Heck on Heels: Still Balancing on Shoes, Love & Chocolate!
Mary T. Wagner, 2009
CreateSpace
206 pp.
ISBN-13: 978148202208
Summary
I thought briefly about packing the shotgun, but the car was nearly full and I was exhausted with 120 miles yet to drive. I also left the chain saw behind. Not that I'm sure I couldn't find a use for it.… Squadrons of geese flew overhead, and a hawk soared over the interstate, utterly unconcerned with the myriad human dramas unfolding below him at seventy miles an hour on six lanes of traffic. I was headed back to Chicago, my home town, for the worst of all possible reasons.
Following in the spike-heeled footsteps of Wagner’s critically acclaimed debut essay collection, Running with Stilettos, this amusing, touching and heartfelt collection of inspiring and empowering essays unfolds in a voice described as “bed time tales for grownups" and "the Midwest’s answer to Carrie Bradshaw. It also includes several dozen of Wagner's nature photos, combining to create a "portable serenity zone" within its pages.
Wagner (once a journalist and now a prosecuting attorney) writes for the modern woman who deftly juggles career, family, love and chocolate all at once...and still sees the whole stack come crashing down from time to time. Weaving tales of humor and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy, Wagner brings her readers along as she savors the post-divorce view from the back seat of a Harley, reflects on the maternal importance of “theme” cupcakes, gets back on a horse after a terrible, life-changing riding accident, and keeps a vigil by her father’s deathbed. She also shares her inspiring journey from stay-at-home soccer mom to arguing cases before the state supreme court…after an accident that put her in a body cast for three months.
For every busy woman who's asked herself "is there one more goal I can shoot for?"...and then answered "YES!!" (From the author.)
Author Bio
• Birth—won't say; will admit to "north of fifty"
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., J.D., Marquette University
• Currently—lives in southeastern Wisconsin
Mary T. Wagner is a former newspaper and magazine journalist who changed careers at forty by going to law school and becoming a criminal prosecutor. Her legal experience has ranged from handling speeding tickets to arguing and winning several cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
A mother of four and a recent grandmother, she lives in rural Wisconsin, where she draws much inspiration for writing from daily walks in the countryside with her dog, Lucky, and the cat who thinks he's a dog...The Meatball. While she was still a full-time "soccer mom," Wagner balanced diapers, dinners and driving duty with freelance writing about public broadcasting programming. Her PBS interviews ran the gamut from Fred Rogers and Captain Kangaroo to legendary conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr.
Wagner's slice-of-life essays have appeared on her signature website, "Running with Stilettos," as well as at Flashionista, More.com, Shortbread Stories, RedRoom, Open Salon, The Front Porch Review, Growing Bolder, and The Write City.
Her third essay collection, Fabulous in Flats, was named "Published Book of the Year" in 2011 by the Florida Writers Association.
Life experience includes motherhood, and stints as a girl scout troop leader, truck stop waitress, office temp, judicial clerk, and radio talk show host. She counts both wearing spike heels and learning to use a cordless drill and chainsaw among her "late blooming" discoveries, and would be hard pressed to surrender either her favorite stilettos or her power tools." (From the author.)
Visit Mary on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Brilliantly entertaining and enjoyable. Heck on Heels is the second book from award winning author, Mary T Wagner. The journalist turned lawyer turned to blogging after an accident and Running with Stilettos was born. Before long a collection of the essays from the blog were gathered and a very successful book by the same name emerged.
Heck on Heels is the second installment of essays from Mary and she has recently repackaged them into an e-book to create what she calls "some lovely `take me away' moments." And they are lovely. Not to mention often funny, sometimes sad, and very inspirational. Whether she is talking about munching M&Ms while trying to stop her promotional poster being blown away at her first book fair or removing a dead mouse from the hood fan over the stove, Wagner is entertaining and down to earth at the same time.
Non fiction can be tricky to write; it often ends up either cringingly self lampooning or so deadly serious it is depressing (which is not to say that it always does, simply that there is that risk). Wagner has deftly sidestepped both pot holes and produced a wonderfully entertaining series of snapshots of her life that will leave you wanting to read more.
