Cheryl Truman on books

The contenders:

-Miley Cyrus: This Is Her Life (Berkley Boulevard Paperback Original, costing $16 of Mommy’s money and an untold future of humiliation when, in 2035, your now-tween daughter digs this out of your middle school trinkets and cackles like the possessed). The unauthorized biography of the world’s most successful and overexposed teenager breaks the news that other names considered before hitting upon the “Hannah Montana” platinum standard included “Anna Cabana,” “Samantha York,” and “Alexis Texas.” Also: A quiz to determine if you have what it takes to be a FOM (Friend of Miley), and pictures! So very, very many long-maned, toothy pictures!

Killer moment: Page 130-131, the quiz on “Which cause is for you?” Your choices are: visiting sick kids, going green and saving animals. Winning question: “If I see a stray animal in my neighbohood, I … A. want it! B. feel sad!” Living in the state to which Ms. Cyrus is peripherally tied, I can safely answer that if I see a stray animal in my neighborhood, it’s road kill.

Random sentence: “Dressed in supercute polka dots, she happily answered all the reporters’ question before going in to head up an autograph booth.”

Maddening moment: “It was into this tumultuous time that Destiny Hope Cyrus was born, on November 23, 1992, in Franklin, Tennessee.  This “tumultuous time” would be the post-mullet life of Miley’s father, “Achy-Breaky Heart” singer Billy Ray Cyrus.

A happier option: This is why we have People.com, people.

VS.

James Lipton: Inside Inside (New American Library Trade Paperback, $15), from the host of Inside the Actors Studio. Cringe: Lipton’s pandering to the celebrities who have sacrified so much to sit on a stage with him and talk about being Artists makes being tied to a chair during a “Hannah Montana” marathon look downright sweet. Read: Lipton badgering Hugh Grant to emote about Lipton’s beautiful wife! See: Early Lipton in ballet attire. OMG moment: Lipton is an avid pilot, which is actually interesting, because it’s not as if he uses it as a tacky excuse to trot out … oh, wait, there it is: a picture of New York’s Twin Towers from a Lipton-piloted plane!

Authentically funny section: Celebrities’ favorite curse words. Jay Leno wins for “syphilitic druid.” The rest show such a distinct lack of imagination you may find yourself wishing for a campaign to eliminate the letter “f” from the alphabet.

Random sentence: “When Jennifer Lopez accepted the invitation to come to our stage, the Purity Police mobilized in defense of the Inside the Actors Studio principles they suddenly understood and treasured — but had somehow neglected to mention or acknowledge before the perceived barbarian appeared at the gates.” It’s like motion sickness in print.

Maddening moment: Dear Lord, why not an index? Also, the first chapter, which opens with that “glady teche” quote from Chaucer that adorns infinite windowless middle-school teachers’ cinderblock walls: Because you can’t say Meg Ryan, Barbra Streisand and Robin Williams without thinking Chaucer.

A happier option: Lipton wrote a lovely reference book, An Exaltation of Larks: And 1,000 more group terms, real and fanciful, from the 12th to the 21st centuries. Really, an “unction of undertakers” should make your day (unless you’re Miley Cyrus, in which case a cinnamon-scented candle apparently does the trick).

And the winner is: The Divine Miss Cyrus. Supercute polka dots lay the smackdown on Lipton, even with Lipton’s uproarious pleas for a tattoo.

We get a lot of books here, but it has occured to me of late to categorize the most frequently received categories.

Here they are:

–Books about how your pet reveals to you the subtle truths of life itself. These include “funny” stories about pets that yawn on for tens of pages at a crack and wander eventually onto some life-affirming moment, although not until after you’ve said, geez, where is my National Enquirer; people write about their animals, but manage to keep in mind that really, it’s all about their own unbearable poignant self-awareness; and those who are convinced that Marley and Me, despite its bazillion years on the bestseller lists and upcoming movie starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, was not the best, most profiable word on big foolish golden dogs. Or little spunky terriers. SUBSET: Dogs in the city!

-Stunt books that consistent entirely of the mind-numbing confessions of an individuals who would be better off reading a book rather than writing one. Reading the dictionary. Living Biblically. Attaining a bizarre level of public intimacy with your spouse. I promise you, your battles with infertility are not that fascinating, even to your in-laws.

