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First Book Friday
Posted at 5:30 AM on October 23, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(21 Comments)
Congratulations to the winners of tickets to a show by Loudon Wainwright III and Chris Smither on October 31st. Cliff, Judith and John, all of Minneapolis, will be there courtesy of The Cedar Cultural Center and Radio Heartland. Thanks, everyone, for entering.
We had an amazing first day of the drive yesterday. If you were one of the 3,000 listeners who helped earn the Member Challenge Fund money, thanks!
If you were already in the fold before the day started, a salute to you as well.
If you're not a member yet, what are you waiting for?
It's First Book Friday, building on our successful collaboration with First Book last spring. Becoming a member of Minnesota Public Radio at the $10 per month level means First Book will be able to provide a Minnesota child in need with a new book - thanks to you!
Last spring we had a great discussion about books we loved as children. One of my favorite comments from that day came from John, who said:
I still have my first and most precious book and, in fact, am looking at it as I write this. It's called "Willy Woo-OO-oo" written by Betty Ren Wright and illustrated by Florence Sarah Winship, and published in 1951 by Whiteman Publishing of Racine, WI. They published a series of Tell-a-Tale books with names like "The Fuzzy Duckling," "Little Pony" and "Franky the Fuzzy Goat." :-)"Willy Woo-OO-oo" is a big red fire truck (What are you?) with a siren on his nose and "a bright red light that winks and glows." He is driven by Fireman Jim and has a best friend: Pumping Engine Pete. And, oh yes, Daisy rides in the front seat. I've read this book to my son and, now, to both of my young grandchildren.
Thanks RH friends for letting me tell this memory of my childhood!Posted by John | May 13, 2009 6:19 AM
Today in honor of First Book Friday, I'm asking you to recommend a book you've read LATELY.
Here's mine: "How I Became a Famous Novelist" by Steve Hely.
Hely's comic novel is a one-stop shopping for a catalog of everything that's silly about the publishing industry today. His protagonist, Pete Tarslaw, resolves to become a best-selling author. He does it by studying the success of others, which leads to the joke that hooked me - Tarslaw writes a road trip buddies book called "The Tornado Ashes Club," with a hero who accompanies his grandmother on a mission to throw her dead lover's ashes into a tornado.
Irresistible.
Comments (21)
I'll nominate Plainsong. The title, according to author Kent Haruf's epigraph, alludes to "any simple and unadorned melody or air." As befits a book with that title, it's written in an understated style with a sort of minimalist dialog, as if the characters are a little tired right now and don't want to get into a big long discussion, but here's what you need to know.
The review from Salon.com says: "These characters are as varied as they come, and yet in alternating chapters Haruf tells each of their stories with the same steady, unstrained rhythm and generous, unflinching tone, so that the unexpected intersections of his character's lives come to seem not just interesting but deeply, reassuringly right."
i read Brad Kessler's Goat Song A Seasonal Life, A short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese recommended to me by someone on this blog (Barbara? Elinor?) i'm sorry i can't remember. my Brother sent me a copy because he had read about it. Alice Waters (on the dust jacket) says "Beautifully written in Brad Kessler's poetic, reverent voice, Goat Song shows us that when we take care of the land, animals, and each other to feed ourselves, we're participating in an ancient rite the imbues our lives with meaning and nourishes our bodies and our souls." Amen.
and i probably wouldn't have known about it without RH and TB. thanks!
forgot to say - Steve just finished Walden for the umpteenth time. he recommends reading it every year.
Lately, I've been reaching for non-fiction from the bookshelf. A book I highly recommend is Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm going to quote the Amazon book review, which is pretty nicely written:
Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the "self-made man," he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don't arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: "they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot." Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, "some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky."
For fiction, I've been reading the writings of one of my best friends, Jack Pendarvis. He is a novelist and short story writer living and teaching in Oxford, Mississippi. I love his collection of short stories Your Body Is Changing.
Happy Finally Friday!
Barb in Blackhoof...your book sounds intriguing...might you bring it to the goat ladies meeting on Sunday?
I'm still trying to catch up with my bookclub by finishing Louis Erdrich's Plague of Doves (love it) and Born to Run about "ultrarunning" and I don't know what else. It is outrageously written, but has a long description of the Leadville 100 ultra race of 1994 and how wild and woolly Leadville was in the 1980s -- I had to check back with my Leadville friends about that...I lived there in the late 60s, early 70s and I didn't think it was so wild and woolly then...maybe the 1880s...anyway, I digress. Right now I am reading about Scott Jurek, super runner, who grew up in Proctor near Duluth.
I recommend Plague of Doves, I'm reserving judgment on Born to Run...
What makes you think I read?
I took a break from heavier reading and read a novel by an author from the Twin Cities that my daughter discovered, Erin Hart. She is married to Twin Cities musican Paddy O'brien and I read her second mystery novel, Lake of Sorrows. I really enjoyed the good writing, interesting plot, and the Irish setting.
cynthia in mahtowa, i have born to run next in line for non-fiction. i am interested in the tarahumara people in the copper canyons! i will definitely read the book though will not be signing up to run any ultra-marathons.
Sarah's Key - a fictional novel about a Jewish family in Paris rounded up during Vel' d'Hiv. Excellent and fast read.
The Glassblower of Murano - great novel that splits, yet connects, the time between Murano, Italty in the 1600's - with the great glassmaking tradition with modern times. Another great read.
Greetings! The latest fiction I've read are Dan Brown novels: Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, The Lost Symbol. Arcane religious/spiritual knowledge woven into fast-paced riddles and thrillers. Intellectual candy ...