Angelique Jurd - The Kindle Book Review (5 stars)
It's hard to live life at full speeds when you have to delicately balance your feet. Heck on Heels: Still Balancing on Shoes, Love, and Chocolate! is a humorous memoir from Mary T. Wagner as she presents her own pursuits in life and faces everything thrown her way. Charming wisdom any woman would peruse, Heck on Heels is a very highly recommended and fun read.
Midwest Book Review (5 stars)
Fascinating Read! Once I started reading this book, I almost could not stop. Which is kind of important when you must do most of your reading on your break time at work. I found myself so fascinated and involved in what I was reading, well, the time just flew and I had to go back to work. Could hardly wait to get back to where I had left off. Absolutely would recommend this book. Especially to anyone who has had to balance a job with taking care of elderly relatives. Mary had me alternately laughing and crying and sometimes both at the same time.
V Jo - Amazon Customer Review (5 stars)
Discussion Questions
1. Mary has often been described as “living in the moment,” letting serendipity guide her choices and experiences. Do you enjoy that as well in your own life…or does that “make it up as you go” quality drive you bonkers? Why or why not? Would you trust Mary to pack your suitcase before a trip abroad?
2. In “Makeshift Christmas,” Mary contrasts the holiday—overshadowed by distant but pressing family emergencies and short on shopping and decorating—with the year before, when she had modeled herself on Martha Stewart, apparently compensating for her recent divorce. What family holiday traditions would you throw overboard if you were thrown into a crisis mode? Which would you try to keep and why? Are there any you would absolutely insist on?
3. In this collection of essays, Mary includes several dozen of her nature photos. Do these add to your connection with her or not? Which photo is your favorite, and why? And which essay is your favorite, and why?
4. Discuss the book’s structure and Mary’s use of language and writing style. Does it draw you in and keep you engaged? Is she someone you would feel comfortable sharing a cup of coffee with?
5. The book’s subtitle is “Still Balancing on Shoes, Love and Chocolate!” What are the “must-haves” in your life that keep you going through the rough stretches? What does each of them bring to you that makes you strong? Is there value just in the thing itself, or is there some history that you draw from as well?
6. Discuss Mary’s relationship with her children. How has motherhood defined her? Can you identify with her perspective in “Love in the Time of Cupcakes”? Is there one thing in your own experience that is a time-honored symbol of love?
7. In the essay “The Volcano Diaries,” Mary confesses to abandoning her quest to reach the summit of a mountain because of her fear of heights…but eventually realizes that she has still gone farther than she thought she could. Is there a time you have “fallen short” in your own life’s journey that still feels like a success of sorts? Is it true that people learn more from failure than success?
8. Do you think that Mary’s introduction to gardening has made her grow as a person? Why? What does her flower garden symbolize for her? Do you have a similar experience to share of taking a wasteland and bringing it to life? How did it make you feel? Were there any surprises along the way?
9. Stepping off the beaten path back into the forest is clearly one of Mary’s “recharging” zones. What have you done, or what would you like to do, to step out of your “pressure cooker” life? Is nature a replenishing place for you, or do you prefer the surroundings of a mall…or a spa? Why?
10. In “Disconnected,” Mary severs nearly all ties with the “wired” world for a few days on a road trip to Michigan, and feels absolutely transported. Do you ever disconnect entirely from your cell phone and email access? Is it easy to do or does it leave you anxious? Discuss how our reliance on technology at our fingertips makes life and parenting different from when you were growing up.
11. Mary is also a criminal prosecutor, and describes her emotional reaction at a sentencing hearing for a young man convicted of rape, fearing that she will never be “tough enough” to do all that her job requires. What combination of factors in her life do you think converged at that moment to bring her to tears? Do you think that was a sign of weakness, or do you think that emotions and experience have a valid place in that position? Would you view her emotional response and perspective that day differently if Mary was male?
12. In “Pelican Lessons,” Mary writes of ignoring her first instincts while standing in the marsh, watching a trio of enormous white birds descend, and the eventual discovery that “logic” had proved wrong and her gut feelings about what she saw were right the first time. Can you think back to something similar in your own life? Is there a single experience that has tipped the balance for you in terms of trusting your instincts in the future? Or do you rely more on logic and caution in making decisions?
