Realgoodblog: a place for those who read, write and appreciate the written word

Mary Casanova is back on Realgoodwords

2012-01-24T15:53:00.000-06:00

Minnesota children's book and young adult author Mary Casanova is back on KAXE's Realgoodwords this week. Her new American Girl series of books about McKenna are the 2012 Girl of the Year series. Here's how it is described:

Ten-year-old McKenna Brooks has always excelled in school and in gymnastics. So when her grades suddenly fall, McKenna begins to doubt herself. With the help of a new friend, McKenna learns to focus on her strengths to overcome her challenges, one step at a time. But just as she begins to shine in school, McKenna is sidelined with a gymnastics injury. Will McKenna be able to springboard to success again? Author: Mary Casanova. Paperback. 128 pages. Ages 8+

Mary Casanova is a writer from Ranier, Minnesota who has written many different kinds of children's books - from picture books to books for young adults, Mary has also written many in the American Girl series of books.

"A Thousand Lives" by Julia Scheeres

2011-11-08T14:02:00.002-06:00

This week on Realgoodwords I talk with author Julia Scheeres. She has a chilling new book called "A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown". It's a chilling book that doesn't look at Jim Jones exactly; it's about the people who were there. Scheeres has written the book in a unique style - showcasing some of the people, without the reader knowing their outcomes. Reviewers have said "Scheeres captures the humanity within this terrible story, vividly depicting indiviguals trapped in a vortex of hope and fear, faith and loss of faith." Scheeres researched Jonestown and looked through over 50,000 pagest of files from the FBI including some movies that feature the people of the church. It's chilling to watch now. Tune in for my conversation this Wednesday night at 6pm and Sundays at 9am. Or check the archived interviews of Realgoodwords.

James Lee Burke on KAXE

2011-09-28T09:54:00.001-05:00

This week I have the GREAT FORTUNE to talk with James Lee Burke again. His 30th novel is is out, called "Feast Day of Fools". Tune in tonight to Realgoodwords or Sunday mornings. If you miss the show you can listen to archived editions of the interviews here!

It was a two book weekend

2011-08-16T09:48:00.001-05:00

I had the best time getting lost in two novels last weekend. Both had to do with the secrets of families. Both were the kind of reading that reminded me of being a kid and taking a book with me everywhere, even in the boat on the lake. Why I wanted to be transported from a beautiful lake in Minnesota is beyond me, but stories had way too big of a pull to keep me planted in that boat with nightcrawlers and picnic baskets of fried chicken. Right now I'd give anything to be back on that boat. But then? Give me a book and I was happy!

Ellen Baker is a Minnesota writer who has just published her second novel "I Gave My Heart To Know This". What I like about it is how in-depth Ellen goes into WWII and the roles that women had (in Superior, Wisconsin) as welders and workers while the men were off to war. She shows these women with all their strengths and weaknesses. And believe me, they have both of these, in spades.

"I really loved reading this powerful and poignant book, which, though it acknowledges pain, regret and remorse, ultimately is a celebration of life.” —Elizabeth Berg, author of Once Upon a Time There Was You and Open House

The other book I read "Maine" by J. Courtney Sullivan, also told the story of a complicated family. A family shrouded in secrets. The Kelleher's are a big clan of Irish Catholics who have never quite gotten over the death of their patriarch, Daniel. Where once they gathered together and celebrated (with their fighting and bickering of course) now the family barely interacts with each other, even splitting the summer months up at their cabin in Maine instead of all going there together.

“Sullivan beautifully channels Alice through her memories…The dialogue sizzles as the tension between the women’s love and anger toward one another tightens…You don’t want the novel to end.” –The New York Times Book Review

Ellen Baker is my guest this week on Realgoodwords, and J. Courtney Sullivan will be later in August. Tell me about your summer reads!

Secret bookstores

2011-07-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

I found this video on author Spencer Seidel's site. Reminds me of a great used bookstore in Dinkytown I spent so much time in while I was at the University of Minnesota. Sigh. Bookstores.
There's No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo.

2Minnesota Writers this week

2011-07-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

Danielle Sosin's novel "The Long-Shining Waters" won the Milkweed National Fiction prize this year. Publisher's Weekly said, "Sosin writes sensuously detailed prose and distills the emotions of her characters into a profound and universal need for acceptance and love."

Danielle will be our guest this week and we'll talk about the draw of Lake Superior, for her personally and as a writer.

Also happening this week - Minnesota writer Amie Klempnauer Miller will join us to talk about "She Looks Just Like You - A Memoir of (Nonbiological Lesbian) Motherhood". In it Amie searches for a way to describe her role. She's like any first time parent with anxieties and challenges. But she also faces things that not every parent does - as a nonbiological mom she had to stand before a judge to adopt her own daughter.

This week on Realgoodwords

2011-07-05T15:23:00.000-05:00

What kind of books do you look for in the summertime? This week on Realgoodwords we've got some new books, fiction and non-fiction, that might be right up your alley.

"Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage" by Douglas Waller. Waller is a former Newsweek and Time magazine reporter who has put together the story of Wild Bill Donovan. Donovan was the man Franklin Roosevelt tapped to be his spymaster in WWII - who created the first national intelligence agency in the U.S. Donovan is descrived as an exciting and secretive general who introduced this nation to the dark arts of covert warfare on a scale never seen before.

Diane Chamberlain's latest novel is more of a summer beach read, "The Midwife's Confession". The 'story of friendship and the corrosive power of secrets'. Booklist wrote "The frankness of each scene and character should grab readers and keep them eagerly turning pages right up to the startling climax."

Dr. David Anderegg is the author of the newly updated book "Nerds: How Dorks, Dweebs, Techies and Trekkies Can Save America *And Why they Might Be Our Last Hope". Here's a cool Nerd quiz you can take:

The Last Nerd Self-Test You’ll Ever Need!

1. Are you sometimes so enthusiastic about your interests that you get carried away, and lose your self-consciousness in your passion for your subject?

2. Do you believe that people can be beautiful and smart at the same time?

3. Do you sometimes get interested in a book or a hobby that’s really difficult to get into, but you do it anyway because it seems like such a cool thing to learn?

4. Do you like precision or exactitude, maybe even so much that a right answer is an aesthetically pleasing experience?

5. Do you find tracking what’s fashionable just a teensy bit boring?

6. Do you admire people who are very knowledgeable even if their topic is a little arcane?

7. Don't you just love the word “arcane”?

8. Do you enjoy vivid imaginative accounts of alternatives to mundane reality?

9. Are you comfortable with the fact that Harry Potter wears big spectacles and is also a big athletic hero?

10. Do you find anti-intellectualism just a little bit….stupid?

If you answered yes to all of the above, award yourself 100 points. You win! You are a big fat cool American post-nerd. You are totally comfortable with yourself because you have finally moved beyond the ridiculous social categories of middle school! If you scored less than 100, however, or even if you did score 100 but have friends who are still living in the Dark Ages, you need to read my new book, NERDS: How Dorks, Dweebs, Techies, and Trekkies Can Save America...and Why They Might Be Our Last Hope.

MN's Louis Jenkins poem read at the Tonys

2011-06-21T09:15:00.001-05:00

MN poet Louis Jenkins had a sort of mention at the recent Tony awards. Mark Rylance won a best actor Tony for "Jerusalem" and for the second time, instead of a speech, he recited a Louis Jenkins poem. Except he didn't SAY it was a Louis Jenkins poem. I wonder what Louis Jenkins thinks of that? I just sent him an email... I'll let you know if he responds back!

Good Luck Envelopes!

2011-06-15T14:37:00.001-05:00

This week on Realgoodwords I get the chance to talk with Minnesota poet Sharon Chmielarz again. Sharon had 2 books of poetry published this year "Calling" and "The Sky is Great The Sky is Blue". Poet connie Wanek said of "The Sky is Great The Sky is Blue":

"These are astonishing poems. Like Szymborska's, the poems are spare, often subversive, both dark and hopeful; a conscience is at work in them. like Dickinson's, they breathe."

In my conversation with Sharon she talked about what it is like to get her poetry out into the world, "When I send off a submission like when you're sending off to magazines, I always wish my envelopes good luck (and the poems too!) because they're traveling over the mail and they're going into this office where I would be very nervous to go by myself - and they face this terrible judgment on the other end. YES or NO. Go to the right, or left...."

Sharon is one of the many writers that I get to talk to for Realgoodwords on KAXE. Also featured this week is the legendary performer Andy Williams who will be part of this year's Judy Garland festival in Grand Rapids. Andy's memoir is "Moon River and Me". Where else but KAXE will you get such diverse programming - people getting the chance to tell their stories. How do we do it, week after week? We do it because people listen and people support this community radio station. If you aren't a member, I hope you'll consider it today. 218-326-1234 or 800-662-5799.

Fish or Cut Bait

2011-06-08T16:39:00.000-05:00

Heard that phrase before? Want to take it on as your own? Me too.

In some ways, Fish or Cut Bait describes this week's Realgoodwords where I talk with authors Ellen Airgood and Jim Proebstle. Proebstle is a northern Minnesota summer resident who has published a novel based on true events "Fatal Incident". He tells us the true life story and fictionalizes the reasonings and endings that were never uncovered before. In 1944 there was a crash in Alaska's Mount McKinley range that killed 20 people. The pilot, Nick, is a pilot for the Army's ATC in Alaska. In real life, the bodies and the documents surrounding this crash were never found. It's fascinating because Alaska was a strategic defense position against Japan as well as a lend-lease exchange location for Soviet pilots in support of Russia's war with Germany. Mix in a possibility of a plot to steal the U.S's top secret atomic bomb designs and you have what William Kent Krueger calls "a hell of a good read". Fish or Cut Bait here is the fortitude of the brothers who are pilots in the book, as well as the central love story that is woven throughout between Nick and Martha. Jim Proebstle will be at the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids on Saturday June 18th from 11-2.

Ellen Airgood of Grand Marais, Michigan has just published her debut novel "South of Superior". It's based loosely on the town where she lives. I asked Ellen to tell me more about why she settled in Michigan's U.P.

"I came here camping with my sister in the national park near by and on a rainy day we drove into Grand Marais rather than hike. We ate lunch and I picked out what I thought was the quaintest place to eat and I ended up marrying the cook and I've been here ever since. I married him six months after I met him which was very crazy but twenty years later here we are and we've made a very good life together here.

But there have been a lot of challenges in so many different ways and you will find that anywhere in life I think but I just happened to find it here. I decided at some point along time ago to fish or cut bait and to pay attention to what I had. I found it to be really wonderful. But I did fall abruptly in love with the place and the person and really could tear myself away. And even in the hardest of tiems I never ever wanted to leave here. There's something about it that's magical as well as being very real and very difficult."

Fish or Cut Bait. I admire it in life and I admire it in my reading. Tune in to KAXE this week for my conversations with Jim Proebstle and Ellen Airgood. Or check the audio archives of Realgoodwords.

Bemidji Library Book Festival June 13th-18th

2011-05-27T14:49:00.000-05:00

Cool literary events happening in our listening June 13th-17th.... The event is put on by the Kitchigami Regional Library System and made possible by a grant from the MN Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund. Here's the lineup/information:

Monday June 13th:

Phyllis Root author of children's picture book "The Big Belching Bog" 10:30 Bemidji Library

Sandra Benitez author of "The Night of the Radishes" "The Weight of Water" and more 2pm Headwaters School of Music & The Arts

Todd Boss poet and author of "yellowrocket" 7pm American Indian Resources Center, BSU

Tuesday June 14th:
Mary Casanova children's author of many books including "Some Dog" 10:30 am Bemidji Library
Cynthia Kraack 2pm Headwaters School of Music & the Arts
Linda Grover 7pm Am. Indian Resource Center BSU

Wednesday June 15th
Catherine Friend author of "Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep & Enough Wool to Save the Planet" 10:30 Bemidji Public Library
Catherine Friend 2pm Diamond Point Park
Colin Wesaw 7pm Am. Indian Resource Center, BSU

Thursday June 16th
Lynne Jonell 10:30pm Bemidji Library
Roy C. Booth 2pm Rail River Folk School
Heid Erdrich 7pm American Indian Resource Center BSU

Friday June 17th
Don Houseman 10:30am Bemidji Public Library
Julie Schumacher 2pm Headwaters School of Music
Author Fair 5-7pm Bemidji High School
Roxana Saberi 7pm BHS Auditorium (Keynote Author)

Saturday June 18th
Susan Marie Swanson 10:30am Bemidji Library

All events are free and open to the public. Check Kitchigami Regional Library's website for more info.

This week on Realgoodwords

2011-05-18T15:13:00.004-05:00

Check out the video for young adult author Gayle Forman's "Where She Went" - it's been called "achingly satisfying" by Family Circle. Also MN Book Award winner Bonnie J. Rough and her memoir "Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA".

