Most Recently Answered Questions
Questions 16 - 35 of
86 (Page 2 of 5)
Submitted by Anonymous from K.C. , MO
Q: A couple of months ago I read a review about a fictional book on Jackie Kennedy. It supposedly was written with the premise that she was working with the CIA. It sounded interesting, but now that I wanted to look for it, I can't seem to remember the title or author. Could you help me?
Answered 01/16/07 20:40:48 by John Mark Eberhart
A: You have a good memory. The book, published by William Morrow, was called "Jack's Widow." The author is Eve Pollard. Should be pretty easy to find.
Submitted by Dawn from Kansas City, MO
Q: Hi John,
My father recently raead an article in the Star about a book which discusses Midwest Properties and how they have changed hands over the years. The article included a photograph of a kid standing in front of a house on a Nebraska farm which was going to be demolished for a WWI training camp. We'd really like a copy of that book, but unfortunately can't seem to put our hands on that article again. It was sometime between Nov. 29, 2006 - Dec 15, 2006. I've looked at the papers during that period at the local library, but their archive was incomplete. Would appreciate if you could let me know the title and author of the book, or direct me to someone who can.
Answered 12/21/06 16:48:08 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I THINK the book you're talking about is one of ours: Great Plains Originals: Historic Documents From America's Heartland, by Brian Burnes. If that doesn't sound right, pose a follow-up question and I'll see what I can do.
Submitted by William from Dallas, Texas
Q: Jan. 7, 2006 a question from Elsie Dunklin, Dallas, Texas was posted to your site. I was searching for artwork done by 'Elsie Dunklin' and your forum came up. The 4x5 inch framed drawing dated '55 looks like it was done with colored chalk. It would be great if this is the same person.
Answered 12/18/06 14:15:52 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I wouldn't have any idea; I'm sorry. I don't keep contact information in my files; the only information available is what you see on the site here. You might try one of those search engines devoted to finding people, such as the Bigfoot engine, which I've used.
Submitted by Michelle Michini from Milan Italy
Q: Is this considered Malicious Prosecution? I have published a short story called Never Ending Nightmare ISBN 1-4120-4600-9 and it is about how the Italian Mafia oppress and imprison Black women. It is also based on the MSN group, BlackWomenItalianMen@groups.msn.com My book's website address is www.trafford.com/robots/04-2408.html Judge Gary Bischoff located at 301 The City Drive in Orange California wants to have me extradited from Milan Italy back to the US because I am unable to attend any juvenile court hearings concerning my children. I feel this is Malicious Prosecution. I feel this judge is sippin' too many beers or just plain hates my books.
Answered 11/29/06 08:06:02 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I am sorry about your plight, but assure you I am not being malicious when I write that I don't think there's anything I can do for you.
Submitted by Susan Tracy from Blue Springs MO
Q: Hi John,
I would like to be considered for the book club discussion for "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls. In Saturday's article, I couldn't find the email address for the book club, so I thought I would just send you an email.
On of the questions, is to indicate what types of books you like - I read mostly fiction (Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg, Jonathan Safran Foer)& I can't remember the author's on the following books, but I have read: "The Kite Runner", "Icy Sparks", "Dead Dog in the Middle of the Night" to name a few.
Although I usually don't read autobiographies, I breezed through "The Glass Castle" as it was such a good read, and left me wondering how she was able to rise above her situation, without bitterness or resentment. ( & I would read again, if I am chosen to be on the fyi book club discussion!)
You can contact me at 816-224-4061 after 5:00 pm.
Thanks, Susan Tracy
Answered 09/25/06 19:20:54 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Susan, thanks for your interest. I'll pass your information on to the appropriate editor.
Submitted by Kevin Hashman from Merriam, KS
Q: Hello,
I am a long time Star subscriber and would like to see the Star run a weekly column by past Library of Congress poet laureate Ted Kooser. I was visiting relatives in Ames, IA and ran across the column and a brief background of same in the local Ames paper. Apparently, the column currently runs in approximately 200 papers. Mr. Kooser is interested in promoting poetry both reading and writing among the general public and youth in particular. The Star would receive kudos for doing the same. Thanks for providing this forum. Have a great day!
