Thursday, May 29, 2014

Book Beginning: To Win the Indian Heart: Music at Chemewa Indian School by Melissa D. Parkhurst



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



Music has always been of vital importance to Indian people. For some Native groups, their very creation is predicated on it.
-- To Win the Indian Heart: Music at Chemewa Indian School by Melissa D. Parkhurst, published by Oregon State University Press, as part of its collaborative First Peoples series.

Parkhurst relies on archival records and oral histories of Chemewa alumni to present a detail-rich and thoughtful examination of the way music shaped the lives of children sent to Indian school.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Author Interview: Sean Davis



Sean Davis is an artist and former soldier whose new memoir, The Wax Bullet War: Chronicles of a Soldier & Artist was just published by Ooligan Press, the graduate student run publishing company at Portland State University.  Sean enlisted after September 11, served in Iraq, and came home to, eventually, use art and writing to deal with his demons.

Sean recently answered some questions for Rose City Reader.



How did you come to write The Wax Bullet War?

This book started as one story called "The Kid," which is a chapter in the book. I was writing something else completely and this story comes pouring out, a story which was very difficult to write. Getting my experiences out on paper helped me reconnect to society. After that there was a year where I couldn’t write anything else. I thought the book would be a way I could help other combat veterans who may be having a hard time after getting back by showing them how I got through it, and it could help combat veterans’ family members understand their loved ones.

Your memoir is intensely personal – did you have any qualms about sharing so much?

Yeah, some of it is very embarrassing. I went to some low places, but if I thought that if I really wanted to help veterans or their family members I would have to keep it unfiltered. It’s surprised me that at my readings so many people come up afterward and tell me stories about someone in their family going through some of the same problems as I did in the book. So, as embarrassing as some of these moments were, they’re not uncommon. If it helps one combat veteran make it through or one of their family members understand then it’s worth it.

The subtitle of your books is Chronicles of a Soldier & Artist. How do art and soldiering come together for you?

I love this question I guess because that’s one of the themes of the book. For most of my adult life I had separated the soldier and the artist. I really thought I couldn’t be both. When I was in the field or deployed to a real world event I was a soldier only and I enjoyed it. Being an infantryman and a leader during combat was something I was good at, but when I needed an escape I would write, paint, and would push the soldier out of my head. It was almost like being two different people. It took a long time to figure out that being a good artist helped me be a better soldier and visa versa.

Can you recommend any other books about the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Are any of them personal account like yours?

If you haven’t read Brian Turner’s book of poems Here, Bullet or Phantom Noise you should. His poetry really blows me away. I can’t read his poems in public because I tear up. I just get it, you know. Plus, I just got to meet him and we instantly became friends. He’s a great human and a great poet. I love this part of Here, Bullet:

Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,

that inexorable flight, that insane puncture

into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish

what you've started. Because here, Bullet,

here is where I complete the word you bring

David Abram’s Fobbit has very intelligent and funny things to say about war with an incredible voice. Phil Klay’s Redeployment is a great bunch of fictional stories about soldiers’ experiences, but I think my book is different in a few ways. I think my book focuses more on love even though my squad and I really were in some heavy combat. Maybe it sounds funny, but my book shows that we spent more time helping people and deciding who not to shoot than shooting. I put an emphasis on human relationships both in combat and at home. I wanted to write a book about human experiences relatable to anyone, not a war book.

Can you give us an example or two of advice you wished you had before you enlisted?

That was so long ago and I’m such a different person now. I can’t imagine that nineteen year old would even listen to anyone.

What were you least prepared for when you got to active duty in Iraq?

