Blog - www.richardjespers.com

ONE DOCTOR REIMAGINES ELDERHOOD

11/1/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Contented children are valuable, as is the peace that surrounds them.
Gordon R. Dickson
Author of The Dragon Knight
Born November 1, 1923

G. Dickson

MY BOOK WORLD

Aronson, Louise. Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life. New York: Bloomsbury, 2019.

If this book wasn’t a best-seller in 2019, it should have been. Easy to read and digest, the book explores the entire scale of one’s life: birth, childhood, adulthood, middle-age, young-old, and old-old. Aronson boldly shares her experiences as a doctor who loves working for and with the elderly. She reveals that when people hear the word “old,” they think: wrinkled, bent over, slow moving, bald, and white hair. When people hear the word elder, however, they think respect, leader, experience, power, money, and knowledge.

The book isn’t entirely anecdotal; Aronson weaves in lots of data, lots of science, much of it contradicting the current (and for the last fifty years) “wisdom” on how to treat the elderly (mostly by isolation and medicating them as if their bodies were still younger). With the population of elders in this world only growing by the day, she calls for a new way of thinking about the old. New ways would treat the elderly as individuals, as if their lives still mattered, not just their bodies. Physicians don’t mind keeping the old bodies alive; in fact, they almost insist on it. Yet they don’t necessarily want to handle the rest of the old body: the brain, the emotions such as loneliness, fear, and anxiety.

I read this while a loved one of mine (an elderly) was in the hospital and now rehab. The author’s words helped tide me over, so that I might make better decisions for him. Again, well worth the time. Aronson is a fine writer, an excellent physician, but most of all, a caring human being. I wish she were my doctor.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ida Tarbell
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Maria Shriver
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Guy Gavriel Kay
FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez, The Cemetery of Untold Stories: A Novel

NOT NECESSARILY HIS BEST

10/25/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic. Self-expression? Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself.
Zadie Smith
Author of White Teeth
Born October 25, 1975

Z. Smith

MY BOOK WORLD

Sedaris, David. The Best of Me. New York: Little, Brown, 2020.

Funny how authors view their own oeuvre. I’ve always been fond of Sedaris’s work, but these selections, though engaging and humorous in places, did not really seem like his “best.” His best usually contains little sentiment, yet much bawdiness and irreverence. The collection seemed too “nice.” A friend of mine, however, thought the collection “vulgar,” so there you go.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Edward P. J. Corbett
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Irma S. Rombauer
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Katherine Paterson
FRI: My Book World | Louise Aronson, Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life

JEWISH AMERICAN WARRIORS

10/4/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.
Anne Rice
Author of The Wolves of Midwinter
Born October 4, 1941

A. Rice

MY BOOK WORLD

Shulman, Norm. Love, Norm: Inspiration of a Jewish American Fighter Pilot. Lubbock: Texas Tech UP, 2022.

Psychologist Norm Shulman first meets Greg, the boy who is to become his stepson, when the boy is twelve. The book is many things: 1) a bit of Norm’s family history, his Polish-Jewish roots, his adolescent difficulties with math (with which I heavily identify) 2) a bit of world Jewish history, that these long-beleaguered people have always been warriors and not given proper credit for their service, and 3) letters that Norm writes to Greg while Greg is in Air Force pilot training. The latter comprises the spine of the book. Something I, as a fallen Gentile, was not aware of was the prejudice Jewish people have been subjected to concerning their military history: people claiming falsely that Jews avoid the military. Shulman does a superior job of informing readers of the many Jewish heroes (warriors) who have fought under various flags.

David Dragunsky is a Russian Jew who, as a tank driver, takes part in some of the most decisive battles on the eastern front of WWII. According to Shulman, “The vast majority of Jewish combat deaths, 212,000 out of a total of 270,000 occurred in this theater of war. Unfortunately, Cold War politics and propaganda prevented proper credit from being given to our Russian ally and its Jewish soldiers, but history can’t be changed” (25).Another hero of Shulman’s is Greg’s maternal grandmother, Opal Keith, who “was a member of the first regiment of Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) recruited at the beginning of World War II” (39). The author continues, week after week, letter after letter, to support his son with encouragement of this kind, reinforcing the importance of Jewish military personnel when others in flight school try to belittle or sneer at Greg’s own involvement (can antisemitism still exist in this century?). Greg gets the final word in the last chapter, in which he informs the reader of his appreciation and affection for his stepfather who has helped him through a year and a half of hellish pilot training. This is a fine book combining both the academics of history and the personal nature of memoir. It is a bold testament to a people who have suffered beyond endurance in world history, as well as at the local level, and still manage to rise to the level of hero.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Laura Pedersen
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Jody Williams
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Claude Simon
FRI: My Book World | Norm Shulman, Love, Norm: Inspiration of a Jewish American Fighter Pilot

HOW ART IS MADE

9/20/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
My kids have grown up knowing that their mom made a big investment in making sure there was art and language instruction in school and books in the library. Hopefully, they’ve internalized that.
Elise Broach
Author of The Miniature World of Marvin & James
Born September 20, 1963

E. Broach

MY BOOK WORLD

Moss, Adam. The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing. New York: Penguin, 2024.

