Blog - www.richardjespers.com

VAGUS NERVE CAN HEAL

10/17/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
I've yet to meet a writer who could change water into wine, and we have a tendency to treat them like that.
Michael Tolkin, Screenwriter
Author of film, The Offer
Born October 17, 1950

M. Tolkin

MY BOOK WORLD

Rosenberg, Stanley. Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism. Berkeley: North Atlantic, 2017.

Part how-to, part anecdotal, all scientific, this book demonstrates the importance of the vagus nerve to one’s health. The author provides an entire appendix of easy-to-perform exercises (with photographs of a model to illustrate how they’re done). The vagus nerve carries messages from your brain to heart and digestive system. If it is damaged, it can cause many difficulties. A good read if you’re experiencing such problems. And as the subtitle would indicate, a healthy vagus nerve can help regulate conditions such as depression or anxiety. Check it out.

Up Next:
MON 10/20: WHAT I'M THINKING ... IF ANYTHING
TUES 10/21: A Writer's Wit | Ursula K. LeGuin
WEDS 10/22: A Writer's Wit | Doris Lessing
THURS 10/23: A Writer's Wit | Leszek Kolakowski
FRI 10/24: A Writer's Wit | Amor Towles
My Book World | Domenico Starnone, The Old Man by the Sea

LAZY AVIATOR, Her AMBITIOUS HUSBAND

9/19/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
The reader always knows better what a book is about than the writer.
William Golding
Author of Lord of the Flies
Born September 19, 1911

W. Golding

MY BOOK WORLD

Shapiro, Laurie Gwen. The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon. New York: Viking, 2025.

I grew up in the state of Kansas, and, as a child I heard a lot about aviatrix Amelia Earhart. The ironic thing I learn from this biography is that she and her family don’t spend all that much time in her hometown of Atchison. Yet her brief life there is foundational because her well-to-do grandparents see to it that she and her sister are educated by way of local elite schools. Amelia will later graduate from Columbia University in NYC. Another surprise for me: Although Earhart does become a noted pilot, her main career is that of social worker, and she stays with it a number of years before beginning to devote more time to aviation.

Most readers realize how and when Earhart is going to die, but Shapiro does seem to “foreshadow” Amelia’s path to that end throughout the book, beginning with “However, dating an aviator came with exasperating asterisks, and Sam lived in fear that he might one day discover his sometimes girlfriend, whose commitment he was finally winning over, had perished, despite spending hours in the field” (68). In addition, Amelia experiences several aviation failures, including crashes that destroy a number of expensive airplanes.

The book skillfully weaves together the stories of two individuals, Amelia Earhart and her husband George Palmer Putnam, and both narratives are important in order to understand the couple as a “unit.” Putnam is heir to the Putnam and Sons publishing empire, but though George works there for some time, he never flourishes to the degree that he becomes qualified to take over the reins when the opportunity arises. Instead, he becomes sort of a high-class huckster, selling (mostly) literary talent—but most especially he promotes the aviation career of his wife. Earhart, it turns out, isn’t as disciplined as she should be. For one, she doesn’t put in enough flight hours to be top-notch, and later on, particularly during her final hours over the Pacific Ocean, her failure to master Morse code will more than likely affect her ability to handle the perilous situation she sets up for herself and her alcoholic navigator, Fred Noonan (yet another error in judgment, but because of her weak reputation she can’t find a more reputable person to fly with her).

Shapiro sums up Earhart’s epic failure in 1937 this way: “The technical limitations of Amelia’s onboard equipment soon became apparent. Inadequate equipment, an off-calibrated compass, and erroneous chart coordinates converged into a navigational catastrophe. These issues, worsened by unexpected headwinds and a major navigational deviation, led to a bleak conclusion: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noon had vanished, possibly due to running out of fuel. Luck had been a lady before, but this time, she could no longer outrun fate” (388).

Though Shapiro is an excellent journalist and writer, I can’t help but be put off by some typos and sloppy copyediting:

Here Shapiro is writing in the past tense but then she shifts to the present for no apparent reason: “When the crayon heiress felt that a bigger house was needed and asked her parents for the money, George couldn’t be more pleased” (14). “. . . couldn’t have been more pleased” seems the preferable usage here, and I wonder why a copyeditor doesn’t catch the slip.

