In March, 2009 The Hairshirt writers attended Redbird's first Hairshirt Retreat at the Mound Center in Sinsinawa, WI.

One quiet evening -- with no wine or anything -- they started trading book recommendations. The list is too good not to share.

Suzanne Bergen

Fiction

.       The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

.       A Box of Matches - Nicholas Baker.  Like Laurel, Suzanne wishes she had written this.

.       The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig.  "When I visit the back corner of my life again after so long a time, littlest things jump out first.  The oilcloth, tiny blue windmills on white squares, worn to colorless smears at our four places at the kitchen table.  Our father's pungent coffee, so strong it was almost ambulatory, which he gulped down from suppertime until bedtime and then slept serenely as a sphinx.  The pesky wind, the one element we would count on at Marais Coulee, whistling into some weather-cracked cranny of this house as if invited in."  I love this stuff.

.       Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson

.       Bullet in the Brain & In the Garden of North American Martyrs - short stories by Tobias Wolff

.       A Home at the End of the World - Michael Cunningham.  A "couldn't put down" book and some good writing, though the psychology of the characters sometimes either didn't fit or was beyond my grasp.

.       All the King's Men - Robert Pen Warren.  He (Warren) is awash in beautiful metaphor, really paints a sense of place.

.       A Map of the World: A Short History of a Prince: The Book of Ruth; Disobedience; When Madeline Was Young - Jane Hamilton.  I love her and am eagerly awaiting her next book.  She writes in Rochester, Wisconsin.

.       The Best American Short Stories of 2000 (ed. E.L. Doctorow) especially

o       The Story - Amy Bloom

o      The Gigul of Park Avenue - Nathan Englander

o      The Fix - Percival Everett

o      The Third and Final Continent - Jhumpa Lahiri

o      People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water - Annie Proulx

.       The Shipping News - Annie Proulx

.       The Deep Green Sea - Robert Olen Butler.  This will rip your heart out.  He's big on writing from sense memory.  It's how he teaches writing.  Also, his short story collection. 

.       A Good Scene from a Strange Mountain - Robert Olen Butler.  He writes about the Vietnamese, here and in Vietnam.  Served there for a year.

.       English Creek - Ivan Doig.  He's written a whole series about life in Montana in the 1800's.  This one if the one that lingers most in my memory. 

 

Non Fiction

.       Mexican Enough:  My Life between the Borderlines - Stephanie Elizondo Griest.  This is a travelogue of sorts.  Bilingual author trying to find her Mexican self.  It's absorbing and I like it for the many different perspectives on Mexico it gives. 

.       Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig.  From an earlier life and I've read it twice and probably will read it a third time.

.       Summer Doorways:  A Memoir - W.S. Merwin.  A little jewel of a memoir by poet W. S.  Merwin takes you back to little pockets of Europe in a bygone era.

.       The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community - David Korten.  My favorite political read of the last couple years.

.       Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill - Jeremy Taylor.  Interesting read on dream interpretation.

.       Memories, Dreams, Reflections - Carl Jung.  Whenever I read Jung I have these synchronistic experiences.  I was reading this book and had just put on Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and then Jung mentions it in the next paragraph.

 

Poetry

.       Ted Kooser

.       Billy Collins - he's a droll little man who makes great little stories out of almost nothing.

 

Books on Writing

.       Building Fiction - Jesse Lee Kercheval

.       The Poetry Home Repair Manual - Ted  Kooser

.       On Writing - Stephen King

.       Natalie Goldberg

 

JUDY DOUGLAS

Fiction

.       Anything by Michael Perry.  Population 485; Truck: A Love Story.  Check out his web site at sneezingcow.com   It is a lesson in promotion

.        Body & Soul (Laurel, you must read this!); Stop Time; Dogs Bark, but the Caravan Moves On:  Observations Then and Now - Frank Conroy.  These are the three books he wrote.  He taught at the Iowa University Writers workshop and said he preferred teaching to writing.   He was also an accomplished jazz pianist. The last book is a collection of pieces he had published over the years and a chapter on his teaching methods.  He died a few of years ago.

.       The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel - David Wroblewski.  I FOUND IT BEFORE OPRAH, THANK YOU.  He writes so well about something he loves.  The fact that it was his first novel and that no one wanted to publish it because it was too long and that it was more or less promoted by book store clerks who had read it is a message for us, as writers.

