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DRAGONFLY NOTES

Name: DRAGONFLY NOTES
Author: Anne Panning
ISBN: 978-0-9969816-9-9

ON DISTANCE & LOSS

by Anne Panning ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

An affecting remembrance in which pinpricks of meaning light the darkness of grief.

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Autobiographical essays that outline the days before and after a parent’s death.

“My mother appears regularly to me in the form of a dragonfly—or so I like to think,” writes Panning (Creative Writing/The Coll. at Brockport; Butter, 2012, etc.) at the start of this graceful bereavement memoir. In some cultures, she learned, dragonflies are hailed as the souls of the dead, and she whimsically appropriates this notion as she chronicles the decade following her mother’s demise. Barbara “Barb” Panning died in July 2007, three years after she’d had a mesh bladder sling surgically implanted to correct pelvic organ prolapse. A Food and Drug Administration warning against such slings came into effect the next year, following more than 1,000 complaints about side effects, the author writes. In Barb’s case, these effects included a hematoma and incontinence. A corrective surgery, Panning says, left her mother in hemorrhagic shock, and her organs shut down. After three weeks, the family decided to take her off of life support: “I wanted it to end, but I never wanted it to end,” Panning remembers. She offers similarly nuanced memories of her family’s earlier years. While looking through her mother’s yearbooks and a cache of apology notes that her father wrote to her mom over the years, she wondered why Barb stayed with him, despite his drinking problem, which he even had in high school. Panning, a 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award winner, delivers a remembrance that’s bittersweet with nostalgia and longing, but it never wallows in sadness, highlighting bright spots too—a jazz club outing with her mother, a six-month sabbatical that the author took in Vietnam with her husband and children, and a time when she and her sister re-created their mother’s lemon dessert. There are also dragonfly moments, often appearing as brief interludes between longer essays, including accounts of clouds of the insects surrounding a cruise ship or swarming the author on a jog. To her, the insects represent “sacredness” and “fleeting beauty”—the very things that her narrative seems determined to find.

An affecting remembrance in which pinpricks of meaning light the darkness of grief.

Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-9969816-9-9

Page Count: 258

Publisher: Stillhouse Press

Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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CHARACTER CONNECTIONS

by Rob Baggett ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

An important manual for those brave enough to face their shortcomings.

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A middle-school guidance counselor offers passionate words of wisdom regarding the profound American need for responsibility, trust and character.

In a collection of short essays, some no longer than a paragraph, Baggett makes the case that in today’s society, the importance of virtuous behavior has diminished in favor of a desire for immediate satisfaction and a tendency to shrug off accountability. A tolerance for all ideologies and a willingness to explain away questionable conduct has become the norm in our current politically correct culture, leading to a dangerous lack of common ethical values. The author argues that respect and self-discipline are the hallmarks of American democracy, and without these principles, the country will experience a moral disintegration. Character education in public schools is imperative to the development of a new generation that knows true freedom does not mean freedom from responsibility. According to Baggett, character depends not only on the nurturing of trust, but also one’s willingness and courage to look deep within to discover faults and weaknesses. Perhaps one of the more intriguing ideas in the book involves culpability; without the feeling of guilt, personal growth and the development of positive character traits may be seriously impaired. Baggett, who tends toward redundancy in his efforts to convince, fortunately makes his work accessible by including memorable stories from his work with young teenagers and presenting exercises that promote self-examination. By quoting famous figures from Albert Einstein to Pogo, the author provides inspiration to readers who wish to tackle the challenge of becoming well-rounded, respectful and powerful citizens. Despite a pledge in the introduction that his Christian beliefs will not seep through the pages, a cranky sort of conservatism–and a generous sampling of scripture–may push more liberal readers away from the book. But the author’s passion for his subject makes for a spirited call for change.

An important manual for those brave enough to face their shortcomings.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-1-4196-9781-4

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 27, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION | EDUCATION

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THE CAMERA NEVER BLINKS TWICE

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF A TELEVISION JOURNALIST

by Dan Rather & Mickey Herskowitz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1994

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The CBS anchorman tells of his globe-trotting moments—good yarns, though they're not exactly representative of his usual daily work behind a desk. As in their previous book (The Camera Never Blinks, 1977), Rather and Herskowitz, in colloquial and sometimes glib style, tell how he got that story. Venturing into Afghanistan just after the Soviet invasion in 1980, Rather and his colleagues braved fearsome chiefs, questionable food (when in doubt, eat only the inside of bread, he recommends), and a firefight to bring home an important story. In China for the 1989 student revolt, the newsman and his team finessed on-site government officials to gain enough time to transmit their video back home before their news operation was shut down. After the Berlin Wall fell, he headed directly for soon-to- topple Prague on the prescient advice of Vernon Walters, ambassador to West Germany. And shortly before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, he garnered a frank interview with Jordan's King Hussein that, with the help of producer Don Hewitt, was quickly broadcast on 60 Minutes. Rather intercuts his chapters with brief, often folksy ``outtakes'' and isn't above laughing at himself, as when reflecting on his youthful bravado and latter-day caution in covering hurricanes. He offers a credible account of the notorious 1987 episode in which the ``CBS Evening News'' ``went black'' for six minutes (when the preceding broadcast of a tennis game finished earlier than expected), as well as an unedited transcript of the subsequent interview with Vice President (and presidential candidate) George Bush, who dodged questions about his Iran-contra involvement by nastily chiding Rather about the gap. The book closes by recounting a much-publicized 1993 speech in which Rather upbraided TV news colleagues for not pursuing quality. But his book lacks sustained reflection on how to do that—or for that matter, any mention of the struggles of Rather's nightly newscast, now third in the ratings. Enjoyable anecdotes, not much insight or history. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)