–Lincoln. And by the way, upcoming: Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, by Fred Kaplan, in November. New on the shelves: Tried By War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson. The reddeming virtue of any book about Lincoln is that the subject matter is a man who would never have engaged in a stunt book.

–Self-published books by those convinced that their childhood was unique and should be hugely personally profitable because it was great, yet it was bad, and they faced challenges, but there were fine sunshine-soaked days. Also, their mom was the greatest ever. The thing is: Each and every person on earth, except perhaps Augusten Burroughs, had the same childhood. You don’t have to write about it: Really, we’ll just take your word.

–

Joyce Carol Oates will speak, along with Isabella Moon author Laura Benedict, at the Kentucky Women’s Writers conference free event at UK’s Memorial Hall at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

I could try to turn a phrase here, but won’t. You can call Oates’ work literary rococo, you can measure it by its tonnage: Doesn’t matter. Oates is a genius. Genius doesn’t come to town every day.

Constantine Rafinesque

State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of  America

(EccoBooks, $29.95) features essays by edgy writers on our 50 states (Dave Eggers on Illinois, Ha Jin on Georgia, Kevin Brockmeier on Arkansas). Here’s Jhumpa Lahiri on Rhode Island: “My father, a global traveler, considers Rhode Island paradise.” 

Flipping over to the state that houses us here at Humidity Central, we find John Jeremiah Sullivan writing on Kentucky, “shaped like an alligator’s head.” But really, he is writing about Constatine Rafinesque, which is simultaneouly intriguing and disappointing: intriguing, because Rafinesque’s “curse” on what is now Transylvania University when he stomped off is the stuff of legend, and disappointing, because Rafinesque stomped off, went crazy and laid down the mojo in the early 19th century. You could pretty easily infer that not much of value has happened since in our little corner of Amurca. But Rafinesque: Kentucky’s Darwin! Audubon’s travelling partner! A brilliant mind with no qualms at all about making stuff up! 

Sadly, the Aububon partnership ended rather badly, as Sullivan notes that one fine evening Audubon “woke to uproar. Hurtling through Rafinesque’s door he found the smaller man leaping naked in the dark, holding the neck of Audubon’s Stradivarius, which he’d bashed to splinters trying to stun small bats.”

So, Constantine Rafinesque: Here’s to you. Although Kentucky is known to many for truly awful reasons, your bat-bashing example humbles us.

Lexington author Ed McClanahan’s new book, O the Clear Moment (Counterpoint, $23) comes out in September, a slim (186 pages) volume of short memoirs touted as “nostalgic and tongue-in-cheek.” The book contains several glancing blows at sports, of a fashion, appropriate to note since it’s time to kick off the football season — popularly known in Kentucky as the time we huddle together in football-bound tailgates ticking down the seconds until basketball season, which sends Kentuckians a-quiver with the knowledge that the state still doesn’t star in the high school basketball soaper ”Hoosiers,” this probably won’t be the miraculous season that the UK basketball team pulls out another NCAA championship and someone out there, the unholy trinity of Bobby Knight, Christian Laettner and Mike Krzyzewski still draw breath. Laettner is a particular thorn in the commonwealth’s collective side, as he figures in our greatest state nightmare, the 1992 buzzer-beater shot in which Duke knocked Kentucky out of the NCAA tournament (which is on YouTube, should you need to refresh your misery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY-iq58_oz4).

So yes, around here, we know something about the tongue in cheek. In part, that quality was given to me by a former boss who wandered around quoting liberally from McClanahan’s novel The Natural Man, which I would wager at one time I knew about as well as the author himself.

But back to McClanahan, one of Lexington’s most genial citizens and an oft-cited favorite in our Reader Top Ten summer swapfest of favorite books.

The kickoff essay is “Great Moments in Sports,” which is peripherally about sports but mainly about the teen pursuit of convivial company, which continues to this day, and in a manner just as classy, and when I say classy, I mean, probably involving property damage. (Yes, the teenagers have just about done me in, thank you: Every morning I wake up, grope around for the cell phone, ascertain that The Call has not come in about either of them while I slept fitfully, and then stumble into the bathroom to look for the JoBeth Williams mile-wide “Poltergeist” gray streak that I’m sure has sprouted in my hair overnight. Truly, it makes you wonder if anybody has mentioned to these Brangelina folks that all six of those little angels will be, simultaneously, teenagers, and that People magazine won’t pay 14 cents, much less $14 million, to take pictures of two hollow-cheeked parents who haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a decade and have recently spent time peering over the remains of a demolished device formerly automotive, murmuring, “And then you did what?” I’m just sayin’.)