I chose to read this book because I’ve always been interested in how creative people work, and because I heard author Adam Moss speak of his book on PBS’s Amanpour and Company. Moss, noted editor and journalist, over a period of many years, interviews forty-three artists, and he paints these portraits, so to speak, with a broad brush. He includes not only visual artists but writers, playwrights, poets, film directors, musician-composers, and some you wouldn’t consider artists at all. For example, he tells the story of two restaurateurs who create a new sandwich and a couple of men who build complex sand castles and photograph the final results.

The book is a visual delight. Moss includes an abundance of visual documentation: photographs, doodles, notebooks, and more. He recreates entire conversations with his subjects, notating who is speaking by way of a script-like presentation. He uses a red font for a sentence and a thin red line extending with an arrow to the example he wishes for you to view. He divides his text into bite-sized sections labeled in bold with a subtitle concerning the text to follow. Moreover, because he has known some of these people for so long, his narrative is a personal one. You feel as if you’ve been let in on some great secrets. Nearly half of the pages include footnotes in a teeny tiny font that challenges readers my age, but I read each one and they all seemed pertinent.

Moss’s subjects appear to have a master plan, whether it is a doodle on a napkin (such a cliché, but I can’t help it) to yards of paper outlining a project. Some projects take years, maybe decades, to come to fruition. The artist or writer abandons a project, then returns, a pattern repeated many times among Moss’s subjects. Or these people may produce many versions or drafts of the same work until it in some way pleases them as being “done.” Many feel that a particular piece is never done; it’s just time to quit and move on to something else.

Moss seems to be finishing this book during the pandemic. Many of the artists speak of how they deal with its chaos and isolation, how much is incorporated into their work or how hard they attempt to ignore the cataclysm and get on with their own work. Moss has selected a particularly apt title, because he demonstrates over and over again the sheer amount of labor—work—that goes into making art. A fine read for anyone but especially those looking for a handle on how art is made.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Alice Rossi
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Carlos Ruiz Zafon
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Scott Heim
FRI: My Book World | Paul Newman, The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir

THE TGIF CLUB

9/13/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
There is within every human being a deep well of thinking over which a heavy iron lid is kept clamped.
Sherwood Anderson
Author of Death in the Woods
Born September 13, 1876

S. Anderson

MY BOOK WORLD

Dunne, Griffin. The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir. New York: Random, 2024.

There may be several big takeaways from this celebrity memoir. One, rich (celebrities) and poor (ordinary citizens) alike can suffer from alcohol and drug problems. Two, rich and poor alike may lose a family member to murder and lose, as well, the court case against the accused murderer. Three, rich or poor, family support can mean everything to an individual who’s attempting to suffer through or recover from life’s insurmountable problems. Dunne—actor, producer, director, and writer—writes with humor (usually on the sardonic side) and understanding about his alcoholic father (also in the Biz and later a best-selling novelist), a difficult but caring mother with MS; his long friendship with the late Carrie Fisher (who hails from a similar background); the murder of his beloved sister, Dominique. At the same time the author portrays his mostly solid and loving relationships with relatives close and distant (his father’s brother is married to author Joan Didion, yet the two brothers do not speak for years). All in all, an enjoyable memoir. I know I kept turning the pages.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ken Kesey
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Anna Deavere Smith
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Tanith Lee
FRI: My Book World | Adam Moss, The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing

CROWDED APARTMENT

8/30/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
The Dawes Act . . . destroyed the Indian land base. Indian lands in 1887 totaled 154 million acres. When the law was repealed in 1934, Indian lands totaled about 48 million acres, a reduction of 70 percent over the lifetime of the measure.
Paul H. Carlson
Author of The Plains Indians
Born August 30, 1940

P. Carlson

MY BOOK WORLD

Wescott, Glenway. Apartment in Athens. New York: Harper, 1945.

