Classical 101 Morning Host Christopher Purdy and his guests are back to hold their monthly book discussion.
They will share their recommendations on good titles you might want to add to your stack of must reads.
It's coming up on this edition of All Sides Weekend.
Host:
- Christopher Purdy, Classical 101 Morning Host
Guests:
- Kassie Rose, WOSU Book Critic
- Kris Hickey, youth services coordinator, Columbus Metropolitan Library
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Transcript
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Christopher Purdy: And this is the book show. Good morning, I'm Christopher Purdy. Welcome to All Sides Weekend Books. The book show comes to you once a month, and I am delighted to welcome my two guests, Kassie Rose, who is WOSU's book critic. Her blog is thelongestchapter.com. It tells you everything you need to know about what Cassie has been reading and recommending. So when she's not on this show, she's working on her blog.
Kris Hickey is here from whetstone branch of the Columbus library. Kris Hickey comes to us each week, each month. I keep thinking, people think this is like a daily show. It's an hour a month, but thank you very much. With Quick Picks, those are the books that everybody wants to read. Welcome and thank you both.
I want to just ask Kassie Rose. Cassie rose recently hosted the author Tom Perrata with Gramercy Books at the Drexel Theater in Bexley. How did that go?
Kassie Rose: Oh, it went great. It was such a treat to have a conversation with him and he's a great person, a great author and it was a lot of fun and we talked not only about his new book, "Ghost Town," but also about some of his other books.
Purdy: I just read two of his books, but I knew you were doing that, and he reawakened my interest. The book of his, one of them that I read was "Mrs. Fletcher," which is about a MILF, go look it up, I'm not saying it on the air, and "The Leftovers." So I was very interested in your time with Tom Perata. Tell me the name of his new book again. It's "Ghost Town." Have you read it?
Rose: Oh yes, and I also had read, I had not read Tom Peratta before, so certainly I did.
Purdy: "Little children," right?
Rose: Yes, I did not. Well, I read "Election" and then I also read "Bad Haircut," which is the stories that he wrote from the 70s. And it was his first book, which actually is excellent, especially if you want to dive back down into that era. Groovy. And, yeah, exactly. And also I read "Tracy Flick is Can't Win," that one, which is actually really good and he because he considers Tracy flicks looking back to election, what happened to her and how culture had changed.
So what Tracy Flick felt in the 90s was not what she was feeling in the current day in terms of a relationship with her teacher. I think it was her English teacher. But anyway, so it was great to read through some of his books and also "Ghost Town." I ended up really loving it. At first, I was a little, you know, I don't know, questioning about so much of the fragmentation of it and the way the short chapters were. I couldn't get into it at first. And then I just, I did because I loved the characters.
I loved that Jay Perry, who was looking back on his life when he was in a small town in New Jersey and he's being called back now to, for the municipal building is being dedicated to his father. He hasn't been back forever. And so now we get the story as to why he did not. Return through all the decades since he was 13 years old. So it becomes a wonderful book about growing up again, he's in the 1970s, I think that's why I went back to "Bad Haircut."
And also about his great friendship when he was 13 with Eddie, who drives a Vega, a Chevy Vega. And just, he's kind of the bad guy with his friend Leonard and they have a dope dealer at McDonald's. And it's just, it's a great book with great characters. And at the end, there is a big surprise telling you why he has not returned. But both characters, Jay Perry and his 13 year old self, Jimmy, are, I don't know. They're two people that emotionally, I think that Tom Perotta takes us into their inner worlds in a way that can resonate for all of us in some way.
Purdy: Now I sprung Tom Perotta on you and I don't think you have one of his books in your bag so let me ask you for another recommendation of something you brought with you.
Rose: Oh, sure. I'm going to recommend a new mystery that has come out, I think it's this month, maybe last month. It's called "Cherry Beach" and it's by Don Gilmore. And one of the reasons I really like this mystery, this crime novel, is because many times at the end of a crime novel the crime itself is solved, but all the little tendrils around it I sometimes feel are just sort of quickly dealt with. This guy deals with every single tendril to the point where you are so satisfied at the end in a way that he's a completist of all the things going on.
It starts out with two young girls who are found dead in an apartment in a high-rise. It takes place in Toronto. And it's in a section of Toronto that is changing. So they all go after the boyfriend of one of them. That's what they think it is. Toronto is in an uproar. They have to solve this crime immediately. And the detective, whose name is Jamison Abel, suspects that the boyfriend is really not the one who is the culprit here.
