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NCPR 2002 Winter Reading List


Take this test: stack all the books you plan to read on top of each other. If the pile topples over, you’re spending too much time on activities other than reading. Quit one of your jobs, farm out a kid, let the cows go unmilked once a day and, most importantly, STOP sleeping. Am I right? Is sleep your worst enemy when it comes to reading? Two or three pages and the glasses slide down your nose, your breathing deepens and the book slips from your limp hand? SLEEP! So inimical to the serious reader. And is it necessary? Hmmph. Who has time for such nonsense? Forget dreaming. Read. Read. Readreadreadread…

This list was compiled with the help of NCPR staff and listeners during early January, but I happily accept suggestions all year long. Send those titles to me at ellen@ncpr.org or Ellen Rocco, North Country Public Radio, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY 13617. Special thanks, as always, to Rick Hunter of Malone who--based on the number of books he reads each year--has his priorities straight and never sleeps.

Now, wake up and READ!

Each year the Washington Post’s Style Invitational asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. You’ll find the 2001 winners scattered throughout this book list…lest we take our reading too seriously. Thanks to Connie Meng for sharing these definitions.

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

From Station Staff and Volunteers

Ellen Rocco, NCPR station manager and host of Readers & Writers on the Air

I’m going to leave the blurbs to other contributors to this list. Oddly enough—given my role as host of our literature series—I hate doing written book reviews. Here are some books I’ve just read, am currently reading, or really really plan to read this month.

  • The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood. Booker Prize winner.
  • The Electrical Field, Kerri Sakamoto. Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book.
  • The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis and Blindness, Jose Saramago. Two from the 1998 Nobel Laureate for Literature.
  • Fool’s Crow, The Indian Lawyer and Killing Custer, James Welch. Three from an author I’ve recently been revisiting.
  • Hummingbird House, Patricia Henley. This was a National Book Award finalist.
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon. This is a Pulitzer winner. (Our web guy, Dale Hobson, seconds this recommendation.)

Dale Hobson, NCPR web outreach coordinator (and station poet)

  • The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.
  • The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling.

    As we discussed the above, Dale and I wondered when the Pullman trilogy might hit the big screen…wonderful, dark fantasy:

  • His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman.

    And, another recently made into a movie:

  • Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King. Not the usual horror stuff—a coming of age tale from the ‘60s.

    And, this as a companion to Bill’s recommendation below:

  • The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics, Gary Zukar and David Finkelstein.

Bill Haenel, NCPR web manager

  • The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, Fritjof Capra.

(By the way, Bill admitted that between work and helping to raise three sons—with a fourth on the way—there are days when all he reads are cereal boxes.)

Terry de la Vega, not a staff person but married to one and part of the book conversation that took place in our web office…
  • The Shipping News, Annie Proulx. Recently made into a fine movie.
  • The Songcatcher: A Ballad Novel, Sharyn McCrumb. Not just a mystery—lots of wonderful Appalachian folklore.
  • Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley. A woman’s take on the Arthurian myths—great for girls and young women.

Todd Moe, NCPR morning host

There are two books on my nightstand this time ‘round…okay, these two are at the top of the stack…

  • Dandelion Wine by science fiction, fantasy, horror writer Ray Bradbury. I believe this is his first novel, or at least one of his earliest. There are no Martians here, instead it’s set in the summer of 1928, and is the story of a young Midwestern boy’s “voyage of discovery.” Bradbury is one of my favorite authors, and I’m not sure how I missed this one in high school or college, but I’m glad I stumbled upon it—it’s a dandy!
  • The Inextinguishable Symphony, Martin Goldsmith. Goldsmith is the former host of NPR’s Performance Today. This is the story of Goldsmith’s Jewish parents (two musicians) who met, fell in love and married during 1930s Nazi Germany. I’ve just started reading this one, but Goldsmith’s writing, like his on-air work, is wonderful.
Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Jackie Sauter, NCPR program director

  • On the way to an end-of-summer vacation on Cape Cod and a day trip to Nantucket, I picked up a copy of Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund. The 600-plus page novel kept me going on the trip home and long after. It's wonderful. I recommend it highly. Even if your life is busy and you can only read a little at a time, this book will keep your attention ---- it's forward-moving and rich with plot and philosophy. And the writing is gorgeous. It's not necessary, but your appreciation of this book will be deepened if you've read Moby Dick previously.
  • Speaking of Moby Dick, now's the time to read or reread this American classic. You really should --- 2002 is the 150th anniversary of its publication. And it's still a great read, on so many levels.
  • Also by Sena Jeter Naslund and highly recommended: her book of short stories, The Disobedience of Water. And her short novel, Sherlock in Love, about Sherlock Holmes, is a quick and moving and a delightful read.
  • What I'm planning to read next: Eccentric Neighborhoods, by Rosario Ferre. She's a critically acclaimed Hispanic author. This saga about the intertwined lives of two Puerto Rican families over time includes one of those charts to keep the characters straight, and historic old photographs of Puerto Rico. Perfect for winter reading.

