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Wisconsin Public Radio - Chapter A Day.
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| Monday 1/7 through Friday 1/11/2002 |
Two Jews on a Train: Stories of the Old Country and the New by Adam Biro
read by Karl Schmidt (Chicago; ISBN: 0226052141)
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Adam Biro is a French publisher who was born in Hungary. These are selections from the 22 whimsical stories, most of which he heard from his grandfather. Most Eastern European Jewish jokes start with "Two Jews are traveling on a train," says Biro, and he goes on to tell stories in which humor and sadness have equal weight.
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Theme: Itzhak Perlman, violin; Israel Philharmonic: When the Rebbe Elimelech Becomes So Very Merry from Tradition (EMI CDC 7 47904-2) |
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| Monday 1/14 through Friday 2/04/2002 |
Remembering Ahanagran: A History of Stories by Richard White
read by Karl Schmidt (Hill & Wang Pub; ISBN: 0809080729)
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Not exactly memoir, not exactly history, Remembering Ahanagran is a son's marvelous retelling of his mother's stories. It brings to life the immigrant experience in America in new and endearing ways.
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Theme: Ted Nash Double Quartet: Rhyme and Longing from the album Rhyme & Reason (Arabesque) |
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| Tuesday 2/5/02 through Friday 2/22/02 |
The Piano Shop on the Left
Bank by Thad Carhart
read by Jim Fleming (Random House; ISBN: 0375503048)
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Every morning as he walked his children to school American ex-pat Carhart passed a small shop, Desforges Pianos, which called to him. But every time he went in he was rebuffed. Eventually he gained entry to a place of magic; a hangout where university professors and car mechanics from the neighborhood gathered to discuss music, love and life.
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Theme: John Bayless, piano: "Musetta's Waltz" from Puccini's
"La Boheme" from The Puccini Album: arias for piano (Angel CDC 54801) |
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| Monday 2/25 through Friday 3/22/2002 |
Caucasia by Danzy Senna
read by Judith Strasser (Riverhead; ISBN:1573227161)
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Birdie looks like her white, New England mother. Her big sister Cole takes after their black radical father. The break-up of the marriage, Cole's move to Brazil with her dad and Birdie's to New Hampshire with her mother, divides the family at a time of political upheaval. When Birdie decides she wants to know all her family, her coming of age story reveals much about America.
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Theme: Herbie Hancock and Friends: "Eighty-One" and "Little One" from A Tribute to Miles (Qwest Records - Time Warner) |
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| Monday 3/25 through Friday 4/12/2002 |
Will the Circle Be Unbroken? by Studs Terkel
read by Karl Schmidt (New Press; ISBN: 1565846923)
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Studs Terkel interviewed more than 60 people for his latest book, a collection of oral histories on the subject of death. Regular people from all walks of life share their ideas, hopes and fears of life, death, and the afterlife. Though nearly 90 himself, Terkel spends little time on his own stories, preferring to share the thoughts of people who have experienced loss and faith.
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Theme: Bill Frisell: "Where Do We Go" and "Like Dreamers Do" from Blues Dream (Nonesuch 79615-2) |
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| Monday 4/15 through Friday 5/10/2002 |
John Adams by David McCullough
read by Jim Fleming (Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0684813637)
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John Adams said "The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people." In writing about Adams, McCullough says "We call them the Founding Fathers, in tribute, but tend to see them as distant and a bit unreal, like figures in a costume pageant. Yet very real they were, real as all that stirred their 'hearts and minds,' and it has meaning in our time as never before." David McCullough's biography of John Adams brings them very much to life.
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Theme: Beaux Arts Trio: Piano Trio in B-flat by Joseph Haydn (Philips 432 061-2) |
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| Monday 5/13 through Friday 5/31/2002 |
Hemingway by Kenneth Lynn
read by Karl Schmidt (Harvard ISBN: 0674387325)
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Ernest Hemingway was a powerful and successful writer, but more than that he was a figure of almost mythic stature to writers and readers alike. In this extraordinarily readable biography Kenneth Lynn honors the writer while exploring the reality of the man.
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Theme: Frank Kimbrough: Air from Noumena (Soul Note Records) |
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| Monday 6/3 through Friday 6/28/2002 |
Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen
read by Jim Fleming (Knopf; ISBN: 0375411070)
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Jack Tagger was a respected investigative reporter who is now reduced to writing obituaries for a Florida newspaper, but when he hears of the death of an aging rock star he sees his chance. Of course, in the hilarious mind of Carl Hiaasen, nothing could be as straightforward as that.
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Theme: Basket Case by Warren Zevon and Carl Hiaasen from the album My Ride's Here (Artemis Records) |
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| Monday 7/1 through Friday 7/12/2002 |
Lincoln as I Knew Him edited by Harold Holzer
read by Karl Schmidt (Algonquin; ISBN: 156512166X)
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Editor Harold Holzer went looking for contemporary accounts of Abraham Lincoln from those who knew him best. These are letters and diaries from fellow lawyers, childhood friends, supporters and opponents. It's a fascinating and very different view of a man we all think we know. |
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Theme: John Adams: Shaker Loops, violinist Gidon Kremer |
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| Monday 07/15 through Friday 07/19/2002 |
The Clothes They Stood Up In by Allen Bennett
read by Karl Schmidt (Random House; ISBN: 0375503064)
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Rosemary and Maurice come home from the opera one night to find that they've been robbed. And not just robbed of a few expensive possessions, but of everything they own. Months later, they find it all, meticulously re-created, in a storage facility. Why? And how will they react? Will their lives stand up to such an absurdity?
