Tonight, We Feast! Eight Literary Moments to Savor

May 24, 2013

By J. Rachel Gustafson

Medieval Feast by flickr user Stegasaurus

Shel Silverstein’s poem, Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out, captivated me as a scrappy ten-year-old tomboy. Silverstein’s cautionary tale about sloth, wrapped in vivid descriptions of fanciful narrative, fastened the poem to my developing psyche, and made me always rather eager to volunteer to take out the trash out. The idea of “…coffee grounds, potato peelings, brown bananas, rotten peas, chunks of sour cottage cheese…” filling the can, covering the floor, cracking windows, and blocking doors was, well, terrifying.

Luckily, not all food descriptions have proven as traumatizing. Good prose has a way of transposing our senses: we see what the characters see, smell what they smell, and even, taste what they taste. Today, we’ll explore some of literature’s most memorable food moments—from Proust to Hemingway—for you to savor.

1) “Consider The Lobster“ by David Foster Wallace

This essay was originally published in Gourmet magazine in 2004 and later included in a collection of essays under the same title. The piece startled most readers of the magazine, but Wallace’s review of the 2003 Maine Lobster Festival went well beyond the typical critical review. The post-modernist writer touches on the historical history of lobster feasting:

“Up until sometime in the 1800s, though, lobster was literally low-class food, eaten only by the poor and institutionalized. Even in the harsh penal environment of early America, some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats…”

It also lends a critical, cultural review of the ritual:

“They come up alive in the traps, are placed in containers of seawater, and can, so long as the water’s aerated and the animals’ claws are pegged or banded to keep them from tearing one another up under the stresses of captivity, survive right up until they’re boiled…”.

If you’re a Wallace fan or not, his essay not only addresses the feast but also the source in all its gritty truths—-an idea that dominates contemporary sustainable culinary practices, albeit, less frank.

2) Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard 

Part memoir, part recipe book, Lunch is Paris is a whimsical read. Bard recalls her transatlantic move and marriage to a Frenchman, as well as her acclimation to the City of Lights through food, en plein air Parisian markets, and simple French recipes. In doing so, the reader follows the young American woman’s journey into adulthood as she discovers what it means to be at home and still successful. I must divulge that Bard’s Springtime gathering recipe for poached cod with wilted leeks, and a homemade Dijon-mayonnaise is, in a word, divine:

“When we sat down for lunch…Nicole mashed up a bit of cod with her fork and combined it with a dab of mayonnaise. I did the same. The result was a revelation. The mayonnaise was silky without being oily; it didn’t really taste like anything, but it made everything taste better. I felt like Moses, wandering for years in the culinary wilderness, finally come home. Clearly, I was not in the land of Hellman’s anymore.”

3) The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

As new immigrants to America, Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli remember their homeland through their memories, stories of their relatives and experiences, but also, very vividly, through the native food of Calcutta. In fact, the opening scene of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel—and new Big Read book—centers on the street food of Calcutta:

“On a sticky August evening two weeks before her due date, Ashima Ganguli stands in the kitchen…combining Rice Krispies and Planters peanuts and chopped red onion in a bowl. She adds salt, lemon juice, thin slices of green chili pepper, wishing there were mustard oil to pour into the mix. Ashima has been consuming this concoction throughout her pregnancy, a humble approximation of the snack sold for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and on railway platforms throughout India, spilling from newspaper cones.”

4) Swann’s Way (Or In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past) by Marcel Proust

Most of the reading world is familiar with and has savored Proust’s madeleine cookies from Swann’s Way. Not only does the madeleine scene offer a beautiful explanation of the taste, smells, and sensations of a well-baked French pastry dipped in tea, but it also serves as the catalyst that Proust uses to disembark into the past, and speaks to the power of food as a trigger of memory:

“She sent for one of those squat plump little cakes called ‘petites madeleines,’ which look as though they had been molded in the fluted scallop of a pilgrim’s shell…I raised to my lips a spoonful of tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake. No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate then a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place. An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses…”

5) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The description of food in Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath is as much about hunger and starvation than the bounty of America’s farmland. The piles of oranges, peaches, and other fruits that torment the farm laborers in Steinbeck’s novel are left to decay while whole families starve during the Great Depression. It is the lack of food and the desire for nourishment that help tell the tale of the Joad family, and paint a picture of the entire Dust Bowl era:

“Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground…a million people hungry, needing the fruit…there is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize…people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get dumped organs, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch…in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

6) A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway

This short story from Hemingway takes place in a café and was first published in Scribner’s Magazine in the 1930s. An old, deaf man remains in the dim restaurant, sipping brandy, as two waiters discuss the scuttlebutt surrounding their final patron of the evening. While food is not the center of Hemingway’s short story, the cultural custom of the restaurant as a refuge for the lonely relates another part of the café experience for anyone who has ever eaten in solitude:

“We are of two different kinds,” the older waiter said. He was now dressed to go home. “It is not only a question of youth and confidence although those things are very beautiful. Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the cafe.”

“Hombre, there are bodegas open all night long.”

“You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well-lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves.”

7) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter makes it to Hogwarts in the first installment of Rowling’s beloved young adult series and is met with the many magical experiences that come with living in an enchanted boarding school. However, it is his first feast in the Grand Hall that brings to life the delights of Hogwarts:

“She [Professor McGonagall] pulled the door wide…Harry’s mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs…Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious.”

8) I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal

A staple of Eastern European literature, Bohumil Hrabal is a cherished Czech writer who explores the life of a dedicated hospitality worker in I Served the King of England. The story uses the food and restaurant industry as a means to catapult the main character from rags to riches and ultimately, to rags again. In a scene where the main character serves the Emperor of Ethiopia, Hrabal’s use of culinary curiosities reaches new heights:

“We were shocked when they had two antelopes brought in from the zoo, already gutted, and they quickly skinned them and roasted them in the biggest roasting pan we had, with huge chucks of butter and a bag full of their spices, and we had to open all the windows because of the fumes. Then they put stuffing in the half-roasted turkeys, and the turkeys into the antelopes, and hundreds of hard-boiled eggs to fill in the empty spaces, and they roasted everything together…”

 

Posted by Big Read at 1:37 pm | Category: General
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Writing through the Darkest Hour

May 21, 2013

By Rebecca Gross

44/365 – 02/13/11 – The American Flag by flickr user Shardayy

In The Things They Carried, author and Vietnam veteran Tim O’Brien uses fiction to explore war’s truths and half-truths, searing memories and distorted perspectives, and its tangle of obscenities and fears. While reading O’Brien’s raw, blunt narrative can be a jarring  experience, it also contains a therapeutic element for the author. As O’Brien writes, “It occurred to me that the act of writing had led me through a swirl of memories that might otherwise have ended in paralysis or worse. By telling stories, you objectify your own experience. You separate it from yourself. You pin down certain truths. You make up others.” Later in the book, he notes that, “Stories can save us.”

No one is more familiar with the saving grace of writing than Ron Capps. Capps, a veteran whom we profiled in a recent issue of NEA Arts, quite literally saved his own life by writing about his wartime experiences and struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since then, he has dedicated his life to helping others make sense of the memories that threaten to disrupt or destroy their lives. He conducts in-patient writing workshops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and in 2011, he founded the Veterans Writing Project in Washington, DC. Last May, the Veterans Writing Project published the first volume of its literary journal O-Dark-Thirty, which features fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from veterans and members of the military community.

In honor of Memorial Day and this morning’s launch of Blue Star Museums, we wanted to pay tribute to the men and women who are brave enough not only to fight for our country, but to lay themselves emotionally bare by sharing their personal stories. The following poem by Paul L. Greenberg appeared in the second edition of O-Dark-Thirty, and offers a beautiful portrayal of the physical, mental, and emotional toll that war can take.

Gunnery Sergeant Stark

By Paul L. Greenberg

You stop your wheelchair at the corner,
violent hacking from your throat
and dust belches out
Dust from the deserts of Al Anbar
Dust from the plains of Djibouti
Dust from the mountains of Helmand

You shake in your chair as the spasm
rattles your torso
and the stubs of your thighs
bounce on the edge of your chair

The fleshy fissures in your forehead
trace the sleepless nights
the sleepless years
of humps, ranges, patrols
of courage anger fear
cigarettes and canned beer
rifles grenades pistols knives
angry ex-wives
and children
who call
to ask you for money
and reproach you
for things you can’t remember

Paul Greenberg is an avid fiction writer, English teacher, and performance artist. He has taught ESL in South Korea, Morocco, and most recently in Rangoon, Burma. He has served in U.S. military on both the active and reserve side for 15 years, and currently resides in North Carolina.

