At my Thanksgiving table

Wouldn't it be great to have, say, a dozen of my favorite authors around my Thanksgiving table?  Even better, I'd love to have them visit one at a time, so I could have a real conversation with each one.  On this Thanksgiving Day, these are the twelve I'm thankful for — in alphabetical order.

Barbara Brown Taylor

Barbara Cooney
(August 6, 1917 – March 10, 2000)

Beth Kephart

Fannie Flagg

Janisse Ray

Jodi Picoult

Laurie Halse Anderson

Madeleine L'Engle

(November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007)

Masha Hamilton

Roberta C. Bondi

Sue Monk Kidd

Susan Beth Pfeffer

As you can tell by the dates under their names, I won't get to sit down with Barbara Cooney and Madeleine L'Engle.

Scribble, scribble, scribble

Mad Woman in the Forest, who happens to be the renowned author Laurie Halse Anderson, has been posting prompts for writers every day this month.  Today's prompt speaks to me, somehow.  What would YOU — or your character, if you were writing a story — throw in the backpack?

I think the most striking statistic about Hurricane Irene so far is CNN’s statement that the storm will affect 1 in 6 Americans. (I’m still trying to wrap my head around this.) We are far away from the danger; might get some wind and a little rain. We’re used to losing power frequently, so that’s not a problem. I sure hope those of you who are in Irene’s path stay safe, snug, and dry.

In case your power is about to go out, let’s get busy right away with tonight’s Irene-inspired prompt.

Ready… Make sure that you pack a notebook (the kind made out of paper) and sharpened pencils in your go bag. Natural disasters provide all kinds of inspiration and you need your tools! (It’s easier to write in the rain with pencils than pens.)

Set… “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.” Maya Angelou

Today’s prompt: Your character has five minutes to throw his most important possessions into a backpack, because the hurricane has changed course and he and his family must flee. What goes in the bag? Why? And what is hidden in that small wooden box that he pulls down from the top shelf of his closet when no one is looking? Be as detailed as possible. This is a chance to show character by the decisions he makes.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

I'll try to come up with something and connect to it with this link.  You are welcome to share a link in your comment, rather than trying to make a list here.

Fever 1793 ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson, 2000

I woke to the sound of a mosquito whining in my left ear and my mother screeching in the right.

"Rouse yourself this instant!"

Thus begins this compelling YA novel.  Mattie, the narrator, faces dire circumstances.  Notice that mosquito buzzing in her ear.  Are you aware that yellow fever is spread by mosquitoes?  Notice the yellow of jaundice in the eye on the book's cover.  WHO (the World Health Organization) estimates that yellow fever causes 200,000 illnesses and 30,000 deaths every year in unvaccinated populations, with about 90% of the infections occurring in Africa.  From the back cover of this novel:

"During the summer of 1793, Mattie Cook lives above the family coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather.  Mattie spends her days avoiding chores and making plans to turn the family business into the finest Philadelphia has ever seen.  But then the fever breaks out.  Disease sweeps the streets, destroying everything in its path and turning Mattie's world upside down.  At her feverish mother's insistence, Mattie flees the city with her grandfather.  But she soon discovers that the sickness is everywhere, and Mattie must learn quickly how to survive in a city turned frantic with disease."

My first real awareness of yellow fever came from paying attention to dates as I walked through a cemetery on my way home from high school. One lower section of the cemetery, I noticed, was filled during the year of 1878, which I later learned was when Chattanooga was hit by the scourge of yellow fever. Since then, reading or hearing about yellow fever has reminded me of the people of my town who died during that epidemic. It even killed our mayor, who just happened to come from the city that's the setting for Fever 1793.
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Thomas J. Carlisle (1832-1878)

Thomas J. Carlisle, born in 1832 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, joined the Union Army in 1861.  Carlile fought in the Battle of Chickamauga (a few miles south of Chattanooga) before being transferred to the Quartermaster’s Department in Chattanooga.  He served the remainder of the war in Chattanooga, and after mustering out in 1865, he remained in the city.  Twelve years later, in 1877, Carlile took over as mayor.  As other cities across the south began reporting outbreaks of yellow fever or malaria, Chattanooga began to take actions.  On August 24, at a specially called meeting, Mayor Carlile asked for funds to create a Citizens’ Relief Committee to begin working with the refugees flooding the city as the yellow fever epidemic spread across the south.