This week on Realgoodwords

2011-05-11T08:46:00.001-05:00

Tune in tonight for KAXE's weekly book program, Realgoodwords with Heidi Holtan. She'll talk with author Jael McHenry about her new book "The Kitchen Sister". After the unexpected death of her parents, shy and sheltered Ginny Selvaggio, a young woman with Asperger’s Syndrome, seeks comfort in family recipes. But the rich, peppery scent of her Nonna’s soup draws an unexpected visitor into the kitchen: the ghost of Nonna herself, dead for twenty years, who appears with a cryptic warning—before vanishing like steam from a cooling dish. Also Pulitzer Prize winning writer Geraldine Brooks and her novel "Caleb's Crossing" about the life of the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College in 1665. And local author K.L Malmquist drops by to talk about his second novel that's out, "The Unraveling".

Shelter by Sarah Stonich

2011-04-27T09:10:00.002-05:00

This week on Realgoodwords!

River Jordan and Juliette Fay

2011-04-20T17:01:00.002-05:00

This week on Realgoodwords: River Jordan and "Praying for Strangers" and Juliette Fay's "Deep Down True"... about a woman facing huge change in her life, change that can sometimes send her reeling back to the feeling of middle school.

reading on planes, trains and busses

2011-04-06T09:10:00.012-05:00

I recently got back from a marvelous trip to Spain. It was a quick trip that involved a lot of different modes of transportation - and for this reason, the books I chose to bring were not chosen lightly. What books to bring on a trip (even if it's just to Duluth) is never an easy or quick endeavor. For the European trip I had a couple of requirements: they had to be books I would be featuring on Realgoodwords in the future and they had to be compelling and keep me entertained. I've learned over the years that I can't choose books I SHOULD be reading or I think will look cool to others. Believe me, this doesn't work and makes you consider buying duty-free, which no one actually needs.

My first choices to bring were Matthew Logelin's "Two Kisses for Maddy - A Memoir of Loss and Love" and River Jordan's "Praying for Strangers - An Adventure of the Human Spirit". Right off the bat, I couldn't take Matthew Logelin's book with me.

I couldn't put it down as soon as I picked it up and finished it before the trip even began. Therein was my next problem. What would the OTHER book be that I brought on my trip?

But first, let me tell you about "Two Kisses for Maddy" and why I couldn't put it down. It's a terrible story. Terrible because it's Matthew Logelin's real life story of losing his wife, right after his daughter was born. But the book and Matthew's writing is compelling. It's raw and it's real and I didn't want to stop reading it. And there's joy as well as sorrow in his story and it really gives you hope that even if you face the suckiest of suck predicaments, there's a sliver of hope out there. I promise you, you won't be able to put this one down.

So I'm back to my book quandry: I've got "Praying for Strangers" and what else to bring? I decide on a novel, Jael McHenry's "The Kitchen Daughter".

I read "The Kitchen Daughter" on the flight to New York and then from New York to Madrid. It didn't disappoint. We're in the age of celebrity chefs and cooking reality shows and though I'm interested in those things, sometimes novels with food as a focus feel a little like they are jumping on the bandwagon. Not "The Kitchen Daughter". In Jael McHenry's assured prose, she tells the story of a main character unlike one I've read before. Ginny Selvaggio is a woman in her twenties who has always lived with her parents. She's not easy to get close to - and that's because she's got undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome, and thanks to her mother and father, has had a happy, but sheltered, life. When her parents are killed in a car accident, Ginny's coping skills are pushed to the max. Food was always center to her life, but she comes to find solace in cooking recipes of relatives...and odd things begin to happen when the food is being cooked. It's an interesting book: a bit magical realism and a lot of strong characters.

In the middle of my trip, while we relaxed and enjoyed the small town of Salamanca, Spain, I began reading River Jordan's "Praying for Strangers - An Adventure of the Human Spirit." It was one of those books that was exactly the right book at the right time. It's River's story: having both her son's shipped oversees with the military (to Afghanistan and Iraq) she found herself making a resolution that she didn't really even understand. To pull herself out of her own situation - she decided to each day, choose a stranger and pray for them.

In Praying for Strangers, River Jordan tells of her amazing personal journey of uncovering the needs of the human heart as she prayed her way through the year for people she had never met before. The discovery that Jordan made along the journey was not simply that her prayers touched the lives of these strangers (in often astounding ways), but that the unexpected connections she made with other people would be a profound experience that would change her own life forever.

In a foreign country where I didn't speak the language, I found myself looking at people differently. Thinking about what their lives might be. And I started realizing how easy it was for me to be thinking of myself, all of the time. How did I look? What did other people think of me? And most of the time I barely paid attention to the people I was coming into contact with. Reading River's stories of all the people she met - the connections that were made - made me sit up and pay attention. I also liked that River's book wasn't prosletyzing a certain religion. She had no intention of making people believe what she believed. That wasn't the point.

Stay tuned for my conversations with all my book and travel companions in the upcoming weeks - Matthew Logelin, Jael McHenry and River Jordan. Realgoodwords can be heard on 91.7KAXE Wednesdays at 6pm and Sundays at 9am. If you miss it, check out the archive here.

2011 Minnesota Book Awards

2011-03-18T13:41:00.006-05:00

The 2011 MN Book Awards are coming up on Saturday April 16th at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Downtown St. Paul.

Minnesota is a state that I'm proud to live in for many reasons - least of which is it's dedication to literature and books. Minnesota has many great independent publishers and one our greatest resources is its writers. Many of this year's nominees were guests this year on Realgoodwords and other KAXE programming.

During the month of March you can still vote for your favorite in the Minnesota Reader's Choice award here.

This week I feature my conversations with William Kent Krueger and David Housewright. They are both up for the award in the genre fiction category.

You can listen to the interviews I and other KAXE staff did with all of the authors I interviewed who are nominated for a MN Book Award this year:

-William Kent Krueger and "Vermilion Drift"
-David Housewright and "The Taking of Libbie SD"
-Julie Kramer and "Silencing Sam"
-Wendy Webb and "The Tales of Halycon Crane"

-Bonnie Rough and "The Carrier"
-Laurie Hertzel and "News to Me: Adventures of An Accidental Journalist"
-Chris Niskanen and Doug Ohman's "Prairie, Lake, Forest: Minnesota's State Parks" (you can hear the 2 hour Between You and Me on State Parks that includes an interview/conversation with Doug Ohman)
-Jay Weiner and "This is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the MN Recount" (listen to Scott Hall's interview on the ampers.org site here)
-Michael Nordskog & Aaron Hautala's "Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition" You can see Aaron's essay and photos on the KAXE blog here....
-Anton Treur's "The Assassination of Hole-In-The-Day"

"I never go anywhere without a book to read"

2011-03-09T16:55:00.005-06:00

That's what author Eleanor Brown told me. "Just in case you get stuck" she said. I can totally understand that, I'm always the one lugging around a couple of books with me, just in case.

That's the case with her book-loving main characters in "The Weird Sisters" her debut novel. Publisher's Weekly said "…bright, literate debut…a punchy delight…” You can hear our conversation here. She's my guest this week along with contemporary authors Jodi Picoult and Linda Francis Lee.

Jodi Picoult is the International bestselling author who has a new novel out called "Sing Me Home". It was great to talk with her about how the "Sing Me Home" had personal meaning to her. It's the story of Zoe, a woman who finds herself infertile and divorced and falling in love with someone she didn't expect. Liste to Jodi Picoult on KAXE here.

Also on this week's show is Linda Francis Lee and her new novel "Emily and Einstein - A Novel of Second Chances". It's a fun story that surprises the reader into believing a husband can become a dog and that even if you don't have a talking dog, life can be magical. Laura Francis Lee talks with Heidi here.

Do you make sure you have a book wherever you go? Or maybe that's a kindle nowadays? You can always hear conversations about books on Realgoodwords on KAXE - Wednesdays at 6pm and Sundays at 9am.

Are We Allowed to Fail?

2011-03-02T12:43:00.006-06:00

Actor and writer Alan Arkin doesn't think so. I had the chance to talk to him this week about his new book "An Improvised Life: A Memoir". I asked him about being a founding member of Second City in Chicago. He had this to say:

We were allowed to fail. It was a completely exploratory environment where we were allowed to fail. Nobody's allowed to fail anymore at anything in any area of our culture or civilization. I don't think you learn anything without failing. I don't think it's possible. And we failed a lot and the audience didn't mind. They knew it was going to happen and so we grew. That's what it was like.

Tune in for our conversation on Realgoodwords - Wednesdays at 6pm, CST - Sundays at 9am,CST. You'll also hear our conversation on this week's Between You and Me as we talk movies.

The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by MN Author Kao Kalia Yang

2011-02-23T13:19:00.005-06:00

I had a wonderful conversation today with MN author Kao Kalia Yang about the book that has been read by so many people, and has been chosen by the Grand Rapids Area Library as the "Rapids Reads" book. Kalia will be speaking about her book in Grand Rapids on Thursday March 17 at 7pm.

In our conversation we talked about language, both English and Hmong, and the art of storytelling. Kalia had this to say:

"My uncle asked me do you know what a storyteller is? And I told him yes, they are writers but in spoken words. He told me no, in order to be good you have to understand. That a story is a like a stop sign on the road of life. Its purpose is to make you pause, look both sides and check the trajectory of the horizon before you continue. I've always had a profound understanding that stories were the gift of life. It was what one person had to give to another and so I grew up surrounded by stories - in both Hmong and English."

She went on to tell me how different English and Hmong are to her:

"The English language never feels quite right. It is eternally breathless. It is always as if I am doing CPR to the language. But in Hmong, it flows beautifully in voice. The way I sound in Hmong, I believe, is the way I read on the pages in English. I think I write like a native. Very fearlessly. I write much better than I can speak because for so long I didn't speak. For 20 years of my life I was a selective mute. I prefer that (writing) medium any time any day. If we could do this interview in email or live chat it would be so ideal for me. Because I don't like the way I sound in English, even today...even right now.

When I speak in Hmong it feels like a song on my lips in English I feel so raspy and breathless. Hmong is a tonal language and every breath that I breathe in the world carries meaning. In English I have to trap the air in my lungs and units of meaning to make sounds to the bigger world. "

Hope you get a chance to hear our interview tonight (2/23) at 6pm or Sunday 2/27 at 9am. Or check the archived interviews.

Erin Hart & False Mermaid this week

2011-02-22T12:01:00.008-06:00

I read a lot of books. That's what you might call an understatement. And I don't always remember the books I've read. That too is an understatement.

The other day someone asked me what some of my favorite books of 2010 were and I was stumped. Of course it was the end of the day on the last day of our Spring fundraiser. I'm hoping that had something to do with it.

But some books stay in my mind. Years ago I was a judge for the MN Book Awards in the genre fiction. Turns out that basically means mysteries. Though it was a lot of books to read in a short time, it tuned me in to some MN authors I had never read - like William Kent Krueger and Erin Hart . In the years since I read Erin Hart's "Lake of Sorrows" I've actually thought about the main character, Nora Gavin. And wondered if I'd ever get to hear from her again. (Yes, I wonder things about characters in books in my spare time. So sue me!)

So, as luck would have it, and by luck I mean the MN Arts & Cultural Heritage amendment - Erin Hart and her husband (Irish musician) Paddy O'Brien are doing a tour of the Kitchigami library system. For her new book. About Nora Gavin!

This one is called "False Mermaid" and the title is a connection of all the story lines in the book. A quick synopsis:

Nora Gavin remains haunted by a cold case that nearly cost her sanity five years ago: her sister Tríona's brutal murder. After failing to bring the killer to justice, Nora fled to Ireland, throwing herself into her work and taking the first tentative steps in a new relationship with Irish archaeologist Cormac Maguire. She's driven home by unwelcome news: Tríona's husband—and the prime suspect in her murder—is about to remarry. Nora is determined to succeed this time, even if it means confronting unsettling secrets. As she digs ever closer to the truth, the killer zeroes in on Tríona's young daughter, Elizabeth.

For information on the Kitchigami Regional Library tour that begins this Thursday February 24th at the Brainerd Public library at 5pm see here.

Christina Meldrum and Melicious tonight on Realgoodwords!!

2011-02-16T13:35:00.009-06:00

It's the WE THE PEOPLE 91.7KAXE Spring Fundraiser and we're celebrating the community of Northern Community Radio. That means listeners, readers,or roller derby teams who make up the wide variety of people who support and believe in independent radio for northern Minnesota.

I'm super psyched right now - not just because I'm sitting at my desk in a derby skirt and leopard print tights with my rollerskates on. But because the night ahead is going to be great.

I'm talking to 2 authors on Realgoodwords tonight: Christina Meldrum and Melicious.

Chr istina Meldrum is an award winning novelist whose latest book is called "Amaryllis in Blueberry". It's the story told from the point of view of an entire family. Not only that, but the novel begins at the ending when the mother, Seena, is on trial for the murder of her husband. "Amaryllis in Blueberry" has been described as being in the tradition of novels like "The Secret Life of Bees" and "The Poisonwood Bible".

At 6:30 some of my teammates from the Iron Range Maidens will be joining me to talk to Melissa "Melicious" Joulwan about her memoir "Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track.". Melicious is a roller girl from Austin, Texas that was instrumental in the resurgence of roller derby. It's hot in northern Minnesota with the Bemidji team Babe City Rollers, the Duluth teams Harbor City Roller Dames and Duluth Derby Divas as well as my very own team, the Iron Range Maidens. Tune in for Melicious!

