Now read on for another great guest post. This time Kerry Dexter of Music Road finds an album that mixes Literature and Music.

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John McCutcheon

Destination: Everywhere

Music: John McCutcheon’s album Mightier Than the Sword (Appalsongs Records)

A GUEST POST by Kerry Dexter

John McCutcheon a musician who has written songs for children and adults,  has released more than thirty albums, and  is respected as a teacher and player on hammered dulcimer, banjo, and many other instruments.

McCutcheon is also a reader. One afternoon while on tour with his music he was browsing in a bookstore and came across Barbara Kingsolver’s book Small Wonders. Reading one of her essays, he heard the words of a song. The idea for the album Mightier Than the Sword was born.

Across fourteen tracks on the album McCutcheon collaborates, in varied ways, with writers ranging from Kingsolver to Pablo Neruda to Rita Dove. McCutcheon’s  hand is distinct in the songs — this isn’t setting prose or poetry to music — and so is the voice of the author with whom he works. If you’re familiar with Lee Smith’s southern novels, Neruda’s vivid images in poetry, or Kingsolver’s forthright essays, you’ll have no trouble figuring out which songs come from whose work without referring to the liner notes. In some cases songs were simply inspired by McCutcheon’s reading; in some cases he collaborated with living authors; and in others he drew from the works of those who have passed on.

Though some songs work better than others, one commonality they share is McCutcheon’s respect for story. With that, he’s able to translate the ideas in these diverse written works into the spare and poetic forms required by song. Sail Away, for example, was inspired by Carmen Agra Deedy’s story The Yellow Star, about Denmark during World War II. McCutcheon sings, in a section connecting verses about a couple separated by the conflict

I number the stars
In the heavens each night
Across these seas that divide us
We are guided by their light

In the liner notes, McCutcheon offers lyrics and often, a bit of back story about how each song came to be. There’s also a section with short biographies of the authors, who in addition to Kingsolver, Smith, Dove, Deedy, and Neruda, include Wendell Berry, Woody Guthrie, and Sister Helen Prejean.

Album Cover

Listen to and buy the songs at Indie music DigStation.

The photo above is from McCutcheon’s web site and the album cover comes from DigStation.

Leave it to Kerry to find an album that fits so well in the Traveler’s Library. I love to see the arts mix and mingle like this. Thanks, Kerry, for this lovely find. Kerry is our partner in the Great American Road Trip, and each Wednesday you can click over to Music Road for her suggestions to accompany our road trip stops in individual states.

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Destination: Michigan, with Kids

Books:
Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco
and Weird Michigan by Linda S. Godfrey

A GUEST POST By Kristen J. Gough

One of the girls at Sleeping Bear National Sand Dunes seashore. Kristen says, "big surprise for me, Michigan's beaches are fabulous."

My youngest insists on nightly story time. My older two girls somehow outgrew this ritual about the time they entered 1^st grade—they wanted to read on their own, “No helping, mom!” But not my youngest. She’s content snuggling up next to me and listening each night. No complaints here.

But tonight something interesting happened. As I started to read Patricia Polacco’s Thank you, Mr. Falker, my older two girls wandered in, taking places at either end of the bed; they didn’t even ask to look at the pictures. That’s too bad because Polacco both writes and illustrates her stories, so she knows how to portray the title character, Trisha’s, loneliness  as she moves across the country, from Michigan to California, in third grade. The words are almost secondary to her close-up images of Trisha’s face, lined with frustration. Almost.

Grandpa putting honey on a book.

In the story, Polacco tells of a family’s love of learning, reading. Trisha’s grandfather has her lick honey he’s pooled on a book, explaining, “Knowledge is like the bee that made that sweet honey, you have to chase it through the pages of a book!”

But Trisha finds reading eludes her—the letters turn fuzzy and upside down as she concentrates. And when she moves her new classmates quickly pick up on her difficulty and make fun of her—until a new teacher arrives at the school, Mr. Falker. You can guess what happens, Mr. Falker discovers Trisha’s dyslexia, which she has been covering by memorizing texts, and impressing her classmates with her drawings. Yet the story never feels predictable. Even when you begin to guess that Trisha is really Polacco. Mr. Falker was a real-life Mr. Felker, who chanced to meet Polacco years later. When he asked about what she did, her answer, “Why, Mr. Felker, I make books for children…Thank you, Mr. Felker. Thank you.” I had to drop my voice an octave to get through the last part without breaking up.

