When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

By: Terry Tempest Williams

Narrated by: Terry Tempest Williams

Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The beloved author of Refuge returns with a work that explodes and startles, illuminates and celebrates.

Terry Tempest Williams's mother told her: "I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone."

Fans of Williams's iconic and unconventional memoir, Refuge, well remember that mother. She was a member of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah who developed cancer as a result of the nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them.

They were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books.... "I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It too was empty.... Shelf after shelf after shelf, all of my mother's journals were blank."

What did Williams's mother mean by that? In 54 chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, each with its own logic and beauty, Williams creates a lyrical and caring meditation of the mystery of her mother's journals. When Women Were Birds is a kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question "What does it mean to have a voice?"

©2012 Terry Tempest Williams (P)2012 Wind Over The Earth

compelling and creative

Would you consider the audio edition of When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice to be better than the print version?

I am a big Terry Tempest Williams fan, this audio was excellant. In fact, I just bought the book so I can savour the words and read it slowly with more contemplation. Her ability to describe her life, her mother's journals are exquisite. I highly recommend this audio and thoroughly enjoy Terry as the narrator.

What did you like best about this story?

The realism. The flow of the book. The use of the written word to "make me see and feel".

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book made me think about my relationship with my mother and my relationship with my daughter. In many instances I could stand in her shoes as if they were my own.

Not About Birds!

What did you love best about When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice?

In the context of story telling when the writer discovered 'the secret' she did not dwell so much on what could appear as an obvious disappointment but immediately began a search to understand the meaning of the gift and the meaning of a life as looked at through both her eyes and her mothers' eyes.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the many pearls of wisdom dropped by the author along the story line. There are not many people who can write a short book and SLAM the reader with insightful revelations into the human condition and still make the reader want to continue the book to the end. This author did that very thing magnificently!

What does Terry Tempest Williams bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I always enjoy hearing an author read their own work. Her voice, the speed, emphasis, pauses these interpretations of her own work helped me 'hear' the voice in the story. I found, many times while going through this book, sheer wonderment that the voice I was hearing was the voice of the writer. She wrote this story very nicely and her voice brought out the 'shine' that lay within those words. She was great.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A film would detract from this story.

Heart wrenching and perfect

Stumbled upon this by accident and I'm so glad I did. Perfect for any woman, especially those who are fighting for the wilderness.

Voice

I enjoy listening to writers read their own work, this is especially so with the work of Terry Tempest Williams. Thank you Terry for giving voice to the voiceless and Thank you for inspiring eco warriors to voice to their concerns.

Life Changing

Soul Inspection... Life Changing... One of my top 10 books. Thanks Mrs. Williams. Peace!

Deeply personal account

A complex compelling account of Tempest relationship w her mother Particularly beautiful description of opera and myths

Beautiful story

This is a beautiful, beautiful story and her reading. It was amazing. Thank you so much!

Amazing Story, Amazing Voice

This book is amazing, and even better when read in the author's own voice. From the opening chapter, which introduces the haunting image of the dozens of blank journals the author's mother left to her after her death, to the final chapter as Williams finally comes to terms with this act, the book is a tour de force which leaves the listener breathless. Williams delves into her life with a kind of courage few people possess. From her family's proud Mormon pioneer history, to her own bird watching childhood, from the early days of her marriage to her later years as an environmental activist, Williams reveals powerful scenes from her life, seamlessly laced with her own musings, which all add up to a portrait of a remarkable woman.
Though the book is intensely personal, it is not a memoir; the title, Fifty-four Variations on Voice, is very appropriate. What binds its fifty-four chapters together is the issue of voice: What does it mean to have a voice? What does it mean to lack a voice? How does someone find their voice? How do women find their voice? How does one speak for the people or places or things which cannot speak for themselves? Every anecdote, every fact, every philosophical reflection eventually relates back to these problems. With her mother's blank journals as a focal point, Williams dives into this issue of voice with an openness and passion.
Given this emphasis on voice, it is highly appropriate that this book become an audiobook. The considerations of voice become all the more meaningful when one hears them read in the author's own voice.
What's more, Williams's voice as she reads is positively mesmerizing. Commanding yet soft-spoken, at times she sounds like Scheherazade, spinning a forbidden tale; other times she is the voice of a wise elder sharing deep secrets; at some moments she even takes on the role of an activist raising a call to arms. Yet throughout the book she maintains a tranquility, a thoughtfulness, that invites the reader to join her in the private meditations of her soul. Her calm, measured voice makes it seem as though she is weighing each word again before she speaks it aloud, and this gives each word a weight and a magical quality that makes the whole book come alive. In this way, her rendition becomes a towering example of what can happen when a person sets out to find a voice, and the audiobook becomes evidence of the success of her own quest.
As Williams says in Chapter 9 about her experiences in speech therapy as a child, "My task was to honor the power of each word by delivering it as beautifully as I could." Listeners to this audiobook will find she has more than succeeded.

Every Women should Read this!!!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

A lovely book. read by the author. Williams weaves her love of nature, her family history and the power of women together into a story that anyone who love, especially if you live in the West, have been touched by cancer or want an inspiring listen to make your day.

Chick flick read

This was not what I thought it would be.... But it turned into a more interesting read than I expected. It's always curious to hear how other parts of the world live and function in comparison to your own upbringing.

Her values and the different issues that surround women do have interesting points and she brings a unique observation and perspective to what women face vs. men. I would recommend this book for other women and for men, if they are open to issues that ONLY women face.