When you get into mystery stories to a crime, the detective is a key. Their personality, what their quirks are, and this guy is really wonderful. He's very, he's quiet. He's thoughtful, he doesn't, he trusts his instincts. He doesn't trust anyone in the police department. He thinks it's corrupt and nobody likes him. He's also a gourmet cook. So he will come home at night and fix himself a meal. And to the point it's written in the book and it's not overdone, I thought, I'm wondering if I could do that.
He makes it so simple. And it's just a wonderful characteristic of his. There is police corruption involved. There is also where his instinct is telling him is that it has to do with real estate. This is a changing area and he feels that the powers that be in the city are at play here. It's fascinating. It is never for a moment will you figure out what's going on. You will have a sense of it. But when it comes to the end, it just is incredibly satisfying.
There's also a great scene in there where he goes after two of the most corrupt policemen in the precinct. Also, I will have to say, this is, it's not a precinct, it's a district or whatever, District 52. It's where it's called the Punishment District. It's kind of like "Slow Horses," the McHarran, where kind of the cops that are the trouble cops are. Well, that's where this district is. Anyway, it was a great book. It's called "Cherry Beach." It's by Don Gilmore, and you will not be disappointed by it.
Purdy: Sounds like a page turner, something, a book you can't put down, that's how...
Rose: It is, but it's a page turner because of the detective and because of all of the way that it's written. It's not forced. So the author isn't trying to push you to turn the page. It's because you get involved with this detective.
Purdy: The best kind, yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. A recommendation from Kassie Rose.
You're listening to All Sides Weekend. This is the book show. And Kris Hickey is here from the Westone Branch Youth Services Manager of the West Stone Branch at the Columbus Library. It's at my neighborhood library, it might be your neighborhood library. They're all wonderful. All the branches are great. And what is a quick pick?
Kris Hickey: Hottest books. These are the books that have long hold lists and the idea is you can walk into one of our buildings and it might be on a display. You can check it out and jump the line.
Purdy: Give us a quick pic. All right.
Hickey: Oh, let's talk about, I've got some good things for the beach, so some good beach reads. I brought some romance and love stories with me. Carly Fortune is one of my favorite romance writers and this one might be my favorite of hers. It might be one of my favorite Romance novels of all time. This is called "Our Perfect Storm." And if you are a fan of "Little Women" like I am, and you always thought that Joe should have ended up with Laurie, this is that book.
So we have Frankie and George and they meet when Frankie's grandmother takes custody of George and the grandmother is Frankie's neighbor and the two of them meet through the cedar hedge. They're both peering through the Cedar hedge at the same time and see each other's eyes. And Carly Fortune got the idea for that type of meet when she was watching her children Chase rabbits underneath their cedar hedge and she thought what a What a great place for two children to meet.
So George and Frankie are best friends and have always been there for each other. And at the time, at the start of the story, Frankie is getting married to a professor and he leaves her at the altar. And so George wants to help her through the heartbreak. So he goes on the honeymoon with her to try to like get her out of her. Her sadness and they do all these adventurous things. Another thing that Carly Fortune is known for is like, it's like tourism fiction.
So you really get a sense of place and they go to Torfino in British Columbia. She's a Canadian author. Everybody knows that they're in love with them. And it is that like friends to lovers, but what makes this book really special is the development of the two of them as people. And what their friendship means to each other. And it is beautiful. And they're good people. And the family dynamic of her family and his grandmother, they are also a family.
So it is just a big, they're just like, get on with it already. But George, there's a reason that he's holding back. And we won't know that until much later in the book. But I mean, it's a happy ending book, but it was, I just, I fell in love with both of them. They were lovely. And there's a lot of. Nods to "Little Women." They love the movie. They watch the Wynonna writer movie every Christmas together. And there was a birdhouse that George found and turned it into a mailbox at the cedar hedge.
So they would write each other letters. And yes, so when they're on this honeymoon, they're pretending to be married so they can get all the perks. And why not and he and A server asked them, well, how did you propose? And she was like, well George, why don't you tell the story? And the story he tells is so beautiful and it involves the cedar hedge. And it's just, it was lovely. It sounds like a heartwarming book. It is heartwarming. All of hers are like that.
Purdy: You know, sometimes lovely is what we need. It's just lovely. You know something's lovely, just lovely is what we needs. Something is not lovely, but something that you will, I think it was you last time who loved this book "Yesteryear."
Hickey: Yes! That one's not as lovely, but it's a great book.
Purdy: Did you tell me it's going to be part of a reading group or something?
Hickey: We are going to have a book club at whetstone on June 6. So if anyone's read it and wants to talk about it There's so much to unpack
Purdy: But it's a hugely popular book and I happened to find it on the Quick Pick shelf the other day so I did grab it and I am reading it, boy do I not like her. And you're not supposed to. Give a little recap about it.
