My Selection for Waiting on Wednesday: The Source of All Things by Tracy Ross

Waiting on Wednesday is the opportunity to learn what are the hotly anticipated books folks are anxious to get their hands on. It was started by Jill at Breaking the Spine and it was a marvelous idea! This week I'm looking at something totally different. It's not a feisty, hot, contemporary or paranormal YA story. It's serious reading; a memoir, one that deals with sexual abuse. The publisher sent me an ARC. Let's look at the blurb on the back of the book:

The Source of All Things is a stunning, emotionally wrought story about a woman, her abusive stepfather, and a mistake that has taken thirty years and thousands of miles of raw wilderness to reconcile. In this astonishing memoir, Tracy Ross does what few abuse victims have the courage to do: She confronts her own abuser in a compassionate bid for reconciliation. Unfolding among the achingly gorgeous landscapes of Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, and Alaska, this is a story of one woman's quest to escape her shatterd family, and in the process become her own protector.


Tracy grew up in a confusing blend of normal childhood moments and the sickening, secret invasion of her safety. She despised her stepfather for what he did to her. But he was also a protective father figure who made her feel smart and brave. He rescued her mother from deep depression, and shared with Tracy his love of adventure--the very passion for nature that eventually saved her life. For Teacy, the outdoors became the setting for her deepest sorrows and greatest joys. The Source of All Things describes her salvation in the wilderness, and shows how nature, at its most ungoverned, gave her the strength to confront her stepfather and demand the answers that could help her heal.

I've worked with kids who have been the victims of sexual abuse. Some were pregnant by their stepfathers, others by their biological fathers...Happy Fathers Day, Dad...I mean...Granddad..I mean both...yuck!

The author sought a "compassionate bid for reconciliation." Sexual abuse is such a reprehensible breach of a child's trust and innocence, I'm very interested in learning how Tracy Ross came to this point in her journey. It takes a lot of soul-searching to get there.

Are any of you brave enough to join me in discovering how she did it?

The Source of All Things released March 8, 2011

Toodles!