Kristen with two of her girls at a cooking class as Zingerman's Bakehouse in Ann Arbor, which is THE bakery in MI

My children were rapt. We left Michigan too soon and like Trisha, they had a tough time adjusting to new schools. Many of Polacco’s stories draw from childhood experiences growing up on a farm in Union City, Michigan.

For a less nostalgic look at the state, dive into the strange sites and tales listed in Weird Michigan. While reading, I found myself repeating over and over again, “We’ve got to go see this.” Who knew that Michigan has had numerous legendary Dog Man sightings? Bigfoot beware. Curious about how Hell, Michigan, got it’s name? It’s in there. Houdini? He met his death in Detroit. One- to two-page tidbits reveal everything you wanted to know—and everything you didn’t know you wanted to know—about the state. Perfect to read in the car with your kids as you’re venturing across the state (just skip the chapters on Haunted Michigan and The Cemetery Safari).

Kristen Gough

Living with her crew of three explorers (aka daughters), Kristen J. Gough is always up for an adventure. Usually it involves something in the kitchen. You can read more about her family’s forays in food at MyKidsEatSquid.com. She has also written for a variety of publications including Parenting, Parents, KIWI, Relish, MetroParent, Big Apple Parent, BabyZone.com and others.

The illustration is taken from Ms. Polloco’s Web Site (clicking on the picture will take you there.  The other photos are the property of Kristen Gough–all rights reserved.

Thanks Kristen, for sharing your families experiences and these cool books on Michigan.  We’ve talked about Michigan here at A Traveler’s Library with Hemingway, a mystery writer, the Great Lakes, the Sunset Coast, and Hiawatha. And BE SURE to check out music for Michigan at Music Road, where Kerry Dexter provides a sound track for the Road Trip each week.

Have you found a good book to introduce a state to children? Tell us about it. And if you like Kristen’s great children’s book finds, please click on one of the sharing options below and tell Stumble Upon or your Twitter Friends to take a look. Remember your comments here get you an entry in the Bella Italia Giveaway.

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Eiffel Tower at Night

TRAVEL TUESDAY

PLANNING

TRIP IT .I have kept all the complexities of this trip entered in this free program, which is overwhelming in its completeness. Day by day, it keeps track of reservations, contacts, and even turn by turn directions and maps for each locale, not to mention how much we’re spending (YIKES!). I used some  software for years and years, but the developer did not keep it up to date. It had a good budget feature which Trip It lacks, but did not have the maps that Trip helps with.

PLANES,TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

American Airlines gave me one more reason to never want to fly them again when they forgot to give me a seat assignment when I booked last April.  Shame on me for not checking until it was too late for Ken and I to get the seats we wanted. HE had what the agent said, but somehow, I had NOTHING! And even though it is their fault, they will do nothing to help me. So I get middle seats. Whoopee!

GEMUT Car rental.  These guys are in Seattle and are consolidators for rental cars. You simply cannot beat their prices and their service. Get a quote by e-mail, talk to a live person on the phone, change your plans a dozen times. They’re cool. (Don’t worry about the fact the specialize in the Germanic countries–we’ve used them in Italy and now France.) I also ordered a GPS for the car–and maybe for walking in Paris?

SNCF Letters I came to dread.  That’s the French train site–all in French. But if you have to use it, click on over to Seat 61, a site that de-mystifies the system (as much as possible.) Trains are no longer the bargain they once were, but Seat 61 has lots of tips to keep the price minimal–and how to cope with a French-language site if you don’t speak French.

BOOKS

Normandie Impressionniste. The Normandy Tourism Office sent this beautiful soft cover book which is part of their press package. The Impressionist paintings and artists are being featured throughout Normandy this summer, and some of the programs last through September, so we will be following their trail.

Le Guide du Routard 2010, Impressionist Normandy. This one is available for purchase. The Routard books are nifty little guides complete with dining and accommodation recommendations, and a rather basic map. This one has twelve suggested itineraries for following the footsteps of the likes of Monet. The lively web site is in French only, alas.

Claude Monet 1840-1926. This is an illustrated guide to a Monet exhibit mounted by The Art Institute of Chicago in 1995. I have seen the magnificent Monet collection in Chicago, and Ken and I drove up to Phoenix to see this traveling exhibit. I’m looking forward to Giverny, and also places where he painted like Honfleurs and Rouen.

MOVIES

We watched Something’s Gotta Give, out of curiosity about the restaurant where Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton ate dinner, but not much of the movie is in Paris.

