Reviews: KQED interview with Barbara Kingsolver

I found the book, Spiritual Envy by Michael Krasney,  at the E Branch of my Local Library here in Lakeland.   The book pricked my interest because I have always been interested in people's search for spiritual answers, especially atheists and agnostics.  How do Spiritualists and Agnostics shape their point of view.   Also the book had a forward written by Joyce Carol Oats.   Michael Chabon stated that the author, "sets the standard by which all public affairs and cultural radio is measured.  He is a Bay Area cultural institution."


So I looked up Kresany's show on KQED, and found a great interview with Barbara Kingsolver.  Kingsolver politely states her environmental position in her new book: Flight Behavior.  Her gentle spirit is respectful to all. She knows how to bridge the biological scientific position with the people who need natural resources for their livelihoods    She also knows how to explain the complicated scientific questions with "real life."

"People need fiction we will always come home to our stories." (Paraphrased from the Interview)
Kingsolver loves how readers engage with her books.   She is fascinated with how every reader can interpret the story in new and unique ways.  She illustrates  that reading books and engaging in conversation is a key to being a good citizen to the community in which one lives  .  The books act as "a new medicine" to cure what currently affects you, or at least begin a search for an elixir.

I look forward to reading Flight Behavior as the subject of the book sounds invigorating and timely.     



 Here is the interview, enjoy:


Here is a book excerpt from Flight Behavior as provided by Good Reads: "the intensity, glory, and absolute assuredness if my mind's flight made it very difficult for me to believe once i was better, that the illness was one i should willingly give up....moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior somehow can be seen as temporary, even understandable reactions to what life has dealt....even though the depressions that inevitably followed nearly cost me my life." 

Book Clubs: No Guts, No Glory!?

I confess I love doing book clubs. But I am the only guy in the library book club called Books Sandwiched In (BSI). Every first Tuesday we have a book offered to us that we have the option to read and discuss the next First Tuesday of the month.

Men join a book club in your area if you've got the guts. 

Do I feel light in the loafers by taking part in a book discussion group? No Way! I feel that my masculinity is not challenged in any way by being a participant in BSI. Often being the sole male in the group is valuable to the whole group. I can offer insight into the stories that woman cannot offer. But the women also help me understand the books better from their shared POV. It feels good to have fellow travelers in our explorations.

There are a number of books that we all have hated. Brenda our book group leader finds books that will make for good conversation. I have had my point of view stretched by a number of the books. A novel should give you new insight that you may never have known, or even wanted to know. The art of the novel is to live the experiences of others different from ourselves.

Men may fear that they will not be accepted by the women in the group. I have never felt the death glare that tells me I am not wanted here. Not once have I felt rejected.

All right, now it's your turn to join a group in your area and be the sole guy that drives the ladies crazy.

Remember: No Guts, No Glory!