When the epidemic became widespread in Chattanooga, he and the board of aldermen discontinued their regular meetings.  As the city emptied of people trying to escape the spreading illness, Mayor Carlile remained and worked among the sick.  He contracted yellow fever and died in late October.  When the board of aldermen reconvened on November 5, it passed a resolution calling Mayor Carlile a hero for his efforts in the face of yellow fever.
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Fever 1793 is fascinating, and I rate it 9 of 10, an excellent book.

Laurie Halse Anderson ~ talking about "Forge"

Today, I reserved Laurie Halse Anderson's newest YA novel, Forge, at my library, which has three copies in process.  Forge, the second in a trilogy, follows Chains (click to read my review).  I have also reviewed some of her other books:  Speak, Independent Dames, Thank You, Sarah, and The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School.

Here's a video Laurie made when she was in Austin for the Texas Book Festival.

Authors I have met

When the BEA (Book Expo America) met in May, those of us who stayed home held our own Armchair BEA.  I participated in only one meme, the one about book signings and author sightings.  In my post, I tried to remember some of the authors I've met over the years.  I managed to come up with a few that day, but I'm still occasionally remembering others I've stood in line for, waiting to get a book signed.  The best meet-ups with authors, of course, are when I actually get to look her or him in the eye and talk a few minutes.  Here are the ones I remember specifically.

I've read three of Masha Hamilton's books, but have reviewed only one of them:  The Camel Bookmobile.  Donna and I had lunch with Masha when she came to Tennessee for a conference, and Masha also chatted with our face-to-face book club via speaker phone.  Take a look at Masha's web site.

Fannie Flagg came to town for our very first A Tale for One City event, when Chattanoogans read Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.  She's as funny in person as I expected her to be.

A Tale for One City is a citywide reading initiative designed to get Chattanoogans to read the same book at the same time. Started by READ Chattanooga, the purpose of this program is to build unity in the community and to stress the importance of reading.

Laurie Halse Anderson was here in March 2008, when A Tale for One City read her YA novel Speak.  She shared a meal with members of the committee, which gave me a chance to talk to her.  I've reviewed three of her books:  Speak, a young adult novel; Independent Dames, a children's book; and The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School, another children's book.

I've read two of Christopher Paul Curtis's excellent young adult novels: Bud, Not Buddy and The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963, about the church bombing.  A Tale for One City chose Bud, Not Buddy as our YA book one year, and I chatted with him at a reception at the home of a committee member.

I first learned about Avi when my friend Donna insisted I read Nothing But the Truth, a wonderful YA novel in documentary form, which became one of my favorite YA books, ever.  Donna and I met Avi at a conference in Kentucky a few years ago.  Take a look at Avi's web site.

Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan are friends and occasional co-authors.  In February, I'll be leading a weekend retreat in a study of Borg's The Heart of Christianity, the best book I've found that explains differences between two current streams of Christian thought.  Together, Borg and Crossan wrote The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon.  One of Crossan's most recent books is God and Empire.

The list keeps getting longer.  So far I've remembered Laurie Halse Anderson, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Masha Hamilton, Theda Perdue, Madeleine L'Engle, Robert Hicks, Susan Gregg Gilmore, Paul Von Ward, Fannie Flagg, Janisse Ray, Avi, and Christopher Paul Curtis.  That's a baker's dozen (thirteen, in other words).  Actually, I've met several others at the Conferences on Southern Literature I've attended (people like Lee Smith), but these thirteen are my most memorable "author sightings."

Update (1-27-11):  E. L. Konigsburg, who wrote The View from Saturday and lots of other young adult books, signed my book when she spoke at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Update (1-26-14):  I met Paul Von Ward, author of The Soul Genome, when he spoke at the Unitarian church.

Chains ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson, 2008

Rap review of Chains



Synopsis:  As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

Book trailer for Chains



I rate this YA book 9 of 10, an excellent book. Didn't the young man make a fantastic rap video? That's not the way I did homework.

Speak ~ by Laurie Halse Anderson ~ is NOT pornography

Laurie Halse Anderson wrote on her blog:  This guy thinks SPEAK is pornography.  It caused a ruckus!  Today, Laurie posted The Power of Speaking Loudly.  Here's where I reviewed Speak.  Why don't you "speak up" during Banned Books Week, starting this Saturday?