Hickey: So a little, so it's about a woman who is a trod wife influencer. So like, you know, saying that she lives, she bakes her own bread, all these things, but none of it is, is real. It's all for Instagram, TikTok, whatever. And she doesn't like her kids. She does not seem to like her children. Her husband, interesting story there. He's the, the youngest son of like a political dynasty and he's like, I'm rich. Why should I work?
Purdy: No ambition. Yeah.
Hickey: Yeah, and and his what happens to him is is very interesting give it away. I'm like I'm page But it's several different time periods. So it appears that she goes back in time to 1850 and now has to live the way that she is selling and she doesn't like it.
Speaker 5: She can't do it either. She can do it.
Hickey: Um but yeah there's a lot it's it's social commentary but it's also a thriller and there's some good horror writing in there so when she goes back in time there's some horrific things that happen and the writing is is really
Purdy: Well, I just said I didn't like her, but I am getting into it. I am reading it. Just grab you. Grab your attention.
Hickey: And there were moments I felt empathy for her and her husband.
Purdy: I'm not, I'm only a little into it, so yeah.
Rose: Yes, yeah. How does she handle the jumping back and forth? Do you or does she I mean, does the author take it? Okay, now you're in the past. Yes.
Hickey: Yeah, yes. So you kind of know where you are. Yeah, good that way.
Purdy: She's good that way you know it's not it's it's linear but sometimes it is a paragraph of separation sometimes between today and 150 years ago but she makes it work I have to say
Hickey: I'd never felt lost. Yeah
Purdy: Anyway, it's called "Yesteryear" and June 6th at the library.
Hickey: June 6th and the author is Carol Clare. Oh gosh, what's her last name?
Purdy: Oh, well.
Hickey: She's very successful, good for her. You'll find it.
Purdy: We're gonna take a break right now and come on back don't go away
You're listening to All Sides Weekend Books, The Book Show, I'm going to have t-shirts made up. I'm Christopher Purdy with Cassie Rose, WOS Book Critic, and Chris Hickey from the Whatstone Branch of the Columbus Library. Very quickly, yesteryear's author is? Carol Claire Burke. Carol Claire Burck, that's right. Before we proceed, I have to make a little announcement and just say a few words.
I want to make sure I do this right and I'm polite to everybody. Have been getting and a bunch of us have been getting a lot of frankly unsolicited books coming in to the station some of them are self-published some of them are frankly of I guess you call niche books they're personal books I salute anybody who could do that I've always wanted to do it and I don't have the gift so anybody who does is wonderful.
This show is one hour a month. And we are committed to serving the readers through the Quick Pick selection at the Columbus Library, through the books that are curated by Cassie Rose, whose job it is to do that and has a blog to do it, by way of saying we cannot talk about unsolicited books that are self-published or things like that. The books generally come from, you get them Cassie rose directly from publishers or the New York Times bestseller list, you got them because you and your colleagues have I'm excited that these These are books everybody wants to read.
So I don't want to appear ungrateful or impolite or make an anatomical reference here, but I just need to tell you that we are not able to accommodate that. We're not here to sell books as much as we are to serve the readers of books. And that's really our primary focus. Cassie Rose, thank you for that. So given that, thank all. Keep reading. Keep writing. May you find a wonderful outlet for your work. Cassie Rose, what do you have to recommend for us?
Rose: I have a great novel by one of my favorite authors. The author is Willie Vlaughton, V-L-A-U-T-I-N. He wrote a book called "The Horse," which I absolutely loved, which is his last book. This one is "The Left and the Lucky." The reason I love this author is because his protagonists are just, they're genuine, they are ordinary. They're people that you just love watching them go through their daily life when even things are going wrong.
So in this book the protagonist is a house painter. His name is Eddie. He has an employee who works with him named Houston. He's been Houston's been with him for nine years and basically Eddie keeps him sober. He picks him up every morning. He gets him to the paint job. He manages his money. He takes him to bank at the end of the week. He takes out money orders, sends to the utilities. It's a great relationship.
There is another great relationship in this book and it has to do with Eddie and an eight-year-old boy named Russell. Because in the neighborhood, there is a woman who has moved in. I think she's actually moved back in with her two sons. Russell, who is eight, Curtis, who was 15, and her mother. And it takes place really over a summer. And what happens is that Curtis has become a delinquent.
We'll just say that he's 15 years old and he bullies his eight-year-old brother and so do his friends. His mother is a stripper and her work hours are four in the afternoon to four in morning. And she really wasn't meant to be a parent. And so what happens is that we watch Russell get bullied by Curtis and his friends. It's really heartbreaking in a way. But Russell finds his way to Eddie.