I’m guessing the essay is even more hilarious read by McClanahan himself, and I hope to hear it, but until then just know that it concerns two Bobbys, the importance of impressing young women and, of course, eggs. Of course. McClanahan’s second take on the sporting life involves that very special period when he was a youngish activist, of sorts, and trying to make his way in a hotbed of Vietnam War-era political unrest that revolves loosely around “Bolshevik gremlins” and contains a trenchant observation about “the First Law of Revolutionary Physics, which is that tear gas is heavier than air.”

Again, hearing that one testified in person is probably even more entertaining.

In fact, come page 105, McClanahan confesses as much hisveryownself: “I expect I might as well go ahead and own up, right off the bat, to the fact that this little morsel of writing has but one ambition, which is to provide a vehicle that will allow me, when my vast audience clamors for me to read my work in public, to inflict upon them — be warned — the only three songs I’ve ever written, rendered up, strictly Acapulco, in — be doubly warned – my very own inimitable singing voice.”

And here’s McClanahan’s memory of trying to guard Cliff Hagan, who would later become UK basketball royalty: “Or the time twelve guys on our high school basketball team came down with the flu, and I was abruptly — not to say precipitously — elevated from second-string JV to the furthermost end of the varsity bench, and suddenly found myself, deep in the third quarter, not only in the game but also endeavoring to guard the great Cliff Hagan, then of Owensboro High, later of the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the St. Louis Hawks. On the first play he broke for the basket and went twinkle-toeing up my chest like he was Fred Astaire and I was the Stairway to the Stars.”

Here’s to McClanahan’s busy autumn, singing, as he puts it, Acapulco.

I’ll get to Bonner’s lengthy and thouthful list, but first: Who knew that Kentucky readers loved — and I do mean really, really love — Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety? It’s appeared on more lists than I can count, and I’m using the next long weekend I have to dig it out of its spot at my house  – you know that spot you have, that “on-deck” spot on the bedside table, where the books of your best intentions quietly gather dust and get knocked about by the cats? — and read it.

Says Bonner: “Last summer, I submitted my 10 favorite books, but did not realize they were similar to many others, and therefore, not very interesting.

“Just in case you might like to use a different kind of list, I am … submitting a ‘novel list, based on 4 categories. I could have included others (mystery, poetry, Lexington writers, etc.), but 4 seems a good way to go … for starters!”

LOVE

Leaving Cheyenne by Larry McMurtry. “First of many gems, but the most poignant by far. Tale of three friends, 2 men and a woman, whose lifetime of love and devotion never leads to any sex, marriage or favoritism. I cried at the end — not out of sadness.”

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. “Not as celebrated as Angle of Repose, yet, a heart-wrenching and honest (to a fault) family saga of two couples reliving their pasts during a summer weekend. Mesmerizing.”

Birth of a Grandfather by May Sarton. “Lovely and moving story of a crotchety old man who finds love and meaning as he (reluctantly) becomes a grandparent. Not well-known but priceless.”

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. “A mother and her daughter, Turtle, on a long trip during which adventure is admixed with fear, confusion and love. The funniest open paragraph in modern literature.”

Lady by Thomas Tryon. “A heart-breaking but redeeming secret in a small New England town where taboo and sensuality meet heat on. Any further comment would give it away.”

The Awakening by Kate Chopin. “Turn of the century instrospection of a woman coming alive.”

The Grass Is Singing by Kate Chopin. “Not nearly as well-known or appreciated as The Golden Notebook but every bit as riveting and stark. Set in South Africa where an Englishman tries to tame the untameable land. He is a miserable failure, but his wife is even more desperate — until she finds redemption and sanity by way of an illicit, taboo affair.”

Beloved by Toni Morrison. “A triumph for all time. Deep and desperate love helps stay the horror and violence of a black woman’s journey to freedom near the Ohio River in Kentucky. As most well know, it is so much more than that.”

WAR

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski. “Frightening account of a young Jewish boy during World War II who runs and hides alone for three years throughout Europe to escape capture and death. The most compelling anti-war book ever.”

Common Ground by J. Anthony Lucas. “The true account of a couple who tried honestly but unsuccessfully to disarm and diffuse the battlegrounds in three diverse adjacent Boston neighborhoods.”

