Listen now to Heidi Durrow April 2010.
Lisa and Lisa take advantage of Heidi Durrow’s (The Girl Who Fell From the Sky) visit to Dartmouth College and the Norwich Bookstore to talk with her about books that are important to her.
Worth staying up late to read
We began with books Heidi stayed up late as a child to read (the kind you snuck a flashlight under the covers to finish). Heidi mentioned two by Julie Andrews (yes, the singer) - The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and Mandy.
At the top of Durrow's List
The discussion lauched from there and covered books Heidi discovered in her 20s, her secret desire to be a poet, classics she loves, her ultimate author – Nella Larsen, Booker Award Winners, classics we all should have read but have not yet done so. Some of the books these far ranging topics uncovered include, but are not limited to (download the podcast for the complete discussion):
- Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye and Beloved
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Mama Day by Gloria Naylor
- Passing and Quicksand by Nella Larsen
- Poems of William Stafford, Sharon Olds, and Mary Oliver
- Booker winners: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy; The Gathering by Anne Enright and Possession by AS Byatt
- Classics: Vanity Fair by William Thackeray; Clarissa by Samuel Richardson; and anything by Mark Twain
- Books we each should have read but had not yet gotten to: Middlemarch by Elliott; Moby Dick by Herman Melville; Light in August by William Faulkner
Besides writing novels, Heidi podcasts every Wednesday evening at 5 pm EST on http://www.mixedchickschat.typepad.com. She is also a founder and organizer of a LA arts festival focusing on mixed race families – http://www.mxroots.org. This year’s festival is in June and features President Obama’s sister.
Great site! Las dos Lisas are a force for The Light!