I liked the DVD of the History Channel program on the French Revolution. Very helpful. Don’t want to be one of those tourists who doesn’t know that the Bastille is not there–because it was torn apart brick by brick.

This news from The Scotsman, was passed on to us by Kerry Dexter because of our prior discussion about the movie Amelie. If you are an Amelie fan, this will strike a chord.

“The delegation from Dundee University was on a field trip to Europe’s highest mountain last month when an undergraduate chanced upon a bundle of letters …”

“The elusive lost correspondence formed a vital plot device in the classic 2001 French film, Amelie, when Audrey Tautou’s character is inspired to create a fictional letter – from a lover who had died in the Malabar Princess crash – for a lonely female concierge after hearing about mountaineers finding similar letters and sending them on to their destinations.”

“While the summer thaws have revealed numerous artifacts from the aircraft’s wreckage over the years, the find by the team from Dundee is the most emotive yet. It was discovered around 2,500 metres from the crash site after it had been carried down the mountain by a flowing glacier in the last 60 years.

Accommodations

You’ll hear more about places we stay later on, but thanks to the wonderful Marie at France Made Easy, to the Tourism office of Bayeux, Flanders Tourism and a Small Luxury Hotel of the World, and to the Relais and Chateaux Group we are going to try out some pretty nifty places. Marie in particular has a knack for knowing just what I’m going to want to do, and she has an endless knowledge of the right people to contact and places to see in France. Check out France Made Easy.

Other STUFF

I bought a Netbook (ASUS Eee), so I will keep semi-in touch while I’m gone. But don’t expect me to be hanging out on Twitter all the time, or even dropping by here very frequently.  After all, I’m in France to see France.

LATEST NEWS:  I’ll be testing out a MI-FI wifi portable connection.

I’m signing up for the new Google Voice phone service. My son has tested it out for me and it seems to work great. It will supplement the Mobal phone I’ve used for several years.

I still need to buy a museum pass, book one night’s hotel, and train tickets from Bruges to Amsterdam. Oh, yeah–and pack. Anything else?? Questions? Suggestions?

And would somebody please ensure that TSA do a better job of keep people with box cutters off of planes! We’re not flying Chicago to Amsterdam–but darn, that’s scary. Not to mention the hurricane going up the coast on the day we fly out. Floods, volcanoes, locusts, anyone?

(You can see the other Trip Planning Posts, by going to Trip Planning III and working your way back).

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Italian Flag

We have a GREAT Bella Italia Giveaway coming up.  All you have to do is comment starting today and all during the month of September, and when I return from France I will round up your comments, run them through random.org and declare 8 winners. It will be particularly fun for you because I will have guest bloggers throughout the month and you will meet a lot of new voices.( The posts during the month will not ALL be about Italy–that might be just too much of a good thing.)

Rules:

• Comment on any post at A Traveler’s Library, and comment several times a day if you like, but only one comment PER POST will count. If you mention the prize you prefer, I’ll try to comply.
• Tweet about a post using @pen4hire in the Tweet, and you will get another entry.
• Contest starts one minute after midnight (MST/Arizona–meaning same as Pacific Daylight Time) on August 30 and ending at midnight (MST/Arizona) on September 30).
• Must have U.S. mailing address. Please see general contest rules.

SEVEN Prizes:

From Travelers Tales:

• 100 Places Ever Woman Should Go by Susan Van Allen
  
• Travelers’ Tales  Italy: True Stories of Life on the Road
• Travelers’ Tales Tuscany: True Stories
• 30 Days in  Italy: True Stories of Escape to the Good Life

From Palgrave MacMillan:

• Old Calabria by Norman Douglas (like new)
• The Last Judgment: Michelangelo and the Death of the Renaissance by James A. Connor, a brand NEW paperback edition of the 2009 book. (Two copies to give away)

****From Kathy McCabe, Dream of Italy:*****

• A full year’s membership in the online newsletter of Dream  of Italy packed with practical information and fun articles about Italy. Worth $79.00.  Thatsa Nice!

Be sure to Subscribe to A Travelers’ Library by Email, so that you can comment or tweet every day in September  to increase your chances of winning one of the fantastic Italy prizes.

Anyhow, you won’t want to miss the guessing game of who’s going to turn up next to write a post!

Now read on,  for a review of one of the prizes, The Last Judgment.