Be on the lookout for the next volume of O-Dark-Thirty, which will be released on Memorial Day.

Posted by Big Read at 1:03 pm | Category: The Things They Carried
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Finding Meaning in the End

May 17, 2013

By Jamie McCrary

Photo by Jamie McCrary

As a classically trained violist, I tend to think of resonance in terms of music. A resonant note hangs in the air after you finish playing, continuing your sound through a rest or the end of a phrase. This draws your audience in, allowing the music to continue even when you are not playing. I am discovering that resonance isn’t just found in music, though. A thought or idea can be resonant too, staying with you long after it is imparted. And the more I read, I realize that the richest place new thoughts and ideas are stored is in a good piece of literature. Like a resonant piece of music, a well-written novel sticks with you, leaving impressions that sometimes last for a lifetime.

When I finished Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, one of our newest Big Read books, this idea of resonance kept coming to mind. Even today, months after finishing the novel, I find the book’s characters and their struggles creeping back into my thoughts. What is it about her writing that has stuck with me so strongly? The story is good, yes, but it’s much deeper than the narrative. She has a way of writing that makes you feel like you are a part of the character’s lives; you understand their struggles and can identify with the painful, convoluted situations they face. Lahiri has embedded something very real in The Namesake: humanity.

Often times in life, we crave and seek closure. And many times, closure is built into the end of things: graduations, goodbye parties, award ceremonies. But what happens when you can’t neatly tie things up and happily move on? The challenge comes when life requires us to create our own closure and find meaning behind an experience that perhaps we don’t quite understand yet.

Lahiri depicts this challenge so beautifully in The Namesake, drawing readers into her characters’ lives and the painful situations they face. Divorce, alienation, death: these are all real-life trials that her characters deal with. We are left to put the pieces together alongside her characters, searching for meaning behind the pain and wrong that has been committed. There is no comfort in a simple answer, and no comfort in a sense of closure to their struggles.

How many times in our own lives are we left to find meaning and closure when there is none? We all want to find meaning in the end of things; it helps us understand why our lives have taken certain paths and move forward. Lahiri reveals this deep human desire, crafting painful and real situations that continue to resonate with me. Like the end of a beautiful piece of music, this concept of searching for closure has stuck with me, haunting me long after I finished the book. And as I continue to seek closure throughout my own life, The Namesake will serve as a reminder of the human quest for meaning in the end.

Posted by Big Read at 2:57 pm | Category: The Namesake
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Deja Husberg Recites Margaret Atwood

May 15, 2013

By Adam Kampe

DejaHusberg_2007_POL_Finals

Deja Husberg at the 2007 POL Finals. Photo by James Kegley

Even though the 2013 Poetry Out Loud National Finals have come and gone (congrats again, Langston!), it’s always fun to hear the recitations of past champions. Listen to Alaskan State Champion and 2007 POL finalist Deja Husberg recite Margaret Atwood’s darkly funny poem, “Siren Song.” [1:59]

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Margaret Atwood, “Siren Song” from Selected Poems 1965-1975. Copyright © 1974, 1976 by Margaret Atwood. Reprinted with the permission of the author and Houghton Mifflin Company

Posted by Big Read at 1:59 pm | Category: Poetry Out Loud
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A New Peek at Willa Cather’s Private Life

May 21, 2013

By Rebecca Gross

Book Cover

Cover image courtesy of Knopf

Although we’re accustomed to engaging with Willa Cather on the page, there are some words of hers that we were never meant to read. This, of course, is the author’s private correspondence, which she expressly banned from publication or even quotation. So when The Selected Letters of Willa Cather was published last month, nearly seven decades after Cather’s death, it created quite a stir within the literary world. Edited by Andrew Jewell and Janis Stout, the book includes 566 of some 3,000 letters now known to survive, and unveils the inner life of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Big Read author. “Cather is the kind of writer whose unpretentious style has always attracted a wide and diverse readership,” said Jewell, a Cather scholar and, like the author, a native Nebraskan. “We thought we should make a book that people could sit down and read without having to feel like they needed to be experts to appreciate it.” We spoke with Jewell about the new anthology, and what he thinks it will mean for Cather’s legacy.

