While reading this week’s book, I keep thinking men of manly stature would really enjoy this. Specifically, I think the kind of man that does not mind taking a blow to the face as long as he can return the lick. Okay, close your eyes and think author Harry Crews’ style of writing mixed with the hardships of Frazier’s Cold Mountain, and then add the uncertainty of bootlegging stump whiskey on a wintry night.
New book, The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant, is a male book clubs’ dream. I can see the members, with aged bourbon in hand, having a lively discussion over this one.
Based on a true story that was passed down—piece meal—through the family until Bondurant took notice, it tells the story of great-grandfather’s bootlegging days. I say piece meal because Bondurant’s own father did not know his dad had a bullet would until a little before his death. “Oh yeah, shot me through here, and raised his shirt to show my father the entry wound under his arm. Not much more was said about it after that, which is the way my father’s family communicated about such things.”
The story opens in 1918 when the Bondurant family is whole. The youngest member eight-year-old Jack has a .22 rifle aimed at a sow slated for slaughter while his father and one older brother are tamping down the tobacco pit. The first attempt and the sow wakes up, the second attempt and the sow is a little miffed, the third attempt and the sow is dazed. At this point older brother Forrest jumps into the pen and finishes the job with a knife.
The following year, older brother Howard waits on an army troop ship anchored off the Norfolk harbor. The ship is quarantined since most the men have the Spanish Lady Flu. When he finally arrives home to Franklin County, Virginia, his family notices he is weak with a caved in chest. The family is back together, but Howard is a changed man. The next month brings the epidemic home where mother and two sisters die.
Time jumps as the first chapter opens in 1934 and reporter Sherwood Anderson is sent to Franklin County to cover the mutilation of two suspected bootleggers. A county, through 1935 records, that shows “99 people out of 100 are making, or have some connection with, illicit liquor.”
Forewarning to the story is a quote by Mr. Anderson that opens part one. “Cruelty, like breadfruit and pineapples, is a product, I believe, of the South.”
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The Wettest County in the World (copy)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Writing and Publishing (copy)
I read a book this week that I could not put down. Bet you are thinking suspense or romance novel. Ha! I hate to shock you, but it is a young adult, nonfiction book in the It Happened to Me series. I kid you not. The writing is engaging and the topic is of great interest to me.
Writing and Publishing by Tina P. Schwartz promises teens a bright future if they like to write. Her first chapter, “Reading,” sent tingles through my spine. If you want to write you need to read. Read various things in various formats and read often. If you have trouble writing in a certain genre style read all you can in that genre. If you like a movie read the book. It is always better with the characters’ thoughts and motivations. Find an author you like and read everything they have written. Read poetry. Read short stories. Read. Read. Read.
Careers are a major discussion in chapter two. It is understandable with a preteen or teenage audience. Schwartz focuses on more than writing books, too. She includes writing poetry, greeting cards, song lyrics, scripts, and grants. I like that she points out jobs for which a high school diploma is all one needs.
Now, I realize this book might not appeal to the ordinary non-writing fellow. But, like any book worth its weight in gold, this one suggests more book 
titles; specifically, Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is mentioned numerous times. The funny thing, last nonfiction book I read also suggested this same book.
Stephen King, the author of over 60 novels, began writing as a preteen, too. In On Writing, he explains how his first short story took shape. It was based on his mother’s desire to exchange her green stamps for a lamp she would later give to her sister for Christmas. Her tongue was green from all the licking and pasting in just a few short minutes of filling in the reward booklets. King thought that would make a great story by adding an impossible reward like a house that took, “eleven million, six hundred thousand books of Happy Stamps.”
He titled his short story “Happy Stamps” and sent it off to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Three weeks later and King was looking at his first rejection letter. With Fats Domino playing in the background, he placed a nail on the wall and punched the letter through it. At age 14 the nail was full of rejection letters and he installed a spike where as he satisfyingly impaled future letters.
This week readers have two choices: an engaging book on the “how-to” or a funny book on the “why” write.
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
The Education of Mr. Mayfield (copy)
“All M. B. Mayfield could do for the longest time following his breakdown was open his eyes, close his eyes, and breathe.” Thus begins the third chapter of David Magee’s new biography titled, The Education of Mr. Mayfield: An Unusual Story of Social Change at Ole Miss.
M.B. Mayfield and his twin brother L.D. were born in 1923 amongst ten other children in a small shack outside of Ecru, Mississippi. The family sharecropped and all the children were free labor to an unloving stepfather. M.B. was a delicate, soft spoken young man unlike his boisterous twin brother. This caused a rift in the brothers where stepfather favored L.D. with chores around the house and forced M.B. to work in the fields.
One day M. B. woke to tremors in his hands. As he walked out to the fields he was a little shaky in his knees. He told no one as he took up the mule and began to plow. It was apparent after two rows something was horribly wrong. His legs locked up and he could not move an inch.