13. Riding on the back of a Harley during her “post-divorce” dating spree was clearly a “first” for Mary in her life and relationship history. What do you think that going out with the guy with the bike symbolized for her? Was the act of getting on the back seat just colored by a fear of falling off, or were there deeper fears at work? Do you agree with her “take me away” characterization is a good one? Do you think there’s a wee bit of lingering “rescue fantasy” in her mindset, despite all the competence she’s gained with her power tools?
14. In “Rabbit Season,” Mary describes buying a pet rabbit after going to the county fair, but finds that this was a pet that just did not fit well with the family. Have you ever found yourself in the situation of having to give an animal away after buying or adopting it? Was it an easy or hard decision? Was there an element of guilt that you had to wrestle with? What was your final tipping point in taking that step?”
15. Mary clearly tries to “go the extra mile” for her children, to provide them with at least some of the stability growing up that she lacked. Is this just a one-way street, or does she draw as much or more from her children than she gives? Discuss the complicated ways that parenthood changes the parent as much as the child.
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
Running with Stilettos: Living a Balanced Life in Dangerous Shoes
Mary T. Wagner, 2008; 2013
CreateSpace
185 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781481216692
Summary
You can look at it as finally abandoning the last of the feminine "rescue" fantasies. Or maybe it was just a dose of latent pioneer spirit coming to the surface. Though Davy Crockett never had one of these. (Of course, Davy Crockett never had a pair of leopard-print stilettos in his closet either. Or so we hope.) Either way, I bought a chainsaw...
After a long fall from a tall horse put journalist and soccer mom Mary T. Wagner in a body cast for three months, she didn't take it as a sign to ease back on the throttle. Instead she decided to change careers, went to law school, became a prosecutor, and bought her first pair of spike heels. She never could step entirely away from writing, however, with the result that she’s been called “the Midwest’s answer to Carrie Bradshaw” and “the reincarnation of Erma Bombeck…in sexier shoes.”
By turns funny, touching, courageous and enterprising, this award-winning and inspiring collection of slice-of-life essays is what one reviewer called "life writing at its best." Wagner takes her readers along as she discovers the freedom and joy of riding on the back of a Harley; learns to embrace power tools after her divorce; and finds new tokens of love the second time around in the form of bonfires and car repairs.
Filled with humor, resilience and grace under pressure, Running with Stilettos is a wide-open window into one woman's mission to give every day her best shot...in fabulous shoes. (From the author.)
Visit the author on Facebook.
Author Bio
• Birth—won't say; will admit to "north of fifty"
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., J.D., Marquette University
• Currently—lives in southeastern Wisconsin
Mary T. Wagner is a former newspaper and magazine journalist who changed careers at forty by going to law school and becoming a criminal prosecutor. Her legal experience has ranged from handling speeding tickets to arguing and winning several cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
A mother of four and a recent grandmother, she lives in rural Wisconsin, where she draws much inspiration for writing from daily walks in the countryside with her dog, Lucky, and the cat who thinks he's a dog...The Meatball. While she was still a full-time "soccer mom," Wagner balanced diapers, dinners and driving duty with freelance writing about public broadcasting programming. Her PBS interviews ran the gamut from Fred Rogers and Captain Kangaroo to legendary conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr.
Wagner's slice-of-life essays have appeared on her signature website, "Running with Stilettos," as well as at Flashionista, More.com, Shortbread Stories, RedRoom, Open Salon, The Front Porch Review, Growing Bolder, and The Write City.
Her third essay collection, Fabulous in Flats, was named "Published Book of the Year" in 2011 by the Florida Writers Association.
Life experience includes motherhood, and stints as a girl scout troop leader, truck stop waitress, office temp, judicial clerk, and radio talk show host. She counts both wearing spike heels and learning to use a cordless drill and chainsaw among her "late blooming" discoveries, and would be hard pressed to surrender either her favorite stilettos or her power tools." (From the author.)
Visit Mary on Facebook.
Book Reviews
They're dangerous, hard to move in, and painful to wear. But most important of all, they're sexy. Running with Stilettos: Living a Balanced Life in Dangerous Shoes consists of the reflections of one woman who spends every day in these terrible shoes, but must give it her all anyway. A collection of humorous memoirs in the form of essays of her day to day life, Running with Stilettos is charming and lovely, sure to resonate with many career women who must endure this daunting task daily. Enthusiastically recommended.