My teammates will be here to talk with Melicious and answering phones throughout the night On the River. Pledge for community radio! We're independent and we're on wheels! The only reason we get to bring you great programs like Realgoodwords is because you support it with your membership. 800-662-5799/218-326-1234 or pledge online, www.kaxe.org.

Copies of "Amaryllis in Blueberry" and "Rollergirl: Totally True Tales from the Track" are available as a thank you gift for your membership of $60/year or above. Just let us know you'd like one when you call and pledge!!!

P.S. check out Doug MacRostie's documentary on the women of roller derby here.!

History and The Brain in bestselling novels

2011-02-08T15:49:00.005-06:00

This week two bestselling authors join me on Realgoodwords.

Jed Rubenfeld is a Yale law professor whose first novel was an international bestseller. His new one is out called "The Death Instinct" and it's set around the terror attack on Wall Street on Sept. 16th of 1920. There are some amazing parallels to now - not just to the 9/11 attacks but to the economy and how the government dealt with the attack....

I'm also excited to talk with Lisa Genova again. I read her new novel, Left Neglected, a month ago or so, and still haven't been able to get it out of my mind. It's the story of Sarah Nickerson who is in a car accident that leaves her with brain damage that is termed left neglect.

“Genova is a master of getting into the heads of her characters, relating from the inside out what it's like to suffer from a debilitating disease. How she does it we don't know, but she does, and brilliantly.”

--Craig Wilson, USA Today

Mark Allister and Tyler Blanski on dating

2011-02-02T15:56:00.005-06:00

Two Minnesota authors join me this week. Two men talking and writing about subjects they don't always address: DATING.

Mark Allister is a St. Olaf professor who will be at the Grand Rapids Area Library tomorrow (February 3rd at 7pm) talking about his book "Dated: A Middle-Aged Guy's Online Search for Love". Mark, after a 25 year marriage and raising 2 kids, finds himself on the internet, trying to figure out how to date, all over again.

Tyler Blanski is a Minneapolis house painter who is a writer and painter. His book is called "Mud & Poetry - Love, Sex and the Sacred". Tyler grew up a Christian - in a world where dating was not exactly allowed. As he grew up and began to connect with his own desire to connect with others, he began to explore both faith and sexuality. Blanski says that humans are both mud and poetry - living out of both biological and emotional needs... base desires and soaring aspirations. Phyllis Tickle said, "If only Saint Augustine had grown up blogging, he too could have written this book. Either way though, I'm pretty sure the good Augustine would resonate with Tyler Blanski's twenty-first century confessions."

I was struck by both of these men - talking about subjects that aren't openly discussed. Both were thoughtful and sincere in their quest to find connection in the world.

MN authors on this week's Realgoodwords

2011-01-27T15:12:00.005-06:00

Molly Hootch Hymes joins me this week to talk about her memoir, "Molly Hootch: I Remember When - Growing Up on the Kwiguk Pass of the Lower Yukon River". Molly is a Yupik Eskimo who grew up in the village of Emmonak, Alaska. She's lived in Bemidji for the last 30 years and has finally put on paper the stories of her childhood. Molly especially respected her father and as she puts it, "how he could make ANYTHING out of nothing". The family lived a subsistence lifestyle. Molly Hootch's name became well known later in her teens. The "Molly Hootch Case" was a peition to bring hometown high schools to rural students in Alaska instead of being shipped off to boarding school.

The other MN author I feature this week is Catherin e Holm of Cook. Catherine's new book of short stories published by Holy Cow Press in Duluth is called "My Heart is a Mountain - Tales of Magic and The Land". It's gotten great reviews including Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler who said, "Catherine Holm writes with great and winning assurance and with nuanced compassion. My Heart is A Mountain is a truly lovely book by a fine writer."

One of my favorite stories in the book is the final one called "Farmwoman". It's sad, but it really shows how land and what you do with and tend to on your own land comes to define you. When you lose that land it's hard to have the same identity.

Catherine Holm will be at the Lyric Center for the Arts in Virginia for Monday February 7th at 6:30pm. She'll also be signing books at Howard Street Booksellers in Hibbing on Wednesday February 9th from 2-3:30pm.

Check out the RealgoodArchive for past author interviews on Realgoodwords.

this week's authors

2011-01-20T09:02:00.003-06:00

This week's Realgoodwords featured conversations with Beth Hoffman, Koren Zailckas and Thurston Clarke. The topics are varied - Beth talks with us about her feel-good bestselling novel that's out in paperback now "Saving CeeCee Honeycutt". I say feel good in the best sense... it's not light, there's a definite weight to the story, but you leave it feeling good about what people have the capacity to do for each other.

It's funny, because Koren Zailckas' memoir "Fury" while it's not the opposite of "Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt" it made be feel pretty empowered. It's about how we, especially as women, express or depress our anger. She brings up the question of "is it okay to feel anger? to show anger?" It's weird, because after the conversation I went home and felt angry all night, got it out, and feel SO much better tonight. I didn't stuff my emotions in, I didn't overeat, I was just angry. And I talked about it. And then moved through it.

And on a completely different note, this week Scott Hall talked to Thurston Clarke in honor of the anniversary of one of the most famous speeches in America - JFK's "Ask Not" speech. Scott said to me, "have you read it? It's a really well written speech. And not that long. It's like a fine piece of literature." Thurston Clarke's book is called "Ask Not: The Inaguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed the World".

Bullying this week on Realgoodwords

2011-01-11T09:55:00.004-06:00

Rosalind Wiseman has written on the subject of bullies before, in her bestselling book "Queen Bees & Wannabees" that the movie "Mean Girls" was based on. This time, she's written a novel for young adults. It's called "Boys, Girls & Other Hazardous Materials".

Tina Fey wrote of the new book, "Rosalind Wiseman once again writes with humor, compassion and accuracy about the high school experience. The real-life situations she presents are like watching a train wreck if that train were made out of text messages, make-out parties, and benzoil peroxide, and if train wrecks were surprisingly funny, which they are not. You can't put this book down...or it will talk about you while you are out of the room."

She, along with thriller writer Kathy Reichs (with her first book for young adults "Virals") and local author Duane Schwartz are my guests on this week's Realgoodwords. Check out this video from Rosalind Wiseman.

Kim Edwards and "The Lake of Dreams"

2011-01-04T12:51:00.006-06:00

Lucy, the main character in Kim Edward's new novel "The Lake of Dreams" thinks of a *Mary Oliver poem as her family's history and her future is cracked wide open. It is "What is it you plan to do/With your one wild and precious life?"

And that, that connection of a line from a great poem quoted by a fictional character in a contemporary novel that weaves the past and future of a family seamlessly is what it's all about. Because even though I am immersed in the novel, when I leave the book it stays with me. It makes me think. It makes me question what I plan to do with my one wild and precious life. And it makes me think about some of the stories of the people that came before me in my family. Especially, my great-great aunt Tilly.

Tilly has been on my mind again lately. I am the keeper of her chair as well as her postcard collection. Tilly and her husband Art never had children, and thru the briefest of stories on the backs of these hundreds of postcards she received from 1904-1911 I have gotten to know her a little bit. I have wondered how or if our lives are woven together.

Do I know the answer to that? Do I know the answer to what I will do with this one wild precious life of mine? No. But I like the questions. And the possibilities. And the book that made me think about them.

Kim Edwards is my guest this week on Realgoodwords. Hope you get a chance to hear it!

*The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?

What did you get for Christmas?

2010-12-25T16:44:00.001-06:00

who were you then? who are you now? who do you WANT to be?

2010-12-16T07:21:00.004-06:00

These are the questions that Joan Steffend found herself asking. Most of us know her as a former anchorwoman on KARE-11 news out of Minneapolis. Or host of Decorating Cents on HGTV. A redhead with a big smile and an easy laugh.

But like everyone, Joan found herself wondering where her sparkle had gone. Where was she headed?

Joan sat down and wrote a very interesting book - a picture book of sorts, but for adults. It's called "...And She Sparkled".

I talk with Joan Steffend this week on Realgoodwords and I found her charming and very real...check out the video here.

I hunt therefore I am

2010-12-07T09:47:00.002-06:00

So maybe in your family it's fishing or maple syruping or skiing.... but in all families we have certain traditions or rituals that we hope will continue long after we are gone.

Award winning Bemidji writer Will Weaver has just published his memoir called "The Last Hunter: An American Family Album". Will's book is a sojourn through his life - connecting the stories of his youth with his adulthood, all through the lens of hunting. Will grew up near Dorset, MN... he writes of a place he knew well there:

"A railroad cleaved through our family of farms. It separated Gerry's place from mine, but the crossing, with its slivered planks and tire-burnished bolts, was a meeting spot, and the railroad bed a boy's highway. Almost daily we walked it west a mile to our grandfather's place and sometimes beyond, to the edge of town two more miles away. East took us two miles to Dorset, a town of thirty or so with a lumberyard, bait shop and cafe. Beyond Dorset was uncharted territory - the edge of the earth - so we settled for a candy bar or an ice cream cone at the cafe in Dorset, then turned back. " Chapter 6, page 55 of "The Last Hunter"

Will will be signing books on Sunday December 12th at the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids from 2-4pm. He's also my guest this week on Realgoodwords!

Adriana Trigiani is back to talk about her Iron Range grandmother, Lucy Bonicelli

2010-12-01T13:27:00.003-06:00

Bestselling author Adriana Trigiani is back on Realgoodwords this week talking about her grandmothers. Really, what could be better? Here's an excerpt of our conversation:

(I asked Adriana about her grandmothers and how they have influenced ALL of her writing)

"They're a big part of the rock that I keep turning over and over again. The themes that I'm interested in -- who we choose to love and partner with in life -- the creation of families ---what we choose to make by the labor of our own hands.... My grandmothers shined in all those areas so they're a source of constant inspiration but more than the inspiration I ABIDE by them. What can I say? They're in heaven now but I still feel their presence around me all the time."

She went on to talk about her Grandmother Lucy from Chisholm, MN.

"Those Minnesota roots are really something. I had the great fortune of spending time in Chisholm quite a bit of the time and I just love the people. It was fun for me to paint the landscape for people who may have never visited the Iron Range. It's a very, very special place and I think one of the reasons it really produced so many great people were those deep family ties."

"He's not show quality but he's so sweet and all he needs is a little love"

2010-11-23T16:00:00.005-06:00

What would you do if you heard that? For author Julie Klam, she immediately pictured the Charlie Brown Christmas tree and thought "I have to have him". She got in her car, drove to Pennsylvania to meet Otto and immediately fell in love with him. She told me, "He was the man of my dreams".

Julie Klam's book is called "You Had Me At Woof: How Dogs Taught Me The Secrets of Happiness". Check out her book trailer, and tune in to Realgoodwords this week for my conversation with her.

Sexy sex on the Radio

2010-11-17T14:31:00.003-06:00

So it's become something of a running joke around here. Me and this book, "The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex" by Daily Show writers Kristin Schaal and Rich Blomquist. I did the interview quite some time ago. Okay fine, the blackberries were ripe, that's how long ago. I was nervous to talk about this book, which is hilariously funny but quite honestly, pretty dirty. I mean, it's public radio. There are laws about such things.

I taped the interview and Kristen and Rich were great. Me? Kind of a dope. Nervous. Giggly. Making jokes. Seriously, what is my problem?

So, finally, after stewing and wondering where and when to run this interview, I decided that I needed to get some courage. Showcase a book that I wouldn't normally feature on the KAXE airwaves. Even on the rebroadcast of Realgoodwords at 9am on Sunday.

Along with the "The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex" the show turned into a really interesting one - featuring the independent book publisher Chronicle Books. I talk with Brian McCullen from McSweeney's about "Art of McSweeney's" as well as Lesley M. M. Blume about "Let's Bring Back". Oh, and that sex book. Did I mention that?

Enjoy!

Women and their connection to the land

2010-11-09T15:48:00.004-06:00

This is a photo from Gayla Marty's blog where she is writing about memory. It's a great photo that is obviously overexposed but ends up really saying a lot about how we remember our lives. It's not always entirely clear, is it?

Minnesota author Gayla Marty is coming to Grand Rapids on Tuesday November 16th. She'll be speaking about her book "Memory of Trees - A Daughter's Story of a Family Farm" from 6:30-8:30. The event is sponsored by the MN Women's Woodland Network . The organization was formed to help women learn about trees, nature and caring for the land. It's a new program that is informal learning that is conversational by nature. This event is free but a RSVP is required. See here for more information.

I'll be talking to Gayla Marty again this week on Realgoodwords. We spoke last summer about "Memory of Trees" but I was so intrigued I wanted to talk about more of the issues she writes about in her book. It's been described as a story of a farm in Central Minnesota... Marty explores "the relationship of forests, farms, and migration in Western civilization is uncovered through the example of this farm in the “golden triangle” between the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers. On the journey to understanding, trees provide touchstones, connections to sacred and classical history—companions leading the way forward."

Also this week on Realgoodwords - a satire of office life with Richard Hine's "Russell Wiley is Out to Lunch" a book as clever as its website. Check it out here and tune in for our conversation!

Have you ever wondered what your long lost relative was really like?

