Quirky Stuff

I'll wager that practically none of you have ever heard of Edward Abbey. Born in 1927, Abbey may well have been the original "green warrior." This iconoclastic writer modeled his productive output on the work of Thomas Paine, and was probably as much a burr in the saddle to the establishment in his day as Paine was in his. His best known works were Desert Solitaire (a nonfiction paean to the glories of the desert, written after he spent a year as a volunteer ranger in the Arches National Monument) and The Monkey-Wrench Gang (the fictional story of a group of friends who disrupt "economic development" industrial projects in the name of the ecology).

One of Abbey's quirks was to afflict the comfortable via postcard. Ann, who like me didn't know of Abbey, was struck by the messages he left from the grave in the recent release, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast, edited by David Petersen and published by Milkweed Editions. The book is variously described as "insanely readable," and "sometimes nutty, sometimes dead-on." One of my personal heroes, Wendell Berry, contributed this: "I read him for consolation, for the comfort of being told the truth."

Rather than "sell" you on the book, let me just share on piece, short on the page, but long on a blog.

James Morgan, Articles Editor
Playboy Magazine, Chicago (2 January 1984)
Dear Mr. Morgan:

Thank you for the Christmas card. Of course I would like to write something for Playboy again, if we can agree on a topic.

At the moment I'm on page 901 of another novel, this one a sort of picaresque Rablaisian Appalachian hillbilly family saga farce and tragedy. If your fiction editor would like to tak a look, I'll type up a chapter or two of it and send it along. Ask him/her to give me guidelines as to maximum length.

But I'm also interested in doing essays and journalism, altho' not in the field of environmental issues; I am still very much an eco-freak and wild preservationist but I have had nothing new to say on the subject for years. General travel is more my line now (see my Alaska piece in the March Outside, or my next book, Beyond the Wall, also due in March or April), and social and literary commentary.

E.g., I've been making notes lately for an essay on the subject "Great Living Bores," or "The Great American Bores" or some such title. [REMEMBER THIS WAS 1984 - R.S.] My initial nominees for the list would be such folk as Jackie K Onassis, Henry Kissinger, Normal [sic] Mailer, William F Buckley and George F Will (because of their push-button opinions on any conceivable subject), perhaps Muhammad Ali (tho' he seems to be fading fast; should have thought of this several years ago), John Updike (for the rabbit story), maybe Ted Kennedy, maybe Susan "Creamcheese" Sontag (what she really wanted was to grow up to be a Frenchman), John Travolta certainly and other hack show bix types, Jesse Jackson and Walter Mondale, I'm sure, will be boring us silly in the months to come, the whole line-up of the Baltimore Orioles, Bob Dylan (changing his religion every six months), James Michener, Jesse Helms, Yasser Arafat, Hugh Hefner (oops!), Pope JP II (often pictured out here in the SW as a "Pope-alope," with pronghorns), Buckminster Fuller (tho' recently deceased), Carlos Castaneda, Jerry Falwell, etc. etc. Perhaps the list is already too long.

In any case, my emphasis would be a discussion of the qualities and nature of a great public bore, as opposed to merely minor, personal and "scintillating" bores.

And then, I'm thinking of going to Abyssinia next November for an exploration of the Omoo River. I know you're not particularly interested in any more river trip journals but I'm sure I'd find much of interest in Ethiopia to write about along with hippos, crocodiles & cannibals & black Reds. If I go I may take a look at South Africa, too, and even try to get into SW Africa and the sporadic guerilla warfare said to be smoldering there.
I want to go to Australia one more time. Perhaps never to return. And if I ever finish this goddamn endless novel I plan to write a serious book about Mexico - The Smoking Volcano on our Border.

Say hello to Gonzo Gonzales for me. I've lost his address. I hear he's recently had published a novel about Mexico or something to do with the Mexican revolutionaries. Ask him to send me a copy, I want to read it, and if he does I'll send him a copy of my next book.

Sincerely, Edward Abbey - Oracle

I'm fascinated by each letter and postcard I've read. They are a mix of notes to editors, letters to the editors, governors and bureaucrats, and notes to literary luminaries of his day. I think you might enjoy it.