.       Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky.  History/fiction, beautifully written, of the months before the Nazi armies overtook France.  Irene was living there with her two children and husband. She was of Jewish decent raised in Russia. An established author. She knew she would be discovered and hauled off to a concentration camp. This was published posthumously

.       Recently re-read The Children of Men - P.D. James, another English writer.  She writes murder mysteries.  I don't like murder mysteries.  This was very thought provoking, not exactly a murder mystery.

.       Re-read In Cold Blood - Truman Capote.  Probably the best thing he ever wrote.  It seems gruesome but it is more a study of human nature and local mores. Given his background I believe only he could have written it.

 

Non Fiction

.       The Nag Hammadi Library - James M. Robinson.   Translations of Gnostic Scriptures.  Ancient poetry and scripture is intriguing and beautiful. 

.       Somewhere Towards  the End:  A Memoir -  Diana Athill

.       Oak: The Frame of Civilization - William Bryant Logan.  This is like visiting a biologic anthropologist, if there is such a thing.  Logan tells how the oak tree assisted civilization throughout the world for thousands of years, providing diverse products such as ink, food, building materials, clothing, and making migration over land and sea possible.  I love oak trees and enjoy history.

.       Land of the Dakotas - Bruce Nelson.  Published in 1946, it is a wonderful history of the Midwest; helps one understand family in the context of the history of the settling of that area. 

 

Poetry

.        I read the poetry of Robert Frost often. 

.        Of late have been re-reading the works of Emily Dickinson; each reading of her work makes it more clear to me.

 

Books on Writing

.       Stet: An Editor's Life - by Diana Athill . I like English authors. She was an editor for a leading publishing house in England for a number of years.

.       Writing Creative Nonfiction - Teachers of the Associated Writing Program.  This is very interesting and offers several points of view.  Several authors contribute their work and suggestions.

.       Writing Alone and with Others - Pat Schnieder.  The author shares her own experiences in life and in her teaching and writing career. Easily understood and identified with.

 

SHEILA HANRAHAN

Fiction

.       To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee.  Loved it growing up and in college, and loved it when I read it again when my son's 8^th grade class read it last year.  Interesting to hear what his ears caught as an 8^th grader, and what my ears caught as a 'grown up'.

.       Gilead  - Marilynne Robinson.  Her ability to stand in all character's shoes to explore difficult questions - wonderful.

.       Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie.  Much of what Rushdie has recently written has disappointed me.  I think he has begun to relish the role of "Famous Smart Author" a bit.  However, this book was written before he was famous for his writing [and before he was unfortunately made famous by the hideous "fatwa" that was issued after the publication of Satanic Verses.]  It's a slightly bizarre Dickensonian tale about two children born at the stroke of midnight when India regained its independence from the British Empire and then, as we know, split itself into India and Pakistan.

.       The History of Love - Nicole Krauss

.       Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier.  Loved the 'Odyssey' quality of the novel much more than the actual 'love story'.

.       Beloved - Toni Morrison.  Rich.

.       Fifth Book of Peace - Maxine Hong Kingston.  Half fiction and half non-fiction.  I know that some people might not like this book, just because it's odd in this way, and there really isn't an ending.  However, I seem to have read it at exactly the right time for me to read it.   I wonder if I would like it as much a second time through.  I'll see!  It just speaks a lot to the meditative and healing power of the written word.

.       A River Runs Through It - Norman McLean.  Yes, I know, there's a lot of fly fishing in here (enough, already!) but honest to goodness, I read this book on a trade ride to Quincy, Illinois (huh?) on Amtrak, and by the time the train made a stop in Galesburg, the conductor asked me if I had a headache, because I was leaning my head on the seat in front of me.  I held the book and sort of sniffled and snuffled.  "Beautiful.  Sad.  Just," and boo-hooed some more.

.       Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides.  Even though the novel sort of falls apart at the end (in my humble opinion) I still think there is much to love in this novel which traces the history of a family of Greek immigrants in Detroit.

.       Huckleberry Finn & Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain.  Oh, I'm also going to throw them in.  Again, very, very American.  Loved them growing up, and still as an adult.

 

Poetry

.       Open Shutters:  Poems - Mary Jo Slater

o      Snowbirds

o      The Reader

.       On The Bus with Rosa Parks:  Poems - Rita Dove

• Lady Freedom Among Us.  I like a lot of Rita Dove's poems.  I like this one because it's about Lady Freedom, who stands atop the U.S. Capitol.  Dove was inspired to write the poem when she actually saw Ms. Freedom at street level (when she was taken down from the top of the building for a good cleaning and refurbishing).  Great American feel to the poem.