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The Last Judgment

Destination: Rome, Italy

Book: The Last Judgment: Michelangelo and the Death of the Renaissance by James A. Connor (NEW Paperback Edition August, 2010 from Palgrave MacMillan)

Like Michelangelo and The Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King, this book concentrates on one major work of the maestro. Unlike King’s book, The Last Judgment by James A. (Jim) Connor delves more deeply into the religious philosophy of Michelangelo and his time than into the personal life of the painter.

A former Jesuit priest who is now a professor of religion, Connor has written previous books about Kepler and about Galileo that emphasize the theology of the day and its impact on these famous men.

For the book on Michelangelo, he was inspired by the fresco of The Last Judgment on the wall above the altar in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel in Rome. Painted after the famous ceiling of the chapel, the Last Judgment, in Connor’s view, reflects Michelangelo’s growing awareness of his own mortality and concerns about his own sins. He portrays Michelangelo as a deeply religious man, influenced by the conservative reformer Savonarola, by the ungodliness of many of the Popes who commissioned work by Michelangelo, and by the Catholic Reformation that was gaining traction in the mid 15th century.

While the discussion of theology sometimes went over my head, Connor does present the ideas of the day through real people, making it more interesting than a pure theological discussion. I  enjoyed being introduced to many of the painter’s close friends–and enemies–through references to biographies written shortly after he died, letters and transcripts of conversations.

Sistine Chapel

As for the subtitle of the book, it really deals more with the Catholic Reformation than with the “death of the Renaissance” in my understanding of that term. Connor does present some arguments based in the stylistic changes apparent  between the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment.

Connor makes much of the fact that Christ is centered in the picture with major Christian characters revolving around him, rather than the way that the Renaissance tended to picture the hierarchy of God- Christ and Mary-the Apostles and Saints-good people-bad people. The author believes that this arrangement in the Last Judgment reflects Michelangelo’s knowledge of Copernicus and an early portrayal of the earth revolving around the sun.

Apparently that choice was not noticed, or at least did not raise the controversy that erupted over all of the figures, including Christ, being naked. Later Popes had drapes of clothing applied, totally missing Michelangelo’s point that on judgment day, clothing was no longer needed and the nudity presented a way to differentiate between the substantive body of a living being and the soul of the dead.

The book has a tendency to skip around in time, so I found myself flipping back to get oriented. The muddy black and white pictures in the book do not allow the reader to grasp the differences in overall color choices and the chaos of this painting as compared to the Ceiling.  I guess you just have to buy a ticket to Rome. But wait! The Internet to the rescue. See many very good images at Italian Renaissance Art.

I have complained here before about missing the Sistine Chapel on our trip to Rome. Now when I DO get there, I certainly will be more inclined to pay attention to the Last Judgment fresco, as well as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  I like to read about the history of a piece of art. Do you?  Are books about art part of your travel library?

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©2010 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Book Cover and Inside Page

Destination: Cruises

Book: First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World (2009) by Gerard Piouffre

A GUEST POST by DONNA L. HULL

Sailing the Seas in First Class

If you think today’s mega-ships represent the zenith in cruising accomplishments, don’t be so sure. A look back in time will introduce you to ocean liners, exotic routes and luxury that rivals anything on today’s seas.

First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World, published by Vendome Press , does just that. The elegant book documents luxury cruising history through photographs, sketches and first-hand accounts of six famous sea routes and the ships that sailed them.
Author Gerard Piouffre sets the opulent scene with descriptions of drawing rooms, formal attire and a behavioral code that would send today’s casually dressed cruisers overboard in relief. A sepia-toned photograph of two women walking arm in arm on the deck, wearing long morning dresses topped off with extravagant hats, proves the point.

Filled with historical detail, recalls the earliest days of cruising as steam-powered ships replaced sailing vessels, eventually making traveling the seas appealing to the well-heeled traveler. Imagine sailing on the Cunard Line’s Mauritania as she races across the Atlantic to win the Blue Riband, an award for the First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World fastest Atlantic crossing by a passenger vessel.

Although the stories and historical minutiae are fascinating, it’s the photographs that capture my imagination. Viewing black and white snapshots of women lounging on the deck in 1940′s bathing attire or couples dancing to an officer playing an accordion, I feel as if I’m browsing through a well-preserved family album. Copies of menus, ship programs, luggage tags and cruise tickets add the ultimate personal touch.

