Download or read book Awestruck - a Skeptic's Pilgrimage written by Joan Myers Weimer and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This "haunted, hauntingly beautiful"* memoir is a "dazzling exploration of love between generations and between partners."** When the Black Madonna erupts like a volcano in the life of Joan Weimer, an agnostic Jew, this black-faced image of the Virgin Mary triggers painful memories of Joan's dead mother and threatens to estrange Joan from her husband, a committed atheist. As she tracks down the Black Madonna at her shrines in Switzerland, Italy, England and Spain; as she walks ancient labyrinths in churches and commons, Joan's outer journey makes possible a profound inner journey. With the help of a woman rabbi, she discovers that her mother's fitful love and the spiritual force that seem to come and go are both like flowing water: they abide even while they are moving on. *James Hollis, author of Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life **Mary Felstiner, author of Out of Joint: A Private & Public Story of Arthritis Joan Weimer's memoir Back Talk: Teaching Lost Selves to Speak was published by Random House and won a star from Kirkus Reviews as a "powerful, inspiring memoir written with humor, insight, and a gripping gift for detail." She won the McGinness Award for nonfiction and was chosen as the Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina. Weimer is a professor emerita of English at Drew University where she taught American literature, Women's Studies and creative writing.