Horst Woit, a young boy, snatched his uncle’s jack knife from the kitchen table as he and his mother walked out the door of their home. They trudged through the snow and freezing weather toward the Baltic harbor where they boarded a ship named the Wilhelm Gustloff to flee from Nazi Germany while Stalin’s soldiers advanced on the Eastern Front in January 1945. When Alexander… [Read More]
“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonder,” Henry David Thoreau. Heirloom pink poppy seeds sprouted this week indoors. I am prepared to expect blossoms this July. Much depends on what happens between now and… [Read More]
So it’s cold outside. Steep a cup of tea and put in a teaspoon of pure, local, raw honey. Then take a sip, close your eyes, and feel that warm golden glow. Give thanks for the angels of agriculture: bees. Homegrown Honey Bees: Beekeeping Your First Year, from Hiving to Honey Harvest by Alethea Morrison is an introduction to beekeeping and a recruitment tool for… [Read More]
Before Lady Gaga, before Madonna, Cher, Lucy. Even before Mae West. In fact, Mae West started out in the shadows of the original cyclonic comedienne, Eva Tanguay (1879-1947). Andy Eerdman unearths the lost legacy of one of the most famous women in her day in this compelling history, Queen of Vaudeville, just released by Cornell University Press. Raised in a typical New England mill town, Miss… [Read More]
“When I was seventeen years old, I met the hottest guy…,”so begins Sara Benincasa‘s memoir about a boy who would never pick her as his girlfriend. “Kevin entered a new high school in a new town and was immediately nominated for Best Looking, Most Likely to Succeed, and Best Personality – stunning trifecta of high school laurels… Then, one night in the spring, he walked… [Read More]
J. Robert Lennon makes the surreal perfectly plausible with his eye for details from observed everyday reality in his new novel, Familiar, to be released on October 2, by Graywolf Press. The clarity of his prose offers the reader a fresh, stark, and swift opening that situates the reader’s sympathies with the main character, Elisa Brown. Driving across Wisconsin, she recalls her sons’ early years… [Read More]
In June I had the good fortune to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday with a visit to Minnesota and a reunion of cousins. That my Midwestern family likes to read good books became self-evident during my visit home. Dad’s office is an entire room lined with bookshelves. His well worn copies of Will & Ariel Durant’s The History of Civilization, William Shirer’s The Third Reich,… [Read More]
“Have you ever been in love? Have you ever dreamed of revenge? Have you ever felt like no one knows who or where you are, and so your body may never be discovered? Have you ever wanted for a night to never end? Have you ever wanted to run away? Have you ever gone outside and seen the sky?” In an interview with girlslikegiants.wordpress.com, Leigh… [Read More]
Amanda Bennett’s memoir, The Cost of Hope: The Story of A Marriage, A Family and a Quest for Life, is one of the most intelligent memoirs I’ve read in years. Bennett takes her own personal experience fighting to save her husband’s life in his struggle against a rare form of kidney cancer and as an investigative reporter she uses his story to illustrate what all… [Read More]
Dream New Dreams: Reimagining My Life After Loss by Jai Pausch (Crown 2012) is one of the first memoirs to address the experiences of those who become full time caregivers to their terminally ill spouse. Imagine dealing with complicated medical care and even more complicated emotions. And then imagine having to tell your young children that their father is dead. You may have heard of… [Read More]