.       Lucky Man Cafe - Cynthia Gallaher.  Awesome poem about a Polish cafe in Chicago - brings tears to my eyes EVERY time I read it, and I'm not even a Polish immigrant (and not even Polish, for that matter.)

.       What The Fortune Teller Didn't Say - Shirley Geok-Lin Lim

• Learning To Love America

.       Love Poem With Toast - Miller Williams.

"Some of what we do, we do / to make things happen / the alarm to wake us up, the coffee to perk / the car to start.  The rest of what we do, we do / trying to keep something from doing something / the skin from aging, the hoe from rusting / the truth from getting out."  Goes from there.  Love it!

.       The Little Ways That Encourage Good Fortune - William Stafford.  Very wise.  He wrote some very good poems.

.       The Journey -  Mary Oliver

.       Spring Evening on Blind Mountain - Louise Erdrich.  Beautiful, and I love the last line ("I don't even have to write this down")

.       Robert Frost - numerous poems.

.       Carl Sandburg!  Love several of his poems.  Again, off of the top of my head . . hmm, this one sounds hokey, but I absolutely adore "Milk-white Moon, Put The Cows To Sleep" for various reasons, all wonderful (one big reason: I loved reading it to my children).

 

Kim Parsons

Fiction

.       The Condition - Jennifer Haigh. Told from the point of voice of 5 characters - really well done.

.       Ceremony - Leslie Marmon Silko. An amazing blend of real and surreal; both are treated so naturally that they form a seamless, unified world - like the one we each live in...

.       Peace Like a River - Leif Enger. A wonderful story told in beautiful prose.

.       House of Sand and Fog - Andre Dubus. The most beautifully written book I've ever read.

.       The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing - Melissa Bank. A deceptively simple novel - I've read it several times to enjoy and absorb how she does what she does.

.       Body and Soul - Frank Conroy. A gorgeous book!

.       To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee. This is the only book she ever wrote - I only hope some day I can write as wonderful a book - might as well aim for the moon...

.       One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I love how he takes me to totally unknown worlds in all his books.

.       The Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Brave New World, Sons and Lovers, Dodsworth, Crime and Punishment, Portrait of a Lady, Madame Bovary, As I Lay Dying. Ages ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I had time on my hands and I decided I hadn't read enough of the classics, so I compiled a reading list and started to read - I couldn't believe what I had been missing!

 

Non Fiction

.       Winterdance - Gary Paulson. He decides to run the Iditarod - a great adventure told with great humor.

.       Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why - Laurence Gonzales. He explores what it takes to survive in extreme situations - riveting wilderness survival stories that he relates to what we all go through in everyday life.

.       Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey. Classic nature writing.

.       Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog - Ted Kerasote. He takes home a stray and decides to see what he can learn from the dog.

.       When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris. This is his latest collection of essays, but all his books are wonderful - he's very funny but what's so amazing is how naked he is on the page!

.       The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell.

 

Poetry

.       The Fork - Charles Simic.

.       A Blessing & Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio - James Wright

.       Sun Under Wood - Robert Hass. I never cared for long poems until I read this collection.

.       One Art - Elizabeth Bishop

.       Fog-Horn - W. S. Merwin

.       The Seven Very Liberal Arts. - Marilyn Taylor.  Our very own Milwaukee gem! I'm even lucky enough to have a copy of her limited edition crown of sonnets

.       Louise Gluck

.       Edna St. Vincent Millay - Amazing use of metaphor - check out Sonnet XLVI.

.       Ilya Kaminsky

 

Books on Writing

.       Bird by Bird:  some instructions on writing and life - Anne Lamott. A classic I return to whenever my head starts to get in the way of my writing.

.       Old Friend from Far Away - Natalie Goldberg. The book is for writing memoir, but it has wonderful writing prompts that work great for fiction, too. Whenever I don't know what to write next, I flip it open.

.       The Poet's Companion - Kim Addonizio and Doreanne Laux. Wonderful poetry how-to that briefly covers poetry topics in a concrete way and gets you writing.