So many things. I grew up watching all the 80s action and war movies so I had some warped subconscious idea what going to war should be. It wasn’t like that at all. I wasn’t prepared for the corporations being on the front. Our base had a Burger King, Subway Sandwiches, Starbucks before it was even secure. I wasn’t prepared for not getting the equipment that we needed. I wasn’t prepared for seeing how we hired people from Third World Nations to be our cooks and wash our clothes even though we had those jobs in the army. I wasn’t prepared for all the military contractors and how much money they made compared to us as soldiers when our job was 100 times more difficult. Honestly, none of it made sense other than the camaraderie that formed between the men.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

Art saves lives. Looking back on it all if I hadn’t started back with my art I wouldn’t be here. Art has such a healing potential in our society and the world. It’s sad that we’re cutting it from schools and we’re placing such a low priority on it in our culture. By cutting it we not only doing a disservice to the people it can help today, but many of our future generation won’t even see art as an option to help them. I started a non profit to help combat veterans transition back into society through art called A Rock or Something Productions. I thought this was unique, but as I traveled around the country on the book tour I’ve met other combat veterans doing the same thing. I was just at an art festival with Richard Casper who formed Creativet who help veterans write songs about their experiences. I’m helping produce an Opera here in Portland about an Afghanistan combat veteran returning home. There’s a group putting together a national tour called The Telling that puts combat vets on stage to tell people their experiences. Looking back I think it’s just common sense that art has the ability to heal our souls, but before it seemed like art was the antithesis of soldiering.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by who you read?

Vonnegut, Orwell, Hemingway, Camus, and Hugo. I’m a traditionalist I guess. I love the simple way they state the profound, the way they talk about something important while describing the trivial. Lately, I’ve been reading local authors. Portland has the best literary scene. I love it. Not only do I get to read amazing books, but then I get to find the authors and become friends with them. Lidia Yuknavitch, Patrick de Witt, Craig Lesley, Ben Percy, and the man who taught me the most about the importance of words, or what Orwell would call aesthetic enthusiasm, is Mike Magnuson. I consider him my mentor. I learned so much from him and Brady Udall.

What kind of books do you like to read? What are you reading now?

I tend to read two or three books at a time. I just leave them in different rooms around the house. I’m reading The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil by Greg Saunders. I love that people can still write in this abstract and allegorical way. Brian Turner just gave me his latest Phantom Noise and I’m blown away. It’s amazing. And finally, I’m working on a novel so Gardner’s Art of Fiction is always at my desk. I also listen to audiobooks with Slaughterhouse Five read by Ethan Hawk on heavy rotation.

You have a terrific website and facebook page. From an author's perspective, how important are social networking sites and other internet resources to promote your book?

I believe you really have to hustle being a writer today. It’s hard. First you need to convince yourself you’re a writer which is probably the most difficult part of the process. Once you do that you need to start convincing other people and social media is a great way to do it. If people are convinced then they start sending you opportunities. Just last month I was asked to be the keynote speaker of two events by Facebook message. I know it might really annoy your core group of friends and family, but it’s just something that needs to be done.

What do you do to promote your books? Do you use social networking sites or other internet resources?

Facebook, FB page for the book, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, email, phone calls, messenger pigeons, whatever it takes and more, but also you have to make connections and make friends. Like I said Portland has an amazing literary scene. We have different reading groups out here that I’ve slowly been infiltrating. I was lucky enough to read with the Foul Weather writing group, and this month I read at Burnt Tongue with the Tom Spanbauer’s Dangerous Writers. Also, I never say no when a friend asks me for a story. Because of this I’m in Flaunt Magazine this month even though it’s an international culture and fashion magazine when I know little about either. I read at the Perceptions lit mag release this month. I send stuff to newsletters. You have to do whatever it takes.

Do you have any events coming up to promote your book?

May 31 – Keynote speaker at Clackamas Community College (open to the public)
More to come!

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an artist? As an author?

The best advice as a writer would be to use your sentence slots and always write with descriptive narration. This keeps the exposition out of your prose. The best advice as an artist would be setting up my palette with only one color scheme at a time and paint in layers. That might not make much sense to people. The best advice I would give to an artist or a writer is this: above all else be prolific and determined and I promise you’ll have some degree of success.

Have you written or are you writing any other books? Any plans to publish them?

I’ve been having fun with essays lately. I’m working on one about driving across the country and another about the blight of Detroit. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to place these little things I write. I’m working on a novel right now and I love doing research for it. I go undercover to UFO abduction support groups. Yes, they have them in Portland. I also have about 30,000 words worth of CNF short stories. Most of them have been published, but I think I’m going to put them together and shop it around. They range from when my dad pulled me out of middle school to pan for gold for the rest of our lives (which only lasted a few months), to when I moonlighted as a male stripper for middle aged snow bunnies in Germany in the late 90s, to my self-destructive time after the war, to when I was paid by people to waterboard them here in Portland as a part of a military class they took in case they were abducted travelling overseas.