David Sommerstein, NCPR news reporter/producer

  • Wicked, Gregory Maguire. Definitely my favorite read of the year. You could call it a socioeconomic study of the Land of Oz and its environs. It’s a retelling of the classic Wizard of Oz, of course, but from the point of view of…the Wicked Witch of the West (who is, among other things, a revolutionary animal rights advocate). The book examines the nature of good and evil and how sometimes it’s harder to discern between the two than we think. Fits perfectly with the world we’re all living in these days. And it has all your favorite characters, including Toto, and lots of new ones as well.

Kelly Jacoby, NCPR development assistant

I’m reading the Diana Gabaldon Highlander series. It’s more like all year reading—not just winter or summer! Each book is approximately 600 pages and there are five books. The series goes like this:

  • Outlander. A 600-page time-travel romance. Strong-willed and sensual Claire Randall leads a double life with a husband in one century and a lover in another.
  • Dragonfly in Amber. Book two continues the British Isles saga, animating the people and politics of a pivotal period in history—while turning up the heat between an appealing modern heroine and a magnetic romantic hero.
  • Voyager. Volume three features the time-traveling Claire Randall in a reunion with her 20th century husband and giving birth to a daughter by her 18th century Scots clansman lover.
  • Drums of Autumn. Set in pre-Revolutionary War America, the fourth book introduces Brianna and Roger’s story…800 pages go too fast.
  • The Fiery Cross. The final volume in the saga…so far.

Shelly Pike, NCPR operations manager/announcer

  • After much prodding by my friends Meg and Bridget, I started reading the Harry Potter series over the last few months…I’m near the end of book 4 now. I wasn’t sure that the books could match all the hype—but I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
  • Also, a few months ago I read Alice in Wonderland & Into the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll). My grandmother unearthed an old copy that she got for free when she ordered encyclopedias for her kids years and years ago…Perhaps just as enjoyable as reading the book was reading a copy that my family owned for many years.

Susan S. Smith, NCPR director of strategic partnerships

  • The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride. Very good protrayal of marginalization and identity struggles for both mother and son.
  • The Red Tent, Anita Diamant. I loved this one…it was such a powerful portrayal of the women’s world of that long ago time.

Kathleen Fitzgerald, NCPR membership director

  • The Nature of Water and Air, Regina McBride. A painful, beautiful and haunting tale. It’s Irish storytelling and I loved it.
  • Terrible Beauty, Peter King. NY Congressman King served on the International Plastic Bullet Tribunal in Belfast in 1981 and played a role in bringing about the Northern Ireland peace accord. The setting is Belfast in the early 1980s. While I couldn’t call this a “great book,” I was very much drawn into the characters and the reality of life in Northern Ireland.
  • Gap Creek, Robert Morgan. A story of honesty and poverty--with an amazingly strong girl/woman protagonist.
  • Cane River, Lalita Tademy. The story follows four generations of African-American women and their families—from slavery, through the Civil War and emancipation, into the early 20th century. What makes this book remarkable is that this the author’s family history. These are her ancestors, researched through some written family history, plus records of births, deaths, marriages, sales of slaves and dispersals of masters’ farms. Tademy creates the dialogue, but the characters and their history are real.

Chris Robinson, Clarkson University faculty member and occasional NCPR guest host

  • I’ve been working my way through the plays of Tom Stoppard. Arcadia and The Real Thing are a lot of fun.
  • David Lodge’s novels filled the winter break: Home Truths, Small World, Therapy, Changing Places, and Thinks. I have been inspired by the humor theme of this year’s Readers and Writers series. I know I should be reading up on terrorism, germ warfare, and the like, but my heart tells me to find small escapes in humor.
  • I finally got around to reading Elegy for Iris. John Bayley’s memoir of his life with his spouse, novelist and philosopher Irish Murdoch, is utterly superb. All the good things I heard about it turned out to be true. How rare.

    • Extraterrestaurant (n.): An eating place where you feel you’ve been abducted and experimented upon. Also known as an E-T-ry.

Rick Hunter, Malone-based attorney and occasional NCPR guest host

(The following list is drawn from Rick’s compendium of favorite books of 2001. If you’d like the longer version, contact me ellen@ncpr.org and I’ll put a hard copy in the mail to you.)