 

Maureen Kolb

Fiction

.       First Comes Love - Marion Winik

.       Cowboys Are My Weakness:  Stories  - Pam Houston

.       The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

.       Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

.       TheThornbirds - Colleen McCullough.  I read it when I was 13 years old and refused to read the last page because I couldn't stand the thought of the book ending.

.       The Reincarnation of Peter Proud - Max Ehrlich.  My aunt caught me reading it when I was 12 and told me parents because she thought they'd be concerned and they didn't give a crap!  Ha!  One of the best opening scenes I've ever read.

.       Hawaii: A Novel - James A. Michener.  People were having sex behind trees and I couldn't believe it.  Again, my parents let me read all 2,000 pages of it ...

 

Non Fiction

.       Drinking the Rain: A Memoir - Alix Kates Shulman

.       Good to Great; Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't - Jim Collins

.       The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

.       Codependent No More:  How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself - Melody Beattie

.       Man's Search for Meaning - Victor E. Frankl

.       10 Greatest Gifts I Give My Children:  Parenting from the heart - Steven W. Vannoy

.       The Dance of Intimacy & The Dance of  Anger -  Harriet Lerner

.       Synchronicity:  The Inner Path of Leadership - Joseph  Jaworski

.       The Five Love Languages:  How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate - Gary Chapman (Known to save a few marriages.  Don't be put off that they categorize it in the Christianity section...

.       Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

.       The Liars' Club:  A Memoir - Mary Karr

.       All Over But the Shoutin' - Rick Bragg.  Favorite line:  "...she was cool as the flip side of your pillow on a hot summer night."

.       With No Apologies - Barry Goldwater

.       I Never Played The Game - Howard Cosell

.       Me  - Katherine Hepburn

.       Grinding It Out - Ray Kroc

.       Made in America - Sam Walton

.       Iococca -  Lee Iococca

.       Eckart Tolle - great, just overblown by Oprah

.       Anything by:

o      Chris Bohjalian

o      Anne Lamott

o      Wally Lamb

o      Richard Russo

o      Anne Tyler

 

Laurel Landis

Fiction

.       Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov.  The ultimate obsession.  I've been Humbert, and I've been Lolita, my copy is held together by pure spit at this point.

.       Maurice & Passage To India - E.M Forster. My favorite old guy, beautiful writing, read both of these several times.

.       The Woman in the Dunes - Kobo Abe.  Major favorite, picked because of the title, what a great surprise.

.       The Painted Bird - Jerzy Kozinski.  A twisted mother f#$% who fascinated me.

.       Cockpit - Jerzy Kozinski.  You might find offensive, I did, but enjoyed it anyway, but this one, this is a masterpiece.

.       Raise the Red Lantern - Su Tong.  Warning, very depressing, great story

.       The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood.  My kind of sci fi.

.       A Box of Matches - Nicholson Baker.  Wish I'd written it - explores the beauty of daily routine.

.       The Story of O - Pauline Reage.  Classic erotic lit, um, jist of this is not for everyone, fascinated me when I read it and the idea still does. 

.       Little Birds - Anais Nin.  More erotica, stories commissioned by a client.

.       Affliction &  The Sweet Hereafter - Russell Banks

.       Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card.  More great sci fi with a point.

.       Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice.  Most vampire books stink, not this one.

.       Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller

.       I Robot - Isaac Asimov.  The written equivalent of comfort food.

.       I Lucifer - Glen Duncan.  Yes, it's about Satan. A little tiring but dang, different style.

.       Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury .  I've read this like, 6 times, it's a childhood holdover and I'll write my own version one day.

.       The Genesis Code - John Case. Fluffy pleasure, with my favorite mix - religion and suspense. No, this is not the one everyone got upset about.

.       The Mosquito Coast - Paul Theroux.

.       Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heilein

.       Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

.       Christine or Thinner - Stephen King. I loved Stephen King - or let's say, I enjoyed the hell out of him. I admit it. And I know the problem with that.

.       Ayn Rand - I've read all of them, not always great writing but I had an objectivist period (right after the punk period, and both were severe)

.       Jane Austen

 

Non Fiction

.       The Island of Lost Maps - Miles Harvey. If you like maps you'll love this book.

.       Memories, Dreams, Reflections - Carl Jung

.       Man and His Symbols - Carl Jung

.       The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.  Try it, it's fascinating.

.       Riding the Iron Rooster - Paul Theroux. 

.       Bill Bryson - anything but especially In a Sunburned Country

.       Peter Kramer's - He's a shrink who should have been a writer, just pick him up and you'll see.