My newest books

I dropped by the library today, and the librarian who helps me find books for the Women Unbound reading challenge gave me one of her own books she had just finished:  Red Azalea (1994), Anchee Min’s celebrated memoir of growing up in the last years of Mao’s China.  The online synopsis says:

"As a child, she was asked to publicly humiliate a teacher; at seventeen, she was sent to work at a labor collective. Forbidden to speak, dress, read, write, or love as she pleased, she found a lifeline in a secret love affair with another woman. Miraculously selected for the film version of one of Madame Mao’s political operas, Min’s life changed overnight. Then Chairman Mao suddenly died, taking with him an entire world."

I've read several books by John Shelby Spong, but not this one.  I ran across Liberating the Gospels (1996) when I was at the bookstore with my friend Donna the other day.  The subtitle is "Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes."  Since I'm working on the course I'll be teaching on "Seven Gospels," I figured it was right up my alley.  Spong says the Gospels are thoroughly Jewish texts.  The online synopsis says:

"Spong powerfully argues that many of the key Gospel accounts of events in the life of Jesus—from the stories of his birth to his physical resurrection—are not literally true. He offers convincing evidence that the Gospels are a collection of Jewish midrashic stories written to convey the significance of Jesus."

I've already told you I'm reading Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (2009).  This book is one Donna bought new and decided to let me read first.  She knows how impressed I am by this author's writing.

I finished Summer's End by Audrey Couloumbis (2005) within hours of Donna's lending it to me.  Yep, I told you I'd read this one, but I plan a short review soon.  (Oh, so many reviews I mean to write!)
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Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal?  Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids.  Susan at Color Online came up with the idea of New Crayons as a metaphor for the new books that have arrived at your house.
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Wintergirls ~ a teaser

I love the way Laurie Halse Anderson puts words together, so I am delighted to share these teasers from Wintergirls (2009).

"When school started, she looked right through me in the halls, her new friends draped around her neck like Mardi Gras necklaces.  She wiped me off the face of her existence" (p. 11).

"Cassie's at the morgue, I guess.  Last night she slept there in a silver drawer, eyes getting used to the dark" (p. 15).

Armchair BEA: Book Signings and Author Sightings

It isn't true that all book bloggers have left the blogosphere to attend the BEA (Book Expo America) in New York this week.  There is, for example, me!  I'm still here at home, and I have discovered that other book bloggers (like Sarah of Puss Reboots, who designed the logo pictured here) have decided we could have our own BEA on our blogs.  Here are some examples:

• Yesterday Chris of Book-A-Rama posted I See Dead People and populated her "dream panel" with dead authors -- Jane Austen, Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot), and Charlotte Bronte -- adding, "though I doubt Charlotte would be comfortable being stared at by so many people."
• Today Nancy, the Bookfool, posted Blast from the Past, showing us a dozen books she fell in love with as a child and as a young mother.
• Yesterday Florinda of the 3 R's Blog posted If I were there, and NOT in my chair. She imagined herself THERE in New York City and wandered through the New Title Showcase.

I knew I needed an idea, so I searched Armchair BEA Central's suggestions and came up with this BEA-related one.

BOOK SIGNINGS and AUTHOR SIGHTINGS

Here I am with Fannie Flagg, who is signing my copy of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. (Photographing a small snapshot with my cell phone caused that reflection across the top.)  My favorite of all her books is Red Bird Christmas, because of quotes like this one from page 35:

Mildred looked at her, highly incensed. “And just how am I supposed to know what I want until I get there? That’s why it’s called shopping, Frances!” And with that she marched out the door.

Laurie Halse Anderson signed Fever 1793 for me when she was in Chattanooga a couple of years ago.  I have reviewed her YA novel Speak, which has been challenged, on this blog and on my Banned Books blog.

John Dominic Crossan signs books as "Dominic," as you can see.  This is what he wrote for me in his memoir A Long Way from Tipperary.  I've met him a couple of times, once when he led a seminar about his book God and Empire and another time on The First Paul, which he wrote with Marcus Borg.

Dom's friend and occasional co-author, Marcus Borg, led a day-long seminar that I attended on his book The Heart of Christianity.  I got my email moniker from that book:  Emerging Paradigm.

After driving three hours to a conference in the northeast corner of Tennessee, I lucked out and actually had lunch at Masha Hamilton's table before taking part in her workshop about her novel The Camel Bookmobile.