He will just show up at his house and when Eddie is coming home and he says, "'I'll clean your brushes for you.'" And so Eddie then pretty much begins to figure out what is going on. Now, meanwhile, he's also taking care of Houston's and Houston has for nine years been showing up on the job with twice going rogue and he does go rogue again this time. I do have to tell a little bit of a scene about Houston and Eddie.
They're at this house, this old Victorian house. Eddie said he didn't really want to take the job, so he tripled the estimate. They still had him do the job. Two professors living there. They're hoarders. The house is just packed with newspapers, McDonald's wrappers, you know, whatever, all over the house. And so, you now, they're on the outside working on it. And Houston comes up to him and he just says, you know what?
He says, the backyard, it's just filled with dog poop. And I don't even, they don't have any dogs here. And it's the perimeter of the house is dog poop, And then he says, and by the garage, he says you know what, there's a pair of men's underpants and there's sandwich on top of it. Really wanted to bring this up because you've got to see the lightness in the book. And I said, well, the thing is, when I read that, I thought, okay, think of the author writing that scene, like, oh, yeah, I'm going to come up with a pair of men's underpants with a sandwich on top of it.
And he just, he must have been laughing. And then I'm just going to keep on going with this book. Anyway, the relationship between eight-year-old Russell and Eddie is phenomenal. And the key here is that. Russell, or Eddie, is so good to everyone, and you find out a secret at the end of the book of why he is, and it just makes perfect sense. He's even keeled, he's stable, nothing, you know, dog poop, nothing throws him off.
You know, with that scene he says, you now, all right, come on, Houston, we're There are great scenes there with the painters and him trying to get them to the jobs. There's also with Russell, who is trying to fix things that he needs to fix, and I won't tell you what those are. It's a great book. It's called "The Left and the Lucky" by Willie Vlaughton.
Purdy: And get rid of some of the images you may have had and just read the book. If Cassie Rose recommended the book, by all means read the book. That's why we do the book show.
You're listening to All Sides Weekend Books on 89.7 NPR News. Chris Hickey is going to give us some more quick picks from the Columbus Library and we'll talk about the book festival.
Hickey: Yes, and so my next book is not a quick pick. But yes, the Columbus Book Festival is coming up in July. It's going to be very exciting. And I want to talk about one of our featured authors. Her name is Stephanie Stelvey. And she has written a graphic novel, a beautiful graphic novel called "Everything in Color, a Love Story." So this is a memoir graphic novel. And it is about her.
Falling in love with her husband, but she was raised in a purity culture and how that impacts her falling in and her husband because they feel that they're doing something wrong. And they're in college, so they're adults, but a lot of this book kind of reflects how they're trying to, they wanna be close to each other, but they also are afraid of like eternal fire and brimstone that's frightening for them.
And so it's told in two different ways. So when she looks back on her childhood and the times where she was really grappling with what is the right thing to do, the tones are black and white, sepia. And then when she has moments of healing and she's moving into this new phase of her life there, it's in beautiful color. So there's lots of back and forth. And she's reconciling what her childhood did to her.
And what it made her frightened of. And she thinks when she has a son and he asks her questions or notices things, she thinks about like what she was told. There's a moment where her son asks, what happens after we die? And she things, oh my gosh, what do I tell him so I don't hurt him? And she think back to when she was a child and her parents talked about the rapture as was the answer to the question and how that frightened her.
And she didn't want her son to be afraid to ask questions. So she says, well, it's a mystery, we really don't know, but I'm so glad that you are asking these big questions and it's just important that we all love each other. So she remarks on things that she was told and how she chooses to do it differently with her son. The love story is beautiful because Stephanie and her husband, James, they're just darling people.
And they're falling in love, and it's the most natural thing in the world, but the barriers are just painful and painful to read as they are trying to navigate that, but also love each other and don't wanna let that relationship go.
Purdy: It's a thick book, but it's a graphic novel. So it's told through illustration and text as well. Give us another quick pic while we've got you. All right. Give us.
Hickey: All right, let's talk about "Into the Blue" by Emma Brody. So this is a Reese's book club pick. This is another one of the really hot books right now. So this a love story, but it takes us into some really interesting places. So this book, it's sweeping. They have a cosmic connection, so there's some magical realism that's happening in there.
And magical realism is if a book is set in a realistic times, it might have a touch of sci-fi or a touch of fantasy, but not enough to be a sci-Fi or fantasy book. So like improv is the lifeblood of this story. So AJ dreams of writing for "Saturday Night Live." This takes place in 2000, in a video rental store. So she dreams of doing this, but she works in a Video rental store in her small town in Massachusetts.
And then a man named Noah starts working there as well. And he's the youngest son of an acting dynasty. And they bond over this very campy cult following improv show from decades ago called "Astronauticals." But the difference is Noah's aunt was a star of that show. So he has a different perspective. So the two of them tried to convince the aunt to come to a con, like make an appearance there so people can see her.