Answered 07/10/06 14:55:36 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Thank you for the suggestion. At the present time, though, my pages feature the weekly "Poet's Corner," which we have been running since early 2000, long before Mr. Kooser began his column. To run Mr. Kooser's column every week would create duplication and necessitate short-changing something else in the wide world of books. But perhaps I could think about running Kooser's column on a quarterly or occasional basis. I will consider it.
Submitted by RonPrice from George Town Tasmania
Q: Do you think I'm coming close to what he is on about? In 1959, the year I joined the Bahá'í Faith, American novelist Saul Bellow's novel Henderson The Rain King was published. Like most novels there are many lines of interpretation to describe the meaning of this work. One explanatory line is that the novel seeks to explain the fate of the self in modern life, to describe the journey to find the self. Bellow's hero, Eugene Henderson, lives actively inside his own mind. His inner voice is ceaselessly crying: 'I want; I want.' He has lots of money but he seeks wisdom; he seeks the answer to who he is; he seeks psychological and spiritual health and freedom from life's endless distractions, from his temper and from his wants. Henderson is seeking, in what may well be Bellow's most loved book, something I had found in that same year 1959.
Answered 05/25/06 15:12:01 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I think if you keep writing literary criticism this well, you'll leave Tasmania and come over here and take my job.
Submitted by Anonymous from Kansas City, MO
Q: Re: Paglia for the Masses. Thank you for the article in the Feb. 19th Star. Based on your article I attended her discussion at Unity Temple and was delighted. She's brilliant, witty (but talks too fast) and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I'm reading her book now and would recommend Paglia to everyone who hopes to see a revival of poetry for the "masses" in this country. Thank you.
Answered 03/09/06 15:38:03 by John Mark Eberhart
A: You're very welcome. I enjoyed interviewing her, and agree that her book is a great one for those who care about verse or are curious but haven't made the leap. Poetry can be intimidating, and so, for that matter, can Camille Paglia, I understand, but she really is trying to bring poetry back from deliberate obscurity and into the mainstream.
Submitted by Robert Melton from 60 T Street Lake Lotawana Mo.64086
Q: "From Blue Moons to Black Holes" (Prometheus Books)A book written by Melanie Melton Knocke came out in May,2005. This is her third book. Melanie is a graduate of Lee Summit High School and has a degree in physics from the University of Missouri,Kansas City.Melanie was raise at Lake Lotawana and is marriede to Dr. Philip Knocke,a retired NASA Engineer on the Mars Programs.
Have you reviewed this book?
Answered 02/13/06 23:42:04 by John Mark Eberhart
A: No. I'm afraid I cannot review every book that comes out.
Submitted by Dennis from Sun City West, AZ
Q: I don't know if you are the person to answer this question but perhaps you can point me in the right direction.
We lived in Kanas City at the time Robert Kennedy was murdered and have complete issues of the Star and Times dated June 5th and 6th 1968.
Do you know of anybody; e.g. museum, school,newspaper etc., who might be interested?
Thank you for any help you may offer.
Dennis Bakos
Answered 02/13/06 00:25:50 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I really don't. Most archives of any kind, unfortunately, have been doing a lot of conversion to electronic databases, or in some cases just throwing things out, awful as that sounds. I suppose you could try the Kennedy library, even though the issues deal with JFK's brother; the Web site is www.jfklibrary.org. If they don't want them, maybe they could suggest an organization or entity that would.