Are you working on an art project?

My art hangs at the Six Days Gallery on 27th and NE Alberta. When I’m not on my book tour I usually work down there and paint in the studio on Mondays. I invite anyone to come on down and hang out, talk, paint with me. I love meeting new people and if they’re really interesting I usually put them in something I write.

THANKS, SEAN!

THE WAX BULLET WAR IS AVAILABLE AT POWELL'S, ON-LINE, OR FROM YOUR LOCAL BOOK SELLER (ALTHOUGH YOU MAY HAVE TO ASK THEM TO ORDER IT).

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Teaser Tuesday: The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast by Bonnie Henderson



But Oregon had another problem, one most of California did not have. Not only was the earthquake scientists were now expecting off the Pacific Northwest Coast likely to be bigger than anything the San Andreas Fault could kick up – an apocalyptic quake, as Brian Atwater had described it – but the earthquake rupture zone was underwater.
-- The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast by Bonnie Henderson, published by OSU Press.

Henderson mixes science, history, and first-hand accounts to explain the risk of earthquakes and resulting tidal waves to the northwest coast of the United States.  Henderson shows how the next mega-quake under the Pacific Ocean will generate a tsunami "likely to be the most devastating natural disaster in the history of the United States."


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Mailbox Memorial Day


Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one book from LibraryThing last week:



The Explanation for Everything by Lauren Grodstein.  The premise of this one enticed me -- a college professor specializing in evolutionary biology agrees to advise a religiously devout student with her intelligent design research. I'm drawn to any novel trying to tackle such an enormous conflict.

I also picked up a whole stack of books on a whim from Rerun, my neighborhood consignment shop:



A Little Dinner Before the Play by Agnes Jekyll.  This is a collection of essays first published in the 1920s in The Times newspaper in London. Jekyll is described as a "society hostess and philanthropist." Can't wait!

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather. Although I grew up in Nebraska and went on more than one school field trip to Cather's home in Red Cloud, I was late to actually read her books. Now I love them and want to read them all.

How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great by Karen Karbo. What woman does not admire Katharine Hepburn? I recently read Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg, and am still on a Hepburn high.

You or Someone like You by Chandler Burr. A novel based on a book list – how can I resist?

Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  It's time.  I've waited long enough.

Exuberance: The Passion for Life by Kay Redfield Jamison. Books about psychology and brain science appeal to me lately.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Review: Snobs by Julian Fellows



I picked up a copy of Snobs by Julian Fellows because the cover told me that he wrote the movie Gosford Park and it looks like it might be some kind of high society farce that would be fun for a weekend read. It was high society, but definitely not farce. It has an elegant substance to it -- much more an intelligent novel of manners than slapstick comedy.

Fellows tells a subtle and complicated story about family and class loyalties and the intuition needed to move through them. Narrated by an actor whose own blue blood allows him to navigate the rocky social shoals between wealthy up-and-comers and genteel nobility, we learn the story of lovely but middle-class Edith Lavery’s marriage to Charles, Earl of Broughton. Edith seems to regret her choice before the end of her first hunt season at the family’s drafty Sussex estate. But what are her alternatives?

What I didn’t realize until I finished the book was that Fellows is the main writer for Downton Abbey. He published Snobs five years before the first episode of Downton Abbey aired, and it takes place in the late 1990s, but many of the themes and ideas are similar.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of Snobs, or any other book by Julian Fellows listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

NOTES

Julian Fellows is in actor as well as a writer. He played Lord Kilwillie in one of my favorite shows, Monarch of the Glen.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Book Beginning: Honey & Oats: Everyday Favorites Baked with Whole Grains and Natural Sweeteners by Jennifer Katzinger



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



As a young woman I had an amazing role model who was talented at any number of things, but everyone agreed Holly could make the tastiest scones.
-- Honey & Oats: Everyday Favorites Baked with Whole Grains and Natural Sweeteners by Jennifer Katzinger (Author), Charity Burggraaf (Photographer), and Julie Hopper (Contributor).

