What are you reading the Week of September 12, 2015?
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1fredbacon
Louise Erdrich (born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an Ojibwe writer of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a band of the Anishinaabe (also known as Ojibwe and Chippewa).
Erdrich is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of the Native American Renaissance. In 2009, her novel The Plague of Doves was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and also received an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. In November 2012, she received the National Book Award for Fiction for her novel The Round House. She will be awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction at the National Book Festival in September, 2015. She was married to author Michael Dorris and the two collaborated on a number of works.
Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, the first of seven children to Ralph Erdrich, a German-American, and his wife Rita (née Gourneau), half French-American and half Ojibwe. Both parents taught at a boarding school in Wahpeton, North Dakota, set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and her maternal grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, served as tribal chairman for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians for many years. While Erdrich was a child, her father paid her a nickel for every story she wrote. Her sister Heidi is a poet who also lives in Minnesota and publishes under the name Heid E. Erdrich. Another sister, Lise Erdrich, has written children's books and collections of fiction and essays.
Erdrich attended Dartmouth College from 1972 to 1976 as part of its first co-ed class, and earned the A.B. in English. There she met her future husband, anthropologist and writer Michael Dorris, then-director of the new Native American Studies program. Erdrich earned the Master of Arts in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University in 1979. Erdrich married Michael Dorris in 1981 and they raised three adopted children and three biological children until their separation in 1995 and Dorris' suicide in 1997. Erdrich lives in Minnesota.
She returned to Dartmouth in 2009 to receive an honorary Doctorate of Letters and to deliver the commencement address.
Erdrich and her two sisters have hosted writers' workshops on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
Her heritage from both parents is influential in her life and prominent in her work.
In 1979 she wrote "The World's Greatest Fisherman", a short story about June Kashpaw, a divorced Ojibwe woman whose death by hypothermia brought her relatives home to a fictional North Dakota reservation for her funeral. It won the Nelson Algren Short Fiction prize and eventually became the first chapter of her debut novel, Love Medicine, published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in 1984.
Love Medicine won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award. It has also been featured on the National Advanced Placement Test for Literature. Erdrich followed Love Medicine with The Beet Queen (1986), which continued her technique of using multiple narrators and expanded the fictional reservation universe of Love Medicine to include the nearby town of Argus, North Dakota. The action of the novel takes place mostly before World War II. Leslie Marmon Silko accused Erdrich's The Beet Queen of being more concerned with postmodern technique than with the political struggles of Native peoples.
Tracks (1988) goes back to the early 20th century at the formation of the reservation and introduces the trickster figure of Nanapush, who owes a clear debt to Nanabozho. Tracks shows early clashes between traditional ways and the Roman Catholic Church. The Bingo Palace (1994), set in the 1980s, describes the effects of a casino and a factory on the reservation community. Tales of Burning Love (1997) finishes the story of Sister Leopolda, a recurring character from all the previous books, and introduces a new set of white people into the reservation universe.
The Antelope Wife (1998), Erdrich's first novel after her divorce from Dorris, was the first of her novels to be set outside the continuity of the previous books. She subsequently returned to the reservation and nearby towns, and has published five novels since 1998 dealing with events in that fictional area. Among these are The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001) and The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003), a macabre mystery that again draws on Erdrich's Native American and German-American heritage. Both novels have geographic and character connections with The Beet Queen. In 2009, Erdrich's novel The Plague of Doves was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. The narrative focuses on the historical lynching of four Native people wrongly accused of murdering a Caucasian family, and the effect of this injustice on the current generations.
Erdrich's complexly interwoven series of novels have drawn comparisons with William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels. Like Faulkner's, Erdrich's successive novels created multiple narratives in the same fictional area and combined the tapestry of local history with current themes and modern consciousness.
Her heritage from both parents is influential in her life and prominent in her work.
Novels
Love Medicine (1984)
The Beet Queen (1986)
Tracks (1988)
The Crown of Columbus (coauthored with Michael Dorris) (1991)
The Bingo Palace (1994)
Tales of Burning Love (1997)
The Antelope Wife (1998)
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001)
The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003)
Four Souls (2004)
The Painted Drum (2005)
The Plague of Doves (Harper, 2008)
Shadow Tag (Harper, 2010)
The Round House (2012)
Children's Literature
Erdrich is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of the Native American Renaissance. In 2009, her novel The Plague of Doves was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and also received an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. In November 2012, she received the National Book Award for Fiction for her novel The Round House. She will be awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction at the National Book Festival in September, 2015. She was married to author Michael Dorris and the two collaborated on a number of works.
Erdrich was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, the first of seven children to Ralph Erdrich, a German-American, and his wife Rita (née Gourneau), half French-American and half Ojibwe. Both parents taught at a boarding school in Wahpeton, North Dakota, set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and her maternal grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, served as tribal chairman for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians for many years. While Erdrich was a child, her father paid her a nickel for every story she wrote. Her sister Heidi is a poet who also lives in Minnesota and publishes under the name Heid E. Erdrich. Another sister, Lise Erdrich, has written children's books and collections of fiction and essays.
