text:
Posted on October 4, 2012
Yes, the fact of the matter is that I DO stop to read a lot of the books. People ask all the time. On the one hand, I am sort of grateful to see all the books that do not tempt me in the slightest. Then again, I often pick up a book I've read a hundred or so times just so I can reread the ending of chapter 19 again. These things balance out.
On occasion, though, I turn up a book I have never seen before which tempts me into a full reading. On rarer occasions, it turns out to have been worth it.
I haven't quite finished this latest one yet, but I've seen enough to feel I should pass it along to you as something to look for come July. You will have to hunt some, because it is an entirely undistinguished-looking book, with a singularly undistinguished title.
It is called Selective Bibliography of American Literature, 1775-1900. It was put together by one M.B.Fullerton and published in 1936. I would not be writing about it had I not glanced inside to see whether it was a descriptive bibliography or just a list of books. I happened to open to the entry for Marietta Holley who, as "Josiah Allen's Wife", wrote a series of bestselling comic novels, including one set at the Columbian Exposition.
Fullerton covers her in one paragraph, concluding "Her work was extremely popular, but quite without distinction."
Thus intrigued, I flipped through and landed in the entry for Eliza Leslie, a writer hitherto completely unknown to me, whom he calls "not very gifted but highly important". It took only his note under poet Joel Barlow that "in common with most of his contemporaries, he lacked any marked poetic talent" and I was hooked.
Mr. Fullerton was apparently a book dealer with time on his hands, as well as, perhaps, a lot of books by forgotten American writers on his shelves. So he put together a book picking out authors who deserved notice, in his opinion, and also described the points of the first editions of their most important works. His choices seem fairly sound: the longest entries go to authors familiar to anybody who played Authors as a child: Mark Twain, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Washington Irving. He is fairly sound on Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and even Kate Chopin, though he does give twice as much space to one John Esten Cooke as he does to Emily Dickinson. He shows proper respect to the pioneers who led American Literature into the realist school that would blossom in the twentieth century. His is the only reference book I have ever seen with an entry on Emma Lazarus which does not mention the Statue of Liberty.
But that's not what you want him for. You want Mr. Fullerton's book for its coverage of early American humor, for his attempt to trace the beginnings of the Western in American fiction, and for his determination to tell you what not to read.
"The climax of pious didacticism…made all previous prigs seem reticent and recreant" (the Elsie Dinsmore series)
"a graceful but dull poet" (E.C. Stedman)
"It is, and perhaps should be, remembered with affection…but it is not literature" (Peck's Bad Boy)
"an author of no distinction—unless it be that of furnishing best sellers to the railroad trains" (Opie Read)
"the author of second-rate lines and superficial phrases" (Nathaniel Parker Willis)
"a crude and blundering type of humor" (Marietta Holley again)
"dull and labored and lamentably subservient to English models, on which they did not improve" (the poems of Timothy Dwight)
Oh, sure: there are authors he LIKES, but reading about the ones he doesn't increases the list of books I don't have to read.
Submitted by Joan P on October 5, 2012 Permalink


text:
No post last night. I was sick. I haven't been this sick since I got food poisoning 14 years ago. Oh.My.Gosh. Do you have any idea how awful it is to have your body explode from both ends at the same time? On the bright side, I lost 5 pounds last night. Ugh. Joe is my hero.
OK, here's an updated map...
View Larger Map
Thank you again to all of you for taking the time to send us information about your city!!! We really appreciate it! Remember, this map is TWO pages. If you don't see yourself on the first map, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "page 2". It will bring up a second map and list of names.
Now, on to your questions. I got a zillion questions this week, so here are some of them. I'll get to the others next week. (and the next week, and the next week...)
Maybe you've already answered this- but why did you name all of your kids after U.S. cities?
Because it's hard to pronounce foreign cities.
I was reading in our local paper today that Chicago colors their river green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. How do they do that?
Lemon-lime KoolAid
What kind of things did YOU do as a kid? When I read about the crazy things yours come up with, I have to wonder where they got it from.
I was perfect. They get it from their father.
Are you making any more appearances (like Fremd) that people in the area can come see you? (fingers crossed)
I don't have any planned right now.
Have you found cold breakfast cereal you can eat on the diet?
Yep! Joe's Os, Crispex, a lot of Envirokids ones, some Kashi ones... There are several others too.
So at what point did you start drinking and I don't mean coffee LOL![about the first day of spring break]
It's ok to put Bailey's in your coffee, right?
Why are people smelling their best friend's feet?
Because it would be just gross to smell your best friend's butt.
You do seem to have a lot of butt stuff going on for some reason?
Ummm yeah. Weird. What's that all about?
Did you know you have the #1 ebay auction on the best of ebay? pretty cool!
I didn't know that. Totally cool!
Do you think that your children might be encouraged to "misbehave" when you're taking a photographic record of their misadventures for your posting on the blog each time they create a disaster?
I hope so. Otherwise I'd run out of things to blog about.
You mentioned the other day that you boil enough eggs for each kiddo to dye a ton! What do you do with all those hardboiled eggs?
OK, I know this is going to sound crazy, but we EAT THEM.
Ok, someone has probably already asked, but how did Brooklyn get locked into the cabinet, if you have to have a special tool to get it open in the first place?
Yes, we have magnetic locks, but it's not like we actually use them.
I hope you had a joyous Easter! I know you're half Greek, but you're obviously not Greek Orthodox if you celebrated Easter yesterday. Were you Orthodox at one point, or did your religion come from the non-Greek parent?
The religion came from my mom who is not Greek.
What are the red Greek egg thingies????
This explains it. By the way, I was last person with an uncracked egg this year. :)
Would you consider starting links for those of us who would like to support your site ( and household) by buying quality handmade pet clothing and accessories?
Ummm no.
How did you handle the hey-mil-you-brought-food-my-kids-can't-eat situation?
Eh, whatever. It was no big deal. Even Joe has a hard time remembering what they can and can't have. I just made some that they could have.
Clay was like Jesus - left behind in the temple. Where was he, teaching the Senior Citizens a thing or two about God?
Um close. Actually he was running around Fellowship Hall chasing other kids.
Do your older kids know about the Easter bunny, and how did you break it to them?
Yes they know, and I didn't have to break it to them. There comes a time when you just realize that bunnies don't hop into your house to hide eggs. If they don't catch on, you've got to kind of wonder about them.
Wow when you get this many comments do you read them all?
Why can't your kids have splenda or colored sprinkles?
Because my kids are on a diet with no artificial additives and preservatives.
How about a "BECAUSE I SAID SO" mommy blogger cruise?
Oooo, a mommy blogger cruise would be fun!!! I'm not going on a cruise, but I am going to New Jersey with other mommy bloggers! You can check out the details here.
Can you just give me step by step instructions on how you do that [moving your blog to your own domain]? My husband gave me my own domain name for Christmas but I haven't a clue how to move off Blogger!!!
Yes I can!
1. Pick up the phone.
2. Dial your web designer's number.
3. Say, "Can you move my blog for me?"
Ta Da!
What is the link to your other site where you review products?
Mamaslike is the site where Angie, Melissa and I review products and services from other WAHMs. I've been getting a lot of requests to check out products from various companies, so I just started another blog to talk about products and services from other companies. You can see it here.
What do you do when your not yet potty trained child takes off their messy diaper and paints on the walls with their poop?
Clean it.
Why do people post songs they can't get out of their head to their blog?
I listened to the song the first day. Could not get it out of my head. Then, the next day, I couldn't remember it. So, I came back and listened to it again. That worked, for one day.
I had to come back again for a third dose.
Now I really cannot get it out of my head.
I would really like to get rid of this song can you please post a different one?
Happy to oblige! Here ya go...
Exactly how much is a "trabillion?"
More than a quarillion. Hey, I never claimed to be mathy.
At what point did you realize that your post on e-bay had "taken off" generating so much attention?
I think it was when I got a wake-up call from Good Morning America.
How do you keep your older ones still interested in church?
I don't. They don't especially like going, but I make them go anyway because I'm just mean that way. I remember wanting to sleep in instead of going to church when I was a kid too. It's ok. It'll all sink in at some point and they'll change their minds. At least that's my theory.
I was wondering if coming up with a topic for a blog entry is becoming a "chore" or if you still are having "fun?"
It's still fun. Writing my book was even more fun! I can't wait to really get going on my second book, in fact.
Are you going to have a say on what goes on the cover of your book? Will there be funny pictures in it?
Well, the folks at Guideposts came up with the cover design. I can give them my opinion of it, but in all honesty, unless it's totally hideous, I don't really care too much what it looks like. I really like the cover they've come up with right now. I'll show it to you guys as soon as I get the okay.
If you were a tree what kind would you be?
A tree? Hmmm, definitely a palm tree. Then I'd be living in a tropical climate. (They're calling for snow later this week! Whatever happened to "in like a lion, out like a lamb"? Will winter never end???)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Business Member BenefitsBusiness members are organizations that believe in the ministry of rescue. They choose to come alongside rescue missions by providing products or services that can help mission guests, staff, or board do rescue ministry more effectively. Each AGRM business member receives two individual memberships, and can add on more as desired for an additional fee.
Apply today! Complete our business membership application online.
Download, complete, and fax in your membership application.
View companies that are currently members in our business member directory.
Learn about advertising opportunities for business members and non-members.
View exhibitor and sponsor information for our annual convention.
Businesses that partner with AGRM receive an array of benefits. Most importantly, they are closely connected with hundreds of gospel rescue mission leaders who are specifically interested in their products and services. Benefits for joining AGRM as a business member include:
Website access:
Online business member listing, free link to your corporate website, access to online AGRM Member Directory and members-only area, advertising access to business banner highlights
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Members-only advertising rates for bimonthly Rescue magazine, two complimentary Rescue magazine subscriptions, complimentary subscription to Street Smart (members only e-newsletter), authorized use of business member logo, annual survey data, discounted sponsorship opportunities for online publications
Member mission access:
One complimentary email blast per year, discount on annual convention exhibit hall space, early annual convention booth selection, and a second eblast available for purchase (plus a "grouped" convention exhibitor eblast)


text:
Monday, December 21, 2009
Egg McGuffins ... and Solstice with the Pets!