Hiroshima by John Hersey. “Chilling account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan in August 1945. Many others have followed but this is still the classic.”

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. “Grisly expose of the turn-of-the-century slaughterhouse industry in Chicago. Considered by experts to be the impetus for eventual FDA regulations after this famous bloody ‘war’ between owners and workers.”

Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. “The best of many hundreds on the Vietnam War.”

Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhoads. “One of my literary passions is the Manhattan Project. In my collection there are many fascinating accounts but this is my favorite.”

AFRICAN-AMERICAN

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. “One of the first books I read that made me realize just how marginalized and ‘unseen’ minorities have been for centurities. It was an emotional rollercoaster ride.”

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. “Of Morrison’s early works, this is the most heart-breaking. It doesn’t take much to personalize and empathize with the young black girl whose identity is never her own.”

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. “When this came out, we thought, ‘No way’ … but he was prophetic and right on! Much of what he predicted came true in Watts, Detroit and other cities as race riots and protests against how blacks were treated burgeoned.”

Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. “The memory of a very angry black man in prison. Soulful and riveting. I regret that I let people borrow books like this, as I never get them back.”

Middle Passage by Charles Johnson. “A haunting account of the slave ship Armistad as it crosses from Africa to the New World. The descriptions and dialogue are vivid enough to put you right in the thick of it and make you scream with anguish as the passengers did.”

REGIONAL AND UNIVERSAL

Working by Studs Terkel. “This one is one of my all-time favorites mainly because it is so different. Terkel describes hundreds of occupations and doesn’t shy away from graphic depictions of the dangers.”

Night Comes to the Cumberlands by Harry Caudill. “The first book I ever read about Eastern Kentucky, the mountains and the coal mines. I discovered later that it was controversial in many circles but as a native of that land, he ‘told it like it was.’”

Stand Like Men by James Sherborne. “I had never heard of Bloody Harlan but was fascinated by the gutsy and fearless men and women who fought for their rights as miners in the Thirties.”

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. “A sad and compelling story of Africa and her tragic history at the hands of colonialists.”

Chamed Circle by James Mellow. “I have always wished I had been alive at the time and been a part of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas’ (circle)  .. and all their writer/artistic friends.”

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Sora Neale Hurston. “A book to treasure now and always. … Now part of the high school canon and probably the favorite among all of Hurston’s books.”

And really, I don’t see why more book marketers don’t take to this bit of golden marketing from Semantricks:
A dictionary of words you thought  you knew.

It’s not a safe book for the kiddies, but decent pocket-sized material to haul along for a doctor’s office visit or other occasion where you have may a long wait in surroundings in which one of those DNA/babymama “Maury” editions will be on the waiting room TV and there’s only a collection of well-worn (and hence, intensely germy) old Sports Illustrated issues to read.

Example:

Carnival: Meat eaters festival.

Get it? Get it? Try to hold in those sides, lest they burst from your laughter.

Still, for pocket or bathroom, it’s not a bad mini-book — although, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Books? $12.95? Really? You guys must be the ones with the sense of humor.

Anyway, the wonderful foreword:

“It’s enough for us that you’ve bought this book:; no need to read it. Give it to someone you dislike. If you dislike the person a lot, give two copies. For anyone who is inclined to read it, we advise small takes. A little of this material goes a long way. And yet, paradoxically, all of it doesn’t go very far.”

Consider how often a right-up-front admission of mediocrity would save us from the purchase and dogged reading of what is, after all, very bad literature.

… in the print edition. You’ve already clipped these and affixed them to your refrigerator via magnet, I’m sure, but just in case:

 What’s summer reading without our reader submissions for their Top Ten favorite books?
    Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto makes its first appearance of the season, and I have to say: I’m Bel Canto-dyslexic. Some readers got it, and a few of us didn’t. So if you’re a Bel Canto fan, speak on up: Send your Top Ten favorite books.
    This week also brought the first reader reference to Wallace Stegner, the first guilty confession of being a Stephen King fan, the first call-out to Kentucky writing demigod Wendell Berry.
    We’ll take reader favorites through the end of July, so there’s still time to submit the books that keep you spellbound: E-mail a list to Cheryl Truman at ctruman@herald-leader.com or mail your list to Cheryl Truman, Lexington Herald-Leader, 100 Midland Ave., Lexington, KY 40508.
    We’ll also put up the lists on the Bluegrass Books blog at Kentucky.com.
   
