Festivals of Books (Hour 3)

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Good morning, 8.06.

Nice to have you back here Up North on a Monday morning, October 20th.

Parker Olson producing things down in Madison Studio A2, John and Gordy standing by in Madison A1.

First to know, that author, Laura Ann Bird, joins us at the bottom of the hour.

to talk about some book festivals around Wisconsin, exactly what they are and why you might want to consider attending one.

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And speaking of Civic Media from WMDX down there in beautiful Madison, John and Gordy are joining us now to

talk about their weekend and I will start by saying good morning guys this weekend is brought to you by a leave for when you've been power washing the siding and attacking buckthorn and putting

away deck

furniture but I mean it was the perfect fall weather weekend for doing some of that fall

how stuff home ownership man ain't nothing like it.

Oh, I know.

I love it myself.

And I was doing the the stairway up to the upper deck and it's all wood.

And I was trying to preserve it and it rained the next day.

So that was, it was a self defeating moment for Mr. Handyman here.

You know, but what the heck, you know, that's what happens when you're a homeowner, you just got to work with what you get.

And if you don't, if you let things go like I did with the buckthorn, it just makes it that much harder when you finally go in after it.

So it never ends.

You know, I got

a charging station for my EV, my car, my electronic space car.

And I've got a charging station in the home now.

It was installed.

A lot of money.

But it's done.

And now I can charge it any damn time I want.

And, and anybody else who wants to stop by johns?

Bring your

electric toothbrush plug it right in.

We'll

charge

that up.

We'll get we'll get all kinds of things charged up and going for you.

Gordy, you didn't work nearly as hard as the rest of us did.

Oh, he did.

Well, actually, I worked.

I still had to wrap up my move from the east from the west side of Madison, east side of Madison, in the middle of all

Everything else that was going on in Madison with the protests, the Kings protest and of course the, the Badger game on Saturday.

See the

monster be with the hippies on the east side of Madison, hang out

with them, the

chili oil and the beaded curtains in the door.

Oh man, I picked the wrong weekend to move.

Yeah, you did.

We got it all done.

You had to go through the No Kings parade.

Yeah.

So

we we I'm just looking now on the text line Troy and Mount Horab has been uploading pictures from the rally there.

Again, all kinds of great signs.

Here's another one going I am aunt Tifa.

I don't know if there's an uncle Tifa, but I like I like your sign there.

And I was saying before, I mean, times like these, you really find out that even in

times of, you know, despair and crises.

People are funny.

And when they when they need to be when they need to make a protest sign, they're good.

Yeah,

I think they've got the hand on the pulse of the nation by going in costumes and making it fun.

So that if anything does happen, if they get hassled by the cops or the National Guard, it'll look really, really bad for them because they're hauling away a unicorn or a giant bee or maybe, or, or, or maybe a slainly deflated.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

So no, there were there were all kinds of great signs.

I love the costumes.

And again, just the

How do I put this?

I mean, people that they totally care about their country and not just about themselves.

It's not just like, you know, my social security or something and they're caring about the people who are being rounded up on the streets.

You know, they're caring about people other than themselves.

And I think it was all in all a very positive experience for the country.

Yeah, in fact, it had contradicted a lot of the stereotypes that the right wing tried to portray about these events because they always said, well, all the signs are the same.

They're prefabricated and all that stuff.

That is completely opposite of what we saw.

Everybody created their own sign.

Absolutely.

I thought it was maybe um when I looked at the times because the times were all over the place some some started 9am some started later and I thought it was a little odd that the Madison one was going to basically coincide with a football game and then I realized there's so many people they didn't want they wanted any reason not to go to the football game anyway so you know can we can we rally for every badger football team home game for the foreseeable future I mean we'll find a reason if we have to well

one interesting statistic

is that there were no arrests for the big No Kings rally at the Capitol, okay?

But there were 17, I think, arrests at the UW Badger game.

So maybe Trump should get the National Guard out to protect us at the...

Well,

that was the other thing that somebody noted is that in all of the pictures from all these protests, you don't see like grifters selling their t-shirts and their flags.