2010-11-03T09:00:00.003-05:00

Author and professor Suzanne Berne did. In her new book "Missing Lucile: Memories of the Grandmother I Never Knew" she does research about the life of her grandmother and the times in which she lived. In our conversation Suzanne said:

"To have a grandmother who didn't have the right to vote - is a really interesting thing for a woman to think about in 2010 - that was just one of the things that I was led to as I was thinking and writing about her."

My conversation with Suzanne really got me thinking about my relatives - the people that I never met but have impact on my life now. I especially thought about my great great aunt Tilly - a woman who I've always felt close to and wondered about. As I was growing up I would always ask my grandma if we could read through Tilly's postcard collection. Later in life my grandma passed these postcards on to me - and I've always read them and tried to somehow piece together Tilly's life. I feel honored to have them in my possession, especially because Tilly didn't have children to pass them on to.

Suzanne's book interested me not just in her family, but in looking more into my own.

does anyone really understand health care???

2010-11-02T14:47:00.004-05:00

I recently "met" someone who actually does understand health care. (I say "met" in the loose, telephone conversation kind of way).

T.R. Reid is a veteran Washington Post reporter who has just put out the paperback version of his bestselling book "The Healing of American - A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care". This new version also contains an explanation of President Obama's health care legislation.

The premise of the book is that T.R. Reid, as a foreign correspondent, had the opportunity to look at how other countries deal with health care. The so-called "socialized medicine" that is out there. What he found was that so many places are doing it SO much better than we are. And in a lot of different manners that really don't add up to the scary moniker of "socialized medicine".

Check out T.R. Reid's column in the Washington Post called "5 Myths About Health Care" . You can also read an article and watch T.R. Reid's documentary on Frontline here called "Sick Around the World". And tune in for my conversation with T.R. Reid this week on Realgoodwords.

Cupcakes are an important part of life!!

2010-10-27T16:28:00.003-05:00

I talked with bestselling writer Janet Evanovich recently about her fun mysteries and the newest (and a new series!) called "Wicked Appetites".

I know so many people who read every single Janet Evanovich novel that comes out. Including a teacher friend of mine who I recently loaned "Wicked Appetite" to. She left a post-it note on the book that said

"Great fun! Certainly it is just as healthy to laugh out loud at a silly book as it is to do yoga!"

She's talking about this new novel that features cupcake baker Lizzy Tucker. I asked Janet about cupcakes and she said:

"Cupcakes are an important part of life! Cupcakes are happy! I'm in favor of cupcakes everywhere!"

She also talked about how the setting of Salem, Massachusetts plays on the history of witches. She said she was inspired by the old tv show "Bewitched" and Aunt Clara - the witch who couldn't quite get anything right.

Janet said,

"This is probably my favorite book of all of the books that I've written. I love the Plum books but there's something about this book that just...I had so much freedom because of the nature and I had so much fun with Shirley because I could put this kind of strange spell on her and just have a lot of fun. "

She's talking about the spell where Shirley speaks oddly. Here's a little excerpt (from P. 84 of "Wicked Appetite" by Janet Evanovich) :

Shirley had finished the turkey leg and was working her way through the Snickers bars.

"You inherited a key" I said to her.

Shirley vigorously shook her head.

I took another look at the key ring. There were three keys and a ladybug charm on the ring.

"It's the charm" I said.

Shirley nodded. "Clam bake."

I removed the ladybug from the ring and held it in my hand. It vibrated slightly and grew warm.

Shirley pointed to the photo on the end table. "Twinkies," she said. And she counted off on three fingers, "Huey, Dewey, Louie."

"I don't get what she's trying to tell us" said Diesel.

Tune in for my conversation with Janet Evanovich, or check the Realgoodwords archive.

William Kent Krueger hooks and pulls us again

2010-10-27T16:04:00.003-05:00

This time William Kent Krueger's beloved character Cork O'Connor finds himself in the middle of a cold case that involves a serial killer. Cork stumbles upon six bodies in an unknown area of a mine called the Vermilion Drift. Krueger ended up doing a lot of research into the mines of the Iron Range of Minnesota and had this to say:

"I came away with this incredible admiration and respect for the men who spent their lives in near dark resting iron from the earth so that they could support their families - what they had to do to accomplish that just amazed me."

William Kent Krueger has had great success with his Cork O'Connor mysteries but this one, Vermilion Drift, is the first that has made the New York Times Bestseller list. Congrats Kent!

He'll be in Northern Minnesota on Saturday November 6 at the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Howard Street Books in Hibbing at 1pm and at Woodward's in Virginia at 3pm. On Sunday November 7th he'll be at Bookin' It bookstore in Little Falls.

Tune in for our conversation on Realgoodwords. You can hear it live, audio streaming on Wednesday evenings from 6-7, Sunday mornings from 9-10 and archived online here.

Sauna talk on Realgoodwords tonight

2010-10-20T13:17:00.004-05:00

Tonight on Realgoodwords you can hear a conversation I had with photographer Aaron Hautala and writer Michael Nordskog about their new book published by U of MN Press "The Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition". Check out this video for more information!!

A sneak peek into a small town, independent bookstore

2010-10-13T14:50:00.006-05:00

This week Mike McGinnis and Meade Davis stop by from The Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids. They are the father/daughter team that will soon be celebrating 30 years of the bookstore (under their family's ownership) . They'll talk about how bookstores and the business have changed over the years, how it is to work with family and even give us an idea of what they are currently reading.

I also found out an interesting quirk about the two of them: they ALWAYS finish a book. I mean ALWAYS.

I was impressed. I myself don't.

How about you? It's an important question - almost as important as "do you dance to remember or dance to forget"....

post your answers to BOTH questions here....

The Village Bookstore will celebrate 30 years on Saturday October 23rd with 30% off of everything in the store.

new books from new voices

2010-10-06T11:59:00.003-05:00

This week Jenny Nelson and Danielle Evans join me to talk about their debut works.

Jenny Nelson's novel is called "Georgia's Kitchen" and it's the kind of book I really like. It involves food and by outward appearances it seems "lighter". It's not a throw away book that some might call "chick-lit". Jenny Nelson is deceptive in her writing - she entertains us but in the end there is more to it.

"Georgia's Kitchen" is the story of chef Georgia in New York. She's at the cusp of a great review at her restaurant - only to find out that she's been sacked because of something she didn't do. She also gets sacked by her fiancee. So what's a girl to do? Find a new opportunity in Italy at a new restaurant starting up in Tuscany. In the meantime, Georgia takes the time to figure out what she actually wants out of her life, apart from a dictatorial restaurant owner or romantic partner.

Danielle Evans is a short story writer who Ron Charles of The Washington Post described like this: "I hope Danielle Evans is a very nice person because that might be her only defense against other writers' seething envy". She's already been chosen by Salman Rushdie for the Best American Short Stories 2008 and by Richard Russo for the Best American Short Stories of 2010. Her work is described as being "a bold perspective on the experience of being young and African American in modern-day America. Here's info on a couple of the stories included in "Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self".

"Harvest" This is the story of a college student's unexpected pregnancy in the midst of other, white classmates who making extra money selling their eggs to fertility clinics. In the story "Snakes" two cousins are sent to live with their grandmother in the summertime. One is part African-American and is treated very differently than the other one. Unexpected things happen - both then and later in the cousins' lives.

Tune in tonight from 6-7pm for Realgoodwords or Sunday morning from 9-10. Later this week you can find the interviews archived here.

And check out the Washington Post's Ron Charles funny video review here.

NEWS TO ME by Laurie Hertzel (book trailer)

2010-09-28T11:07:00.001-05:00

Don't miss Laurie Hertzel in Grand Rapids tonight! She'll be at the Grand Rapids Area Library at 7pm....it's also a great event to get ideas on books to read for you and your bookclub!!!

Happy Accidents: A Conversation with Laurie Hertzel

2010-09-22T16:51:00.005-05:00

For some reason I absolutely love that Laurie Hertzel used the words "accidental journalist" in the subtitle of her new memoir. It's called "News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist" published by the University of Minnesota Press.

I've always liked the idea that you end up doing exactly what you should be doing - that it's a happy accident of sorts. This is not to say that Laurie Hertzel hasn't worked hard over years to get to where she is.... but as she explores in her memoir, she didn't exactly seek out a career in journalism. It just sort of happened.

Laurie's memoir is not the kind of memoir we hear about a lot. It's really a memoir of her profession of journalism. But its appeal is far reaching - it gives us a glimpse into the history of northeastern Minnesota during Laurie's career at the Duluth News Tribune. As she told me, she was writing (during the 70s and 80s) "end of era" stories about the changes of the region.

It's NOT a happy accident that Laurie is coming to Grand Rapids next week to speak at the Grand Rapids Area Library. This was planned. She'll be coming for an event on September 28th at 7pm that is a celebration of 10 years of the library's Mississippi River location. I'll be there as part of the program to interview Laurie about her book and about reading and her day job as books editor of the Start Tribune. Readers and members of book clubs are especially encouraged to attend this event - it's in collaboration with the Village Bookstore, KAXE and the Grand Rapids Area Libary with drawings for book-ish gift baskets and favorite books of area book clubs on display and for sale.

Laurie is my guest this week on Realgoodwords... hope you get a chance to hear our conversation and I hope to see you next Tuesday!

Are you anxious? Is that okay?

2010-09-21T15:27:00.004-05:00

This week on Realgoodwords I talk with Dr. Henry Emmons. He's a psychiatrist based in Minneapolis who has written a new book called "The Chemistry of Calm".

The Grand Rapids chapter of NAMI - the National Alliance of Mental Illness - is bringing him to Itasca Community College on Thursday October 7th. See here for more information on that.

Dr. Emmons and I spoke about how having stress and anxiety in your life is not necessarily a BAD thing. For instance, you SHOULD be worried about your children when you drive a vehicle - and that should push you to make sure they are always in car seats and wearing seat belts. This is GOOD anxiety. But worrying day in and day out that your child could be harmed in a car accident at any time is not so good. Dr. Emmons had this to say:

"The problem for so many people is not that they have too much stress in their lives - it's that it never lets up. And that's the big difference between what we experience nowadays and the way that I think that things used to be. People have always experienced huge stresses in their lives in some ways probably WORSE stress than we live with now. The difference is that it used to come and go - people would have a chance to completely recover from it... their bodies would reset. Their brains would have the chance to get completely back to baseline and now that doesn't happen as often. For so many reasons our brains and our bodies and our stress hormones are activated all the time and we never really have a chance to get back to our healthy baseline."

Tune in Wednesday from 6-7pm or Sunday from 9-10am. If you miss that, check the archive here.

What is your quest?

2010-09-15T14:35:00.008-05:00

This week on Realgoodwords it's all about the quests. Whether it's traveling the world, paddling every lake in Itasca County or joining a women's roller derby team, we all have a passion for something that can lead to a quest of some sort.

My guests this week are authors Mary Shideler and John Shors.

John is back on Realgoodwords; this time to talk about his new novel called "The Wishing Trees". It's the story of a father and daughter and their quest to travel the world to honor their late wife and mother. Their first stop is Japan where Maddi, the 10 year old, finds out about wishing trees. Wishing Trees are where you write down your wish in life and hang it on a tree. They are thought to be spiritual and mystical places. Maddi and her father Ian not only put their wishes in wishing trees, they follow the plan and itinerary that was left for them. Ian and Maddi's quest is at times heartbreaking but is filled with transformation and redemption. Writer Wally Lamb called it "Poignant and life-affirming".

John's novels have been bestsellers and translated into many different languages. This is due in part I think, to his dedication to his readers. John has visited with over 2400 different book clubs across the country (mostly through speakerphone) - sometimes speaking to up to 3 of them in an evening. Check his website for more information.

Itasca County resident Mary Shideler is also on this week - talking about the completion of her quest to kayak ALL the lakes of Itasca County. She's published a book about this quest called "Mary the Kayak Lady - One Woman, One Kayak, 1007 Lakes." Mary talks about where she got her sense of adventure and how she put together her beautiful new book. Duluth News Tribune writer Sam Cook wrote, "Mary Shideler possesses both a sense of wonder and a sense of purpose. Her kayaking quest should be an inspiration to all of us who dare to follow our dreams."

Mary is at the Grand Rapids Area Library talking about her quest on Thursday September 15th at 7pm.

What's your quest? What drives you? Are you like me and feel the pull of the 8 wheels and knee pads of roller derby?

You can hear Realgoodwords every Wednesday on KAXE from 6-7pm and Sunday mornings from 9-10am. Archived interviews can be found here.

barefoot running and Christopher McDougall on Realgoodwords

2010-09-08T16:25:00.003-05:00

Ch

Christopher McDougall is on Realgoodwords this week - talking about how the industry of running shoes has it all wrong. He happened upon a tribe of people in Mexico that take great joy in running all the time and at great lengths, with either flat homemade sandals or barefoot. His book has been wildly successful and more and more people are picking up the ideas of the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's Copper Canyons. Check out Chris' video from the New York Times here. If you missed my conversation with him, you can hear it on the Realgoodwords archive here.

Chris will be in Wayzata, MN next week at the Bookcase talking about his book on Sept. 15th at 6:30pm.

Billy Collins is coming to northern Minnesota!!!