During the latter part of World War II, Germans occupy Athens, and a Nazi officer is “assigned” to live with a couple and their two children. The officer expropriates the couple’s bedroom, and they must sleep on cots in the kitchen. His every wish is their command, so to speak. Life becomes unbearable, but at one point the officer must go to Germany. When he returns to Greece, he is a changed man. Spoiler alert: his wife and two grown sons have both been killed. Though still gruff, the Nazi is softened a bit. The father is drawn into a conversation with the Nazi, and the father says something that the officer deems traitorous. He is sent off to prison where he is killed. Mired in his misery, the Nazi commits suicide, and the mother thinks there will now be peace in their apartment. But she is soon disabused of such an idea when she is falsely accused of murdering the German. Even though that situation is resolved in her favor, she then sacrifices her young son to the underground. This book was a $4 find in a used bookstore, the owners not realizing this has rare book status with the Library of Congress!

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Sarah Orne Jewett
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Richard Wright
THURS: A Writer's Wit | John Cage
FRI: My Book World | Lawrence Wright, God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State

FISKE'S GRAMMAR

8/16/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
I can honestly say I feel like I have the best job in the world! At the moment I'm writing the next book, and every time I sit down to start a new Tom Gates book it's really exciting to think, “What can I do now?”
Liz Pichon
Author of The Brilliant World of Tom Gates
Born August 16, 1963

L. Pichon

MY BOOK WORLD

Fiske, Robert Hartwell. The Dictionary of Disagreeable English: A Curmudgeon’s Compendium of Excruciatingly Correct Grammar. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest, 2005.

Thank god for people like Fiske, who keep track of all the ins and outs of grammar (never grammer). And can remind us that the “l” in almond is silent (ah-mend). Or that alumnus is a male graduate, alumna a female graduate, and alumni signify male or female graduates, while alumnae = female graduates only. Fiske reminds us not to confuse mendicity (being beggarly) with mendacity (untruthfulness). To peruse material is not to give it a casual reading but a thorough one. Finally, zoology is pronounced zoh-ol-ah-jee, not with a zoo sound.

Handy little book to keep around, but Fiske might be reminded by linguists that the people solidify usage. Some day (soon?) there will be no whom in grammar books or dictionaries. Me and my brother will be perfectly acceptable (it already is among Z’s). Some of us don’t like it, but that’s how usage works. A thing gets employed so much it becomes acceptable, nay, becomes de rigueur. Remember thee and thou? Shalt not? Gone. Simply vanished. Again, I am thankful to have such a handy little handbook, but if Fiske hasn’t already had a heart attack, he’s certainly set up for one if he can’t loosen up a bit.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | James Rollins
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Sharon M. Draper
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Annie Proulx
FRI: My Book World | Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning

LINCOLN REVISITED

8/9/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It's very easy to enjoy yourself.
Tove Janssan
Author of The Summer Book
Born August 9, 1914

T. Janssan

MY BOOK WORLD

Freedman, Russell. Lincoln: A Photobiography. New York: Clarion, 1987.

A 1987 Newbery Award winner, this book informs all readers (not just children for whom it is meant) about things they might not have known concerning Abraham Lincoln. I am glad I finally read it and marveled in its unique photographs and illustrations.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Kate Walbert
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Steve Martin
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Robert Bolt
FRI: My Book World | Robert Fiske, The Dictionary of Disagreeable English

MOYERS ON MOYERS ON MOYERS

7/26/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day.
André Maurois
Author of September Roses
Born July 26, 1885

A Maurois

MY BOOK WORLD

Moyers, Bill. Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Time. Edited by Julie Leininger Pycior. New York: New Press, 2004.

I wish I’d read this book twenty years ago when it first came out. The author’s prescient views might have informed my future a bit. We may think that there is a lot wrong with our country now, but Moyers has us take a look at it in 1892. The People’s Party “meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin . . . . Corruption dominates the ballot box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even the bench . . . . The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced . . . . The fruits of toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few” (7). Seems as if we’re reading about certain groups today. The only difference is that because of social media, “public opinion” is far from being silenced. People can say whatever they want without a shred of evidence, making “truth” even more elusive than ever.

Tom Johnson, mayor of Cleveland in the early 1900s asserts about public ownership of local transportation: “‘If you don’t own them, they will own you.’ It’s why advocates of clean elections today argue that if anybody’s going to buy Congress, it should be the people. When advised that businessman [sic] got their way in Washington because they had lobbies and consumers had none, Tom Johnson responded: ‘If Congress were true to the principles of democracy it would be the people’s lobby.’ What a radical contrast to the House of Representatives today!” (14). Yes, if today every Democrat contributed only $5 a month as “dues” to the DNC, what the party couldn’t accomplish on their behalf! Fall down on the job, and you can withhold your $5!