 

Poetry

.       Osip Emilevich Mandelshtam

 

Books On Writing

.       Writing Past Dark - Bonnie Friedman.  Great writing. 

.       The Writer's Books of Days - Judy Reeves - mostly because I love the year's worth of daily writing prompts.

 

Sally Pla

Fiction

.       Plainsong - Kent Haruf

.       The Monk - Matthew Lewis.  Gothic trash.  It's old, creepy and fabulous. 

.       Forever Amber - Kathleen Winsor.  Ambitious country wench becomes mistress to King Charles.  I learned more Brit history from this than from my history texts.  She even catches the bubonic plague.  It's an awesome, fun book. 

.       Saturday - Ian McEwan

.       Atonement - Ian McEwan

.       Peace Like a River - Leif Enger

.       Gilead - Marilynne Robinson

.       Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson

.       A Mercy  - Toni Morrison

.       Jhumpa Lahiri.  I love everything she has written.

.       John Cheever's short stories

 

Non Fiction

.       Pilgrim At Tinker Creek -- Annie Dillard's intense, fascinating, philosophical meanderings

.       I Am A Strange Loop - Douglas Hofstadter.  Theory of consciousness, amazing, really tough read.  Took me forever to get it into my thick skill, but once I did, it really changed me.

.       Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson.  An uplifting true tale of radical philanthropy.  Love this guy.

.       The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat is So Small - Marian Wright Edelman. On how we MUST take care of our nation's - and the world's - children.

.        A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson.  Great easy-to-read history of science.

.       Carl Sagan.  Tend to like science and political writing.  If anyone wants a very left-leaning political book list, write me.

 

Poetry

.       The Lanyard - Billy Collins. An all-time favorite.

.       Lake Isle at Innisfree - William Butler Yeats.  I wanted to give each of our boys the middle name of Innisfree, I love this poem so much, but Fred put his foot down.

.       One More New Botched Beginning - Stephen Spender.  A beautiful, wistful sense of time and nostalgia.

.       October Morning - Robert Frost.  "...for the grapes' sake" So beautiful.

.       Sonnet CXVI - Shakespeare

.       Dylan Thomas

 

Books on Writing

.       Story : Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting- Robert McKee

.       Stealing Fire from the Gods - James Bonnet.  Based on Joseph Campbell's mythical archetypes of story. 

.       The Writer's Journey - Christopher Vogler. More elaborate than Stealing Fire from the Gods.  These two are great if you're into plotting a novel.

.       Bird by Bird:  some instructions on writing and life - Anne Lamott

.       On Writing Well - William K. Zinsser & The Elements of Style - William Strunk & E.B. White.  Can't be beat,

.       Alice La Plante

.       Natalie Goldberg - on my list to read.

.       Stephen King - supposedly has a good one.  Haven't read it.

 

SARA RATTAN

Fiction

.       Plainsong - Kent Haruf

.       Homestead - Rosina Lippi

.       Truth & Beauty - Ann Patchett

.       Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

.       The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (fun!)

.       The Land Remembers - Ben Logan

.       Heat Wave - Penelope Lively

.       Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner

.       Anne Tyler

.       My Life & Dr. Joyce Brothers - Kelly Cherry

 

Books On Writing

.       Writing Down the Bones - Natalie Goldberg

.       If You Want to Write - Brenda Ueland

.       The I Ching for Writers - Sarah Jane Sloane.  I don't understand how it works - but it works.  I almost always get a 'start' when my engine's cold and I have no ideas.

.       Ron Carlson Writes a Story - Ron Carlson.  Carlson walks us through the writing of a short story and if you've ever wanted to flee your work --- for that cup of coffee, or to unload a dishwasher, or to surf the Internet, you must read this book.  Also, very helpful, he illustrates how to incorporate a physical object into a story if you're stuck and it is amazing to see where it takes him.  It's a blow-by-blow, darn near 'paragraph by paragraph' autopsy of the writing of a story.

.       Poem Crazy - Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge.  Even if you don't write poems!  You just might.

.       The Courage to Write - Ralph Keyes.  When encouragement is needed.

.       John Gardner & Sol Stein - Craft for those of us who have been learning as we go along.

 

SHARON SAMPLE

.       The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Now, don't roll your eyes.  Think about it from a writer's perspective.  Can you use the word 'careless' multiple times in one paragraph and make it work?  What about the scene with the eyeglasses on the billboard looking down?  Then, of course, there is the famous shirt scene.