Theda Perdue wrote a history of Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, probably the best history book I've ever read.  Aong with the other women of my face-to-face book club, I met her when she spoke at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on the same night we sat around a table to discuss her book.

Years ago, I drove an hour north of here to hear Madeleine L'Engle, who wrote A Wrinkle in Time and dozens of other books.  She was younger then than this picture of her.  She is one of my favorite authors of all time, and I was surprised at how sad I was when I heard she had died in 2007.

Robert Hicks signed his novel, A Separate Country, for me.  I've been to two of his book signings.

I'm trying to remember other authors I have met, but this may have to do for now.

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Addendum (5-27-2010):  Yep, I knew I'd start remembering other authors I've met.  Here are two more I have remembered this morning.

Just this past August I met Susan Gregg Gilmore at a local bookstore where she was promoting her 2008 book Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen. Here's a teaser from page 236:

"My mama and daddy had certainly left me a mess to sort out, and I couldn't think of a single verse of scripture that was going to comfort me as I came to terms with an adulterating daddy, a resurrected mama, and an expectant mistress with an imaginary fiance."

And another author I met was Paul Von Ward, who wrote Soul Genome.  I've run into him a time or two since I first met him two years ago, and he has signed three of his books for me:  Our Solarian Legacy, The Soul Genome, and Gods, Genes, and Consciousness.
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UPDATE on Sept 8, 2010:  I met Janisse Ray about a decade ago, but I had forgotten until I read about her on another blog. I've written about her on my blog today.  Click here to read about her and her books.
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UPDATE on Dec 12, 2010:  Helen listed books she read during 2010 that got her highest rating, and among them is Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  That reminded me that I met him at a reception held in the home of another member of the committee that brought him to Chattanooga.  I even chatted with him over hors d'oeuvres.  I highly recommend Bud, Not Buddy.

And it just crossed my mind that I met Avi at a conference in Kentucky.  My favorite book by Avi is Nothing But the Truth.

The list keeps getting longer.  So far I've remembered Fannie Flagg, Laurie Halse Anderson, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Masha Hamilton, Theda Perdue, Madeleine L'Engle, Robert Hicks, Susan Gregg Gilmore, Paul Von Ward, Janisse Ray, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Avi.  That's a baker's dozen (thirteen, in other words).

New books (like new crayons) are such a pleasure!

Several books arrived at my house this week.  I'll start with one I won from Color Online.

Page from a Tennessee Journal, a novel by Francine Thomas Howard (2010), is loosely based on a well-guarded family secret, we are told on the page about the author.  Rural Tennessee in 1913, black woman sharecropper trying to feed her children after her husband runs off, white landowner who gets her pregnant -- one reviewer on Amazon.com posted a quote from the book, about what the woman's Aunt Becky said:

"Ain't never been a brown-skinned woman who had any say over what a Tennessee white man can do with her body."

But it isn't as simple as that, apparently, when we throw in the spouses.  I'll let you know what it's all about, after I read the book.

I ran across Woman's Inhumanity to Woman by Phyllis Chesler while reading about feminism in relation to the Women Unbound reading challenge.  Luckily, my library had a copy.

"Like men, women are exposed to the messages of misogyny and sexism that permeate cultures worldwide. Like men, women unconsciously buy into negative images that can trigger abuse and mistreatment of other women. But like other social victims, many do not realize stereotyping affects members within the victimized group as well as those outside the group. They do not realize their behavior reflects society's biases."

I am working at my branch of the public library, as a volunteer -- two days this week, and two more next week -- so one of the three employees could take a vacation.  I was telling someone about Laurie Halse Anderson, one of my favorite authors, and showed the woman the two of her books on the YA shelves that were not checked out:  Speak, which I've read (and reviewed), and Chains, which I haven't.  Are you surprised to learn that I checked out Chains myself?  I didn't think you would be.

I read about Faith and Feminism on Ronna Detrick's blog and immediately put the book on hold at my library.  Two questions seem to be at the heart of the book, according to the back cover:

"Why do so many women of faith have such a strong aversion to feminism?  And why do so many feminists have an ardent mistrust of religion?"

The book takes a look at five spiritual women who combined their faith with feminist beliefs:  Emily Dickinson, Teresa of Avila, Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, and Dorothy Day.  And I like the title of the last chapter:  "Weaving a Connection."

