Books Blog : Indiana

Read By the Author

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:30:00 GMT

I love to listen to memoirs read by the authors that wrote them. Not so long ago, I was quite skeptical of all audiobooks. I viewed listening to a book as cheating, unless it was a matter of poor eyesight. I have, however, warmed somewhat to audiobooks, and memoirs read by their authors have become a favorite of mine. When it comes to memoirs, what could possibly be better than someone's story in his or her own voice?

Here are some of my favorite memoirs read by their authors that I've had the pleasure to listen to so far:

Haven Kimmel's memoirs about growing up in Mooreland, Indiana, A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch. These two are good enough I recommend listening to them, even if you've already read them.
Kate Braestrup's Here if You Need Me, about being chaplain for the Maine Warden Service and her part in their search-and-rescue missions, plus her second memoir, Marriage and Other Acts of Charity.
Advice columnist Amy Dickinson's The Mighty Queens of Freeville, about the strong women in her family, including her mother, sisters and daughter.
Tina Fey's wildly popular Bossypants.
Anna Quindlen's recent memoir, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake. I don't think I'm the target audience for this one, but I enjoyed it very much anyway.
Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose, the story of how he became a musician, then a comedian, the drugs he did and the hearts he broke along the way, and his decision to become an American citizen (he was born & raised in Scotland), might be a bit heavy on foul language for some people, but it charmed me.
Bill Bryson's memoir of growing up in Iowa in the 1950's, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is most amusing read in his slight British accent-- he lives in England now.
A. J. Jacobs' The Year of Living Biblically details the year he attempted to follow the Bible really, truly literally. Unfortunately, this is an abridged audiobook, meaning some parts of the original text are not included.

Do you have a memoir read by the author to recommend to me?

Hoosier Ghosts

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:42:00 GMT

Perhaps you'd like to read about reported hauntings right here in Indiana as Halloween approaches. Even if you don't believe in ghosts, these books can be entertaining and spooky reads perfect for the season.

Haunted Travels of Indiana by Mark Marimen

Encyclopedia of Haunted Indiana by Nicole R. Kobrowski

Haunted Indiana and Haunted Indiana 2, 3 and 4 by Mark Mariman

Haunted Hoosier Trails and More Haunted Hoosier Trails by Wanda Lou Willis

Haunted Backroads: Central Indiana: and Other Stories by Nicole R. Kobrowski

Ghost Hunter's Guide to Indianapolis by Lorri Sankowsky

Haunted Indianapolis: And Other Indiana Ghost Stories by Tom Baker & Jonathan Titchenal

Go Outside!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:23:00 GMT

It's springtime! Time to leave the house and enjoy the outdoors! Two recent books you should know about if you're planning on going further than the park down the street are Botanic Gems: Indiana Public Gardens, Including Greater Chicago, Dayton, Cincinnati & Louisville by Alan McPherson and The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks by Susan Reigler.

Botanic Gems includes more than 40 gardens in or near Indiana. Before this book, I had no idea that there are so many public gardens in Indiana! There are color photographs and maps for each location. The book includes Evansville's own Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden.

The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks is truly complete. The parks are covered in regional sections: north central, south central, eastern and western. The parks closest to the Evansville area are in the western section, which includes Henderson's John James Audubon State Park, a favorite of my family. Kentucky State Parks fall into three categories: resort, recreation & historic sites. Each regional section in the book begins with a great chart that breaks down the parks vertically by those three categories, and the going across, by features like park acres, lake acres, lodge & dining room, cottages, campgrounds, golf, marina, swimming, trails, tennis courts, museums, etc. Following the chart, each park in the section gets its own write-up with photographs.

These books are great resources if you're looking for some outdoor fun!

Fiction with an Indiana twist

googler@evpl — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:49:00 GMT

I tried searching the catalog under the heading of Indiana -- fiction and found a list of fascinating titles. Here are some of the most recent:

Sleeping with Anemone, by Kate Collins, is the latest installment in a series about a young female flower-shop owner/amateur sleath in small-town Indiana. Well-crafted plots, fun characters and some fast-paced, zany action make this series popular.

Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, by Thomas Mullen, takes the reader back to the Depression Era, where two bank-robbing brothers find themselves in a police morgue in Indiana. The novel "tells a rip-roaring yarn that manages to be both phantasmagorical and historically accurate. In its labyrinthine, luminous narrative, reminiscent of Michael Chabon's best fiction, readers will find powerful parallels to the present-day." (LA Times)

A Cousin's Prayer by Wanda E. Brunstetter is the second installment of the Indiana Cousins series. Brunstetter is a Christian author who is fascinated by the Amish way of life and tries to portray it accurately in her gentle, heart-warming novels of love and life.

If you'd like to look for this type of book in the future, log into your account and save the search.

The Ripest Moments by Norbert Krapf

Bufkinite@evpl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:00 GMT

The Ripest Moments is a simple pleasure to read. While reading this memoir of growing up in the 40s and 50s in Jasper and rural Dubois County, Indiana, I found myself reminded over and over again of my own childhood in northern Indiana, and the cousins, aunts, and uncles we'd often visit in Ohio and West Virginia.

While this is primarily a book about place, and family, it's also a book about community, and the work ethic that built communities like Jasper - and like Evansville, for that matter - with materials and stock that, in the author's words, were "one generation removed from the farm, two or three generations removed from Germany, and a hundred years beyond the wilderness."

As the title suggests, there's quite a bit remembered about the importance of gardens, orchards, and farms in this book. Family garden plots were central to the survival of pre-suburban, working families. "Summers on the Farm," "The Rye Field," and "The Garden and the Strawberry Patch" are just a few of the more mouth-watering chapters.

If you were born & raised in southern Indiana, you'll find something familiar, and likely something warm, in this book. But even if you're a transplant, this book may speak to you. Quoting the author's preface: "I have always believed that any story set deeply in one time and place, if told well, speaks for other times, places, and people. To put it another way, a sense of time and place travels well. A life lived deeply anywhere resonates beyond the context of its specifics."

This one resonated with me.

The author's website.

Indiana 24/7

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:03:00 GMT

Indiana 24/7 is a beautiful collection of photographs from all over our state. It is a modern photo essay of our day-to-day lives as Hoosiers. The variety the photographers have managed to capture is just amazing. There are many familiar sights in Indiana 24/7, but there are also many surprises. I found the familiar scenes comforting and the surprising ones enlightening. I highly recommend you spend some time with this book!

EVPL also has Illinois 24/7, Kentucy24/7, Michigan 24/7, Ohio 24/7, Tennessee 24/7, Missouri 24/7, along with America 24/7. If that's still not enough photographic excitement for you, check out Cats 24/7 and Dogs 24/7!