FICTION

  • Daniel Plainway: Or the Holiday Haunting of the Moosepath League, Van Reid. The most recent in the Maine novelist’s series of comic, sweet novels. Hurray for the Mossepath League!
  • Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather. Every year, I try to read one or two “classics,” whether I need to or not. First published in 1927, this is a fine, spare novel.
  • The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk. A great novel when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952, and it remains a magnificent read today.
  • Marie Blythe, Howard Frank Mosher. In this novel, Mosher proves again why he is one of my favorite writers, renewing my faith in great writing.
  • The Journey Home, Olaf Olafsson. An utterly convincing first person narrative of a middle-aged woman, dying of cancer, who looks back on her life while on a final journey from England to her Iceland birthplace. A very quiet and beautiful novel.
  • Barabbas, Par Lagerkvist. This 1951 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author imagines the life of the criminal whom the crowd demanded be freed rather than Christ.
  • The Old American, Ernest Hebert. This is historical fiction at its best—based in New England and Canada during the French and Indian Wars.
  • The Snake Charmer, Sanjay Nigram. A short novel with a marvelous premise: a snake charmer is bitten by his cobra and he bites the cobra back…killing the snake.
  • The Loop, Joe Coomer. An orphan and a parrot star in this marvelous novel—funny and serious by turns.
  • Tomato Red, Daniel Woodrell. One of the author’s series of self-described noirs, short novels about white trash and crime in the Ozark Mountains.
  • Original Sin, P.D. James. By the end of this 1994 mystery, the reader is well-acquainted with each of the characters, and even may come to empathize with the killer.
  • Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels. Both Michaels and her book live and breathe intelligence. A beautiful and touching post-Holocaust tale.
  • Headlong, Michael Frayn. This comic novel is an absolute hoot! This is the perfect read for those who enjoy art, mystery, humor and fine writing. Highly recommended.
  • Jim the Boy, Tony Earley. Marketed as a “young adult” selection, like most fine writing appropriate for young readers, this has much to say to us all. I agree entirely with the New York Times reviewer: “It’s not a breat book, just a good one—and in this instance, ‘good’ is higher praise than ‘great.’”
  • Eben Holden: A Tale of the North Country, Irving Bacheller. This is the 1900 account of a boy’s mid-nineteenth century coming of age in St. Lawrence County under the care and tutelage of his uncle, Eben. Considered an American classic.
  • The Death of Vishnu, Manil Suri. A three-hundred page novel whose main character never moves or is conscious—an audacious undertaking that succeeds marvelously.
  • Columbus Slaughters Braves, Mark Friedman. A novel of two brothers—one a successful professional ballplayer, the other an ordinary high school teacher—and the shifts in their relationship as life’s chanciness hits home.
  • Farewell, I’m Bound to Leave You, Fred Chappell. A charming southern novel as comfortable as an old shoe…a series of gemlike stories tied together into a unifying and satisfying whole.
  • Hey Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?, Baxter Black. One of my favorite occasional bits on NPR’s Morning Edition are the commentaries of Baxter Black, “cowboy poet and former large animal veterinarian.” To my delight, he has written this comic novel about life in the rodeo—with a high ratio of belly laughs to pages read.
  • Highliners, William McCloskey. A superb narrative about the Alaska fishing industry around Kodiak Island.
  • Bee Season, Myla Goldberg. A young girl learns that the path to God and spelling excellence may be the same. That’s right—an excellent and entertaining novel.
  • Lambs of God, Marele Day. A strange novel set in a crumbling monastery on a remote island. Not for everyone—my wife found it “too weird.”
  • Feast of July, H.E. Bates. This 1954 novel tells a chilling, psychologically compelling tale of love and rage. (Made a few years ago into a Merchant Ivory film.)
  • The Catastrophist, Ronan Bennett. This 1999 novel is set in the Belgian Congo before independence. An excellent book, and the themes and questions raised make this an ideal reading group choice.
  • The Farming of Bones, Edwidge Danticat. This tale derives from a single historical incident: in 1937, Haitian sugar cane (“bones”) harvesters in the Dominican Republic were violently expelled or murdered by the military regime. Danticat’s story is almost unremittingly wrenching, but her prose and characters are luminous and fine.
Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting someone to have sex with you.

