Adventures in Pen Land: One Writer's Journey from
Inklings to Ink by Marianne GingherLooking for an author to interview or an interesting story. . . . . Then this is the place to start!
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For more information about any of these books and authors contact Beth Chandler,
Publicity Manager, at chandlerb@umsystem.edu.
Adventures in Pen Land: One Writer's Journey from
Inklings to Ink by Marianne Gingher
Gingher's unabashed account of her literary education is chock-full of side-splitting observations. She invites us along on a raucous tour of soul-sucking jobs, marriage, and a teaching career, with accompanying disquisitions on blasphemous reading preferences, '60s pop culture, writing workshops, and other amusing detours and distractions on the way to publication. She also shares her keen insights into the role of a southern writer in American literary culture and the experience of writing as a mother. Lighthearted illustrations by novelist Daniel Wallace (author of Big Fish) depict this writer and her imagination growing up together.
Of Spies and Spokesmen: My
Life as a Cold War Correspondent by Nicholas Daniloff
In this riveting memoir, Daniloff describes the reality of journalism behind the Iron Curtain: how Western reporters banded together to thwart Soviet propagandists, how their “official sources” were almost always controlled by the KGB—and how those sources would sometimes try to turn newsmen into collaborators. When Daniloff was arrested and thrown into prison as a spy, the incident threatened to undo the Reykjavik summit until a solution was worked out. Daniloff also tells how the news media played a crucial role in resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis, recalls the emotional impact of the JFK assassination on Soviet leadership, and describes the behind-the-scenes struggles that catapulted Mikhail Gorbachev to power.
Painting Missouri: The
Counties en Plein Air text by Karen Glines. Artwork by Billyo
O'Donnell
With more counties than most other states, Missouri posed a unique challenge for Billyo O'Donnell: an outdoor painting on location-en plein air-for each of Missouri's 114 counties plus the city of St. Louis. Here are scenes both familiar and intimate: farmhouses and barns, Lover's Leap in Hannibal, and the view of St. Louis from the roof of the Cathedral Basilica. Accompanying the paintings are essays by Karen Glines, who provides essential historical information about the counties, from interesting facts about their foundings and names to the stories behind their courthouses. Additional comments by O'Donnell relate some of his experiences while creating the paintings. "In Missouri," observes O'Donnell, "I have found all that an artist needs, and beyond this, I have found an even deeper connection to place."
The Power of Two: A Twin
Triumph over Cystic Fibrosis by Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and Anabel Stenzel
The tragedy of cystic fibrosis has been touchingly recounted before, but this is the first book to portray the symbiotic relationship between twins who share this life-threatening disease through adulthood. Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and Anabel Stenzel tell of their struggle to pursue normal lives while grappling with the realization that they will die young. Their story reflects the physical and emotional challenges of a particularly aggressive form of CF and tells how the twins’ bicultural heritage—Japanese and German—influenced the way they coped. The Power of Two is an honest and gripping portrayal of day-to-day health care, the impact of chronic illness on marriage and family, and the importance of a support network to continuing survival. These two remarkable sisters have much to teach about the power of perseverance—and about the ultimate power of hope.
Holding Out and Hanging On:
Surviving Hurricane Katrina Photographs and Narratives by Thomas Neff
Words cannot adequately convey the human dimension of the devastation wreaked on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Thomas Neff’s photographs can. A volunteer in the city in the early days after the flood, this Baton Rouge photographer witnessed firsthand the confusion and suffering, as well as the persistence and strength, of those who stuck it out. The friendship he extended residents enabled him to approach his subjects from a uniquely personal perspective. Readers will meet people from all walks of life who are exhausted by grief and shock but who are determined to hold on to their culture and their city. Neff’s gripping black-and-white images and poignant narratives show individuals reorganizing their lives, trying to maintain their individuality, and even enriching their souls as they help one another. These are the stories that New Orleans citizens told each other and photographs that show the city as it knows itself.
Scoundrels
to the Hoosegow: Perry Mason Moments and Entertaining Cases from the Files of a
Prosecuting Attorney by Morley Swingle
In Scoundrels to the Hoosegow, a veteran prosecutor who is also a consummate storyteller shares more than thirty entertaining legal stories drawn from real life, re-creating, with verve and wit, villains, heroes, and ordinary citizens. In cases both tragic and hilarious, Morley Swingle offers a behind-the-scenes look at the justice system, taking readers from the scene of the crime to the courtroom as he explores the worlds of judges, attorneys, police officers, and criminals. Not since the author of Anatomy of a Murder, Robert Traver, wrote Small Town D.A. fifty years ago has an American prosecutor penned such a candid, revealing, and funny account of the job-an altogether satisfying book that sentences the reader to many hours of enjoyment.
Good-bye to the
Mermaids: A Childhood Lost in Hitler's Berlin by Karin Finell
This book conveys the horrors of war as seen through the innocent eyes of a child. It is the story of World War II as it affected three generations of middle-class German women: Karin, six years old when the war began, who was taken in by Hitler’s lies; her mother, Astrid, a rebellious artist who occasionally spoke out against the Nazis; and her grandmother Oma, a generous and strong-willed woman who, having spent her own childhood in America, brought a different perspective to the events of the time. It tells of a convoluted world where children were torn between fear and hope, between total incomprehension of events and the need to simply deal with reality.
The St. Louis
Baseball Reader by Richard Peterson
The St. Louis Cardinals are the most successful franchise in National League history, while the St. Louis Browns were one of the least successful, yet most colorful American League teams. Now Richard Peterson has collected the writings of some of baseball’s greatest storytellers to pay tribute to both these teams. His book, the first anthology devoted exclusively to the Cardinals and Browns, covers the rich history of St. Louis baseball from its late-nineteenth-century origins to the modern era.
Dreaming the
Mississippi by Katherine Fischer
In Dreaming the Mississippi, Katherine Fischer offers a fresh perspective on the river's environment, industry, and recreation by sharing experiences of modern Americans who work the barges, rope-swing into muddy bottoms, struggle against hurricane floodwaters, and otherwise find new meaning on this great watery corridor. Through compelling words and photographs, Dreaming the Mississippi invites readers to taste life on today's Mississippi, as sweet, tangy, and wildly cantankerous as it gets.
Stuart Symington is the first full-length biography of one of Missouri's most influential and effective twentieth-century political leaders. It tells the story of a remarkable man whose adult life was spent at or near the center of power in America, a man who was talented and ambitious, yet maintained a realistic touch that enabled him to connect with ordinary people.
A Portrait of Missouri, 1935-1943: Photographs from the Farm Security Administration.
"The photographs are engrossing. They show the efforts of the Farm Security Administration to illustrate the problems of the 1930s and the results of the programs designed by the New Deal to address these problems. More than simply being a vehicle of persuasion, however, these photographs document the way Missourians lived during the period."-Lawrence Christensen
Meeting Sophie: A Memoir of Adoption
Meeting Sophie tells the story of Nancy McCabe adopting a Chinese daughter and the many obstacles she faced during the adoption and adjustment process as she renegotiated her role within her family and fought difficulties in her job. Especially poignant is her struggle to bond with a sick, grieving baby while in a foreign country during political unrest-followed, upon her return to the U.S., by a devastating loss and a career crisis.
For more information about any of these books and authors contact Beth Chandler, Publicity Manager, at chandlerb@umsystem.edu.
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