The "egg" part is made from silk tofu, nooch, and turmeric. And of course, I added a little black salt (not in the recipe) for effect. The "egg" cooking technique is similar to that of the tofu omelet in Vegan Brunch. The "sausage" is Gimme Lean, and the super-melty cheeze is Tofutti American cheese. The English muffin is a whole wheat version from Whole Foods. Perfect way to begin my Winter Solstice morning.
Since my dog Datsun opens presents with his grandparents on Xmas Day, we do presents at home on Solstice. He got a big ole (very non-vegan) rawhide bone and a new pillow bed:
I hate giving him those icky rawhide bones, but I swear, nothing in the world makes him happier. Just look at those crazy eyes! Anyone know of a decent vegan faux rawhide dog bone? I'd gladly order him some if I could find them.
As for the cats, all six of them went crazy for their new catnip snakes. Just look at Pandora:
And Gelfling got pissed when he couldn't decide between the new swatter toy or the catnip snake. Look at that crazy face. Roar!
31 comments:
- The Voracious Vegan said...
Ooohhh Bianca you have outdone yourself this time. I think this might just be the best post ever! You've got so many great things that I love all in one place - greasy tofu eggs (LOVE) and sausage piled on a biscuit (the best thing ever) and cute dog pictures (love the gigantic bed and even more gigantic bone!) and those crazy kitties! Love it all!
- December 22, 2009 at 4:41 AM
- Crystal said...
I'm not sure about vegan rawhide.. They have the cornstarch chew things- but my dogs eat them as quickly as a biscuit and they have weird ingredients in them.. Your animals are so cute!
- December 22, 2009 at 5:15 AM
- Chocolate-Covered Katie said...
Wow, that is one huge rawhide! And the kitties are too cute. I love the angry pic lol :)
- December 22, 2009 at 6:58 AM
- pixiepine said...
Look at those happy pets!!!!
And that breakfast sammich looks SO delicious!!
- December 22, 2009 at 8:32 AM
- The Ordinary Vegetarian said...
I heart Gelfing!!
- December 22, 2009 at 8:46 AM
- Trinity (of haiku tofu) said...
Those pet photos induced delighted squealing in my house. I brought my whole family around to look at them. Adorable! Also, I wish there was a drive-thru where I could get an Egg McGuffin.
- December 22, 2009 at 9:05 AM
- The Shenandoah Vegan said...
That is a very uplifting post. Comfort food and fuzzies.
- December 22, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Your animals look so happy :) I don't like giving Nico rawhides either, but he loves them so much! That last picture of your cat is so funny, I love the look on his face.
- December 22, 2009 at 9:30 AM
- JohnP said...
I know what you mean about rawhide. Our dogs love it (and it's good for their teeth and keeps them from chewing other things) and I don't have a good alternative.
- December 22, 2009 at 9:38 AM
- Jenn said...
I just made the sausages from that book. I need to try the Macguffin. Yours looks yummy! Love the crazed cats.
- December 22, 2009 at 11:00 AM
- Tara said...
There is much to be happy about in this post--delicious looking vegan food, adorable pets, and winter solstice!
- December 22, 2009 at 11:54 AM
- T said...
This looks like a treat I used to get all the time at my local vegan bakery. Love it!
- December 22, 2009 at 12:13 PM
- Sheridanna said...
Awwwww....I love the pet pics!!! And your breakfast sandwich looks awesome! Yay!
- December 22, 2009 at 12:39 PM
- Knit-Picky C said...
Blessed Solstice to You & Your Animal Pals...
- December 22, 2009 at 12:52 PM
- Devan Geselle said...
Mmm my mom makes egg mcmuffins every christmas morning :) I should get her to whip these up instead!
- December 22, 2009 at 1:01 PM
- kilax said...
Ha! I love your pet pics! Roar!
Yum. That Egg McGuffin looks great!
- December 22, 2009 at 1:29 PM
- Wintu's World said...
This looks so amazing!! I'm going to try this for Christmas morning! My husband will go nuts for it.
- December 22, 2009 at 2:16 PM
- Dani said...
I love the pictures of you with your pets, you're really cute btw. I love the one with the black cat haha.
I used to looove mc'd's egg mcmuffins, no meat please, like that made it any healthier lol. I did the same thing. I watched fast food nation and nearly barfed. That movie or book should be mandatory in high schools...
- December 22, 2009 at 2:59 PM
- Wendy French Barrett said...
Oh man, those kitties are cute. My cats love their catnip-filled cigar and carrot.
I really want that Alicia Silverstone book. Everything I have seen out of it sounds awesome. I want to make this pizza--http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/recipes/radicchio-pizza-recipe
Happy Holidays, Bianca!
- December 22, 2009 at 3:14 PM
- Carbzilla said...
Those are the funniest cat pics ever! I need a faster camera, for sure. May cat made my blog today because he stole somebody else's catnip toy but even he didn't look as crazed. Hilarious! Merry Solstice!
- December 22, 2009 at 5:06 PM
- Monique a.k.a. Mo said...
So much cuteness I can barely contain myself!
- December 22, 2009 at 6:03 PM
- Iris said...
That looks so yummy! I can't eat gimmelean anymore because I'm gluten intolerant, but it was always my favorite fake meat.
- December 22, 2009 at 6:11 PM
- Mary said...
Awe, happy solstice, pets! I just picked up a stuffed animal coyote and deer for Graeme and Ellie to thrash on Christmas, and some vegan (and gluten-free!) pumpkin sage dog treats. I'm totally going to sample one.
- December 22, 2009 at 9:07 PM
- Mike K said...
The egg mcguffin looks spectacular - so much like the real thing, but without the nastiness of the real thing - yum! Awesome pet photos too! They look so happy :)
- December 22, 2009 at 10:59 PM
- lindzzzlolita said...
On the matter of rawhide bones, sorry, but I've only found the tiny version, and not the huge ones. Maybe you could try your hand at vegan cooking for dogs! In the meantime, I'll keep searching, because my puppy needs some chew toys as well.
But be careful, rawhide has been rumored to splinter in dogs stomachs, so make sure Datsun doesn't bite off too much at one time!!
:) - Lindsey
- December 23, 2009 at 9:14 AM
Your kitties make the best faces!! I love how Pandora's tongue is sticking out in the first photo!
- December 23, 2009 at 5:00 PM
- Hanni said...
My dogs love these, and as far as I can tell, they are vegan.
The bacon flavor is artificial and there are no gross fillers or chemicals. They don't last quite as long as the rawhide chews and are more expensive, but well worth it in my experience.
- December 25, 2009 at 9:27 PM
- Michal said...
Your kitty cat is so cute. I love that picture :) Im still waiting to try those out with my mom. Shes an omni and was so surprised when I told her those were vegan, she was like "they look just like the real thing"
- December 26, 2009 at 7:05 AM
- Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...
I was a meatless McMuffin fan too.. yikes! I love the happy animals!
There are totally vegan bones, like Nylabones.. I think there's another out there as well.
- December 29, 2009 at 4:48 PM
- Jenny said...
Please can you tell me where I can get catnip snakes for my kittehs? And thanks for all the amazing recipes you post! You inspire me. :-)
- December 31, 2009 at 1:08 PM
ups sorry delete plz [url=http://duhum.com].[/url]
- February 3, 2010 at 5:54 AM


text:
- Food Storage Quotes and stories (from our Monday posts)
- Information on the three-month supply (and rotation methods)
- Longer-term storage (storing options, and specific info about wheat, rice, beans, oats, and other items)
- 72-hour kit information (articles, list of items)
- Emergency Car kits (list of items)
- A section on water storage and preservation
- Other related food storage and emergency prep articles that we've shared over the year
- ALL our recipes from the last year, including rotation ideas for EACH recipe (fresh ingredients to add if you're eating the meal just to rotate it)
- A complete 3-month menu plan, which coincides with our recipes
- A complete shopping list for your 3-month supply (using the above menu plan) **This was made especially for the e-book, and will not be published on our blog!
- There is also a blank shopping list for you to fill in, as well as a blank 3-month menu chart, so that you can customize your own 3-month supply plan if you want to (or you can just use our list, since we've done all the work for you!)
Friday, June 5, 2009
Friday's Giveaway - SGI e-book! ***UPDATE: Contest Closed! ***
92 comments:
- Heidi said...
Working on my long-term storage and am making great progress, but I am wondering about vitamin C...you know, I'd rather not have to worry about scurvy in the event I actually start living off of my long-term food storage food. So, what do you suggest for long-term storage of vitamin C? Thanks!!!
- June 5, 2009 at 1:50 PM
- Heidi said...
I emailed you about my question (flaxseed) so now I'm just entering the giveaway. :) Thanks!
- June 5, 2009 at 2:03 PM
- Nicki said...
I am curious about how much bleach per liter or gallon of water.
- June 5, 2009 at 2:05 PM
- Sweetie Pie said...
I'm new to all of this building up food storage and rotating through it. What are some great ways to keep track of it all? I hate to "reinvent the wheel!"
- June 5, 2009 at 2:19 PM
- Amy Pickledpigsfeet said...
I want to know how to make a fluffy loaf of bread from my fresh ground hard red winter wheat. My Mom gave me several bushels when she left her wheat grinder with me and all the bread I've made is so dense.
- June 5, 2009 at 2:21 PM
Do you use powdered butter, margarine or shortening? I find, I just can't get these to work in any recipe. I assume it's because they are really not fats. Even recipes that specifically use these products don't turn out for me. What is your experience?
Thanks, Joyce
- June 5, 2009 at 2:27 PM
- Keri said...
An e-book is a great idea. What file format is it? Did you have to jump through any copyright hoops to publish it yourself?
- June 5, 2009 at 2:32 PM
- eakelley said...
Do you store cleaning (laundry detergent, dish soap etc. )products and how much do you store?
- June 5, 2009 at 2:33 PM
How do you keep yourself so organized? I have been trying to get better about food storage for over a year now and I still feel overwhelmed and I don't even have a 3 month supply, let alone a month! I've kind of slacked off in the last 7 months or so.... So how do you keep yourself motivated to keep storing?
Also, I was wondering if it's ok to store water in the garage? We live in Idaho Falls where the winters are freezing cold and below and the summers aren't too hot(Probably 80-90 range), but not cold either.
I'd love to get a copy of your e-book. Thanks for the chance to win!!:)
- June 5, 2009 at 2:41 PM
- Barlow Family said...