2010-09-07T07:07:00.006-05:00

I'm not someone who complains that there isn't enough to do up here in northern Minnesota, but I do miss opportunities. But this one I WILL NOT MISS! Coming up Saturday September 25th Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins will be in Bemidji. A poetry reading? Sounds stuffy! But here's the thing: it's Billy Collins. The farthest thing from stuffy. He's real and funny and smart and has this way of making you forget that what he's doing is reading poetry. The New Yorker wrote "What Collins does best is turn an apparently simple phrase into a numinous moment.... a poet of plenitude,irony and Augustan grace."

You can hear Billy Collins on Saturday September 25th at the Bemidji High School Auditorium at 7:30pm. Tickets are available at the Headwaters School of Music and the Arts 218-444-5606 or at KAXE 218-326-1234.

You can also hear Billy Collins this week on Realgoodwords - Wed. September 8th(6pm) with a rebroadcast on Sunday September 12th (9am). Also on the show this week is Christopher McDougall author of "Born to Run - A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen". McDougall's book has become an international movement - with an idea at the center that the answer to pain free running and endurance is to run barefoot. YES, run barefoot. Stay tuned!

Christopher McDougall will be in Minnesota - in Wayzata at The Bookcase on Wednesday September 15th.

Hockey, journalism & all that rubbish!

2010-08-18T13:50:00.005-05:00

This week on Realgoodwords Bryan Gruley is back with his sequel to "Starvation Lake"....it's called "The Hanging Tree". Gus Carpenter is at the center - and this time he is trying to figure out why exactly his cousin Gracie was found hanging in a shoe tree.

I've never SEEN a shoe tree in real life, but I've heard about them. Roadside America calls them the greatest embodiment of the American Spirit you can find on the highway. Hmm. Really?

Gruley's "The Hanging Tree" just begins with this bit of great American spirit.... but what follows is a fascinating look at the passion of a Michigan hockey town and the complexities of journalism in a small town. Bruce DeSilva of the Associated Press says it’s “an exceptionally well-written novel by an author who has mastered the conventions of his genre.”

Also this week I talk with the British bestselling author Harriet Evans. Her new novel is called "I Remember You" and it's what some people might call "chick-lit" but what I call a mini-vacation. In our conversation this week, Harriet and I talked about how books in this genre can be overlooked because of quaint covers or because they aren't written by men. "I Remember You" has been called "A fabulous feel-good love story of friendship lost and love regained’ by Woman and Home.

Speaking of Realgoodwords, a couple of times during our conversation Harriet used the word "rubbish". I think I may have found my new favorite word! It's useful in so many ways!

Don't have time to read? RUBBISH?

What do you have to take out when you get home? RUBBISH!

Can't remember if you renewed your membership to KAXE? RUBBISH!

There's no rubbish this week on Realgoodwords.

Thoughts on writing from James Lee Burke

2010-08-11T10:45:00.005-05:00

I got a chance to talk with James Lee Burke this week. Yes! THAT James Lee Burke. I was a bit intimidated, but it turned out to be one of my favorite interviews, ever. He covered the gamut in his conversation with me - from living on a dirt road, oil companies, Louisiana, writing and the movie "Slap Shot". One of my favorite moments of the interview is where he can't stop laughing at himself. That uncontrollable laughing in church kind of laughing. If you don't get a chance to hear it tonight from 6-7pm on Realgoodwords, it'll be archived tomorrow here.

Here are some comments James Lee Burke had about his writing process:

I've always been fortunate - the story has always been with me. I never know where its going! I write sometimes in the middle of the night... I keep a notepad by my bed. Sometimes I get up about 4am and write.

Shakespeare said something I never forgot, he said, "All power lies in the world of dreams" and in one sonnet he said that illumination came to him not during his sleep. He said that at dawn he woke to darkness, but illuminosity waited for him the next night. And it was out of his dreams that he fashioned his greatest poetry.

I believe that's true of every artist. That a hand other than one's own has already fashioned a story. It's in the unconscious. And it's a matter of incrementally discovering it. Leonardo said that of his sculpture - he said he never carved the figure he released it from the stone.

James Lee Burke's latest Dave Robicheaux novel is "The Glass Rainbow".

Maddi Frick's summer reading and interview on Realgoodwords this week!

2010-08-10T08:34:00.005-05:00

What I read on my summer vacation
by Maddi Frick

The books I have most enjoyed this summer, after The Picture of Dorian Gray, were two books by New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger, Soulless and Changeless. I read the first in under 24 hours, and then made my dad stop at the Village Bookstore to pick up the second, which I promptly finished in another 24 hours. And no, I didn’t finish them so quickly because they’re a quick read; I literally could not put them down.

Ms. Carriger’s novels follow Alexia Tarabotti, an unmarried, quick-witted, pragmatic lady living in Victorian England. She also has no soul. The novels are set in a world where werewolves and vampires have somewhat assimilated into high society, yet proper manners are still a must.

I wouldn’t call this series a derivative of the still-strong vampire/ supernatural craze sweeping the nation, although vampire popularity may have helped these novels become so popular so quickly. I sense no whiff of epic teenage “love-me-or-I-will-die” histrionics usually found in every book in the Young Adult book section in Target (I challenge you to find a book there without black on the cover or lurking vampires within its pages).

No, Ms. Carriger has succeeded in writing a more enjoyable novel of the supernatural, dabbling in humor, sci-fi steampunk, mystery and romance. Not only were the books delightful to read, so was Ms. Carriger to interview. We talked about her inspirations, personal rules and upcoming projects; the third in the series, Blameless, releases September 1st. Listen in this Wednesday at 6pm CT to Real Good Words to hear my interview with Gail Carriger.

BONUS- I have a tendency to make my own playlists for things and I made one for researching for this interview; here it is!

Wishing He Was Dead - The Like

100 Years From Now - Karen Elson

The Tale of Two Doves - A Whisper in the Night

Body And Soul - Billie Holiday

The Great Exchange - Thrice

Novocaine for the Soul - Eels

Vampires - Fastball

You’ve Changed - Sia

A Change Would Do You Good - Sheryl Crow

Werewolf - Cat Power

A Tree Grows in Brainerd

2010-08-03T14:09:00.009-05:00

It's amazing sometimes, what words and stories can do. They can take you away, they can make you more present and they can shape a life.

I recently interviewed Randy Susan Meyers about her debut novel, "The Murderer's Daughter". It's a book I really enjoyed and I was excited to talk with her about it. But something happened in that conversation - we got talking not just about her book - but about what books can mean to us. And about how we can mark the moments in our lives by the books we read. Suddenly, I forgot that I was interviewing an author, and it felt like Randy and I were the best of friends, passionate about the same things.

Here's a little of what she said:

"Reading was probably the most stabilizing influence in my entire life. My sister and I were both tremendous readers - we both went to the library almost daily. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was incredibly influential to me. To read about/from the point of view young girl who loved her father but whose father was very destructive to the family - that meant an enormous amount to me."

And just like that, I remembered reading "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". A book that a girl who grew up in Brainerd, Minnesota might not connect with. Except that, when I read it, as a freshman at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, I was new to a big city, and I had just started my first "real" job. This job was as a newspaper clipper. Which is what Francie, the main character of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" does. And that did it, I was pulled into this story, and it automatically became a part of who I was then. And now, I can perfectly remember what it felt like to read it.

Randy went on to say, in our conversation, about how books can transport us back to the times in our lives when we read them:

"I can say right off the top of my head the worst break up ever - I was reading White Oleander and Poisonwood Bible. In Cold Blood kept me from ever staying alone in the country."

You can hear our whole conversation here.

What books were influential to your life?

People who are passionate about the stories and the topics....

2010-07-28T15:08:00.004-05:00

At the beginning of Realgoodwords I do my introductions and I say "Each week we get the chance to talk with authors and writers about the stories and the topics that they are passionate about".

It's almost always the truth. But this week it is REALLY true. And it's a very different kind of show.

Justine Sharrock is one of my guests - her book "Tortured - When Good Soldiers Do Bad Things" has been called:

“An extraordinary book that explores the ugliest underbelly of war. Sharrock takes the discussion of torture and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo into new territory, delving into the lives of the soldiers on the ground assigned these brutal tasks. Throughout the book, Sharrock maintains a balance between empathy and tough reporting as she examines the anguish and denial of men who participated in what can only be described as acts of evil but who do not believe themselves to be evil.” Thomas B. Edsall, Political Editor, Huffington Post

I also talk to bestselling historical novelist Brenda Rickman Vantrease about her latest "The Heretic's Wife".

"Cardinals and bishops, servants and merchants, ship captains and noble-born ladies and lords: it's a marvel of authorial engineering that Vantrease can keep so many characters separate while she is at the same time weaving together their stories into such a comprehensive and complex whole. There's an elegance to Vantrease's writing, a sense of great respect for the history she explores, coupled with a determined, truth-seeking creativity. In The Heretic's Wife, she renders for her readers a world as fully realized and alive as it is for the characters--both real and imagined--of whom she writes." --from a review by Lacey Galbraith in Chapter16.org, reprinted in The Nashville Scene.

Brian Freeman & the KAXE Bookclub

2010-07-26T15:28:00.007-05:00

I'm excited for tomorrow night - the KAXE book club is getting together at 5:30 to discuss MN author Brian Freeman's latest mystery (set in Grand Rapids) "The Burying Place".

So what's the big deal? There's a couple of big deals about this meeting.

1. Brian Freeman will be AT the book club meeting
2. We're meeting at a book club member's house - near where the action/mystery in "The Burying Place" takes place
3. It's summer in northern Minnesota! Bookclub is meeting outside overlooking Pokegama Lake!! What's not to be excited about?

So how does the KAXE book club work? Good question, and I get asked it a lot. This is the first book club I've ever been in - and we are a no-guilt, everyone-is-invited, all-fun, come-when-you-can-even-if-you-haven't-read-the-book kind of book club.

This means YOU are invited. Even if you haven't read the book. And like any good Minnesota get-together, it's a potluck, so we are asking that you bring something to share. Here's a sneak peek at the food/beverages on board for the party: buster bars, beer, sandwiches, thai fried rice, wine, brownies, potato salad and who knows what else!!!

We'll eat, hear from the author, ask questions of the author and enjoy each others company.

If you want to attend and need to find out the mystery location, call Heidi at KAXE 218-326-1234 or email heidi@kaxe.org.

Remember when you were a kid? When anything was possible?

2010-07-25T10:56:00.006-05:00

You can hear Minnesota author Tim Kehoe talk about his book "The Unusual Mind of Vincent Shadow" - a book for kids that reminds adults that's it's not only okay to be creative and follow something that might seem crazy, it's part of what makes our lives good, and unpredictable.

Listen here as I talk to Tim Kehoe, a toy inventor that lucky for us, never grew up himself. He tells us about some of his own inventions like colored bubbles or Zubbles - and about his character, Vincent Shadow, who also is an inventor.

Have you invented anything? Wanted to? What's something that SHOULD be invented, to make your life better or more interesting?

Need a good summer read?

2010-07-20T12:23:00.004-05:00

I'm featuring a summer read I really enjoyed this week on Realgoodwords, "The Truth About Delilah Blue" by Tish Cohen. It's the story of a woman who finds out that her parents have both been lying to her. She believed she was abandoned by her mother but she finds out her father took her away from her life to a new one with a new name in California. Neither parents are perfect but they both love her.

What draws you to a summer read? Or does that term not matter a bit?

startling words with MN author Maureen Gibbon

2010-07-14T15:28:00.004-05:00

Northern Minnesota author Maureen Gibbon is my guest this week. She's written a compelling new novel called "Thief". It's startling even - mainly because it's a book that doesn't shy away from sexuality.

In "Thief" Suzanne is a teacher in her early thirties who has come up north to get away from her life and problems during her summer vacation. She places a personal ad and one of the people who responds is an inmate from Stillwater State Prison. Most people might turn away, but Suzanne is curious. It turns out the inmate is a convicted rapist - and Suzanne, as a survivor of a rape in her teenage years, wants to find out some things. They begin a friendship that leads to more. Gibbon's writing is raw but not gratuitous. Kirkus Reviews wrote, "In an odd way this book is a female, and highly sexual, version of Thoreau's Walden; there are some lovely bits about solitude, nature and solitude-in-nature, but Suzanne is a woman who craves and needs contact, and much of her contemplation is devoted to exploring the tangled roots of that need. Grim but inspiring, this is a flint-tough, plainspoken novel about a flint-tough, plainspoken woman who asks no pity and gives no quarter."

Gibbon also writes with a very strong sense of place. You feel the northwoods of Minnesota in her writing - especially the lakes. Suzanne, her main character, gets comfort from her daily swims in the lake where she can witness the natural world around and be buoyed by the water. When I talked to Maureen Gibbon, she mentioned a poem by Robert Francis called "The Swimmer".

II
Observe how he negotiates his way

With trust and the least violence, making

The stranger friend, the enemy ally.

The depth that could destroy gently supports him.

With water he defends himself from water.

Danger he leans on, rests in. The drowning sea

Is all he has between himself and drowning.

What lover ever lay more mutually

With his beloved, his always-reaching arms

Stroking in smooth and powerful caresses?

Some drown in love as in dark water, and some

By love are strongly held as the green sea

Now holds the swimmer. Indolently he turns

To float.--The swimmer floats, the lover sleeps.