Ever since I recently read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, I have been trying to diversify my diet, including introducing more whole grains. This new cookbook is the perfect motivator. Filled with beautiful photographs on matte pages, Honey & Oats offers 75 friendly recipes for home bakers trying to incorporate healthy alternatives into their sweet and savory baked goods.

Best of all, unlike the carob and tofu concoctions my mother foisted on us in the 1970s under the banner of "Health Food," the treats in Honey & Oats actually taste good!

Sasquatch Books just keeps turning out lush, gorgeous cookbooks like Honey & Oats.  They have harnessed some great talent and produce a first-class product.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Author Interview: Rebecca Coffey


Rebecca Coffey is a science journalist with a flair for literature and history and an offbeat sense of humor (See, Nietzsche's Angel Food Cake: And Other 'Recipes' for the Intellectually Famished).

Her new book is a "mock memoir" or "fictional autobiography" of Anna Freud, Sigmund's lesbian daughter, sounding board, chief collaborator, and a psychoanalyst in her own right.  The book is just out this week and is earning enthusiastic praise, including a mention in the June issue of Oprah's O Magazine.



How did you come to write Hysterical: Anna Freud’s Story?

For another project, I had been reading Sigmund Freud’s papers. Intrigued by possible examples of intellectual hubris on his part, I began reading his biographies. They are paeans to him, written by devotees, and they get pretty boring with full and glorious information about a roster of characters about whom most people know no real context. But even through my exasperation with these tomes, all of which had about as much inherent drama as Lives of the Saints, I noticed that one name popped up several times. Even though the named woman was generally described as “Anna’s life-long friend” (and Anna was generally described as Sigmund’s Mini-Me), the biographies seemed to race by mention of the woman—and certainly to elide over her importance in anyone’s life. That name, of course, was “Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham,” the woman with whom Anna shared a monogamous relationship for more than five decades. But I didn’t know that then.

As I read, I became enchanted with the realization that, every once in a while, an author quoted some relative or another talking about how Anna had been courted by this esteemed man or that but that, alas, all of those relationships had turned out to be near misses. “Poor, lonely Anna, too devoted to her Papa to live a full life” was the general sentiment. And indeed, Sigmund himself referred to both Dorothy and Anna as “virgins.”

Eventually reading beyond the biographies to the criticisms of Sigmund Freud, I discovered a delightful passage in the Foreword to one of Jeffrey Mousaieff Masson’s books. For a short while Masson had been Projects Director of the Freud Archives, where his job was to root about in the cubbyholes of desks in the Freud family home in London (by then the Freud Museum) and piece together an accurate historical picture of Sigmund’s work. In that Foreword he told a tale of being fascinated by the sweet relationship between Miss Freud (as she was called at the museum) and Miss Burlingham. Were they lovers? They doted on each other so dearly. Masson made gentle inquiries of Anna’s family and friends but everyone was far too polite to answer. He guessed that they had also been too polite ever to dare to inquire, though they all seemed as curious as he. So Masson did the obvious and asked the maid who had been with Dorothy for nearly 60 years. Masson asked whether Miss Freud and Miss Burlingham shared a bedroom. The maid responded that they each had their own but they shared their bedrooms whenever they wanted.

I roared. Sigmund Freud had defined lesbianism as a gateway to mental illness. And yet his Mini-Me seems to have been a closeted lesbian—and a happily “married” one, at that. The more I read about Anna and her accomplishments both professional and personal, the more I admired her—and I especially admired her diplomacy and her loyalty, both of which must have been sorely taxed by her father from time to time. Eventually the idea of writing her story took hold

What is your work background?

By day I am a science journalist, making movies and writing books and also contributing to Scientific American and Discover magazines, to PsychologyToday.com, and to Vermont Public Radio. I also present a weekly radio spot, Family Friendly Science, on the nationally syndicated drive-time show, Daybreak USA. It is only “by night” that I am a novelist and humorist. Nietzsche's Angel Food Cake: And Other "Recipes" for the Intellectually Famished was published in October 2013 by Beck & Branch. I’ve also contributed to a number of literary humor e-zines.

