BOTNS Books Podcast #46: Books About Extraordinary Parents

Sep 30

BOTNS Books Podcast #46: Books About Extraordinary Parents

By Books on the Nightstand Podcasts Add comments

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Books on the Nightstand, Episode 46 (22:16)

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We recently spoke about accosting strangers in bookstores and sharing book recommendations. We got two wonderful responses. Connie emailed us to say that she gives herself a “talk” before she goes into a bookstore, reminding herself that this is not a friend’s party where she can mingle. Sometimes she doesn’t heed her own advice and can’t help but engage strangers in book talk. Ashley from Denver called in and described herself as occasionally “obnoxious” in her recommendations to strangers, then shared with us her favorite books to recommend, including books by Kate Atkinson, Jane Austen, Raymond Carver and others.

Once again, we’re asking you, our loyal fans, to call our voice mail line and tell us: What book, that you heard about on Books on the Nightstand, has become a favorite of yours? We’d love to collect the responses and play them for our 50th episode coming up at the end of October. So please call us by October 21st with your pick for favorite Books on the Nightstand recommendation!

Michael talks about two books written by mothers who stop at nothing to help their children. In The Possibility of Everything, Hope Edleman and her husband, after exhausting “traditional” therapies, bring their daughter to Mayan healers in Belize to help rid her of her imaginary friend. In Saving Sammy, Beth Maloney writes about the difficulty she had accepting her son’s sudden onset of OCD. She persisted in her belief that there must be another cause and she saved her son from a life spent institutionalized. Beth and Sammy were on the Today Show recently, and you can find the video here. Ann reminds us about Michael Greenberg’s Hurry Down Sunshine, which she originally spoke about in Episode 13.

Michael raves about a book he’s currently reading: New World Monkeys, which is the story of Manhattanites Duncan and Lily and the quirky and odd events that befall them after they inherit a house in a small Upstate New York town. Ann tells us about The Children’s Book, the new, Booker-nominated novel by A.S. Byatt. The book concerns Olive Wellwood, a children’s book author whose son finds a homeless boy living in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
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We encourage you to write down or print out the title information and shop at your local bookstore. Titles link to LibraryThing, a social networking site that allows you to catalog your home library. LibraryThing also links to various online purchasing options. Here are the books from this post:
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, Little Brown trade paperback
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, Little Brown trade paperback
When Will There be Good News? by Kate Atkinson, Little Brown trade paperback
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, St Martin’s Griffin trade paperback
Emma by Jane Austen, Modern Library trade paperback
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, Farrar Straus & Giroux trade paperback
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Scribner trade paperback
Anything by Raymond Carver, Vintage trade paperbacks
The Possibility of Everything by Hope Edelman, Ballantine hardcover
Saving Sammy by Beth Alison Maloney, Crown hardcover
Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg, Vintage trade paperback
New World Monkeys by Nancy Mauro, Shaye Areheart Books hardcover
The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt, Knopf hardcover

(all information is for the U.S. editions).

http://www.litchickcafe.com melanie

You’ve got me laughing over accosting people in bookstores, while I don’t generally don’t talk to strangers I have been caught doing the head tilt to see what people are carrying around. It’s my passive aggressive nosiness.
Also may I add Beth Kephart’s A Slant of Sun to the list of lovely parent books?
http://www.litchickcafe.com melanie

You’ve got me laughing over accosting people in bookstores, while I don’t generally don’t talk to strangers I have been caught doing the head tilt to see what people are carrying around. It’s my passive aggressive nosiness.
Also may I add Beth Kephart’s A Slant of Sun to the list of lovely parent books?
http://www.chadintheazdesert.blogspot.com Chad Sayban

Thank you for another great podcast! I appreciate the review of The Children’s Book – I’m going to have to go out and pick it up.
http://www.chadintheazdesert.blogspot.com Chad Sayban

Thank you for another great podcast! I appreciate the review of The Children’s Book – I’m going to have to go out and pick it up.
Kim

One book I read recently that has really stuck with me is ‘Live Through This: A Mother’s Memoir of Runaway Daughters’ by Debra Gwartney. Two of her four daughters get involved with what they (still) refer to as the ‘travelers’ and go missing for several months to years. Gwartney comes across as so very human. I could relate to her confusion, frustration, and fear. I have a preteen daughter so, of course, I kept thinking about how I would have dealt with this or that situation. I still can’t get this story out of my mind.
Kim

One book I read recently that has really stuck with me is ‘Live Through This: A Mother’s Memoir of Runaway Daughters’ by Debra Gwartney. Two of her four daughters get involved with what they (still) refer to as the ‘travelers’ and go missing for several months to years. Gwartney comes across as so very human. I could relate to her confusion, frustration, and fear. I have a preteen daughter so, of course, I kept thinking about how I would have dealt with this or that situation. I still can’t get this story out of my mind.
http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

Another extraordinary parent book is The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson. Definitely look into that one!

Great podcast as always.
http://age30books.blogspot.com Heather J.

Another extraordinary parent book is The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson. Definitely look into that one!

Great podcast as always.
http://www.twitter.com/bookworm Laura (Bookworm)

I would be remiss not to recommend Schuyler’s Monster: A Father’s Journey with His Wordless Daughter by Robert Rummel-Hudson. It’s really, really good. Rob has written online for many years, but this book is, by far, the best thing he’s ever written. Even knowing the basic outline of the story, I still had tears in my eyes reading certain portions of the book.

He’s appearing at the Texas Book Festival with Michael Greenberg and Rupert Isaacson on 10/31/09: http://www.schuylersmonsterblog.com/2009/09/texas-book-festival-schedule-announced.html
http://www.twitter.com/bookworm Laura (Bookworm)

I would be remiss not to recommend Schuyler’s Monster: A Father’s Journey with His Wordless Daughter by Robert Rummel-Hudson. It’s really, really good. Rob has written online for many years, but this book is, by far, the best thing he’s ever written. Even knowing the basic outline of the story, I still had tears in my eyes reading certain portions of the book.

He’s appearing at the Texas Book Festival with Michael Greenberg and Rupert Isaacson on 10/31/09: http://www.schuylersmonsterblog.com/2009/09/texas-book-festival-schedule-announced.html
Deb Baker

I recommend “Making Toast” by Roger Rosenblatt, published this spring. Should you think parenting ends at age 18 or when children are launched with good jobs, guess again. Parenting never stops, not even when the child dies.

Rosenblatt evokes great compassion in his memoir. His beloved daughter, a physician, wife, and mom, died unexpectedly and new family was created. Three generations share the loss and a new family is created.

I love this book. While Rosenblatt may have intended his memoir as therapy to cope with his loss, he also instructs us on living well.
Deb Baker

I recommend “Making Toast” by Roger Rosenblatt, published this spring. Should you think parenting ends at age 18 or when children are launched with good jobs, guess again. Parenting never stops, not even when the child dies.

Rosenblatt evokes great compassion in his memoir. His beloved daughter, a physician, wife, and mom, died unexpectedly and new family was created. Three generations share the loss and a new family is created.

I love this book. While Rosenblatt may have intended his memoir as therapy to cope with his loss, he also instructs us on living well.