Turning the pages of the first half of 2012

"One Hundred Years of Marriage" by Louise Farmer Smith (See the previous post) is book 12 of those read as the first half of the year comes to a close.  I thought I was behind, on one a month, but no. It's been an interesting reading

The two most previous books I've read are "Repetitions" by Doris Cohen about reincarnation,  and "Mack to the Rescue," Jim Lehrer's satire set in Oklahoma, with a one-eyed assistant governor who reminds me of George Nigh, and a whacko governeor who reminds me of Frank Keating. I know I'm late started reading these, but it was signed by the author, bought at Full Circle Book Store. http://www.fullcirclebooks.com/ Neat use of place names, for anyone who knows Oklahoma.  He makes up a couple of places, but I only found one error--aint' ever gonna be a Walmart in Waurika.

Just before that, I've read "Sagebrush and Paintbrush" about Charles Russell by Nancy Plain. I bought it in Fort Worth in the spring, visiting with my brother and the watercolor show at the Amon Carter. It's really a children's book, but I stll learned from it. And I bought and red the museum book with the show, "Romance Maker" by Rick Stewart, about Russell and showing the watercolor paintings. What you do learn though is that no printing can approach the grandeur of the original art.

About the same time was "After Custer," by Paul Hedrin, the winner of the Wrangler Award at the Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, that I judged in nonfiction. The Oklahoma connect is that it's printed by the OU Press...and I've mentioned it in my current story on the OU Press in Oklahoma today, "Pressing On."

Here's the lead: "Custer was dead, and Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and Morning Star were desperate." Paul Hedren's Wrangler-Award winning book, "After Custer, Loss and transformation in Sioux country. The Oklahoma connection--published by the OU press. Great reading. Makes you sad and ashamed of what white people did to the Indians in the name of "civilization."

• Before that were two poetry books by Oklahoma authors, reviewed here earlier    "Red Fields," and "Subterranean Red." http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/04/red-dirt-blood-titles-and-words.html
• In January I posted the reviews of Tony Hillerman's "Seldom Disappointed" and Friedman's "That Used To Be Us." http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/01/freedom-failure-turning-pages-in.html I've also reread M. Scott Momaday's book, "In the Bear's House," one evening, sitting on the back porch, and it gave me ideas of the convesation posts between a geezer and God in March. http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/03/geezer-and-god.html
• And there's the landmark "The River White" by Ken Hada of Ada and his brother Duane in Arkansas, reviewed here on the blog also. http://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2012/01/rhythm-of-water-review.html
• I'd have to rank "The River White" and Hillerman as the favorite reads so far, just because of my personal interests.
• I have to thank Jeanetta Calound Mish of Mongrel Empire Press who introduced me to many of these authors. http://www.mongrelempire.org 

"Fiction is more real..."

So wrote Tony Hillerman in his memoir Seldom Disappointed, which I recently finished, collecting a signed first addition on abe.com, to go with the collection I have of almost all his works set in my beloved New Mexico and Southwest
Hillerman's http://harpercollins.com/authors/4488/Tony_Hillerman/index.aspx
been dead more than 10 years now, and I'm not sure how I missed reading this, except it was prompted by two friends' recently published novels that got me out of my reading slump at the end of the year.
How many books do you read and think, "Joe (or whoever) needs to read this"?

Seldom Disappointed is that kind of book, except I know of three readers who will devour it. First section of the book, growing up in Depression Oklahoma, will captivate my father-in-law Jay Henry, who grew up not too far from Hillerman's home. The section on being an infantryman in WWII is perfect for my friend Jim Baker, retired UCO history prof and expert in WWII. Third section deals with Hillerman's life as a journalist, starting here in Oklahoma, mentioning people I know including Carter Bradley, Mary Goddard and Howard Wilson and others, lambasting higher education and more. I'm buying a copy for Ben Blackstock, and one for Baker. Jay can borrow my copy.  Fourth part is about his fiction writing. As a result, I've purchased his only novel I hadn't read, Finding Moon, about Vietnam, and he lavishes praise on it as a favorite.

Back to the fiction. You only have to read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath to know that. My Okie friends' novels, have so much reality in them they demand  your attention, more than just that they're largely set in Oklahoma and you can identify so closely with the landscapes.

