Monday, November 22, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, November 22 through Friday, December 3, 2010. Read by Norman Gilliland.
The stories of Latin Americans who get through the wall separating the US from Mexico, the ranchers who oppose them, and the humanitarians caught in between.
(Beacon Press; ISBN-10: 0807001309 / ISBN13: 9780807042274)
Theme: Manuel Ponce: Canto a la Malinche, from Instantaneas Mexicanas; Royal Philharmonic - Enrique Batiz, cond (ASV); Austin Barrios Mangore: Julia Florida, Eduardo Fernandez, guitar (ArkivMusic)
Monday, November 1, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, November 1 through Friday, November 19, 2010. Read by Karl Schmidt.
The author of the gripping bestseller The Perfect Storm turns to the reality of combat. War follows a single platoon through a 15-month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan.
(Twelve; ISBN-10: B0085RZFDC / ISBN13: 9780446556248 )
Theme: Ecstasy, from the album Kronos Caravan; Kronos Quartet, Ali Jihad Racy, Souhaill Kaspar (Nonesuch 79490-2)
Monday, October 11, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, October 11 through Friday, October 29, 2010. Read by Jim Fleming.
A lot of things have gone wrong for Paul, in his writing and in his life, but there's one advisor who has never let him down - his labrador retriever Stella.
(Algonquin; ISBN-10: B005OHTGS6 / ISBN-13: 9781565125971)
Theme: Leo Kotkke - Vaseline Machine Gun & Busted Bicycle from Anthology (Rhino)
Monday, September 20, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, September 20 through Friday, October 8, 2010. Read by Norman Gilliland.
Jack London was a man of contradictions. The author of best-selling stories like "The Sea Wolf" and "The Call of the Wild" and for a time the highest-paid writer in America, he was often broke. This is the story of the forgotten Jack London, author and crusader.
Basic Books; ISBN-10: B007MXCFKQ / ISBN-13: 978-0465004782)
Theme: Richard Strauss Horn Concerto 1 - andante; Eric Ruske, horn; IRIS Chamber Orch - Michael Stern, conductor (Albany Troy 782)
Monday, August 30, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, August 30 through Friday, September 17, 2010. Read by Jim Fleming.
An exciting novel that pushes the boundaries of what we think defines our humanity. A young girl is raised with apes, forced to flee for her life from a civil war, and forced to defend her right to live in human society.
(Knopf; ISBN-10: 0307473902 / ISBN: 978-0307272607)
Theme: Bobby McFerrin: Circlesongs (Sony)
Monday, August 16, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, August 16 through Friday, August 27, 2010. Read by Karl Schmidt.
Excerpts from the memoirs of an extraordinary musician.
(Simon & Schuster; ISBN-10: 0743244583 / ISBN: 978-0743244589)
Theme: selections from Bob Dylan: Biograph
Monday, July 26, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, July 26 through Friday, August 13, 2010. Read by Susan Sweeney.
Olive is a retired schoolteacher in Crosby, Maine who observes the characters around her. Some she approves of, others she doesn't, but in everyone she sees and reports what others might miss.
(Random House; ISBN-10: 0812971833 / ISBN: 9780812971835)
Theme: "Time Remembered" from "Kronos Quartet Music of Bill Evans (www.savoyjazz.com)
Monday, July 5, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, July 5 through Friday, July 23, 2010. Read by Jim Fleming.
A test of wills between a young banker and a retired schoolteacher is at the heart of this debut novel revealing the new gilded age - the first decade of the twenty-first century.
(Nan A. Talese/Doubleday; ISBN-10: 0307388298 / ISBN: 9780385524476)
Theme: "Just a Gigolo" & "Round Midnight" from: Thelonius Monk: Riffin (Sony A 50998)
Monday, June 21, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, June 21 through Friday, July 2, 2010. Read by Karl Schmidt.
A selection of stories by one our great playwrights and storytellers, most of them set in the landscape of the American West.
(Knopf; ISBN-10: 0307277828 / ISBN-13: 9780307265401)
Theme: "Focus" & Peter Miller's Discovery" from "Disfarmer" by Bill Frisell
Monday, May 31, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, May 31 through Friday, June 18, 2010. Read by Norman Gilliland.
A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope--a captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it.