Needless repetition: “George told the candidate that he wanted to do one more discreet background check but would report back as soon as he could” (88). How about eliminating the second “back”?

Needless repetition: “. . . a protective smile gracing her face as memories of her own childhood curiosities flooded back. With her background as a social worker . . .” (148). How about “flooding into her mind” or similar?

Needless repetition: “. . . leaving him furious after defeat. After Elinor underwent . . .” (182). How about replacing the first “after” with “following”?

Needless repetition: “She recounted an encounter with a flock of pigeons . . .” (283). These are both embedded in other words but repetition is still avoidable. How about “She recounted a set-to with a flock of pigeons”?

Overall, I wish to say that the book is a very satisfying read, especially for fans of Amelia Earhart. It certainly gives readers a fuller and more accurate view of the woman’s life than the short feature I was forced to teach my sixth graders from the basal reader in the 1980s. Nothing there indicated Fred Noonan’s alcoholism or Earhart’s shortcomings.

Up Next:
MON 9/22: WHAT I'M THINKING ...
TUES 9/23: A Writer's Wit | Liz Murray
WEDS 9/24: A Writer's Wit | F. Scott Fitzgerald
THURS 9/25: A Writer's Wit | Barbara Walters
FRI 9/26: A Writer's Wit | T. S. Eliot
My Book World | Allan Massie, Dark Summer in Bordeaux

LORCA'S POETRY TIMELESS

9/12/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.
Han Suyin
Author of My House Has Two Doors
Born September 12, 1916

H. Suyin

MY BOOK WORLD

Lorca, Federico García. Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca. Edited by Francisco García Lorca and Donald M. Allen. With an introduction by W.S. Merwin. New York: New Directions, 2005 (1955).

A woman who taught Spanish at the high school where I once worked as an English teacher recommended that I read Lorca’s work, that we had “a lot in common.” She may have been referring to the fact that I, too, am gay. Perhaps she meant more.

I probably appreciated most of all the poems written when Lorca lived in New York City, not only because it is material with which I am more familiar but because he does seem to touch a nerve concerning our shared sexuality. In “Ode to Walt Whitman,” “the boys were singing showing, their waists” (131), as if to tempt me into this kingdom already tempting me with Whitman himself. Lorca invokes Whitman with descriptors such as “aged,” Whitman, “old man” Whitman and other variations of the grand poet’s name, as if he might rise from the very grave he has occupied, by that time, at least forty years. Almost as if Lorca wishes to crawl into the crypt with his hero.

Not for one moment, beautiful aged Walt Whitman,
have I failed to see your beard full of butterflies,
nor your shoulders of corduroy worn out by the moon,
nor your thighs of virginal Apollo,
nor your voice like a pillar of ashes:
ancient and beautiful as the mist,
you moaned like a bird
with the sex transfixed by a needle,
enemy of the satyr,
enemy of the vine,
and lover of bodies under the rough cloth (133)

I would be tempted to copy out the entire poem for readers, but it is best you secure your own version of the book, underline and savor the passages you wish to remember.
_______________________________________________
Up Next:
MON 9/15: WHAT I'M THINKING ... WHAT HAPPENED TO LABOR DAY?
TUES 9/16: A Writer's Wit | Lord Bolingbroke
WEDS 9/17: A Writer's Wit | Cheryl Strayed
THURS 9/18: A Writer's Wit | Francis Parker Yockey
FRI 9/19: A Writer's Wit | William Golding
My Book World | Shapiro, Laurie Gwen. The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon

WE NEED MORE LINGUAPHILES

7/4/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.
Pauline Phillips [Abigail Van Buren]
Author of Where Were You When President Kennedy Was Shot? Memories and Tributes to a Slain President
Born July 4, 1918

P. Phillips

MY BOOK WORLD

Sedivy, Julie. Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love. New York: Farrar, 2024.