    Cassie Moses, 31, at-home mom, Cynthiana
    1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
    2. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
    3. Saints at the River by Ron Rash
    4. and 5. The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini
    6. Smokejumper by Nicholas Evans
    7. Clay’s Quilt by Silas House
    8. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (”I can still remember my mom reading this to me when I was young.”)
    9. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (”This book makes me want to cry each time I read it to my girls.”)
    10. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
   
    Mary Sue Mitchell, 53, instructional assistant, Northside Elementary School, Midway
    “I read Pillars of the Earth and loved it. I too could not wait until William got his come-uppance. It felt like a long wait, though. (Editor’s note: If you read one 973-page epic in your life, make it Pillars of the Earth. There’s medieval cathedral-building, political scheming, sex, war, hissable villains and, in the end, the good guys, most of them, triumph, and the bad guys, all of them, wind up in the bits and pieces they deserve. A triumph for the Almighty, or karma, or the demigod who takes care of faithful readers.) I also found The Shell Seekers (by Rosamunde Pilcher) at a used-book store and I liked it so much I shared it with the people I work with. The Dollmaker is another book that was on the list of several others. … I received it for a Christmas gift and have also shared it with others.”
    “Here is my list, in no particular order.”
    *  Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
    *  Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children series
    *  Francine River’s Mark of the Lion series, about first-century Christians in ancient Rome
    *  Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
    *  Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg (”I laughed so hard when reading this I had to read it in a room by myself.”)
    *  Centennial by James Michener
    *  The Frontiersman by Allan Eckert
    *  Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks
    *  The American Bicentennial series by John Jakes (”This series got me reading again after a break.”)
    *  The Bible. (”Another book that continues to surprise me. The more I read, the more I learn.”)
   
    Eric Iversen, Lexington
    “Most of these are titles spouse Libby and I have read to each other over the years.”
    1. Boy Life on the Prairie by Hamlin Garland (”a life in nature in the 1870s”)
    2. Maude Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks (”emerging consciousness of a child of the great migration”)
    3. The Circle of Quiet from the Crosswick Trilogy by Madeleine L’Engle (”finding respite in, and from, family”)
    4. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner (”Friendship of couples over a lifetime”)
    5. Big Two-Hearted River from the Nick Adams stories by Ernest Hemingway
    6. Dancing on the Edge of the Roof by Sheila Williams
    7. Andy Catlett by Wendell Berry (”An 8-year-old visits both sets of his grandparents”)
    8. The Bishop of Stinking Creek by Joe Powlas (”Eastern Kentucky’s answer to the Mitford series”)
    9. A Winter Room by Gary Paulsen
    10. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (”Grit and whimsy among the Cape Cod dunes”)
   