(Harper; ISBN-10: 0061537969 / ISBN-13: 978-0061537967)
Theme: "Dog Asleep" from Schickele: Thurber's Dogs, suite for orchestra; Pro Musica Chamber Orch -- Timothy Russell (D'Note DNF 1010)
Monday, May 10, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, May 10 through Friday, May 28, 2010. Read by Jim Fleming.
Drummond Clark was a legendary spy of legendary proportions, now confused by Alzheimer's disease. But the CIA wants to contain him--and so do some other shady characters who send Drummond on a wild chase that gives father and son quality time a whole new meaning. (Doubleday; ISBN-10: B007K4OYKG / ISBN-13: 978-0385530781)
Theme: Ellington: "I'm Just a Lucky So and So" Ramsey Lewis & Billy Taylor (CBS MK 44941)
Monday, April 19, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, April 19 through Friday. May 7, 2010. Read by Susan Sweeney.
This is a novel about the surprises and changes that come with aging.
(Algonquin; ISBN-10: 156512541X / ISBN-13: 978-1565126756)
Theme: Svendsen: Romance in G major, Op 26; Gil Shaham, violin; Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG 449 923-2)
Monday, March 29, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, March 29 through Friday, April 16, 2010. Read by Karl Schmidt.
The Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for The Washington Post presents a series of essays covering everything from the personal to the public, from politics to sports.
(Simon & Schuster ISBN-10: B0048ELDX2 / ISBN-13: 9781439160022)
Theme: Bill Frisell: Disfarmer Theme (Nonesuch)
Thursday, March 18, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, March 8 through Friday, March 26, 2010. Read by Norman Gilliland.
A perfect little novel about those extraordinary New York hermits, the Collyer brothers.
(Random House; ISBN-10: B002M41TY8 / ISBN-13: 9781400064946)
Theme: Schumann: Traumerei - from "Piano Classics: Popular Works for Solo Piano" (Telarc)
Monday, March 1, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, March 1 through Friday, March 5, 2010. Read by Jim Fleming.
Excerpts from a book of memories from one of Wisconsin's premier newspaper columnists.
(Cabin Bookshelf; ISBN-10: 096533810X)
Theme: selections from "Beyond Six Strings: A Collection of New Music for Harp Guitar" (HGM-CD-001)
Monday, February 15, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, February 15 through Friday, February 26, 2010. Read by Karl Schmidt.
(Itchy Cat Press; ISBN-10: 0670417610 / ISBN-13: 978-0976145059)
Theme: Triptique for String Orchestra-Berceuse & Andante; Akutagawa - Angel S-36577
Friday, February 12, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, January 25 through Friday, February 12, 2010. Read by Jim Fleming.
The author of "Truck" returns to tell the story of his new life in the country.
(Harper; ISBN-10: 0061240443 / ISBN-13: 978-0061240430)
Theme: "The Driving of the Year Nail" from Leo Kottke: Anthology (Rhino)
Monday, January 4, 2010, 12:30pm
Monday, January 4 through Friday, January 22, 2010. Read by Susan Sweeney.
A travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery.
(Penguin ISBN-10: 0670034711 / ISBN-13: 978-0143038412)
Theme: Ray Lynch: Over Easy (from "Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening" (Windham Hill)
Friday, December 18, 2009, 12:30pm
Friday, December 18, 2009. Read by Jim Fleming.
A Christmas story from his Wisconsin memoir.
(Terrace Books; ISBN-10: 0299230600 / ISBN-13: 978-0299230609)
Theme: Rube Bloom: Spring Fever, Duke Ellington: Solitude; Alan Feinberg, piano from the disc "Fascinatin' Rhythm" (Argo 444 457-2)
Thursday, December 10, 2009, 12:30pm
Thursday, December 10, 2009 through Friday, January 1, 2010. Read by Jim Fleming
including "The Cricket on the Hearth" (12/10-12/17/2009), "The Holly Tree" (12/21-12/23/2009), and "The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang An Old Year Out and a New Year In" (12/24-1/1/2010)
Theme: "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" & "Greensleeves" from "A Midnight Clear: A Celtic Christmas" with Robin Bullock (Dorian DOR 93250)
Monday, November 9, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, November 9 through Wednesday, December 9, 2009. Read by Karl Schmidt.
The new novel by America?s great Washington writer takes on individual responsibility in the public world.