Consider this jewel: “Money has robbed the middle class and the working poor of representation—and as they become weaker politically, they are even more insecure in their jobs, their savings, and their future” (61). What money? you ask. Money from corporate special interests, deep-pocketed lobbyists, that’s what.

Or this one: In 2004 “fewer than half” of our population votes in presidential elections, and about a third “vote in our congressional elections—compared to 80 percent a century ago” (62). Still, only 66% turned out to vote for president in 2020, and 45% turned out in 2022 for mid-terms. Why would citizens now care less than those of a hundred years ago? Why be complacent?

Moyers ends the book with an essay on aging, which seems more pertinent than ever to Boomers, because we now make up the larger part of that demographic. His suggestion: Avoid disease and disability, maintain mental and physical function, and continue to engage with life. Amen.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ann Brashares
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Whitney M. Young
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Herman Melville
FRI: My Book World | Mary Robison, Why Did I Ever: A Novel

STILL CURIOUS ABOUT JFK

7/12/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Tony Awards boost Broadway attendance and sell the shows on the road. They're the sugar to swat the fly. If you needed more explanation for the yearly ballyhoo, in the metropolitan areas where a Broadway show plays, the local economy is boosted by three and a half times the gross ticket sales. So when we're talking Tonys, we're talking moolah.
John Lahr
Author of Prick up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton
Born July 12, 1941

J. Lahr

MY BOOK WORLD

Kenney, Charles. With an introduction by Michael Beschloss. John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio. History as Told through the Collection of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. New York: PublicAffairs, 2000. [Includes CD with speeches, dictated letters, and phone calls recorded by JFK.]

This book, no matter how much one may have read about John F. Kennedy, provides details that might be surprising—with regard to his upbringing and family line. Both of his parents are Irish immigrants who then become millionaires in the United States. There are details of his education, his military career, and his time in politics. Many pages feature original documents that JFK himself writes, speeches and the like.

The CD is comprised of a series of dictations Kennedy is making to his secretary by way of a Dictaphone, as well as commentary by historian, Michael Beschloss. A chapter near the end summarizes the day in 1963 that he is assassinated. JFK’s wife, Jackie, cries out: “He’s dead—they’ve killed him—Oh Jack, oh Jack, I love you” (223). I was fifteen when this momentous day in history took place, but I never recall hearing of this intimacy uttered in her last minutes with her husband as they are about to roll him away. The book is full of these small surprises, and I can see myself returning to its pages to review them, lest I forget, lest I forget.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Tony Kushner
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis Diller
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Nelson Mandela
FRI: My Book World | Nell Freudenberger, The Limits

A SUNNY AND WILDER ADVENTURE

7/5/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Women have more to prove than men when it comes to politics.
Julie Nixon Eisenhower
Author of Special People
1948

J. Nixon Eisenhower

MY BOOK WORLD

Dahlstrom, S. J. Wilder and Sunny. Philadelphia: Paul Dry, 2015.

Dahlstrom writes so nicely for children. He doesn’t talk down to them. In fact, he strives to expand their vocabularies, I believe. In this simple adventure in which a friend of the family, a man of seventy-two, takes twelve-year-old Wilder and his female friend Sunny on a fishing trip. The author goes into great detail about trout fishing in Colorado, incorporating words like tippet, hopper-dropper, bead head, and two-fly rig. You either get meaning by context or author explanation or looking them up. Either way you learn. The climax of the book may be when, during this camping trip, the three campers are confronted by a mother bear and two cubs. It is a realistic and dynamic depiction, rather graphic at times, but it does give Wilder and Sunny a chance to grow up in certain ways before Sunny’s father locates them and saves them from further adventures. Wilder and Sunny form a bond that may last well into the future. Only time will tell.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Dorothy Thompson
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Alice Munro
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Frederick Beuchner
FRI: My Book World | Charles Kenney, John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio. History as Told through the Collection of the JFK Library

PLAZA: HISTORY OF A HOTEL

6/28/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Avoid theatrical flourishes—the phrases that sound so damned good that they stand up and beg to be recognized as “good writing,” and therefore must be struck from the text.
Donald Spoto
Author of The Dark Side of Genius
Born June 28, 1941

D. Spoto

MY BOOK WORLD

Satow, Julie. The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel. New York: Hatchette, 2019.