What a great idea! I hope I win. :)
What is the best nonwheat to store for someone who is allergic to wheat? My daughter gets horrible eczema when she eats it. I have lots of oatmeal, but even when ground that doesn't always bind very well. Do you have a good blend?
- June 5, 2009 at 2:46 PM
- rick and cheryl said...
Something!! :)
- June 5, 2009 at 2:55 PM
- Amanda said...
I have very, very limited space in my little apartment, and we've started to get a little food storage going. I am always wondering what the best items to have would be that don't get rotated through really frequently?
- June 5, 2009 at 2:55 PM
- Sariah said...
Are you going do posts on how to bottle fruits.
- June 5, 2009 at 2:59 PM
- sarah said...
would love a book=
I struggle in keeping track of my food storage room. i use it on a daily basis but need a good method of how to remember what I took off the shelf that needs to be replenished.
- June 5, 2009 at 3:05 PM
- Sena said...
What is the easiest method you've tried/heard about for making bread. I'm looking to make that transition from buying bread to making it instead (much cheaper!), but I've never done so before. Any other advice for a beginner?
- June 5, 2009 at 3:11 PM
- Liz said...
What is your take on cleaning products? What kind should I store, or what ingredients should I store that I can also clean with?
- June 5, 2009 at 3:14 PM
- Ashley said...
What's a good indoor food-storage system when you've got limited closet space? We've been keeping our food in the garage, but it gets so humid in Illinois in the summer, I know that's probably not good for a lot of the foods.
- June 5, 2009 at 3:18 PM
- Daughter of God said...
I like the idea of your 3 month supply and I've been working on it. then on youtube I found a lady who has started to do the same idea, two weeks of meals just rotated, for the whole year. my question is do you really think it is possible to get a year supply this way? It seems that some of the stuff that is in the three month supply will go bad before you would use them. I would like your imput.
Amy V. Young
- June 5, 2009 at 3:19 PM
- Heather said...
What are other types fo grains to store in addition to wheat - I'm new to all this!
- June 5, 2009 at 3:20 PM
sounds like a great resource to have!
- June 5, 2009 at 3:27 PM
- Brittany said...
I was just wondering if you had done a taste test on the different dry milk products available. Most people I've spoken to prefer the taste of the Morning Moos, but with it not being dairy and having a whole bunch of gross additives, I've been looking for an alternative. Any suggestions?
Also --- for Joyce (question above) coconut oil can be used as a margarine/shortening/oil substitute and has a much longer shelf life. It's also healthier for you.
Thanks for your website and for the opportunity to win this book.
- June 5, 2009 at 3:40 PM
- Anna Oman said...
What do you put in your buckets of wheat and such to keep them fresh and from sprouting?
- June 5, 2009 at 3:42 PM
- Valerie said...
Do you guys have a big "everything" list that shows the different categories of things to store? I know that I should be getting things other than food, but I am trying to get a list of it all so I can start from the top, bottom, or middle and start collecting. Having a list already made would help a ton!
- June 5, 2009 at 3:43 PM
- Mary said...
I'd love more info about canning. I'm especially interested in canning meat, I've heard it tastes better than store bought. You have a great blog!
- June 5, 2009 at 3:58 PM
- Brooke said...
I can't really think of a question, but thought I'd tell you that my family LOVES the taco seasoning recipe that you posted. Great find!!
- June 5, 2009 at 3:58 PM
- Sara DMS said...
What else can be "freezer-canned" besides berry jams?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:01 PM
- Anita said...
I have some half pint jars that I was going to used for pressure canning. Do you know ifyou can stack them inside the canner during the pressure heating period or can you only place them one layer deep?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:08 PM
- Wilken Family... Mary, Dave & Andrew said...
I have several #10 cans of the hot chocolate mix, and I really don't care for it. Any suggestions on making it taste better?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:12 PM
- Trisha said...
Hi! I love your site. I am wondering what you use for eggs in food storage? Do you use powdered eggs, or do you have a good substitute?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:24 PM
- Shara said...
What do you know about white whole wheat? I've heard it had many of the nutrients as whole wheat, but a lighter texture and flavor like white. Is this too good to be true?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:41 PM
- Joy said...
How often would you recommend rotating tap water stored in glass containers? And how long would you recommend rotating water stored in plastic bottles? If you had to leave in a hurry, and could only take as much food as your could fit in the trunk of a car, what would be the most important part of your food storage to take (besides water)?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:48 PM
- Liz said...
I am just digging in to all of the great information on your site. So- what are you making for dinner? I will have to ask a better question next time!
- June 5, 2009 at 4:53 PM
I'm really curious as to how you might use canned salmon. It was on sale for a great price and I bought a half a dozen. I opened one about a week later and yuck! It had skin and bones in it and was really gross. I expected it to be more like canned tuna.
I fed it to the dogs who loved it. Any ideas how to use it without grossing myself out or getting sick? Or is this not something I should bother buying?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:56 PM
- Doug, Jessica & Nixon Anderson said...
I can't think of any questions right now, but i'm sure that if i win this book, it'll answer any question I could ever have! ;)
- June 5, 2009 at 4:57 PM
- loni said...
I just got put incharge of Emergency prepardness for my ward. I am greatful for the info on your blog. And I am wondering if I could use your book for teaching my ward, and will you be offering a discount on it if say 50 people want to download it?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:58 PM
- Morgan said...
What is your favorite kind of powder milk? We have a couple of brands and I mainly bake with them now. I don't particularly like the taste of them when they are drinken and neither do my kids, but it would do if we were in an emergency. Is there a powder milk out there that tastes good?
- June 5, 2009 at 4:59 PM
- Coordination Queen said...
I read somewhere that you could can butter. I was just curious as to how to do that and how long something like that would last.
- June 5, 2009 at 5:00 PM
- Dave and Camille said...
We don't live that close to a cannery so we actually buy a lot of our bulk flour, sugar, etc., at Costco. Do you have any ideas/suggestions on how to best store it for long term?
- June 5, 2009 at 5:25 PM
Have you found a good way to keep an accurate inventory of your food storage? Do you replace it as you use it?
- June 5, 2009 at 5:31 PM
- West Family said...
Do you have any issues with humidity? Have you noticed certain things going bad quickly? We live in upstate NY. So cold in the winter, but humid in the summer and I am afraid I will start to lose stuff.
- June 5, 2009 at 5:44 PM
- DeCaires Family said...
Working on doing another order and I always wonder what items to buy. We opted to stock up more on milk and oats. Is that a good source to start wtih?
- June 5, 2009 at 5:46 PM
- Tiffanie said...
I like to find ways to use my dehydrator and recently wondered if I could dry eggs safely. The ones they sale are expensive but they say they are dried. I just wasn't sure if they did anythign special to them first that I could pull off:)
- June 5, 2009 at 5:50 PM
- Kristy said...
My question is how to best store all of my #10 cans. I have tons of them and I find it hard to keep them organized and find a place where I can find exactly what I need when I need it.
- June 5, 2009 at 5:52 PM
- Brandon and Sarah Barros said...
Is it true that dented canned goods rust on the inside? Should I avoid them when storing food?
- June 5, 2009 at 6:12 PM
- J said...
This would be a wonderful book to have to help be get our storage in order! Thanks.
- June 5, 2009 at 6:34 PM
- Shenna said...
Can't think of any great questions at this point, but wanted to say thank you for your site! Thanks to you (and a little motivation on my part), I now have my car kit, 72 hour kit, and almost three months of food stored. I love the shelf only recipes that you guys post. Thanks again!!
- June 5, 2009 at 7:07 PM
- Megan said...
Do you have a favorite bulk pasta supplier? We eat lots of pasta at our house! Sometimes it's all that our little ones want to eat. Thanks for such a great blog!! I especially enjoy the recipe tutorials.
- June 5, 2009 at 7:11 PM
- CheerfulHeart2 said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- June 5, 2009 at 7:18 PM
- Super Pi said...
What type of advice do you have about finances? Getting your finances in order is a big part of being prepared as well.
- June 5, 2009 at 7:19 PM
- Jennifer said...
Have you done any baking on a gas BBQ? Any tips would be appreciated!
- June 5, 2009 at 7:23 PM
- Gaengy said...
Suggestions for empty nesters with the 3 month menu plan?
- June 5, 2009 at 7:36 PM
- andrew said...
Have you ever cooked with quinoa? My son is a vegetarian so I am always looking for nutritious veg dishes to cook for him. I discovered the grain quinoa has a very high protein content, so it's a good substitute for meat. It cooks as easily as rice and I mix it into various vegetable or pasta dishes, even pizza dough (I make my own). It would be useful to have in the pantry if your electricity went out. Perhaps not everyone would like to eat it as a side dish on its own, but when you mix it with other foods, you barely notice its slightly nutty taste. I suggest you buy Bob's Red Mill quinoa because it is pre-rinsed. Otherwise you have to rinse it a couple times before cooking it, which would be a nuisance in a situation where water was precious. By the way, what do you do with pasta water if your water supply is cut off and you need to conserve every drop of the water you carefully bottled and set aside?
- June 5, 2009 at 7:43 PM
- Penny@WickedBroke said...
How do you use powdered products such as butter, eggs, shortening, etc. Also what do you use/store for cooking fuel in case gas and electricity are out for a long period of time.
- June 5, 2009 at 7:49 PM
- Lara and Jayson said...
Why do long-term food storage lists always call for the kind of wheat that you have to grind before you can use it? Is that stuff better than just buying and storing pre-ground flour?
- June 5, 2009 at 7:49 PM
- Alayne said...
Do you have an easy (and good tasting) bread recipe for a bread making beginner?
- June 5, 2009 at 8:01 PM
- Kathy said...
I love your site! Thanks for the help in getting us all a little more prepared!
- June 5, 2009 at 8:07 PM
- Rean Day said...
WOW!! I'm so glad you are doing an e-book. I have so much to learn about food storage and cooking in general.
My question is how do you come up with ideas for meals? I stuggle even using recipes! I'm very much looking forward to your cooking classes coming up.
Thanks for all you do.
Rean Day
- June 5, 2009 at 8:20 PM
- CheerfulHeart2 said...
1) Have you done any solar oven cooking?
2) Have you ever cooked beans WITHOUT soaking them?
- June 5, 2009 at 8:33 PM
- Yart said...
Do you ever sprout seeds? If so do you have good luck with them?
- June 5, 2009 at 8:45 PM
- Shannon said...
