Binnie Klein

Binnie Klein is a psychotherapist, writer, and radio host. Her 2010 book is Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind.

Recently I asked Klein about what she was reading. Her reply:

Nietzsche’s Angel Food Cake…And Other ‘Recipes’ For the Intellectually Famished by Rebecca Coffey (Beck and Branch Press, 2013)

Rebecca Coffey is a science journalist and humorist who sent me some audio versions of a few of the astounding “recipes” from her collection to play on my radio show at WPKN. From the very first recipe for Nietzsche’s Angel Food Cake, in which instructions include “Kill God. Set Him Aside” and “Ecstatically whip, as if possessed by a storm-wind of freedom, 1-1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar…” I was hooked. Coffey selects 22 cultural icons (among them Ernest Hemingway, Dorothy Parker, Anais Nin, Sigmund Freud, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck) and creates individual recipes for food based on their ideas and writings. From Ayn Rand’s “Head Cheese,” in which you must “stand naked at the edge of a granite cliff” as you assemble your ingredients, to Dante’s “Backyard Barbecue” – I laughed out loud, and was dazzled by Coffey’s brain. This is how school should be – bringing philosophy and literature to life through humor and subtle nuances of understanding. It’s not what you’d call a practical guide (don’t try to make Carl Jung’s “Epiphany Cakes,”) but this cookbook helps you think.

Care of Wooden Floors, a novel by Will Wiles (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012)

I became interested in this novel while researching ideas for a public radio show about our relationship to our homes, and contacted the author for an interview. He was British and polite. His book is also screamingly funny, odd, and written by this architecture and design journalist who has some definitive opinions on the cult of the precious in home design. Wiles’ protagonist agrees to housesit for the obsessive and perfectionistic Oskar. He goes into a perfect home in an anonymous Eastern European city and becomes a monster while caring for Oskar’s piano and cat and wooden floors. Wiles told me we live in a world full of difficult Oskars, but he has empathy for them. He understands why objects become indispensable to people, and in its descriptions of “unusual” feeling states as the narrator descends into madness, Care of Wooden Floors becomes a manual of philosophy and mysticism.

Visit Binnie Klein's WPKN webpage, and learn more about her book, Blows to the Head: How Boxing Changed My Mind.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Binnie Klein and Griffin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Molly Worthen

Molly Worthen is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill and is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Slate, Christianity Today, and other publications.

Worthen's new book is Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism.

Late last month I asked her about what she was reading. Worthen's reply:

I’ve just finished two marvelous and very different books. A few weeks ago, one of the many essays eulogizing the late philosopher Marshall Berman called his 1982 masterpiece, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, a “prose poem.” This description, even more than the rapturous reviews of Berman’s erudition and insight, prompted me to finally pick up this book. Berman’s thesis is that “ we have missed or broken the connection between our culture and our lives,” and “the modernisms of the past can give us back a sense of our own modern roots, roots that go back two hundred years.” The only way to escape from political and cultural despotism that leaves humans “pulverized by the dead hand of the future” is to recover the wisdom of the philosophers, novelists, and artists who first understood the perils that modern freedom and power entail. All That Is Solid had the same impact on me that I know it has had on a generation of readers. Berman persuaded me that to be a “modernist” is to attempt to find one’s bearings in the whirl, to try to become a subject, rather than a helpless object, of global capitalism’s relentless advance—and that Baudelaire and Dostoyevsky understood the citizens of the 21st-century better than we understand ourselves.

Berman tours the artistic minds of the 19th century in order to tell the story of the modern predicament and urge us to reconnect with fellow humans. Peter Trachtenberg makes this same essential point, but he tells his story through cats. Yes, cats. Another Insane Devotion: On the Love of Cats and Persons is a pet memoir. Trachtenberg elevates this genre to a high philosophical art. His accounts of feline adventures and antics are by turns hysterical and heartrending (the book follows his search for his beloved ginger tabby, Biscuit, who has gone missing), and will ring true to any cat owner. But fundamentally, this is not just a book about hairballs and whiskers. Trachtenberg is not interested in either mocking or indulging humans’ irrational commitment to our furry four-legged friends. Rather, he wants to get us to see the true meaning of that affection. These beasts with whom we share our lives (and our beds, and food off our plates—and nearly every private and personal space) hold up a mirror to the human animals who love them.

Learn more about Apostles of Reason at the Oxford University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jason Vanhee

Jason Vanhee lives in Seattle, Washington.