This book, I believe, was “briefly noted” in the New Yorker, and I found it just as fascinating as the review. Sedivy artfully threads together a memoir of her linguistic life, her scientific studies, and how linguistics speaks to cultures worldwide. Sedivy starts off by telling us of her childhood, where she first learns to speak Hungarian. As her family moves around, finally to the USA, she learns Italian, German, and English. She not only shares with us what she knows about spoken/written language but also that there exist over 300 sign languages in the world. She addresses how loss or reduction of hearing affects our linguistic abilities, and in the last chapter the deaths in her life. She and her brother’s best friend Oliver spend the brother’s last seven days on earth with him, sharing stories and jokes. What has this to do with linguistics? Sedivy tells us:

I have this moment into which my brother’s life is compressed, this moment of him and Oliver passing the world “love” back and forth between them, until there is nothing more to be said and Vac steers his small boat into the great silence” (275).

Up Next:
TUES JUL 15: A Writer's Wit | Iris Murdoch
WEDS JUL 16: A Writer's Wit | Reinaldo Arenas
THURS JUL 17: A Writer's Wit | James Purdy
FRI JUL 18: My Book World | Herman Melville, Typee

ABUNDANCE IF WE WANT IT

6/20/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
I get tired of stories that keep going and going and never get anywhere. It's like a promise that's never fulfilled. Stories need endings. Otherwise, they aren't really stories. Just pages.
Ted Naifeh
Author of Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things
Born June 20, 1971

T. Naifeh

MY BOOK WORLD

Klein, Ezra and Derek Thompson. Abundance. New York: Simon, 2025.

If you’ve ever listened to Klein’s podcast via the Times, you know how bright and articulate he is, how in-depth he explores an issue. In the introduction he and Thompson state up front:

“This book is dedicated to a simple idea: to have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need” (4).

So much of what they say is important that I find myself underlining far more than I usually do in a book these days, but I find this statement moving: “Over the course of the twentieth century, America developed a right that fought the government and a left that hobbled it. Debates over the size of government obscured the diminishing capacity of government. An abundance of consumer goods distracted us from a scarcity of homes and energy and infrastructure and scientific breakthroughs. A counterforce is emerging, but it is young yet” (5).

The authors focus on both the right and the left, making the problems discussed more universal, less partisan in nature. The authors use California as an example. The state has for years attempted to build a high-speed railroad between LA and SF. After receiving billions of dollars, it is still not done. In fact, in most aspects, it has never begun. Too many state regulations and laws that must be overcome, just to mention one aspect. That is the problem with the left: too many restrictions originally meant to protect land and other values. The right is just the opposite. They want restrictions lifted so they may have the freedom to do what they wish, all the time, full stop—regardless of the outcomes.

So much more I could cite, but I’ll end with this statement concerning energy and how it affects our conception of abundance: “The stocks of fossil fuels are finite and their continued combustion is lethal. This would be true even if climate change was a hoax. Air pollution kills between 7 million and 9 million people each year; that is six or seven times the death toll from traffic accidents and hundreds of times the death toll from war or terrorism or all natural disasters combined. It is deadliest where people cook by burning wood or charcoal and farm by burning the end of the last season’s crops. That is to say, it is deadliest where people are energy poor, because where people are energy poor, they burn fuel and breathe in the byproducts” (63).

This book is one of the most refreshing, stimulating, and informative that I have read in a long time. Buy a copy, read it, and then send copies to your family and friends. It deserves to be widely read.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Jandy Nelson
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Anthony Bourdain
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Pearl S. Buck
FRI: My Book World | TBD

A WRITER'S WIT: RACHEL CARSON

5/27/2025

R. Carson

The sea lies all about us. The commerce of all lands must cross it. The very winds that move over the lands have been cradled on its broad expanse and seek ever to return to it. The continents themselves dissolve and pass to the sea, in grain after grain of eroded land. So the rains that rose from it return again in rivers. In its mysterious past it encompasses all the dim origins of life and received in the end, after, it may be, many transmutations, the dead husks of that same life. For all at last returns to the sea—to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.
Rachel Carson
Author of Silent Spring
Born May 27, 1907

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Meg Wolitzer
THURS: A Writer's Wit | John F. Kennedy
FRI: My Book World | Jonathan Lethem, The Feral Detective

A WRITER'S WIT: MADELEINE ALBRIGHT

5/13/2025

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.
Madeleine Albright
Author of Fascism: A Warning
Born May 13, 1937

M. Albright

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Eoin Colfer
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lauren Myracle
FRI: My Book World | Carol Burnett, Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story

LONG-AGO MURDER HISTORY UNCOVERED

5/2/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
We have to unclutter our brains from worries that maybe people don’t like us. Women tend to worry about popularity; it doesn't matter if they like you. They need to respect you. They need to show that respect for you in your pay check. And that needs to be okay.
Mika Brzezinski, NBC News
Author of All Things at Once
Born May 2, 1967

M. Brzezinski

MY BOOK WORLD

Thompson, Wright. The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi. New York: Penguin, 2024.