Hurtegruten

If you’re a cruise fan or a history buff, reading about the Routes of Ice and Gold (the beginnings of the Hurtigruten Coastal Express and Alaska cruises) or the long journey through the Suez Canal to the Far East will have you picking up the phone to talk to your travel agent about your own sea exploration. Just don’t expect to bring 12 pieces of luggage or be greeted with a crowd throwing streamers in the air as the ship leaves the dock. That, my cruising friends, was another era that’s only available to you in First Class: Legendary Ocean Liner Voyages Around the World.

Donna L. Hull

Tucson-based writer, Donna L. Hull, has accumulated over 200 days on cruise ships. Her popular blog, My Itchy Travel Feet, The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Travel, explores the world of active travel for baby boomers. I knew that Donna was the perfect person to compare these bygone cruises with today’s cruises. Thanks so much, Donna.

The photo on the right is from Wiki Photos. The book was donated by Vendome for a review.

Are you a cruise afficiando? Do you yearn for the old 14-suitcase days with confetti send offs? Tell Donna all about your experience, or ask her opinions if you’re a novice cruiser. And if you liked this post, please share with friends by clicking on one of the buttons below.

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GIVEAWAY at My Melange

Robin, over at My Melange, a blog about Italy and France, is giving away some of the same books that I’ll be giving away here at A Traveler’s Library.

But her Giveaway ends this month. So scurry on over to My Melange for a chance to win 100 Places in Italy Every Woman Should Visit and 3 other Italy books. You have nothing to lose. If you don’t win there, just come back here and play starting September 1.

And, really, if you love France and Italy, you should be reading My Melange, anyhow. (Just my humble opinion).

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Louisiana Church

Destination: Franklin, Louisiana

Book: Sunday Morning, Crowning Glories, by Mariana Titus

A GUEST POST by Dr. Jessie Voigts

Author Mariana Titus is an old friend and I’ve always admired her writing, care for others, and artistry. Yes, she’s an accomplished artist – she’s inspired our daughter in her artistic pursuits as well. Mariana’s books are full of a sense of PLACE and character. It is rare that an author can dig deep and truly share the essence of a place, culture, people. She has written five books about the area around Franklin, Louisiana, including Graveyards and Bayou Bars, Summers Full of Porch Bull, Hurricanes, Healings and Dancing Ceilings, and Rain,Cane, Bayou Refrain. We were lucky enough to be sent a review copy of her latest book, Sunday Mornings, Crowning Glories. Sunday Mornings is beautiful journey into some of the black churches around Franklin, Louisiana. Mariana shares history, food, family, and church memories of many people, creating an anthropological view into this area. The stories are enhanced by Mariana’s incredible photographs of family, gorgeous outfits and hats at church, beautiful smiles, historic buildings, the joy inherent in the church communities.
We meet incredible people like Ethel McClain Johnson, who noted: “We were poor but, then again, we were rich because we had so much love for each other and other people.”
Ethel Jenkins says, “I came into the world shouting…When I say something, people know it’s the truth…they can feel what I’m saying!” A section on the seven sisters of the McDaniel family truly gets the essence of religion and family, including this from Golden McDaniel Charles – “I attended the Evening Star Baptist Church. My Pastor was the late Reverend Johnnie Carr, Jr. I was baptized in the Bayou Techie. That was a glorious time. My Pastor prayed until the waters trembled!”

We were lucky enough to sit down and chat with Mariana about the book, her experiences in Louisiana, writing the book, and more. Here’s what she had to say…

Wandering Educators: Please tell us about your book, Sunday Mornings, Crowning Glories

Mariana Titus: Sunday Mornings, Crowning Glories is my fifth book.  It contains 149 pages of photographs as well as church related stories told to me by black women from my hometown of Franklin, Louisiana and surrounding areas.
It is the book I’ve always wanted to read.   I’m drawn to personal diaries, oral history, real life stories, local cookbooks, etc. , regional tales.  I believe that knowing where we come from helps us to see where we’re going.  The best way for me to do this is to transcribe verbatim what the subjects have to say about themselves – that way I learn about the area and their culture first hand.

WE: What is your history of living in Louisiana?

Luisiana Church

MT: I moved to southwest Louisiana at an early age after my dad graduated from Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa.  He and my mother met in her native country of Venezuela.  I grew up in the Franklin/Garden City area.  Our house welcomed everyone and my dad often gave his services for free to those who could not afford them.  We were often paid with chickens, fish and vegetables from the patients’ gardens. One man, Mr. Dean, gave my dad free oyster shells for the driveway.   My dad was well-respected and my mother dearly loved by all in the community.  I was able to interact with a variety of people because dad’s office was in our house. They told me stories about their own lives which nourished my curiosity and planted the seed for my future books.