NEA: With the publication of this book, there has been a good deal written about how Cather forbade her letters to be published. Knowing that, and knowing Cather as you do, how did you make the decision to publish the book anyway?

ANDREW JEWELL: There are a couple of things. First, and importantly, her wishes had been honored for many decades. I think that’s the time, the immediate decades after a death, when it’s most important to honor those wishes, while those she wrote about were still alive. I think one of the reasons that she wanted to ban them was to protect and determine her literary reputation, and that is [now] as stable as reputations ever can be.

And I knew that in Cather scholarship, people—those who could get to them—were reading her letters and summarizing them. So as I grew up as a Cather scholar, I witnessed over and over again how people paraphrased, summarized, but were forbidden to be as accurate and as forthright as everyone wanted to be. No one wanted to be in that situation. So my first witnessing of the need for the letters was seeing how the ban prevented people from doing a scholarship book accurately.

But I also started reading them, and becoming interested in them, and realizing how wonderful they were. With Janis Stout, my co-editor, we began to think, “These are very important works of American literary history themselves.” And now, so much time has passed that whatever concerns motivated her to ban the letters—I just don’t think that those concerns exist in our world anymore. It helped very much that we had the blessing and support of her family and her descendants, who donated materials and wanted their relative to become even more well-known by making the letters more accessible to others. They knew [the letters] had wonderful things in them. I’m not insensitive to the fact that she wanted them banned, but I really feel that she belongs to our shared cultural past, that the world is frankly much richer for having them out there for people to read. They have a lot to offer. They’re wonderful letters.

NEA: Of the 3,000 letters that have been known to survive, you published 566. How did you decide which letters to select?

JEWELL: Janis and I independently read all the letters we could get our hands on. We had decided to organize the book into 12 different chapters, and then we went through each of those chronological sections and kept narrowing it down until it got within a reasonable word limit. The publisher had given us a size that was workable for a book—it was a parameter we needed. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to represent all the different aspects of her personality that we witnessed in the letters: the many different relationships, the different qualities of her life and work. We wanted a good representation of who she was as a human being. And also, some of the letters [we chose] were the most eloquent, or best expressed the ideas that showed up in multiple letters. And we gave precedence [to letters] that dealt with her work and her writing life.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Amy Tan on the Influence of Louise Erdrich

May 10, 2013

by Liz Auclair and Josephine Reed

Book cover for "Love Medicine"

Love Medicine. Cover image used courtesy of Harper Perennial.

When the NEA welcomed three new books to the Big Read library last fall—Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, Charles Portis’s True Grit, and Luis Alberto Urrea’s Into the Beautiful North—we asked the writers if they had particular ties to any of the other Big Read titles. Lahiri spoke about having recently read The Grapes of Wrath for the first time: “I had a very intense reaction to it, and I think, I hope, in some way, it helped me to finish … my next novel…. [T]he sense of place, the understanding of place, the incredible complexity and love of the land and the difficulty of confronting physical space and place and all of those things. I was just absolutely overwhelmed by the novel.”

The inspiration writers sometimes find in unexpected works of literature also occurred when Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, read Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine. Despite their different backgrounds, both of these Big Read books share a focus on family, and examine perspectives across different generations. Here, Tan describes how Love Medicine revealed to her the possibilities in her own storytelling. [4:24]

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Posted by Big Read at 10:20 am | Category: Love Medicine, The Joy Luck Club
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Jim White’s “Angel-Land”

May 9, 2013

By Adam Kampe

Image courtesy of Jim White

In addition to being a masterful storyteller (check out his short story, “The Bottom”), musician Jim White knows how to pen a song. One of the best parts of my job is helping find and license relevant songs that evoke the themes and feelings in Big Read books. The tone and the lyrics of White’s quirky song “Angel-Land” somehow perfectly punctuates the ending of our audio guide about what is a pretty quirky novel—Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. I’m not sure why exactly, but it just fits. I’d like to think that McCullers and the oddball misfits that people her book would agree. Maybe you disagree. Of course, that’s okay, too. Tell us what song you would choose in the comments.

Here’s a lyrical excerpt that really stands out:

I cannot be superman no more,

I cannot walk upon the high wire in my mind.

And now that I understand the extent of my mortal coil.