NON-FICTION

  • Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert D. Putnam. Perhaps the most important book I’ve read this year—a demonstration of the decline in reciprocal relations between people which provide the “glue” of society. Putnam does point the way for showing how events, though tragic, ultimately unite.
  • Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, Tony Horwitz. A great travelogue/anthropological study of contemporary southerners who still cherish the Old Confederacy.
  • The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories, J.L. Heilbron. A beautifully illustrated, finely written exposition on how the Roman Chruch used sacred space to perform astronomy.
  • In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick. Superb—deservedly nominated for the National Book Award. A history of the shipwreck on which Melville based Moby Dick.
  • Julia’s Mother: Life in the Pediatric ER, William Bonadio. With each chapter taking the form of a case history, Bonadio describeshis education from intern to skilled senior doctor; most of all, though, this is the story of his young—often infant—patients and their remarkable parents.
  • Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand. This account of America’s (perhaps) greatest racehorse—and the jockey, trainer, and owner who made this greatness possible—is nothing less than spellbinding and deserves every bit of the favorable press it received.
  • Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a Van Gogh Masterpiece, Cynthia Saltzman. The author describes her book as a “biography of a painting,” following the painting from owner to owner. Very well done.
  • Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, David M. Kennedy. I can see why this won the Pulitzer Prize and would have voted likewise if I were on the committee! This is narrative history at its best.
  • The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age, Edmund Blair Bolles. In popular science written for the lay person, there are four qualities I look for. This book nails them all: a good story, sound history, interesting science and fine writing.
  • Northern Borders, Howard Frank Mosher. The author is one of my favorite novelists and in this “travelogue” he proves equally charming, exploring the northern U.S. border, hugging the line between this country and Canada.
  • Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved, Russell Martin. One of the best works of non-fiction I have read in many years—answering a question about the great composer’s life as well as taking the reader through decades of western history. Martin tells the story with great skill.
  • Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, Jared Diamond. This Pulitzer Prize-winning work is nothing less than astonishing its scope and persuasuive power. Truly thought-provoking as the author sets out to answer this question: Why are some human societies “advanced” while others were still clan or tribe-based and often overcome by the “advanced” societies?
  • Four Wings and a Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly, Sue Halpern. A report on the status of the Monarch Butterfly done with charm and scientific insight as the author embarks on a personal journey of discovery to track down the creatures’ habitat and the people who study it.
  • The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology, Simon Winchester. A fine biography of one of the important early mapmakers and a great chronicle of the innovative map Smith made.
  • Pontius Pilate, Ann Wroe. Neither historical fiction nor straight history, this is a well-written biography of the Roman governor who presided over Christ’s crucifixion.
  • The Word According to Eve: Women and the Bible in Ancient Times and Our Own, Cullen Murphy. An insightful, thoughtful and well-written book from the Managing Editor of The Atlantic Monthly.

    Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

From NCPR Listeners and Friends

Bea Hunter (age 8) and Laura Hunter (age 6), Malone, NY

  • Swallows and Amazons; Swallowdale; Peter Duck; Winter Holiday; Coot Club; and several others, Arthur Ransome. We think you should read Swallows and Amazons—or, as in our case, have your daddy read it to you. This is the story of Captains Nancy and John, Roger, Titty, Susan and Peggy, as well as their faithful uncle, Captain Flint, and their adventures sailing and camping out on Wildcat Island in England’s Lake District. We liked this book because the children used their imaginations, supposing all adults to be not entirely trustworthy. This is the first book in a marvelous series, all featuring the same children, as well as other youngsters and adults who join the “Swallows and Amazons” for new adventures.
  • [Daddy’s note – My favorite so far is Peter Duck, which involves pirates, a sailing adventure to the Caribbean, and buried treasure. All of these books, written in the 1930s, have been lovingly reissued by publisher David R.Godine in fine trade paperback editions with the original illustrations. They are truly not to be missed.]
  • Freddy Goes to Florida; Freddy Plays Football; Freddy and the Popinjay; Freddy and the Flying Saucer Plans; Freddy Goes to Mars; Freddy Goes to the North Pole; and many others, Walter R. Brooks. In the 1940s and 1950s, Brooks wrote a series of 22 stories, all featuring Freddy the Pig. Freddy lives in upstate New York, near Utica, on the farm of Mr. Bean, where all the animals talk. Freddy is a detective and each story has a mystery to be solved—and an adventure. Three of the cows are Mrs. Wiggins, Mrs. Wurzel and Mrs. Wogus; Jinx is the cat’s name; and there are ducks and other animals. We love reading these with our grand-daddy.
  • [Grand-daddy’s note: There is an international Friends of Freddy Society, and a leading member and past president is Betsy Tisdale of Potsdam. The volumes are being reissued—several per year by Overlook Press--with delightful illustrations by Kurt Wiese.]

Carol Grzywinski, Canton College faculty member

  • Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan, Scott Simon.  He writes as lyrically as he speaks about becoming a sports fan.  Starts with baseball, the Cubs of course, and moves on from there.  A fun intelligently written read for NCPR sports fans.
  • Middle Age: A Romance, Joyce Carol Oates.  How will we be remembered after we are gone?  Adam Berendt dies trying to rescue a child.  The rest of the novel gives us the stories of the people he left behin--all of whom thought they knew him.
  • Issac's Storm, Erik Larson.  The Galveston Hurricane of 1900--as seen by the meterologist who knew the sea wasn't right, but no one believed him. Good writing--particularly the explanations of how storms work.

