Deer Hunting With Jesus

Sometimes a snappy book title does just what it’s meant to do: makes you chuckle and then open the cover. Most of us will read the book jacket and then decide whether or not the book has potential merit. I’m a sucker for a catchy title myself, so I jumped at the chance to investigate further Joe Bageant’s story of growing up in rural West Virginia, Deer Hunting With Jesus. The present election cycle once again brings to the forefront America’s cultural distinctions, and this book could not be more timely though published last year. Joe is a great storyteller, but the book is also informative in the vein of Nickel and Dimed and What’s the Matter with Kansas. I love what the publication "Mother Jones" had to say about the book: “Bageant writes with the ghosts of Hunter S. Thompson, Will Rogers, and Frank Zappa kibitzing over his shoulder.” The great literary critic, Marshall McLuhan, suggested that you should choose your reading by turning to page 69 of a book and, if you like it, read it. This is what the author had to say about page 69 of his book: “Well, page 69 is one of the more low keyed pages in a rather gonzo book.” I would agree. The author recently achieved international fame when a Swiss-Italian TV station produced a 30-minute documentary titled, “Joe’s Winchester”. You can view the production on the author’s web page. Since Italian is my second language, I found it particularly enjoyable. However, even if you don't understand the language, the story is wonderfully told.

Exploring America's Roots

During this important election year I have found it interesting to look back at America's beginnings. One of the most important documents for this young nation is the Constitution. But do we take enough time as we should to appreciate this work? There are many books available that study the writing of the Constitution, and the document itself, without sounding as dry as the Sahara. Actually these books read more like a novel. Try Decision in Philadelphia by Christopher Collier, Brilliant Solution by Carol Berkin and Summer of 1787 by David Stewart if you are interested in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. The Words We Live By, written by Linda Monk, is an annotated version of the Constitution that describes each section in detail. Check out Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis for detailed information about the men who argued, compromised and finally wrote one of the most powerful documents in history.

In the Queue

More new books coming soon!

Letter To My Daughter
by Maya Angelou
It seems everyone is writing books to their kids or about their dogs!
This is Angelou’s first original collection in a decade. In the book
she shares personal experiences and short essays about living well
and living good.

Fixing Hell: An Army Psychologist Confronts Abu Ghraib
by Larry James w/ Gregory A. Freeman
In this appropriately titled book, army psychologist Larry James is
dispatched to Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to fix the catastrophe
caused by the abuse of prisoners and to prevent it from ever
happening again.

Bob Schieffer’s America
by Bob Schieffer
Schieffer, the moderator of CBS-TV’s Face the Nation, offers more
than 165 of his best commentaries, covering a wide range of issues.

2008 Man Booker Prize Shortlist

The shortlist for the 2008 Man Booker Prize was announced this week. The Man Booker Prize is for "any full-length novel, written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and published this year. It must be an original work in English (not a translation) and must not be self-published." I had to look up the Commonwealth and it is "53 independent sovereign states, mostly former British colonies" such as Australia, Canada, India, and Egypt. (I knew it was British but I didn't realize how extensive their "empire" was.) The judges had to read over 112 entries, cut it down to thirteen, then the final six. The winner will be announced October 14, 2008 and will win a prize of 50,000 pounds (almost $88,000.00). The nominees for this year are:

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant (on order)
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher (on order)
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

Adiga and Toltz are first-time novelists and beat out previous winners John Berger and Salman Rushdie.

Song For Night

More Dayton Literary Peace Prize stuff for you folks. I decided to read one of the books nominated in the fiction category: Song For Night, by Chris Abani. Wow. Utterly blown away. Song For Night tells the story of My Luck, a 15-year-old boy soldier in Nigeria trying to find the rest of his unit after being separated from them by a land-mine explosion. My Luck's journey through the landscape of war and memory is a walk through a waking nightmare in which no emotion or sense is spared. What keeps this novella from being an utterly depressing read is the absolute beauty of Abani's writing. The man is a poet (really, he is), and with passages like this, it shows: "I dream my hate comes back and she is a woman made of night dancing in the middle of a lake I have seen only in Grandfather's stories and she has claws of fire and breath of ice and her laughter, as she turns in dance, is a band tight as a vice across my heart choking life from it, and as I am gasping for breath all I can think is, What a thing of beauty she is, what a thing."

What a thing, indeed. I'm adding this one to my personal collection.

2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Winners

In case you were wondering, and you should be, the winners for the 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize were announced this week. The winner of the Fiction Prize is Junot Diaz for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and the Nonfiction Prize winner is Edwidge Danticat for Brother, I'm Dying. The Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Taylor Branch, notable for his Pulitzer Prize-winning trilogy, America in the King Years. According to Sharon Rab, chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, "This year’s winners explore both the devastating impact of violence and the power of the human spirit to overcome great pain and adversity in order to move communities and society forward. We are proud to honor artists whose creativity and unique perspectives remind us that lasting peace comes from our recognizing a shared humanity.” For more info about these authors and their prize-winning books, read the entire press release here.

Peace!

Interred With Their Bones

The writings of Shakespeare have become a hot topic for debate. Who was Shakespeare? Was it more than one person? Are there other writings by this person that have never been read? Suppose their are other writings. This is what the author, Jennifer Lee Carrell, does when places her heroine, Kate, into a mystery/thriller concerning manuscripts by Shakespeare that have been lost for years. Many of the scenes from this book mimic scenes from many of Shakespeare's most famous plays which creates a modern day mystery with a literary twist. The reader follows Kate as she travels the globe in order to find the truth about the manuscripts and elude those who are after her. If you're looking for a book that doesn't give you nightmares about your ninth grade English class, pick up Interred With Their Bones!