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Theme: John Lewis: "Django" from the album "Evolution" (Atlantic) |
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| Monday 07/22 through Friday 08/09/2002 |
The Summons by John Grisham
read by Jim Fleming (Doubleday; ISBN: 0385503822)
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With this legal thriller Grisham returns to the storytelling he knows best after two novels away from it. He also returns to the Deep South location of his very first book, taking the reader (and listener) into a complicated world. Law professor Ray Atlee returns to his father's home, finding the Judge dead and three million dollars stashed around the house which isn't mentioned in the will. What will he do?
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Theme: Chris Thomas King: "Come On In My Kitchen" from the album Putumayo Presents Mississippi Blues (Putumayo PUT 196-2) |
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| Monday 08/12 through Friday 08/23/2002 |
Paradise by Larry McMurtry
read by Karl Schmidt (Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0743215656)
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Larry McMurtry is best known for such western novels as "Lonesome Dove," but he is an accomplished essayist and memoirist as well. In 1999 he took a cruise to "paradise," Tahiti and the South Sea Islands. His parents, Hazel and Jeff McMurtry, had been there once, living the rest of their lives in Texas. McMurtry went to Paradise "in order to think and write about" his parents, which he's done to our pleasure.
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Theme: Bill Frisell: "What Do We Do?" from the album "Blues Dream" (Nonesuch) |
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| Monday 08/26 through Friday 08/30/2002 |
The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder by David Quammen
read by Karl Schmidt (Simon and Schuster; ISBN: 0684837285)
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David Quammen is a respected writer about the natural world. For 15 years Quammen has written a column for Outside magazine called "Natural Acts." Karl Schmidt has selected some of his favorites from this sparkling collection of those columns. |
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Theme: Ron Horton "Genius Envy" (Omni Tone 11902) |
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| Monday 09/02 through Friday 09/13/2002 |
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai, translated by Ina Rilke
read by Jim Fleming (Knopf; ISBN: 037541309X)
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The Cultural Revolution sent thousands of young men and women to the countryside for "reeducation." In this charming and compelling short novel, the unnamed narrator and his friend Luo find themselves condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. But they are also introduced, surreptitiously, to the wonders of Balzac and "The Count of Monte Cristo."
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Theme: excerpts from John Corigliano's soundtrack to "The Red Violin"; Joshua Bell, violin; Philharmonia Orchestra - Esa Pekka Salonen, conductor (Sony SK 63010) |
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| Monday 09/16 through Friday 10/11/2002 |
By the Lake by John McGahern
read by Karl Schmidt (Knopf; ISBN: 0679419144)
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John McGahern is one of Ireland's foremost writers, and his new novel is a tribute to the people who make up his country. The story is not new: Joe and Kate Ruttledge move from high pressure jobs in London to a farm near a small Irish village and become involved in the lives of the villagers. The richness of the characters and the attention to details of daily life make this story immensely appealing. |
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Theme: Richard Stoltzman & Judy Collins: "My Song" and "Flower" from the Album "Inner Voices" (RCA 7888.2.RC) |
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| Monday 10/14 through Friday 10/25/2002 |
More Stories from the Round Barn by Jacqueline Dougan Jackson
read by Jim Fleming (Triquarterly; ISBN 0-8101-5135-9)
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In the first volume we were introduced to Grama, Grampa and the rest of the family on the Beloit area farm. The book illustrates the life and times of family and friends on the Dougan farm through hardship and war, as well as the satisfaction that led to grampa's motto, which he painted on the silo: "Life as well as a living." |
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Theme: George Butterworth: The Banks of Green Willow; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Neville Marriner (London 452 707-2) |
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| Monday 10/28 through Friday 11/08/2002 |
Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
read by Jim Fleming (Random House; ISBN: 0394555090)
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Theodore Roosevelt served two terms as President (1901-1909) and looms large in American history. This volume of Morris' biography picks up with shocking moment when the assassination of William McKinley thrust the young (he was only 43) Teddy into the national limelight. The imaginative and compelling Morris brings to life a subject worthy of every American's interest. |
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Theme: "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" and "Chickin's Crowing at Midnight" from Marvin Gaster: Uncle Henry's Favorites (Rounder CD 0382) |
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| Monday 11/11 through Monday 12/09/2002 |
The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer
read by Catherine Brand (Knopf ISBN: 0-376-41282-4)
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A novel about loyalty and self-knowledge. Carrie Bell has lived in Wisconsin all her life, but at age twenty-three she has begun to feel suffocated. When an accident injures her boyfriend Mike, she has to face her fears and desires. Is it a sign of strength or weakness to walk away from someone in need? |
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Theme: "Guitar Trio: Paco de Lucia/John McLaughlin/Al Di Meola" - Beyond the Mirage & Manha de Carnaval (Verve 314 533 215-2)
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| Tuesday 12/10 through Friday 12/20/2002 |
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
read by Karl Schmidt (Adventure
Library; ISBN: 1885283121)
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A member of the Scott expedition to the South Pole, Cherry Garrard says in his introduction:
"Polar Exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has
been devised." Somehow his invitation to us to join him seems appealing. |
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Theme: Mother of the Man, from John Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music; Los Angeles Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor (Nonesuch 79636-2)
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| Monday 12/23 through Wednesday 12/25 |
Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope
read by Karl Schmidt (This reading is available on one CD from The Radio Store 1-800-747-7444. $19.95 including shipping)
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a Christmas tradition |
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| Thursday 12/26 through Friday 12/27 |
On the Rainy River, a story from "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
read by Jim Fleming (Broadway Books; ISBN: 0767902890)
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O'Brien's classic tale of a young man facing the future at the beginning of the Vietnam War. |
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