(Harcourt; ISBN-10: B004JZX176 / ISBN-13: 9780547195582)
Theme: Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 in d minor, Op 31 No. 2 - 2nd mvt; Helene Grimaud, piano (Deutsche Grammophon)
Monday, October 19, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, October 19 through Friday, November 6, 2009. Read by Jim Fleming.
Henry Lee came of age in WWII era Seattle, and vividly remembers when the Japanese were interned. Now as he recovers from the cancer death of his wife, those days are brought back to life by the discovery of artifacts in an old hotel.
(Ballantine; ISBN-10: 0345505336 / ISBN-13: 978-0345505347)
Theme: I Got it Bad, and That Ain't Good - Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington
Monday, October 5, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, October 5 through Friday, October 16, 2009. Read by Jim Fleming.
The brutal murders at Frank Lloyd Wright's Spring Green prairie cottage helped shape the rest of the famous architect's life.
(Wisconsin; ISBN-10: 0299222101) Also available as a 4-CD audiobook in WPR's Radio Store at 1-800-747-7444.
Theme: Beethoven: String Quartet Nr 11 - allegretto ma non troppo; Quartetto Italiano (Philips 420 104-2)
Monday, September 14, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, September 14 through Friday, October 2, 2009. Read by Susan Sweeney.
Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. Shunned , kicked out of her mother?s house and banished by her father, she gives up her baby up for adoption. Finally she returns to New England and stitches together a life that encircles her silenced and invisible grief.
(Beacon Press; ISBN-10: 0807072737 / ISBN13: 978-0807072738)
Theme: Lars Erik Larson, Adagio from "Adagio: Music for Silent Moments" (Arte Nova Classics 74321 378702)
Monday, August 17, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, August 17 through Friday, September 11, 2009. Read by Jim Fleming.
The author of Blue Highways returns to the back roads of America in search of "quoz" - things strange, incongruous, or peculiar.
(Little, Brown ; ISBN-10: B005M4P766 / ISBN-13: 978-0316110259)
Theme: Chuck Suchy; Blue Missouri Hills #1 from the album Different Line of Time
Monday, July 20, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, July 20 through Friday, August 14, 2009. Read by Karl Schmidt.
A novel about youth and idealism, adulthood and its compromises, and two powerfully different visions of what it means to live a good life.
(Knopf; ISBN-10: B002PJ4HRG / ISBN-13: 978-0307263155)
Theme: Nico Muhly speaks volumes (HVALUR 1)
Monday, July 6, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, July 6 through Friday, July 17, 2009. Read by Jim Fleming.
In 1950 the Crehores, 7-year-old Dave and his parents, moved from Ohio to Manitowoc, WI. His memoir is filled with the satisfying life and adventures of a Wisconsin in the middle of the 20th Century.
(Terrace Books; ISBN-10: 0299230600 / ISBN-13: 9780299230609)
Theme: Rube Bloom: Spring Fever, Duke Ellington: Solitude; Alan Feinberg, piano from the disc "Fascinatin' Rhythm" (Argo 444 457-2)
Monday, June 8, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, June 8 through Friday, July 3, 2009. Read by Susan Sweeney.
An unmarried surrogate mother flees her Chicago home and heads for the Southwest. This novel explores how people care for each other, whoever and wherever they are.
(Random House; ISBN-10:0307405346 / ISBN-13: 978-0307405340)
Theme: First Impressions from Appalachia Waltz by Mark O'Connor; Yo-Yo Ma; Edgar Meyer; Mark O'Connor (Sony SK 68460)
Monday, May 4, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, April 11 through Friday, May 13, 2011. Read by Karl Schmidt.
A story from the "driftless" area of Wisconsin, about a town apparently left out of time. It's an unforgettable slice of life in rural America
(Milkweed; ISDN-10: 1571310592 / ISBN-13: 978-57131-059-0)
Theme: Haydn: The Seven Last Words - introduction; Emerson Quartet (DG B0002053-02)
Monday, April 6, 2009, 12:30pm
Monday, April 6 through Friday, May 1, 2009. Read by Jim Fleming.
A greatest generation story of the members of a Montana football team who go to war. One is selected by the army propaganda arm to tell their stories.
(Harcourt; ISBN-10: B001VEI01K / ISBN-13: 978-0151012435)
Theme: Cole Porter: Anything Goes; Stephan Grappelli & Yo-Yo Ma (CBS MK 45574)