Midwest Book Review
Wagner's humorous collection of essays, Running With Stillettos: Living a Balanced Life in Dangerous Shoes, perfectly illustrates the value of a clever and apropos title that not only draws a reader in, but also foreshadows her charming delivery of a well balanced narrative comprised of ordinary moments portrayed as authentically funny Wagner's existential observation is evidenced by the responsibility she takes to infuse her own life with meaning—despite the obstacles—via her passionately and sincerely crafted vignettes
US Review of Books
Discussion Questions
1. In the book’s “Forward,” the author describes her “turning point” in footwear, going from sneakers and sensible shoes to spike heels for the first time when midway through her forties. After finishing the book, what do you think that first pair of stiletto heels really symbolized in her life? Was it just about fashion?
2. How did you respond to the author’s “voice”? Did her experiences with work and children and a failed marriage ring true with you?
3. The author describes some wrenching transitions in her life when she was a teenager in “Cookie Therapy.” How do you think her past family relationships affect her present relationships with her children? Do chocolate chip cookies really make everything better?
4. In the essay “Turbo Dating-A Year in Review,” the author describes jumping into the dating world with both feet after 25 years of marriage. What did you think of her kamikaze approach? In retrospect, do you think she should have waited longer before making that transition? Was she brave, dumb, headstrong, or some other combination?
5. Many modern memoirs—think of Running with Scissors or The Men we Reaped or to a lesser extent The Glass Castle—thrive on peeling back family and relationship dysfunctions with brutal honesty and scalpel-like precision and sharpness, leaving no stones unturned or individuals spared. How is this book different? Why do you think the author took a more veiled approach? Did it leave you feeling relieved…or short-changed?
6. Think back to your childhood. Was it a “safe” place? How has that affected how you view the world and the people around you? How do you think the family decision when the author was a teenager to leave the city and move to an abandoned farm affected her? Does it reverberate in her relationship with her children or in her choices as a mother?
7. In “Ripple Effect,” the author shares the story of how her life and career path was changed by someone else’s encouragement, and reminds her children that “kindness is never wasted” in that you never know where your good words may carry someone else to. Has there been a time in your life when someone’s belief in you has pushed you farther than you thought you could go? What do you think makes some people take that encouragement and run with it, and others turn a deaf ear and stay in place?
8. Which essay in Running with Stilettos was most memorable for you? Why? Was there one in particular that made you think “Hey, I could do that too!” or "Yes, I've gone through that as well!"
9. In “Love in Wood and Wax,” the author talks about how her definitions and understanding of “romance” and “romantic gestures” have changed over time. Have yours? Is that a good thing or not? If they have, do you still miss “the old romantic stuff”?
10. Liberation can take many forms, but in the author’s case, two major symbols of taking charge of her life are her power tools. Which do you think was the biggest leap forward for her—the cordless drill or the chain saw? And where do you stand on the subject of doing “the manly stuff” around the house?
11. After her divorce, the author’s transition in tools went by necessity from cupcake pans and a hand-mixer to the drill and a tool kit. Can you see yourself in her shoes? Are you in them already? What was the last tool you used and what for?
12. In “Return to the Fatherland,” the author writes of taking her elderly father and her teenaged sons to Germany for a reunion with their relatives, only to find en route that his mind was far more fragile than she had known. The roles of parent and child immediately and sadly changed. Did the trip have the result that she had wanted? What good things came from the journey despite her father’s increasing frailty? Do you think that her sons learned more from it than they expected to as well?
13. The author describes the evolution of her thinking about healthy relationships between men and women in “The Devil on Horseback,” based on a romantic suspense novel from her childhood. Has your thinking about relationships changed as well? How? What made it grow or change? Did you ever harbor the same delusions and rescue fantasies that the author grew up with? Where did they come from? Are fairy tales completely to blame?
14. The author clearly has a soft spot for animals, whether cats, dogs, or the horses she had since she was a teenager. Would she have been a different person without them in her life?
15. In “The Island,” the author describes renting a cabin in a vacation spot she had only experienced before this with her husband and children, long before the divorce. Her stated intention was to spend the week writing in peace and quiet. Was that the most important thing she took away from it? Could it have gone badly instead? How would YOU step out of your “pressure cooker” life for a week?
16. Is there a lesson to be taken away from this author’s life? What do you think it is, and why do you think it’s important?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War
Helen Thorpe, 2014
Scribner
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451668100
Summary
A groundbreaking account of three women deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, and how their military service affected their friendship, their personal lives, and their families.
America has been continuously at war since the fall of 2001. This has been a matter of bitter political debate, of course, but what is uncontestable is that a sizeable percentage of American soldiers sent overseas in this era have been women.
The experience in the American military is, it’s safe to say, quite different from that of men. Surrounded and far outnumbered by men, imbedded in a male culture, looked upon as both alien and desirable, women have experiences of special interest.
In Soldier Girls, Helen Thorpe follows the lives of three women over twelve years on their paths to the military, overseas to combat, and back home…and then overseas again for two of them. These women, who are quite different in every way, become friends, and we watch their interaction and also what happens when they are separated. We see their families, their lovers, their spouses, their children.
We see them work extremely hard, deal with the attentions of men on base and in war zones, and struggle to stay connected to their families back home. We see some of them drink too much, have illicit affairs, and react to the deaths of fellow soldiers. And we see what happens to one of them when the truck she is driving hits an explosive in the road, blowing it up. She survives, but her life may never be the same again.
Deeply reported, beautifully written, and powerfully moving, Soldier Girls is truly groundbreaking. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1963
• Where—London, England, UK
• Raised—Medford, New Jersey, US
• Education—B.A., Princeton University; M.A., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in Denver, Colorado
Helen Thorpe is an author and freelance journalist living in Denver, Colorado, who has written for major American newspapers and magazines, and has authored two books.
Thorpe attended Princeton University, graduating Magna Cum Laude. In 1989, she attended Columbia University as a gradudate student, receiving a Master's degree in English literature.
Some of her first jobs following following her graduation from Princeton were in Boston, working as a waitress and as an unpaid intern at the Atlantic Monthly. She then worked for a short time at both the New York Observer as a staff writer, and then, having caught the attention of editor Tina Brown, for The New Yorker. In 1994, she was hired by Texas Monthly and moved to Austin. She left the magazine in 1999.
Her stories have also been published in George, New York, Westword, New York Times Magazine, and 5280. She wrote "Talk of the Town" for the The New Yorker, and has written for Slate and Harper's Bazaar.
Thorpe also published two books entitled Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War (2014), and Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America (2011), which deals heavily with aspects of immigration into the United States.
She worked in radio, producing stories that were broadcast on This American Life and Soundprint, and is a board member of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado.
Personal life
She was born in London, England and was raised in Medford, New Jersey.[10]
Thorpe's father, Larry, was born in Dublin, Ireland and was an engineer for the BBC Radio in London. Her mother is Marie Brady from Virginia, County Cavan. When she was 18, she left home to study nursing in London, where they met.
When Thorpe was one, the family moved to New Jersey so that Larry could accept a job for RCA. Thorpe remained on her mother's Irish passport holding dual Irish/British citizenship. She became a US citizen when she was 21.
Her husband was John Hickenlooper, the Governor of Colorado. The two met in 2000 at her 37th birthday party while she was living in Texas. Not yet Mayor of Denver, he and had accompanied a mutual friend to the party. The couple married in January 2002 with a Quaker wedding ceremony in Austin. Their son, Teddy, was born in 2002; however, in 2012, the couple announced plans to separate amicably after 10 years of marriage. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/4/2014.)
Book Reviews
…compelling…The debate over women in combat; the difficulties faced by women in the military (from sexual harassment within their units to service in countries where women lead highly circumscribed lives); the stress that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars placed on the American armed services and on individual soldiers with multiple deployments—such highly complex matters are all made palpably real through the prism of this book's three heroines' lives…Ms. Thorpe's sharply drawn portraits are novelistic in their emotional detail and candor.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
Helen Thorpe's comprehensively researched new book…is a breakthrough work that spans 12 years of these women's lives, beginning just before the attacks on the twin towers…Through minute, almost claustrophobic, detail—using military and medical records, as well as therapists' notes and personal correspondence—Thorpe achieves a staggering intimacy with her subjects…What Thorpe accomplishes in Soldier Girls is something far greater than describing the experiences of women in the military. The book is a solid chunk of American history—detailing the culture's failings, resilience and progress.
