|
|
 |
|
Vick Mickunas
| from the Dayton Daily News |
|
|
Mickunas starts new chapter at WYSO
By Don Thrasher
Contributing Writer
Sunday, January 06, 2008
YELLOW SPRINGS — Local fans of literature let out a collective cry of joy in December when Vick Mickunas, the former music director at WYSO and host of the station's long-running "Book Nook" feature, returned to the airwaves after a four-year absence.
Mickunas isn't on air as often as before, contributing a biweekly segment to the station's Sunday morning news magazine, "WYSO Weekend," but for many area listeners it was comforting to hear the well-read interviewer once again entering into intelligent discourse with authors for the public radio station.
"It's good to be back," Mickunas said. "(General Manager Paul) Maassen has been at 'YSO about two and half years, and I've been talking to him on and off that whole time about doing something at the station again. We've had a number of conversations, and it takes a while — progress can be kind of glacial in a lot of ways."
While he's pleased to have Mickunas back on the air, Maassen stresses it's not the return of the "Book Nook."
"We didn't do any big announcement because I don't want to give people the misimpression that this is a daily show," Maassen said. "At this juncture, Vick is just producing pieces for us in 'WYSO Weekend.' Part of the idea behind our magazine show is to reach out to different producers and have them put pieces in there. We thought it made sense to have Vick do something. We're very early in this process so we don't know where it will go. We'll see what happens."
Mickunas has been absent from the airwaves since being forced out of WYSO in late 2003 during former general manager Steve Spencer's controversial administration, but he never stopped interviewing authors. His weekly "Book Nook" column has appeared in the Dayton Daily News since mid-2004.
"I see this as a real win-win situation for the station, for the community, for the Dayton Daily News, for me, for everybody," Mickunas said. "I don't see how it can be bad. I think books are really important. You hear about people not reading anymore, and then you see how stupid people are. They all watch TV all the time, and they'll believe any stupid thing.
"In my view, books are the repository for the all the greatest thinking we've ever done," Mickunas continued. "A society that doesn't read books anymore is a culture on the verge of losing its collective mind. For me to have authors on the air talking about books on public radio has got to be done. I think the community needs it, and that's what I care about."
Mickunas' latest interview airs today at 10:30 a.m. during "WYSO Weekend."
Contact contributing arts and music writer Don Thrasher at donaldthrasher8@aol.com. - goto
Posted by Vick Mickunas on 1/15/08; 12:27:09 PM
from the dept.
|
|
| Vick's Picks for 2007's best non-fiction |
|
|
From Nixon to 1919: Some nonfiction favorites from 2007
By Vick Mickunas
Sunday, January 06, 2008
While fiction offers a temporary escape from reality, nonfiction brings the world into sharper focus. Here are my favorite nonfiction books from 2007:
"The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. This disturbing piece of investigative journalism asserts that some theories of the late economist Milton Friedman have adversely impacted economies around the world. Klein claims disasters are providing opportunities for the exploitation of millions of people under the guise of spreading democracy and free markets. She demonstrates how crises were exploited in Chile, Russia, South Africa, China and Iraq and in situations like Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami and 9/11.
"Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power," by Robert Dallek. President Richard M. Nixon remains an endless source of fascination for historians. Nixon's powerful national security adviser was Henry Kissinger. Dallek examines their bizarre partnership. Each man had a massive ego. They were complete opposites in their personalities but they were drawn together as if by magnetism. They scored diplomatic coups. Ultimately, this odd pairing dissolved, as Nixon's presidency collapsed in a whirlwind of accusations and paranoia.
"Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties," by Michael Lesy. When we think of Chicago in the Roaring Twenties, we think of gangsters with tommy guns mowing each down over bootleg liquor. Lesy went through the newspaper archives of the period and discovered that the Windy City was actually pervaded by violence among ordinary people. He has compiled haunting stories and photos that depict a city drenched in homicide. They were killing each other for a few dollars in Chicago. Eerily fascinating.
"Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919," by Ann Hagedorn. That was was the year that followed the end the Great War, the war to end all wars, World War I. It was a deeply troubling time. Hagedorn revisits an America that seems torn from more recent headlines. Terrorists were mailing bombs. The government allowed an overzealous young J. Edgar Hoover massive latitude to conduct surveillance and wiretapping. The U.S. Army was bogged down in a civil war in Northern Russia. A native Daytonian, Hagedorn now resides in Ripley, Ohio.