And she agrees to it. On the condition that she will teach them improv. She wants to give them improv lessons. And so throughout this, they bond. It's very much the, your scene partner is your life. So it's a really interesting kind of backdoor look at comedy and improv, and it's fascinating. And then all of a sudden he vanishes. Noah is gone, nobody knows what has happened.
And seven years they are reunited in New York City because they are both cast in a reboot. Of "Astronauticals." So I won't say much more that happens to them, but they've got a lot of things to figure out. But there is this cosmic thing that keeps them together that is a piece of it. So it was a little fantastical. But I'm reading this book currently. So, I don't know what happens at the end, but I have heard that it will blow your mind.
Purdy: "Into the Blue" by Emma Brody. Emma Brodie. Whose book club is this? This is a Reese Witherspoon. How many people have book clubs for goodness sake? Oprah has one. So many.
Hickey: So many. Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush.
Purdy: Jenna Bush, yeah, yeah
Hickey: I think Carrie Carrie Bradshaw. What's her real name? What's your name? Sarah? Jessica Parker? I believe has one There I don't watch that. Oh, I think so many people have them but yet Reese
Purdy: I only care about I only hear about Chris's book club and Cassie's book Club. That's why we do the show All Sides Weekend books So Cassie Rose give us something something else to read
Rose: Sure. I have a quick question, though, about this book. Like, why do you think this is a quick pick? Is this a quick pick, this one, this book you just talked about? Is it because of the author? The whole list. Well, you know what I'm saying? I understand why the library has it, but is it because she has a following?
Hickey: I think it is, yes, a lot of these things that you will find on QuickPic are the Oprah, the Reese, the Jennas. They get elevated and the whole list just grow and then we make them QuickPics.
Rose: So also the author like the next book will probably be a quick pick and then I would think so. Okay.
Hickey: Book. Well, Emma Brody, what else has she done? She has written another book called "Songs in Ursa Major."
Purdy: Do you know it?
Hickey: I don't know it, but I want to know it.
Purdy: Okay, well, that's a good point. Yeah, that means it's working, you see. It's working.
Rose: It's working. I have a nonfiction book called "Small Town Girls" by Jane Anne Phillips. She is, if you have read Jane Anne Philips books "Lark and Termite" and also Night, was it called Night Muse? "Night Watch" that won the Pulitzer Prize I think last year. You will love this book. It's very much within her style. It is called "A Writer's Memoir."
Jane and Phillips grew up in a small town in West Virginia. And essentially what the book is about is how you never, if you were born and raised in West, Virginia, you never really leave your roots. You can leave the state, but it remains in your heart. She covers a lot of ground in it that, and I'll just say, first of all, she talks about her relationship with her mother, which, you know, she's one of three children and how much her mom.
You know, really was there for them. And while she was working and she was also going to school, one of the most wonderful chapters is when Jane and Phillips writes about going to the beauty parlor with her mom, who her mom went every week. Now, this is in the 1960s, in a time when that's what women did. They went to the Beauty Parlor every week because, you know they didn't have hairdryers at home. Thank you.
All the right shampoos and stuff. So they would have their hair done every week and then put a shower cap on in between. And she writes about the gathering of women in the beauty parlor and how it was a safe place for them and what they discussed and the closeness that came from all the women in town from this. And while Jane Ann Phillips as a little girl was just reading all the trashy magazines or the movie magazines, you could say.
She also writes about the history of West Virginia. She writes about how it used to be such a beautiful state that was filled with forests and hills before all the coal mining came in. She has a chapter there even on the the Hatfields and the McCoys, that whole history there. And that's part of where it's not a memoir as you might think about it in terms of she was born and raised, and here's how she grew to become a writer.
She also puts in there what meant something to her, like the land in West Virginia, or also Stephen Crane, who is not West Virginia but the author of "The Red Badge of Courage," whom she said that in her writing life was her mentor in a way, because he was an author who was writing because he believed in what he was writing. He was not well accepted. His books were not, didn't become, you know, quick picks back in the 1800s.
And how for her as a young author, she could have someone that she could read about who held on to who he was, even though he wasn't popular. His first book, Maggie, he self-published, he bankrupted himself on that. And the critics deplored it, but yet he still stood beside it. "The Red Badge of Courage" became popular because it was serialized in a newspaper.
She also writes about another author named Brice DeJay Pancake, who was from West Virginia and brilliantly wrote stories about the people. And to this day, if... If anyone is listening and is a fan of this young man who died early in his life, he might have taken his own life, I can't remember, but they would be like sitting up because people know that he held great promise and saw great insight into people, into his stories, especially the working class and West Virginia people.