Erdrich attended Dartmouth College from 1972 to 1976 as part of its first co-ed class, and earned the A.B. in English. There she met her future husband, anthropologist and writer Michael Dorris, then-director of the new Native American Studies program. Erdrich earned the Master of Arts in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University in 1979. Erdrich married Michael Dorris in 1981 and they raised three adopted children and three biological children until their separation in 1995 and Dorris' suicide in 1997. Erdrich lives in Minnesota.
She returned to Dartmouth in 2009 to receive an honorary Doctorate of Letters and to deliver the commencement address.
Erdrich and her two sisters have hosted writers' workshops on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota.
Her heritage from both parents is influential in her life and prominent in her work.
In 1979 she wrote "The World's Greatest Fisherman", a short story about June Kashpaw, a divorced Ojibwe woman whose death by hypothermia brought her relatives home to a fictional North Dakota reservation for her funeral. It won the Nelson Algren Short Fiction prize and eventually became the first chapter of her debut novel, Love Medicine, published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in 1984.
Love Medicine won the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award. It has also been featured on the National Advanced Placement Test for Literature. Erdrich followed Love Medicine with The Beet Queen (1986), which continued her technique of using multiple narrators and expanded the fictional reservation universe of Love Medicine to include the nearby town of Argus, North Dakota. The action of the novel takes place mostly before World War II. Leslie Marmon Silko accused Erdrich's The Beet Queen of being more concerned with postmodern technique than with the political struggles of Native peoples.
Tracks (1988) goes back to the early 20th century at the formation of the reservation and introduces the trickster figure of Nanapush, who owes a clear debt to Nanabozho. Tracks shows early clashes between traditional ways and the Roman Catholic Church. The Bingo Palace (1994), set in the 1980s, describes the effects of a casino and a factory on the reservation community. Tales of Burning Love (1997) finishes the story of Sister Leopolda, a recurring character from all the previous books, and introduces a new set of white people into the reservation universe.
The Antelope Wife (1998), Erdrich's first novel after her divorce from Dorris, was the first of her novels to be set outside the continuity of the previous books. She subsequently returned to the reservation and nearby towns, and has published five novels since 1998 dealing with events in that fictional area. Among these are The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001) and The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003), a macabre mystery that again draws on Erdrich's Native American and German-American heritage. Both novels have geographic and character connections with The Beet Queen. In 2009, Erdrich's novel The Plague of Doves was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. The narrative focuses on the historical lynching of four Native people wrongly accused of murdering a Caucasian family, and the effect of this injustice on the current generations.
Erdrich's complexly interwoven series of novels have drawn comparisons with William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha novels. Like Faulkner's, Erdrich's successive novels created multiple narratives in the same fictional area and combined the tapestry of local history with current themes and modern consciousness.
Her heritage from both parents is influential in her life and prominent in her work.
Novels
Love Medicine (1984)
The Beet Queen (1986)
Tracks (1988)
The Crown of Columbus (coauthored with Michael Dorris) (1991)
The Bingo Palace (1994)
Tales of Burning Love (1997)
The Antelope Wife (1998)
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001)
The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003)
Four Souls (2004)
The Painted Drum (2005)
The Plague of Doves (Harper, 2008)
Shadow Tag (Harper, 2010)
The Round House (2012)
Children's Literature
Grandmother's Pigeon (1996)
The Birchbark House (1999)
The Range Eternal (2002)
The Game of Silence (2005)
The Porcupine Year (2008)
Chickadee (2012)
2fredbacon
I read A Beam of Light, the latest English translation of Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series of mysteries set in Sicily. It was another great entry in the series. Lots of fun, but a sad ending.
I'm a third of the way through Claire Tomalin's biography of Samuel Pepys, Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self. It fills in a lot of gaps and clarifies much of what was lost on me in the diaries. Pepys is an interesting character, even if he was a bit ethically and morally dodgy.
I'm a third of the way through Claire Tomalin's biography of Samuel Pepys, Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self. It fills in a lot of gaps and clarifies much of what was lost on me in the diaries. Pepys is an interesting character, even if he was a bit ethically and morally dodgy.
3Limelite
Thanks for featuring Erdrich, one of my favorite writers. Until I read The Round House I was convinced her masterpiece was The Master Butcher's Singing Club. I've read several of her better known novels and have never been disappointed. One of the most consistent masterful authors writing today.
Reading Massie's bio of Catherine the Great. She keeps an exhausting schedule. Just deposed her husband in July while in St. Petersburg and is now in Moscow for her coronation in September. Sadly, her ex, Peter III couldn't attend. The Orlov brothers killed him.