The doctor found a small lump on one of his lungs and he was placed on a week of bed rest. M.B. had tuberculosis, a common element in the family, and he was unable to do heavy labor ever again. It was during this time he lost interest in drawing his favorite comic strip characters or making up stories from the newspapers he could read insulating his home.
M. B. was depressed. The third chapter continues, “Time dissolved the way an unpicked melon seeps on an aging vine in the late-summer sun.”
It took the Holy Bible to get M.B. out of his funk. Upon reading a passage in Isaiah he took up a mantra, “They shall walk, and not faint.” Still too weak to work, he took up pen and pencil and began to draw. The more he drew, the more he wanted color and began to mix plants and flowers to make dyes for his art. M.B. was budding into a bona fide Mississippi folk artist.
Stuart Purser and his wife were touring the back roads of Mississippi when they came across a magnificent sight. Purser, new chair of an even newer art department at the University of Mississippi, sat staring at two concrete busts large enough to see from the road. On one side of the porch stairs sat Joe Lewis and on the other George Washington Carver.
The year was 1949 and Purser felt he had found a gold mine. It dawned on him the odd coincidence of finding an unknown artist in a town named after his favorite color, Ecru.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Jamie Lee Curtis (copy)
In the world of children’s books, one celebrity stands out. Jamie Lee Curtis has produced eight quality books to help toddlers become curious, smart and strong children. Each book takes an underlying theme such as empowerment, self control, self awareness, imagination and loss, self esteem, and family and belonging. Don’t let these “new age” words scare you away.
The books were written over a 15 year period when her children were young. Beginning in 1993 with When I was Little: A Four-Year-Old's Memoir Of Her Youth, she said her four-year-old was bragging about her accomplishments. Curtis knew this little human experience would make a great book.
She followed it in 1996 with Tell Me Again: About the Night I was Born. The story put a different slant on the favorite “day I was born” tale because both Curtis children were adopted. Some of the words go, “Tell me again about the first night you were my mommy and you sang the lullaby your mommy sang to you.” The adoption community loves the book and her work began to become noticed through them.
Her audience grew with each successful book and in 2008 she released Books to Grow By Treasury. It is a compilation of four books, When I was Little, I’m Gonna Like Me, Is There Really a Human Race? and Where Do Balloons Go? with a CD read by Curtis.
The Eight Books to Grow By series is excellent if you have preschoolers. The illustrator, Laura Cornell, puts a little funk in the mixture with her curly-cues and vibrant water colors. Kids will take their time pointing out the little funnies that appear throughout her work. In When I was Little the children are laying side-by-side during naptime as one boy looks angry at his neighbor whose foot dangles on his cot. The Cornell/Curtis matchup is a hoot in all these books.
Would my life be any different if I had grown up with these books? I don’t know, but I bet I would smile more.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (copy)
Henrietta didn’t feel right. She wasn’t exactly sure what was wrong but she had a little knot in her lower abdomen. She had no problem with the pregnancy and birth of her fifth child six months earlier, but this knot was new. As her body returned to its normal size the small lump remained.At her next check up, Henrietta told the doctor she felt a little lump. During the pelvic examine the doctor found a most unusual nodule. It was rounded like a marble with a shiny purple color. The doctor noted on her chart, “like grape Jello.” Henrietta was right. There was something growing in her stomach.
The year was 1951 and Henrietta’s biopsy was malignant. She rode the bus to John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore the following week for radium surgery. She did not tell her family she had cancer. Instead she acted like she was off for a weekend with friends.
Before the doctor administered the radium he did a favor for a colleague. George Gey (pronounced Guy) was trying to grow human cells. His office, located in the basement at Hopkins, looked like an industrial kitchen except for the Bunsen burners and large freezers lining the walls full of “blood, placentas, tumor samples, and dead mice.”
Gey discovered Henrietta’s cells, from her first biopsy, lived through the night and split and multiplied over the weekend. This was not unusual. He had cells that reacted the same way but died by the end of the work week. On a hunch, Gey asked Henrietta’s doctors for more cells just in case this multiplying effect which was still occurring after five days turned into his “immortal” human cell.
Gey was handed a small cup labeled, Henrietta Lacks, full of cancer cells still warm from her body. Those cells became known as HeLa cells and are still growing in mass quantity today. The book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, states that if the microscopic cells grown from Henrietta’s original cells were placed side by side they would wrap around the earth three times.
Rebecca Skloot, teacher of creative writing at the University of Memphis, has written a highly readable nonfiction book. Readers will not get bogged down in techy terminology and boring shop talk, this book is pure nonfiction fascination. Unfortunately, Henrietta died within a year but her cells continue to advance science in areas such as gene mapping, in vitro fertilization and cloning.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Beep! Beep! Book Stop!