JoAnn Elberty, Canton

  • No Great Mischief, Alistair MacLeod. Fiction.

    Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

Tony Hammond, Long Lake

  • (In his letter to me, Tony said he was reading classic literature including anything and everything by Tolstoy, plus—in the aftermath of 9/11—The Koran and some related titles, Arabian Nights, as well as the specific books listed below.)
  • Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes.
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe. A very sobering book.

Mark Peloquin, Monkton, VT

  • I heard you’re collecting books for a cold winter evening. Well, I am a baseball fan and I really miss it in the off season. Here is the best book I have ever read about baseball:
  • Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, Doris Kearns Goodwin. Not what you would expect form a baseball memoir—this one is from a fan. It is a very personal account of Doris’s life growing up in Brooklyn as a baseball fan and following the Dodgers.
  • The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker. Just thought of this good one—observations of a man on an escalator in a mall on his lunch break. Very strange and complete laugh. I am still thinking about it now.

Beth Peloquin, Monkton, VT

  • Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver. I just read this and couldn’t put it down. I have read all of her books, but this is the first one that I spent the whole weekend reading cover to cover, by the fire. It has so many wonderful spring and summer images that it was a nice reminder of seasons to come (even though winter is really my favorite season).

Christine Mace

  • Children of Christmas: Stories for the Season, Cynthia Rylant. Six wonderful short stories of the season that move your heart.
  • A Cup of Tea, Amy Ephron. Written in the ‘50s, reprinted in 1997, based on a short story by Katherine Mansfield about a young woman who offers a stranger a cup of tea…and how their lives are intertwined.
  • Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas, James Patterson. Heart wrenching story of a mother’s love for her son and a father’s anguish for his family.

    On my list to read…still on the nightstand:

  • Woodswoman, Anne LaBastille. Story of a young ecologist who built her own cabin in the Adirondack wilderness.
  • Jenny’s Corner, Frederick Bell. Story of a nine year old girl’s love of the deer near her home…and her neighbor’s need for meat…and how the valley changes because of Jenny’s beliefs and her neighbor’s generosity.

Pat Gengo, Winthrop

  • Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World, Walter Russell Mead. This is a heavy read, but very well written and of particular interest at this time. I learned about it on The Connection. I can’t keep up with the list of books this program alone generates!

Fred Goss, Ogdensburg

  • The New Revised Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James. This is the only book I have to mention this time…for a fan, it’s like Christmas every day. Open it at any page and begin reading. A major feature is the decade by decade history, in which James brings back “the parts that get left out of histories,” e.g., what the uniforms were like, trends in nicknames, slang terms fans and players used at different times. Then, using a statistical system that is far too complicated for me (I’m totally lost when people start mentioning adjusting some set of numbers to the harmonic mean) he selects the 100 greatest players of all time at each position, e.g., Ripkin vs. Wagner and a million other enjoyable arguments. It’s amazing to know how few really great players there have been in 125 years or so. If you had an all-star team of the 50th greatest player in history at every position, it wouldn’t be a pennant contender in 2002.

    Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you’re running late.

Pat Nelson (and the pups), Potsdam

What am I reading? I seem to be reading a lot of various things.

Mysteries:

  • The Merchant’s House; The Armada Boy; An Unhallowed Grave; The Funeral Boat, Kate Ellis. These are the four I have read so far of British author Kate Ellis’s series of mysteries set in the West of England. Her protagonist is a black policeman whose degree was originally in archaeology and there is always an archaeological angle to the story.
  • The PMS Outlaws, Sharyn McCrumb. As good as the title sounds. It’s not her most recent, but it is the latest in the Elizabeth McPherson series. All of hers are good, but new readers might want to start the Elizabeth series with an early one—Highland Laddie Gone—perhaps.
  • Thus Was Adonis Murdered; The Shortest Way to Hades; The Sirens Sang of Murder; The Sibyl in her Grave, Sarah Caudwell. Sad to say there will never be any more books featuring Professor Hilary Tamar and Chancery barristers, but I cherish the ones there are.

Fantasy:

  • The Forest House; Lady of Avalon; Priestess of Avalon; The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley. I am rereading the Avalon series in chronological order (as listed here)—which is not the publication order. Sad to say, as with Sarah Caudwell, there will never be any more.
  • Mercedes Lackey is high on my list of favorite authors and while no author, unfortunately, can write as fast as I can read, she certainly comes closer than anyone else. She has two new books out in her Heralds of Valdemar series that take place between the Vanyel triology and the Talia trilogy. If you’re not a Valdemar fan, suffice it to say that means they aren’t part of either trilogy and can stand more or less alone:  Brightly Burning and Take a Thief. The third of the Urban Bards series recently came out. I would suggest reading the trilogy from the beginning—more than with most of hers you may find yourself a little lost in the later ones otherwise: Bedlam’s Bard, Beyond World’s End and Spirits White As Lightning.
  • The Shadow Gate, Margaret Ball. This ties in with my interest in Eleanor of Acquitaine (see below) and is a good story besides.