Reading Massie's bio of Catherine the Great. She keeps an exhausting schedule. Just deposed her husband in July while in St. Petersburg and is now in Moscow for her coronation in September. Sadly, her ex, Peter III couldn't attend. The Orlov brothers killed him.
4NarratorLady
Read Go Set a Watchman and looking forward to the upcoming book club discussion.
6mollygrace
It's wonderful to come here and see Louise Erdrich's bio starting us off. I love her novels -- The Plague of Doves is my favorite. Two of her non-fiction books mean a great deal to me, too: The Blue Jay's Dance and Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country. Thank you, fredbacon.
I finished Nadine Gordimer's amazing novel, The Pickup. It's so meaningful on so many levels, and the writing is, of course, masterful.
I should finish Graham Swift's England and Other Stories today.
I finished Nadine Gordimer's amazing novel, The Pickup. It's so meaningful on so many levels, and the writing is, of course, masterful.
I should finish Graham Swift's England and Other Stories today.
7hemlokgang
Louise Erdrich is one of the most reliable authors in terms of being able to count on a good read. Nice pick!
Last night I finished listening to the absolutely marvelous Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese. This novel is full of love in many forms, and the grit it takes to be a human being.
Next up for listening is Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths.
Last night I finished listening to the absolutely marvelous Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese. This novel is full of love in many forms, and the grit it takes to be a human being.
Next up for listening is Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths.
8Tara1Reads
I gave up on The Violent Bear It Away at page 22 last week despite enjoying the dark humor of a coffin scene in the early pages that reminded me of Faulkner. I just don't think this is the right time for me to read O'Connor; I just couldn't get into it. So then I read Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner.
Now I am reading No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald.
Now I am reading No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald.
9CarolynSchroeder
On your accolades, picked up Medicine Walk today at the library, hemlokgang! Thanks for the recommendation. I would never have known about it otherwise.
10hemlokgang
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
11varielle
Started Worming the Harpy, the jury's still out, but the members of The Chapel of the Abyss group are big fans.
12mollygrace
I finished Graham Swift's England and Other Stories. Now I'm reading Mary Gordon's The Other Side.
13snash
#8 dieKatze - Crossing to Safety is one of my favorite books. I hope you enjoyed it too.
I finished Animal Dreams which is an excellent immersion into place and character. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I finished Animal Dreams which is an excellent immersion into place and character. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
14Tara1Reads
>13 snash: I did enjoy it very much! Perhaps I should read Animal Dreams now since it is sitting on my shelf...
15seitherin
Finished The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 4 and started The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl.
16KLarkins
Reading:
- Claudius The God (picked up at public library sale a day after author Robert Graves was mentioned in the intro to a historical fiction class on Coursera)
- The Kite Runner
And now, having been reminded, will add Erdrich to the currents
- Claudius The God (picked up at public library sale a day after author Robert Graves was mentioned in the intro to a historical fiction class on Coursera)
- The Kite Runner
And now, having been reminded, will add Erdrich to the currents
17nrmay
Finished Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle late last night.
Now reading The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
Now reading The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
18ahef1963
I finished Jo Nesbo's Nemesis yesterday - it was excellent, as are the majority of his crime novels.
I have recently acquired Stephen King's Finders Keepers, but as it is a sequel to his novel Mr. Mercedes, and I remember only bits of the details of that novel, I am re-reading Mr. Mercedes and enjoying it.
I have recently acquired Stephen King's Finders Keepers, but as it is a sequel to his novel Mr. Mercedes, and I remember only bits of the details of that novel, I am re-reading Mr. Mercedes and enjoying it.
19sebago
Have been away from LT for a bit. Work got crazy and spilled over into life in general. lol. Just started The Sparrow Sisters by Ellen Herrick I am loving it so far. Has the feel of Practical Magic and books by Sarah Addison Allen. :) So glad to be back here! :)
21Heduanna
Just finished The Noticer, halfway through Folks, This Ain't Normal & with an eye on a new pile of books from the library, yet to be started. Have had Sophocles' Ajax on my nightstand for a while & am unexpectedly enjoying it: I expected dry-as-dust homework & got soldier-gives-king-a-dressing-down instead. The Classics deserve much better press than they get!
22hemlokgang
Just finished the very enjoyable Crossing Places. I will definitely continue this series.
Next up for listening is The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. I am hoping this 4th installment of the Millennium series is as good as when Stieg Larsson was writing.
Next up for listening is The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz. I am hoping this 4th installment of the Millennium series is as good as when Stieg Larsson was writing.
23flips
Reading and laughing out loud: Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen.
24princessgarnet
From Splendor to Revolution by Julia P. Gelardi
Focuses on 4 of the Romanov women between 1847-1928.
Focuses on 4 of the Romanov women between 1847-1928.
25seitherin
Finished The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. This is the second time I've read the books, but the first time I've read them all right in a row. Silly fun.
New bedtime read is Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.
New bedtime read is Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.
26davisfamily
Almost finished with Browsings, I have always enjoyed books like this!!