This excellent narrative reveals the horrifying story of the murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, in 1955. The author himself is from this region of the Mississippi delta, and part of the book is confessional, if not much of the tone. His only atonement, if that is the right word, for he doesn’t even learn of the murder until he is about to leave the state for college, is to research this story and present it to us, hopefully readers from around the world.

Young Emmett begs his mother to leave Chicago and travel with a friend and his parents to Mississippi, where his mother grew up. Something tells her not to let him. It may be that his frank and prankish nature could get him into trouble, but in the end, he convinces her. There is so much that is not known, mostly because so many people lie about the situation. Some say the murder takes place in a particular barn. Others say not. Some stories indicate Emmett “whistles” at a young married white woman running the little store he and his cousin enter to buy snacks. Others say he may whistle but not “at” the woman.

We do know, however, for sure, the two men responsible for murdering the person who is but still a child. The duo are put on trial locally, and the jury sets them free. The only justice available may be that the local whites then quite hypocritically treat the two men like pariahs for the rest of their lives. Except for little jobs here and there, they can’t get regular work. Their wives leave them, and both of them eventually die of cancer, almost literally as if the stress of committing their bad deed has eaten them alive.

The book is something for all Americans to consider, however, not just southerners or Mississippians. Nearly every state in the union has in some way treated blacks (and other minorities) just as cruelly in one way or another. We must not rely any longer on the thinking that because we weren’t present during times of slavery that we’re not responsible. What was termed Reconstruction must be completed for there ever to be any peace in this country.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Margaret C. Nussbaum
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Edward Gibbon
FRI: My Book World | Julia Alvarez, Afterlife: A Novel

MYTH OF NORMAL EXPLICATED

4/25/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
Our nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination . . . rationalized by an attitude of “romantic paternalism” which, in practical effect, put women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.
William Joseph Brennan
Author of Conscience of the Court
Born April 25, 1906

W. J. Brennan

MY BOOK WORLD

Maté, Gabor, with Daniel Maté. The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture. New York: Avery, 2022.

Maté’s thesis is that Western medicine has assumed for a long time what is “normal,” and what is not. He contends that our physical and physiological lives are severely affected by what happens and what does not happen to us in our childhoods:

“Children, especially highly sensitive children, can be wounded in multiple ways: by bad things happening, yes, but also by good things not happening, such as their emotional needs for attunement not being met, or the experience of not being, seen and accepted, even by loving parents. Trauma of this kind does not require overt distress or misfortune . . . and can also lead to the pain of disconnection from the self, occurring as a result of core needs not being satisfied” (23).

This struck a chord (ha) with me concerning my childhood. My parents met my physical needs but didn’t have much sensitivity to my wishes to learn piano. I harped (ha ha) for four years on the topic until, at age ten, I was finally rewarded with lessons (and a $150 piano which I treasured). But their lack of interest in my “attunement” meant that they didn’t care much for my sensitivity as a musician, an artist, or human being. They kept trying to interest me in more “masculine” activities, meaning they did not accept me for who I was. It was a conditional “love,” if you want to call it that. My saving grace, through the years, thankfully, has been the help I received from three talented psychologists: one when I was twenty-four, one when I was in my fifties, and one I see currently in my seventies. Making myself more “loveable” to myself, I believe, made me less available to suffering major diseases or even middling chronic ones.

Maté’s contention is that most all disease is caused by mental or psychological stress that alters the body, making its autoimmune failure more likely one will suffer illness.

