Detail
Title: Drum Beats, Heart Beats (Dancing Soul Trilogy) ISBN:Published August 24th 2018 by Dancing Twiga Press · Kindle Edition 500 pages
Genre: Novels, Fiction
Must be read
- For the Love of Armin
- You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance and Living Your Purpose
- Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Lykke / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living
- The Mists of Avalon (Avalon #1)
- The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles #2)
- Dangerous Alliance: An Austentacious Romance
- Regretting You
- Actress
- The Battlebone (Wizard's Helper #4)
- The Chicken Sisters
User Reviews
Dog Houses
If you enjoy biographies, I can't recommend Maria Nhambu's Dancing Soul trilogy highly enough. Maria is a truly remarkable woman and her journey to know herself is a riveting, fascinating, and enthralling one. Drum Beats and Heart Beats focuses primarily on her most recent life, which includes a battle with serious illness, a divorce, and return to Tanzania in the search of a father she never knew (she spend the first decade of her life in an African orphanage before being adopted by a wonderful American family).
As expected, the final book in the trilogy was moving, insightful, and of course inspirational. Not surprising as Maria is a women with so much heart and determination. There is a real authenticity to her writing - it is honest, unflinching, and always caries a hopeful message.
Jacqueline Mosio
Yes, I'm Maria Nhambu's editor. It has been a privilege to work with her on this deeply moving project. Every day I give thanks that she asked me to edit the Dancing Soul Trilogy. What an adventure -- literary, cultural, social, historical, personal and spiritual!
I was her comma chaser and sentence fixer, but she created and wrote this powerful memoir series. It took her 25 years plus to bring hr memoir to completion, and it's a gift to readers. Her steady determination, her courage and intelligence shine on every page.
I fell in love with her "Fat Mary" -- her counselor, consoler, and source of strength as she faced many challenges.
Nhambu (as she prefers to be called) also opened up East Africa to me, and now its people, art and animals have claimed a place in my heart.
An amazing, challenging and wonderful journey awaits you as a reader! I recommend starting with the first book Africa's Child.Africa's Child
Don't miss the second about her arrival to the US and her (mis)adventures learning American culture. She writes compellingly about how she, as biracial African, is perceived by Americans who only see her as Black. America's Daughter
Several readers have commented that the last book has become their favorite, perhaps because the issues she faces are those many of us face as well.
Drum Beats, Heart Beats
Grady
Summing up an amazing journey in life
Author Maria Nhambu initiated her three-part autobiography trilogy with AFRICA’S CHILD – an extraordinarily superb book that opened the celebration of her passion for Africa, her birthplace, African culture, and her passion for dance. She continued her experiences with AMERICA’S DAUGHTER, and now she concludes her trilogy with DRUM BEATS, HEART BEATS. Maria has created Aerobics With Soul, a fitness program that marries dance with enhancing movement and health.
Said before, say again: Memoirs such as this are rare: the sharing of a problematic childhood that eventually blossoms into a celebration of those very beginnings that seemed dire into eventually becoming a path to self acceptance and understanding that would influence and benefit generations. Maria was born in Tanzania, East Africa, raised in an orphanage as a child who did not know her parents, tended by both German and American nuns, and experiencing not only physical and mental abuse, but also racial discrimination. But as she matured into a teenager she grew with her faith and resilience, becoming self reliant and independent, embraced education and her passion for African tribal dance to the point when she won scholarships to follow her destiny to America and university education.
In this third volume of her autobiography Maria shares ‘This is the personal story of my life as someone who grew up without a family but who deeply longed for one…When the family I valued most was weakened as a result of betrayals I forgave, it became devastating to realize that living happily ever after with my husband might not be possible. I had to face the possibility of divorce…’ And with that entre, this concluding volume of her trilogy proceeds: ‘We join an ever insightful and passionate Nhambu as she traverses diverse cultures and continents and negotiates a complex and shifting web of mixed identities—African immigrant and African American—through marriage, parenthood, and the search for the father she has never known. Through trauma and triumph, love and betrayal, the “Drum Beats” and “Heart Beats” of her native Africa lead her on an ultimate journey of transcendence.’
Maria’s prose is polished, enhancing even the negative aspects with a sure sense of humor. In her Prologue she recaps the initial books of the series, and then shares – ‘The only certainty in life is change. Come with me as I continue sharing what fills me with joy, challenges my spirit, breaks my heart, and heals it.’ ’
Sensitive, insightful, and wonderfully endearing, this is a book with so many important messages that it deserves the attention of all readers – a fine instrument to understanding racial equality and perseverance. Recommended.
Stephen R.
This is the concluding book of a trilogy in which Maria Nhambu takes us with her on the compelling, dramatic, and thought-provoking story of her life. Nhambu has an exceptional story to tell, which is not short on twists, turns, and revelations, that keep the reader glued to the pages. As an African born woman living in America, Nhambu shares some insightful messages that will resonate with people around the world who find themselves in challenging circumstances.
Nhambu’s story is so deeply personal and touching that reading this final book in the series feels like a privilege she has bestowed upon the reader. It is hard not to follow this story without finding yourself in awe, admiration, and sometimes disbelief of this fascinating and incredibly strong woman who has overcome so many obstacles with grace. Nhambu is not only an incredibly inspirational human being, but she is also a brilliant writer.
DaisyMae
This book completes the remarkable trilogy of the story of Maria Nhambu's life. If you haven't read the first and second instalments yet they are a must.The incredible story of this woman's life is a moving and inspirational journey of courage and enlightenment. This particular book tells of the struggles of marriage, serious illness and the determined search for answers regarding her father and biological family. A stoic woman that's never defeated.
reada
A beautiful story that made me feel like an African woman. I hope to read more of these beautiful realistic stories to publish on my blog.. Please visit it
أطيب الكتب
DORIS
WHAT A VERY BEAUTIFUL BOOK. YES WELL DONE WELL DONE