{"id":5251,"date":"2009-12-16T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=5251"},"modified":"2009-12-08T10:07:11","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T16:07:11","slug":"barbara-robinette-moss-1954-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/barbara-robinette-moss-1954-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbara Robinette Moss (1954-2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|621082\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5297\" title=\"changemeinto\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/changemeinto.jpg?resize=133%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"changemeinto\" width=\"133\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a>A colleague shared with me that one of her favorite authors, Barbara Robinette Moss, had died recently (Oct. 9, 2009).\u00a0 Considering that Moss had lived in Iowa (Des Moines and Iowa City) for a good portion of her life, I was surprised that I hadn&#8217;t heard of her passing.\u00a0 Moss was both an artist and an author.<\/p>\n<p>Her memoir, <a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|621082\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>Change me Into Zeus&#8217;s Daughter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, is one of our Book-Club-in-a-Box selections.\u00a0 It&#8217;s compelling reading.\u00a0 The opening\u00a0scene has her mother preparing a meal of seeds they had intended to plant &#8212; seeds saturated in pesticide.\u00a0 The family is starving and there is nothing else\u00a0to eat.\u00a0 Her father is an alcoholic, often out of work and often abusive.\u00a0 Barbara is particularly unfortunate in that malnutrition has caused the bones in her face to elongate, giving her a &#8220;twisted, mummy face.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 Her wish to change her appearance &#8212;\u00a0which she eventually is able to do &#8212;\u00a0 is the basis for the book&#8217;s title.<\/p>\n<p>Though at times it&#8217;s difficult to witness the hardship the family endures, this is truly an uplifting book.\u00a0In her\u00a0follow-up memoir, <strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/search.prairiecat.info\/?itemid=|library\/marc\/PALS-unicorn|934369\" target=\"_blank\">Fierce<\/a>,<\/em><\/strong> Moss covers later\u00a0episodes in her life, including finally leaving Alabama and her abusive second husband\u00a0for art school at age 27, with her 8 year old son in tow.\u00a0 To know that she\u00a0overcomes her harsh beginnings and\u00a0becomes a productive and successful adult is\u00a0amazing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It&#8217;s unfortunate that we cannot look forward to more work from this creative talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A colleague shared with me that one of her favorite authors, Barbara Robinette Moss, had died recently (Oct. 9, 2009).\u00a0 Considering that Moss had lived in Iowa (Des Moines and Iowa City) for a good portion of her life, I was surprised that I hadn&#8217;t heard of her passing.\u00a0 Moss<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/barbara-robinette-moss-1954-2009\/\">[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[943,441,748,103],"class_list":["post-5251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-abusive-relationships","tag-biographies","tag-hardship","tag-memoirs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-1mH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5251"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5295,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions\/5295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}