We'll also talk about a con man this week on Realgoodwords, named John Drewe. Laney Salisbury has written a book that looks at this extraordinary true life character who created one of the most far-reaching and elaborate cons in the history of art forgery. Salisbury talks about how subjective the world of art is - her book is called "Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art". Oprah magazine wrote "Specatular... a real-life thriller of the fine art of the con."

A sneak preview of Ayelet & Michael

2010-07-07T09:14:00.004-05:00

This week I get the chance to check in with the literary super-couple Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon. Besides their works of fiction, they both have books of essays out about parenting. Ayelet's is called "Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace". Michael's is called "Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father and Son".

In searching for a photo of them and more information online, I found some really vitriolic pieces about the two of them - and especially about Ayelet. But I'm here to say that I had a wonderful time talking with them... and found them very down to earth. I didn't get a sense of them being the "new overshare-y parents" as one blog called them. Really? Overshare-y is a word? It seems to me that being honest and frank about some of the hardest jobs out there (parenting) is always welcome.

Here's a sneak peek of my conversation with them.

I asked Michael & Ayelet to describe each other as spouses.

Michael: Ayelet is an amazing mother. She is an extremely fierce advocate on behalf of her children. She spends what I as a father and as a man would probably consider an inordinate amount of time worrying and fretting over the food that they eat and the clothes that they wear and the toxic chemicals that they are being exposed to... and when the alert comes through the preschool that some manufacturer brand of lunch boxes in Scarsdale, NY was defected to have a certain amount of lead in the plastic my reaction to that would probably be like "oh that's too bad for the people in Scarsdale".... And Ayelet's reaction and I think the proper reaction - was to get our kids lunch boxes tested because they might have the same thing...

Ayelet: AND THEY DID!

Michael: (laughter) Exactly! And the kits got ordered and sure enough one of them shows a positive result and that attention - that level of attention that it requires - to successfully raise children is something that I always look to Ayelet as my role model for that. And you know, she's warm and encouraging and all those things as well....

Ayelet: And he says that even though I've been SO crabby for the last couple of days! Thank you honey!

Michael: (laughter) Well, yeah, I'm not talking about the last couple of days. I need to stipulate...

I asked Ayelet to describe Michael as a father.

Ayelet: Well you know, I could wax rhapsodic...

Michael: You don't need to! you've already done it so many times!

Ayelet: But I think the best way to describe it is that I think that he is a really awesome mother.

Michael: (laughter) Thank you! That's high praise!

Tune in this week to Realgoodwords to hear more of the conversation - and check out what the New York Times had to say about them.

"aching beauty and indelible grace" Ann Hood's latest

2010-06-30T08:38:00.008-05:00

this week I get the chance to talk with Ann Hood again - this time she's written a novel that was inspired by her own life and the adoption of her daughter Annabelle from China. It's called "The Red Thread" and Dennis LeHane called it "a work of aching beauty and indelible grace. A novel that elicts nothing less than wonder."

The title The Red Thread, is based on an ancient Chinese belief that connects children to all of the people that eventually play a part in their lives.

Some conversations you may have missed

2010-06-29T09:33:00.006-05:00

Did you know you can listen online to author interviews from KAXE's Realgoodwords? Here's some of my favorites from recent shows!

MN author Joe Plut talks about "Conversations with Jon Hassler"

MN author Julie Kramer and "Silencing Sam"

MN author Gayla Marty and "Memory of Trees"

Heather Lende "Take Good Care of the Garden and Dogs: Family, Friends & Faith in Small Town Alaska"

Linda Greenlaw "Seaworthy: A Swordsboat Captain Returns to the Sea"

and, if you missed it, here's a conversation with award winning MN author Kate DiCamillo about "The Magician's Elephant"

Also this week on Realgoodwords - more mystery from Julie Kramer

2010-06-22T20:59:00.007-05:00

MN mystery author Julie Kramer is back with the third in her Riley Spartz series, "Silencing Sam". Riley is an investigative reporter in Minneapolis who finds herself embroiled with a local gossip columnist. It's a fun read and also an interesting commentary on the state of news and journalism today in a world of social media. Here's a synopsis from her website:

IN THIS TOWN, GOSSIP KILLS . . .

When a widely despised gossip columnist is shot to death, Riley Spartz must secretly investigate a case after she becomes the prime suspect. In the wake of the brutal murder, our heroine discovers that news and gossip have more in common than she ever imagined. Meanwhile, competition in the Channel 3 newsroom is just as murderous. While Riley struggles to interest her boss in a story about rural wind farm bombings, a new reporter spikes the station ratings with exclusive stories about the headless homicide of an unknown woman whose decapitated body is found in a city park. Riley must fight to stay out of jail, ahead in the ratings, and even alive in a killer showdown not fit for television audiences.

Check out her book trailer and tune in this week!

One of MN's Treasures: Jon Hassler

2010-06-22T07:14:00.009-05:00

There are many reasons to be proud of the state of Minnesota. Let me count the ways...

Education. 66 State Parks. Loni Anderson. Spam. Butterheads at the MN State Fair. Cute accents. Bob Dylan. The MN Twins. Climate extremes that make Minnesotans a grateful bunch. And writers. It's a state chock full of writers.

In 2008 Minnesota lost one of it's most beloved voices, author Jon Hassler.

Jon was born in Minneapolis but grew up in Plainview and Staples, Minnesota. One of Hassler's colleagues at St. John's University, Nick Hayes said, "Minnesota has been lost between the sentimental images of Lake Wobegon and the cynical look of Sinclair Lewis's Gopher Prairie". Hayes is a professor of history and university chair of critical thinking. "Jon rescued small-town Minnesota. He saw it without sentimentality, but with a subtle eye that brought out the dignity, humanity and humor of its characters. I was always amazed by his ability to give such life to characters that you would think, at first glance, would be of no interest whatsoever. He saw the complexity of individuals.

When Jon Hassler taught in Brainerd, MN at the former Brainerd Community College (now Central Lakes College), he met a man that would be a lifelong friend. Joe Plut is my guest this week on Realgoodwords. We'll talk about the work he did with Jon - that has just been published by Nodin Press, "Conversations with Jon Hassler".

I grew up in a home where Jon Hassler's writing was revered. (thanks Mom!) I still haven't read all his work - one of my favorites is Grand Opening. I felt like, through Jon's writing, I learned more about my grandfather's growing up years in southern Minnesota. Thanks to Joe Plut's scrupulous reading of Jon Hassler's work, and his conversations about each of his novels, I was able to learn more about not only the story of Grand Opening, but how Hassler wrote it and how much it was based on his own life. Tune in this week for Joe Plut on Realgoodwords and his book "Conversations with Jon Hassler".

Richard Russo wrote of Jon Hassler in the New York Times Book Review, "Part of Jon Hassler's brilliance has always been his ability to achieve the depth of real literature through such sure-handed, no-gimmicks, honest language that the result appears effortless."

Do you have a favorite Hassler work? Why?

It's our summer fundraiser, and thanks to Joe Plut and Nodin Press, you can get a copy of "Conversations with Jon Hassler" when you pledge your support!

Adventure and Memory on Realgoodwords this week

2010-06-16T16:24:00.004-05:00

Linda Greenlaw is one of my guests this week on Realgoodwords this week... she's the only female swordboat captain in America. You may know her from the movie The Perfect Storm or the book by Sebastian Junger... or maybe you've seen her discovery channel show Swords. I talked with her about her new memoir about getting back out on the water to captain a swordboat after 10 years. It's called "Seaworthy: A Swordfish Captain Returns to the Sea". Now I'm not usually the kind of gal who likes this kind of adventure writing - but I found this book to be fun and fascinating about this hardworking world of fishing I knew nothing about. Hope you get to hear the interview, I found my conversation with Linda delightful.

I also talked to Australian writer and speaker Michael McQueen about the book he's put together "Memento: My Life in Stories". After the surprise death of his father, McQueen realized how important stories are to us. He had given his father a notebook with questions and after he passed, they found it, filled out, in his desk. It has helped him deal with such a big loss in his life. Questions in the book include things like "What was your favorite childhood toy" and "What can you remember about your first kiss" and "What was your wedding like".....

We also get the chance to hear my conversation with Nick Hornby again this week - his latest novel is "Juliet, Naked".

If you missed the show, check here for Realgoodword archives.

Memoirs and poetry on Realgoodwords

2010-06-02T16:22:00.005-05:00

This week I talk with the author of "Memory of Trees - A Daughter's Story of a Family Farm"- Gayla Marty. It was a great conversation - and I'm afraid I jumped all over the place because there were so many things I wanted to talk with her about. Hers is a memoir - her life growing up on the farm. She's created this in a really unique way. First, she starts the book from her point of view as a young girl - so the language and storytelling changes as she gets older. Also, she's using the idea of her favorite trees on her family farm in Rush City, MN to tell her story. For example:

MAPLE
At the cemetery east of town, a young maple tree grows by the Marty family plot. When I go with Gramma Marty to take care of our plot, she tells me to water the tree too. It's bark is smooth gray and its leaves are yellow-green, like hands with three points, bigger than the pages of the book I use for pressing leaves. Its seeds are attached to a wing like a dragonfly's. There are millions of seeds every spring. page 39 "Memory of Trees" published by University of MN Press

I also talk with Elise Paschen this week about "Poetry Speaks: Who I Am" - a new anthology of written and spoken word poetry for middle to high school age kids. It includes poetry from people like Sherman Alexie, Billy Collins, Joy Harjo, Julia Alvarez and many, many more. One of the poems included is "Mowing" by Midge Goldberg.

You know those chores you always have to do,
like mowing grass: I grumble, go outside—
a lawn this size will take an hour or two
at least—put on my Red Sox hat and ride
around designing circles, lines, a border.
I move from shade to sunshine, deftly steering,
looking purposeful and bringing order
so neat and sure—and sure of disappearing.
With all this sun, I know that what I’m doing
won’t last, won’t keep a week; I ride about
to find the pleasure in the not pursuing,
to learn beyond the shadow of a doubt
the patterns that I long to bring to pass
get mown and overgrown like summer grass.

Time flies when you are reading good books!

2010-05-21T20:55:00.008-05:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks at KAXE - and I haven't been keeping up with blogging much at all! I'm headed off on a short vacation, but I'm excited about the upcoming authors I'll be interviewing and the stack of books I'm bringing with.

"Memory of Trees - A Daughter's Story of a Family Farm" by MN Author Gayla Marty. Here's how it is described on her website:

Memory of Trees is the story of a farm in east central Minnesota—Pine County, four miles west of the St. Croix River.

A farm accident triggers an urban woman’s search to understand her attachment to her family’s farm and the reasons—conflict, culture, economics, and illness—that it was sold. As she sits beside her uncle’s hospital bed during an October that ends in a blizzard, she wonders: Why were he and she, once close but now so different, the two who resisted the sale? The search through memory leads to the alpine valley of their ancestors, ruined farm towns of the Roman Empire in North Africa, and ancient Biblical texts about land and exile. The journey uncovers the relationship of forests, farms, and migration in Western civilization through the example of this farm in the “golden triangle” between the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers.

I'll also get a chance to talk with Elise Paschen again. Elise is a poet who was Executive

Director of the Poetry Society of America and co-founded Poetry in Motion that put poetry on buses and subways. I've talked to Elise before about her Poetry Speaks projects that have included audio CDs of famous poets reading their own works. She's already done a Poetry Speaks to Children that's a picture book with poetry... but this time she has created a collection for a little older crowd - middles school to high school age. It's called Poetry Speaks to Who I Am and has been described as "an energetic, visceral collection of poems for that point in life that is at the same time angst-ridden and incredibly exciting".

Other books I'm reviewing for upcoming shows:

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

Carrier - Untangling the Danger in My DNA by Bonnie J. Rough

Anna Getty this week on Realgoodwords

2010-05-06T08:37:00.007-05:00

I had the chance to talk with Anna Getty again this week. She's quite the woman! Anna Getty has played many roles over the course of her remarkable life: Actress. Fashion maven. Chef. Kundalini yoga teacher. Writer. Mother. Environmental Activist. And now green living and holistic lifestyle expert. She's also the sister of actor Balthazar Getty.

I'm hoping to try some of her recipes soon... until then, here's one for you to try!

INGREDIENTS

7 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium white onion, finely diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste

PREPARATION
1. Bring the stock to a simmer in a medium pot and keep it at a simmer until the risotto is done.

2. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and 1 tablespoon of the ginger and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes, until the onion is translucent.

3. Add the rice and stir. Stir in the wine and simmer until the liquid is evaporated. Begin adding stock, one ladle full at a time, stirring constantly until the liquid is absorbed. Continue adding stock until the rice is cooked but still firm and creamy, 30 to 35 minutes.

4. Turn off the heat. Add the butter, the remaining 2 teaspoons of ginger, and the Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Here's who won the MN Book Awards for 2009!

2010-04-28T12:01:00.005-05:00

Have you read any of them?