In my opinion the best part of the book consists of the first two thirds. Those chapters concern themselves with the construction of the hotel which opens in 1907—up through World War II. By that time the hotel has acquired thirty-nine widows who are given life-time residential privileges. The last third of the book examines the 1990s, when D. Trump attempts to acquire the Plaza. But his credit is so bad others buy it out from under him. The most boring chapter may be after two billionaire gentlemen purchase the Plaza and convert a great percentage of it to huge and exclusive condos. The tedium continues when the author insists on informing readers how many buyers of these condos exhibit remorse, how much money they lose when they try to flip them. No, the most interesting portions of the book may have to do with the fascinating personalities who live and work at the Plaza throughout its more than one hundred years. If you’re into that kind of history, fat-cat buyers at the turn of this century notwithstanding, then the book is for you. Each chapter is a stand-alone episode in the life of this historic architectural structure resting at the very edge of New York’s Central Park, and I found that most of them piqued my interest.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Medgar Evers
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Dorothy Kilgallen
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Calvin Coolidge
FRI: My Book World | S. J. Dahlstrom, Wilder and Sunny

A WRITER'S WIT: GEORGE ORWELL

6/25/2024

It was infuriating. I had been a hundred and fifteen days in the line and had come back to Barcelona ravenous for a bit of rest and comfort; and instead I had to spend my time sitting on a roof opposite Civil Guards as bored as myself, who periodically waved to me and assured me that they were “workers” (meaning that they hoped I would not shoot them), but who would certainly open fire if they got the order to do so. If this was history it did not feel like it.
[From Homage to Catalonia]
George Orwell
Author of Homage to Catalonia
Born June 25, 1903

G. Orwell

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Aubrey Plaza
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Alice McDermott
FRI: My Book World | Julie Satow, The Plaza: The Secret Life of America's Most Famous Hotel

SWISHER TELLS ALL ABOUT TECH WORLD

6/7/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Mechanical difficulties with language are the outcome of internal difficulties with thought.
Elizabeth Bowen
Author of Eva Trout
Born June 7, 1899

E. Bowen

MY BOOK WORLD

Swisher, Kara. Burn Book: A Tech Love Story. New York: Simon, 2024.

I’m not a techie, but since the age of thirty-seven (1985), I have assimilated much knowledge (as much as I could retain) about smartphones, computers, laptops, printers, scanners, cameras, smart thermostats, GPS on my Camry, smart doorbells that announce by camera . . . whew. But Kara Swisher has made it her life to know about and report on the digital world creating all these products—with expertise and chutzpah. She has no fear of calling out the Bigs of this world. No fear of changing jobs when she wears one out. I first became acquainted with her work when I listened to her now-defunct New York Times podcast, Sway. There she would interview these Titans of the digital (under)world, and sometimes their fannies would get a bit warm roasting over her blaze of questions (and snappy patter of complaints).

Swisher’s book is no different, as she has no problem slicing up the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and to some degree (although she liked him), the late Steve Jobs. It is easy to grok (digital word meaning to understand, which she uses throughout) why the digital world of Silicon Valley both loved, hated, and feared her all at once.

Swisher also speaks of her brush with ill health: a mild stroke. She mentions her marriages to two different women, her children with each one (never married a man to have children). Her love of children and family life. Near the end of the book, she makes this definitive statement that might be a clarion call for all of us who use digital devices (EVERYONE):

The dire situation had been aggravated by elected officials who, a quarter century into the Internet age, had managed to pass exactly zero legislation to protect anyone. Democratic institutions that we hold dear had crumbled in the face of what this digital engagement has wrought: no privacy protections, no updated antitrust laws, no algorithmic transparency requirement, no focus on addiction and mental impact. It is breathtaking to think that there are no significant guidelines governing these areas. However flawed, there are laws for everything but tech companies” (284)

Amen. We can only hope that Congress passes some of those laws . . . and soon.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Jennifer Armentrout
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Djuna Barnes
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Simon Callow
FRI: My Book World | S. J. Dahlstrom, Texas Grit

A WRITER'S WIT: RUTH WESTHEIMER

6/4/2024

Remember, attraction is only one part of a relationship. Loyalty, commitment, responsibility and maturity make up the rest.
Ruth Westheimer
Author of The Art of Arousal
Born June 4, 1928

R. Westheimer

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Drabble
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Pierre Corneille
FRI: My Book World | Kara Swisher, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story

GHOSTS ABOUND

5/31/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
For . . . austere and gracious allegory, as for so much of its mysticism and its chivalry, its ardours and its endurances, the world is in debt to Spain.
Helen Waddell
Author of The Desert Fathers
Born May 31, 1889

H. Waddell

MY BOOK WORLD

Fitzgerald, Daniel G. Faded Dreams: More Ghost Towns of Kansas. Lawrence: UP of Kansas, 1994.