Postcards from Ed edited by David Petersen
ISBN 9781571312846 Milkweed Editions Sept. 2006 (Hardcover ) $24.95 296 pp.

What I'm reading: Land of Lincoln by Andrew Ferguson ISBN 9780781139672 June 2007

Earth IS in the Balance

We've watched with some envy the dramatic way our neighboring state has committed to the promotion of tourism and economic development. An outstanding way to boost your economy is to draw visitors from outside the state.

But the private sector does a fine job, too. James Bilodeau has compiled a compelling list of free attractions in the Bluegrass State and will be appearing to promote his book, Free Kentucky: Free things to see and do in the Bluegrass State, at Destinations Booksellers this Saturday, April 14, at 11 a.m.

Come by to hear Bilodeau discuss the book and the attractions in Kentucky to get this next spring weekend off to a rousing start. His publisher, Xavier House Publishing, will soon be releasing Free Tennessee and we can only hope they'll consider a Hoosier edition soon.

Then, travel from here to the Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville for Southern Indiana's celebration of Earth Day. This celebration of all things healthy for our planet was the brainchild of Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson. Did you know that our own Carnegie Center's Suellen Wilkinson was a good friend to Sen. Nelson and worked closely with him on Earth Day and other progressive causes?

The celebration at the Falls is a day-long event featuring earth-friendly techniques, products, and ideas you can use. Jamey Aebersold Jazz is subsidizing free admission to the interpretive center and will perform at mid-day. Great food and fun for the kids, too.

For the third straight year, Destinations Booksellers will be participating in the event. This year we've arranged for a corps of local authors to appear to discuss, sign, and sell their books. Please drop by the Destinations tent and show your support for local authors.

In addition, we have a special nature and ecology display set up at the store to commemorate Earth Day.

April is also National Poetry Month and with Easter finery now put away, our prime display is a selection of poetry that most of you have probably never seen.

Have a great week, a great Earth Day, and a great Poetry Month.

Beneath the Radar

Sometimes a book doesn't get its due, and sometimes it gets lost in the mass of information that flows, especially at Christmastime.

I just finished this book and can tell you it's a story I never knew before. From what I had known about Admiral Halsey, I admired him. My admiration is not lessened after reading this, but my empathy for our WWII naval personnel certainly increased.

I'm going to cheat a bit (I still don't have Internet at home) by using a general piece from the publisher to describe the book, but here's a piece of trivia. Admiral William Halsey was colloquially known as "Bull" - and his personality fit the moniker. But Halsey hated the name. He said he didn't want to acquire such a name simply because a drunken journalist type "u" instead of "i" in a dispatch, but the name, intended or not, stuck.

Halsey and his superior, Adm. Chester Nimitz, were both awarded a fifth star at the conclusion of the war, the first ever awarded.
In December 1944, America's most popular and colorful naval hero, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, unwittingly sailed his undefeated Pacific Fleet into the teeth of a powerful typhoon. Three destroyers were capsized, sending hundreds of sailors and officers into the raging, shark-infested waters. Over the next sixty hours, small bands of survivors fought seventy-foot waves, exhaustion, and dehydration to await rescue at the hands of the courageous Lt. Com. Henry Lee Plage, who, defying orders, sailed his tiny destroyer escort USS Tabberer through 150-mph winds to reach the lost men. Thanks to documents that have been declassified after sixty years and dozens of first-hand accounts from survivors--including former President Gerald Ford--one of the greatest World War II stories, and a riveting tale of survival at sea, can finally be told.

Halsey's Typhoon by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury
ISBN 9780871139481 November 2006 Atlantic Monthly Press (Hardcover) $25

One on One With the Author

Did you ever want to spice up your book club in a way you've never been able to do?


How about having a national bestselling author make a visit?

Ballantine Books is holding a contest to bring the author of The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood to you.

A naturalist by trade, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart and home to a sickly piglet who had been crowded away from feedings by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive, but flourish - and through Christopher, she soon found herself united with the people in her small town community in ways she had never dreamed possible.

The Good Good Pig is a story about discovering the meaning of family, the value of community, our ability to love and be loved, and our relationship with all creatures great and small. Not only will this not-so-little piggy steal your heart, he'll have your book club talking for hours.