"A story untold could be the one that kills you."
~ Pat Conroy
In honor Of Pat Conroy's South of Broad release in paperback, I found a couple of snippets to get you excited about his book.
From the first line: It was my father who called the city the Mansion on the River.
Last lines: "Yes, that is it: anything can happen. Yes."
It is up to you to read the middle! ;D
Fiction:
South of Broad (2009)
My Losing Season (2002)
Beach Music (1995)
The Prince of Tides (1986)
The Lords of Discipline (1980)
The Great Santini (1976)
The Water Is Wide (1972)
The Boo (1970)
Nonfiction:
The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life (1999)
I am currently participating in a blog tour for this book! Please visit Lisa at TLC for more information on the book and other bloggers' reviews!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
One Night of Madness (copy)
Attala County, Mississippi, drew national attention in 1950 for a horrible slaughter and the bloodhound assisted manhunt that followed. Afterwards, time passed and the events were forgotten.Out of the tragedy rose one bright occurrence. A young reporter working for The Kosciusko Star-Herald snapped a picture that would continue on to win America’s Best Journalistic Photograph awarded by the National Press Photographers Association.
The picture depicts two men spread eagle on a hard dirt surface of someone’s farm. In the middle of the picture is a man dangling a cigarette from his close-lipped mouth, wearing prison stripped pants and holding two revolvers at the ready. The man laying in the front is being frisked by an officer while two men are frisking the other suspect.
That young reporter who happened to be married to the newspaper editor’s daughter took the famous shot which was lovingly placed in a scrapbook to highlight his accomplishment. With the picture as centerpiece, the scrapbook became filled with news items from all over the U.S. reporting on the event. It soon out grew the family photo keepsake and the material was moved to a 30 x 30 inch book used in the newspaper business as a page layout.
For as long as he can remember, Stokes McMillan knew an aura of pride surrounded the huge scrapbook. It was brought out from under the bed on special occasions and the family gathered to listen quietly as a proud Mrs. McMillan retold the story. He, himself, had pulled the book out and flipped through the pages on many an afternoon, but he never took the time to read the articles. Finally, Stokes became a family man and the scrapbook was relocated to the darkness under his own bed.
It took a request from his son to finally make him read the articles. His son was going to college and asked his dad for a poster size copy of the photograph for his dorm room. Stokes got the picture and some others taken by his dad on that fateful day and had them blown up. While waiting around he figured he better read the articles for details when giving the presents.
Stokes became fascinated by the newspaper accounts and felt there was a book waiting to be written. One Night of Madness is written in Truman Capote style where literary license is used to move the story forward. One can purchase the book through his website www.stokesmcmillan.com.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Give My Poor Heart Ease (copy)
“I got the blues this week. Down in my back, I have found no relief.” These are lyrics for my new song “Low-Down Back Blues.” Yes, I am having a little back trouble this week and it is fitting that I talk about Give My Poor Heart Ease by William Ferris.
From the first lines to the last, this book is excellent! Why, you may ask? Well, I don’t want to gush, but it has every element known to the blues genre within 302 written pages including an hour long DVD of original content, an hour’s worth of original music on CD, original photographs, and illustrations. It is a truly complete package.
Ferris begins with a nine page introduction that should be the basis of his autobiography. He grew up in the country outside of Vicksburg in the 40s and 50s. From an early age, he was fascinated by the music he heard played or sung by his neighbors. This developed into a passion for all things Southern especially blues music. He was not alone either. His older brother Grey shared the excitement.
While attending college, Grey talked his brother into interviewing with film and recorder the locals as they sang or preached. This is the beginning of his DVD. Filmed all in 1968, the home movies are gritty black and white productions full of unscripted moments such as the Reverend Isaac Thomas who sings his sermon instead of orating at the Rose Hill Church, a baptism in the Mississippi where the flock enters the water in pairs, and prisoners singing work chants while chopping wood at Parchman Penitentiary. Listeners will recognize the familiar sing-song of railroad workers in the Coen Brothers’ movie, O Brother, Where Art Though?
These amateur beginnings served Ferris well as he became a folklorist and set out to record and interview all the blues artists in Mississippi. In 1970 he came to the hill country of Tate County to interview an opinionated man named Otha Turner. Otha opened his home to Ferris and taught him how to make his own fife.
He made Napoleon Strickland’s first cane, too. Otha said, “He took it up hisself after he heard me blow a piece. And now Napoleon can really blow a cane.” On page 73 is a picture of Otha holding his legacy, Sharde Turner, a current student and recipient of the Edna Teasler Scholarship at Northwest. One can hear Napoleon performing “Somebody Knocking on My Door” on the CD, too.