Which by the way is a side story. I just happened to be browsing in Storyline Bookshop in central Ohio in Upper Arlington. I mean, I don't know who their buyer is, but they have wonderful books there.
Purdy: My wife loves that shot. Yes.
Rose: Yes, and I will tell you, they have Reese DJ Pancakes, you know, book that you know came out like in the 1980s, I think. Anyway, back to Jane Anne Phillips' memoir. It's it is critics have just praised it up and down. And I can see why that is because it is truly a wonderful book of powerful moments that she brings in about her own life. And yet she weaves in these other stories. About West Virginia, also seceding from Virginia, why they did that and how growing up all of the West Virginia students learned that.
Purdy: I love what you said about the real sense of home that the writer was giving about West Virginia. It's great when you can't recover from where you're from and you don't want to. You know? That's terrific. I feel the same way about where I'm from, but yeah, I'm sure many people do.
Rose: Well, and I love that word you used, recover from.
Purdy: Yeah.
Rose: You just you don't and I don't want to react yeah it's a kind of yearning that is in you that you can't explain or can't really be written but she does capture this here because of course she leaves and goes on to the I will writers workshop and then she's but she always has this sense of coming back and has gone to visit her parents grave graves and she's you can tell her heart is there in those moments
Purdy: That's interesting because I was thinking this morning about, I digress a little bit, but why I would go back to the town where I was born and raised. And because I had, I don't know anyone there anymore, but my parents are buried there. See, that's, that's and that's still a pole. That's still the connection. And they've been gone for many, many years, but they're still there.
You're listening to All Sides Weekend, the book show. Don't go away.
You're listening to All Sides Weekend. This is the book show. I'm Christopher Purdy with Cassie Rose who is WOSU's book critic. By the way, don't miss Cassie's blog which is thelongestchapter.com. And Chris Hickey is here from the Whetstone branch of the Columbus Library. When you go into Whetstones, say hi to Chris. She comes to every show loaded down with quick picks from the library. And I was just thinking, I was happy to be thinking, whatever happened to Catherine Stockett? Who is Catherine Stocket?
Hickey: Catherine Stockett wrote "The Help," which was just a blockbuster 15 years ago, and this is her long-awaited follow-up. It is called "The Calamity Club," and it takes place in an orphanage in Mississippi in 1933. And she wanted to know what happens when you put a collection of intelligent, scrappy women who are at the end of their ropes, and each of them has an incredible sense of humor.
So our first character is Meg. She's an 11-year-old who was abandoned by her mother, but she doesn't believe the story that they're telling her about her mother. Birdie is a woman. She's trying to get money from her socialite sister who married well so that she can help the family. And Frances is the socialite's sister. She volunteers at the orphanage. There is a fourth woman named Charlie who just has really disturbing ideas.
So... The four of them cook up a plot that they call terrible, awful, but profitable. And so they do this in order to survive the Great Depression. So like "The Help," the character development is just fantastic. So you're just gonna dive in with these women. It has more twists and dramatic turns than "The Help." But it's very funny. There's so much humor in this story, even though the times are dark, the Great Depression, very dark time, but.
Purdy: And an orphanage.
Hickey: And an orphanage. So dark times and places, but these women have such humor and hatch this insane plan. So it's a fun ride along. She loves to think of the worst thing that could happen to the characters that she doesn't like. So be ready for some more chocolate pie moments. I was gonna say, does anybody make a pie in this book? There are other things that happen that will make you just as happy as the pie did and "The Help."
Purdy: Tell me about, what do you know about Catherine Stockett, and why do you think it's, maybe it took her 15 years, I don't know.
Hickey: I think it just took her that long. It's a thick book. I mean, this is not going to be a short book. She just puts a lot into these novels. Like "The Help" was riveting. And this one is too. She's just, it may take a while to write something great. That's like Donna Tart. She has about 10, 15 years between her novels. But I think I think it's worth it. She's I think she's worth the wait
Purdy: So don't let the blockbuster wonderful movie keep you from reading the novel, because I haven't read "The Help," and now I'm going to have to do it, because the movie was sensational, certainly, but now I want to read the book as well. It's called the...
Hickey: It is called "The Calamity Club."
Purdy: By Katherine Stockett and Chris Hickey is kind enough to keep track of all the books we're talking about and she puts them online and Marcus is like making a face at me and I don't know what he's talking about. Anyway it goes on the WOSU Facebook page, it goes several different Facebook pages so you don't have to write everything down, it's also on wosu.org slash all sides, you can find it all there. So we can talk fast if we want to and carry on. What do you have for us to read? Cassie Rose.
