, while loosely connected by theme, did not follow any particular chronological order, which sometimes caused confusion.
It is easy to judge someone's life by their book, but it must be remembered that there always are nuances that are lost when summarizing an entire lifetime into a few hundred pages. I can imagine that those who are acquainted with the author or her endeavors would enjoy reading her experiences, but I would personally not read this book again.
This book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
January 21, 2021
Still Moving by Linda Durham
252 Pages
Publisher: Mobius Pathways Press
Release Date: December 28, 2020
Nonfiction, Memoir, Arts, American Southwest, World Travels
What do Mobius strips, tequila shot glasses a Playboy bunny, Moby Dick, and the Dali Lama have to do with each other? They are all just parts of the author’s life. This is an endearing telling of a woman’s life. The book is written in chapters with each having a different theme coinciding with a specific time in her life. She begins from the eyes of a four-year-old waiting for her father to come home from work. She jumps to young adulthood and marriage. She details her life as an art dealer in Santa Fe, New Mexico and her life changing trip to Scotland to find her Scottish heritage.
Later in life, after a series of unfortunate adventures, she found herself in an unusual place – alone. She decided to fulfill a life-long desire to travel the world. For her 70th birthday, she did just that. Linda is a very interesting lady. She has seen and done things a lot of people only dream of doing. If you like memoirs, art, or traveling, you will enjoy reading this book.
252 Pages
Publisher: Mobius Pathways Press
Release Date: December 28, 2020
Nonfiction, Memoir, Arts, American Southwest, World Travels
What do Mobius strips, tequila shot glasses a Playboy bunny, Moby Dick, and the Dali Lama have to do with each other? They are all just parts of the author’s life. This is an endearing telling of a woman’s life. The book is written in chapters with each having a different theme coinciding with a specific time in her life. She begins from the eyes of a four-year-old waiting for her father to come home from work. She jumps to young adulthood and marriage. She details her life as an art dealer in Santa Fe, New Mexico and her life changing trip to Scotland to find her Scottish heritage.
Later in life, after a series of unfortunate adventures, she found herself in an unusual place – alone. She decided to fulfill a life-long desire to travel the world. For her 70th birthday, she did just that. Linda is a very interesting lady. She has seen and done things a lot of people only dream of doing. If you like memoirs, art, or traveling, you will enjoy reading this book.
January 28, 2021
“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list”
Linda Durham’s memoir Still Moving was an interesting read, and I must say I really enjoyed reading a memoir by someone who isn’t a celebrity! In Still Moving, Durham takes us on a non-linear journey of her life from age 4 to present and through her journeys around the world.
The composition of this book was something that I have never seen in a memoir! It is written almost as a bunch of short stories, and is not chronological. It is made up of narration, flashbacks, quotes, and I really loved the journal entries included throughout.
Durham’s life is exciting to say the least, and although I don’t really see my own life reflected in it I did enjoy reading about Linda’s adventures and life journey! I think you would like this book if you like travel and memoirs!! Thank you @bookdetour for including me on the list of reviewers and thank you @lindalavega for the signed book! #bookdetour #stillmoving #stillmovingbook #lindadurham #memoir #nonfiction
Linda Durham’s memoir Still Moving was an interesting read, and I must say I really enjoyed reading a memoir by someone who isn’t a celebrity! In Still Moving, Durham takes us on a non-linear journey of her life from age 4 to present and through her journeys around the world.
The composition of this book was something that I have never seen in a memoir! It is written almost as a bunch of short stories, and is not chronological. It is made up of narration, flashbacks, quotes, and I really loved the journal entries included throughout.
Durham’s life is exciting to say the least, and although I don’t really see my own life reflected in it I did enjoy reading about Linda’s adventures and life journey! I think you would like this book if you like travel and memoirs!! Thank you @bookdetour for including me on the list of reviewers and thank you @lindalavega for the signed book! #bookdetour #stillmoving #stillmovingbook #lindadurham #memoir #nonfiction
March 27, 2021
Linda Durham takes off from the 2011 demise of her storied Santa Fe contemporary art gallery, and moves, forward and backward, through scenes and reminiscences from a remarkable (and ongoing) life. The heart and soul of this consistently readable and engrossing survey is the connections Durham makes as her restless soul takes her on jaunts to faraway places with strange-sounding names. You'll ride with her in dilapidated third-world buses teeming with humanity, with the emphasis on the humanity, and in second-class railway cars, you'll freeze with her on Mt. Kilimanjaro and roast in the deserts of the Southwest, and you'll feel the heartbreaking urgency of her international missions for sisterhood and peace. There are glimpses of family, birth, and death, friends and lovers, youthful dreams and bitter disappointments. And always there is an indomitable spirit determined to make more of the pudding than the ingredients would seem to allow.
January 26, 2021
Linda's life didn't always go the way she had intended and after finding herself alone she decided for her 70th birthday that she would travel the world! Doing one of the things that many only dream of! I really enjoyed the fact that the chapters are broken down into different time segments in her life starting from the age of four until her recent endeavors! I liked it! If you are interested in traveling, memoirs and life lessons that you can reflect on then this would be the book for you!
June 13, 2021
Recommend by a friend. I can't get through it. Awful
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews