Two goats are walking
in the Hollywood hills and they find a tin of film. The first goat eats it. The
second goat asks, “How’d it taste?” The first goat answers, “Not bad, but I
liked the book better.”
-- A pretty good joke from the A Prairie Home Companion website
s I said during our call in program earlier this month,
generally, I like the book better. But not always. (I went on record as
preferring the Lord of the Rings in
film version. Sacrilege, I know.)
Thanks to everyone who emailed, mailed or called in titles
for this list. Because our Readers &
Writers on the Air series this year is celebrating regional authors, I’ve
tried to indicate which of the titles suggested for this list are written by
authors who live or work in or write about our listening area. I say “tried”
because I may have missed a few. *An asterisk indicates a regional connection.
Thanks to Chris Robinson and Rick Hunter who so ably
co-hosted the call-in and who have provided—as you will see below—such a
wonderful range of suggestions for this list.
As always, feel free at any time during the year to send me
the titles of books you’ve enjoyed. I’ll add them to the next list. Keep
reading, keep listening, and let me know you’re out there—it’s lonely being on
the radio without you.
Ellen Rocco (ellen@ncpr.org)
North Country Public Radio, SLU, Canton
NY 13617
877-388-6277 | www.ncpr.org
(Throughout this list, I’ve sprinkled winning entries from
the 2003 Bulwer-Lytton contest—you know, recognizing the worst first sentence for unwritten books in a variety of genres. A
tip of the hat to the original worst first sentence: It was a dark and stormy night…)
Dishonorable mention (Detective category):
He knew that, at most,
he had five seconds left to live, one one-thousand, two one-thousand, the gun barrel pointing at his face like a
scolding finger, three Mississippi,
four Mississippi, the hired assassin Ricardo’s grip tightening on the trigger,
five white elephants, six white elephants, and then a bright blast of light as
he wondered which was really the most accurate
way to count five seconds.
-- Vincent M. Zito, Monroe, CT
Ellen Rocco, NCPR
station manager/Readers & Writers
producer/co-host
Please
visit our website (ncpr.org) for a complete rundown of the regional authors
we’re featuring on this year’s R&W
programs. I haven’t mentioned any of those authors here, but recommend all of
them.
- *Sweet Hereafter; *Cloudsplitter, *Affliction; *Continental
Drift, Russell Banks. I think Banks is one of the great literary voices on
the contemporary scene. And he lives in the Adirondacks! You’ll find the first
two titles have the strongest regional connection—one in a contemporary
setting, the other in the 19th century.
A few
additional titles I recommend:
- *Crow Lake, Mary Lawson. I’ve given this
novel the regional asterisk, though it’s a bit of stretch…mostly set in
northern Ontario.
- The Piano Tuner: A Novel, Daniel Mason.
Takes you into a different time, a very different place…and leaves you there…gasping
a bit.
- Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002,
Martin Espada. Espada was a guest on R&W
some years ago. I think Steve White from the St. Lawrence University Modern
Languages Department turned me onto his work. I love his poems. Each one is a
lyrical short short short short short story. Not glittering gems; rather earthy
scrimshaw. Complete pictures.
This also
seems like a good place to take note of the books written by the two authors
who joined us during the call in program:
- *Losing Solitude; *Burt’s Way: A North
Country Mystery; *Windswept; *Red Tree Mouse Chronicles; *Seriously Insistent,
Martin Murie. Available from Packrat Books or Homestead Publishing.
- *In the Bleak Mid-winter; *A Fountain Filled
With Blood; *Out of the Deep I Cry, Julia Spencer-Fleming. Mystery series
set in the Adirondack North Country.
Martin Murie,
North Bangor
- *North Country Settlers: Malone in the 19th
Century, Ted Mills. Published by Aspect Books in Brushton but copyrighted
by The Franklin County Historical and Museum Society, Malone.
Chris Robinson,
Clarkson University/Readers & Writers
co-host
This year’s
focus on regional literature and authors has been just wonderful. It has been a
great opportunity to read authors at the behest of other local authors and
editors. I want to thank both Chris Shaw and Peter Bailey for recommending the
work of Frederick Exley. He starts my list.
Regional
Literature:
- *A Fan’s Notes and *Lost Notes From Home, Frederick Exley. The protagonist is Exley
himself and these books are filled with profound observation and humor. True
the author is describing his own self-destruction, but in a voice that is
unique and memorable.
- *Living North Country: Essays on Life and
Landscapes in Northern New York, Natalia Rachel Singer, Neal Burdick, eds.
The stories, poems and essays collected here are uniformly excellent.
Fiction:
- Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia
Marquez. My favorite book of the year is a memoir by a fiction writer. This is
the first of three volumes and it is translated by the great Edith Grossman
(who is also out with a new translation of Cervantes’ Don
Quixote that has
been extremely well received by critics). Marquez is at his mesmerizing best
weaving stories that do indeed add up to a life. I read this slowly and tried
to make it last. My consolation upon finishing was knowing there are two more
volumes to go.
- The Book Against God, James Wood. I know
of no other novel that takes an atheist’s uncertainty more seriously. It is an
insider’s view of the struggle to make the world meaningful once an accepted
version has been cast off.
- Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison. I spend a
lot of time re-reading books that continue to resonate over years. This is a
book I did not read until I was over thirty. I knew immediately that I should
have read this earlier. It has been a bout a decade since I read it last and I
find that I continue to grow with it. Would anyone not place this on their top
ten list for novels of the twentieth century?
Non-fiction:
- The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of
Race in American Life, Manning Marable, and Days of Obligation and Brown,
Richard Rodriguez. This past year I have been reading through works that take
up the issue of race in American politics and culture. These three books have
provoked some hard questions for me.
- Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan
Sontag. A power essay on the photography of war and on our use of photographs,
film, and media to mediate our response to the horrors of battle and genocide.
- *Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age,
Bill McKibben. Bill’s new book on technology’s promise to make us post- or
super-human. It is a fine analysis of the implications of germ-line
bioengineering, nanotechnology, and robotics.
- Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi.
An emotional read for me. I shed tears over it because of the travails of the
women in Nafisi’s Thursday reading group, and also because of their love of
literature. Nafisi is a great writer.
Poetry:
- The Collected Poems of Robert Lowell,
Robert Lowell. I continue to read Lowell. I pick it up once or twice a week and
flip until something stands out. Something always stands out.
- Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan,
John Balaban, trans. Beautiful, delicate, erotic. Many thanks to my friend Joe
Duemer for recommending this one.
- Music:
- A Love Supreme and Kind of Blue, Ashley Kahn. Masterful studies of the improvisation,
discipline, and creativity extolled by jazz. He also manages to put you in
conversation with John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
Philosophy:
- The Philosopher’s Diet, Richard Watson.
Highly recommended for those who want to think about the good life while
dropping a few pounds and keeping them off.
- The Many Faces of Philosophy, Amelie
Rorty. This collection of autobiographical writings by philosophers should be
in very high school and town library.
Others:
- I liked
Alston Chase’s Harvard and the Unabomber
and Al Franken’s Lies, and the Lying
Liars Who Tell Them very much. I wanted to be the only person to ever put
these two titles in the same sentence. Very satisfying.
Dishonorable mention (misc.)
Our story begins, as
very few do, in the small but diabolically clever town of Torrington, Alberta,
where the Gopher Hole Museum, displaying 71 adorable yet eerie stuffed gophers
dressed up to resemble the townspeople, has attracted so many tourists that
when a Torrington home goes on the
market, it sells in less than six years.
-- Joanne Morcom, Clagary, Alberta
Rick Hunter,
Malone, co-host reading list call-in
Novel
experiences:
- Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry. I have,
bar none, a favorite novelist: born in India and now living in Toronto, Mistry
writes of his native land and people with humor, truth, and great sadness. His
most recent book may be his best. I liken this book to a tragedy by Sophocles, where
a single tragic flaw brings down the protagonist and those around her.
- All We Know of Heaven, Remy Rougeau.
Himself a monk, Rougeau’s beautiful novel lovingly tells of a young Cistercian
monk’s search for himself and God in a Manitoba abbey.
- A Certain Slant of Light, Cynthia
Thayer. A fine novel.
- Cordelia Underwood, Mollie Peer and Daniel
Plainway, Van Reid. A fine trilogy: charming, good characters…and good
will.
- South of the Big Four, Don Kurtz. A
magnificent, compelling account of land, place, and men whose work is their
life.
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith.
Deservedly an American classic.
- Straight Man, Richard Russo. The author
won the Pulitzer for his later novel, Empire
Falls. His previous, comic novel Straight
Man about the goings-on in a second tier rust belt state university is a
hoot.
- Brighten the Corner Where You Are, Fred
Chappell. Fine Southern charm and storytelling.
- *Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town,
Stephen Leacock. Imagine Mark Twain having lived in Ontario and a small town a
subject of his satiric mirth! You would have this 1931 genial masterpiece.
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel. Great read!
- Letters for Emily, Camron Wright. This
should be awful, fallinginto insipidness or bathos. Instead, Wright creates a
gem, worthy of both re-reading and reading to one’s children.
- The Right Man for the Job, Mike
Magnuson. A gifted writer, a writer to be watched.
- Main Street, Sinclair Lewis. A great and
timeless work that is profoundly unsettling.
- Lying Awake, Mark Salzman. Salzman
writes beautifully, almost poetically, of Sister John and her community.
Salzman’s brief, poignant novel charms and disturbs.
- The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century
Jerusalem, Kanan Makiya. A fascinating narrative of faiths in conflict.
Purple prose…dishonorable mention:
The ballerina stood on
point, her toes curled like shrimp, not deep-fried shrimp because, as brittle
as they are, they would have cracked under the pressure, but tender
ebi-kind-of-shrimp, pink and luscious as a Tokyo sunset, wondering if her lover
was in the Ginza, wooing the geisha with eyes reminiscent of roe, which she
liked better than ebi anyway.
-- Brian Tacang, El Prado, NM
Rick Hunter, cont'd.
Non-fiction choices:
- Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, Karen
Armstrong. A scholarly yet mostly accessible history.
- Ice Time: A Tale of Fathers, Sons, and
Hometown Heroes, Jay Atkinson. About boys becoming men, and the lessons
which sports and comradeship bring.
- The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of
the World, Michael Pollan. Focusing on four highly domesticated plant
species, Pollan asks how human actions have caused these plants to evolve to
serve man.
- Moonlight: Abraham Lincoln and the Almanac
Trial, John Evangelist.
- The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How
India Was Mapped and Everest Was Named, John Keay.
- An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the
War that Came Between Us, James Carroll.
- Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball
and Honor on the Little Big Horn, Larry Colton. The author follows a single
remarkable player, Sharon LaFarge, and her Lady Bulldogs, on the way to the
State Tournament from the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana.
- Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance
Genius Reinvented Architecture, Ross King.
- The Northern Lights: The True Story of the
Man Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aurora Borealis, Lucy Jago.
- Rutherford B. Hayes, Hans L. Trefousse; James Madison, Gary Wills; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Tom Wicker. Three
short and well-written biographies from the Times Books American Presidents
Series.
- *Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in
New England’s Stone Walls, Robert M. Thorson. A classic “Rick book”: about
how the 240,000 miles of stone walls came into being and later decline.
- Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky.
- Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of
Financial Speculation, Edward Chancellor.
- The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the
Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels, Luke Timothy
Johnson. Takes on the recent academic
attempt to determine, using methods more akin to a Gallup poll than
scholarship, what words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels he in fact spoke.
- Francis of Assisi: A Revolutionary
Life, Adrian House.
- The Measure of Our Days: A Spiritual
Exploration of Illness, Jerome Groopman.
- Sacred Geography: A Tale of Murder and
Archeology in the Holy Land, Edward Fox.
- The Bible As It Was, James L. Kugel. A
highly learned, yet very accessible, examination of how the Torah—the first
five books of the Old Testament—was read by Jewish and early Christian sources.
- Wide as the Waters: The Story of the English
Bible and the Revolution It Inspired, Benson Bobrick.
From Rick’s
10-year-old daughter Bea:
- Swallows and Amazons Series, Arthur
Ransom. Charming stories of boys and girls from England’s Lake District.
- All of a Kind Family Series, Sydney
Taylor. Stories of a Jewish family growing up in Manhattan in the first part of
the 20th century.
(NOTE: If
you’d like to receive the complete “Rick’s Reads” recommendations from Rick
Hunter, email Ellen and she’ll send your name along to Rick for inclusion on his
mailing list.)
Children’s Literature Winner:
The Prince looked down
at the motionless form of Sleeping Beauty, wondering how her supple lips would
feel against his own and contemplating whether or not an Altoid was strong
enough to stand up against the kind of morning breath only a hundred year’s nap
could create.
-- Lynne Sella, Susanville, CA
Jackie Sauter,
NCPR program director
- I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith. This
one is a fun read that perhaps may hold a little more appeal for the gals. It’s
a well-written madcap kind of tale about a penniless and offbeat English family
that lives in a crumbling castle and their various adventures. I believe this
one will soon be a film, so read the book first! From Amazon.com: “Dodie Smith,
author of 101 Dalmations, wrote this
novel in 1948, and though the story is set in the 1930s, it still feels fresh,
and well deserves its reputation as a modern classic.”
What I’m reading next:
- Four Spirits, Sena Jeter Naslund. Set in
Birmingham, a big novel about the civil rights movement, racial hatred, the
struggle for justice, the divide between black and white, and the possibility
of forgiveness and reconciliation. Naslund is my favorite contemporary author.
She wrote the critically acclaimed Ahab’s
Wife, and this new book has had great reviews.
Christyanna M.
LaFaver, Canton
(Thanks to
Christyanna for this great list of regional titles.)
- *Greener Pastures: In Praise of Traditional
Country Living, Marnie Reed Crowell.
- *A Fan’s Notes, *Last Notes From Home and *Pages
From a Cold Island, Frederick Exley.
- *Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley,
Jonathan Yardley.
- *Parish’s Fancy, Walter Guest Kellogg.
- *Sandbox to Mortarboard: Laughing All the
Way!, Dorine Cornell Lord.
- *Boldt Castle: In Search of the Lost Story,
Paul Malo.
- *Fools’ Paradise: Remembering the Thousand
Islands, Paul Malo.
Also…
- A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes,
and the Eternal Passion for Books, Nicholas Basbanes.
- Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton.
- Orlando and Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf.
- I’m Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning
to America After 20 years Away and Notes From a Small Island, Bill Bryson.
All creatures…runner-up:
On the fourth day of
his exploration of the Amazon, Byron climbed out of his inner tube, checked the
latest news on his personal digital assistant (hereafter PDA) outfitted with
wireless technology, and realized that the gnawing he felt in his stomach was
not fear—no, he was not afraid, rather elated—nor was it tension—no, he was
actually rather relaxed—so it was in all probability a parasite.
-- Chuck Keelan/Stern Stewart, NY, NY
Betsy Kepes,
Colton, NCPR commentator
Here’s a
question: what book about northern New York State is in almost every bookstore
in the United States?
- *Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder. The
book is set in 1867 near Malone. I’d recommend it to all. It’s chock full of
historical detail on 19th century farming, but what interested me
most was the depiction of the French and Irish living in the North Country at
the time. If the book is accurate, rural immigrants—French and Irish—faced the
same prejudice in rural northern New York that they did in large urban areas,
such as Boston and New York.
- *Eben Holden, Irving Bachellor. This
book is set in mid-nineteenth century farm country south of Canton. By the same
author, *Silas Strong, which takes
place in the woods near Cranberry Lake. Bachellor wrote several other novels
about the North Country, most of them featuring a misunderstood farm boy who
pines for a more scholarly life.
Linda Gutmann,
Lake Placid
Here are
three non-fiction, largely autobiographical book titles that, collectively,
give factual, fascinating and evocative glimpses into life in northern, rural
New York State from the Civil War period up to the turn of the twentieth
century.
- *Adirondack Years: A Girl Grows Up in the
Adirondacks in the 1880’s, Edna West Teall. In her later years, following a
long career as a journalist in New Jersey, Edna West Teall returned to her home
territory of Lewis, NY to pen and to paint her vivid and lively reminiscences
of life as lived in her girlhood. Forty Grandma Moses-style paintings plus 52
period engravings illustrate an abundance of short and informative essays on
every aspect of daily and festive life at that time.
- *Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder. One of
the Little House series of accounts
of pioneer life, written when the author was in her sixties and published in
the 1940s. This book’s story line, however, predates the rest of the books; it
tells of the boyhood years of Laura’s eventual husband, Almanzo Wilder, and
takes place entirely on the Wilder family farm in Burke, NY, six to seven miles
northeast of Malone. (A wonderful thing is that the farm, still in relatively
authentic and restored condition, and pretty much “out in the middle of
nowhere” and thus in a kind of time warp, can be visited today as The Almazo
Wilder Homestead.
- *Dear Home: The 1901-1902 Diary of Mabel Lila
Wait, Susan Ward, ed. This series of diary entries of a young woman living
in the Canton, NY region reveal her tug-of-war with the conventional mores of
the time. A sense of the pace of life at that time—a time when letter- and
diary-writing was encouraged.
Winner Science Fiction:
Colonel Cleatus
Yorbville had been one seriously bored astronaut for the first few months of
his diplomatic mission on the third planet of the Frangelicus XIV system, but
all that had changed on the day he’d discovered that his tiny, multipedal and infinitely hospitable alien
hosts were not only edible but tasted remarkably like that stuff that’s left on
the pan after you’ve made cinnamon buns and burned them a little.
-- Mark Silcox, Auburn AL
Carol Anderson,
Massena
- *Power Dam Politics, Thomas J. Snider.
The author is a local attorney. The reader will learn about our St. Lawrence
River, citizenship, negotiations, and local/power politics. This is an
excellent expose of how our river communities were “sold down the river” by the
very people who are supposed to be representing us.
- *Smokescreen: One Man Against the Underworld,
Paul William Roberts and Norman Snider. This is a true story of a local
businessman’s undercover work in conjunction with our Secret Service and the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police to expose organized crime on both sides of the
American/Canadian border—right in our backyard.
Helen Ashworth,
Heuvelton (also recommended by Ann
Bennett)
- *Afterglow, Freeman L. Ashworth. The
author is a cousin of mine. This novel’s characters/stories are based on his
experiences growing up on a farm (across the road from where I live now) during
the ‘40s and then early ‘50s, graduating from high school in Heuvelton and then
attending college with much encouragement from his mother. The book is
available in the Heuvelton library and other libraries around the region.
Viki Levitt,
Potsdam (also recommended by Louise Tyo)
- *From Megaphones to Microphones: Speeches of
American Women, 1920-1960, Susan Ross, Sandra Sarkela, Margaret Lowe.
Edited and compiled by three scholars with current and past connections to SUNY
Potsdam. It presents speeches by women made during a 40 year period when most
of us were led to believe that women didn’t take the podium. The women featured
are articulate, intelligent, charming, informative and forceful speakers. Also
includes many wonderful photographs.
Daisy Kelly,
Indian Lake
- *The Adirondack Kids, *Rescue on Bald
Mountain, and *The Lost Lighthouse,
Gary and Justin Van Riper. The first three books in a series of
historical/Adirondack adventure fiction written by this father/son team. (There
is a fourth in the works, The Great Train
Robbery, to be released this spring: it takes place on the train in North
Creek, the Upper Hudson River Railroad.) Area teachers are loving this series.
The Van Ripers have a website (adirondackkids.com) where there are “dax facts”
related to the stories, for example, facts about loons, plus lots of curriculum
related ideas to try.
Nancy Battaglia,
Lake Placid
- *The Book of Hard Things, Sue Halpern.
- The Five People You Meet in Heaven,
Mitch Albom.
Nancy Currier,
Olmstedville
- Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s
Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore. It brings tears to your eyes! It covers
the “lost “ years of Jesus…his difficult puberty. It came recommended to me by
an Episcopal priest and I bought it for my principal, a Catholic sister. It is
a great laugh.
John Schroeter,
Thurman
- *Adirondack Gold, Persis Granger. The
author is from Thurman. A very good book for young readers—the story of a boy
who, in 1895, is forced by circumstances to move from Warrensburg to his
grandparents’ home in Thurman.
- God’s Secretaries, Adam Nicholson. A
fascinating and wonderfully written account of the writing of the King James
Bible.
Vile pun…runner-up:
The ancient Peruvian
Airlines DC-3 lumbered slowly over the snow-capped peaks far below as Gunderson
turned to Ricketts and marveled at how their avian import business “Incahoots”
had led them once again to the far reaches of South America in search of the
elusive gray-spotted owl.
-- Miltiades Mandros, Oakland, CA
Sally Lynch,
Potsdam
- The Crocodile Bird, Ruth Rendell. A
pared-down, riveting psychological thriller.
- Sister Age, M.F.K. Fisher. A collection
of her shorter pieces. Exquisite characterization and detail.
Bob Collier,
Tupper Lake
- The Cat From Hue: A Vietnam War Story,
John Laurence.
- Into Their Labours Trilogy (Pig Earth, Once
in Europa, Lilac and Flag), John Berger.
- White Lotus, John Hersey. An oldie
re-read, from about 1964. White Americans enslaved by Chinese after an
apocalypse. Buried in this book, my current favorite prayer…(I pried it out of Bob…here it is—ER):
The nobler sort of man
pays attention to nine points:
he is anxious to see
clearly
to hear distinctly
to be kind in his
looks
respectful in his
demeanor
conscientious in his
speech
earnest in his affairs
careful to inquire
when in doubt
alert to consequences
when angry
and mindful only of
his duty when offered an opportunity for gain
Alice Stokes, Burlington
- Middlesex: A Novel, Jeffrey Eugenides.
About a hermaphrodite coming of age in the ‘70s, and the family history that
led to his genetic disorder. Also, a fascinating glimpse into Greek culture,
mid-20th century immigrants, childhood, adolescence and family ties.
The odd premise of this book is quickly overtaken by the depth of the story. A
great read. A Pulitzer Prize winner last year.
- *Lost Nation, Jeffrey Lent. This dark,
compelling story kept me glued to the couch over the holiday break. It’s
written by a Vermont author.
Susan Kavanaugh,
Middlebury
- *Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal
Survival, Bernd Heinrich. I LOVE this book and I don’t read any
non-fiction, ever. It’s beautifully written and illustrated by Dr. Heinrich, a
UVM professor. Was mentioned recently in NY
Times’ New and Noteworthy column:
“By observing voles, birds, hares, wood frogs and other creatures during the
winter near his home in Vermont and around his cabin in Maine, the author—a
biologist and nature writer—sheds light on principles of ecology and
physiology.” In his “…captivating and at times surprising examination of animal
survival in the coldest of seasons (the author) combines his keen scientific
eye with the soul of a poet.” I have poured over each chapter, skipped ahead,
gone back, read over and over the fascinating way birds, chippies, bears make
their nests. And this guy makes you just want to strap on your snowshoes, get
up at dawn, and get outside into the wild frosty world. Vermont listeners will
likely recognize Heinrich’s name. He’s well known here especially for his work
with ravens.
Jill Vaughan,
Brushton
The two titles I’ve been thinking about the most are:
- On Moral Fiction, John Gardner.
- Selected Poems, Langston Hughes. I’ve
loved him for years, and he’s always new to me.
Also:
- The Reader’s Manifesto: An Attack on the
Growing Pretentiousness in American Literary Prose, B.R. Myers.
- The Pleasures of Reading in an Idealogical
Age, Robert Alter.
- A Writer’s America: Landcapes in Literature,
Alfred Kazin.
- Breaking Clean, Judy Blunt.
- Beginner’s Luck, Laura Pedersen. Just
for fun, a great read.
David Haggard,
Springfield MA
I received two books for Christmas:
- Beethoven’s Hair: An Extraordinary
Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved, Russell Martin. As a
classical music fan, I found this book both interesting and informative.
- Power Dam Politics, Tom Snider. I am a
second year law student from Canton. I know Tom and he has done a great job of
exposing small town politics. Everyone should read this book.
Karen Dawson,
Burlington
Fiction:
- City of Glass and Ghosts, Paul Auster.
- Windup Bird Chronicles, Murakami.
- DaVinci Code, Dan Brown.
- Hasidic Tales: Annotated and Explained,
Rami Shapiro.
- Villa Incognito, Tom Robbins.
- Play:
- The Invention of Love, Tom Stoppard.
Non-Fiction:
- Wittenstein’s Poker: The Story of a Ten
Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosphers, David Edmonds and John
Eidenow.
- God and the Philosophers, Thomas Morris,
ed.
- Philosophy and Social Hope, Richard
Rorty.
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A
Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, Al Franken.
Dishonorable mention (misc.)
As she contemplated
the setting sun, its dying rays casting the last of their brilliant purple
light on the red-gold waters of the lake, Debbie realized that she should never
again buy her sunglasses from a guy parked by the side of the road.
-- Malinda
Lingwall, Bloomington, IN
Rosalie Smith,
Massena
- The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd.
- Life of Pi, Yann Martel.
- Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahisi.
- Bel Canto, Ann Patchett.
- Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle
of Thermopylae, Steven Pressfield.
Lynn Klein,
Boonville
- Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Laura
Hillenbrand. Well written…good flow. It’s not just a horse story by any means!
The people around the horse are just as fascinating as the horse himself.
Reminded me of the great Aussie horse, Phar Lap.
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy,
J.R.R.Tolkien. For the first or twentieth time! (My first read was a few months
ago and I am ready to read it again!)
Don Purcell,
Potsdam
- World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market
Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability, Amy Chua. Economics
and rapport with world political situation.
- In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the
Whaleship Essex, Nathaniel Philbrick. About Nantucket in 1800’s and
whaling, a documentary that makes me turn back to Melville as well.
- The Quiet American, Graham Greene.
Besides human intensity, a 1950’s note to 2004.
Christine Mace,
Canton
- The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown.
- The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, Ann Packer.
- Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, A.B. Ross.
- Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch
Albom.
Louise Scarlett,
Rossie
This past year’s favorites, the ones we gave away as
Christmas gifts, all novels:
- The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd.
- Three Junes, Julia Glass.
- *Burning Margerite, Elizabeth
Inness-Brown.
Three by neighbors to the north, all Canadian authors, also
novels:
- Crow Lake, Mary Lawson.
- A Student of Weather, Elizabeth Hay.
- Away, Jane Urquhart. She has a new
novel, Stone Carvers, on my reading
wish list.
Non-fiction favorites:
- Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr.
Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, Tracy Kidder. About Farmer’s
medical practice in Haiti.
- Where Rivers Change Direction, Mark
Spragg. Memoir of growing up on a working ranch in Wyoming.
- Soul of a Chef, Michael Ruhlman. Author
attends master chef class at the Culinary Institute, Hyde Park, and spends time
in kitchens of upscale restaurants. Entertaining writing about food.
Betsy Folwell,
Blue Mountain Lake
Here are my votes for great winter books:
- Middlesex: A Novel, Jeffrey Eugenides.
What a saga, so well told in believable voice.
- John Adams, David McCullough. Everybody
should know about Adams, but he has been overshadowed by more flamboyant
characters like Washington and Jefferson. Wonderful on tape, read (and
abridged) by the author.
- The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of
the World, Michael Pollan. Not brand new, but ideal for gardeners and
social historians. Blows Johnny Appleseed myth on his leather breeches.
- History of Britain, Volume 3: The Fate of
the Empire 1776-2002, Simon Schwama (read by Timothy Best). Awesome.
Thorough but not exhausting and plenty of attitude.
Western…runner-up:
When Jimmy walked into
the saloon the entire bar stopped and stared for here was the only cowboy who
could wear pants as white as the marrow found in the neck of a well-roasted
sheep, one that had been bled properly first, not like the ones you get now.
-- Greg Eastwood, Menora, Western Australia
Stephen Langdon,
Saranac Lake
- Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia
Marquez. Since college, I have obsessed over One Hundred Years of Solitude, for which Marquez won the Nobel
Prize in 1982, and I always hoped for a closer look into the context in which
the book was created. I was not disappointed. I highly recommend this
autobiography for anyone who has been awed by Marquez’s novels, novellas, short
stories, or essays.
In the local author department:
- *North By East, Rockwell Kent. On the
only day of Christmas my true love gave to me a copy of this. I haven’t read it
yet, but it’s next on the list. My Dad referred to Kent as this crazy old man
in Ausable Forks…though he was much more—a famous artist/illustrator and
infamous socialist (at least among his north country neighbors). This book is a
journal of his travels in Greenland in the early 1920’s. If you’re ever in
Plattsburgh, go see his stunning arctic landscape paintings, done presumably on
this trip. The paintings are in the Rockwell Kent Museum at Plattsburgh State
University.
Rev. Dudley Sarfaty,
Malone
- Credo, William Sloane Coffin. Coffin
explains a meaning of the word belief which is almost totally unknown to
Western scientific thinking, both personal and active, well worth
considering. Very likely his last book,
because of ill health. Coffin has gone through his unpublished writings and
extracted items he would like his readers to have—gems which might have
appeared in future books if he had the health to write into golden years.
Rick Davis,
Richmond, VT
- *A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow: An
American Hitchhiking Odyssey; *Catching My Breath: An Asthmatic Explores His
Illness, Tim Brookes.
Sunhee Sohn-Robinson,
Hannawa Falls
- Spies and Headlong, Michael Frayn.
Tom Langen/Esther Oey,
Potsdam
- Autumn, Peter Marchand.
- Reflections in Bullough’s Pond, Diana
Muir.
Rick Welsh,
Potsdam
- Chris
Robinson got this suggestion from Rick, and writes: Rick and his spouse became
new parents recently. When I asked them what they’ve been reading lately they
laughed at my naivete. To make me feel better, Rick remembered that he read
Derek Bok’s book, Universities in the
Marketplace.
Carol Scofield,
via email
- Middlesex: A Novel, Jeffrey Eugenides.
Just finished this amazing book.
Donna, Indian
Lake
- *Take the Bait, S.W. Hubbard. In the
Adirondacks, murder leaves no trail. This is a first novel, but the author had
me turning the pages. I think a second book written about the same Adirondack
town and its police chief is in the works.
- Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder.
An excellent non-fiction book about infectious diseases and a very special
American doctor, Dr. Paul Farmer, who has dedicated his life to treating
tuberculosis and AIDS, especially in Haiti. I cannot get over that this
wonderful man has accomplished miracles and I had never heard of him before.
Kudos for Tracy Kidder, an excellent author.
Rich Loeber,
Saranac Lake
I’m working
on a couple of quests. First, to read everything ever written by CS Forester
(where I’m making pretty good progress), especially non-Hornblower work. I like
the Hornblower series so much that I wanted to see his other work. He has
really given us a gift with his books Long
Before Forty and The Hornblower
Compendium as they give us a sense of the author’s creative process. The
second quest is to read as much of Robert Louis Stevenson as possible—since he
spent a little time here in the Adirondacks. So, here’s my list in the sequence
that I’ve read them:
- The Ship, CS Forester.
- The Black Arrow, Robert Louis Stevenson.
- In Harm’s Way, Doug Stanton.
- *Adirondack Country, William Chapman
White.
- Long Before Forty, CS Forester.
- Bleachers, John Grisham.
- Sink the Bismarck, CS Forester.
- The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander
Dumas.
- Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!, George
Rabble.
- To the Indies, CS Forester.
- Hornblower During the Crisis, CS
Forester.
- Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, CS Forester.
- Lieutenant Hornblower, CS Forester.
- Hornblower and the Hotspur, CS Forester.
- Hornblower and the Atropos, CS Forester.
- Beat To Quarters, CS Forester.
- Ship of the Line, CS Forester.
- Flying Colours, CS Forester.
- Commodore Hornblower, CS Forester.
- Lord Hornblower, CS Forester.
- Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies,
CS Forester.
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr.
Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson.
- The Weir of Hermiston, Robert Louis
Stevenson.
- Trojan Odyssey, Clive Cussler.
Regina Davis,
Waddington
- *Power Dam Politics: Dealing with the
Politics of Power at the Local Level, Thomas J. Snider. A must read by
Waddington author Thomas J. Snider, who has researched, organized and delivered
a thorough account of NYPA’s battle with local communities in their
re-licensing venture. It really makes one realize how those given the power to
make decisions view the common people and how much NYPA has used the North
Country communities. There is a lot of history in this powerful book. I would
recommend it to anyone.
Judith Glasser,
Potsdam
- Uncle Tungston, Oliver Sachs. The book
everyone should read. It is a fascinating memoir, not to be missed.
- A Benjamin Franklin Reader, Walter
Isaacson, ed. Very interesting.
- Of course,
there are the usual suspects: Tolkien’s Ring trilogy, much better in every way
than the moviews, wonderful though they are visually, I would have preferred
that the screenwriters had stuck to Tolkien’s version of events. And, if there
is anyone out there who hasn’t read the latest Harry Potter (Order of the Pheonix) they should remedy
the deficiency.
Cheryl, via email
- Ahab’s Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund. Highly
recommend. It’s so beautifully written. The strength and courage and
extraordinary spirit of the young girl who comes of age and eventually becomes
a kindred spirit to the likes of such a man as Ahab is a remarkable tale. It’s
a lengthy read, but so deliciously written that it’s sad to have it end.
- Four Spirits, Sena Jeter Naslund. I am
in the middle of this right now. It’s another book I would quickly recommend,
though very different from the first in its style.
Winner DETECTIVE:
Detective Inspector
Mike Norman slipped six fingers into his overcoat pocket, five of them clad in
a latex glove and attached to his palm, while the sixth was wrapped in a
plastic evidence bag and apparently belonged to the kidnapped pianist Ricardo
Moore, or, as it now seemed likely, the kidnapped ex-pianist Ricardo Moore.
-- Alan Campbell, Edinburgh, Scotland
Ellen Egan George,
Saranac Lake
For serious
reading with the objective of gaining some understanding about the world
situation, I recommend the following:
- The Battle for God, Karen Armstrong. The
author is a British scholar of world religions. This book, published in 2000,
describes the rise of “fundamentalist” religions within Christianity, Judaism
and Islam. It is a fascinating, intelligent and very readable book; Armstrong
has incredible breadth and depth in her approach to this subject.
- Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on
Today’s World, Karen Armstrong. She describes the legacy of religious
violence felt today in the conflict of Christians, Jews and Muslims and
provides useful information on the Muslim-Western perceptions of each other’s
civilizations. You will understand immediately why it was very unfortunate that
President Bush uttered the word “crusade” in describing our country’s reaction
to 9/11. Again, very readable. Armstrong is a brilliant scholar who writes
beautifully and lucidly.
- The Clash of Civilizations: Remaking of
World Order, Samuel P. Huntington. The author is on the faculty at Harvard.
This book, published in 1996, was prescient in its insights into world
conflicts (present and future) after the fall of communism.
None of
these books is light reading. You need to be prepared to spend many hours—I
suggest long Sunday afternoons—over a period of weeks. But, they are well worth
the effort.
Robert Fry,
Alexandria, VA (and occasional north country visitor)
- Two summers
ago, my wife and I came on vacation to your area and we enjoyed the area and
your station. When you spotlight local authors, include a gem we came across:
*Sharie Derrickson, a reporter for the Thousand
Islands Sun. We enjoy her columns so much that we have a subscription sent
to our homes in Florida and Virginia so we continue to get her humor pieces and
human interest stories. She is the Dave Barry of New York!
Linda Cohen, Old
Forge
- The Bookseller of Kabul, Asne Seierstad.