    Megan Coffman, Lexington
    Coffman is a particular fan of books on tape/CD.
    Coffman’s comments:
    “While I am a voracious reader, I have found that if you expand your ‘reading’ to audio books, you can get even more books in! I’m typically listening to three books at once - one in the car (and believe me, even without a regular commute you are probably in the car more than you think), one in the kitchen for when I am cooking and cleaning up, and one in the laundry room.
    “There is something about audio books that will let you get through authors and subject material you would never get to in the precious time for actually sitting down and reading.
    “Because I’ve picked them up cheap at yard sales or Goodwill, I’ve ‘read’ everything from war-themed books (not tops on my list) to Kitty Kelley with The Royals (actually pretty enjoyable).
    “When it comes to picking a ‘top 10 list,’ there’s a lot of pressure, especially if you’re a known reader, because, by golly, every book had better be top quality, intellectually reflective, entertaining, etc, or your reputation is injured (or at least you feel it will be), so that being said, here is a list of audio books I enjoyed. Most of them are strictly for entertainment, and you soon find that the reader makes the book, becomes the voice of the book, and the book would never be the same without that reader, which sometimes is astonishing, when credit to the reader is not even found on the front cover!
    “Another bonus with this list - all but one are available for checkout from the Lexington Public Library!”
    1. Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer, read by Gerald Doyle. “This is junior fiction, but is completely engaging for adults as well. A complex story involving everything from Beowulf to family relationships, it was totally mesmerizing. After listening to hundreds of books of all stripes, this is the first time I contacted a company by e-mail to praise the reader.”
    2. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, read by Bernadette Dunn (unabridged): “Every obstacle the heroine faced had me sitting on the edge of my seat.”
    3. Louise Erdrich reading her own works: “The Master Butcher’s Singing Club and The Antelope Wife were memorable. Because Erdrich wrote the books, I guess she knows more than anyone exactly how they should sound, where to pause for the best effect.”
    4. Janet Evanovich series, beginning with One for the Money: “These are obviously wildly popular in print, but are rollicking fun for a long car trip, even if I did have to cover my 9-year-old’s ears more than a few times, especially on later books in the series.”
    5. Moving Mars by Greg Bear (not at the library): “Written in 1993, this was one of the earlier books I ever listened to. I tracked down my very own copy on eBay - and upon relistening was still amazed at all of the futuristic insights Bear plugged into this work.”
    6. Cell by Stephen King, read by Campbell Scott. “So scary, I had to turn it off on the first disc. … Super creepy, and had me staring at my cell phone in the car for weeks.”
    7. Prey by Michael Crichton, read by George Wilson. “Again, super creepy - a friend lent me their copy, and I went and bought my own for future relistening enjoyment.”
    8. “Guilty pleasure of listening to the entire Confessions of a Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. The British-accented reader gives them just the right touch, and that kitchen is cleaned in no time!”
    9. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, read by Anne Fields: “This is the first audiobook that actually made me cry. Beautifully written and read.”
    10. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, read by the author - both entertaining and educational - great for family listening on that long car trip.
    And a bonus:
    11. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (unabridged, please): “If you never got around to reading this classic as a child, this is a perfect way to make the time. Delightful, after you get into it.”
    Reach Cheryl Truman at (859) 231-3202 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3202; e-mail her at ctruman@herald-leader.com.

These are from the Reader Top 10 favorite books lists from last week. Forgive my delay in posting. I’ve been called into the editing ranks rather frequently of late, so I’m just now compiling.

But here’s my promise: All your lists will appear on Bluegrass Books. Promise. These appeared in the 8/2 newspaper, or printed product, or tree-based megablog, or whatever we’re calling it now:

Deb Jones, head teacher, ­Burrier Child Development ­Center, Eastern Kentucky University

“These are the books that I buy extra copies of to give out to friends and which have impacted my life greatly.”

■ The Bible

■ If God Is Love (also If Grace Is True) by Phillip ­Gulley and James Mulholland. “A radical view of salvation that has made me think deeply.”

■ The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. “A best seller that helped me reflect on why I’m here on earth.”

■ Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, “I read (it) in college for a philosophy course and continue to ­reread every decade or so.”

■ The Kingdom of God Is a Party by Tony Campolo. “I think the title says it all!”

■ Amazing Grace (also The Cloister Walk) by Kathleen Norris. “More favorites I revisit every years or so.”

■ The Joy of ­Loving by Mother Teresa. “Her ­writings are a great ­inspiration for daily living.”

■ Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler. “This book deepened my ­relationship with God ­beyond words.”

■ Feathers From My Nest by Beth Moore. “This book has helped me as my ­children have left the nest.”

■ Anything by Anne Lamott. “She is so funny and full of truth.”

Jessica Boggs, Whitesburg, student at Campbellsville University

1. Clay’s Quilt by Silas House. “Seriously, the perfect book. It captures Eastern Kentucky like no other book I’ve ever read.”

2. Oral History by Lee Smith. “Most people, when talking about their favorite Lee Smith book, says Fair and Tender Ladies. I like that one, but Oral History was the first Lee Smith book I read, and it is what made me realize that there was such as thing as Appalachian literature.”

3. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. “Two words: Rhett Butler.”

4. The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. “British alternate history in which the Allied forces didn’t win WWII and the world is obsessed with classic literature. Perfect for anyone who loves history, books and sarcasm.”

5. She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb. “Actually, any of McCrumb’s Ballad series, but this is my favorite. I feel so sorry for Harm, the confused prison escapee.”

6. The Big Beautiful by Pamela Duncan. “Another wonderful Appalachian novel. At a reading of this book by the author, I laughed so hard my sides hurt afterwards.”

7. The Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. “The best historical romances I’ve ever read. My favorite is The Masque of the Black Tulip.”

8. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. “A great teen novel that’s much deeper and much better than the average teen romance. Read this instead of Gossip Girl.”