These are merely examples of one man’s passionate opus to the blues.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
People of the Book (copy)
Back in 2005, when I started writing book talks for The Southern Reporter, I was conservative when suggesting books. If the book contained excessive foul language or a questionable sex scene I usually enjoyed the book but found another one to talk about. That year I read some excellent books that were left un-suggested including Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey and Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.
I regret not introducing new readers to Geraldine Brooks. She won a Pulitzer Prize a few years later with her book March, and has written another stellar book titled People of the Book. Really, when I think about Year of Wonders, I have to wonder why I thought it questionable. A woman in her late 70s at the time suggested it to me and I hold her taste in high regard, but still something held me back.
With two thumbs wildly wiggling up, I whole-heartedly suggest People of the Book. A little something for everyone, the novel is based on a true story that combines history, family relationships, religion, travel, and mystery.
In 1996, Hanna Heath is summoned to the remnants of war torn Bosnia to conserve an ancient haggadah. A religious book, the haggadah is read by Jewish families during Seder in which the story of Exodus is related. She is met at the airport by United Nations guards and three armor-plated vans which escort her to the museum holding the book.
Obviously, this isn't any old book but the Sarajevo Haggadah that was appraised in 1991 at $700 million. It is thought to be the oldest illuminated Jewish codex with images and Hanna handles the calf-skin parchment with kid gloves. While turning the pages slowly she finds three things foreign to the manuscript: a butterfly wing, a blonde hair and a small grain of salt.
In this story the plot is driven by the protection of the book through the years. One follows the persecution of Jews and the peril of the book starting with the Bosnian War and then moving to Nazi run Vienna in a reverse chronological order. This is an excellent history lesson as they travel to Venice, Italy of 1609 and then the forced expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
It is the small objects left in the book that reminds the reader of a fine mystery. Hanna also leaves a little gift for the next 500 years.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator (copy)
If this book had a sound track, it might sound like the theme to "Jaws," duuun dun duuun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun BOM BOM dun dun dun dun dun dun doo dedoo doo dedoo dede doo dede doo dededoo…I am talking about Sarah C. Campbell's highly acclaimed Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator. This children's picture book, published in 2008, was honored by the American Library Association's newest award.
The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award began in 2006 and has proven a major player in "beginning reader books" for the very young. To be honored is to say that one did not win but came in second. Still, it is a pretty good accomplishment for a Jackson, Mississippi husband and wife team of photographers; especially, since it is their first book ever.
Technically, this book is considered a photo-essay, but that genre title sounds too fussy. By using photographs taken around their home, the couple tells the story of a lone wolfsnail in search of food. The vibrant greens of plants such as hosta and grass, the opalescent brown of the shiny shell, the grainy ground, and the crackly tan of fallen leaves all work together to create a visually stunning story.
A story that could be told without words, but Sarah feeds our imagination with little know facts about the thumb size creature. She begins, "Water from a spring rain runs along the edge of a porch. It falls onto the shell of a wolfsnail. The snail is tucked inside its shell. Today, it is time to wake up and find food. Water seeps into an opening in the shell. The snail begins to move. Its tail comes out first, then its head."
From here the wolfsnail realizes it is hungry and begins to hunt other snails and slugs by following their slimy tracks. It traipses over large hosta leaves where little readers will see the remnants of morning dew. A shadow passes over and the wolfsnail ducks into its home to avoid the mockingbird. When the coast is clear, he emerges from his shell to continue the hunt for a common snail.
Sarah considers herself a teaching author and this book is perfect for a spring day outside with the kindergarten class or a "small creature," themed storytime. If snails gross you out try the new children's book by the duo titled, Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature. Filled with photographs of pinecones and sunflowers, the book demonstrates how one can find the number pattern (1,1,2,3,5,8,13...) in nature.
More about Wolfsnail and Growning Patterns can be found at Sarah C. Campbell's blog!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The Procrastinator’s Guide to Getting Things Done (copy)
I was perusing the new books this week when one caught my eye. The Procrastinator's Guide to Getting Things Done by Monica Ramirez Basco, Ph.D. sat gnawing at me. The guilt of past work undone and the lingering anxiety of a "to-do" stack sat sticking its tongue out at me. Could this book help?
Now, I am not one to read self-help books but this one obviously filled a needed niche. I took it to lunch and we both commiserated on my problem. Turns out, I have a reluctance to get started and put things off for fear of not doing them perfectly. Thought I fixed the "perfect" problem with another, self-help book in my 30s; unfortunately, the problem lingers under the surface and sabotages my actions covertly.
Basco is a wry writer and realizes her audience will also procrastinate and possibly put off reading her book. With this in mind, she wrote a little sidebar in chapter one titled, "Resisting the Urge to Procrastinate on This Book."
