Liberation
Sarah Mankowski
(Reviewer - Carolyn Howard-Johnson)
2004 WordThunder Publications
ISBN: 0974526800

One Writer's Adventures and Misadventures on the Digital Playground.

The true story of a legally blind writer's journey from a Florida housing project to attaining fulfillment as a web designer & publisher “To understand a technology, perhaps one should not only hear from the inventors, but also from the individuals whose lives are forever altered.”

Associate Reviewer Carolyn Howard-Johnson writes:

Liberation by Sarah Mankowski is not what it at first seems. The subtitle professes to be a kind of trek through techland but it is far more. It is a series of essays where one might find a metaphor in the author's description of her bringing a faded photo back to life with a new program.

It is a memoir of sorts because it is written in first person & tells Mankowski's struggle to overcome her handicap or rather her struggle to overcome our culture's attitudes about anyone who has qualities vaguely different from our own.

It is sort of a history of computers & the author's friendship with them & something of a writers' guide. It isn't quite biography but it is a bit of a how-to.

Liberation is full of wisdom, almost a book of quotes if a reader cares to search for them. Here are examples:
“...expression is the natural yearning of every unique mind”(P. x)
“...to understand a technology…one should not hear (only) from the inventors, but also from the individuals whose lives have been forever altered (by it).” (P. xi)
“Communication--describes the potential of today's world.”( P. x)
“The tenth rejection slip is really easier to accept than the first.”(P. 8)
“The Internet is not our highway, it is our vehicle for self-expression.” (P. 14)

In the Introduction, the author admits that this book is difficult to file away into well-delineated folders. Some in the publishing industry might downgrade it because of its serendipity, I found it rather an experiment that did not run afoul of readability. It works well by virtue of the strength of Sarah Mankowski's story.

Getting to know Mankowski, allows us to share in her “liberation”. This word has a ring of its own, of course, but the way it is used here is many-layered. It is like a parfait, one tasty strata after another. Readers will have fun & be enlightened as they discover how each flavor relates to the other.

More from Sarah Mankowski:
Echo's Voice
Calliope's Mousepad: Women Writers Online
Paws and Whiskers
(06/13/04)

Carolyn
2004©Carolyn Howard-Johnson
A RebeccasReads.Com Associate Reviewer

Associate Reviewer Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the award-winning author of This Is The Place, & her book of creative nonfiction, The Harkening: A Collection Of Stories Remembered, has won three awards.

She has signed a contract with Star Publish for the upcoming release of her new how-to book The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't. www.starpublish.com.

She writes about Utah's culture, tolerance & other subjects. Her fiction, nonfiction & poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies & review journals. She has appeared on TV & radio stations nationwide.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program. She loves to travel & has studied writing at Cambridge University, United Kingdom; Herzen University, St. Petersburg, Russia, & Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, as well as UCLA & the University of Southern California.

Her editorial contributions include:
No One Book Pleases Everyone
Publisher Raises the Ire of its Authors
A Rant About Arrogance.

Her website is:www.carolynhowardjohnson.com