Dear Kendra, I just finished reading "Nice Try, Katrina," catapulted into a world where loss and redemption, prayer and poetry, family and heartbeat are swirled and tempered by hurricane winds and capricious floods. I don't know what to say other than that your words turned my mind inside out, so that I found myself perceiving with that stark, whittled-down essence of heart and soul that's leftover when all the rationalizing and other intellectual BS have been swept away by far more powerful forces. You're an extraordinary writer, and I feel very lucky that something as random as a recipe project would lead me to your book. Then again, maybe it's not so random. The story is as nourishing to the spirit as an honest recipe is to the body. Your characters are so distinct and real as individuals, yet each one seems to perfectly reflect and reveal another (previously hidden) aspect of Karasi. There's an underlying humanity pulsing through the story that creates a feeling of commonality and connection. I wonder if the characters are able to convey so much in so few words because the hurricane is acting as a catalyst. Sometimes tragedy and struggle enable people to say things they never otherwise would, in ways they never otherwise could. I've never been through the challenges you so artfully describe, but my family life has been a long, quiet storm swirling with cancer, sexual abuse, suicide and madness. Sometimes I was able/willing to write about it, but more often I've taken the easy way out and pushed it all into some remote corner of my inner landscape. I admire you so much for dancing with your life instead of hiding from it. On the back of your book, you speak of your major motivations as a desire to set forth testimony, promote awareness and offer a roadmap for spiritual renewal. I feel as though I've been given all three -- and I wanted to thank you for them. Sincerely, Laura