Read the complete interview at Wandering Educators web site.

Jessie Voigts

Dr. Jessie Voigts is the Publisher of  WanderingEducators.com and contributes each month to A Traveler’s Library. She has a doctorate in International Education, and is passionate about intercultural learning. She and her husband are Worldschooling their daughter, and enjoying every minute of it. She is also a nature photographer and lives on a lake.

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Thurber Books

Destination: Ohio

Book: The Thurber Carnival by James Thurber

Columbus is a town in which almost anything is likely to happen and in which almost everything has. James Thurber

Columbus Vacations

I lived a few blocks away from the Columbus Ohio house which humorist James Thurber lived while he attended The Ohio State University. At different times. (Thurber was born in 1894, and despite what my teen aged grand-daughter thinks, both she and I were born in the twentieth century.) The Thurber House now serves as a writer’s center and museum.

The neighborhoods off east Broad Street near Ohio Avenue (and now near a huge freeway that did not exist in Thurber’s day OR my day) consist of the solid brick houses built by the middle managers of the many Ohio beer companies  in the early 19th century. ‘My’ side of Broad Street fell into disrepair and many houses were destroyed by drug labs and police raids in later years, but the neighborhood, just west of Franklin Park, is staging a comeback. (All the place names in Thurber’s writings are accurate.)

By the time I went to The Ohio State University, my family had moved away from the Ohio Avenue neighborhood. But as long as I can remember, James Thurber‘s books lived with us, wherever we went.  Our family was so familiar with his stories that all you had to do was recite a title to get a laugh. “That sounds like The Night the Bed Fell.”  “The Bear Who Let it Alone.” “The Unicorn in the Garden.”

James Thurber got his start on the Columbus Dispatch but soon moved on to live in Greenwich Village and then Connecticut, while he wrote and drew cartoons for the New Yorker. Although his humorous tales were rooted in Ohio, his wry, myopic view of the world seems much more suited to the sophisticated readers of the New Yorker than to the newspaper  of a town then considered a “cow town.”

My ties to Thurber deepened when I was cast in the play The Male Animal at Ohio State’s Stadium Theater one summer.   The play,written with Elliot Nugent, added to the list of various styles he wrote in–memoir, children’s fantasy, articles, novels, short stories, fables, essays, and one-liner captions for his inimitable cartoons.The cartoons, particularly, dwelt on the war between the sexes, with large looming women and timid little men who daydream.

In one cartoon, an exasperated woman asks:

Well if  it is a wrong number, why did you answer?

His intimidating women, shy men, and lovable dogs did not exactly flow out of his pen. Since Thurber had very poor eyesight, and eventually went blind, the simple line style was as much a function of what he could see as a genius for capturing emotions with a tiny line.

I write about James Thurber because of my long history with him and because his writing is so inextricably linked with Columbus Ohio. My choice was verified when I checked out a library book and discovered that

a) The library’s computer catalog listed him as James Thurbert;

b) The young man who checked me out had never hear of James Thurber.

In case you fall in category b, I advise you to start with My Life and Hard Times, in which Thurber reveals the anxiety of middle-class, middle-aged, mid-Westerners. My own personal favorite, however,  is Fables for Our Times.   When Red Riding Hood whips out a pistol and shoots the Wolf, the moral becomes:

It isn’t as easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.

You will learn why it is wise to agree with your husband if he sees a unicorn in the garden. You will learn why it might not be so smart to be “early to rise.” Several warnings against dictators and war appear in this book written in 1940.

And by the way, if you think you don’t know anything at all about James Thurber, let me just suggest that you may have met Walter Mitty?  And if not, rush right to the nearest source and read a classic of American Literature: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. (Thurber reportedly hated the film starring Danny Kaye because it departs wildly from his story.)

Enjoy your stopover in Ohio on the road trip, and for your listening pleasure, take a look at the Ohio River Valley music that Kerry Dexter introduces at Music Road. Please let us know if you have visited Ohio, and if any writers from Ohio have influenced you?

Keith Olbermann reads from Thurber ever Friday evening on MSNBC. Here is a link to his reading of two Thurber fables. (I would have embedded it, but it seemed to be very slow loading, so you’re on your own to browse through his programs by following this link.)

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