What's the best way to make canned tomatoes? I have an abundance of tomato plants, and am starting to think about canning them once the time comes.
- June 5, 2009 at 8:47 PM
- Kate said...
I've loved following your blog over the past several months. I am amazed that you're able to keep it up week after week in addition to being wives and mothers (both full time jobs :D ). Being a mother of 3 (the newest addition was just born last month! :) ), I find it hard enough to just keep up with my food storage, much less create a blog filled with recipes, tips, and other valuable resources. How do you do it?
- June 5, 2009 at 9:04 PM
- jamerlou said...
Do you ever get bored of doing food storage?
- June 5, 2009 at 9:07 PM
- The Deaton Family said...
I love your blog! The only questions I have at this time is what is the best way to keep of your food storage? AND ... I am in charge of teaching people in my ward how to cook, can, etc., but I am in a married college ward and it is really hard to motivate the sisters to learn how to use wheat, make bread, sauces, etc. Can you give me some ideas on how to motivate them to want to learn? Thanks!
- June 5, 2009 at 9:13 PM
- Jennie and Adam said...
I'm new to your blog and have thoroughly enjoyed following you. I have come across great information here and look forward to the continuing motivation you provide to get prepared--keep up the great work!
- June 5, 2009 at 9:34 PM
- Leslie said...
I don't have a question, but the ebook sounds great.
- June 5, 2009 at 9:37 PM
- Amber said...
How do you cook using all of the food storage when you have picky eaters? My kids don't really like beans, but I force it down them.
- June 5, 2009 at 9:52 PM
- Celeste said...
Any ideas about what to do with our food storage (before or after) when we move overseas??
- June 5, 2009 at 10:02 PM
- nanci said...
Do you have a generator and if so, how much gasoline do you store and where and how do you have it stored?
- June 5, 2009 at 10:40 PM
- TMM said...
So, how do you coordinate wildly different tastes in food? One grandkid can't eat tomato products, one doesn't like meat, one wants sweets all the time.... if you just slap down a meal and tell them eat or go without in a stressful time, they will most likely go without.
discipline is one thing, but you want to try and accomodate when times are bad.... no need in adding additional stress to them...
but you don't want to be cooking 3 different meals every time either.... and there are only so many things they will all eat at the same time if given the choice.
(their mom usually cooks a variety of things, but during tough times may not have that option...)
- June 5, 2009 at 10:51 PM
- Joneel said...
Where are all the places you store food and water? In California, is can be hard to find enough room.
- June 5, 2009 at 10:55 PM
- Christi said...
I have a tiny house, so small that half of our belongings are in 2 storage buildings in our back yard. Do you have some ideas for storing our year supply in a very small space? And can any of the year supply be kept in a non-air conditioned storage building in South Carolina weather? Thanks for your work on this site! I just learned about it last night at church and I can't stop reading!
- June 5, 2009 at 11:06 PM
- Kestrel said...
Hmm, why is water storage such a pain in the butt? That's the only question I can think of!
- June 5, 2009 at 11:32 PM
I would also like to have a big "everything" list that shows the different categories of things to store. That would be really helpful to this "newbie".
- June 5, 2009 at 11:38 PM
- Ange said...
I can't think of any questions right off. We are just getting into Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness. We have been reading the blog and learning and can't wait to learn more.
- June 5, 2009 at 11:51 PM
- Beth said...
I have heard about "steam canning" and am wondering if this is a safe alternative to the traditional water-immersion method.
- June 6, 2009 at 12:49 AM
- Christina said...
I would love to learn how to can fruit and veggies safely. Have you guys done and articles about that. Also, my friend said she blanches broccoli when it is on sale. How do you do that?
- June 6, 2009 at 1:05 AM
Oh, I am so excited--a book! Thank you for sharing all your knowledge. I love your site.
My question: If I am baking and the recipe calls for milk or eggs, and I want to rotate my food storage, how do I convert the measurements to powdered milk or eggs?
- June 6, 2009 at 2:18 AM
- Kristeee said...
Wow, this e-book sounds like a fabulous idea. My question would be: can you guys be my neighbors? That way you can help me get everything all set up and I can learn how to use your solar oven and stuff.
- June 6, 2009 at 2:35 AM
The book sounds great - thank you for the opportunity to win or buy a copy ! My question - what foods would you recoomend in storage for sickness (eg H1N1 or other unexpected virus)? I have canned soup, jello, bananas in freezer, rice as well as usual food storage items. If all the family were really sick & no outside help available with meals, what would be nourishing and really quick & easy to prepare ? Thank you !
- June 6, 2009 at 5:01 AM
- Kathy said...
Thanks for the giveaway! My question is: Do you think its wise to do a four month supply instead of three. I have found that if I restock monthly then there is a small window of time where I only have 2 months of food. I don't want to be caught ill prepared during this time before I restock. Thanks!
- June 6, 2009 at 7:40 AM
- Lake said...
Do we start 72hr kits again next week? I will be following along faithfully.
- June 6, 2009 at 7:51 AM
- Megan said...
My son is allergic to diary and wheat. He has autism and has some major sensory issues when it comes to food. He will only eat things that have been pureed, look a certain way, etc. I'm so lost as to where to start on food storage for him!
- June 6, 2009 at 8:16 AM
- Heather said...
I would like to learn more about sprouting. Do you cover this process in your e book?
- June 6, 2009 at 8:40 AM
- Danielle said...
What made you decide to start a blog on all this preparedness stuff?
- June 6, 2009 at 9:28 AM
- Sarbear said...
Do you know of a good multi-grain bread recipe? I've been making the awesome whole wheat bread instead of buying bread lately, but my husband wants to try a multi-grain bread.
- June 6, 2009 at 9:41 AM
- Amber said...
Love your site - I'll be learning lots from you over the coming weeks. I've stopped by before but hope to spend more time here once my garden's in.
- June 6, 2009 at 9:47 AM
- K P said...
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!! Thanks for sharing what you know and learn with all of us! I look forward to reading your blog and appreciate the motivation and great ideas you share!
- June 6, 2009 at 10:02 AM
- Gretta said...
I would love to learn how to can all kinds of meat. Do you know how?
- June 6, 2009 at 11:12 AM
- Kristine said...
How do you keep track of you food storage? We have miltiple closet for our food storage & I have trouble knowing how much is there because we use it everyday.
Thanks & Blessings,
- June 6, 2009 at 11:42 AM
- Mandy said...
What is the one "luxury" product you each store? (Meaning, it's totally not an essential, but it will definitely make life far better)
I think mine would have to be cocoa powder, in the freezer. Maybe real shredded cheese in the freezer.
- June 6, 2009 at 11:48 AM
- Perry and Morgan said...
We live in a small apartment and I have trouble finding places to store our food/water. We're using our closests and under the beds, but we're starting to overflow those places. Do you have any creative tips on food storage in small apartments or homes?
- June 6, 2009 at 12:39 PM
- samg said...
Thanks for a down to earth site!!
We have beem gathering storage things for several years.
We stacked the boxes, put a sheet of plywood over, a mattress on top and made it up as a regular bed. Works great!!
We try to mainly gather dehydrated, freeze dried- on sale only. Other things, noodle mixes etc we seal in the seal a meal bags.
I would save coffee!!!
- June 6, 2009 at 9:57 PM


text:
By David Cohen
Big 12 Campus Correspondent
Siblings more often than not will have the same interests. Tennis and the color purple seemed to be the interest of the Nichols children.
TCU women's tennis star and second team Academic All-Big 12 honoree Millie Nichols is the third child of Mark and Janice to play the sport at TCU. Her brother Zach (2007-2011) and sister Kewa (2004-2008) were also Horned Frogs, but did one thing that the five-star recruit Millie did not do: sign with TCU out of high school.
"[Tennessee] was something different," Millie, a junior who has now played one year each in the SEC, Mountain West and Big 12, said. "I had heard great things about the coaches and the program. I wanted to get another experience out of state and be on my own in a way."
Nichols did quite well as a true freshman in the SEC, going 27-13 in overall competition in singles and 12-6 during the dual season in doubles. She also ranked in the ITA top-30 with two different doubles partners, showing off her versatility. Her achievements in Knoxville also came while Zach was an all-Mountain West senior for the Horned Frogs.
The success was great, but Nichols ultimately decided she would transfer to the school she had never been at but was always a part of.
"I kind of felt like I was destined to go to TCU because I had two siblings there and I had known the coach since I was 12, so I had known him for quite a while," she said. "It was something I looked forward to."
Nichols' decision to follow Zach and Kewa paid dividends quickly, as she was named to the All-Mountain West doubles team last year. Her and Olivia Smith qualified for the NCAA doubles championships, the seventh time in the last eight years a TCU duo made it that far. The two also combined to beat No. 14 Alabama.
The past two years, however, have been tough on Nichols.
"Last year at the beginning I had a cracked rib that didn't heal properly and last semester I had a pretty bad fall that knocked some things out of place," she said. "The ankle was very frustrating. One of my main goals is to stay injury-free and healthy as much as I can, but there was nothing I could do about it."
Head coach Dave Borelli is certainly one believer in Nichols' recovery process.
"She is a great kid and had a little bad luck with injuries that have hurt her every year," he said. "She works hard and if we can get her healthy she could have a great senior year."
Fortunately for Nichols, she was active when the Horned Frogs took on Wichita State March 9 in Fort Worth. Kewa is in her third year as an assistant coach there.
"At first, when they told me we were playing each other I was thinking "oh cool but I don't want to play against any family members," Millie said. "When it came down to it I decided I wanted to. It was kind of bittersweet, and I told my sister she better not coach her players against me.
Millie avoided any barriers Kewa may have set up, as she won 6-0 and 6-2 in her two singles rounds to lead the Horned Frogs to a 6-0 win.
"It was definitely bittersweet and will be a memory we will always talk about," she said.
Nichols admits her family connection to Borelli has led to a unique rapport between the two.
"Our relationship is definitely a little bit more personal since we know so much more about each other," Nichols said. "I might do something that my siblings used to do and he will pick it out. It's just cool to see how much like my siblings I am."
Nichols, who cites belief in herself and the ability to have fun on the court as reasons for her own success, believes TCU has the intangibles to make a splash in the NCAA Championships. The Horned Frogs will be the No. 2 seed on Texas A&M's campus and will open against North Texas when play begins May 11.