Among Basco's seven suggestions sits a gold mine of ideas for any reluctant reader not just procrastinators. Her first suggestion refers to the fact that if you see it you will read it. Place the book on your night stand or coffee table. In my case, lay it on top of the stack.
Carry the book with you whether it is out to lunch or a bathroom break. Standing in lines is the perfect time to whip it out and start reading. Instead of listening to the same old television commercials click the mute button and read. Whatever the circumstance, keeping the book in hand means it will be readily available when spare time occurs.
Here's a silly suggestion but Basco says one should plan to read one page at a time. Is there another way? Physically, is this possible? I am at a loss for her meaning. She doesn't expand but she might be alluding to the size of her book. Read in little chunks and an enormous book will eventually be whittled away.
Basco's list contains a couple of "do nots," too. First, do not set unrealistic goals such as read a book by the end of the week or read a book before you do anything else. Reading should be without pressure. Second, do not tell yourself you "have to" read any book. Tell yourself that you want to read no-matter-what, or in the words of Larry the Cable Guy, "Geterdone!"
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Stitches (copy)
Young David grew up in a quiet family who kept their emotions below the surface only to boil-up around inanimate objects. For instance, his father had a punching bag in the basement and every day after work he would pound into an unknown face. His mother took her frustrations out in the kitchen. The slamming of cupboards, clanging of pots and pans, and the harsh sounds of drowning utensils and plates while being thrown into water was a daily occurrence. Even his brother kept the household beat with his drum set.David opted for a noiseless way to act out. At the age of six he became mysteriously sick. His father was a radiologist at a major hospital in Detroit and often David was x-rayed as treatment. His father later claimed that it was standard practice for anyone born with breathing difficulties such as asthma or sinus conditions. Readers will see otherwise as David becomes a human guinea pig.
By age eleven, David has a slight growth on his neck. It is his mother's best friend, Mrs. Dillon, who discovers the small lump. In front of David, Mrs. Dillon makes his mother promise to see a doctor but once she leaves his mother declares, "Doctors cost money and money is something that is in short supply in this house!"
Three and a half years later, David's tumor is too large to ignore and he requires surgery. It is only after he is recovering at home from two surgeries that remove his thyroid gland and one side of his vocal cords that David learns why. A letter, locked in a desk and written by his mother, explains his cancer and how the family refuses to tell "the boy" about it.
David Small's true story, Stitches: A Memoir, is a gothic tale of love denied. He was definitely a product of the times when children were seen but not heard. It was the psychologist that broke the news, "Your mother doesn't love you."
Illustrated in graphic format, older readers will recognize The New Yorker style comics, but this book is for young adults. It appeals to anyone reading graphic novels for it is loyal to the grotesqueness of the genre. It's the heartbreaking story that appeals to all.
I leave you with a quote from the book jacket. "A silent movie masquerading as a book, Stitches renders a broken world suddenly seamless and beautiful again." It is one of those books that live within you long after the last page is turned.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Pop-Ups (copy)
As a librarian, I have a love-hate relationship with pop-up books. Obviously, they are books; thus, my eternal love. It is the lifespan of pop-ups that causes me such grief. When purchasing them for the library, I automatically think I am wasting taxpayers' money. How many children will enjoy the book before it becomes a broken mess?
The act of placing the book behind the counter to save it from wear and tear also defeats the purpose of providing the book. If a child cannot read it because I hold it hostage in a protected area, he will never benefit from its use. Removing it from the "safe" shelf for story time does ease my guilt, but it remains inaccessible to that child who may need a little visual stimulus to foster her love of books.
Pop-up books can be seen as gimmicky. A child benefits from the bright colors and sing-song words in a regular children's picture book. Pop-ups are icing on the cake. There is no proof that a pop-up stimulates the brain, but one can guess that twinkle in her child's eyes might mean something is taking place – possibly fun.
It is with a heavy heart I suggest David A. Carter's pop-up books. I realize their little book bodies will be bruised, torn and mangled. They will encounter many dirty-little hands pushing tabs, grabbing at dangly spots, and catching piecer-parts that fly. These books are doomed. Woe is the book that encounters a known slobberer.
Born in 1957, David A. Carter began his career in the 70s as a graphic designer. He was fooling around at work making little paper bugs when he thought of creating a book for children. His first book, "How Many Bugs in a Box?" became popular and in 1987 he started his own business making "buggy" pop-up books.
Fast forward and we find Carter creating pop-art, pop-ups. His latest titled White Noise opens with the line, "Rainbow bubble blast and crackly white noise." As the child opens the cover he sees red, yellow, blue, and black dots rising from the page. It reminds me of a retro 50's table cloth or glass tumbler design. The three dimensional art makes noise as white gears scrap across black dots.