His new book, Engines of the Broken World, is his first novel.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Vanhee's reply:

I have eclectic tastes in books. That’s probably what everyone says. Recently I’ve been spending time re-reading the fantasy and science fiction I read when I was a younger person: Dune by Frank Herbert (still holds up pretty well, though I get it all confused with David Lynch’s movie now); Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings (would that I could be thirteen again and really love this; alas I’m not); Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock (cool and strange even now.) I tried but couldn’t manage to finish The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. Perhaps it’s that I’ve lost entirely the ability to absorb epic fantasy into my system, but the book was just too long, too tangled, too many characters.

Since I’m writing Young Adult I try to read some of that, of course. I picked up How To Say Goodbye In Robot by Natalie Standiford and loved the basic story (a girl and a boy become friends, the girl falls for the boy, he doesn’t fall back, sadness happens) while not liking some of the trappings (a call-in radio show was deployed far too much). I just read Stefan Bachmann’s The Peculiar and The Whatnot; they were more fun than I had expected, and darker than the covers let on, and he’s a charming and far too talented young writer who makes me seethe with only half-facetious jealousy.

I read a good amount of non-fiction. Just a bit ago I finished Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places by Bill Streever, which documents Arctic expeditions and hypothermia, winter storms and permafrost, and was fascinating. I imagine it makes a better summertime read than it would winter, but I highly recommend it year round. Also Abominable Science by Daniel Loxton & Donald Prothero, which looks into the history of cryptozoology (the “science” of hidden or undiscovered animals). I’m fascinated by cryptids, the mythical/imaginary/goofy monsters of the world: sasquatch and Nessie, yetis and moth men and all the rest. This book takes aim at several of the biggest and most popular and calmly debunks them by laying out their histories and explaining how King Kong or a prankster or wave patterns led people to believe in them. If it drags in a few places (one of the authors is far too obsessed with sea serpents) it’s still good reading.

I need to read more history, which is my most-loved serious study; I need to read more contemporary fiction, too. Donna Tartt has a new book (The Goldfinch) that is very much on my list, as her first book, The Secret History, is probably my favorite novel of all time. But there’s only so many hours in the day, and I never get as many books taken care of as I wish.

Visit Jason Vanhee's blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Engines of the Broken World.

My Book, The Movie: Engines of the Broken World.

--Marshal Zeringue

Diane Hammond

Diane Hammond is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Seeing Stars, Hannah's Dream, Going to Bend, and Homesick Creek. She served as a spokesperson for the Free Willy Keiko Foundation and the Oregon Coast Aquarium and currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her husband and their corgis.

Hammond new novel is Friday's Harbor.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the author about what she was reading. Hammond's reply:

Right now I’m reading Delia Ephron’s recently released book of autobiographical essays, Sister Mother Husband Dog: Etc. As an essayist she’s new to me, though I recognize her screenplays. Maybe I should say I’m sipping the book instead of reading, because I love it—not only the topics, but the words she chooses, and how she puts them together—so much that I’m double-reading sentences and doling out just one or two essays a day, so the book doesn’t end too quickly.

Six months or so ago, I found myself abandoning book after book within several pages. What the hell? I’ve always been a respectful reader, giving almost anyone at least 50 pages of my time; but now, no. I didn’t know what I was looking for until I found Cheryl Strayed’s collected Dear Sugar columns in Tiny Beautiful Things and was so excited I had to stop reading to pull myself together. Here was a clear, resonant, eloquent voice I wanted to last forever. And now, Delia Ephron.

I count myself lucky to have found them both.

Learn more about the book and author at Diane Hammond's website and follow her on Facebook.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Diane Hammond & Petey and Haagen.

The Page 69 Test: Friday's Harbor.

My Book, The Movie: Friday's Harbor.

--Marshal Zeringue

J.J. Carney

J.J. Carney is Assistant Professor of Theology at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska. His research and teaching interests engage the theological and historical dimensions of the Catholic experience in modern Africa. He has published articles in African Ecclesial Review, Modern Theology, Journal of Religion in Africa, and Studies in World Christianity. His new book is Rwanda Before the Genocide: Catholic Politics and Ethnic Discourse in the Late Colonial Era.