"The first thing is having a good team environment," Nichols said. "When it comes down to it, it's about the relationships we have with each other and we will do everything we can just to win for one another."
Nichols, who says winning the Mountain West regular season and conference tournament title last season was one of her most memorable tennis moments, is as superstitious as many of the other stars in her sport.
"When I warm up I have to be next to the same people on the same side with the same practice routine. Warm-ups have to be the exact same thing."
College life will have to end at some point, and Nichols has some post-graduation plans for both tennis and employment.
"I think I'll be traveling and playing or helping with my mom's business," she said. "She's a supplies instructor and she started her own business and is starting to modernize, so I might help her out with that."


text:
Women are unique. Our bodies are composed of a specific blend of fat and muscle that is different from a man's. Our bodies are regulated by female hormones, and we have specific gender-related health concerns that men don't have to worry about. Therefore, it is reasonable that a woman's diet should be adapted to address some of these issues.
Women are unique. Our bodies are composed of a specific blend of fat and muscle that is different from a man's. Our bodies are regulated by female hormones, and we have specific gender-related health concerns that men don't have to worry about. Therefore, it is reasonable that a woman's diet should be adapted to address some of these issues.
Eating to protect your bones: Estrogen production drops when women go through menopause. This may cause rapid bone loss, putting women at increased risk for fractures, osteoporosis and loss of strength and function. Vitamin D and calcium work together to strengthen bone, so it is essential to get enough of these nutrients.
Each day, women need 600 IU of vitamin D. Women ages 19-50 also need 1,000 mg calcium; after age 50, that increases to 1,200 mg calcium daily. Foods rich in vitamin D and calcium include fortified dairy products, like low-fat milk, cheeses and yogurts, and fortified plant milks, like soy, rice or nut milks.
Fatty fish, like salmon, and mushrooms are good sources for vitamin D; green leafy vegetables, soy and almonds are additional calcium sources. You also can get vitamin D from about a half an hour of direct exposure to sunlight.
Antioxidants, like those found in green tea, have been shown to help mineralize bones. Vitamin C rich foods, like citrus or tomatoes, can help increase bone mass by protecting bones from free radical damage. Magnesium is also important to help calcium do its job. Good sources of magnesium include leafy green vegetables, broccoli, halibut, and seeds, like pumpkin, sunflower, sesame or flax.
Physical activity is crucial to maintain bone mass. Weight-bearing activities, like walking, jogging or dancing, are especially good for strengthening bones, muscle and improving balance.
Foods that fight breast cancer: One of the most important things you can do to protect yourself from breast cancer is to achieve a healthy weight. Excess body fat increases the risk for several types of cancer, including post-menopausal breast cancer. Limiting your alcohol consumption can reduce your risk of breast cancer. A diet rich in lots of antioxidant plant foods helps provide nutrients needed to suppress cancer development. Breast-feeding your children also will help protect you against breast cancer.
Protect your heart: Heart disease is now the No. 1 killer of women. A heart-healthy diet, along with regular exercise, is key to helping prevent this disease. A diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and beans that also is low in total fat is crucial for heart health. Fill your plate with at least half fruits and vegetables, choose lean meats and low-fat dairy, and watch your intake of salty foods and sugary treats.
Ease PMS symptoms: Bloating, cramping and fatigue every month because of fluctuating hormones can be eased with some diet changes. Although you may be craving sugary, salty, fatty foods, these will only worsen mood swings and cause more bloating and water retention. Caffeine and alcohol have both been shown to worsen PMS symptoms, so avoid them during this time of the month.
Special needs during pregnancy and breast-feeding: You don't really need to eat for two — an extra 300 calories a day is usually enough to meet increased nutritional needs. More than that could lead to excessive weight gain. Eat lean meats, choose healthy fats, cut down on caffeine, take your prenatal vitamins, and avoid all alcohol and nicotine to ensure the best for your baby.
Managing menopause: Weight gain, mood swings and hot flashes — men certainly don't have to manage these issues! A woman's calorie needs decline during aging, making weight gain that much easier. Focus on getting plenty of physical activity and eat a high-fiber, low-fat, low-sugar diet to help control your weight. Some studies suggest that including soy foods in your daily diet can help ease hot flashes. Hot flashes also improve when wine, sugar, white flour products and caffeine are reduced or eliminated.
Diet right: Although a high-protein diet might be OK for men, women should avoid eating too much animal-based protein. Eating lots of protein causes calcium loss, something women need plenty of. Eat regular meals, especially breakfast, to help control cravings, mood swings and fatigue. Don't avoid fat — they are needed in our diet for healthy skin, nails and hair, to absorb vitamins, and to boost brainpower and improve mood. Just be sure to choose your fats wisely. Limit animal fats and trans fats and choose healthy fats found in olives, nuts, fish and seafood, nut butters, avocados and vegetable oils.
Anita Marlay, R.D., L.D., is a dietitian in the cardiac rehab department at Lake Regional Health System in Osage Beach, Mo.


text:
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Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
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Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.


text:
At the center of David Gilbert's new novel & Sons is a famous and famously reclusive writer in the J.D. Salinger model. It's a book about the writer as author of books, and as the father of sons — sons who don't feel nearly as warmly toward him as readers do. When & Sons begins, the writer, Andrew Newbold Dyer — or A.N. Dyer as he's known to his readers — is nearing 80.
Gilbert says that as he was writing the book, his own father was growing elderly and more vulnerable at the same time Gilbert's son was entering his teen years. The dynamic of fathers and sons was one that he was in the midst of and thus wanted to explore, "in all of its myriad details, and ways, and emotions."
Part of that dynamic, says Gilbert, who is also the author of The Normals, is the acceptance that — unlike in writing — one does not have control of who one's child becomes.
"Some writers say that their characters will just do something that will surprise them, or they'll lose control of their characters," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "I've always felt pretty in control of my characters. I've never had that experience where it's just like, 'Oh my God, my character is now kite-boarding! I didn't expect that!'
"But with children, you're kind of like, 'I'm going to have a kid that loves to go to museums, and is going to be a great reader, and is going to do this and that.' And then suddenly you're presented with this boy or girl who [has] a different agenda."
Interview Highlights
On why his character fears giving a eulogy
"[A] toast or a graduation speech, any of those things where you're trying to really speak from the heart, and do it in a way that's not sentimental but still sincere, I think those are kind of terrifying moments. ... And also this is from [a character] who hasn't really ... been in public for a long time, so I think it's a mixture of the form, which is [that] he likes to be in total control of his books, where a eulogy is a revelation of who you are and your relationship with other people, and he is someone who has had issues with relationships with other people, so to ... celebrate that relationship is really difficult for him."
On "redacted" men
"Men of that generation, I think, they keep so much inside and they let their wives do so much of the emotional heavy lifting, which allows them, for good and mostly bad, just to stay within themselves even more. ... I wanted the sense that he [Dyer's best friend Charlie] wants to say things, but he just doesn't have even the ability to do it. It's just not within his ... DNA to be able to express himself that way, yet there's this yearning to really connect with someone. But they're all redacted; they keep so much to themselves."
On his privilege growing up
"I was always trying to hide it. ... Back then it was privilege with a much smaller 'P.' It wasn't what it is today, there was no status involved with it, people weren't ... status-hunting. [Investment banking] was more like the everyday kind of job. But I always was a little bit — or very — insecure about it. I remember saying, 'I live on the Upper East Side,' and someone would say, 'Oh, where do you live?' and I'd be like, '75th Street.' 'Well, where?' '75th and Park.' You'd have to drag it out of me. I felt like, '75th and Park Avenue, ugh, I don't want to be that guy.' So I always had a pretty difficult relationship with it. Yet also, it was incredibly fortunate as well."
On initially being drawn to stories about down-and-out characters
"The short stories I wrote in college and the early ones in my M.F.A. program were all about ... people who were more on the fringe and kind of living desperate lives. [I] was also a big Raymond Carver fan. Denis Johnson was a huge influence on all of us in M.F.A. programs everywhere in the early '90s. So we're all trying to ... ape that world, and that seemed so much more legitimate than my upbringing. So it took me a while to see that their story is everywhere, no matter ... where you were raised, that we're all basically living ... the same tale, and I just took fathers and sons as that tale."
On whether writing can be "soul crushing"
"On those bad days, for sure. On the bad days where instead of writing you're deleting what you've written for the past two weeks. And then you have those great days, where even if it's just one good turn of phrase, it will get you back at your desk the next morning. ... For me, the irony of it, I always thought of writing as, 'I can write anywhere, it's such a portable job. I could go to the beach, or I could go to Maine, or I could travel through Europe and just write in cafes.' But for me, I can only really write in my small little office, at my desk, on a computer, in a certain kind of setting, so there's no freedom to it. It's basically being chained to a desk 9 to 5. It's not nearly as romantic as I thought going into it."
On his novel, which is 400 pages long, in the digital age
"[Y]ou try to make it ... entertaining and make it so that once you start you want to keep on reading, and I hope that it's a very funny book as well. ... So it's one of those things where, if it works, it can't be too long. ... It was a subject matter that I really wanted to go deep into, and really explore it in all of its facets. So it felt like it had to be a 400-page book. And also, it's about 12 books for the price of one, because you kind of get the whole A.N. Dyer career, so it's really a bargain: You get a whole literary life in one book. So it's probably about 3,000 pages of actual book, if you were to go into that fictional literary universe."
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. A famous and famously reclusive writer - kind of like J.D. Salinger in that respect - is the central character in the new novel called "And Sons" by my guest David Gilbert. It's about the writer as author of books and father of sons, sons who don't feel nearly as warmly toward him as readers do.
When "And Sons" begins, the writer, Andrew Newbold Dyer - or A.N. Dyer, as he's known to his readers - is nearing 80. He's still most famous for his first novel, "Ampersand," published when he was 27, which was set in a prep school. A review of "And Sons" in Bloomberg News praised the way Gilbert weaves together the frayed threads of fame, fatherhood, family and friendship into a meditation on the blessing and curse of creativity.
An L.A. Times review described Gilbert as having a wonderful eye for the madness of families and the madness of writers. David Gilbert is the author of an earlier novel called "The Normals." He's had stories published in the New Yorker, including one last week. He grew up in Manhattan's Upper East Side, where much of his new novel is set.