Yes, I did purchase it for the library along with, Blue 2, Yellow Square, 600 Black Spots, and One Red Dot. Hopefully, these books will have a longer shelf life with adult students.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Promises I Made My Mother (copy)
It was a delight to hear Sam Haskell speak at the Senatobia Lunch with Books yesterday. He flew in special from New York to promote his excellent new book, "Promises I Made My Mother." I was late but after listening to him for just a minute I was struck by his gentle mannerisms and charming good looks. No wonder he won the hearts of finicky people like Bette Davis and David Frost.
Sam Haskell was born in Alabama but he soon moved to Mississippi and considers Amory his hometown. As a child he believed anything was possible and he continued to have faith when others began to doubt. In the prologue he uses the Cheer Man as his example.
In 1964 Amory had all of three television channels from which to choose and nine-year-old Sam was a scholar of all. The Cheer Man was a commercial airing that year to promote the washing detergent. The spokesman dressed in bright orange and sporting a detergent box hat was seen walking through a neighborhood asking, "Do you use Cheer?" Finally he gets an answer when one lucky housewife shows off her box. The spokesman then hands her a ten dollar bill and all is right with the world.
This commercial, this image, this event was going to happen to young Sam. His mother used Cheer and he knew it was only a matter of time before the Cheer Man came down the street and stopped at his front door. He jumped into action – so as to be ready for the blessed day – by making a poster declaring his undying love for the product. With money saved he purchased all the paint and mini rocks to place on his poster which became a garish three by four foot sign that he proudly displayed above his bedroom headboard.
Soon his artwork became the butt of his father's jokes. "Son, show the guys what you plan to do when the Cheer Man comes?" Sam would eagerly display his masterpiece only to be met with snickers and guffaws from the crowd.
It was his mother who kept the dream alive although time passed and the Cheer Man commercial cycled off the air. Eventually, the poster came off the wall to reside under the bed and then moved to the closet. His mother never once pointed out the impossibility, but told him it was a beautiful dream.
Readers will find the Cheer Man cometh and directly to the Haskell's front door thus proving all things are possible. Sam returned to Mississippi yesterday after a successful career in Hollywood culminating as Worldwide Head of Television. Yes, all things are possible.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt (copy)
Cecelia "CeeCee" Rose Honeycutt was twelve-years-old when she realized life with her mother was getting worse. There were hints like the three straight weeks her mother went cuckoo crazy for shoes that resulted in overflowing shoeboxes in both bedroom closets. Another time she caught her mother sitting at the kitchen table sporting her favorite pink robe with candy apple stilettos peeking out from under the hem. One embarrassing time CeeCee arrived home from school to find her mother perched on the stoop wearing a ball gown and tiara.
CeeCee's father was no help. He was a travelling salesman who took every opportunity to get out of town and away from the family. He cut up the credit cards and yelled for her to take her medicine, but still she over shopped and walked around bewildered. When the money became tight, CeeCee's mom began to shop at the local Goodwill for prom dresses.
Many times CeeCee came home to a quiet, dark house. Climbing the steps she would see her mother immobilized in the upstairs bedroom pouring over a scrapbook filled with memorabilia and too lethargic to turn on the house lights. Other times she might catch her mother in a rage where fragile vases and china plates were flung around like a water sprinkler.
On this ominous day CeeCee would have to face facts. Returning from the library, she opened the front door and was greeted with a smelly gray smoke. She rushed into the kitchen to see a pot of macaroni and cheese overflowing onto the stove top. Upstairs she found her mother with the scrapbook poking a finger at one of the pictures. "My life is here; this is my 'real' life."
CeeCee looks into her mother's eyes and asked, "Momma, what's my name?"
"Why, CeeCee Rose of course and your friend is Nancy Drew."
"Well, sort of. Nancy Drew is a character in one of my books."
Camille Sugarbaker Honeycutt is stuck in 1951 where she remains forever the Vidalia Onion Queen. With an absent father and all her people in the South, who will take care of CeeCee? Her life is perched precariously on the ledge of an abyss and her mother is slowly elbowing her off.
Saving CeeCee Honecutt by Beth Hoffman is a new southern novel that brings the crazy back down home, because everyone knows our southern roots include insanity.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Shop Class as Soulcraft (copy)
During my pre-teen years I worked for my father's carpet cleaning business. Less residential and more commercial, my time was spent cleaning offices and bathrooms. Father loved to skirt the law and those pesky child labor ones - he felt - didn't apply to a family run business.
I may have already told this but my parents' families were an exercise in opposites. My mother's privileged and father's questionable, I faced an early education in the "haves and have nots" with ample examples. Benefits for me included material wealth such as toys and clothes from one side and precious freedom to run amuck from the other. Life was good.
My dad's mother worked factory. Granny Smith filled my ears with words like skeleton shifts, mandatory overtime, assembly line, and various adjectives for a terrible thing called a manager. As I began to understand her wordage, I jumped to the conclusion she worked assembly line.