Suddenly and somehow I have lost all my desire, 

To shine, to shine like the sun, 

To shine, to shine like the sun, 

On a sunny day in Angel-Land…

Special thanks to Yale Evelev of Luaka Bop and Mike Fink of BMG Chrysalis for permission to excerpt this song for the Big Read audio guide.

 

Posted by Big Read at 4:37 pm | Category: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
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The Book That Never Ages

May 6, 2013

By Rebecca Gross

A 1915 cover of Peter and Wendy. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

“All children, except one, grow up.” So begins one of the world’s great works of children’s literature, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. I first read the novel as an adult for a college course, and was immediately enchanted by the adventure, fantasy, and wry observations about that terrifying realm known as adulthood. It’s become one of my favorite books, and I re-read it whenever I’m feeling in need of a little magic in my life. (According to George Bernard Shaw, Peter Pan, which first appeared on stage, was “ostensibly a holiday entertainment for children but really a play for grown-up people.”) Since Barrie’s birthday would be this Thursday, I thought it would be a fitting time to dig up some trivia about the author and his most famous work.

The character Peter Pan first appeared in Barrie’s novel The Little White Bird, published in 1902. However, it was his 1904 production of Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up that fully introduced the story we now consider to be a classic. Barrie adapted the play into the novel Peter and Wendy, which appeared in 1911.

A major cricket enthusiast, Barrie founded the cricket team the Allahakbarries. Players consisted of some of the leading literary figures of the day, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A.A. Milne, H.G. Wells, and P.G. Wodehouse.

In addition to their cricketing camaraderie, Barrie also collaborated with Conan Doyle on the opera Jane Annie, the Good Conduct Award. Barrie had started the libretto, but after becoming ill, asked Conan Doyle to complete it. Despite the genius of the two men, the opera was a flop.

Although Barrie had a self-admitted passion for all things English (Peter Pan is famously set in London), the author was actually Scottish.

Peter Pan was created for and inspired by Barrie’s relationship with the Llewelyn Davies boys: George, John, Peter, Michael, and Nicholas. Barrie met the elder boys one day in 1897 while they were playing in Kensington Gardens with their nurse. He became a permanent fixture in their family, and was known as “Uncle Jim.” After the boys’ parents died—both of cancer at an early age—Barrie was named as the children’s trustee and guardian. This relationship has come under a good deal of scrutiny in recent years, but before his death, Nicholas publicly stated that it was entirely innocent—which at least some of Barrie’s biographers support.

Unfortunately, the Davies boys’ fates held more tragedy than fairy-tale. George was killed in action during World War I; Michael drowned in 1921; and Peter, who gave his name to the world’s most famous imp, committed suicide in 1960 by jumping in front of a London tube train.

Peter Pan popularized the name “Wendy,” which until then, had been relatively uncommon. Barrie chose the name for his girl heroine in honor of Margaret Henley, the daughter of poet W.E. Henley, who was an acquaintance of Barrie’s. Margaret, who died at the age of six, called Barrie “my friendy,” which thanks to the typical childhood difficulty with pronouncing r’s, came out as “fwiendy.”

In 1929, Barrie gave the rights of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, a children’s hospital. The hospital continues to receive royalties from productions and publications of the work, though in accordance with Barrie’s wishes, the sum of these royalties has never been disclosed.

Posted by Big Read at 2:46 pm | Category: General
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Let Them Eat (Amazing Poe-Inspired) Cake!

May 3, 2013

By Kelli Rogowski

The Tell-Tale Heart by Stacey’s Sweets, the winning entry in the Edible Books Contest. Photo courtesy of Springfield-Greene County Library

A confession: I love cake-decorating shows. I’m addicted to watching folks craft elaborate displays out of fondant and gum paste, I adore cakewrecks.com, and I’m still mourning the loss of Ace of Cakes from my TV line-up. So, when I saw that  Missouri’s Springfield-Greene County Library was holding a Big Read cake-decorating contest in honor of Edgar Allan Poe, you can bet that I contacted them straight-away for a spot in our blog. Fortunately, Kim Flores, manager of Brentwood Branch Library and Big Read co-chair, was kind enough to chat with me over e-mail to tell me about her community’s Big Read program and this particular event, which was even more incredible than I’d imagined.

NEA:  This isn’t your community’s first Big Read, is it? Can you tell me about some of your other experiences with the Big Read?

