NCPR News about North Country Reads

This memoir is a compilation of immigrant family stories that begin with food, but turn out to be about something much larger: grace, difference, faith, love. It is the 2008 selection of North Country Reads, a regional "one book, one community" project. This edition of Readers & Writers was broadcast live from Jefferson Community College as part of the author's visit to libraries, classrooms and other community venues throughout the region. Martha Foley and Chris Robinson host.

Todd Moe talks with author Diana Abu-Jaber about her book, The Language of Baklava. It's this year's "North Country Reads" selection. Abu-Jaber's memoir focuses on food and its role in family culture - with a focus on Arab American acclimation. She'll visit the North Country in early April. Diana Abu-Jaber told Todd Moe that food helps illustrate the two cultures of her childhood.

Howard Kapostash, the protagonist of The Ha-Ha, has not spoken in thirty years. Ever since a severe blow to the head during his days in the Army, words unravel in his mouth and letters on the page make no sense at all. Dave King’s debut novel takes us behind this mute facade to meet a man unchanged in the important ways, still capable of awe, still yearning for love. The Ha-Ha is this year’s selection for the “one community, one book” project North Country Reads. Guest host Barbara Wheeler joins Ellen Rocco, Chris Robinson, the author and callers.

Dave King’s debut novel The Ha-Ha is this year’s selection for the “one community, one book” project "North Country Reads." The program’s goal is to get people in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties reading and discussing one book. Todd Moe talks with Dave King about his award-wining novel that explores war, family, disability and love.

Members of the Herkimer County Historical Society say they've found the antique tennis racket used in the "American Tragedy" murder a century ago. The racket's authenticity was confirmed using marks from the murder trial. Brian Mann has details.

North Country Reads is a region-wide project focusing this year on Jennifer Donnelly's book, A Northern Light. Next week, Jennifer Donnelly will make several appearances in the region — Lowville, Canton, Potsdam and Watertown. A Northern Light has won several awards, including the Carnegie Medal and the L.A. Times Book Prize. It's a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Grace Brown's murder on Big Moose Lake in the summer of 1906. Donnelly told Todd Moe that she began her writing career as a reporter for the Watertown Daily Times in 1987.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Chester Gillette-Grace Brown murder case. The 1906 murder of Grace Brown on Big Moose Lake shocked the nation and is a big part of local history in the Adirondacks. It has sparked novels, movies, folk songs and an opera. Craig Brandon is the author of Murder in the Adirondacks, part true-crime story, part local history and part social commentary. He's researched and written about the Gillette-Brown murder case for over 25 years. Brandon has published a new book, Grace Brown's Love Letters. He spoke with Todd Moe.

On December 2nd 2005, the Metropolitan Opera unveiled a new work based on Theodore Dreiser's classic novel American Tragedy. Dreiser's novel was inspired by a true Adirondack story. In the summer of 1906, a young man named Chester Gillette took his pregnant girlfriend boating on Big Moose Lake, near Old Forge. The next day, Grace Brown's body was found floating in a secluded cove in South Bay. Chester Gillette tried to flee, but was captured in Inlet and tried for murder. The case sparked a media frenzy and made headlines around the world. As Brian Mann reports, over the last century it has become a part of American mythology.

The opera version of American Tragedy premiers tonight in New York City. The score was written by composer Tobias Picker. Picker sat down last week with Brian Mann to talk about the project. Picker spent time researching the story in the Adiorondacks. He says Theodore Dreiser's classic novel is still contemporary, in part because of its attention to the tension between evangelical Christianity and American capitalism.

One of the most controversial events in Adirondack history is back in the news this week. In July of 1906, a handsome young man named Chester Gillette was accused of drowning his pregnant girlfriend, Grace Brown, in a secluded cove at Big Moose Lake. Gillette was the nephew of a mill-owner in Cortland, New York. Brown was one of the company's workers. Gillette's trial and execution made headlines around the world. The story is the basis for Theodore Dreiser's classic novel An American Tragedy.

In the hundred years since, the murder inspired other novels, plays, and two Hollywood movies — including the classic film A Place In the Sun. Tomorrow, a new opera based on the murder and Theodore Dreiser's novel will premier at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Brian Mann spoke with Charles Adams, who's been a summer resident of Big Moose Lake since the 1930s. Adams drives a tour boat on the lake and is part of the Grace Brown Committee that is commemorating the anniversary of her murder.