How much of your novel is based on true, historical events?

I have relied heavily on facts and materials from the historical record and on commentary from Anna’s and Sigmund’s supporters and detractors. (The bibliography in back lists my sources.) But I have also relied on invention. I have created dialogue, scenes, and situations based on both fact and imagination. I have followed implications to their logical and sometimes outrageous conclusions, and I’ve made small adjustments to chronology in order to better relate a complex story within a sound dramatic framework. I have invented no characters, although I have sometimes given personalities to characters about whose actual singularities I am unsure.

I licensed photos of the Freud family from the Freud Museum in London.

What did you learn from writing your book – either about the subject of the book or the writing process – that most surprised you?

It was very difficult for me to step away from fact and glide into fiction. I felt almost sinful creating dialogue for scenes I hadn't witnessed. And, of course, a plot requires conflict, which means that the main characters can’t be perfect. Seeding Sigmund and Anna Freud with plain old human foibles was a real struggle for me, given that I knew I was writing against the grain of the many uniformly admiring tomes written by psychoanalysts. It was extraordinarily helpful to me to have the criticisms of Sigmund’s theory at hand. They helped me see Sigmund, especially, as a person, not an icon.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors? Is your own writing influenced by who you read?

E. L. Doctorow (an influence)
Harper Lee (an influence)
Elizabeth Drew (an influence)

What are you reading now?

Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything by Barbara Ehrenreich.

What kind of books do you like to read?

I read mostly nonfiction. When I read fiction I like historical novels (though not bodice rippers), humor, and literature from the early 20th century.

From an author's perspective, how important are social networking sites and other internet resources to promote your book?

Not much. I do tweet, and I do have a Facebook page and an author web site. But I don’t spend a disproportionate amount of time with social media.

What do you do to promote your books?

I do readings at bookstores, I do radio interviews, and I blog on PsychologyToday, which has a tremendously large readership. For this book I’m trying to line up at appearances at colleges and universities and at psychoanalytic conventions.

Do you read e-books? 

I read all of my nonfiction on my Kindle because I travel when researching science stories. The Kindle lets me bring my whole library with me and do searches across books. I try to buy fiction, however, in book form so that I can support bookstores.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author? 

Hire an editor and a publicist.

What is the best thing about being a writer? 

Readings.

How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite?

Four published. Murders Most Foul: The School Shooters in Our Midst; Unspeakable Truths and Happy Endings: Human Cruelty and the New Trauma Therapy; Nietzsche's Angel Food Cake: And Other "Recipes" for the Intellectually Famished; and Hysterical: Anna Freud's Story.

My least favorite is Murders Most Foul. I don’t enjoy the readings or radio shows. The entire subject is so sorrowful.

What’s next? Are you working on your next book?

• A sequel to Nietzsche’s Angel Food Cake
• A serio-comic sci-fi fantasy novel, with historical figures from science, journalism, and entertainment as lead characters.

YOU CAN FIND HYSTERICAL AT POWELL'S, ON-LINE, OR ORDER IT FROM YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE!

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Teaser Tuesday: Honey & Oats



This recipe is by far the deepest, darkest, and most chocolatey in the book. The cinnamon and cayenne is a rich ode to Mexico.
-- Honey & Oats: Everyday Favorites Baked with Whole Grains and Natural Sweeteners by Jennifer Katzinger (Author), Charity Burggraaf (Photographer), and Julie Hopper (Contributor).

Honey & Oats offers 75 friendly recipes for home bakers trying to incorporate healthy alternatives into their sweet and savory baked goods, such as the recipe described above for Mexican chocolate spice cookies.

Sasquatch Books just keeps offering delightful cookbooks like Honey & Oats. They are creative, inspiring, and beautifult to look at and hold.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Book Beginning: The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast by Bonnie Henderson



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



It was called Good Friday, but to a 10-year-old boy living at the mouth of the Necanicum River on Oregon's North Coast, every Friday was good.
-- The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast by Bonnie Henderson, published by OSU Press.

Showing that non-fiction can be as entertaining as the best novel, Henderson mixes science, history, and first-hand accounts to explain the risk of earthquakes and resulting tidal waves to the northwest coast of the United States.  Henderson shows how the next mega-quake under the Pacific Ocean will generate a tsunami "likely to be the most devastating natural disaster in the history of the United States."