Non-fiction:

  • In one of my other current incarnations, I’m a dog trainer and Karen Pryor’s books (and videos) are required reading. They’re also interesting, amusing and insightful. You’ll find yourself analyzing your own and other people’s behavior differently: Lads Before the Wind (about her days as a dolphin trainer); Don’t Shoot the Dog (not actually about dogs, despite the title); and, On Behavior (a series of essays).
  • Coercion and Its Fallout, Murray Sidman. Another one that may make you analyze your own and other people’s behavior differently.
  • The Native Americans: An Illustrated History, David Hurst Thomas (editor). Sort of a coffee table book, but interesting. Lovely illustrations.
  • Unearthing Atlantis: An Archaeological Odyssey, Charles Pellegrino. No, it doesn’t belong under fantasy. It’s the description of an archaeological site in the Mediterranean that may well have been the original Atlantis. It’s well-written and fascinating.
  • The Once & Future Goddess, Elinor W. Gadon. I always end up reading this in conjunction with the Pellegrino cited above, although she covers much more than Crete, ranging from the earliest evidence of Paleolithic Goddess worshipping sites up to modern paintings and sculpture.
  • Alison Weir’s biographies cover several periods I have always been interested in: Eleanor of Acquitaine; The Wives of Henry VIII; The Children of Henry VIII;  and, Elizabeth I.
  • Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart & Saladin the Third Crusade, James Reston, Jr. Ties in with the Eleanor biography and is unexpectedly timely.
  • Rebels Against the Future, Kirkpatrick Sale. I have just started this one, but very much liked his Human Scale.

Children’s Books (Sort of. I bought them for myself but deserving young visitors may read them if their hands are clean.)

  • Before Santa Was Santa, Mary Garbe. A beautifully illustrated, nice story for all ages—and besides, it features a bunch of Bernese Mountain dogs!
  • Farmer’s Garden, David L. Harrison.
  • Lie Down With Dogs, Jan Gleiter. Mystery for young adults.
  • Mountain Dog Rescue, Coleen Hubbard.
  • Cleaver of the Good Luck Diner, James Murphy.
  • Gingerbread Baby, Jan Brett.

Susie, Macomb

  • The Red Tent, Anita Diamant. I’m still raving about this thought I read it over a year ago.
  • The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood. Just finished this, which felt like hard work while I was reading, but afterwards is feeling quite wonderful. Atwood is SO remarkable!
Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

Tom Dudones, Saranac Lake

  • Tomorrow To Be Brave, Susan Travers (2001). A memoir of the only woman ever to serve in the French Foreign Legion. A great story of a young Englishwoman who served in the Legion during the Second World War--both personal and epic in its scope. I read this as a library loan, then went out and ordered it from Fact & Fiction as soon as I finished it—it’s a book worth re-reading.
  • The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, Slavomir Rawicz (1956, 1997). A memoir of a Polish officer’s escape from a Soviet POW camp during WWII, his trek across Siberia, Outer Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, Tibet and the Himalayas to freedom and safety in India. It’s an incredible story and is available in paperback.

Chris Dunn, Potsdam

  • If only just under the wire, I wanted to get in a couple of post-Sept 11th recommendations. So many people are reaching out in all directions for reading to help them understand; so few so far as I have heard are reaching back. It was just around September I first heard of and found a copy of G.K. Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse. It’s his finest long poem (quite long, book-length): its subject is the struggle of King Alfred of Wessex (AD 900’s) and his struggle against the Danish invasion of England. It has to do with disaster, endurance, hope, and it celebrates the victory not of great war-chiefs so much as common men. Russell Sparkes, in his collection of GKC, Prophet of Orthodoxy, says that in the dark days of WWII, in England, the Times published sections of the poem: it’s not hard to see why. It’s written, as all Chesterton’s great work was, within a Christian framework (he was a Catholic convert) and I hope that won’t turn anyone away: I’m UU more or less myself, and I really like it. And the only religion he’s opposing is the old one of the Norse. More than that, it’s written in the old way, a poem seems to sing itself. Chesterton thought the poet should most of the work, and he did.
  • The other work is also GKC: The Man Who Was Thursday. A novel—and again, I think it must be one of his best. It’s about anarchists, and murderous plots: but it has GKC’s sense of mingled nightmare and, well almost, slapstick comedy and things seen backwards. (Orson Welles produced a version of it once for his Mercury Theater on radio, by the way.) It is wonderful reading, as is most GKC did. If you know him, or of him, you may have heard of the taint of anti-semitism sometimes seen in his work: that exists, but not here. These are both almost remedial reading for these times.
  • Otherwise, there’s Bryson’s study of the how and why and wherefrom of English, The Mother Tongue, fascinating and fun; Bruce Feiler’s Walking the Bible, just as good as it’s said to be. And—oh, well, why not?—the most recent Harry Potter, The Goblet of Fire. This one’s longer and more devious than the rest, and the author has turned more serious. But I have to say her writing style hasn’t gotten much better. Still, good transient fun.
Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