Cara Hoffman - New York Times Book Review
In the tradition of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Richard Rhodes, and other masters of literary journalism, Soldier Girls is utterly absorbing, gorgeously written, and unforgettable.
Boston Globe
A thoughtful, fascinating and often heartbreaking account... Thorpe manages to burrow deeply into the lives of these women...incredibly intimate.
Miami Herald
(Starred review.) Moving... Highlighting how profoundly military service changed their lives--and the lives of their families--this visceral narrative illuminates the role of women in the military, the burdens placed on the National Guard, and the disproportionate burden of these wars borne by the poor.
Publishers Weekly
Thorpe provides a mass of detail on daily life, so much that it becomes almost mind-numbing despite the appealing humanity of these women. Verdict: [An] intimate narrative...[and] great insight into military life. —Edwin Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS
Library Journal
(Starred review.) Thorpe fills this gripping tale with the women’s own words, texts, and letters (from friends and their children, as well), and the story is engrossing and heartbreaking at once.
Booklist
(Starred review.) [A]bsorbing...how wartime experiences shaped the lives and friendships of three female soldiers.... The women would disagree about the value of the time they spent swept up in unexpected wars, yet...none would ever question the ...love and support they gave to each other.... Intensely immersive.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral—Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!—in America's Gilded Capital
Mark Liebovich, 2013
Penguin Group USA
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780399170683
Summary
Tim Russert is dead. But the room was alive.
Big Ticket Washington Funerals can make such great networking opportunities. Power mourners keep stampeding down the red carpets of the Kennedy Center, handing out business cards, touching base. And there is no time to waste in a gold rush, even (or especially) at a solemn tribal event like this.
Washington—This Town—might be loathed from every corner of the nation, yet these are fun and busy days at this nexus of big politics, big money, big media, and big vanity. There are no Democrats and Republicans anymore in the nation’s capital, just millionaires. That is the grubby secret of the place in the twenty-first century. You will always have lunch in This Town again. No matter how many elections you lose, apologies you make, or scandals you endure.
In This Town, Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, presents a blistering, stunning—and often hysterically funny—examination of our ruling class’s incestuous “media industrial complex.” Through his eyes, we discover how the funeral for a beloved newsman becomes the social event of the year.
How political reporters are fetishized for their ability to get their names into the predawn e-mail sent out by the city’s most powerful and puzzled-over journalist. How a disgraced Hill aide can overcome ignominy and maybe emerge with a more potent “brand” than many elected members of Congress.
And how an administration bent on “changing Washington” can be sucked into the ways of This Town with the same ease with which Tea Party insurgents can, once elected, settle into it like a warm bath. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 9, 1965
• Where—Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—University of Michigan
• Awards—National Magazine Award
• Currently—lives in Washington, D.C.
Mark Leibovich is an American journalist and author. He is the chief national correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, based in Washington, D.C. He is known for his profiles on political and media figures.
Career
Leibovich was previously a national political correspondent in the New York Times' Washington Bureau. He came to the Times in 2006 from the Washington Post, where he spent nine years, first covering the national technology sector for the Post's business section, then serving as the lead political writer for the paper's style section. Leibovich previously worked at the the San Jose Mercury News.
He is also the author of the 2013 This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral-Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!-in America's Gilded Capital. Politico published an article describing This Town as a "chronicle" of the "incestuous ecology of insider Washington." Leibovich, according to the story, is nicknamed "Leibo," and the book's original sub-title was "The Way it Works in Suck Up City." Fareed Zakaria as reviewer for Washington Post praises it as "hottest political book of the summer," containing " juicy anecdotes" and a tell-tale core of "corruption and dysfunction."
The book attracted controversy in 2011 when an aide to Representative Darrell Issa was fired for sharing reporters’ e-mails with Leibovich without their knowledge. In addition to his political writing, Leibovich also authored The New Imperialists, a collection of profiles of technology pioneers.