A fascinating study of a successful, eduated bookseller and his life and the
family he torments. The author is a Norwegian journalist who lived in Kabul for
a year, writing about life for Afghanis under fundamentalist Islamic regime.
Mickey Williams,
Canton
- A Short History of Nearly Everything,
Bill Bryson. It makes you think, and is fun, too.
- I have read
a number of the best sellers: The DaVinci
Code, Secret Life of Bees, The Bleacher, plus my usual light reading of
mysteries. But, I really enjoyed the Bryson.
Chris Shaw,
Middlebury
- Living to Tell the Tale, Gabriel Garcia
Marquez. Can’t say enough about this memoir.
- Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of
Empire in Central Asia, Tom Bissell. Enjoyed this travel book by the young
author.
- Island, Alistair MacLean. Everybody
should read this collection, set on Cape Breton.
Overall runner-up:
The flock of geese
flew overhead in a “V” formation—not in an old-fashioned- looking Times Roman
kind of a “V”, branched out slightly at the two opposite arms at the top of the
“V”, nor in a more modern-looking, straight and crisp, linear Arial sort of “V”
(although since they were flying, Arial might have been appropriate), but in a
slightly asymmetric, tilting off-to-one-side sort of italicized Courier New-like “V”—and LaFonte knew that he was just
the type of man to know the difference.
-- John Dotson (U.S. Naval Officer), Arlington, VA
Scott Ferris,
Boonville
- *Salamina, Rockwell Kent. Kent’s 1935
account of his life in Greenland (regarding his third and final trip to that
largest of islands), reprinted this past autumn by Wesleyan University Press.
For the sake of disclosure, I wrote the foreward for this edition.
Bruce Morrow,
Keeseville
I enjoy
visiting Montreal, and there are three recent restaurant guides in English.
(What better fun-reading on a winter evening?)
- *Flavourville, Leslie Chesterman. The
author is fine-dining critic for the Gazette.
This came out in 2002 but was updated in September 2003.
- *Resto a Go-Go: 180 Cheap and Fun Places to
Eat and Drink in Montreal (2003), Sarah Musgrave. Author is the casual
dining critic for the Gazette. This
covers mostly cheaper establishments.
- *Cheap
Thrills, Montreal: Great Montreal Meals for Under $15 (2003), Nancy Marelli
and Simon Dardick. Another cheapy guide.
A fourth
book can help you find ethnic foods and food items in Montreal:
- *Taste of Montreal: Tracking Down the Foods
of the World (2003), Barry Lazar.
Valerie Summer,
Renssalear Falls
- *Fall On Your Knees, Ann-Marie MacDonald.
A Canadian writer. This is dark but riveting.
- *The Way the Crow Flies, Ann-Marie
MacDonald. This second book I absolutely loved. Great story, characters, and
lots of Ontario landscape.
Burt Phillips,
Watertown
- Hornet’s Nest, Jimmy Carter. Yes, a
novel by former President Carter. Historical fiction, about people and events
in the South during the Revolutionary War. Who would have thought that the
citizens of Georgia and the Carolinas had anything to do with it??? Heretofore,
that war—in my mind—was all Lexington, Concord, Boston, Saratoga, Brooklyn,
Trenton…John Paul Jones, Benedict Arnold, George Washington, Lafayette…Now I’m
learning that those places and men—icons of my youth—were only a small portion
of the whole story.
Stan Hatch, via
email
- *Publish or Perish: A Tenure Decision,
Stan Hatch (writing as Benjamin Jacob Grant). I am a local author and recently
published this Christian mystery novel set in academia. More about it: www.oldpostpublihing.com.
Tim Keller,
Watertown
- A Death in the Family, James Agee.
According to Tolstoy, true art conveys feeling. The stronger the feeling, the
better the art. By this criterion, Agee’s book is, in my opinion, quite
possibly the best novel of the last century. Do others feel this way? I
heartily recommend it.
Ted Tait, Star
Lake
- Recommends
these books on tape: PG Woodhouse, all the Bertie and Jeeves capers; and, Jimmy
Carter’s autobiography.
Larry, somewhere
in Lewis County
- *Upstate, Edmund Wilson.
- He’s also
reading The Diary of Samuel Pepys and
Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.
George, Lake
Placid
- *The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of
Clarence Petty, Chris Angus.
- *Guides of the Adironacks: A History,
Charles Brumley. (And anything else by this author who’s known to our listeners
as commentator Chuck Brumley.)
Lynn, Boonville
- Seabiscuit, Ann Hillebrand.
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy,
J.R.R.Tolkien.
- Come Spring, Ben Ames Williams.
Eileen,
Morrisonville
- *Dear Yeats, Dear Pound, Dear Ford: Jeanne Robert
Foster and Her Circle of Friends (Writing American Women), Richard
Londraville.
- *Adirondack Portraits: A Piece of Time,
Jeanne Robert Foster et al.
- *Neighbors of Yesterday, Jeanne Robert
Foster.
Kent Gregson,
Olmstedville
- The Jumbo Duct Tape Book, Jim Berg et
al.
- Tao Te Ching, Stephen Mitchell.
OVERALL WINNER:
They had but one last
remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that
two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the
white… Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain
American, as it really doesn’t taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet
they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently.
-- Mariann Simms, Wetumpka, AL
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