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Teaser Tuesday: Bridging a Great Divide



Few Pacific Northwest legacies are more treasured than Sam Lancaster's historic Columbia River Highway. Yet "progress" began nibbling away at the 73-mile-long route between Troutdale and The Dalles barely more than a decade after the scenic roadway was completed in 1922.
-- Bridging a Great Divide: The Battle for the Columbia River Gorge by Kathie Durbin, published posthumously by OSU Press.

As a reporter for The Oregonian, Durbin became an expert in the history and politics of the Columbia Gorge, the beautiful stretch of Columbia River that divides Oregon from Washington.  Bridging a Great Divide is Durbin's legacy for all those who love the Columbia Gorge as she did.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Mailbox Monday



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got a crazy mixed-up stack of books last week:



The End of Eve: A Memoir by Ariel Gore

From the editor of Hip Mama magazine, this new memoir is the story of how Gore moved to New Mexico to care for her dying mother. It is "darkly humorous and intimately human." I love the cover!

The End of Eve and the Spanbauer novel, below, are published by Hawthorne Books, so they are as satisfying to look at and hold as they are to read.




The Night, the Rain, and the River: 22 Stories, edited by Liz Prato, published by Forest Avenue Press.

Forest Avenue Press is a real up-and-comer in Portland's vibrant publishing scene. They aim to publish "quiet books for a noisy world." Amen!



Boom, Bust, Boom: A Story About Copper, the Metal that Runs the World, by Bill Carter

Sebastian Junger and my favorite Jim Harrison like it. So does The Daily Beast. This is the history and legacy of a ubiquitous product told by a journalist who knows how to tell a story.



I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer

A new novel from Hawthorne Books, described as akin to The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides and Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.



The Golden Rule by Ignatius Fernandz

Publisher's Description:

This is the engaging story - nonfiction that reads like fiction - of a group of professionals who embark on a journey to discover a role model who will inspire them to change the way they act, react and interact. Their search culminates in an encounter with a role model beyond compare - JESUS CHRIST - not the religious or spiritual leader the world has known. He is an outstanding leader who walks tall, a powerful communicator who touches minds and hearts, and a peerless teacher who influences by example.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Book Beginning: Bridging a Great Divide: The Battle for the Columbia River Gorge by Kathie Durbin



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



I have just returned from a hike in the Columbia Gorge and it reminded me how much we owe Kathie Durbin for giving us the story of how this magical place was preserved – and how the battle to keep it continues.
-- From the Foreword by Roberta Ulrich to Bridging a Great Divide: The Battle for the Columbia River Gorge by Kathie Durbin, published posthumously by Oregon State University Press.

There have been battles over every man-made change in the Columbia Gorge -- dams, freeways, bridges, hotels, casinos, houses, and now the view-spoiling, bird-killing wind turbines.  As a reporter for The Oregonian, Durbin covered these controversies and became an expert in the history and politics of the Columbia Gorge.  Bridging a Great Divide is Durbin's legacy for all those who love the Columbia Gorge as she did.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Author Interview: Jean Erhardt


Jean Erhardt puts her experience as a private eye and her very funny sense of humor to good use in a new mystery series set in the Great Smokey Mountains area of Tennessee. The heroine is Kim Claypoole, a restaurateur and amateur sleuth.

Erhardt is getting ready to launch the second book of the series and is busy writing the third, but took time to answer questions about the first book and the series.


How did you come to write Small Town Trouble?

I have spent a lot of my lifetime in the Great Smoky Mountains and I knew that I wanted to set the series in and around Gatlinburg, Tennessee. As far as the inspiration for my protagonist, Kim Claypoole, I gave her some of my attributes. For example, we share a similar sense of humor and have a penchant for damsels in distress. For years, I worked as a private investigator and personal protection specialist aka bodyguard. On one memorable occasion, I was holed up for two weeks in a high-end, high security hotel situation with a loaded .38 and a female client from a country which started with I. She was in the process of divorcing her crazed, psychopathic husband who was richer than God. She chain smoked long, rainbow colored cigarettes, drank gallons of Persian tea and carried on lengthy boisterous phone conversations in Farsi at all hours of the day and night. By the end of the two weeks, I was almost hoping that her husband would show up and shoot me. But things turned out well for both of us. I got a big paycheck and she is now living happily ever after under an alias enjoying her multi-million dollar divorce settlement in an exotic, sunny locale.