This book no doubt creates a rich resource for those searching for specific information regarding ghost towns located in one of the 105 Kansas counties. I, myself, found Fitzgerald’s first book (Ghost Towns of Kansas, Volume I) helpful when I became curious about the former town of Runnymede, where, in 1924, my maternal grandfather established a grocery store—only to fail a year later because the automobile allowed people to travel to other towns for their needs. However, by reading about these over one hundred ghost towns, one begins to sense a mosaic of the state’s checkered history, as well. How, for example, some nineteenth-century Kansans were pro-slavery and others were freestaters, in favor of abolition, that people murdered others with regard to the issue. One state historian establishes that from its inception Kansas garnered over 6,000 town “start-ups,” and that if they all had flourished (theoretically) one could not now drive twelve miles in any direction without encountering another town.

Of course, reality has turned out being very different. Vast acreages of agricultural land and prairies have swallowed up those former towns—leaving only crumbling foundations or memorial plaques found on what is now private property. Any number of events or trends contributed to the defeat of these ghost towns. Even grand entrepreneurial efforts failed. Important infrastructure (roads, rivers, and railways) did not materialize. Political decisions made in Topeka or county seats (some of those heartily fought over) ruined yet other towns. Catastrophic weather events played a part in some cases. Some towns just lacked proper leadership from the beginning. Thus, Fitzgerald paints a fascinating history of primarily nineteenth-century Kansas (although many towns do not emit their last gasp until the 1930s), in which mostly white people from the east and European locations do battle with indigenous people to usurp or purchase lands that are questionably for sale in the first place. And the author does so without favor to either side. Just the facts. In any event, and regardless of motive, the people portrayed here do represent a certain heroic and pioneer spirit attempting literally to create something out of nothing. The text includes fascinating vintage photos, as well.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ruth Westheimer
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Margaret Drabble
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Pierre Corneille
FRI: My Book World | Kara Swisher, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story

ALWAYS LOOKING

5/24/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view.
Rosanne Cash, Singer and Songwriter: "Sea of Heartbreak"
Born May 24, 1955

R. Cash

MY BOOK WORLD

Sharot, Tali and Cass R. Sunstein. Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There. New York: Simon, 2024.

“What is thrilling on Monday becomes boring by Friday. We habituate, which means that we respond less and less to stimuli that repeat” (2).

This statement is the authors’ thesis. What implications does it have? Just about everything. What if you eat your favorite ice cream, rocky road, every day? You eventually become habituated to it; you get tired of it. (Get used to seeing habituate because you’ll see it on nearly every page.) Eroticism can become numbed by repetition. The more sex you have with someone, the less exciting it becomes.

The chapter on “variety” is interesting, as well. University professors take sabbaticals every few years, not only to study but to be exposed to a variety of stimuli. They may travel out of town, out of the country. The authors also address the problems of social media, how habituation relates to the topic. They tackle misinformation and the environment. And they address society as a whole: discrimination, tyranny (fascism), and the law. An interesting and timely book.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | May Swenson
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | John F. Kennedy
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Kenneth Dixon
FRI: My Book World | Daniel Fitzgerald, Faded Dreams: More Ghost Towns of Kansas

ANIMAL SECRETS

5/10/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
A loser doesn’t know what he’ll do if he loses, but talks about what he’ll do if he wins, and a winner doesn't talk about what he’ll do if he wins, but knows what he’ll do if he loses.
Eric Berne
Author of Games People Play
Born May 10, 1910

E. Berne

MY BOOK WORLD

Agus, David B. The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life. New York: Simon, 2023.

At first I felt this book to be a bit contrived, but as I got deeper into it, I realized that the author has a seriousness of intent and purpose. From domesticated canines to “wild” animals, he intends for us to see that we have much to learn about living from our animal friends. A few things he hammers home again and again:
1) Companionship can include animals. 2) Like pigeons, pay attention to patterns; don’t take the same route to and from work each day. 3) Keep your cardiovascular system fit. Don’t smoke. Sleep in a flat position. Maintain dental hygiene. 4) Eat a diverse diet, “but stay as close to nature as possible.” Like chimps, learn to take some risks; don’t be afraid of trial-and-error learning. 5) Teamwork, like ants employ, is always a healthy way to live. These are just a few lessons learned from our wild friends.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Sofia Coppola
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Clifton Fadiman
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Jean Hanff Korelitz
FRI: My Book World | Amor Towles, Table for Two

COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

5/3/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
One way to get high blood pressure is to go mountain climbing over molehills.
Earl Wilson
Author of Show Business Laid Bare
Born May 3, 1907

E. Wilson

MY BOOK WORLD

McQuade, Barbara. Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America. New York: Seven Stories, 2024.