Rose: I have another non-fiction book and it's coming out in June and I sort of want to give a heads up to it. I haven't read it but I want to gives a heads up because I have a feeling it's going to become popular and it only at this point has three holds on it at the library.
Purdy: Well, that'll change in about two minutes, go ahead.
Rose: Well, it's called "The Housewives Underground, The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the JFK Assassination Our Most Enduring Mystery." And it is written by an "Atlantic" staff writer, Tiffany, I can't get her last name here, Tiffany, no, Caitlin Tiffany. Anyway, when the Warren Commission came out after the JFk assassination, there were a group of women that were skeptical.
About what they were reading in it. And so they went to and pursued their own investigations. So that is perusing the 18,000 pages of the Warren Commission. They became friends with Oswald's mother. They talked to witnesses. Now I'm gonna read something here and this is from "Publishers Weekly," their forecast, but they say that there are three women in particular that she focuses on.
One is Oklahoma housewife Shirley Martin, a passionate Kennedy supporter. Another is New York-based World Health Organization analyst Sylvia Meager, who felt distrustful of the government after having been dragged before a loyalty board during the Red Scare. And then Beverly Hills housewife Maggie Field, who became obsessed with how illogical the chain of events was that culminated in Lee Harvey Oswald's. Assassination.
Purdy: Now, mind you, this is nonfiction you're talking about.
Rose: This is non-fiction. So it's, I just, the premise here sounds absolutely fascinating about how she, the author, went to find out about the women who pursued this, you know, through the the 60s and into the 70s. They said, I haven't read the book yet, but I'm seeing a lot about it. And I thought, I want to mention it on the show in case. People would be interested in it and you could hop on to the library and put your hold in now. It comes out, I wanna say middle of June. But it, and there, the library has about 19. No.
Purdy: Now you said that they focus on three women in the book, how many, was there, how do you find, was was there a group or an archive of, because I'm assuming these three women are no longer with us, I could be wrong, but it's...
Rose: Perhaps, yes. I haven't read that part of it. They haven't gone into that kind of depth. It's more how this, I mean, I think, as I said, they pull out these three, but there is a group of them, and it's the fact that they persisted. And it wasn't just over a year or after the Warren Commission came out or maybe two years. They kept at it.
Purdy: There's a similar group of women I know, they watch "C-SPAN" every day, they watch all the gavel-to-gavel coverage, even the most mundane, boring congressional hearings and the good stuff, and they report on it and they demand accountability, which is incredible, but they're, you know, people are paying attention and it's worthwhile to remember that.
Rose: Well, I think that's where this book is relevant today, aside from the curiosity about the JFK assassination that's ever present, is that it's the questions that they are pursuing are still relevant today and from what I have read about this book. Again, it just sounds fascinating to me. It does.
Purdy: It does too, and I don't know if we'll ever know. Yes, great mystery. To this day it's 60 years ago and I don't if we will ever know, but yeah. Tell us the title and the author again, just...
Rose: It's called "The Housewives Underground, the untold story of the women who made the JFK assassination our most enduring mystery," and it's by Caitlin Tiffany.
Purdy: I've just written that one down. Yeah, I'll be on a hold to one book that I'm reading now that I want to recommend to people I'm about 100 pages into it, but a third of the way through and I read about this in the "New York Times." It got a starred review. It's by a Spanish writer called Hector Abad, A-B-A-D, who is now living He's living in Spain now. He's from Colombia and his father was was killed in the various wars and with drug cartels and things in in Colombia years ago.
But this novel is called "Aside From My Heart, All is Well" and it's about a priest in Colombia who was awaiting a heart transplant and Whose diet and whose kind of physical indolence makes you think you know He just guy needs to be careful and get his health back and that sounds very very bare bones but there's there's a lot to it about his relationships with the community where he lives in the house where he is a border because he can't live in the rectory he can t work while he's waiting.
So he he he sits all day and listens to to opera and he's obsessed with movies and if he comes he becomes a leading movie critic in south america and he s a priest in bed waiting for a heart transplant if you want some gorgeous writing and great storytelling I recommend this book by Hector Abad called "Aside From My Heart, All is Well." And that's my contribution to what's going on. How did you find that book? I read about it and it was reviewed in the "Times." You know, it was review, I think on a Thursday in the "Times" during when they have the book things. I was just fooling around online and there it was. And it, you know, people were just, just doing handstands over it. So, and deservedly so. I picked it up and found, I actually bought it. So there you go.
Ah, another quick pick from Chris Hickson.
Hickey: This one would be a great Father's Day gift. So you could put this, write this down if you have a dad who loves history, who loves memoirs, who likes travelogs. This is gonna be super fun. This is called "American Rambler, Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed." And it's by Isaac Fitzgerald. He wrote "Dirtbag Massachusetts." So it's part history, part memoir, part apples.
