Book Recommendations on Between You and Me this week

Who needs those fancy pants New York Times-ers and Stephen King to recommend the best books of the year? And anyway, who reads ONLY the most recent books?

When it comes to finding a good book, the year they were published doesn't usually hold a lot of weight.

There is a wealth of book information right in our own neighborhoods and this Saturday on Between You and Me we're asking you to call in and recommend a book to others. For some of us this is a hard task, choosing just one. Like KAXE member Margaret Haapoja...here's her list of book recommendations:

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

One more book I found fascinating was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Two very long books by Ken Follett, not new and nothing I ever expected to like since they’re set in ancient times, but I loved both Pillars of the Earth and the sequel, World Without End.
What do you suggest?

Thomas Friedman and Swans

Harry Hutchins, co-host for "A Talk on the Wild Side" on KAXE's Morning Show (Tuesdays 7:40am) mentioned a book that he is reading and will talk about with John Latimer on next week's show. The book is Thomas Friedman's "Hot Flat and Crowded".

Harry said, " When I read "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman I thought there's a lot more to this than just worrying about when the internet came around and how all the economies are all the same...and how we can all rise up to some great level...sure enough he came up with "Hot, Flat and Crowded". I'd highly suggest it for people who are looking at global climate change or looking at effects on biodiversity."


Have you read it? Let us know what YOU thought of it.... Check out Thomas Friedman's website - he's doing a really interesting thing, he's asking for input on updates on his book!

John and Harry also said that they'll have a conversation/listening session next week about the differences between the songs of the trumpeter and tundra swans. Won't be long before the tundra swans are here!

Short Story Confession

This week Anthony Bukoski joins me on Realgoodwords.

Anthony Bukoski is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and a critically acclaimed short-story writer. If you are scoring at home, he was also our friend Aaron Brown's mentor!

I knew all of these things and yet I wan't thrilled to read his books. Nothing against Anthony Bukoski, but for some reason I've never been a huge fan of short stories. I am confessing that here, and now.

But here's the thing: Anthony Bukoski changed my tune on short stories. Or he cleaned my clock. Wait, I take that back. He didn't clean my clock. But plenty of his characters cleaned clocks (if you know what I mean). I was so thoroughly and pleasantly surprised by his writing, that I was a little nervous to actually talk to him.

I know that sounds strange - that if I liked a book I'd be nervous to talk to the author. What I've come to learn over the years is that liking a book doesn't mean that my conversation with them on Realgoodwords is going to be good. A lot of times I'm dissappointed. It might be me on this one, because I suspect that if I like an author I somehow think that I don't have to prepare as much for our interview.

Anyway, enough of my blog confessional. Anthony Bukoski did not disappoint. For me, the best moment of the interview was when I asked him WHERE he does his writing. I have never had an answer quite like Anthony's before.

Yes, I'm going to keep you hanging! Tune in live on Wednesday night from 6-7pm or Sunday Morning from 9-10. Or, after Wednesday you can listen to the archived interview here.

Here's a bio of Anthony:

ANTHONY BUKOSKI is the author of four other story collections,
including Children of Strangers (SMU, 1993), Polonaise (SMU, 1999),
and Time Between Trains (SMU, 2003), which was a Booklist Editors'
Choice. His stories have been featured on Wisconsin Public Radio,
National Public Radio, and in live performance in the "Selected Shorts"
series at Symphony Space in New York City. He teaches at his alma
mater, the University of Wisconsin in his hometown of Superior, where
his Polish émigré grandparents settled early in the last century.

Comfort Reading

One of the things I do at KAXE is pick out the selections for the KAXE Book of the Month Club (you can be in this by pledging your yearly support at our 1 dollar a day/$365 year level)....I was talking with one of the members the other day and asked her what she was looking for in a book right now. "Something light!" I totally knew what she meant.... she described it as needing a "comfort" book and that she goes thru periods where she also needs her reading that is good for her/"vegetable" reading....

When it comes to my own reading, a lot of times that's exactly what I'm looking for - a very delicate balance between light reading and something engrossing....not a harelquin romance exactly, but something that I will get absorbed in and finish quickly.

The cool thing was that I had the perfect book for our KAXE Bookclub member - because I recently interviewed author Jennie Shortridge for Realgoodwords. I'd really liked her book "Eating Heaven" which was the story of a plus-sized food writer who has takes care of her ailing uncle Benny. In becoming a caregiver she comes to realize she needs to learn to care for herself and find what she wants out of life.

But back to the new novel by Jennie Shortridge that I passed on - "Love and Biology at the End of the Universe". This is the story of Mira Serafino - a biology teacher who works hard to appear to be perfect - at work, with her husband, with her daughter and father....when one element isn't quite what she envisions, she packs her bags and hits the road to find a new life. One reviewer wrote:

"Shortridge has tapped into what may be everybody's fantasy at some point or other: if you weren't saddled with the consequences of the decisions you've made over the years, who would you be now?"

You can hear my conversation with Jennie Shortridge at the Realgoodwords archive
or you can hear it Sunday morning at 9am, streaming live audio at www.kaxe.org.

Let me know if you know what I mean about needing "comfort" books - got any recommendations?