This book combines both anecdotal and hard evidence to define disinformation (deliberate misrepresentation of facts), provides a number of ways in which authoritarians use disinformation, and finally, gives a number of steps citizens and government can take to reduce the effects of it. If readers have studied the first two ideas, the book may seem like an excellent review. The last part—ways to combat disinformation—are the most informative for me.

One way is To Reduce Disinformation from the Supply Side. Germany, for example, REQUIRES “digital platforms to monitor and remove illegal content for face civil penalties” (251). To Regulate Online Publishers Like Other Industries is another. Prohibit Anonymous Users and Bots. Require Disclosure of Funding Sources. Strengthen local journalism by having the government provide partial funding. Local sources are less likely to disinform their friends or in a situation where it comes back on them.

McQuade furnishes numerous other ways in which to combat disinformation, locally, nationally, and on digital platforms. She concedes that these methods will not entirely make disinformation go away, but they could certainly reduce its effects. This read is well worth the time if you’re at all interested in the topic. Any one of us can be duped at any time. Oh, and I really admire McQuade’s prose in print. She, a former copy editor, is meticulous to get the correct subject/verb agreement, in, say, using the word “media.” The media are responsible for content. Too many people in journalism use media as a singular noun. Wrong.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Angela Carter
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Phyllis Wheatley
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Candice Bergen
FRI: My Book World | David B. Agus, The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature’s Lessons for a Long and Happy Life

SO GAY, PARIS IN THE FIFTIES

3/29/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
When you long with all your heart for someone to love you, a madness grows there that shakes all sense from the trees and the water and the earth. And nothing lives for you, except the long deep bitter want. And this is what everyone feels from birth to death.
Denton Welch
Author of In Youth Is Pleasure
Born March 29, 1915

MY BOOK WORLD

Karnow, Stanley. Paris in the Fifties. With illustrations by Annette Karnow. New York: Random, 1997.

An award-winning journalist of his era (b. 1925), Karnow pens this lovingly written memoir of his time as a young man living in Paris in the 1950s. By way of these twenty-one essays, we learn French history, French cuisine, French politics. But most of all the French way. From history, we learn of Monsieur Guillotin, “reluctant” inventor of the most popular manner of execution for some time. From cuisine, we learn how wine is the only beverage to consume with a meal. And politics? Eh, bien. Karnow investigates all manner of the French polity. Overall, the essays are our treat, a way to enjoy a young man’s decade in France, at a time, in an atmosphere that may never be repeated.

Coming Next:
To speak honestly, my partner of 48 years sustained a fall in February. He has been in rehab for a month and is set to come home soon. Until further notice, I am suspending the publication of my blog. Much of my attention will be focused on Ken's continued recovery. Please feel free to browse through the twelve years of my archives. There you will find the bon mots of the Writer's Wit features, and every Friday there is a book profile—all good books retain a certain freshness. Hope to return as soon as possible. RJ

GAY HISTORY AFTER STONEWALL 1969

3/15/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
How fortunate I was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in United States history, it became possible to urge, successfully, before legislatures and courts, the equal-citizenship stature of women and men as a fundamental constitutional principle.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice, 1993-2020
Author of My Own Words
Born March 15, 1933

R. B. Ginsburg

MY BOOK WORLD

Denneny, Michael. On Christopher Street: Life, Sex, and Death after Stonewall. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2023.

Christopher Street is a place, a street that is at the heart of gay life in New York City. Christopher Street was also a gay publication that opened up life for its gay subscribers. This book is a compendium of essays that Denneny wrote for CS, or speeches he made for various organizations from the 1970s to the 1990s (mostly). Denneny was the first openly gay editor to be hired at a major publishing house: Stonewall Editions at St. Martin’s Press. During his tenure there he was responsible for publishing over one hundred titles by gay authors.

Why is this book important? For someone my age (in 1987 Denneny read a novel MS of mine and recommended to me that I should pursue the small presses—whatever that may have meant), it is a good review of history that I lived through (though not in New York). For gay people under the age of forty, it is a history from which they could learn where their gay privileges today come from. Without the courageous acts of civil disobedience in 1969, there would be no Grindr, few LGBTQIA+ films or books. No marriage. Those brave people also taught us that we must remain alert and keep fighting. There are those on SCOTUS and in Congress who would still deprive our hard-won community of its rights. In some sense, unless we at last develop a more inclusive society, there will always be a Stonewall rebellion in the offing. We should be prepared to bear arms at any time.