.       The Lymond Chronicles - Dorothy Dunnett.  This is a series of 6 books of historical fiction.  The setting is Scotland, France, Greece, and Russia between 1547 and 1558.  I have the complete set and have read all of them three times since discovering them in 1999.  Along with the great story the books are written in the third-person omniscient, which makes for another great study in writing.

.       Ian Rankin - mystery series set in Scotland. 

.       Peter Robinson - mystery series set in Yorkshires. Both Rankin and Robinson write excellent mysteries with a flawed policeman as the lead character.  The character development in both of these books is remarkable for their genre.

 

Rae Spencer

Fiction

.       The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster (Illustrations by Jules Feifer).  Technically this is a kid's book.  Don't believe it!  This has been a yearly read for 30 years!

.       A Prayer for Owen Meany  - John Irving

.       The Sparrow & Children of God - Mary Doria Russell.  Illustration that God paints in time. 

.       Folly - Laurie R. King.  Testament to our ability to survive and become strong.

.       A Darker Place - Laurie R. King.  Another great mix of religion and suspense.

.       Gaudy Night - Dorothy L. Sayers.  She writes a series of murder mysteries set in England between WWI and WWII.  Her main sleuth of Lord Peter Wimsey, the perfect man for feminists!  Her female character is Helen Vane --- there are three stories that relate to Peter and Helen's romance.  This is the final, so it would be helpful to read the first two - Strong Poison & Have His Carcass.  It's early feminism ... a great read!

.       On Being Told Her Second Husband Has Taken His First Lover - Tess Slesinger.  Wonderful short stories.  Ms. Slesinger died young ... a great literary loss.

.       Barbara Kingsolver

 

Non Fiction

.       A Singular Pilgrim - Rosemary Mahoney.  I love all her travel books, but this is my favorite.  I go back and read portions throughout the year.

.       Dakota, Amazing Grace, The Cloister Walk - Kathleen Norris.  Her writing brought me back to my spiritual journey.

.       Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert.  Another great 'journey' book.  My favorite is the 'Pray' section - helped me get the 'lesson' of my California experience.

 

Poetry

.       Amsterdam Days - Judith Zukerman.  Many of you know her through Redbird Studio.  Great book ... always by the side of my bed and often travels with me.

 

KIM SUHR

Fiction

.       I do have every Barbara Kingsolver book on my shelf.  (Even when she's preaching to the choir, I love her writing.) I just reread The Poisonwood Bible and got new insights into what's happening in Congo today.

.       Since I've mentioned this book to more than one person lately, I'll include Couldn't Keep it to Myself  by Wally Lamb (of She's Come Undone fame) and the Women of the York Correctional Institution -- Lamb helped incarcerated women find their voices through writing in community. Powerful, sad, even hopeful at times.

.       For some reason, The Doll Maker stands out as a book that made me see the world through new eyes. Can't tell you how or why that's so -- I've been meaning to pick it up again to see if I can figure it out.

.       I'm currently reading Mother of Pearl, by Melinda Haynes. It's sort of uneven: there are times when I think "If she'd only brought this section to a Roundtable, we could have really helped her out" and others when the writing is breathtaking.

 

Non Fiction

.       Also, I picked up a copy of The Oxford Project -- a photographer took portraits of nearly member of Oxford, Iowa and returned 20 years later with his camera and a writer to capture their stories. (Peter Feldstein and Stephen Bloom) Quite a book.

 

Poetry

.       Love, love, love Billy Collins. Anyone who says they don't like poetry should be introduced to Collins, I say.

 

Books On Writing

.       My favorite writing book comes from Stephen King, On Writing. 

.       Of course, I love

• Natalie Goldberg
• Julia Cameron
• Anne Lamott

 

CAROL WOBIG

Fiction

.       So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell.  The scene on Page 7 will always be with me.  Purchased in 1980.

.       Any short story by

o      Alice Munro

o      Roxana Robinson

o      Antonya Nelson

 

Books On Writing

.       Immediate Fiction - Jerry Cleaver.  When I started doing short stories, I outlined the chapters on notebook paper, taped them in strips, and attached them to twine, and then thumb-tacked on the walls in my office.  When I got stumped or felt like crying with the frustration of it all, I'd walk around the room and let him get me back on track.