Last month I asked Carney about what he was reading. His reply:

Although my specialization lies in modern African Christianity, I like to read broadly within the fields of history, philosophy and theology. Recently I've been tackling Charles Taylor's massive 800-page tome A Secular Age (Cambridge: Harvard Belknap, 2007). The book grew out of the prestigious "Gifford Lectures" that Taylor delivered at the University of Edinburgh. What intrigues me about Taylor's argument is that he shifts the conversation away from the culture war argument over whether or not Western secularism is a good thing. Rather, he examines how we ended up in a world in which a broadly secular outlook is the social and cultural norm. The historical, religious and philosophical breadth of Taylor's work is truly magisterial; one can see why he won the Templeton Prize for this work. I recommend it most highly, but don't be in a hurry…this is a work to ponder and chew over.

Keeping up the secularism and religion theme, I've also been reading William T. Cavanaugh's The Myth of Religious Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). Cavanaugh's book should be required reading for students of religion and politics and/or political theology. Through careful theoretical work in the field of religious studies and detailed historical work on the 17th-century "Wars of Religion," Cavanaugh utterly deconstructs one of the founding myths of our Western "secular age" - namely that the modern nation-state rescues us from irrational religious violence. I appreciate how Cavanaugh doesn't "excuse" religious actors from involvement in violence. Rather, he challenges other scholars to be more honest about the difficulties of defining "religion" and "religious violence," and he conclusively shows how the so-called "Wars of Religion" were in fact the birthpangs of the emergence of the modern nation-state. I found Cavanaugh's work to be resonant with my own studies on the manipulation of ethnic identities by political actors in colonial and post-colonial Rwanda…

Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) has also been a frequent read in recent months. I picked this up because I have a longstanding fascination with American history, and I also like to learn from excellent historical writers. Howe's Pulitzer winner has not disappointed. It combines erudition with lucidity and accessibility, a rare threefold combination. Like Taylor's work, What Hath God Wrought is a massive, 800-page tome. But it reads quickly, and Howe really helps me to see how many of the issues we struggle with in contemporary America – especially the relationship between individual freedom and government expansion – date from the Jacksonian period. Speaking of Jackson, the second founder of the Democratic Party does not come off well in this text. I was particularly struck by the extent to which white supremacy underlay the Jacksonian Democratic Party, especially in regards to slave policy and Native American deportation. If I were considering seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, I would have trouble reading this text and then speaking at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Iowa (ironically this was perhaps Barack Obama's most important speech of his early presidential campaign). Howe's work on religion in early 19th-century America is also fascinating. I especially appreciate the complexity of his argument, highlighting for example the prominence of Evangelical Christians in the anti-slavery movement and the Cherokee land defense movement. Howe is a wonderful historical writer; an often overshadowed period of American history comes alive thanks to his pen.

I would also recommend Thomas M. Kelly's When the Gospel Grows Feet: An Ecclesiology in Context (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2013). Kelly's work is the first serious study of the Jesuit priest who had perhaps the greatest influence on a far better-known Salvadoran leader, Archbishop Oscar Romero. The strength of the book lays in its detailed analysis of Rutilio's on-the-ground ministry - and how his actual grassroots encounters with Salvadoran peasants fundamentally reshaped his vision of church and evangelization. The end-of–chapter questions lend themselves to a study group format.

Finally, I've been reading through an oldy-but-goody in African studies, Jean-Francois Bayart's The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly. 2nd Edition. (Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 2009). Bayart's work is cited more than its read, but its encyclopedic analysis of postcolonial African politics is worthy of a detailed look. The 2009 edition's revised preface is a remarkable work of its own. I especially appreciate Bayart's reflections on extraversion or African elites' struggles over international relationships…this is a theme that has emerged often in my own studies of modern African Christianity.

Read more about J.J. Carney's Rwanda Before the Genocide at the Oxford University Press website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ronald H. Balson

Once We Were Brothers is Ronald H. Balson’s first novel. When he’s not writing books, Balson is a trial attorney in Chicago, where he has practiced for the last 40 years. Additionally, he taught business law at the University of Chicago for twenty-five of those years.  Once We Were Brothers was initially self-published, but after selling 100,000 copies, the novel was acquired by St. Martin’s Press, which reissued the book last month.

Recently I asked Balson about what he was reading. His reply:

I just finished an extraordinary non-fiction account of the history of Jerusalem. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s national bestseller, Jerusalem, the Biography, has everything you’d ever want to know about Jerusalem, its people, its religions, its culture and its influence upon the rest of the world. Beautifully written, not the least bit dry, Jerusalem is chock full of interesting anecdotes about the region’s founders, builders, movers and shakers.

