Following My Bliss: A Memoir

In this coming of age memoir, Sallie Hanna-Rhyne traces her early life from the working class neighborhood of Park Slope in Brooklyn in the '40s to hippie and activist in San Francisco and Berkeley in the '60s and '70s. Following my Bliss chronicles her unwavering strength and resilience during an abusive 5-year marriage; an improbable but brief foray into smuggling drugs in the name of love; immersion in the sex-drugs-rock 'n roll counter culture of Haight-Ashbury and Berkeley; a straighter life teaching young children in an alternative school; and then dealing marijuana for 11 years to support herself when she returned to her childhood love of the piano, changing from classical to rock and jazz. Her memorable friends and descriptions of legendary figures from the '60s, like Alan Ginsburg, Neal Cassady and Fritz Perls, the political protests in Berkeley and dancing to iconic bands of the era are evocative. This is an intimate portrait of a life well lived and a nostalgic visit back to a special time and place. What's clear is that Hanna-Rhyne did very little that did not bring her bliss. - Diane Reed, co-author, Double Helix: a Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, and Jazz in Two Voicescontains thoughts, personalities, stories lessons collected over that experience.