I have read several novels by Sue Monk Kidd and enjoyed them all. While browsing at a Harris County Library, I found a travel book co-written by Kidd and her daughter, which was published in 2009, and since it was in Large Print to boot, I checked it out.

The cover describes it as ” a mother-daughter story” and has a picture of Demeter (Earth goddess, the mother) holding pomegranates, which Persophone, godess of Spring (Demeter’s  daughter) ate, condemning her to life in the Underworld for six months each year (thus the reason for winter). In the first of their travels together, the two women bought tiny glass pomegranates at an out-of-the-way jewelers shop, and thus the symbolism is set for this series of travel adventures.

Describing their travels in France, Greece, Turkey, and back home in South Carolina, USA, these women alternate chapters, often remembering travels they’d taken previously individually, as they wrote about what they were seeing together. The traveling described took place during the years 1998-2008 which chronicles the growth of their mother-daughter relationship. There are musings and thoughts triggered by sights and reactions to artifacts and art of the various cultures they encountered. Their personal growth, as well as the growth of their relationship is closely connected their musings on feminism, the Divine She, feelings about art, motherhood, and life’s eventful moments.

The book is simply lovely and causes the reader to think about and muse upon one’s own travels and one’s own life. It is a very pleasant read.