A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

Public Radio International

Wisconsin Public Radio

MOTHER STORIES

Program 08-05-11-A

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Every mom deserves something special on Mother's Day. We can't fix you breakfast in bed or drop by with coffee and muffins – though here's hoping someone in your life does! - but we can serve up a radio show. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge stories by and for and about mothers. What do women want to say to each other about what it's like to be a mom.

SEGMENT 1:

Poet Frances Richey calls her latest collection "The Warrior – A Mother's Story of a Son at War." The poet and her soldier son, Ben, visit with Jim Fleming and talk about her work and how it affected her son and his unit while he was on the front line in Iraq. Also, Isabel Allende talks with Anne Strainchamps about "The Sum of Our Days." It's Allende's fourth memoir, and takes the form of a letter to her deceased daughter, Paula. Allende talks about her extended, "tribal" family and how writing helped her contain her grief over Paula's death.

SEGMENT 2:

Amanda Henry provides a commentary on the rocky road to motherhood. Also, Rachel Pastan reads from and talks with Steve Paulson about her novel "Lady of the Snakes." The book concerns a young professor of 19th century Russian literature confronted with combining her professional life and motherhood.

SEGMENT 3:

Jeanne Birdsall began writing at age 41. Her first novel became an instant classic. Now "The Penderwicks" has a sequel: "The Penderwicks on Gardam Street." Birdsall tells Anne Strainchamps her own childhood was less than idyllic and she escaped into books, so that was the kind of book she wanted to write. She also tells us a bit about the four Penderwick sisters, their clueless dad and goofy dog, Hound.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 08-05-11-A.

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Books:

Isabel Allende, The Sum of Our Days (Harper)
Jeanne Birdsall, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street read by Susan Denaker (Listening Library)
Frances Richey, The Warrior (A Mother's Story of a Son at War) (Viking)
Rachel Pastan, Lady of the Snakes (Harcourt)

Music:

• “Mockingbird,” sung by Melissa Errico. The CD is “Lullabies and Wildflowers.” (www.velourmusic.com)

• “The Language of Water,” on David Rothenberg’s CD, “Why Birds Sing.” (Terra Nova Music; www.whybirdssing.com)

• “Kumbaya,” Paul Hanson and Tracy Silverman, on the anthology “On a Starry Night.” (Windham Hill Records 1997)

• “Cancion de Cuna,” Eliot Fisk, from the same CD.

• “Bayushky Bayu,” Debbra, Margot and Noah Schwartz with Sunita Staneslow, from the same CD.

• Selections from “The Penderwicks on Gardam Street,” read by Susan Denaker – audiobook produced by The Listening Library (Random House).

• “The Fjords of Oslo,” on the CD “Little Worlds” by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Columbia Records; www.flecktones.com)

• “Oddball,” on Leo Kottke’s CD, “That’s What.” (Private Music 1990)

• “Wildflowers,” on the Melissa Errico CD, “Lullabies and Wildflowers.” (see above)

Distribution dates: week of 05/10/2009 - hour 2 week of 05/11/2008 - hour 1 click here for timings and cues sheet

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