9. Saints at the River by Ron Rash. “The ending left me thinking for weeks.”

10. Appalachian ­Studies by Anne Shelby. “These poems were like listening to my grandparents’ stories.”

Debbie Burns, Manchester

“Since I am a big fan of short fiction I am listing my five favorite short-story ­collections followed by my five favorite full-length works of fiction.”

1. The Yellow Wall-Paper and Other Writings by ­Charlotte Perkins Gilman. “This volume includes her novelette Herland about a trio of men stumbling upon a society composed completely of women. An eye-opener, as is the story If I Were a Man.

2. Stories by Katherine Mansfield.

3. The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton “is another favorite of mine. It’s always fun to read about the idle rich at the turn of the century.”

4. The Mysterious Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie. “I’ve been an Agatha ­Christie fan for years, but I only recently stumbled upon this collection of short stories. In place of Miss Marple, we have Mr. Satterthwaite, who is ‘an earnest student of the drama called Life’ and of course, the otherworldly Mr. Quin.”

5. Miss Marple, The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie. “I have a soft spot for armchair ­detectives, and no one can touch Miss Marple.”

Now, for my five favorite full-length works of fiction:

1. Life With Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. “Bertie Wooster is always landing in trouble, but thankfully he has his faithful butler, Jeeves, to help him out. These books read like one of those slapstick romantic comedies from the ’40s.”

2. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. “This is the love story of all time.”

3. Small Change by J. Belinda Yandell. “It’s about the secret life of a middle-aged woman. Turns out her husband and two grown children don’t really know her at all.”

4. The No. 1 Ladies ­Detective Agency by ­Alexander McCall Smith. “Precious Ramotswe has been ­described as the Miss Marple of Botswana. Her reflections on life are as interesting as the mysteries she is trying to solve.”

5. Nothing Ever ­Happens Here by Carol Beach York. “This is a young adult ­coming-of-age novel. ­Published in 1970, it is indicative of the era and was the coming-of-age story that I read when I was 12.”

Today’s avalanche of books brings the new (on sale August 5) Dave Barry book. This took me aback, because I had forgotten all about Dave Barry, rather like the grody beer-swilling uncle you once thought was so cool. Then you grew up, and he didn’t. That’s what Dave Barry seems like these days: the annoyance on the bookstore shelf.

Dave Barry’s History of the Millennium (So Far) (Berkley Trade Paperback Reprint, $14) features a cover design that illustrates perfectly what I mean: Barry is Photoshopped flashing rabbit ears over the head of President George W. Bush. I’m sure there’s a preschool somewhere where that’s still cutting-edge humor.

And then there’s Barry’s style, which has always relied on juxtaposing the mundane with the absurd and then tossing in some random reference to something that’s adolescent and probably booger-related and hoping against hope that You Get It.

But let’s do this by example, in this entry from June, 2003: “On the literary front, the blockbuster bestseller of the year is the long-awaited fifth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter Reaches Puberty and Starts Taking Really Long Showers. Another best-seller is Sen. Hillary Clinton’s new book, I Can’t Help It If I’m a Saint, in which, with great candor and openness, her ghostwriter reveals the most intimate details of Sen. Clinton’s life, except the parts that might be interesting, which fall within Sen. Clinton’s “Zone of Privacy.”‘

The problems here are about as infinite as Barry’s fascination with lame puberty jokes:

–This is really lazy writing.

–You suspect that Jon Stewart and “The Daily Show” could have made short work out of both events. (Or Joel McHale, or The Onion, or the Websites 236.com or Wonkette. Good Lord, there’s more sophisticated, harder-working humor on icanhascheezburger.com)

–And the Daily Show is on basic cable, and the InterWebs are basically free, whereas Barry is expecting you to shell out $14 for a collection of his end-of-year columns, slightly updated. And while $14 for a belly laugh is no bad deal, this book is just a Dave Barry literary garage sale, and jokes about Martha Stewart and Paris Hilton and Dan Rather really have reached their “sell-by” date.

–And even in a literary garage sale — basically, a writer dumping everything he didn’t get published in the big leagues between two covers and calling it an anthology, or “the collected,” or “the uncollected,” or “stuff no magazine, print or online, would sneeze on these days” — there is occasionally a pink flamingo, an item that’s fun and kitschy and makes you proud to haul it off to the car and pose it in front of your coffee table.

Dave Barry may make a comeback, like Abba or “The Golden Girls.”

But this is no pink flamingo.