David Gilbert, welcome to FRESH AIR. So I want to start with the very opening of your novel, and what it actually starts with is a quote from the novel within the novel. So if you would read that quote for us.
DAVID GILBERT: Yeah, this is from "The Spared Man," one of A.N. Dyer's probably last books. (Reading) Sometimes Louis saw in his sons a mirror that reflected the best of who he was, and he was in awe. Other times, he hoped to see nothing of himself, and would insist on molding the opposite, by force, if necessary. Fatherhood is the bending of that alpha and that omega with the wobbly heat of our own fathers mixed in. We love and hate our boys for what they might see.
GROSS: That's kind of a theme through the book.
GILBERT: Yes, for sure.
GROSS: Fathers and sons and sons and fathers and what they see in each other. So why was this the subject you wanted to build many subplots around?
GILBERT: You know, I have three kids, and my son is 11. He's the oldest. And then my father is almost 80. So - and I'm 46. So I'm kind of in that position of seeing my son starting to enter into his teen years, so kind of seeing that awkwardness start to develop. And then I'm seeing my father, you know, getting older and a little bit more vulnerable and frailer.
So that kind of viewpoint, being in that middle, was really interesting to me, and I wanted to explore that, you know, the sense of being a father and a son in all of its myriad kind of details and ways and emotions.
GROSS: Do you find yourself changing your - thinking about your father as you spend more time as a father yourself?
GILBERT: Oh, totally. I mean, that's the great thing about fatherhood is that not only can you replay your childhood, but you can start to understand your parents so much better. And my father was certainly - grew up in that generation in which kind of mom did all the work, and dad would really only participate once you could do the things that he wanted to do.
GILBERT: So - and I think our generation of fathers have probably gone off in the other direction, where we are just there to satisfy every single need of our child, whether it's driving them for five hours to play soccer, or whatever it is. So definitely, my view of not only my parents, but of myself, has changed from, you know, having this son and my two daughters, too.
GROSS: This reminds me of something that your narrator says about his father. He says that his father, historically speaking, probably missed being sensitive by eight to 10 years, depending on where you date the new man era.
GILBERT: For sure, yeah.
GROSS: How many years did your father miss the new man era by?
GILBERT: Oh, I think he missed it by more than eight to 10.
GILBERT: I mean, he - he, let's see, he graduated from college in '56. So he was, you know, pretty much in that Eisenhower generation and beforehand. I mean, you know, kind of was in his 30s during the '60s, but he missed the '60s entirely, same with my mother. They kind of were in that kind of Nixon silent majority.
GROSS: So the character at the center of the book, the character that everybody is speculating about, is the writer, A.N. Dyer, who is a reclusive writer who hasn't really written anything new in many years. His novel "Ampersand" is not only a very famous novel, it's a novel that was central to many young people when they were growing up, you know, when they were coming of age. What made the novel within the novel, the "Ampersand" novel, so famous? What did it mean in the lives of its readers?
GILBERT: That's a really good question. I'm so curious. In some ways, I kind of want to try to write "Ampersand" next to figure that out. It was - I always saw it as kind of the opposite to "Catcher in the Rye." Whereas "Catcher in the Rye" was very much about, you know, Holden Caulfield's struggles, "Ampersand" is kind of about - it's more of a Dostoevsky version of childhood, of adolescence, where it's a lot tougher, and it's more Machiavellian, and more rough and nasty things happen.
So it was kind of - you're not only in the head of Edgar Mead, who's the main character of "Ampersand," and you're in that kind of boarding school setting, which is a kind of a fun setting for a book, it always kind of grabs readers, and you see the way that that boarding school world can kind of eat people alive.
And I think it was more of a look at the dark side of adolescence, whereas Holden Caulfield was kind of a look at the awkward searching side of adolescence. And I think that darkness, like Dostoevsky's books, where you're trying to kind of grapple with the moral center of a character, you know, can definitely grab a hold of a readership.
GROSS: So people have this idea in their mind of him still as a kind of young writer, because that's how they remember him, but in reality, he's, like, he's old. He has gout. His big toe is killing him. He can't really write anymore.
GILBERT: Big toe, yeah.
GROSS: I guess, you know, he has reasons to be reclusive. But what gets him out in public is a funeral, the funeral of somebody who had been a close friend in childhood, and he's asked to give a eulogy. And even though he's a writer, he finds the idea of a eulogy terrifying. Why does he find it so terrifying?
GILBERT: Well, it's that - you know, it's like also a toast or a graduation speech, any of those things where you're trying to really speak from the heart and do it in a way that's not sentimental, but still sincere. I think those are kind of terrifying moments. So a eulogy is - and also, this is from someone who's really not been in public for a long time.
So I think it's a mixture of the form, which is, you know, he's not - he likes to be in total control of his books, where a eulogy is a revelation of who you are and your relationship with other people, and he's someone who's had, you know, issues with relationships with other people. So to kind of celebrate that relationship is very difficult for him.
GROSS: He actually finds a eulogy website. The person who wrote the website...
GILBERT: Yeah, and I found one, too. They're out there.
GROSS: I was wondering? Really? So this is...
GILBERT: They're absolutely out there, and I paid $19.99 to get, like, the full eulogy package. You can do it. If you are in a bind, and you have a eulogy, you can find self, you know, presented eulogies that you can just fill in the blanks. It's pretty amazing.
GROSS: Is it - is that the eulogy you write in the book, the one from the website?
GILBERT: I kind of took the flavor of that eulogy, and then did it a little bit more on my own.
GROSS: You've got to read some of it. So this is, like, a generic eulogy.
GILBERT: Yeah.
GROSS: So just do a few, like a few of your favorite lines.
GILBERT: OK. This is from Eulogies on Demand. I can't remember what I called the website. Anyway, here it is. (Reading) They say that the end of our time on this Earth, if you can count a few good friends, you are a fortunate person. I know that I am fortunate, because I could always count on blank to be the truest friend I ever did now, and today, I am sick with despair, doubly sick because blank is not here to repair me with his/her kind words and loving heart.
GROSS: Oh, that moves me to tears.
GILBERT: Oh, exactly, yeah.
GROSS: And I think we've all been at funerals where, you know, the rabbi or priest probably, you know, gave a eulogy that sounded like the rabbi or priest version of that generic eulogy...
GILBERT: Yeah, totally.
GROSS: ...while also being at ones that were so moving that you really are moved to tears. But it's just amazing that there are so many websites now to help you be sincere and speak individually from your heart.
GILBERT: Yeah, and this was early on in the book. So I mean, I found this website probably seven years ago. So I mean it was even back then - you know, seven years ago doesn't sound like such a long time ago, but in Internet years it's, you know, it's like dog years. It feels like a long time ago.
And it was there. You know, probably from the beginning of the Internet, they had a eulogy website.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is David Gilbert. His new novel is called "And Sons." You know, I've asked you a little bit about your character's writing. I want to say a couple things about your own writing, which I really like a lot. And I thought I would just give a couple of very brief examples of sentences that I especially liked.
So in writing about the writer and the writer's deceased former best friend, who weren't very verbal in their friendship, you describe them as these heavily redacted me. And I thought that's just great, to describe people who are always kind of censoring their own emotions. How did that come to you? Do you know?
GILBERT: Well, it's just that experience with men of that generation, I think, that they keep so much inside, and they let the - their wives do so much of the emotional heavy lifting, which allows them, for good and mostly bad, just to kind of stay within themselves even more. So they do feel like they want - and I also wanted a character who wanted, especially like Charlie Topping, who is the best friend of A.N. Dyer.
I wanted that sense that he wants to say things, but he just doesn't have even the ability to do it. It's just not within his, you know, DNA to be able to express himself that way. Yet there's this yearning to, you know, really connect with someone. But they're all kind of - they're redacted. They keep so much of themselves.
GROSS: I can't say I've ever heard redacted used in that context before. So bravo for that.
GILBERT: Oh, thank you. Yes, well, I thank, you know, the NSA, and that's in the news so much, you know.
GILBERT: It's like I don't think I knew what redacted meant 10 years ago.
GROSS: Another sentence on the lighter side here: His sleep was sponsored by Vicodin with a two-finger assist from Dewar's. I like the idea of his sleeping sponsored.
GROSS: Again, can you talk at all about how that image came to you?
GILBERT: You know, it took me about six years to write this book, so and all that stuff comes - you know, it's those brief moments of inspiration that kind of - little shiny bits that stay with all sorts of other bits that kind of fall away. So that's just one of those shiny bits that happened to stay. I don't even remember how I came up with it except that, you know, I was thinking of these two products, Vicodin and Dewar's, and I was like, oh, well, yeah, sleep could be sponsored by those two things and often are. Not in my case, but...
GROSS: Of course not.
GILBERT: In case my mother's listening.
GROSS: My guest is David Gilbert, author of the new novel "And Sons." We'll talk more after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: My guest is David Gilbert. His new novel "And Sons" is about a famous reclusive novelist and his sons. The writer's sons in your novel respond in different ways to being the son of this famous, you know, but reclusive writer, and they respond differently to this sense of privilege that they grew up with. So one of the sons becomes a videographer, and he travels around the world documenting all sorts of human extremes, mostly how people suffer and die, the many different ways, the many horrible ways that people suffer and die.
I want you to do a reading about that son's work, and this is the narrator describing that son's work. And the narrator doesn't like that work. He doesn't get it. He thinks it's kind of pointless. There's no story. There's no explanation. It's just documenting horrible things. And the narrator thinks that this art is just kind of playing into our voyeuristic inhumanity.
So I'm going to ask you to read more about his response.
GILBERT: Sure. Despite the college-worn earnestness, I understood the motivation, the almost incandescent urge for the dreadful thing. When you are a decent person, and you have grown up safe and comfortable with parents who themselves have grown up safe and comfortable, in New York no less, the Upper East Side of New York no less, you often find yourself admiring the poor and desperate around you, as if they are somehow more honest, more legitimate than your tribe, Buddhist to your capitalist.
And you want to prove yourself conscious with a capital C by dipping into that hardship, lower, that degradation, lower, that self-abasement. There is liberal guilt, and there is liberal sin, where you go slumming, the most cheerful of vagrants. I know I was guilty of this. The stories I wrote in my creative writing classes always gravitated toward seedy locales, dive bars and trailer parks, with low-down folk in the dirtiest of circumstances.