Who are your three (or four or five) favorite authors?

I adore Kinky Friedman. He writes the funniest mysteries on the planet. I enjoy and greatly admire Robert B. Parker, Joy Williams, Hunter S. Thompson and Charles Portis. Of course, there are many more.

What are you reading now?

Right now, I am reading straight through the last two issues of Tin House which is arguably the best literary journal out there. On deck, I have 99 Stories of God by Joy Williams.

Do you have any events coming up to promote your book?

Thanks for asking. I’m excited to say that book two in the Kim Claypoole series, Deep Trouble, will be released in May 2014 in paperback and eBook. I will be participating in a virtual book tour and doing some local readings and signings.

What is the most valuable advice you’ve been given as an author?

Long ago, I was taught by Joyce Thompson (How to Greet Strangers: A Mystery) that one must learn to write without the muse. A real writer doesn’t wait for inspiration or the right mood to strike. Also, I had the great fortune to study with Joy Williams who taught me that if you have found “a trick” in your writing, you must lose it.

What’s next? Are you working on your next book?

I am currently at work on the next installment in the Kim Claypoole mystery series. I have also just begun to write a new mystery series featuring Portland PI, Haley Hammel. I will be drawing from my years of experience as a criminal defense investigator. The tone of this series will be far more serious than the Claypoole mysteries, although not without some levity.

THANKS JEAN! SMALL TOWN TROUBLE IS AVAILABLE ON THE AUTHOR'S WEBSITE OR AMAZON (PAPERBACK OR KINDLE).

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Teaser Tuesday: Small Town Trouble by Jean Erhardt



Who ever had clonked me had done a pretty good job. Luckily, they hadn't done a really great job.
-- Small Town Trouble by Jean Erhardt.

Small Town Trouble introduces Kim Claypoole, a restaurateur and amateur sleuth with her home base in the Smokey Mountains.  Look for my interview with Jean Erhardt here later this week.


Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Mailbox Monday: Turning Down the Sound by Foster Church



Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring event. Mailbox Monday has now returned to its permanent home where you can link to your MM post.

I got one books last week and it looks wonderful:



Turning Down the Sound: Travel Escapes in Washington's Small Towns by Foster Church.  Just in time to plan some summer weekend road trips!

Foster Church is a Pulitzer-winning journalist who wrote for the Oregonian for many years.  He now turns his keen eye on the small towns of the Pacific Northwest to write travel pieces for national publications.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Review: A Pillar of Iron



A goal accomplished always makes me happy. Reading A Pillar of Iron, Taylor Caldwell's fictional biography of Marcus Tullius Cicero, was not a goal of mine. But once started, it was a battle between me and the book and I was determined to finish it!

It's actually a great book. Cicero was a contemporary of Julius Caesar, a lawyer, philosopher, and statesman of Rome. The story is fascinating; Caldwell delves heavily into original materials like Cicero's letters, books, and speeches; and her descriptions make ancient Rome lifelike. But it is dense! And long -- 700 pages.

I'd like to amend my law school transcript to get extra credit in Constitutional Law.


OTHER REVIEWS

UNRV History

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will list it here.

NOTES

A Pillar of Iron counts as one of my books for the Chunkster Challenge, as well as knocking another one off my TBR challenges list.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Book Beginning: Small Town Trouble by Jean Erhardt



THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING



MY BOOK BEGINNING



It was high summer, the peak of tourist season in Gatlinburg, Tennessee where I should've been. But instead, I was on my way to Tara to kick Scarlett O'Hara's butt.
-- Small Town Trouble by Jean Erhardt.

Small Town Trouble is the first in a funny and promising new mystery series featuring Kim Claypoole, a restaurateur and amateur sleuth with her home base in the Smokey Mountains.  Look for my interview with Jean Erhardt here next week.