Jerusalem is 650 annotated pages, so it might take you a while. But it’s well worth it, even if you can’t remember one Caliph from another. Montefiore conveys a three thousand year timeline in such a captivating fashion that you come away with an appreciation for the land, the competing philosophies and the people who struggle to call it their home. My second novel, the sequel to Once We Were Brothers, concerns a terrorist plot and takes place in Israel. Jerusalem was a valuable resource for me.

WARNING! As a troubling sidelight, I find myself repeating quotes from Jerusalem in ordinary conversation. It can make you seem a little strange. For example, when discussing the U.S. dilemma with Syria the other night at a dinner party, I mentioned that Herod Agrippa said, “War, if it once begun, is not easily laid down.” My friends responded, “Really, Ron? Herod Agrippa?” Well, it made sense to me. There’s a lot of meat and potatoes in Montefiore’s book.

Once We Were Brothers is a novel of a family’s struggle through the Nazi occupation of a small town in Poland so I’m drawn to World War II books. I recently finished Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay’s sensitive, intimate account of the investigation of Vel d’Hiv, the Nazi round-up of Paris Jews in 1942, also published by St. Martin’s Press. I admire deRosnay’s skill in deftly building Julia’s emotional obsession, and the changes it wrought upon her life.

Visit the official Once We Were Brothers website and Ronald H. Balson's Facebook page. 

My Book, The Movie: Once We Were Brothers.

The Page 69 Test: Once We Were Brothers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mike Maden

Mike Maden's lifelong fascination with history and politics ultimately led to a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Davis, focusing on the areas of conflict, technology and international relations. After brief stints as a campus lecturer, political consultant and media commentator, Maden turned to studies in theology and a decade of work with a Dallas-based non-profit where he eventually discovered screenwriting.

Drone, the first book in Maden's new thriller series, is the result of a challenge by two published friends to try his hand at novel writing.

Last month I asked Maden about what he was reading. His reply:

I write in the techno-thriller genre and I enjoy it immensely because that is the world we live in but I enjoy reading outside of my genre. I recently finished Alan Furst’s Mission to Paris. Anyone familiar with Mr. Furst’s writing know that he comfortably inhabits the world of espionage immediately proceeding and during the years of World War II. I read Furst because he writes about the occasionally violent “cloak-and-dagger” universe with an effortless, literary grace seldom found in this kind of writing. Of course, I’m swept up in the intrigues and dangers of his plot, but he also transports me to a bygone world I can never visit and yet which now, thanks to him, seems hauntingly familiar. No doubt, that’s partly due to his brilliant choice of subject matter. We all think we know something about World War II and when we hear the word “Nazi” we know immediately who the bad guys are so all of his material is, in fact, vaguely familiar. But Mr. Furst brings an imaginary specificity to that world that is endlessly satisfying.

What I particularly enjoyed about Mission to Paris is that the protagonist is an American actor working on a film in Europe who is asked to take on the role of a casual spy. That alone is intriguing enough. But we soon discover that the American actor was originally born in Europe, emigrated to the United States, then was cast in a film to be shot in Europe which is when he is recruited by the American embassy to spy on the Germans around him in France. That’s really quite a playful but also a thoughtful construction: What does citizenship actually mean? Where do loyalties lay? What are my responsibilities to my government as opposed to my own safety and well-being? Mission to Paris was a great read and dovetailed nicely with the same subjects I wrestle with in my own series but Mr. Furst stands head and shoulders above most of us laboring in this particular vineyard when it comes to sheer literary skill.

I also just picked up a copy of Mark Levin’s The Liberty Amendments and am only half way through it. It’s a non-fiction work that rocketed to bestseller status and has remained there for some time which is rather surprising given its subject matter and dense prose. It’s easy to imagine that his status as a national radio host helps explain his success in getting on the bestseller list but it wouldn’t have remained there if the content didn’t pass muster—but it does. Levin offers a specific agenda: return political power to the people by stripping it away from our ruling oligarchs through a series of constitutional amendments. Strange as it may sound, this is a wonderfully non-partisan appeal. Any Democrat or Republican who argues for the status quo can only be a sitting member of Congress or a K Street lobbyist, and the changes proposed would only threaten those who most benefit from the current system and its gross inequities.

The reason I picked up Levin’s book in the first place is that my novel Drone and the sequel I’m currently working on both touch on the issue of political leadership—and the lack thereof. Thanks to the dismal failure of both parties in power, more and more Americans finds themselves still in love with their country but “mad as hell” at their ineffectual government which is the emotional place where we first meet my series protagonist, Troy Pearce.