Awards and Recognition
Leibovich has won a number of journalism awards, including a 2011 National Magazine Award for his profile of Politico's Michael Allen and the changing media culture of Washington. The New Republic described Leibovich as “brutally incisive yet not without pathos” in naming him one of Washington’s 25 Most Powerful, Least Famous People. Washingtonian Magazine has called him the "reigning master of the political profile” and the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg nominated Leibovich as Washington’s “most important journalist” for his “ability to make his profile subjects look like rock stars, on the one hand, and to make others look like complete idiots, on the other.” This Town has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Slate, and Daily Beast. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/10/13.)
Book Reviews
Holt, the fictional Colorado town where all of Haruf’s novels are set, longtime resident Dad Lewis is dying of cancer. Happily married (he calls his wife “his luck”), Dad spends his last weeks thinking over his life, particularly an incident that ended badly with a clerk in his store, and his relationship with his estranged son. As his wife and daughter care for him, life goes on: one
Publishers Weekly
Haruf made his name with the heartfelt Plainsong, a best seller and a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. The subsequent Eventide, also a best seller, revisited Plainsong's setting, high-plains Holt, CO. Haruf again returns to Holt but with a new cast, among them Dad Lewis, dying of cancer and comforted by his wife and daughter though
Library Journal
A meditation on morality returns the author to the High Plains of Colorado, with diminishing returns for the reader.... With his third novel with a one-word title set in Holt, the narrative succumbs to melodrama and folksy wisdom as it details the death of the owner of the local hardware store, a crusty feller who has seen his own moral rigidity soften over the year epiphanies seem like reheated leftovers
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider using these LitLovers talking points for start a discussion for This Town:
1. Liebovich opens his book by taking us inside the Kennedy Center for the funeral of TV's Meet the Press anchor Tim Russert. What do you think of his coverage of what should be a rather solemn event? Is it inappropriate? Is it too irreverent...or is it spot-on?
2. What were your personal observations after reading the first chapter, especially of the guests? Why do you think that Liebovich began his book with the Russert event?
3. Liebovich says of the news: "It is no longer enough just to follow the unsexy business of governance in the seat of power. No more boring and stodgy in This Town." What are the implications that serious analysis of public policy and governmental action is considered "boring and stodgy"? What is the purpose of "news"? Is the public interested in serious policy discussions? Are the news media merely giving the voters what they want (entertainment)? Or are the media seriously underestimating public intelligence and interest in governance? What do you think?
4. What are the changes over the past 30 years which Liebovich believes have altered broadcast and print news? Is it for the better...or worse?
5. Talk about the often referred to "democratization" of news on the web vs. the control the old media once exercised over the flow of information. Is there more openness...and if so, is that better or worse? Or do you think the reporting of news still a closed system?
5. Liebovich says that almost no one leaves Washington anymore.
Quaint is the notion of a citizen-politician humbly returning to his farm, store, or medical practice back home after his time in public office is complete.
However, given complicated issues those in government must grapple with—legal, financial, technical and scientific—isn't it preferable to have people with years of experience who can master the complexities?
6. What does Liebovich mean by people who "brand" or "monetize" themselves? Who comes to your mind as a Washington "brand"?
7. How is D.C. is rife with conflicts of interest? Talk about Bob Barnett, which Liebovich uses as his prime example. In what way is Barnett "a walking self-interest"? What are the implications for policy if everyone is connected in someway to everyone else?
8. Senator Coburn of Oklahoma talked to Liebovich about partisanship in today's Washington: "the easiest way to remain in office is to embrace rigid partisanship...[which] usually signals a deeper faith in careerism than in conservatism or liberalism." Do you agree...or disagree? Is this the root of what today we consider D.C.'s "gridlock"? Or are politicians right to stand by their principles, especially if those principles represent the values of their voters?
9. What most shocked...or maddened you in reading Liebovich's book? Has reading This Town altered your opinion of the people who run our government or live in the nation's capital? Or has it confirmed what you already suspected?
10. After reading This Town, what do you think is the most serious problem facing those who run our government? More importantly, what do you think can be done about it?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online of off, with attribution. Thanks!)
