Tears of Pain, Greif and Joy
I enjoyed the book. When it ended, I missed her dialog, her gym and her training partners. Ms Stowell can write. She beautifully wove together the two worlds, one of loss and grieving and the other of a white belt in an alien land. Her BJJ angle is solid. She’s no BJJ interloper. I read, worried I would finish the book without knowing any of the mentioned black belts. (Seven Degrees?) Happily, she gives a nod to OC’s Giva “The Arm Collector” Santana. Her story has commonalities with many of the people whom I’ve been lucky enough to know and train with. I want to hand this book out to everybody.
[social][/social]Here’s the book description from Amazon:
“For what seemed like a lifetime and probably was, Elena Stowell wandered aimlessly in a personal prison of self-doubt and lack of purpose after her fifteen-year-old daughter Carly died suddenly before her eyes. By some combination of miracle and necessity, she walked into a Seattle area Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu gym and rolled for the first time in her life. Through that experience and others that followed, Elena discovered the tenets of the martial art form and healing were the same. With a ripping raw honesty and refreshing balance of humor and introspection, Elena’s story reminds us to never stop panning for the gold within ourselves.”
Paperback: 136 pages
Publisher: BQB Publishing; 1st edition (July 10, 2012)
Link to the book on Amazon.
Check out this great article on Elena and take a sneak peek into her book here!
Visit Elena’s website at www.elena-stowell.com and order her book, Flowing with the Go, here.
