Reading Program Gets Arkansas Twist

This year, we’re giving the Garland County Library’s adult summer reading program an Arkansas twist.  In order to enter a drawing for some great prizes (probably including an I-pad and other electronic goodies), you’ll need to read and review a book from a list we’re compiling of essential books by and about Arkansans, the Arkansas 101.

            In addition to a fantastic menu of books, including best selling authors like John Grisham (born in Jonesboro) and Charlaine Harris (formerly of Magnolia), modern classics like True Grit, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and an array of lesser known but equally worthy titles, we’ll also host some great programs to go along with them.       Some are still in the works, but the line-up should include Brooks Blevins (whose Ghost of the Ozarks I reviewed last month for Senior Scene), Mara Leveritt (author of Devil’s Knot, about the recently freed West Memphis Three), Hot Springs historian Orval Allbritton, gardening guru Janet Carson, and local boy Trenton Stewart, author of the best selling Mysterious Benedict Society series.  There will also be concerts, films and other fun activities, all Arkansas related.
            Complete details, including a calendar of events, a reading list and review entry forms will be available at the library June 8th, when State Historian Wendy Richter will be visiting us to talk about her book They Can’t Go Home, a history of the lost, flooded towns Buckville and Cedar Glades.

            In the meantime, if you’d like to get started, I’ve culled a few of my personal favorites from our reading list.  These are not necessarily the best Arkansas books, but they highlight Arkansas’ propensity for producing cult figures of quirky genius.

            Disfarmer: The Vintage Prints.  Heber Springs photographer Mike Disfarmer died unknown, but his photography, stark black and white portraits of Arkansans in the 40s and 50s, has since made him a darling of the art world.  Take a peek back at a vanished world in this hauntingly beautiful book.

            The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You by Frank Stanford.  Frank Stanford, who attended Subiaco Academy and lived in Eureka Springs,  was a true oddball, a poet who sadly committed suicide just before his 30th birthday.  Battlefield, his epic poem, has been described as “a labyrinthine, highly lexical book absent stanzas and punctuation.”  

            Masters of Atlantis by Charles Portis.  Most people know Portis for True Grit, as well they should since it’s one of the most entertaining books of the 20th century, but this Arkansas recluse has penned four other novels, all of them excellent.  Masters of Atlantis is not the funniest, but it’s certainly the most unusual-- a spoof of the arcane realm of secret societies.  The novel follows the history of the Gnomon society and its two co-founders, Lamar Jimmerson and Sydney Hen. It’s a hoot, as is all of Portis’ work.
            I hope you enjoy these unusual Arkansas reads.  I’ll come up with more ideas next month, when we’ll be in the swing of our Great Arkansas Read.  For more information on Arkansans, quirky geniuses or not, call the library at 623-4161 or 922-4483.