Ugliness seemed to signify emotional authenticity. Half of my characters had problems with heroin, and I'd never seen heroin before, let alone had a problem with it. But please, give me a hit of tragedy so I might swim in more human waters. This desire thankfully passed after graduation, when genuineness was no longer an issue for debate. The concrete had hardened.
But Jamie, he became worse, turning into a tourist with forensic intent. He started to travel to ridiculously rough places and to videotape whatever he came across: the siege of Sarajevo; the red-light district of Mumbai; the silver wars in Algeria and Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone; the everything in Palestine; the whatever you've got of human misery.
Why'd he do this? Maybe he was rebelling against his father. This right here, this is the real world, Dad. This is true tragedy.
GROSS: So did you ever go through a period like that in your own art, of thinking that the world you lived in was inauthentic, and you had to, like, immerse yourself into tragedy and ugliness?
GILBERT: Yeah, for sure. I mean the short stories I wrote in college and the early ones in my MFA program were all about, you know, people who were more on the fringe and kind of living desperate lives. And that seemed, you know, I was also a big Raymond Carver fan, and Denis Johnson was a huge influence on all of us in MFA programs everywhere in the early '90s.
So we were all trying to kind of ape that world. And that seemed so much more legitimate than my upbringing. So it took me a while to see that there are stories everywhere, no matter, you know, where you were raised, that we're all basically living, you know, the same tale, and I just took fathers and sons as that tale.
GROSS: Can I ask you to describe the video document about his girlfriend's death that he does?
GILBERT: Yes. So he gets a call from an old girlfriend at Exeter, at high school, and she is dying of cancer. And she has some - she's an artist herself, and she wants to do a video of her answering the question how are you every day at the same exact time, at 12:01 p.m. And so he goes off to Vermont to do this, and he's kind of expecting her answer to this daily question to be kind of profound because she's going through this profound experience and is obviously dying.
But she answers in these banalities of, oh, I'm fine, everything's OK, how are you. So it's baffling to him until the end, in which the sense of it I think kind of locks around his ankle and starts to haunt him to the degree where he has to kind of keep the project going in a slightly surreal direction.
GROSS: Can I ask you to explain how he keeps it going in the grave?
GILBERT: Sure.
GILBERT: He decides that - because he's so moved by this that he can't - and he still basically loves her...
GROSS: Because even though she's not saying anything profound, you can see her body. When you look at it in a kind of time-lapse way...
GILBERT: Yeah, she's definitely fading, yeah.
GROSS: Yeah, you see the progression of death.
GILBERT: Absolutely, and she's really into this project. This project means a lot to her, and it means a lot to him, to Jamie, so he decides that he needs to film her actually decomposing. So he creates this camera, and in the middle of the night, kind of like, you know, Frankenstein, he goes down, and digs a hole and sets up the camera to film her at 12:01 every day, just for a brief moment in time, not really sure what he's doing, but he just can't let go of this project. It's become his obsession.
GROSS: So he's filming her post-death, filming her decomposition.
GILBERT: Exactly.
GROSS: Which of course raises a question in a very extreme way that is raised by so much self-documentation now and documentation of people who you know. Where is the line? Is there a line anymore?
GILBERT: I don't know. I mean we live such curated existences too, the way we present ourselves, whether it's Instagram or Facebook. I mean, you go into those accounts and you see your friends, and you're just like God, they're living the life I want to live because they all - you know, you post the pictures that you want to post, and it's you doing fun things.
But with this it's more - with Jamie and his old girlfriend it's more something is in the project that he can't let go of. And he just needs to stay with her a little bit longer. And I always see it as a way that she is also helping him in her death be reborn in some way, to become - to get out of this loop of being so death-obsessed.
GROSS: David Gilbert will be back in the second half of the show. His new novel is called "And Sons." I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.
This is FRESH AIR. I Terry Gross, back with David Gilbert, author of the new novel called "And Sons" about a famous and reclusive novelist and his three alienated sons, and the young man who wishes he was part of the family.
So your novel is set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which is where you grew up.
GILBERT: The mean streets. Yes.
GROSS: So tell us a little bit about that world - what that world was like - when you were growing up. And tell us also a little bit about your father and his work and that world.
GILBERT: Well, I grew up pretty much in the '70s and early '80s, in there, and then I went to boarding school in probably '83. It was a very different place because New York was - first of all, it was very feudal. So if you're on the Upper East Side you kind of stayed on the Upper East Side. And if you're on the Upper West Side, you stayed on the Upper West Side. And no one ventured below 57th Street - that just seemed to like a different kind of Manhattan. And so I pretty much lived a very insular life on the Upper East Side. And things were kind of dangerous, the city was a rougher place. Yet, I also had a tremendous amount of freedom. I mean at, you know, nine years old I was walking to school by myself. At 12, I could roam and go anywhere I want within pretty much a 20 block, you know, radius. But it was still a lot of freedom, considering what the city was like back then. Whereas, today, it's so much safer yet, you know, kids are being walked to school up until, you know, sixth and seventh grade, and it's - parenting is much more on top of the kids as opposed to back then were we were really allowed to roam the streets.
GROSS: And tell us about your father and his work.
GILBERT: My father was an investment banker and he worked at Morgan Stanley for his whole career. And he became chairman of Morgan Stanley and he was, you know, he's this really impressive, wonderful guy, who is very shy and very quiet. And one of the reasons why I wrote the book is he was always, you know, this guy who was intimidating to all my friends. And I was at this, I was at this luncheon and he stood up and said a few words. And I was sitting next to an old friend of his who grew up with him. And she turned to me and said, you know, it always amazes me to see her dad, you know, stand up and speak so clearly and eloquently, and he's funny because growing up he was a very shy guy and he could barely look you in the eye and he had a bit of a stammer. And that was just not the father that I knew, that was a different person. And I think in the book I liken it to putting pastel on a police sketch. I mean, you kind of have this idea of your father and then he suddenly makes this 180-degree turn. And that's what I wanted to do with the book, really, was to kind of explore that sense of what if you can meet your father when he was a young guy - at 17 - at his most awkward - how would your impressions of this kind of unknowable man change if you could see him at his most knowable?
GROSS: So I bet some of our listeners we're thinking, wow, chairman of Morgan Stanley. Woo.
GILBERT: Yeah.
GILBERT: Yeah.
GROSS: That's quite a position. And now, you know, thinking about all that's happened with investment banks...
GILBERT: Yeah.
GROSS: And...
GILBERT: It was also a very different era when he was doing it.
GROSS: Right.
GILBERT: They weren't so much, they weren't these figures in the news. It was a very small kind of business.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
GILBERT: I think he retired in '91 or something like that. So it was never anything that my friends didn't really know much about it until, you know, maybe the late '80s it started to get a little bit more in the news because of, you know, the kind of go-go '80s or late '80s. But pretty much growing up being an investment banker was like being a doctor or a lawyer, you know, in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It was kind of like what the general career was, or working on Wall Street in some way or form.
GROSS: What was your attitude about the kind of privilege that you were growing up in? Did you try to hide it and make it seem like, oh, we're just from an average family? Were you like, oh, we're from - no, I'm from a very, you know, well, like wealthy, privileged family and that's fine? That's the way it is?
GILBERT: No. I was always trying to hide it.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
GILBERT: You know, and it was kind of, back then it was privilege with a much smaller P.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
GILBERT: It wasn't what it is today. And there certainly was - there was no status involved with it or people weren't kind of status hunting. It was more like the everyday kind of job. But I always was a little bit - were very insecure about it. I remember, you know, saying, you know, I grew up - I live in the Upper East Side. And someone would say, where do you live? I'd be like, 75th Street. Well, where on - OK, 75th and Park. It would - you'd have to kind of drag it out of me 'cause I felt like Park Avenue, ugh. I don't want to be that guy. So I always had a pretty difficult relationship with it. Yeah, also, you know, it was incredibly fortunate as well.
GROSS: The cover of your book, "And Sons," is a picture of the Upper East Side of Manhattan from the perspective of the camera being high above Central Park. So you see some of Central Park, you see treetops, and then you see really tall buildings surrounding the periphery of the park. So you live close to Central Park, right?
GILBERT: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty close. Mm-hmm. It certainly was part, it was where I would go and go to the playgrounds in Central Park, for sure.
GROSS: What did it mean to you to be so close to Central Park? 'Cause on the one hand, Central Park is the site of, like, fantastic, like, concerts and outdoor plays and like protests and, like, spontaneous, you know, jam sessions and muggings and...
GILBERT: Yeah. I mean, Central Park...
GROSS: ...and theft and all kinds of craziness.
GILBERT: ...it's the most beautiful place.
GROSS: Yeah.
GILBERT: It's such a beautiful spot. And once again, growing up, it was a very different place. It was - we played along the edges of the park, really, just the bits that were facing Fifth Avenue. You would never go - at least when you're young - into the interior of the park because that's where bad stuff happened. And, you know, the second the sun would go down, it was almost like Central Park turned into Dracula. I mean, you ran.
GILBERT: It was a spot where you, you know, it was almost the bogeyman. You know, your parents would, you know, warn you about what happens at Central Park at night, and it would often be a dare to try to go from the East Side to the West Side at night in Central Park. I never did it. But, you know, when you're a teenager, it became kind of the place to go and test those barriers. But growing up, Central Park was part bogeyman and part, you know, green space, pastoral, beautiful, you know, trees - actual trees.
GROSS: My guest is David Gilbert, author of the new novel "And Sons." We'll talk more after a break.
This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: My guest is David Gilbert. His new novel called "And Sons" is about a famous reclusive novelist and his relationship with his sons. Earlier, we were talking about Gilbert's relationship with his father, a former chairman of Morgan Stanley.
You know, in talking about your father and your father getting older...
GILBERT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: ...and how you're able to communicate more emotionally than you used to be able to, you said in a recent interview that there was a time when you used to like imagine eulogies you'd say at your father's funeral in which you could really express your feelings about him the things that you wish you could say if you are braver. Did you stop doing that?
GILBERT: No. I still do that.
GROSS: You still do that?
GILBERT: I still - it still kind of just happens in my head. And maybe because, and it's kind of leaked into this book, that obsession with death and trying to sum up someone's life who has meant so much to you in a way that - and to express it and it's safer to express it when that person's not in the same room with you. So, you know, eulogies are way - I think everyone in some way wishes that, you know, when they're giving a eulogy to someone that that person was there so they could hear it so that they could, you know, actually hear how much that person has meant to you. You're just filled with regret.