I'm still emptying boxes of books from my storage units.  One book I added to my TBR pile was Networking: The Great New Way for Women to Get Ahead.  I hear you thinking, "Networking is not new!" and you're right.  But this book by Mary Scott Welch was published in 1980, thirty years ago.  That was decades before Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites.  I'm curious to see how it all started.  When the author died in 1995, at the age of 75, the New York Times obituary said:

"Ms. Welch wrote Networking: The Great New Way for Women to Get Ahead (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1980) in an era when more women were competing for jobs traditionally dominated by men.  Networking, through individual contacts and professional organizations, became an important technique for women to get career advice and make connections. Such contacts also helped offset the competitive advantage men often enjoyed through their own 'old boy' network.

Based on this cover and even the title -- Clone Codes by Patricia C. McKissack, Fredrick McKissack, and John McKissack -- this doesn't sound like my kind of book at all, but I've nearly finished reading this YA novel.  Here's the online synopsis of the story:

The Cyborg Wars are over and Earth has peacefully prospered for more than one hundred years. Yet sometimes history must repeat itself until humanity learns from its mistakes. In the year 2170, despite technological and political advances, cyborgs and clones are treated no better than slaves, and an underground abolitionist movement is fighting for freedom. Thirteen-year-old Leanna's entire life is thrown into chaos when The World Federation of Nations discovers her mom is part of the radical Liberty Bell Movement. ... With help from unlikely sources, Leanna learns the origin of The Liberty Bell Movement and how its members may have answers about her past-and her new reality.As family secrets are revealed, Leanna must face startling truths about self-identity and freedom. Through time travel, advanced technologies, and artificial intelligence, this exhilarating adventure asks what it means to be human and explores the sacrifices an entire society will make to find out.

Another book from the library this week was Full, Full, Full of Love by Trish Cooke, which I've already read and reviewed here.  It's a great little children's book that I highly recommend.
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Remember when you were a kid and getting new crayons was a big deal?  Getting new books holds the same kind of magic for some of us big kids.  Susan at Color Online came up with the idea of New Crayons to represent new books that arrived during the week.
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Newly arrived books

It's been over two weeks since I told you about books that have recently arrived at my house, so I'm overdue to share more titles.  First an update on some from the previous list:

The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran ~ My friend Donna finished it, gave it back to me, and I finished reading it this morning.  Review to come.

Wait for Me by An Na ~ I still need to write a review for this one.

Independent Dames by Laurie Halse Anderson ~ I reviewed it Friday, along with a tribute to the most "independent dame" I've ever met.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead ~ I read it, but haven't figured out what to say in a review.  Excellent YA book!

That new book smell

Donna and I live in the same block, so we ordered our books together to save on shipping.  They were delivered to my door this morning.  Mine is Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper, a 295-page YA book about a wheelchair-bound ten-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, who is unable to walk, talk, or write.  She has been stuck inside her mind all her life -- until now.

Hers is Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street by Jim Wallis.  Rather than joining the throngs who are asking, When will this economic crisis be over? Jim Wallis says the right question to ask is How will this crisis change us?  I will probably read this one when Donna finishes it.

From the library stacks

Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth is set in India during the time of partition.  Twelve-year-old Leela was engaged at two, married at nine, and about to move in with her husband's family, when her fiance died.  Now she'll have to be confined to her house for a year ("keep corner") in preparation for a life of mourning a boy she barely knew.  Sounds interesting.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, on the other hand, wasn't as good as I expected (yes, I've already finished reading it).  Lots of folks seem to like his one, but I just wanted to finish it so I could move on to something else.

I posted a teaser for Infidel, a memoir by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, before I actually had the book in hand.  When the book came out in 2007, I was very curious about it because she championed free speech in spite of threats from Muslims.  She was raised in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya and now lives in the Netherlands.  It sounds perfect for the Women Unbound challenge.  But I never got around to reading it.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini is another book that was published several years ago.  I'd been told it's even better than The Kite Runner, but so far I haven't been quite ready to jump back into the fray in Afghanistan.  Maybe this time.

I posted a teaser for The Help last week.  This novel about Mississippi women and their "help" in the 1960s is one of the best books I've read lately.  I was totally engrossed and wondering if the violence that maimed and killed so many would also strike any of the main characters in the novel.  I'll post a review soon.

Because Gail Collins's When Everything Changed was so good (see my review), I checked out her earlier book about America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines.  It looks like one I really must read, eventually, but at 556 pages it's a big ole book and I may wait until a later time to savor what's in it.