I write fiction because fiction is “true” in the best sense—serious fiction always comes out of a true place in the writer and says something true about the world we live in. Levin’s non-fiction book reads like a constitutional law lecture. If you like that sort of thing (as I do), then you’re in tall cotton. It’s definitely worth the read because it’s a serious book that attempts to provide thoughtful solutions to the problems that endanger our republic. If you’re “mad as hell” and can’t take it anymore but don’t live in a bunker (and have no intention of doing so) Levin gives you plenty to think about even if you don’t fully agree with him.

Read more about Drone, and follow Mike Maden on Facebook and Twitter.

My Book, The Movie: Drone by Mike Maden.

The Page 69 Test: Drone.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Klara

Robert Klara is the author of the critically acclaimed 2010 book FDR's Funeral Train, which historian and author Douglas Brinkley called “a major new contribution to U.S. history.” Klara has been a staff editor for several magazines including Adweek, Town & Country and Architecture. His freelance work has appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, American Heritage, and The Christian Science Monitor, among other publications.

His new book is The Hidden White House: Harry Truman and the Reconstruction of America's Most Famous Residence.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the author about what he was reading. Klara's reply:

Before I finished The Hidden White House, I tried to count the number of books I’d consulted about the famed mansion and gave up somewhere around 150. Having digested about as much as anyone can stand about that fine old pile on Pennsylvania Avenue, I’m happy to report that my leisure-reading list has nothing to do with the White House or Washington, D.C. A few of my favorites from the last few months:

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (Viking, 2013) is one of those rare books about a sport that actually appeals to readers who don’t much care about sports at all. Taking advantage of a rare and fleeting chance to interview an ailing Joe Rantz, lone surviving member of the American crew team to take gold in the 1936 Olympics, Brown conjures Great Depression-era Seattle, where eight very poor and very remarkable young men managed to become the greatest crew team in American history. Brown’s writing is rich in anecdote and his treatment of prewar Berlin is chilling. Best of all, he conjures the spiritual, almost transcendent, quality of rowing in open water.

City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center by James Glanz and Eric Lipton (Times Books, 2003) is a work I had to wait 10 years before I could read. I’m a New Yorker: I not only stood on lower Broadway and watched the towers fall on 9/11, I lost someone I loved in one of them. Any authors who take on the subject of these buildings, then, had better do a superlative job on the topic (to keep these eyeballs, at least), while also sparing the reader from excessive emotionality and flag-waving. Glanz and Lipton have done it in spades with this engrossing, comprehensive look at the physical rise and symbolic import of these bombastic but momentous buildings, electing (refreshingly) to focus on the long history that preceded that September day, which goes a long way to explaining why the towers stood, and ultimately why they didn’t.

When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and Its Deadly Wake by Brian Hicks (2006) is a book I picked up from a used-book shop because, for whatever reason, I’m an unapologetic sucker for Naval-disaster stories. The S.S. Morro Castle—a Ward Line “Whoopie Cruise” liner that plied the gin-soaked route from New York to Havana at the height of prohibition—is a paragon of doomed ships: It caught fire in the open sea in the predawn hours of 1934, burning so thoroughly that passengers jumped overboard (134 of them would die) while the ship’s blackened, smoldering hull beached itself astride the Asbury Park Convention Hall. There a number of books about the Morro Castle out there, and in varying degrees they all grapple with the fact that the fire’s cause was never determined. But Hicks has written what I—and many—consider the definitive account by locating and interviewing the last living survivor (a teenage purser from the crew) and pouring over a mountain of FBI and other investigative documents. This is historical investigation at its best—and narrative storytelling at is most affecting. Hick’s prose is vivid, engrossing, and rich as the plush carpets in the first-class lounge.

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas (Penguin, 2008) is a book I nearly didn’t read because, as a reporter for Adweek, I write about luxury brands all day. But I couldn’t be happier that I gave this book my time, because Thomas—a seasoned reporter from the old school—deconstructs and explains a curious phenomenon that few consumers consider: How “luxury” goods can possibly be considered as such when they are, almost without exception, marketed to mass audiences and made in Third-World factories. As it turns out, owning a luxury item (usually a handbag) has far more to do with shoppers engaging in a willful game of self-deception, convincing themselves that they are leading glamorous lives by virtue of owning a tiny piece of the glamorous world constructed by marketers and fashion magazines. How else can you explain the bizarre dichotomy of grocery-store cashiers spritzing on Vera Wang Princess in the morning? Orwell wrote that the drug Soma would lull the masses into accepting their disenfranchised lives; obviously, he never felt the rush of buying a fake Louis Vuitton bag.