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Garth Greenwell
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Emily Giffin
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Thomas Frank
FRI: My Book World | Ethan Canin, A Doubter's Almanac

A WRITER'S WIT: JOE CONASON

1/25/2024

The problem isn't that conservatives are wrong about the efficiency of markets or the creativity of enterprise. It's that they have made false idols of both, usually without acknowledging that markets work best when well regulated, that private enterprise cannot meet every human need, that government has always played a critical role in our economy, and that the profit motive can be socially and environmentally destructive as well as dynamic.
Joe Conason
Author of The Longest Con
Born January 25, 1954

J. Conason

FRI: My Book World | Barbra Streisand, My Name Is Barbra
TUES: A Writer's Wit | John Dufresne
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Laura Lippman
THURS: A Writer's Wit | S. J. Perelman

A WRITER'S WIT: SUSAN SONTAG

1/16/2024

Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in kingdom of the sick.
Susan Sontag
Author of Regarding the Pain of Others
Born January 16, 1933

S. Sontag

Coming Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Newton Minow
THURS: A Writer's Wit | A. A. Milne
FRI: My Book World | Patricia Highsmith, Edith's Diary

PAST IS PREQUEL FOR MADDOW

1/12/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Every day I go to my study and sit at my desk and put the computer on. At that moment, I have to open the door. It's a big, heavy door. You have to go into the Other Room. Metaphorically, of course. And you have to come back to this side of the room. And you have to shut the door.
Haruki Murakami
Author of Killing Commendation
Born January 12, 1949

H. Murakami

MY BOOK WORLD

Maddow, Rachel. Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism. New York: Crown, 2023.

This cautionary tale should be read by every adult in America. It should be taught in every college America history class. It should be available to all public libraries. Why? Essentially because Maddow painstakingly tells the story of German Nazis who, in the 1930s and 1940s, make plans to sweep America up into its fascist web. And the main players happen to be American citizens who in various ways enable the Germans: congresspeople and other public figures. Maddow provides lists of the good guys and the bad (some are even women). She carefully lays out for readers how all this takes place. The most important message, however, is, for the most part, unwritten. She, by the title she uses, would like for us to see that it could happen again. There are people in congress, just as eighty years ago, who would like to enable a fascist-leaning leader to become president. And we must stop them.

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Susan Sontag
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Newton Minow
THURS: A Writer's Wit | A. A. Milne
FRI: My Book World | Patricia Highsmith, Edith's Diary

HIGHWAYS OF THE SOUTHWEST

9/15/2023

A WRITER'S WIT
One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood.
Agatha Christie
Author of Sixty-six Detective Novels
Born September 15, 1890

A. Christie

My Book World

Ventura, Michael. If I Was a Highway: Essays. With a foreword by Dan Flores and photographs by Butch Hancock. Lubbock: Texas Tech UP, 2011.

This journalist originally from New York befriends the Southwest US, from Lubbock, Texas to Los Angeles; and, in turn, the Southwest seems to befriend him. In “A Life of Destinations,” Ventura says: “To be that man who only lives to live. That is my task from now on. It isn’t about writing anymore, or finding a meaning, or changing the world, or getting and keeping love, though all of that is important; but it isn’t about that stuff anymore. The task now is to be that man who only lives to live. For whom life, life, life, is enough” (15). What a great attitude!

As a Lubbockian (a term the author may have coined for no one I know uses it seriously), myself, I particularly liked Ventura’s essay, “Lubbockian Identity,” He begins this way: “Let us consider Lubbock Texas. In 1973, January through September, I lived in Lubbock—not a resident; a drifter, taking my time passing through. The Lubbockians I got to know all were Texans, mostly born and raised in Lubbock. Ethnically, most were some mixture of Anglo-Saxon-Celt, often with Cherokee stirred in a few generations back. Many traced their American ancestry to well before the Civil War” (35). But this delineation is only the beginning of Ventura’s portrayal of Lubbock—a place he likes more than he doesn’t. Will buy copies of this for friends [and I did] who don’t live in Lubbock—just so they know I’m not entirely crazy for living here!

Coming Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Rachel Field
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Anne Meara
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Mark Levin
FRI: My Book World | Rachel Louise Snyder, Women We Buried, Women We Burned