22nd Annual Minnesota Book Awards Presented

April 18, 2010, SAINT PAUL, MN – The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 22^nd annual Minnesota Book Awards, presented by RBC Wealth Management. In addition to winners in eight categories, the Book Awards presented the Readers’ Choice Award, which was selected by over 2,ooo voters from across Minnesota. The annual Minnesota Book Awards program is a project of The Friends, in consortium with the Saint Paul Public Library and the City of Saint Paul.

Nearly 750 people attended a gala award ceremony on Saturday, April 17, hosted by Marianne Combs of Minnesota Public Radio. Announced at the gala, the winners of the 2010 Minnesota Book Awards are:

Award for Children’s Literature, sponsored by Books for Africa:
Joyce Sidman – Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors – published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

This imaginative book describes the changing colors of the seasons with beautiful poems and vivid illustrations. Color becomes more than just what you see; it becomes something that you can hear and smell – something that has its own thoughts, feelings, and actions. Joyce Sidman is the author of several books of poetry including Songs of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems which won the Caldecott Honor.

Award for General Nonfiction, sponsored by Minnesota AFL-CIO:
Joy K. Lintelman – I Go to America: Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson – published by Minnesota Historical Society Press*

I Go to America traces the story of writer Mina Anderson, who emigrated from Sweden to Wisconsin and then to the Twin Cities where she worked as a domestic servant. It explores her move to rural Mille Lacs County where she and her husband worked a farm, raised seven children, and contributed widely to rural Swedish community life through her poetry, fiction, and letters to Swedish American newspapers. Joy K. Lintelman is a professor of history at Concordia College in Moorhead.

Award for Genre Fiction, sponsored by Wellington Management, Inc.:
David Housewright – Jelly’s Gold – published by Minotaur Books/St. Martin’s Press

In 1933, Frank “Jelly” Nash was suspected of masterminding a daring robbery of gold bars, and left the treasure somewhere in St. Paul. Two graduate students and two thugs are in competition to find the legendary stash of gold. Rushmore McKenzie, a retired St. Paul policeman, gets involved in the search for the treasure – and also a killer – when the hunt turns deadly. David Housewright has won both an Edgar and a Minnesota Book Award for his crime fiction.

Award for Memoir & Creative Nonfiction:
Kent Nerburn – The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder’s Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows – published by New World Library

Suspenseful, touching, humorous, tragic, and powerful are just a few of the words that could be used to describe Kent Nerburn’s captivating story of his journey to help an elderly Native American man discover what happened to his long lost sister. Nerburn brings light to the complicated friendship between a white American and a Lakota Indian, and the reader is allowed a private and extraordinary glimpse into the life and wisdom of a tribal elder. Kent Nerburn has written a dozen books on spirituality and Native themes, including Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce which was featured on the History Channel.

Award for Minnesota, sponsored by Xcel Energy:
Cary J. Griffith – Opening Goliath: Danger and Discovery in Caving – published by Borealis Books/Minnesota Historical Society Press*

The author recounts the amazing story of Goliath’s Cave in southeastern Minnesota, discovered by recreational cavers in the 1980s. With a mix of adventure, suspense, politics, science, discovery and wonder, Opening Goliath takes readers to a subterranean wilderness where exploration and preservation sometimes coexist – and sometimes collide. Cary J. Griffith is a freelance writer who specializes in writing about the outdoors.

Award for Novel & Short Story:
Marlon James – The Book of Night Women – published by Riverhead Books/Penguin Group

This sweeping and astonishing novel tells the story of Lilith, a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation who possesses a dark power. A group of slaves who call themselves the “Night Women” are plotting a revolt and assume Lilith’s powers will be the key to success. However, as Lilith begins to assume her identity, she chooses a different path which poses a threat to the conspiracy. Marlon James teaches literature and creative writing at Macalester College. The Book of Night Women was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.

Award for Poetry:
Jude Nutter – I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman – published by University of Notre Dame Press

In this collection, the poet invokes, invites and revises Walt Whitman’s civil war poems through contemporary and female perspectives. The poems bridge the gap between past and present, loss and reclamation through passionate lyrics full of clarity, imagination and sureness of vision. Jude has received many national and international awards, including a Minnesota Book Award in 2007 for The Curator of Silence.

Award for Young People’s Literature, sponsored by 3M Company:
Kate DiCamillo – The Magician’s Elephant – published by Candlewick Press

Peter Augustus Duchene is a ten year old orphan who is training to be a soldier in the city of Baltese. He was told his parents and sister are dead, but after a visit to a fortuneteller, he discovers his sister is alive. The fortuneteller tells Peter an elephant will lead him to her, which seems a bit silly and improbable at first; however, when an elephant magically appears, Peter vows to take the elephant and find his sister. Kate DiCamillo won the Newbery Medal for her book The Tale of Despereaux.

The Readers’ Choice Award, sponsored by Pioneer Press and TwinCities.com:
Dave Kenney – Honor Bright: A Century of Scouting in Northern Star Council – published by Northern Star Council, Boy Scouts of America*

This captivating and richly illustrated collection consists of stories and photographs of the Boy Scouts of America’s first century in central Minnesota and western Wisconsin. From the start of the Boy Scout Movement in 1910 to the Scouts’ contributions to the nation’s war effort in the 1940s, to the growth of Scouting in the 2000s to serve 100,000 young people each year, this book covers everything. Dave Kenney is a freelance writer specializing in Minnesota history.

At the Book Awards gala on April 17, Carolyn Holbrook received the previously announced Kay Sexton Award, for her lifelong contributions to Minnesota’s literary community. Since the early 1980s, Holbrook’s vision has been to promote the inclusion of disparate voices in the global community. She remains committed to writers, readers and spoken word artists - reaching out to individuals and communities whose access to opportunities for exploration of writing is limited or nonexistent. Holbrook’s work connects arts organizations, schools, individual artists, and neighborhoods. The Award is sponsored by Common Good Books.

Also presented was the third annual Book Artist Award, co-sponsored by Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA). The award, presented to Wilber H. Schilling, recognizes a Minnesota book artist for excellence throughout a body of work, as well as significant contributions to Minnesota’s book arts community. Schilling’s work is currently being shown at St. Paul’s Central Library, 90 W. 4^th St., through the end of April and will be exhibited in early May at Minneapolis Central Library.

Books written by a Minnesotan and first published in 2009 were eligible for the 22^nd annual Minnesota Book Awards. 250 books were nominated for awards this year, and 32 books were selected as finalists. The winners were chosen by panels of judges from the list of finalists. Nominations for next year’s Awards will open in early fall, 2010. For more information on the Book Awards process, and a complete list of finalists and winners since 1988, visit The Friends website, www.thefriends.org, and click on the Minnesota Book Awards icon.

The Book Awards gala will be broadcast on Saint Paul Neighborhood Network and TPT-MN Channel at a later date. Check your local listings for the channel, date and time of broadcast.

The 22^nd annual Minnesota Book Awards is a Capital City project, led by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, with the Saint Paul Public Library and the City of Saint Paul. Statewide outreach partners include: the Loft Literary Center, Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA); Minnesota Department of Education—State Library Services; Minnesota Educational Media Organization; Minnesota Library Foundation; and Saint Paul Almanac. Media sponsors include: Minnesota Public Radio, Pioneer Press, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN), Swank Audio Visual and TPT-Minnesota Channel. Major funding for the Book Awards was provided by the Boss Foundation, Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts; Huss Foundation; The Katherine B. Andersen Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation; a Library Services and Technology Act grant administered through the Office of State Library Services; a Cultural STAR grant from the City of Saint Paul; 3M Company; Books for Africa; Minnesota AFL-CIO; RBC Wealth Management; Wellington Management, Inc. and Xcel Energy.

###

*indicates a Minnesota-based publisher

Hugh Ambrose this week and "The Pacific"

2010-04-21T15:41:00.003-05:00

Are you a war geek?

Me neither. But my husband is...AND he happens to be a volunteer at KAXE. So when the chance to interview Hugh Ambrose, son of the late historian Stephen Ambrose, came up, well, let's just say somebody got an early anniversary present.

I'm so glad Tom did this interview. He knew just what to ask. It makes me realize the value of a multitude of voices... KAXE brings you this day after day, show after show. Whether it's the voices of National Public Radio, Click and Clack, The Morning Show or our talented talented on-air volunteers, there is really nothing quite like KAXE!

Tune in to this week's show - Wednesdays from 6-7pm and Sundays from 9-10am - where we also feature regional poets Steve Downing and Louis Jenkins as well as novelist Duane Schwartz. Louis and Steve are reading poetry tonight at Itasca Community College starting at 7pm and Duane is at the Village Bookstore Saturday April 24th from 12-2pm.

If you missed it, check out the RGW archive!

I'm so EXCITED!

2010-04-14T13:28:00.006-05:00

I really don't want to quote the Pointer Sisters. I mean really don't want to. As a geeky reader type who lives in Minnesota, this week is one of my favorites. But seriously, I AM so excited for this week's episode of Realgoodwords.

Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee are writers from Minneapolis/St. Paul that are known nationwide. Kate for her books and movies like "Because of Winn-Dixie" and "The Tale of Despereaux" and Alison is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Both of them are nominated for the MN Book Awards happening this weekend in St. Paul.

Even though both of these authors write for kids, I love reading their books and talking with them. They both seem almost magical to me, and I know that sounds silly, but here's what I mean.

*When I talked with Kate she is so quick to point out, even with all her success, that she knows she's lucky she get to do what she gets to do (write books and talk to readers!). She readily admits how HARD it is for her to write, but lucky for me and for her readers, she still abides by her own rule of writing 2 pages everyday. Not at least 2 pages, but 2 pages only! Telling me that makes me think anything is possible.

*When I talked to Alison McGhee about her latest picture book "Song of Middle C" that is about a little girl about to perform at her piano recital, she reminded me that we occasionally need to do things in our lives (adults I'm talking to you!) that we aren't good at. Things we can't POSSIBLY ever be that good at. Like taking up the piano. How liberating, to not expect perfection but only practice.

Hope you get a chance to hear the program this week - Wednesdays from 6-7pm and Sunday mornings from 9-10. You can check the archive later in the week as well....

Duluth author's creepy debut novel

2010-03-30T16:20:00.006-05:00

I mean creepy in the best possibly sense of the word of course.

–adjective,creep·i·er, creep·i·est.

1. having or causing a creeping sensation of the skin, as from horror or fear: a creepy ghost story.

Duluth journalist Wendy K. Webb has just put out her first novel called "The Tale of Halcyon Crane". I'm not somebody who usually reads ghost or gothic tales, but since the author was from Duluth, I gave it a try.

And boy, was I pleasantly surprised. And did I say creeped out? I don't want to give anything away, but I'm definitely being careful when I stand in front of open windows or staircases.

Webb's character of Hallie James is at a pivotal point in her life. She grew up raised by her single father, thinking that her mother had died in a fire when she was young. We meet her as her father is dying of Alzheimer's and she is sent a letter informing her that her mother has also died and that the family home on Grand Manitou Island has been left to her.

She barely remembered her mother, and to find out, late in life, that she COULD have known her, intrigues her enough to travel to the remote, gothic setting to find out what she can about her family. Based on Mackinaw Island, the setting is both beautiful and haunting.

“The Tale of Halcyon Crane is a wonderfully creepy gothic tale with a distinctly modern sensibility. Ms. Webb has written a hypnotic, twisting, and vividly imagined story about the terrible and lovely ways the past impacts the present, and how one woman’s discovery of old family secrets reveals new truths about herself and her life, and sets her on a perilous road to a future she could not previously have imagined.”—Megan Chance, author of The Spiritualist and An Inconvenient Wife

Tune in for our conversation this week - along with a talk with Walter Mosley about his newest series of mysteries as well as his post as ambassador to the American Library Association.

there is always something new to learn

2010-03-25T07:57:00.010-05:00

This week's Realgoodwords was kind of a stretch for me. One of the featured books was about immigration laws in the United States, the other was a novel considered historical fiction or inspirational fiction. Both things I don't read every day. So what did I learn you ask?

I've always wondered when I hear people talk about "illegal" citizens in the United States - they suggest that it is easy to become a citizen. Most of the time the people who are saying this know what they are talking about, because they became U.S. citizens themselves. The difference is, all they had to do was be born.

When I talked with author Helen Thorpe about the four young Mexican students she profiles in her new book "Just Like Us" and asked her why the two undocumented students haven't filled out the paperwork to become citizens she finally explained things to me.

These young women were brought to the United States illegally by their parents. When you come into the United States illegally, you do not have the option of filling out the paperwork to become a citizen. You have to go back to your country and apply. It could take decades for this to happen. And in the meantime they would be back in a country that they chose to leave because of severe economic situations. These girls are in a no-win situation.

If you missed the conversation, check the Realgoodwords archive here.

I realized when I talked with MN author Julie Klassen that I tend to read the same kinds of novels, and don't really seek out new and different kinds. I am a contemporary reader. In fact, there are many classics that people can't believe I haven't read. For that reason I might have passed right by Julie's novel "the Silent Governess" because it would have been in either the historical fiction or the inspirational fiction section. Because she was nominated for a MN Book Award I decided to take a chance. And I found a strong storyteller that pulled me out of my contemporary rut to Jane Austen-era England.

This week I realized why I read. There is always something new to learn.