It wasn't until I began to clean the offices at Hoeganaes that my thoughts were corrected. This factory worked in metals and there were giant furnaces along the north wall and the floor space was filled with single-worker machines. On weekends we entered through the truck bay and headed to the office area. They ran a skeleton crew and every blue moon I might catch Granny Smith out on the floor or in the break room.
One day my dad asked me to pick up the trash along the machines within the factory. Granny Smith was in the middle of the room and it took me sometime to reach her. As I neared, another man was cursing his machine. It was making a horrible noise and beginning to steam. He called out, "Edna Mae, this one is breakin' down!" She hit three or four buttons on her machine and ran to his aide. With my mouth on the ground, she grabbed an oil can and began to tease and tempt the humongous dinosaur into submission.
It was the look of pride on her face as she returned to her machine that I will never forget. I closed my mouth and continued working until I reached her and she gave me a big ole hug and kiss. Her coworkers, realizing my family connection, began to spout her accolades. Smiling shyly she threw some choice words back at them and the room hushed except for the purring of the machines.
What is happening to our society as we export our factory jobs to other countries? What is left for the class of people who take pride in their own hands? Matthew B. Crawford tries to answer these in his new book, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Delta Deep Down (copy)
Jane Rule Burdine, a native of Mississippi and currently living in Taylors, has a muse. This muse is moody though. She can produce breathe-stealing humidity and angry storms one minute and then sing of soft foggy bogs and fluffy kudzu gardens the next. For over 40 years of nurturing this muse, Burdine realizes she can never be tamed; although, the muse has made an effort to sit still for pictures.
The book, Delta Deep Down, is Burdine's portrait of her muse, the Delta. Over 100 photographs covering the early 1970s to present will haunt, delight and mist over readers' eyes. As one opens the cover of the book revealing a rich-brown, freshly plowed earth, they suspect the contents to be forth right. On the last pages appears blue sky with fat white clouds. The interior of the book reveals not just the land in between earth and sky but heaven on earth.
An introduction by Steve Yarbrough stops readers from jumping straight into Burdine's collection. He teases us as he relates stories of a Delta he remembered as a kid growing up in Indianola. From a woman on page 27 that looks like his childhood corrector named Johnnie to a "shack" on page 72 whom the occupant calls home, we follow his story by glimpsing briefly at the pictures on the corresponding pages. Yarbrough brings uniqueness to introducing Burdine's work with this approach.
Following the introduction is a poem titled "Home" by William Alexander Percy. It appeared as the fifth stanza in "In New York" stemming from a bout of homesickness by the poet. The last sentence reads, "And, when the marvelous wide evenings come, Across the molten river one can see, The misty willow-green of Arcady. And then—the summer stars…I will go home."
The first official photograph of the book is perfect to open the collection. The picture was taken from the inside of a building looking out a window without glass or sashes. Through the wide opening we see moist plowed ground, some telephone poles and horse-hair sky. It is a reinforcement of the book itself mirroring the front and back covers talked about in previous paragraphs.
My favorite shots in the collection consist of people. One of them portrays a family either returning from or going to their fishing hole. Older daughter is forging ahead with all the cane poles slung over her shoulder while mother holds granddaughter's pudgy hand and father brings up the rear carrying with what I hope to be a mess of fish. The sky is blue and the gravel is yellow on a perfect Saturday afternoon.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Backyards & Beyond (copy)
As we pray to ease the suffering Haitians are currently experiencing, I took an opportunity yesterday to revisit the hardships Katrina caused by viewing the "Backyards and Beyond" traveling exhibit currently displayed at the Delta State University Museum & Archives building in Cleveland.
During the first days after Katrina struck, many Mississippians in the northern part of the state felt a sense of helplessness as the stories began to trickle up from the coast. Something horrible was happening in our backyard and we were powerless. Those who were on the coast at the time were left to find services and supplies as best they could from attending organizations. Does this sound familiar in the aftermath of Haiti's earthquake?
The exhibit "Backyards and Beyond" is the story of Mississippians who survived Katrina and attempted to clean up before services and supplies were in place. Some of the stories make you cry, some make you turn in disgust, and others will evoke a chuckle. One story had me fighting back tears.
After being rescued from her rooftop, a woman told of the 15 odd dogs that swam to her rescue boat. Other dogs remained on roof tops or swam away once seeing her German Sheppard. The rescue boat dropped them off at the top of a two story building, the bottom floor was filled with water, that remained their shelter until help arrive three days later. It was the thought of the dogs left behind that caused me to unhinge.
I should stop here and explain the layout of the exhibit. Upon entering a short video explains the reason for the exhibit. Apparently artist H. C. Porter could not sit idly by in Washington D.C. while her fellow Mississippians suffered. She boarded a plane the next day for the coast with a mission. She photographed and recorded as many stories as possible while fresh. She jokes that she is not a historian and used a $20 Wal-Mart recorder.