There is so much more that Dr. Maté offers to the reader in these 562 pages, but I do want to cite one statement he makes near the end of the book:

“At present there remains powerful resistance to trauma awareness on the part of the medical profession—albeit a resistance more subliminal than deliberate, more passive than active. In the dozens of interview I conducted with medical colleagues for this book, including recent graduates, virtually one of them recalled being taught about the mind-body unity or the profusely documented relationship between, for example, trauma and mental illness or addictions—let alone the links between adversity and physical disease” (487).

I wish all adults in the world could read this book and be pushed to take care of their total health, not just the physical being (if that)—seek out doctors who do see a connection between the mental and physical body and treat their patients accordingly.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Rod McKuen
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | John Boyne
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Lorene Scafaria
FRI: My Book World | Wright Thompson, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi [Emmett Till]

FINDING THE FOUNDING FISH

4/18/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure—that is all that agnosticism means.
Clarence Seward Darrow
Author of Attorney for the Damned
Born April 18, 1857

C. Darrow

MY BOOK WORLD

McPhee, John. The Founding Fish. New York: Farrar, 2002.

This is the first I have read of the more than fifty books McPhee has published in his ninety-four years on earth, and I have to say it has been a revelation. I’m not one who fishes (maybe . . . for compliments, never the icky, slimy things that come out of the water), but I found this a fascinating history of the American shad. Its life cycle as both a saltwater and freshwater fish. Its boundless energy to overcome humanmade obstacles (dams for one). Its ability to rebound after a period of overfishing. Its delight as food (in spite of its many bones):

“When Alexander Wilson named this fish sapidissima in 1811, he was referring almost certainly to the nutty-buttery succulence of the main muscle, but the roe is the tongue of the buffalo, the tip of the asparagus, the cheek of the halibut, the marrow of the osso bucco” (295).

McPhee’s Appendix consists of nothing but recipes, one of which lists these ingredients:

      2 pounds shad
      1 pair roe
      1 tbs. chopped parsley
      Pepper, salt (if desired)
      1 tbs. butter
      Soft bread crumbs
      Clarified butter
      ½ cup sauterne
      1½ cup chopped mushrooms
      1 tsp. paprika (348)

Yet there are historic objectors to the art/craft/sport of fishing: “The poet Byron said it best: “[T]he art of angling [is] the cruelest, the coldest, and the stupidest of pretended sports” (313).

There you have it! McPhee covers both sides of the story, the equation, the diet!

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ellen Glasgow
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Barry Hannah
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Shirley MacLaine
FRI: My Book World | Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture

ASK GRAHAM NOW

2/14/2025

A WRITER'S WIT
The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.
Carl Bernstein
Co-Author of The Final Days
Born February 14, 1944

C. Bernstein

MY BOOK WORLD

Norton, Graham. Ask Graham. London: Blake, 2010.

One is not exactly sure how a future talk-show host would evolve from being a Dear Abby columnist for a London newspaper, but here he is, Graham Norton. If you’ve ever watched his show on BBC America, then you are well acquainted with his quick (and searing) wit and yet his genuine concern for others. Those two characteristics and more are featured in this his first book (I’ve decided to read them all, just for a laugh, you see).

Honestly, some of these letters see so stupid and ridiculous as to be made up to two thirteen-year-old kids on a slow Saturday night. Dear Graham, my Greek girlfriend makes such a racket when we make love that I can’t look my neighbours in the eye when I pass them in the hall (33). Another writer confesses to finding a date online by lying and saying she’s a sporty type. She winds up having sex with a good-looking fellow; only problem: he likes to have sex in public places. Graham advises: Let’s examine the evidence. You ticked the “sport” box on your online form, but I don’t see how that translates into standing on a fire escaped stuffing your knickers into your handbag (46).

Ultimately, Norton’s answers leave a lot of room for his comedic talents to take over, without besmirching the fine advice he’s administering. One person writes in, confessing that her boyfriend’s family are all musicians and how tiresome that becomes after a while. So he answers: I would never encourage anyone to do this, but I wonder if you might feel a little better if you dribbled the juice from a can of sardines inside their piano before you left for the last time? Just a thought (115).

This response of Graham’s speaks for itself:

Dear Melissa,
Fat pompous husbands are trying to cheat on their smug wives and you are worried about offending them by saying no? There is a time and a place for etiquette, and trust me this isn’t one of them.