I finished this week the works of two friends-- Kent Anderson's Cold Glory http://bkentanderson.com/books/cold-glory/and M. Scott Carter's Stealing Kevin's Heart. http://www.mscottcarter.com/ Kent grabs your attention as an Okie, with suspense and great detail about Oklahoma. I've got to get back to Fort Washita and see that Confederate cemetery. And his narrative of raising an autistic son is as powerful as his novel. Scott's book is tense--the kind that makes you want to not turn the page, but then have to. And how he gets inside a teenager's mind is astounding. His descriptions of Stillwater put you there. Both books can make you cry and laugh.

The other book, The Paris Correspondent, by Alan S. Cowell, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cowellshows the reality of past and present journalism--journalism when it was alive and full of characters, and today, amid corporate layoffs and cookie-cutter blandness. Shades of A Moveable Feast. Thanks to discovering this new author at Full Circle, I see he's written more such fiction, about journalism.

All of these books are the kind you want to underline passages in, because of the language craftsmanship and the healthy doses of reality. I restrained myself in Hillerman's book, since it is signed and first edition, and can't find the exact quote on reality in fiction, but if it's not exact, it is a paraphrase, and like fiction, a paraphrase of reality.

The gift of teaching...

I don't really like the ends of semesters, and can find them depressing, because, thought a time of success for those graduating, it's also a time of separation. Favorite students saying goodbye, wanting photos, introducing parents and husbands and wives.

My reward is not instantaneous like the byline all us journalists live for. Instead, you develop friendships and relationships built on respect, and then savor their success in later years, keeping in touch with  the memorable ones, and they with you.

I've been doing this so long now that I'm officially a geezer and curmudgeon, and I treasure having known these students.

And every once in a while, one of them brings a gift. Some are trinkets or cards or photos, objects of mutual respect.  That happened today, but it was no small item, as you may have known if you follow me on Facebook, but I can't help repeat it.

Here's what I wrote on Facebook:
"The rewards of teaching...I'm stunned. A veteran comes in today while I'm grading papers. His A is already posted. He works full time, and is married and has the passion and skills to be a journalist. He thanks me for the several classes he's had with me, for making him think, "Twisting his mind," he says. He knows from several references some of my favorite books. Then he reaches in his backpack, and pulls out this leather-bound book, new. "I may be a broke-ass student," he says, "but I found it on ebay. Look inside." I open it to the first page--collectors' edition of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, signed with a signed certificate of authenticity! Just Wow. And thanks more than I can say."


I added that I meant mint condition, copyright and dated 11/8/98 by Bradbury himself.

So take a look. I'm fortunate to be a teacher.

25 books for America?

In the bookstore the other day, I saw another of those books about books, listing 25 essentials for Americans. Basically they're good for irritating people: "Well, I would have chosen... instead."

I thumbed through it and knew most of them, but couldn't help and wonder why a few others were left out.

And for me, a fan of non-fiction, there was only one.  But anyway, chronologically, here's the ones on the list that I recognized, and you probably guessed most of them anyway:

1. The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
2. The Last of the Mohicans
3. The Scarlet Letter
4. Walden
5. Moby Dick
6. Leaves of Grass
7. Little Women
8. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
9. My Antonio--I'd have picked Death Comes for the Archbishop
10. The Great Gatsby
11. The Sun Also Rises--but what about the Old Man and The Sea?
12. The Grapes of Wrath
13. On The Road
14. The Cat in the Hat
15. To Kill a Mockingbird

Others recommended which I disagree with were North of Boston, The Weary Blues, USA, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Go Down, Moses, The Adventures of Angie Marsh, The Crying of Lot 49, Song of Solomon, Love Medicine.

 But I wonder, what about Catch 22?  Uncle Tom's Cabin? Gone with the Wind? A River Runs Through It? In Cold Blood? The Naked and the Dead? Look Homeward Angel? The Sound and The Fury or Absalom, Absalom? Fahrenheit 451? The Fountainhead? Blue Highways (non-fiction, thank you)?

Hey, I was an english major, but repented.

Of course, my favorite novel, Heart of Darkness, isn't on it because it's English.

Your suggestions?