GROSS: You could write it down and give it to him if you really wanted to.
GILBERT: You could.
GROSS: Yeah.
GILBERT: I know. But then that's so maudlin. Who wants, I mean if some friend gave me my eulogy, my future eulogy that he was going to give for me...
GROSS: Well, you wouldn't call it a eulogy.
GILBERT: I guess. Yeah, I guess it would just be maybe an old fashion letter.
GROSS: Right.
GILBERT: You know, people don't really write anymore.
GROSS: Mm-hmm.
GILBERT: But, yeah. It still sometimes leaks into my head, those moments of, you know, trying to sum up my feelings for my father or for my mom.
GROSS: You know, part of your book there's a passage which we talked about, about how difficult it is to write a eulogy - even for a great writer like A.N. Dyer.
GILBERT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: Have you ever given one?
GILBERT: Never. Never have.
GROSS: Well, you know the website to go to if you need one.
GILBERT: I do. Absolutely. I have a, you know, actually, I think I have an account there too, so even better. I don't have to worry. It's all set up for me.
GROSS: Since the novel is so much about, you know, fathers and sons and sons and fathers, in an interview you said, raising children is an act of love as well as an act of fiction, in which the characters slowly free themselves from a supposed author. Do you see an analogy there between, you know, a father and son and an author and his characters?
GILBERT: Yeah. I mean, I think the author is always been pretty, you know, some writers say that, you know, their characters will just do something that will surprise them or they'll lose control of their characters. I never, I always felt pretty in control of my characters. I've never had that experience where it's just like, oh, my god, my character is now, you know, kite boarding, I didn't expect that. But with children you're kind of like I'm going to raise, you know, I'm going to have the kid who loves to go to museums and is going to be a great reader and is going to do this and that, and then suddenly you're presented with this, you know, boy or girl who have a different agenda and are totally - they're not the fiction that you have, you thought you were making. They're actually their own little person and you have to give up on these ideas of them representing a piece of you. They are themselves and that's always the tricky part and a kind of, you know, that's where it happens in when they're eight, nine, 10 years old and you're like, OK, this is their own person here and I just need to - I'm along for the ride and...
GROSS: I want to get back to A.N. Dyer...
GILBERT: Mm-hmm.
GROSS: The novelist at the center of your novel. And he says to his sons: The irony I would like to communicate to you boys is the fact that I never enjoyed writing very much. Oh, maybe I enjoyed the moments before writing, the thinking about writing when the story starts to form around it's caged heart, a word, an image - like with bodysurfing. So here he is confessing that he never really enjoyed writing. And you said something I think that's hysterical about writing - this was in an interview. You said that you thought maybe I should've gotten into advertising...
GILBERT: Yeah.
GROSS: ...because I could've been really good at it. Selling my...
GILBERT: I could've been really good advertising.
GROSS: And you say selling my soul instead of crushing it on a daily basis.
GILBERT: Mm-hmm.
GILBERT: Yeah.
GROSS: So is writing soul-crushing?
GILBERT: On those bad days, for sure; on the bad days where instead of writing, you're deleting what you've written for the past two weeks. And then you have those great days where even if it's just one good turn of phrase, it, you know, will get you back at your desk the next morning. I mean, for me the irony of it, I always thought of writing as, oh, I can write anywhere, you know, that's the great, it's such a portable job. I could go to the beach or I could go to Maine or I could travel through Europe and just write in cafes. But for me, it's like I can only really write in my small little office, you know, at my desk on a computer in a certain kind of setting. So there's no, like, there's no freedom to it. It's basically just being chained to a desk, you know, 9 to 5. It's not as nearly as romantic as I thought going into it when I was, you know, in my teens and first thought about becoming a writer.
GROSS: So what makes you think you would have been so good at advertising?
GILBERT: Oh, man. I would've killed advertising. I don't know, I think I'm good at that, I would be a good copywriter. I'm good at the turn of the phrase, I think. I think I could've sold Coke and McDonalds. But then it would've - I think at some point I would've started to feel like that was soul-crushing, as well. Probably a lot faster than I imagine.
GROSS: Might've been more lucrative.
GILBERT: Might've been more luc - yeah, I think so. But, who knows, maybe I also would've just been a complete failure at it.
GROSS: But speaking of lucrative, did growing up in a family that has money make it easier for you to make the choice to be a writer?
GILBERT: Oh, for sure. Yeah. Because I did, you know, it was very lucky that I could spend as much time writing as I can and do. So, for sure. There's no question about it.
GROSS: So I have to ask you, why sore toes seem to be something of a theme in the book.
GILBERT: I know. I don't know. I mean maybe it's Oedipus. There's probably a little bit of that in there.
GROSS: Toes? Wait. What does toes have to do with Oedipus?
GILBERT: Well, you know, he had a foot, right? He had a foot issue, old Oedipus.
GROSS: He did?
GILBERT: Didn't he have a broken foot or something like that?
GROSS: Oh, I just remember him stabbing...
GILBERT: And Byron too, he had foot problems too, right? He had a limp. Yeah. I think it's just, it's also that ego. I mean A.N. Dyer has got this huge tremendous, narcissist ego. So his sore foot is, you know, is going to be the biggest thing in the world. His sore foot is a tragedy of epic proportions. And it's just trying to point out his sense of his own fiction-making and creating this drama in his own life, that this gout is the equivalent to his best friend's, you know, terrible death from cancer. And he's at this funeral and he's just thinking about his sore toe.
GILBERT: Yeah. It does show up a lot. Also I wanted - because he's got some issues with vicodin. And so, you know, I wanted to kind of give him an ailment in which he's taking vicodin to try to kill his pain.
GROSS: Just one more question. So you spent seven years writing a novel that's a little over 440 pages in an era when people are spending so much time reading tweets and really short - like things are getting shorter and shorter, although people are binge watching for hours and hours. So I guess we're heading in two directions at the same time. But do you feel like a novelist like you is becoming almost out of synch with the world, spending seven years on one book that's, you know, relatively long that would take, you know, would have to be read over a period of days? And so many people don't have that kind of space in their life, feel like they can't create that kind of space in their life.
GILBERT: Yeah. I mean it is...
GROSS: That's a real downer. So I'm sorry. Forgive me....
GILBERT: No, no. No, please.
GROSS: Congratulations.
GILBERT: Who's going to read this book? No. What happened - what helped with screenwriting is you try to make it as entertaining and as - and make it so that once you start you want to keep on reading. And I hope it's a very funny book as well. And so...
GROSS: I'm going to say yes to both of those.
GILBERT: OK, good. So it's like one of those things where if it works, it can't be too long. And so - and it was a subject matter that I really wanted to kind of go deep into and really explore it in all its facets. So it felt like it had to be a 400 page book. And also, it's about 12 books for the price of one.
GILBERT: Because you kind of get the whole A.N. Dyer career. So it's really a bargain. You get a whole literary life in one book. So it's probably about 3,000 pages of, you know, actual book, if you were to go into that fictional literary, the A.N. Dyer...
GROSS: Right. All the novels within the novel that you...
GILBERT: Yeah, exactly.
GROSS: Yeah.
GILBERT: So you've read all of A.N. Dyer's books as well. So at the end of the game you've gotten a bargain.
GROSS: You would have been good at advertising.
GILBERT: Yeah, you see? Yeah.
GILBERT: I'm selling. I'm selling.
GROSS: Well, David Gilbert, I wish you much success with the novel. Thank you...
GILBERT: Oh, thank you.
GROSS: ...so much for talking with us.
GILBERT: Thank you for having me.
David Gilbert is the author of the new novel "And Sons." You can read an excerpt on our website, freshair.npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
My youngest son writes a blog of letters to his daughter called – "Letters to Amaia". I thought you might enjoy this one and got his permission to pass it along. Dear Amaia, You are now almost 7 months old and you have come so far. It seems like just yesterday I held you in [...]
My youngest son writes a blog of letters to his daughter called – "Letters to Amaia". I thought you might enjoy this one and got his permission to pass it along.
Dear Amaia,
You are now almost 7 months old and you have come so far. It seems like just yesterday I held you in my arms for the first time and you struggled to move your arms and open your eyes. Now you are crawling, smiling, and laughing. Time is not stopping. You are growing every day and it makes me think of the bright future you have.
The other day I was watching the movie "The Bucket List". It struck a thought in my head about the life I have lived and the things I have done in my life. I want you to live your life with no regrets and never be afraid of failure. In the movie two friends decided to live their last days to the fullest by making a list of things they wanted to do before they died. The lesson learned from this movie was that time machines do not exist. I cannot go back to read you a book that I didn't because I was too tired. I cannot go back and write you these letters.
Recently I sat down and wrote a list. This is not a bucket list, but a life list. I call it a life list because we shouldn't do these things because we fear death, but that we embrace life with a zeal that God created us to possess. One of my favorite quotes by Henry David Thoreau paints my message perfectly so that you will live your life free of regret. "Never look back unless you plan on going that way."
My Life List
Raise successful children that become good people
Dance with Amaia at her wedding
Salsa Dance at my 50th wedding Anniversary
Coach Amaia in basketball
Tell Amaia and Kiley I love them every day
Sing to my newborn daughter (Accomplished)
Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with my dad
Run a marathon
Climb the Great Wall of China (Accomplished)
Visit the Christ Redeemer Statue in Brazil (Accomplished)
Stand on the equator (Accomplished)
Run an Ultramarathon
Be fluent in another language (Accomplished)
Learn to play a song on the guitar
Crossfit games Qualifier
Achieve Blue Belt in Jiu Jitsu
Travel to all seven continents (Accomplished 4 of the 7)
Visit Macchu Picchu (Accomplished)
Get my PhD
Write a book
Backpack through a Latin American country (Accomplished Nicaragua)
Watch the sunset and the sunrise in one day
Volunteer in a Favela (Accomplished Favela da Rocinha Rio de Janeiro)
Run with the bulls in Spain
Ride a camel to the pyramids in Egypt
Go fishing with my dad in Canada
Hike the Appalachian trail
Visit the Taj Mahal
Eagle a hole in golf
Visit the salt flats in Bolivia
Go to a UFC fight
Be a head varsity coach in a sport
Start a scholarship
Ride in a hot air balloon