Submitted by Dorianne Laux from Eugene, Oregon
Q: Hi John-- It's Dorianne Laux and I just wanted to thank you for naming Facts as one of the 100 noteworthy books of 2005. you are the best Book Doctor!! And for what I'm sure you did to help get Facts a lovely review in the KCS. Your dedication to poetry in general is an overwheleming force for good in Kansas City and beyond. Hope to see you down there again someday. I also love Kasischke's work, I teach Suspicious River in my classes here at UO. Great interview with her. Thanks for doing the good work, John. Happy New Year. Dorianne
Answered 01/30/06 14:46:15 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Dorianne, it's good to hear from you. I do hope you can make it back to Kansas City someday soon; it's been too long since your reading at Rockhurst. "Facts About the Moon" certainly deserved its place on our 2005 list. The review itself, for readers of this forum who did not see it, was written by Kathleen Johnson, a fine poet herself and a great thinker and critic of verse. Happy New Year to you, too, Dorianne, and thanks for the compliments. I firmly believe that without the attention of the mainstream press, poetry in this country cannot make the impact it should make. Fortunately, I'm not alone in thinking that; our current poet laureate has his column that is distributed to newspapers now, and the New York Times Book Review has been paying a bit more attention to poetry of late. We soldier on.
Submitted by Elsie Dunklin from Dallas, Texas
Q: Do you have a review of Whitney terrell's latest book, "The King of King's County?"
Answered 01/07/06 21:11:31 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Kathleen Johnson reviewed the book for The Star on Aug. 21, 2005. An excerpt:
Kansas City native Whitney Terrell's storytelling rolls with all the ease of the gently undulating plains of Kings County, the setting for his splendid second novel, The King of Kings County.
Like all cities, Kansas City is built on stories. And here, illuminating a side of the city's history that seems as shadowy and multistoried as a Plaza parking garage, Terrell traces the rural-to-suburban transformation of Kings County (read Johnson County), which sprawls across the southwestern outskirts of the metropolitan area.
Narrating this quasi-fictional saga that spans the period from the 1950s to 2002 is Jack Acheson, son of Alton Acheson, a dream-driven huckster, "the kind of man who, the less he knew about something, the more decisive his actions would be." Following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, railroad tycoon Tom Durant, Alton finds "his true genius in his ability to exploit the value of undeveloped land."
Immersing yourself in Jack's story is a pleasure; it glides along smoothly, with perfectly paced narrative pull. Terrell's control of craft amazes, his prose so polished it outshines even the gleaming chrome on that '57 Ford Fairlane stretching across the book's cover.
In The King of Kings County, as he did in his first novel, Terrell mines the physical, the cultural, even the moral past of Kansas City. And, fortunately for lovers of literature everywhere, all that digging has produced another treasure.
Submitted by Johnny Hamilton from Lansing, Michigan
Q: Sir, For the past 70-years I have been a fan of movies and books on the Civil War, especially those concerning the Kansas-Missouri Border War. But, with the exception of "Ride With The Devil," they are all written from the Kansas view point and that offends me.
It also offended the late Harry Truman and his mother...Can you name a book written from the Missouri view point.
Answered 12/25/05 14:41:10 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I certainly can, and I can give it a hearty recommendation: The book is "Enemy Women," by Paulette Jiles. It is set in the Missouri Ozarks, and it's a remarkable book for several reasons. One of those reasons is it does not shrink from depicting Union forces in, shall we say, somewhat complicated terms. The heroine here doesn't exactly have a rosy view of the army that would emerge as victorious. Also, the novel's focus on an 18-year-old woman as its protagonist makes the book really stand out from the body of Civil War literature. I think you'll enjoy it.
Submitted by Tony from Kansas City, MO
Q: Help! I am trying to find a book for my teen. It came out few years ago. It was semi-autobiography. About a teen growing up out west. "Taming the Wild Frontier"? A teen boy is a semi geek sometimes in the 50's or 60's. I am told it was a big seller.
Answered 12/23/05 13:59:44 by John Mark Eberhart
A: The book is "King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography," by the talented Chris Crutcher.
Submitted by Karen from No location specified
Q: I have found a few Kansas City Star newspapers
which may be of value historically;
they are:
1918 Armistice,
1939 Hitler invades..
1941 Japan Attacks,
1945 FDR dies,
1945 Germany quits,
1945 Japan quits.
The 1939 edition is in pretty good shape, the others less so
Answered 10/17/05 12:16:42 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Your best bet is a deal in rare books, maps and publications. Collectibility of printed materials, like anything else, depends on scarcity, demand and condition. I'd start with Spivey's here in town.