During the pandemic. He spent a lot of time walking. He said it got him out of his head, it got them out of dark places, and he got the idea to walk the, follow the journey of John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. So there's lots of folk tales about Johnny Apple, did he wear a tin pot on his head? Did he walk barefoot? Apparently the trail is more of a highway. And this book takes Isaac.
He goes through different states. He meets all kinds of people. He takes him several seasons. And so yeah, that history, there's the history. There's the travelog that's happening. When he arrives at the visitor's center, they, he tells them what he's going to do. And they said, well, wouldn't you rather just rent a car? He does use a car for part of it, but he starts in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and he goes through PA. He goes through Ohio all the way to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where there is a tree stump carving of Johnny Appleseed in a mall.
Speaker 5: Okay
Hickey: But there are definitely big life things that happen to him during this time. He loses his mother. So there's that memoir that is also woven into this, but a very compelling story.
Purdy: And that is a quick, that's a quick.
Hickey: Quick pick "American."
Purdy: Something I always love asking when it's unfair, but I'm going to ask you, do you happen to know what is the most in demand quick pick right now? Right? Oh, "Yesteryear."
Hickey: "Yesteryear" is is giving me enough roughly like six hundred as i didn't it's probably at least six hundred i haven't checked the hold since i came on last but when i was here last month it was 13
Purdy: No, I yeah, yeah, and I think I
Hickey: And I think I have coworkers who are like, I'm still on the hold list and I've been on there forever.
Purdy: Okay.
Hickey: Shelf and what's going on? Yeah, get to it fast enough. Yeah, as soon as we put it out there. It's gone It's so if you see it and when you walk in the door, don't grab it on your way out Grab it now because it won't be there
Purdy: It's like the people who hate Martha Stewart would love this book.
Hickey: I think that they would, yes.
Purdy: Yes, that's that's kind of what it is. So that's yes, and you have a book group on the 6th of June 6th of June. We're going to discuss this book. What time do you two o'clock two o clock just show up at what show up great. Okay. You got one more for us each of you. I do.
Rose: And actually it's another nonfiction. Good, all right. It's called, and I love this book, I know, anyway, it's called "Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author," and it's by a man named Edward John Trelawney. Now, this was published, I wanna say, in like 1858. Now, here's a thing why I was drawn to this. I've watched these "PBS Masterpiece Theater," and a character is gonna quote Coleridge or Shelley.
I mean, I watched this one called "My Mother and Other Strangers," and this man quotes Tennyson to her, just a few lines, and of course, that's the thing that pulls her towards him. And I thought, you know what? I really kind of want to go back to these, I would love to be able to just, out of nowhere, just quote a line or two of Coleridge or Shelley Nutt.
Speaker 5: For you. But-
Rose: But so anyway, this book I found, which I've had my eye on for a while, it's about the author Trelawney, who went to Italy to and spent time with Lord by the poet Lord Byron, and also Shelley. And it's fascinating what he writes about them, you get this sense of Lord Byran, who was very successful and a Shelley who is not as well. Liked, I'll put it that way, but who they are, how they did their, wrote their poetry, but also they're very human in this book and it's a very accessible book. And I'm not going to be able to quote them after I read the book, but anyway, I highly recommend it. It's called "Records of Shelly Byron and the Author."
Purdy: Thank you very much, and Chris Hickey, do you have one more for us in one minute? I do.
Hickey: I do. I have a Travis Kelce inspired romance. How exciting. If you don't know who that is, he's engaged to Taylor Swift. He's also from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, which is very cool. This is called "First and Forever" and it's by Lynne Painter. So it is about a woman named Duffy and she and her father and brothers are diehard fans of the Minneapolis Coyotes.
And Connor is the tight end, which has Travis Kelsey's position. She becomes famous because the mascot is a little handsy and she's fighting him off in the stands and then he takes a comical tumble and she is a pariah. So she comes, they bring her on to a sports radio show to explain herself and then they bring Connor on and they become very flirty. And so the NFL says, you know, it would be great if you would start dating so that we could milk this.
Purdy: Hold that there, just give us the title and author.
Hickey: "First and Forever" by Lynn Painter.
Purdy: Thank you very much, Kris Hickey, who is the youth services manager. What do you go at the whetstone branch at the Columbus Library, who comes and brings us quick picks. And thank you, Kassie Rose, WOSU's book critic. Her blog is thelongestchapter.com. I'm Christopher Purdy. Thank you, Chris Johnson. Thank you Marcus Jalston from Make It to Radio. Thank you all for listening to All Sides Weekend Books on 89.7 NPR News.