Interview with Carol Bodensteiner

Last month I had the opportunity to have coffee with Carol Bodensteiner and interview her for the bookstore's newsletter:

Carol Bodensteiner hails from Jackson County in the rolling hills of eastern Iowa and just wrapped up a semester as a visiting professor at Drake University. Growing Up Country: Memories of an Iowa Farm Girl is Carol’s first book and she recently finished working with the Department for the Blind to put her book on tape. “I'm very excited about that,” says Carol. “My mother had macular degeneration and I intended to read my book on tape for her. She died before I could get that done - in fact before my book was in printed form. So I wanted to do that as a memorial for her and others with macular degeneration.”

Though she spent most of her adult life in the public relations field, Carol has always been a writer. Since becoming an independent consultant in 1999 she has more time to focus on creative writing. The positive response Growing up Country surprised Carol as she wrote the book mostly for her family, especially her mother. “I love it that people like my book,” she said. “I don’t even know how to take that. As it turns out my book resonates with a lot of people.”

When she isn’t writing or teaching Carol can be found writing articles for the Iowan magazine, consulting on a public relations project and researching her next book. Carol is currently reading The Horizontal World and enjoys seeing how other people approach writing memoirs. Check out her website at www.carolbodensteiner.com for news on her next book and opportunities to meet Carol in person. Her next scheduled Des Moines visit will be at the Iowa State Fair in the Agriculture Building.

One of Carol's favorite quotations:

I write when I'm inspired, and see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning. -Peter De Vries

Few new books but plenty of reading

The danger of working in a bookstore is that I bring home more books than I can possibly read. This was made obvious to me while attempting to pack all my books to get ready to move. Because of limited space I'm doing my best to pack only the essentials: classics, reference relevant to my field of study, a few favorite authors and cookbooks.
The rest of it -- advanced readers copies, fiction, lots of anthropology non-fiction, dictionaries, books in Spanish and young adult fiction-- I'm attempting to re-read before it gets left in boxes in a storage unit. This week the theme is "Books based on Pride and Prejudice:" The Second Mrs. Darcy, Darcy's Story and Mr. Darcy's Daughter. Usually I would pooh-pooh on books based on classic literature, but everyone has a weakness and mine is Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.

If you have never read P&P and have no intention of attempting a 19th century novel, I would suggest Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan. Though it is nothing compared to the original story, this is chick-lit and fan-lit at its best.

For a lighter side of history, Harper Collins Publishing has a great line of fiction based on classic novels or historical events. Darcy's Story is one, P&P told from his point of view. There is also Thornfield Hall: Jane Eyre 's Hidden Story, The Family Fortune, based on Persuasion and a bunch of others. You can identify these books by a small green seal at the bottom right-hand corner of the cover:


It's summer. Go read something light.

Walter Moers

As a follow up to City of Dreaming Books, I read Moers other books based on the fantasy continent of Zamonia: Rumo and The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear. Both excellent books but they don't hold a candle to Dreaming Books. There is one customer at the store who I hooked on Moers who read them Bluebear first, then Rumo, and finally Dreaming Books and I think that might be the way to do it.
The 13 and 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear follows a blue bear named Bluebear (a couple waves named him, you'll have to forgive the lack of originality) through half of his lives. It's a great introduction to Zamonia because of the variety of creatures he meets and crazy places he travels. Bluebear is a likely hero and finds himself in life after life of dangerous situations. This book also offers an explanation of the scarcity of humans in Zamonia. If Dreaming Books is the dessert, Bluebear is the salad and appetizers.

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures is Moers's best story of love and adventure. Rumo is a Wolperting, a species of dog known for its fighting skills and loyalty. He has a talking sword with a split-personality, befriends a sharkgrub (who is surprisingly moral in this book) and all his young life follows a silver thread in the sky. This book is truly the meat and potatoes of Moers's three Zamonia tales, right down to the violent, bloody fights and quests for true love. Rumo will be coming with me to Kentucky, just as soon as I can get it back from my friend who is hoarding it now.

When will Walter Moers have more Zamonia for his English readers? Can his other books possibly be as good as these??