Holly Scott and her students, St. Regis Falls

I teach students in grades 7-9 at St. Regis Falls Central and the following is a list of books they’d like to recommend to you and your listeners:

  • Stone Fox, John Reynolds Gardiner.
  • Night, Elie Wiesel.
  • Animal Farm, George Orwell.
  • The Orphan Series (especially Ruby), V.C. Andrews.
  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares.
  • Everworld, K.A. Applegate.
  • The Sword of Truth Series, Terry Goodkind.
  • Pet Cemetery, Stephen King.
  • The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien.
  • Black House. Stephen King, Peter Straub.
  • Rincewind the Wizard, Terry Pratchett.
  • The Girl Death Left Behind, Lurlene McDaniels.
  • We All Fall Down, Robert Cormier.
  • A Day No Pigs Would Die, Robert Newton Peck.
  • Chinese Handcuffs, Chris Crutcher.
  • The BFG, Roald Dahl.
  • Goosebumps Series, R.L. Stine.
  • Fear Street Series, R.L. Stine.
  • Sirena, Donna Jo Napoli.
  • Soldier’s Heart, Brian’s Winter and The River, Gary Paulsen.
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne.
  • Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling.
  • Monster, Walter Dean Meyers.
  • Demon in My View, Amelia Atwater Rhodes.
  • Dargonesti, Paul and Tonya Thompson.
  • The Doors (author unknown)
  • The Writing of Jim Morrison (editor unknown)

Teacher’s note: Thankfully, the rash of R.L. Stine fans has subsided over the years. I’m now seeing kids who are interested in a wider range of books, especially science fiction and fantasy. Thank you, J.K. Rowling! On a regional basis, many students in my district love books where the protagonist struggles with nature in some way.

Jerry Weinberg, Five Spice Café, Burlington

  • Hate to sound like a broken record, but…I am now halfway through Patricia Highsmith’s novels. Because of the movie version of The Talented Mr. Ripley (and apparently another Highsmith book is being filmed), Ms. Highsmith’s books are being reissued.
  • I strongly recommend Edith’s Diary, The Cry of the Owl and—less available, but check your library—People Who Knock on the Door. Like one of her many admirers, the great British novelist Grahma Greene, Highsmith dealt with the subject matter and mores of her day, including the Vietnam war and the abortion debate. Some of her novels are simply great suspense stories, but even then, there is a strong examination of people’s psyches and secrets.
Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

The Chisamores (from somewhere out in the internet ether)

(I received two emails from the Chisamores—both seemingly offering the results of a family dinner discussion about contributing to this list. Now, folks, the two lists are totally different…so, I’m including both.)

Chisamore list #1 (*indicates non-fiction):

  • The Hero’s Walk, Anita Badami.
  • Headlong, Michael Frayn.
  • Ahab’s Wife, Seva Naslund.
  • The Abyssinian, Jean-Christophe Rufin.
  • Folly, Laurie King.
  • *Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnick.
  • Moth Smoth, Mohain Hamid.
  • *Georgia O’Keefe, Roxana Robinson                  .
  • The Peppered Moth, Margaret Drabble.
  • Drowning Ruth, Chirstins Schwarz.
  • Waiting, Ha Jin.
  • English Passengers, Matthew Kneale.
  • The Honey Thief, Elizabeth Graver.
  • When We Were Grownups, Anne Tyler.
  • *Chasing Monarchs, Robert Pyle.
  • Empire Falls, Richard Russo.
  • Honeymoon in Purdah, Alison Wearing.
  • *In Our Time, Susan Brownmiller.
  • Music and Silence, Rose Tremain.
  • Chisamore list#2 (from Dale):
  • Ash Garden, Dennis Bock. About three people deeply affected by bombing of Nagasaki.
  • Beowolf, new Seamus Heaney translation. Reads like an adventure story.
  • Bones, Elaine Dewar. A science journalist spent several years tracking down archaeological evidence about origins of first peoples in North/South America.
  • The Birds of Heaven, Peter Mathiessen. About cranes. Mathiessen has spent much of 1990s visiting crane habitat throughout the world. He sees cranes as sentinel species for humans.
  • Acid Row, Minette Walters. Latest mystery by this British writer.
  • Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahari. Great short stories about second generation Indians living in Boston area.
  • The Collected Poems, Stanley Kunitz. Wonderful poems by a master writer.