My main piece of advice would be to stop accepting invitations to these hideous dinner parties. As for meeting a like-minded man, well, that many not be so easy. Your letter seems strangely negative to me. The only things that come in for any praise are the Dorset scenery and yourself—nothing else seems to come up to the high standards of Melissa. It is all very well to have opinions and strong ones but don’t expect other people to agree or like them. I imagine that the world according to Melissa is quite a hard one to live in.

You have two failed marriage in quite a short period of time and you are living alone in Dorset mixing with people you don’t like. Something is wrong with this picture. I know I’m making assumptions based on a short letter but maybe you should try to judge less and open yourself up to new experiences.

Make your world bigger not smaller and maybe other people will want to share it (230).

Nuff said? The guy has what it takes to dole out advice. Be kind but tell the truth!

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Toni Morrison
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | Amy Tan
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Hesketh Pearson
FRI: My Book World | Michael Nott, Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life

A WRITER'S WIT: BETTY FRIEDAN

2/4/2025

The problem that has no name—which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities—is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.
Betty Friedan
Author of The Feminine Mystique
Born February 4, 1921

B. Friedan

Up Next:
WEDS: A Writer's Wit | William S. Burroughs
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Annie Bethel Spencer
FRI: My Book World | Thomas Pynchon, Mason and Dixon

ISHERWOOD COMPLEAT

12/13/2024

A WRITER'S WIT
Healing is a constant state. You don’t have to be “fully healed” to give or receive love, to chase after that dream, or to get yourself to that next level.
Lucía González
Author of The Bossy Gallito
Born December 13, 1957

L. González

MY BOOK WORLD

Bucknell, Katherine. Christopher Isherwood Inside Out. New York: Farrar, 2024.

In 2016, I Christopher Isherwood’s entire oeuvre. Why? I admired his work at every level: sophisticated and lyrical vocabulary; his sometimes quirky but lyrical syntax, the variety of genres he tackled, from fiction to nonfiction (history, biography), and play/screenplay writing. My reading included about 4,500 published pages of Isherwood’s journals, all edited by Bucknell. Now she has created an exquisite biography of the author.

Isherwood worked on the boundary of fiction and nonfiction. He kept diaries most of his adult life and drew on them for his published writing, creating narratives more vivid, more revealing, more entertaining than what he documented. He altered the truth in order to make the truth more compelling, and his subtle and mysterious reworking accounts, more than anything else, for the lasting appeal of his writing (5).

At first, I thought I would run into a lot of repetition, but I soon discovered that Bucknell’s scholarly work had thoroughly investigated Isherwood’s life from beginning to end—as a biographer should. From Isherwood’s point of view, for example, he only knew his father until the man was killed in WWI, when Isherwood was little more than eleven. Bucknell fills in those blanks for readers: lets us know what a sensitive man the father was and how, as long as he could, he nurtured Christopher’s artistic personality. The hole left in Isherwood’s life was one that would never be filled.

Christopher Isherwood was as openly gay as a man could be in his era (b. 1904). By his own accounting he went to bed with over 400 men (from Germany to the UK to the USA). He loved his sexual life. Even when he had a lover/partner, he often had trysts with other men. Yet “[h]e saw from the outset of his career that he must make homosexuality attractive to mainstream audiences if he was to change their view of it, and he worked to do this in all his writing in different ways” (9). I believe he succeeded. Within the glory of the Gay Liberation days of the 1970s, the man was in his sixties, yet he still continued to grow, and he was admired far and wide by younger gay men (my generation) for his pioneering life and work. He was in constant demand for teaching and speaking gigs, which he labored to keep, not only for the remuneration but for the communication it afforded him with others.

This tome is one of the most eloquent pieces of literary biography I’ve ever read. If readers wish to learn about one of the finest twentieth-century writers working in English prose, this book is a fine place to begin.

Up Next:
TUES: A Writer's Wit | Ford Madox Ford
WEDS: A Writer's Wit |Lucy Worsley
THURS: A Writer's Wit | Ronan Farrow
FRI: My Book World | Margaret Rutherford: An Autobiography as told to Gwen Robyns

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