This week on Realgoodwords: An author whose dream came true

2010-03-15T22:38:00.002-05:00

Crazy Heart and After You on Realgoodwords

2010-03-10T13:42:00.007-06:00

There's a sense of ownership sometimes, when you read a book before you see the movie. There is something in reading the words on a page and creating an image in your mind of the characters that makes you feel like you really know them. You develop a relationship with them. That's probably why more often than not, the movie does NOT live up to the book. From what I've heard from others, Crazy Heart is NOT like that. (Yes, it's true, Crazy Heart hasn't made it to northern Minnesota yet!)

Thomas Cobb published his first novel in 1987. "Crazy Heart" got great critical acclaim and was even optioned for a movie by Chuck Barris (of The Gong Show). But that movie never happened (Chuck went off sailing on his yacht instead) and the book went out of print in the early 1990s.

Flash forward to last Sunday night at the Academy Awards ceremony. Jeff Bridges takes home the Oscar for the character Thomas Cobb created, Bad Blake. And "The Weary Kind" won for best song.

I had the chance to talk with Thomas Cobb about the resurgence of Bad Blake in his life and where the story originally came from. Tune in for our conversation this week (Wednesday evening from 6-7 and Sunday morning from 9-10).

I'll also talk with Julie Buxbaum about her novel "After You" - the story of how Ellie steps into her best friend Lucy's life after she is stabbed to death. One of the things I like most about this novel is how books and stories and words can heal. Ellie reads "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett with Lucy's young daughter Sophie as a form of comfort. Could I see Julia Roberts playing the role of Ellie in the movie version of After You? No way!

What movie version of a favorite book didn't quite live up to your standards?

MN authors featured - Nicole Johns and Scott Muskin

2010-02-17T15:22:00.005-06:00

Nicole Johns and Scott Muskin have some things in common - they both are writers - they both live in Minnesota - they both graduated with MFAs in creative writing from the University of Minnesota - and they are BOTH on Realgoodwords this week. I happen to think the last similarity is the most important :)

That being said, their books are very different. Nicole Johns "Purge: Rehab Diaries" is remarkable in its honesty. She writes of her experience with and recovering from an eating disorder. Here's an excerpt:

An eating disorder is driving to a gas station in the midst of a blizzard and writing a bad check to buy dozens of stale doughnuts because they are being sold at the day-old discount price and you are ravenous because you have been starving yourself, again. Your car gets stuck in the middle of an intersection, your tires churn up wet snow, you're going nowhere as you cram doughnuts into your mouth, sugar circling your lips and chin, granules of sticky sugar on the steering wheel, and you don't care that there is oncoming traffic, a light is about to change, and the tires are spinning. All you care about is making it back to the apartment before your roommate gets off work, in time to stick the index finger of your right hand down your inflamed throat so that doughnut pieces will heave their way up your esophagus and plummet into the toilet bowl.

Scott Muskin's first novel, "The Annunciations of Hank Meyerson, Mama's Boy and Scholar"is up for a 2009 MN Book Award for Fiction. This is what the book jacket says of it:

Hank Meyerson isn’t the whiny sort of mama’s boy. He’s more the wry, shaggy, chubby sort—an over-thinker, a ranter, and sometimes a crier. He adores Emily Dickinson. He kibitzes. He has the audacity to fall in love with his sister-in-law.

Plus, he mentions KAXE on his webpage!

Minnesota is such a great state for creativity and especially writers, like the two newer voices you'll hear on Realgoodwords this week. Got a MN author to recommend? Email me!

This week on Realgoodwords: Love and Love gone wrong

2010-02-10T08:22:00.005-06:00

Valentine's Day is this week and on Realgoodwords I talk with one of my favorite authors, Adriana Trigiani. Her new book is out, the 2nd in the Valentine series called "Brava Valentine". Adriana is as engaging as her novels, and in our conversation you'll hear her promise that she's coming to the Iron Range of Minnesota soon and will start writing a series about it.

We'll talk about love gone wrong with Maria Finn too... she found out her husband was cheating and instead of committing a crime, she found Tango. See her author video for more information. Maria has a contest on her website for writers - send in 100-200 words about heartbreak and you may be the winner. See here for more information.

And Happy Valentine's Day!

Is Potica Bread? Check out this recipe!

2010-02-05T11:56:00.002-06:00

Last week on Between You and Me and Realgoodwords we talked about bread with listeners.... you can see the bread recipes that were submitted here.

Kim Ode was our guest - she's a StarTribune reporter and wrote a book about her passion for bread called "Baking With the St. Paul Bread Club - Recipes, Tips & Stories". We talked about some of the family recipes that represent this place where we live. She suggested trying the recipe submitted by baker Pat Roberts who includes a recipe for Walnut Potica.* Kim says to NOT be put off by the length of this recipe, that it is totally worth it. She also suggests making it with someone else.

WALNUT POTICA from "Baking With the St. Paul Bread Club" by Kim Ode
makes 5-6 loaves

Dough
1 1/2 c lowfat milk
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, beaten
5 to 6 cups bread flour

Filling
1/2 c unsalted butter
1 1/2 c lowfat milk
2 c granulated sugar
1/2 scant cup honey
2 1/2 lbs English walnuts, about 10 cups
4 large eggs, beaten
1/2 c unsalted butter, melted

Heat milk to 120 degrees F. In the bowl of a mixer, combine sugar and butter. Add milk, and mix until combined. Add yeast, salt, and beaten eggs, and mix. With mixer running, add flour, 1 cup at a time, but not more than 5 cups. Dough should be soft to moderatley firm, not stiff. If kneading with a dough hook, knead about 15 minutes, or, if by hand, 30 minutes, adding flour sparingly. Dough should be elastic and have air bubbles no larger than 1/4 inch. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning to coat top, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled, about 2 to 3 hours. Be patient; this dough doesn't like to be rushed.

Using a food processor and working in small batches, grind nuts until uniformly fine, being careful not to grind to a paste. Heat milk in a Dutch oven or other large, heavy pan, preferably cast iron. Add butter until melted, and then add walnuts, sugar, and honey. Stir over medium heat until mixture boils. Don't let it scorch! Temper eggs by whisking in small amount of boiling mixture, and then add tempered eggs to nut mixture. Cook for 30 minutes over low heat, stirring frequently. Don't let it scorch! Set aside until dough has risen.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Take a large, clean piece of fabric - an old sheet or a tablecoth - and spread over a large table, making a smooth, unmoving surface. Flour generously. Take off any rings or bracelets. Place dough in middle of table, and using fingertips, pull dough from underneath, slowly stretching toward table edges. Take your time. If a hole appears, don't patch it. Keep pulling until the dough is as thin as onionskin. It will cover an area about five feet long by three feet wide.

Spread 1/2 c melted butter over dough. next, using a spatula, drop dollops of nut filling all over dough, and gently spread until entire surface is covered with a very thin coating. Cut off any thick edges of dough.

Remove tape, and holding on to cloth, lift one long edge, using it to roll dough inot a long cylinder. (Make sure it doesn't roll off the other side of the table.) Lay five or six greased 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pans along roll for a guide, and then with the edge of a teacup saucer (a saucer seals the ends better than a knife can), cut dough into pan-sized lengths. Place each piece seam side down in a pan. Prick each piece four times with a fork.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 325 degrees F, lightly cover loaves with aluminum foil, and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. When done, loaves should be medium to dark brown and loose when pan is lightly shaken. Do not underbake. Remove from pans, and cool on wire rack.

These freeze well if tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil.

*potica is pronounced po-teets-sah

writing workshop in Bemidji "Dreams, Visions & the Inner Image"

2010-01-28T16:07:00.005-06:00

Friday February 5th, 2010 from 6-10pm and Saturday February 6th from 8:30am-6:30pm there will be a writing workshop facilitated by Dr. CarolAnn Russell - poet and professor of English & Integrated Studies at Bemidji State University.

The workshop is being held at the Headwaters School of Music & Arts located at 519 Beltrami Avenue in downtown Bemidji. It's open to the public and cost is $125 with a $25 down payment requirement.

Participants of "Dreams, Visions & the Inner Image" will have time for personal and reflective writing as well as exploring poetic forms and visual drawings.

Call the Headwaters School of Music & Arts by January 31st to register - 218-444-5606.

what would you do if you knew?

2010-01-27T14:52:00.004-06:00

If you knew that your time here was fleeting. Not just that you might have an illness or a disease, but that your mind was slipping. Your knowledge of your own life would be gone in a matter of months really.

I'd like to think that I'd do everything that I'd always meant to do. That's the cliche, isn't it? Skydive? Run a marathon? Run the chainsaw on my own? But actually, I'd just like to savor what I already have....maybe slow down a little. Definitely spend more time with family. With friends. And a lot of time in coffeeshops with my notebook. And I'd eat only things that I absolutely loved.

It's a scary thought and one that most of us don't want to even contemplate. We can chalk Alzheimer's up as an "old person' disease" but that wouldn't be the truth. About 4 million people are living with Alzheimer's disease and 5% of them develop symptoms before age 60.

In Lisa Genova's novel "Still Alice" we come to know what it would actually be like to be diagnosed at 50 and live with the disease. If you knew the end would come and by then you wouldn't realize it, would you take the steps to do something? Lisa Genova has a PhD in neuroscience and in her research of people with early onset Alzheimer's disease ALL of the people she talked with had contemplated ending their own lives before it became too late. She found that staggering. I think I understand it, don't you?

Lisa is my guest this week on Realgoodwords. Check out this video on "Still Alice"....

What's up this week on Realgoodwords

2010-01-18T10:58:00.012-06:00

I'll be talking with authors of two very different books this week on Realgoodwords. Lori Armstrong is the author of No Mercy, a new mysery series featuring Mercy Gunderson. Mercy is a former Army sniper who comes home after her dad dies to take over the family ranch in South Dakota. Life on the ranch is almost as dark and bloody as her time in Iraq.

Wendy Tokunaga is the author of Love in Translation. It's the story of American Celeste Duncan as she sets off on a wild goose chase to find some answers in her puzzling past in of all places, Tokyo. The clash of cultures is very fun in this novel. She finds herself not only getting some answers about her own heritage but at the center of a wildly popular Japanese reality show. Check out the video trailer of the novel below.

KAXE listener book recommendations

2010-01-05T11:41:00.007-06:00

Last Saturday we started 2010 out right on Between You and Me with a book recommendation show. Here's a list, add your own suggestions!

Elaine from Chisholm:

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani
Missing Mark and Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer
The Devil's Bed by William Kent Krueger

Willy from Grand Rapids:

Louis L'Amour's Sackett series
The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson

Joe from Elk Grove, California:

The Great Game by Leopold Trepper
The novels of Alan Furst (set in pre WW II Europe)
The Family - The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlat

Lowell suggested:

Man-making: Men Helping Boys on their Journey to Manhood by Earl Hipp
The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Line of Modern Manhood essays
The Dead Get By With Everything & Coming Home Crazy by Bill Holm

Barb from Bovey

Chain Letter of the Soul and Eccentric Islands by Bill Holm
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig

Jan suggested:

Olive Kittredge by Elizabeth Strout
Seeking Peace - Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World by Mary Pipher
Shelter Half by Carol Bly

DJ the DJ from Grand Rapids:

No Man's Land by Duong Thu Huong
anything by E. Annie Proulx

Bonnie suggested:

Chasing Fireflies and When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

Cori from Bigfork:

The Easter House and Driftless by David Rhodes
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Michael from Mule Lake:

You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me To be Right - Finding Faith Without Fanaticism by Brad Hirschfield
Neither Wolf Nor Dog and The Wolf at Twilght by Kent Nerburn

Gary from Taconite:

When Society Becomes an Addict by Anne Wilson Schaef
The Adjusted American - Normal Neurosis in the Individual and Society by Snell and Gail Putney
One Minute Wisdom by Anthony De Mello

Ruth suggested:

Look Again by Lisa Scottoline
Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup

Eivor recommended a new book by her granddaughter:

The Career With You by Ingrid Stabb

Randy from Pokegama:

The New Frugality: How to Consume Less, Save More, and Live Better by Chris Farrell
The Healing of America - A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid
Dragon House by John Shors
So Brave Young and Handsome by Leif Enger

Tarry suggested:
Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy

Jennie suggested:

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

Janet from Raspberry Island:

Into the Forest by Jean Heglund

Krista from Bovey:

Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

Kathy suggested:

Altar of Eden by James Rollins

Sandy from Canyon:

Anna Pigeon series by Nevada Barr

Laura from Little Falls:

The Martin Beck Mysteries

Melanie from New Brighton:

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

Renee from Cook:

Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer

Donna from Deer River

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Under the Flaming Skies by Daniel James Brown
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown
anything by Lee Child or Vince Flynn for action, intrigue and suspense

also see Heidi's best of 2009 list and Margaret's list on the KAXE Blog.

books coming up on RGW

2009-12-29T16:35:00.004-06:00

Here's some upcoming interviews you'll hear in Realgoodwords on 2010:

Robert Goolrick "A Reliable Wife"

Stephanie Kallos "Sing Them Home"

Kit Bakke "Miss Alcott's Email"

Wendy Nelson Tokunaga "Love in Translation"

Marietta McCarty "How Philosophy Can Save Your Life"