KIM FLORES: The Springfield-Greene County system has hosted a community-wide read since 2006. After a few years on our own, we were asked to partner with Missouri State University on an NEA-funded Big Read when they chose the title, To Kill a Mockingbird. That partnership was very successful and encouraged our library system to apply for our own grant from the NEA. We are really fortunate to have a responsive Friends of the Library group who gave us the matching funds so we could invite a nationally-known author. Last year our Big Read title was The Maltese Falcon, and we were able to bring Ridley Pearson to Springfield for the keynote address. Pearson is not only a fine author but he’s also a great speaker and he really energized our community. People talked about his presentation for months after he left.

Stacey Coggin (on right) of Stacey’s Sweets and her assistant Kallie pose with their winning cake in the Edible Books contest. Photo courtesy of Springfield-Greene County Library

NEA: Why did you choose The Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe as your book this year?

FLORES: Poe had many famous contemporaries, but few resonate with young people the way he does. After all these years, people are still wondering whether he was a genius or just plain crazy. The circumstances surrounding his death are mysterious, the choices he made in life give us lots to question and discuss, and his stories provide chills that few other authors can replicate. One of our goals is to find new readers and introduce the library to people who’ve never used us before. We felt Edgar Allan Poe’s works would give us a great way to reach the teen and young adult demographic who get only a brief taste of Poe in middle or high school, as well as encourage older patrons to revisit a favorite.

From left to right: Chef Brian Romano, captain of The Branch Bistro Team, which won this year’s Iron Chef competition; Kim Flores, Big Read co-chair; Chef Roger Plummer, captain of the Cook’s Kettle Team. Both Romano and Plummer are part of the Victory Trade School. Photo courtesy of Springfield-Greene County Library

NEA: The Edible Books cake-decorating contest is coupled with an Iron Chef competition that happens on the same day. What made you decide to host these contests? Can you tell us more about them?

FLORES: The first thing people think when they hear the word “library” is “books.” That’s great, but if you don’t consider yourself a reader, does that mean there’s nothing at the library for you? Of course not! There’s something for everyone at the library and these events prove it.

There’s been an explosion of cooking shows on television, cooking blogs on the internet, and online recipe sources. It’s become a big part of our current culture. So when I saw an article about Edible Books festivals in libraries several years ago, I thought it would be a great fit for our Big Read. Not only could you get a book at the library, but you could also eat one!

We chose the Park Central Branch for the Iron Chef and Edible Books competitions because it’s in the downtown area of our city and it’s the branch which participates in the monthly First Friday Art Walk. There’s a lot of foot traffic and seeing those cakes in the windows draws people in.

Once they are inside the library, they can smell the great cooking smells coming from the Iron Chef Competition. That’s also been an excellent partnership for us. The Iron Chef competitors are from Victory Trade School, which provides accredited education in culinary arts for nontraditional students. Featuring them gives us a wonderful library event and gives them some much-needed publicity, as well.

The professional bakers who compete for “Fan Favorite” tell me they get phone calls for cakes in which the person says, “I saw your cake at the library and now I need you to make something for me.” We have the cakes on display all afternoon and each person who comes into the library gets one ticket and the opportunity to vote for their favorite cake. Our electronic traffic counter was smoking from trying to keep up with counting all the people who came through the doors. (Okay, that’s a bit of hyperbole, but we really did have lots of people.) The final count isn’t in but preliminary numbers are in the range of 650-700 people.

With everything from blood drives to a flash  fiction contest, to author presentations and pub trivia nights (complete with a specially-made local brew), the Springfield-Greene County Library’s impressive list of Big Read events holds something for all ages. For more information, check out their website.

Posted by Big Read at 2:59 pm | Category: Uncategorized
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Ed Harris, Alfred Molina & Robert Redford?

May 1, 2013

By Adam Kampe

Big_Read_Book_logos

Big Read logos

What do these three tremendous actors have in common? They’ve all read excerpts of Big Read books, featured below. To hear the entire audio guides to these respective novels—The Grapes of Wrath, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and The Call of the Wild—head over to The Big Read website. Start May off right with an inspired reading by a professional.

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[1:12]

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[:36]

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[1:31]

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Posted by Big Read at 5:52 pm | Category: The Call of the Wild, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Grapes of Wrath
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