Customer Reviews

Divine Daughters: Liberating the Power and Passion of Women's Voices

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I understand Rachel's larger message about the divinity of daughters, all daughters, and the plight of all daughters. To tell her story, she both had to and chose to use her self--and all the life experiences of her self--as empirical evidence.

Her empirical evidence is compelling, profound, and sort of "fetching"; it's wrapped in intimacy, truth, and simplicity. There is something so genuine about it, and even now. . .so amazingly innocent. These things make it impossible not to be drawn deeply to her, to her story. Perhaps my greater truth is that her writing makes me reflect first on my own life in a deeply penetrating way, but soon after, I find I am filled with empathic connections to her life.

The lucky ones will be able to move beyond this place (her memoirs), and embrace the essence of her empirical data to be brought to a new place of understanding about the divinity of women. This is a place larger than her academic accomplishments, childhood family dynamics, sexual assault, life on the streets, or her husband's infidelity.

Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, not every woman (or man) is going to get that, and it is truly bittersweet because to present her empirical evidence any differently would be to take away from the significance of the data that supports her thesis.

It may be called Divine Daughters, but divine sons will also find themselves relating to the meat of what Rachel Bagby has to sing and this book does read like a song. Each chapter is preluded with a musical notation of the author's original music; each chapter peppered with lyrics and poems, pertinent and practical. It doesn't stop there, the poetry leaps into the prose and you only wonder - where's the live music? After reading Divine Daughters, I feel compelled to take advantage of Mother's and Father's Day, heck even phone calls home as opportunities to collect the family stories, the bone and marrow of my upbringing. As a baby boomer with aging parents, I am motivated by this book to get my act in gear, to fast forward the healing of the human species. And that starts right here with myself. And my family. This book is a compassionate guide to that wholing process.

In a woman's life different things speak to her, her mother, her own daughter, a book or an experience. But sometimes nature speaks. I liked the way Rachel describes how her mountain called her home, called her out of her pain and into the bossom of the mountain and its wisdom. Women journey painful journeys and often focus on the pain and not the process. Rachel does both. Rachel sings her journey, journals and whispers and laughs and cries her journey. She recognizes the path to soul in the eyes of other women, in the eyes of a young girl dancing to the call of her own mountain mother. Rachel shows us we can leave and come home again, but only as different women. It is not the typical biography. She writes in song and poetry. She writes and sings herself and her personality in telling her story. You can't stay in your head to understand this book. The reader has to be willing to let go and listen to the voices of their own past and possibly their own pains. Good enough for a second and third read and for a reference. Quotable. I'm a writer and I really liked this book!

This is a truly moving and inspiring book! The writer treats the reader to a number of different genre--poetry, short story, memoir, even music. I especially loved the music of her writing, the lyricism. The content of her personal story, the pain and the triumph, is so powerful that it creates a foundation upon which the reader can be inspired. But I believe that this book's greatest contribution is the way it elaborates upon daughterhood. While all women are daughters, I never thought about what that role meant in our society. A wonderfully thought- and heart-provoking book!

A Masterpiece! Rachel, just thank you. For your sweet words, your raw nature, your goddess essence as it eminates across these pages - these fallen trees, that serve the purpose of bringing such a timely message to bare. What you have captured is at the heart of woman, the core of daughterness. May all women know to turn to these pages. May we all come to understand the kind of freedom, of liberation offered in these dancing pages of your tale. For all women you have answered the call. May we listen to what you are truly saying. May we free our tongues, give rise to our sounds. You give possibility a chance to live. . .thank you for holding the vision. Thank you for dreaming us into tomorrow.
I reccommend this to all daughters who are searching for true life, for their authentic selves. Rachel risks showing all aspects, her very multi-demensional nature so that we might become more accepting of ourselves. Her eloquent soundings invite us all to step into our skins and celebrate what we discover. Her book is an invitation, a beckoning. . .I pray more women find Rachel's voice, and use her words as a jumping off point! May we all be so free to find our rhythm, our true nature wanting to live us.

Divine Daughters kept me company on a recent cross-country plane trip. Tired as I was from travleing, book-touring, lecturing, etc., it was impossible for me to put this book down. It is more than an autobiography. It is a story for all daughters (As the author points out, all women are duahgters whatever else we are). Rachel writes to the bone and beyond, to the heart of the heart and the core of the creative self. Her love affair with sound, music, rhythm and life is infectious. In this book she rocks, rolls, muses, soothes and sets the soul on fire. Don't miss out on this one.

Rachel Bagby is a gift to the tribe of women of the world. She demonstrates how the earth heals when women sing. Anything by Rachel Bagby is a great offering to oneself. It is also an excellent choice for a loved one.