Ellen Rathbone via email

  • Doc: Orra A. Phelps, M.D., Adirondack Naturalist and Mountaineer, Mary Arakelian. The biography of Orra Phelps, doctor and naturalist in the Adirondacks.
  • No Woman Tenderfoot: Florence Merriam Bailey, Pioneer Naturalist, Harriet Kofalk. The biography of Florence Bailey, who grew up just north of Utica, married Liberty Hyde Bailey (of Cornell University fame), sister to C. Hart Merriam (one of the U.S.’s first field biologists)--and was a naturalist in her own right.
  • Women in the Field: America’s Pioneering Women Naturalists, Marcia M. Bonta. A collection of short biographies about women who made immense contributions to science but who received little recognition in our history.
  • Song of the Dodo, Stephen Jay Gould. Classic in natural science literature. A must for anyone concerned about the state of our planet and its ecosystems.
  • One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest, Wade Davis. A journey to South America in two eras following the ethnobotanical studies of Richard Schultes and the author. Great reading!

Dave Major, Ottawa

  • McCarthy’s Bar, Pete McCarthy (the TV travel writer). While over to visit my pilot son with the RAF last November in Scotland, I came across this good-humoured paperback look at Ireland. Well worth the read. (Published by LIR Sceptre.)
Glibido: All talk and no action.

Frank Peters, Macomb

Here are three good reads:

  • Half a Life, V.S. Naipaul
  • Flash Fiction, James Thomas, Denise Thomas, Tom Hazuka, editors. 72 very short stories.
  • FUP: A Story, Jim Dodge. (City Miner Books)

Lyn Burkett, Potsdam

  • If On a Winter’s Night A Traveller, Italo Calvino. It’s difficult to explain this book…every chapter is the first chapter of (supposedly) a different book; the book as a whole questions and pokes fun at the very idea of what a book is. The first chapter…is written in second person and describes all the reasons people buy and read (or don’t read) books.

John Sullivan, Chestertown

  • Straight Man, Richard Russo. Send up of academic life.
  • Empire Falls, Richard Russo. Set in a moribund New England mill town. Poignant, funny and scary.

Diane, Burlington

  • Caravans, James Mitchener. About Afghanistan in the late ‘40s.

Betsy, Canton

  • Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain.
  • Rules for Aging: Resist Normal Impulses, Live Longer, Attain Perfection, Roger Rosenblatt.
  • Becoming Madame Mao, Anchee Min.
  • Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang.
Dopelar effect (n.): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when you come at them rapidly.

Julie, Canton

  • Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy, Frances Mayes.
  • The Shipping News, Annie Proulx.

Bill, Potsdam

  • Balance Point, Joe Jenkins. A novel that’s a primer on environmental issues.
  • Eco-Economy: Building a New Economy for the Environmental Age, Lester R. Brown. The author started World Watch Institute…provides a positive approach for dealing with world ecology.
  • Ship Fever and The Voyage of the Narwhal, Andrea Barrett.
  • Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver.
  • A Widow for One Year and Son of the Circus, John Irving.

Polly, Lake Clear

  • Buddha, Karen Armstrong. Part of the Penguin short biographies series.
  • Touching My Father’s Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to the Top of Everest, Jamling Tenzing Norgay et al.
  • My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok.

Beth, Monkton VT

  • Naturalist, E.O. Wilson.
  • Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams.
  • Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis. For young adults and their families.

Mark, St. Regis Falls

Two for young adult readers:

  • The Giver, Lois Lowry.
  • Islands of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O’Dell.

David, San Francisco (via our website stream)

  • The Beast Reawakens, Martin Lee. About the reemergence of fascism.

Martin Murie, North Bangor

(Note: Martin is an author himself. Try his environmental mystery Burt’s Way: A North Country Mystery.)

  • Three Strikes, Howard Zinn. On labor history.

Zack Fitzgerald, St. Regis Falls

  • The Dragonlance Chronicles, Margaret Weis et al. Fantasy.

Jackie, Gouverneur

  • Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden, Peter L. Bergen.

Art, Macomb

  • Wittgenstein’s Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers, David Edmonds and John Eidinow.

Amy, Brasher Falls

  • The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman.
Kinstirpation (n.): A painful inability to move relatives who come to visit.

Bill, Johnsburg

  • The Frog Run: Words and Wildness in the Vermont Woods and Reading the Mountains of Home, John Elder. Author Bill McKibben highly recommends these two books by Middlebury College-based writer John Elder.

Cissy, Keene Valley

  • Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman’s Quest for Enlightenment, Vicki MacKenzie.
  • Kangaroo Dreaming: An Australian Wildlife Odyssey, Edward Kanze.
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