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
Randall Munroe, 2014
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780544272996
Summary
From the creator of the wildly popular webcomic xkcd, hilarious and informative answers to important questions you probably never thought to ask
Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe’s iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have an enormous, dedicated following, as do his deeply researched answers to his fans’ strangest questions.
The queries he receives range from merely odd to downright diabolical:
• What if I took a swim in a spent-nuclear-fuel pool?
• Could you build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?
• What if a Richter 15 earthquake hit New York City?
• Are fire tornadoes possible?
His responses are masterpieces of clarity and wit, gleefully and accurately explaining everything from the relativistic effects of a baseball pitched at near the speed of light to the many horrible ways you could die while building a periodic table out of all the actual elements.
The book features new and never-before-answered questions, along with the most popular answers from the xkcd website. What If? is an informative feast for xkcd fans and anyone who loves to ponder the hypothetical.(From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 17, 1984
• Where—Easton, Pennsylvania, USA
• Raised—near Richmond, Virginia
• Education—B.S., Christopher Newport University
• Currently—lives in Somerville, Massachusetts
Randall Patrick Munroe is an American webcomic author/artist and former NASA roboticist. He is the creator of the webcomic xkcd, which after leaving NASA, he has devoted himself to full time. His book, What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions was published in 2014.
Munroe was a fan of the funny pages from an early age, starting off with Calvin and Hobbes. After attending the Chesterfield County Mathematics and Science High School at Clover Hill, he graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2006 with a degree in physics.
Before and after graduation, Munroe worked as an independent contracting roboticist for NASA at the Langley Research Center. In October, 2006, when his contract with NASA was not renewed, he began to write xkcd full-time. He now supports himself by the sale of xkcd related merchandise. The webcomic quickly became very popular, garnering up to 70 million hits a month by October 2007.
According to Munroe, xkcd is unpronounceable. Here are his own words:
It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation—a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.
He has also toured the lecture circuit, giving speeches, including a TED Talk at Google's Googleplex in Mountain View, California.
Munroe lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. In June, 2011, he announced that his fiancee had been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. The couple were married that September.
In September 2013, Munroe announced that a group of xkcd readers had submitted his name as a candidate for the renaming of asteroid (4942) 1987 DU6 to 4942 Munroe which was accepted by the International Astronomical Union. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/10/2014.)
Visit the author's book page.
Book Reviews
By speaking the language of geeks...while dealing with relationships and the meaning of a computer-centric life, xkcd has become required reading for techies across the world…. The Internet has also created a bond between Mr. Munroe and his readers that is exceptional. They reenact in real life the odd ideas he puts forward in his strip.
New York Times
For scientists, the price of progress is specialization. When the goal of any researcher is to lay claim to a tiny niche in a crowded discipline, it’s hard for laypeople to find answers to the really important interdisciplinary questions. Questions like, "Is it possible to build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?" Fortunately, such people can turn to Randall Munroe, the author of the xkcd comic strip loved by fans of internet culture.... For Munroe, who writes with a clarity and wit honed over eight years of writing captions for his webcomic, the fact that a question might be impossible to solve is no deterrent to pursuing it.
Wall Street Journal - Speakeasy blog
With his steady regimen of math jokes, physics jokes, and antisocial optimism, xkcd creator Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist, scores traffic numbers in NBC.com or Oprah.com territory. One key to the strip’s success may be that it doesn’t just comment on nerd culture, it embodies nerd culture.
Wired
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions includes old favorites, new inquiries and the mix of expert research and accessible wit that has made Munroe a favorite among both geeks and laymen.
Time magazine
Munroe takes inane, useless and often quite pointless questions asked by real humans (mostly sent to him through his website), and turns them into beautiful expositions on the impossible that illuminate the furthest reaches, almost to the limits, of the modern sciences. The answers are all illustrated with XKCD’s trademark stick figures...and these are eminently approachable.
Newsweek
What If? maintains a delightfully free-wheeling tone throughout, especially when complicated calculations lead to whimsical results. (Did you know that Yoda’s Force power roughly translates to the amount of energy used to drive a smart car?) Despite all the hard facts and gigantic numbers, it never feels like a textbook—and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy it.
Entertainment Weekly
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. If YOU have developed some you'd like to share with us, let us know. We'll be happy to credit you.)