Choose The Good Good Pig as your next book club selection and enter for a chance to have author Sy Montgomery attend one of your club's meetings in person. The first 200 clubs to respond will receive a free hardcover copy of The Good Good Pig. Visit www.goodgoodpig.com/bookclub for full rules and contest details.

Thanks to Ballantine Books for making the above offer. The book is available in hardcover now and in paperback on April 17. Book clubs purchasing five or more copies can get the hardcover for the same price as the paperback between now and that date.

I Feel Bad About My Neck...

Sometimes it's just fun to be a bookseller. Great writers edify, but they also must entertain. Nothing is more fun than to be able to offer up a book like Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman.

Over the holidays, a select group of readers swarmed to this book. It was a common gift among a certain segment. Women were giving it to a friend or sister. Men were giving it to their wives. And the book continues to have legs.

That's understandable if you've read Nora Ephron. Her more famous book is the thinly veiled Heartburn, a fictional retelling of her marriage to and divorce from Carl Bernstein. She's a frequent contributor to literate magazines (I recently read a piece by her about falling in love with an apartment; she lived in a fabulous rent-controlled New York apartment for about 20 years. When it went condo, she thought she couldn't give it up, but learned that you can walk away from an apartment you thought you loved - well, it was funnier and more poignant when she wrote it!). She's a blogger at The Huffington Post. But you know her best as a screenwriter (Sleepless in Seattle; When Harry Met Sally; You've Got Mail!).

Here's a snippet from Neck, from the chapter titled "The Story of My Life in 3,500 Words"

My sister Delia says this, and it's true. When we were growing up, we used to love to hear the story of how our parents met and fell in love and eloped one summer when they were both camp counselors. It was so much a part of our lives, a song sung again and again, and no matter what happened, no matter how awful things became between the two of them, we always knew that our parents had once been madly in love.

But in a divorce, you never tell your children that you were once madly in love with their father because it would be too confusing.

And then, after a while, you can't even remember whether you were.

Isn't that great?

The book in my hand is the twenty-second printing! The dust jacket touts "Nationwide Best Seller." We've sold 18 copies since August, and let me tell you, that's not chicken feed for this store. I think you'll love it. It's not new in the sense that we just got it. But it's one of those gems that's going to have a long shelf-life. It's slim (perfect for a trip) and not too expensive ($19.95), and maybe now it's time for the guys to appreciate good, funny writing, too.




And, oh yeah, if you want to wait for it to come out in paperback, you'll only have to wait until April...2008. Here's the Random House browse widget. Come into the store and browse it, too...in our humor section.

I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
ISBN 9780307264558, Aug. 2006 (Knopf) $19.95 (Hardcover)

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"Small-Mart" Book is Truly Revolutionary

You'll note that Michael H. Shuman's The Small-Mart Revolution sits high atop our first "new and recommended" list. Its subtitle is "How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition," but it is far from a "business" book.

I wanted to read this from the first moment I heard about it, and then the Jeffersonville Main Street organization sponsored a smart growth conference and whaddayaknow? Mike Shuman came to lead a breakout session.

Let me just say that everyone should read it. It is the most hopeful communitarian book I've read in years. While it strongly reinforces the axiom that "shopping is a political act," it more accurately addresses the immorality of the way we consume without calling consumers immoral. Shuman doesn't condemn us for shopping at big-box stores. He doesn't expect us to boycott Wal-Mart. But he does offer us compelling reasons to buy local first.

Ann, reading another book altogether last night (wait until you hear about this one...hint: initials B.K.), rediscovered Shuman's reported statistic that on average, the food we eat is transported 1,500 miles - gobbling up a heckuva lot of petroleum to do so.

On the public policy front, Shuman calls for a level playing field for local businesses and makes a convincing argument that nurturing locals pays off for everyone. When comparing business types, he uses the analogies of LOIS and TINA. TINA is the economic development "grail," where far-off corporate interests are coddled and recruited on the basis that "There Is No Alternative (TINA)." He's much more interested in "Locally Owned-Import Subsituting (LOIS)" businesses.

Filled with facts that will make you think. You might just help save the world.

The Small-Mart Revolution by Michael Shuman
ISBN 9781576753866, 2006 Berrett-Koehler (Hardcover) $24

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