"It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush," by Joe Conason. President Nixon failed in his attempt to amass unbridled power. The wiretappers of 1919 were eventually reined in. By 2007, we had an administration that had consolidated presidential power again. Conason looks at how Vice President Dick Cheney came up through the Nixon administration and 30 years later has elevated White House secrecy to Nixonian levels. He scrutinizes how George W. Bush has used executive orders to consolidate power and how the Patriot Act imperils our freedoms.
Honorable mentions: "Young Stalin" by Simon Sebag Montefiore; "The Landmark Herodotus, the Histories;" and "The Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson."
Book reviewer Vick Mickunas blogs daily about books at www.DaytonDailyNews.com/booknook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com
——————————
The titles
"The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," by Naomi Klein, Metropolitan Books, 558 pages, $28
"Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power," by Robert Dallek, Harper Collins, 740 pages, $32.50
"Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties," by Michael Lesy, W.W. Norton, 344 pages, $26
"Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919," by Ann Hagedorn, Simon & Schuster, 543 pages, $30
"It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush," by Joe Conason, Thomas Dunne Books, 238 pages, $25 - goto
Posted by Vick Mickunas on 1/15/08; 12:24:54 PM
from the dept.
|
|
| Vick's Picks for 2007's best fiction |
|
|
BOOK NOOK
2007's best fiction
By Vick Mickunas
Sunday, December 30, 2007
As we turn the last few pages of 2007, I'm looking back at my favorite books from the past year. Here are the works of fiction that gave me the most reading pleasure:
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon. This clever novel merges detective mystery thriller with alternate history. After the state of Israel collapsed in 1948, a Jewish enclave was created in Sitka, Alaska. Chabon's grizzled homicide detective Meyer Landsman lives in a fleabag motel. When a neighbor down the hall is murdered, Landsman takes it personally. As he seeks out clues he gets entangled in a sinister web of crime syndicates and deadly chess games. Chabon soars across literary canyons with exuberant abandon in this noir plot boiler.
"Canaan" by Donald McCaig. It took a long time for McCaig to pen this sequel to his Civil War novel "Jacob's Ladder." It was well worth the wait. "Canaan" unfolds during the two decades between the end of the Civil War and Custer's Last Stand at the Little Big Horn. This prodigious imagining of the lives of soldiers, former slaves and the last remnants of American Indians fleeing the encroachment of railroads and white settlers is splendidly wrought. McCaig has written a western of monumental power.
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. This story bounces across the pages. Oscar is intelligent, overweight and obsessed. He's a Dominican kid living in New Jersey with his comic books and a fantasy of one day finding the woman of his dreams. The action shifts to the Dominican Republic, where Oscar becomes enamored with a dangerous female. This inspirational tragedy unfolds with diabolical precision among astonishing footnotes.
"Diary of a Bad Year" by J.M. Coetzee. Published this week. Coetzee is a South African who resides in Australia. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. His main character, Senor C, is a distinguished author living in Australia. He hires an attractive young woman from his apartment building to help out with a writing project and more. Senor C expresses lacerating opinions like: "democracy does not allow for politics outside the democratic system. In this sense, democracy is totalitarian." Coetzee tantalizes readers into learning a new way of reading.
"The Ministry of Special Cases" by Nathan Englander. Set in Buenos Aires during Argentina's "Dirty War." The young people of Argentina were being abducted and swallowed by Argentina's state security system. Most were never heard from again. The Poznan family experienced this national nightmare when their son was arrested for possessing banned books. His parents searched for him and they were drawn into the maze of "The Ministry of Special Cases." The things they found out were chilling. A whole generation of children simply disappeared.
Honorable mentions: Laura Lippman's "What the Dead Know." James Lee Burke's "The Tin Roof Blowdown." Garrison Keillor's "Pontoon."
Book reviewer Vick Mickunas blogs daily about books
at www.DaytonDailyNews.com/booknook.
Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
Reviews
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon, Harper Collins, 414 pages, $27
"Canaan" by Donald McCaig, Norton, 426 pages, $25
"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz, Riverhead, 335 pages, $25
"Diary of a Bad Year" by J.M. Coetzee, Viking, 231 pages, $25
"The Ministry of Special Cases" by Nathan Englander, Knopf, 339 pages, $25 - goto
Posted by Vick Mickunas on 1/15/08; 12:23:16 PM
from the dept.
|
|
|
|
|