Visit Robert Klara's website and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: The Hidden White House.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sandra Dallas

Award-winning author Sandra Dallas was dubbed “a quintessential American voice” by Jane Smiley, in Vogue. She is the author of The Bride’s House, Whiter Than Snow, Prayers for Sale and Tallgrass, among others. Her novels have been translated into a dozen languages and optioned for films. She is a three-time recipient of the Women Writing the West Willa Award and a two-time winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award.

Her new novel is Fallen Women.

A couple of weeks ago I asked Dallas about what she was reading. Her reply:

I’m half-way through Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard, the story of the murder of President James Garfield by the madman Charles Guiteau. It’s my husband’s book, and I picked it up by default. My sister said once that hell for us is being someplace without a book. Since there was nothing else in the house to take with me on a trip, I chose this book. Besides, I’d heard that Guiteau’s former wife had a Colorado connection and was curious about that. Destiny of the Republic is a superb history/biography of Garfield and of the delusional Guiteau, who thought he’d be hailed as a hero for ridding the country of the President. I knew as much about Garfield as I did about Millard Fillmore and was surprised to learn that Garfield was a brilliant but modest man who tried to rid the republic of the spoils system. I can only wonder what America would be like if he had lived.

Visit Sandra Dallas's website and follow her on Facebook.

Writers Read: Sandra Dallas (May 2011).

--Marshal Zeringue

Trudy Ludwig

Trudy Ludwig is an award-winning author who specializes in writing children's books that explore the colorful and sometimes confusing world of children's social interactions. She has received rave reviews nationwide from educators, experts, organizations, and parents for her passion and compassion in addressing relational aggression – the use of relationships to manipulate and hurt others. Ludwig wrote her first book, My Secret Bully, after her own daughter was bullied by some friends. Since then, she has become a sought-after speaker, presenting at schools and conferences around the country and educating students, parents, and teachers on the topic.

Ludwig's latest book is The Invisible Boy.

Earlier this month I asked the author about what she was reading. Ludwig's reply:

I thought I’d start off by letting you know what I’ve recently read: Rosalind Wiseman’s Masterminds & Wingmen: Helping Your Son Cope with Schoolyard Power, Locker-Room Test, Girlfriends, and the New Rules of Boy World. As a mother of a 15-year-oId son, I found Wiseman’s advice both practical and helpful. In her book, Wiseman shares the opinions and viewpoints of boys in upper elementary, middle school, and high school with whom she has collaborated to help readers recognize, appreciate, and understand the challenges boys face in their offline and online social world. It also challenges adults with respect to how our own assumptions and emotional baggage can build up or break down our relationships with boys.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Paperboy, Vince Vawter’s debut novel set in the segregated South in 1959. It’s a powerful coming-of-age story about an 11-year-old boy with a debilitating stutter who discovers new friendships and faces danger when he temporarily takes over his best friend’s paper route for the month of July. I loved the protagonist’s voice in this book! Vawter also did an amazing job putting the reader in the heart and mind of the stuttering boy. It really is a beautiful story that drew me in from page one.

Right now, I’m reading Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. I’m intrigued by this book because I consider myself to be an introvert, even though I’m publicly out there in the world, presenting at schools and conferences. This is the kind of book that I like to savor, one chapter at a time, so I can really take in what Cain has to share about how our extrovert-focused society undervalues and underappreciates introverts and why it’s important for introverts to embrace who we are in order to do what we need to do.

Also on my nightstand is Whistle in the Dark, by Susan Hill Long. It’s a middle grade novel set in the 1920’s about a boy named Clem who, at the age of thirteen, has to leave school and join his father and brother in the lead mines of the Ozarks. I’m now about one-third of the way into the story and love it! Long has the knack of transporting me to a bygone era and the harsh realities of a child lead miner. A few weeks ago, I went to hear the author speak about her novel at a local bookstore, and I was so intrigued by why she wrote it. Long got the idea for her story when she heard Garrison Keillor talk on NPR about a group of mine workers who were working deep underground, unaware of the fact that their town was being completely destroyed by the great Tri-State Tornado of 1925! What a great premise for a story, don’t you think?

Next up on my nightstand to read are The Second Life of Abigail Walker and The One and Only Ivan.

Visit Trudy Ludwig's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Trudy Ludwig and Hannah.

--Marshal Zeringue