Porter took her material back to the studio and produced 50 pieces of mixed media portraits while listening to the stories. The exhibit contains 20 of those portraits with the individual's story located on the side. On the floor throughout the exhibit are life size photographs of debris as if walking around the bedraggled coast.
What does this have to do with books? The exhibit catalog is excellent with all 50 pieces of artwork and stories. If you cannot make it to the exhibit, check out Backyards & Beyond: Mississippians and Their Stories by H. C. Porter.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Best Picture Books of 2009 (copy)
I love the end of the year with all its best books from 2009 lists. For our childcare classes, I ordered a handful from these lists and am delighted to be the first to read them.
For children with short attention spans, All the World written by Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Caldecott Honor medalist Marla Frazee, is perfect. Frazee wrote and illustrated last year's popular A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, and she portrays the same friendship and camaraderie amongst all us humans in this new picture book. Scanlon words emphasis the message, "Hope and peace and love and trust, All the world is all of us."
Yes, I too had aspirations of becoming a pink-clad, tutu-twirling ballerina. My scrawny, third world belly was a sight, unlike the perfectly poised child ballerinas in Beautiful Ballerina by Newbery Honor winner Marilyn Nelson and photographer Susan Kuklin. Four students from the Dance Theatre of Harlem will stretch, pirouettes and leap into many a small reader's heart. Words are rare, but require an adult to read like this passage, "To the tradition of port de bras and arabesque, of pirouettes, jetés, and pas de deux, you bring a tiny hint of Africanness, juju and beautiful joy danced in your every move."
For little boys Dinotrux, written and illustrated by clever Chris Gall, combines dinosaurs and trucks. The story begins, "Millions of years ago prehistoric Trucks roamed the earth. They were Huge. They were Hungry. But they weren't helpful like they are today. They rumbled, roared, and chomped. And they did NOT get along well with others. They were called DinoTrux!" Gall is a genius!
Looking for a hilarious read-aloud? Duck! Rabbit! written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld will confuse and amuse children. A basic ink shape of a rabbit, or no, duck appears on every page. Wait a minute. What is it? With motion waves drawn under the shape one declares, "There, see? It's flying!" while another says, "Flying? It's hopping!"
Bedtime will be less fight and more quiet with Otis by Loren Long. Otis is a farm tractor who has the run of the farm. When a little baby calf is placed next to him in the barn at night, he becomes a sleep aid with his "soft putt puff puttedy chuff." Unfortunately, Otis is replaced by a loud yellow tractor whose snores shakes the barn and scares the little calf. We need Otis!
Start the year off right by reading to your kids or grandkids with these best-of-the-best reads.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Born to Run (copy)
As a rule I balk at New Year's resolutions, but this year I wrote down 20 promises to be broken at an undetermined future date. Out of the 20, eight of them deal with running, losing weight and becoming healthy. This is a great time to head to the library and look for books on exercise and nutrition. No need in spending money on books I might not use.
Within a library search I found the perfect book, Born to Run:A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall, to inspire me for at least a month. Wait! Don't stop reading! This is less a book on the mechanics of running and more about the joy of running. But, you are thinking, "I don't run and this has nothing for me."
McDougall is a great story teller. He spends chapters exploring the Tarahumara culture, a Native American tribe who prefer to run mountain trails barefoot or wear ankle laced sandals. Dangers lurk at the base of the lawless country of Mexico's Copper Canyons where the tribe lives. Drug lords are unkind to those caught passing through the marijuana fields. To add mystery to the story there is a man called Caballo Blanco (White Horse) who haunts the trails and lives amongst the tribe.
Readers will marvel at the ultra-running that takes place in America. Ultra-running and ultra-racing is a relatively new sport that pits man against nature for lengths passed 26.2 miles or the standard length of a marathon. Like music rappers, runners divide the country between east coast and west coast races of 50 or 100 miles and rarely do racers cross the Mississippi. The exciting Leadville 100 (100 miles) is retold by the author as if reading a horse race in the book Seabiscuit.
The media portrays the book as a manifesto for running barefoot and that is unfair. In many interviews with the author, reporters focus on the pros and cons of running barefoot or with racing flats rather than traditional running shoes. McDougall adds to this misconception by running to the interviews barefoot. The book is much more than the gimmick.
It reminds me of Upton Sinclair's book The Jungle which is renowned as the catalyst for government regulation of the beef industry or as a treatise for vegetarians when in fact it is a study in socialism. There is a brief mention of the beef processing plant and the bloody Illinois River but by no means is the whole book on the evils of beef.
My hope is that people will read Born to Run for its many other attributes rather than write it off as a crazy author's bid for attention.