Submitted by Jerri Patton from Aiea, HI
Q: I was visiting KC, MO in summer '04, and there was a list of favorite books with school as the theme submitted by your readers. I read about 40 of those books and loved them. Is there a way to link to that list? And were there other book lists that you could link? I miss Rainy Day Books and all the author events they had. I wish there were a book store like Rainy Day here on Oahu. Thank you.
Answered 10/02/05 01:59:59 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I'm afraid that link has long expired.
Submitted by Anonymous from Liberty, MO
Q: Several weeks ago, you reviewed a western written from the Indian's viewpoint. The author lives in Topeka. Could you please tell me the name of the book and the author?
Thank you
Answered 09/07/05 18:18:30 by John Mark Eberhart
A: I'm sorry but I simply don't recall writing a piece of the kind you're describing.
Submitted by Christina Pacosz from Kansas City, Missouri
Q: Just wanted to let you know, however belatedly, how much I enjoyed your interview with Margaret Atwood, who is at the top of my list of favorite writers. I was lucky enough to study with her at Centrum more than once in the early 80's when I lived in Port Townsend.
More currently, I wanted to let you know about a great new on-line journal, published in Hindi and English by Dr. Rati Saxena, out of Kerala, India. The web site address is www.kritya.org. She has included my poem "Unspeakable" in the second issue of kritya, which abounds with poetic voices from India, both ancient and modern, as well as writing from those of us from other parts of the globe. I do hope you will check this out.
Answered 07/11/05 15:06:44 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Ms. Pacosz, I want to thank you for the compliment and the Web recommendation. I'll definitely take a look at kritya.org. As for Atwood, I agree that she is a formidable talent -- and what a mighty intellect she possesses!
Submitted by Danny Akright from Overland Park, Kansas
Q: Does the Star have any type of "creative corner" for reader submissions of poetry that would be printed in the Star?
Answered 07/11/05 15:05:29 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Poets Corner runs every Sunday in Books. But your question indicates to me that you do not read the Books pages or Poets Corner. I'd strongly suggest you do so for a few months before submitting anything. Actually, this advice is general, and applies to any publication. If you are going to submit writing to a journal or newspaper or magazine, you should be familiar with the publication's style, content and needs. If you don't do that, you're probably going to end up wasting your time and that of the editors at the periodical in question.
Submitted by Corey Swearngin from Oak Grove, MO
Q: If Margaret Atwood, John Irving, and Roddy Doyle are your choices for the most powerful literary voices in existence today, then who are your three choices for most powerful literary "voice" of all time? Mine are the spontaneous lyrical profusions of prose-poetry from Thomas Wolfe, the easy, rolicking, yet achingly precise observations of Saul Bellow, and the borderline insane allegorical digressions of the greatest American author, Herman Melville.
Answered 06/23/05 12:46:44 by John Mark Eberhart
A: Ah, but this is a tough one. It's hard enough trying to winnow the living; there are so many more dead! But let me start with one of your choices: Herman Melville. He may indeed be the greatest American NOVELIST. But Emily Dickinson may be the greatest American AUTHOR, in my opinion. She is undoubtedly the greatest American poet in my estimation. The trouble here is that the breadth of literature contains not only too many writers but also too many forms. So asking someone to choose the most powerful literary voice of all time constitutes the asking of a difficult question indeed. Look at your own choices; I've already written that I think Melville is a fine one. Same goes for Wolfe and Bellow, though I would not put them on my short list. In the interest of stopping my quibbling this morning though, let me say that THIS WEEK my answer to your question is that I do think Melville may be the greatest novelist, Dickinson the greatest poet, and Shakespeare the greatest playwright but also purest STORYTELLER. Next week or the week after, I may insist on changing my mind.