My non-fiction runs in the spiritual and metaphysical realms. One of my favorites is the Jed McKenna trilogy, "Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing," "Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment," and "Spiritual Warfare." Fascinating, provocative, paradigm-shifting and belief-tumbling books about the true nature of enlightenment and spirituality.
His take on enlightenment isn't love, sweetness and light into ascension -- more of a maniacal journey of stripping away of ego, programming, cultural conditioning and all our stories that make up our individual personalities. Not pretty, but very authentic. Not for everyone, because it will enrage you and change you.
I just re-read Sarah Vowell's "Assassination Vacation" and "The Partly Cloudy Patriot." Her writing is witty, funny, and smart. "Patriot" is a series of essays about a little of everything (including why she thinks Al Gore could have won the Presidential election if he'd only just admitted and "owned" that he was a nerd). "Assassination Vacation" takes you behind the what we all learned in American History of the first three presidents to be assassinated. I now have a greater appreciation for President Garfield - he was a bookworm and would probably rather have been reading than being president. Next up: "The Wordy Shipmates" - also another re-read, but it's a fabulous book. And I'm a Sarah Vowell fan.
Happy day 2 of member drive! And happy Friday!
Donna, if it is really true that you don't read, maybe there is some way you can enrolled in the First Book program that is part of the MPR member drive today.
Morning All,
I recommend "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson. It is a romantic historical fiction including Dante's Inferno, the driving passion of one's art and the transcendence of human relationships. It's stuck with me all year, not one to easily forget.
vonneguts man without a country is a clssic you will enjoy for light smiles on heavy insights. keilors liberty is the garrison we have all come to know and love. bill holm the windows of brimness is a fitting way to send off my favorite minnesota poet. lamb by christopher moore is a riot. its the story of jesus' buddy and a different take on his time on earth. teacher man by frank mccourt seemed like a fitting way to send off frank who i loved as an author with angelas ashes and tis and as a speaker in general. i'm looking forward to the new pat conroy book when my name comes up at the library. he is a fav.
nice blog guys this is a fun way to start the day
before someone signs me up for First Book with Donna, I would like to recommend My Life in France by Julia Child. It is a lovely love story about her relationship with Paul Child and France.
Stay dry!
Beth-Ann
Hmmm...if it's ok, can I recommend a few things from ~slightly~ different genres?
From a pure text standpoint, I'd recommend "It's Superman" by Tom De Haven. It's a bit of a revisionist 'origin' story of Superman but it's how De Haven handles that makes it so entertaining. As the person that recommended it to me put it, "Think John Steinbeck writes comics and you'll be on track."
From a 'pulp' standpoing (what I like to read) my favorite story that I've read so far would have to be The Shadow Magazine from September 1, 1948, titled, "Jade Dragon." It was reprinted in a Crime Club edition in the mid-70's, which is a little easier to find. Walter Gibson (who wrote Shadow stories under the pseudonym of Maxwell Grant) came from a newspaper and magic background. He treated his Shadow novels like a magic trick. He always showed you one thing but he always put a twist on the obvious. Most popular were his novels set in Chinatown and "Jade Dragon" was his last, and in my humble opinion, best.
If you're interested in comics/graphic novels, I know lots of folks that are on the periphery tend to gravitate toward Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. And while it's good, I'm going to suggest something that most folks haven't heard of. Check out the collected edition of "Manhunter" by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson. Manhunter had been a DC Comics B-List character in the 1940's and had long fallen by the wayside. In 1973, Goodwin and Simonson re-introduced him just as a minor back-up feature in Detective Comics. But within just a few installments, it became clear that this was something special. The story ran for 6 installments but by the time it was done, the new Manhunter had gained so much popularity that the last part of the story became a team-up with Batman in the lead part of the book. Archie and Walt took home several industry awards that year. The nice part, besides the great story and stunning artwork, is that you don't need to know an entire history of the character. It's just a short, action-filled, poignant story.
Good zinger, Jim. I so love it when you guys give it back!
still have the 1950 Winnie the Poohs that my parents read to me, i read to my daughter and then to the boys; i especially love the poems in When We Were Very Young
Pooh is simple yet so deep, you know?
my favorite writer is Doris Lessing, esp her early work (short stories, Children of Violence series); she writes so well about women and relationships, plus her writing just flows, it is beautiful
I just started Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, after years of hearing it recommended. It lives up to the hype. It is very intense, but written in vignettes which make it a little easier to break away when it gets to be too much. The down side of the vignettes is that is that they also make it easier to say, "Oh, I’ll read just this little bit more before I go to bed," and then suddenly it’s an hour later.
Kris, I read Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods a couple of months ago. Really good, but very depressing. I thought then that if I had waited until late fall/early winter to read it I would have been unable to get up after finishing it.
Wow, what a great bunch of books you've all mentioned. I'm gonna have to make a list...
I've been trying to read more nonfiction, and have discovered memoirs. My favorites this year were Amy Tan's memoir The Opposite of Fate -- collection of essays actually that were quite gripping at times; and Barn at the End of the World by Mary Rose O'Reilly. On the food and nutrition front, Nourishing Traditions -- an annotated cookbook and nutrition manual -- and Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle, which I've mentioned before.
Husband has been some really esoteric and fascinating stuff by Drunvalo Melchizedek about how our species evolved from a different dimension: The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life, so I sort of get to read it by default.
(I'm trying to make a longer post than TGITH.)
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