Tell Us a Little About Yourself

"October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!  >> Rainbow Rowell



Introducing ourselves can be tricky. Are we just our occupations? Or zip codes? What if I don't have entertaining stories about a pet or child? And does my home state reduce me to a mere stereotype?

In advance of a summer writing class at University of Iowa, my instructor emailed an invitation to introduce ourselves by way of a list. A list of what? She suggested a shopping list or even itemized tax deductions (interestingly, no one took her up on that). My assignment...750 words in list form to introduce myself to a dozen strangers.

Who I am could be explained by where I'm from. Originally Kansas City, Missouri, then circling around to Florida, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and now, Iowa. Or by my chosen occupations of reporter, and later, assistant children's librarian. Or the hours, days and years of my childhood (and adulthood!) spent watching TV to the point my mother predicted I would wake up one day with square eyes. But even with moving from state to state, and despite all the time spent staring at a flickering screen, it's always been books that are the most tangible description of my life, of who I am or ever hope to be.

This is only the beginning of the long list of books that helped to shape me. What are the great books of your life? In honor of Great Books Week, Oct. 1-7, start your own list of books that matter.

1) Blueberries for Sal/Robert McCloskey. Young Sal and her baby bear counterpart each wander off from their mothers, seeking adventure. Decades have passed, but I can still hear my mother's voice reading me this tale, complete with the kuplink kuplank kuplunk of the blueberries dropped in the pail.

2) Three Billy Goats Gruff. Even as a little kid, I understood how the troll felt regarding the annoying goats...I could be territorial, too. I still adore the Itsy Bitsy Spider and cheer on her fortitude and vision.

3) Harriet the Spy/Louise Fitzhugh. Girl spy & writer...Harriet had a rich inner life, although I didn't recognize that concept at 9-years-old. I appreciated the idea that it wasn't weird to  live so much in your own head or to be preoccupied with writing.

4) Trixie Belden was a girl sleuth with an unlikely group of friends, solving mysteries and growing into adulthood in the Hudson River Valley. I often wished I could move there, too, and help figure out the Secret of the Mansion or the Mystery of the Emeralds. (authors Kathryn Kenny or Julie Campbell)

5) Waiting for Godot. As a reading assignment in high school, maybe I understood the play on some level. Maybe I really didn't. I know that Samuel Beckett's work challenged and inspired me.

6) John Steinbeck. I knew the power of language and good writing long before reading any of Steinbeck's work, yet his collection was a revelation about difficult subjects and characters that remain in readers' own lives long after the book was finished.

7) Go Ask Alice/Anonymous. Because I was in high school in the 1970s and had fairly oblivious parents.

8) Peter Benchley's Jaws. First the book and then the movie...I'm still a devoted fan of both.

9) Portnoy's Complaint/Philip Roth. It's a family debate, but I think my oldest sister, back home for a visit, left behind a copy of Roth's raw novel. I started the paperback as a sheltered Catholic high school girl and finished as a mature, worldly person. OK, not really, but I knew I had read SOMETHING.

10) My mother was a firm believer in keeping a dictionary within reach. And frequently using it. One of the best things about a smart phone is the dictionary app. Now I don't have to make a mental note about checking later for a definition or correct spelling.

11) Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings. This is possibly the first advice I ever received from a writer. I absorbed it, memorized it, and was grateful for Eudora Welty.

12) Ambulance Girl/Jane Stern. Struggling with finding her place in the world, middle-aged food & travel writer Jane Stern decided to become an EMT in her small Connecticut town. I read this memoir just as I was beginning my own journey into middle age.

13) Novelist Suzanne Shea broke from her usual genre and wrote a memoir, Shelf Life, about her experiences recuperating from cancer treatment while helping out at a friend's book store. I laughed and cried my way through the book, occasionally at the same time.

14) Amy Krouse Rosenthal. We don't usually catalog our lives, but Amy did. And when she finished Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life, she wrote another memoir as an interactive textbook. But she didn't write only for adults. Children and adults can both read and treasure I Wish You More and That's Me Loving You.

15) Tortilla Curtain/T.C. Boyle. This powerful social message is disguised as a novel. According to author Boyle, it's not enough to tell people our beliefs in political or social issues. We've got to practice what we preach, and realize that sometimes real life rises up and challenges our most ingrained beliefs. 

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New books in October to add to our shelves:

                                      Fiction
Origin by Dan Brown
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
The Rooster Bar by John Grisham
Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin
The Rule of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Fresh Complaint by Jeffrey Eugenides
In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
Merry and Bright by Debbie Macomber
Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly (mystery)
Strange Weather by Joe Hill (sci fi)
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen M. Machado (short stories)
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (young adult)

                                     Nonfiction

Grant by Ron Chernow (biography)
Going Into Town by Roz Chast (memoir)
Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan (memoir)
The Glass Eye by Jeannie Vanasco (memoir)
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Loved by Adam Rutherford (science)



                                  October Days

1-7     Mystery Series Week
          Great Books Week

3        Debut of Captain Kangaroo, 1955

6        Anniversary of American Library Association, 1876

8-14   Teens Read Week
          Earth Science Week

16      Dictionary Day

18       Anniversary of first comic strip, 1896, New York Journal, The Yellow Kid 

22      Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962

29      National Cat Day

31      National Knock Knock Joke Day 

October is National Reading Group Month, National Popcorn Month, National Stamp Collecting Month, Photographer Appreciation Month, Organize Your Medical Information Month and World Menopause Month. 

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