You saw

that the sidewalks were left clean.

And as

we

all said, and Grindr didn't crash.

So I mean, unlike a lot of the January 6th, you know, and related stuff.

you know, these were folks who were very task focused.

And it wasn't just another, you know, sideshow like it seems to be at a lot of these Trump rallies and things like that.

So I really got to tip my cap to folks.

Yeah,

leaving the streets and the sidewalks clean was something that I noticed as well.

I watched a lot of the opposition, the right wing postings of of the empty streets, you know, saying no one showed up, you know, it was after the event, of course, but the streets were absolutely

Barclay, I mean not a thing on the ground at all, but after a you know rally for Trump, you know, it's all the time.

Yeah, usually trashed.

Yeah.

It really is.

Yeah,

talking to John and Gordy from 90.

It's 927 WMDX, right?

You got it.

Look at that.

It's show prep.

It's

all

about the show prep.

You did it.

So we've gone over the No Kings rallies and the Badger game.

And have we all just kind of collectively moved on from the Brewers, or are we still in any kind of a mourning period for what happened with the Dodgers?

No, the

first did the best they could and it wasn't nearly good.

We could see them petering out This was gonna be a bad event and it was so it's done

But and yet like I was saying when you saw that game when you saw Shohei Otani what he did Oh, you know, I mean, I was just I was I was awestruck Good to be quite honest with you because

I

believable.

I know what he

he does.

But then when you see him do it to your team, you're like, I can't even be mad.

I just got to admire the guy for doing

it.

Yeah, I agree.

Three homers and and

and strikeouts.

Yeah, unbelievable.

Yeah,

I know.

What else were you guys talking about on the show?

Well, we were talking about the Packers and finally pulling it out at the end where they've been normally losing the games at the end.

But this was just a fantastic win.

And the fact that a kicker comes in the second time he started for the Packers, he was going to go into teaching momentarily.

And then all of a sudden the Packers called him up.

He goes out there and he makes a record kick.

A Green Bay Packer

record.

Kick it made me wonder I suppose do we know what he's getting paid?

I mean, we know it's, we know it's more than a teacher because

otherwise

he either said no, thanks.

But that's a that's a pretty good swap of paychecks, you know, for the work that he does.

But we had, we had Jan Stannerwood.

We had these great kickers with the Green Bay Packers.

This guy comes in, he would have been going into teaching had he not been called up by the Packers second game.

And he, and he kicks a record field goal, I believe.

So let's say this happens to you.

who who who what team what sport could call you and say we need an emergency walk on and you're the guy so is it is it is it John the impromptu hockey goalie is it Gordy the impromptu place kicker what would be what would what would get the call for you what would you be willing to do to try

as a wall.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's a really good question.

While

you while you contemplate that keep in mind that one of my favorite things I like to say during any time there's an Olympics is there should always be one regular person competing in this thing so that you know how good these athletes are.

So like when they're swimming way down at the bottom of the screen in lap eight, you know, is is Floyd who's otherwise, you know, a janitor at the arena.

And he's trying his best, you know, swimming down there in lane eight or somebody somebody

running in the other lane.

And, you know, it's good to appreciate that these guys, even these walk-on kickers are pretty darn good.

So now they've given you time to think about it.

What could you have

conceivably be called in to do?

I'm

glad you brought up sports because I was really good at the javelin throw when I was a teenager.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah.

I went to an overnight camp for two weeks.

My parents obviously needed

the break, but they had an Olympic day and I threw that spear farther than any other camp counselor, anybody at the camp.

I was so good at it because I watched a lot of, you know, Jungle Gym and Tarzan movies and how the natives threw the spears and I watched it because they always projected.

They always put the weight of the spear on the front end.

and they pushed it and it was just the way to do it.

I've

never been so thankful to be a distance co-worker right now that if you ever

get

upset,

I mean,

whether it's Gordy or Alba, if something comes through the window one of these times and just right through the chest, we'll know who to suspect

right away.

So, okay,

so javelin thrower.

Javelin

thrower,

yes.

There

you go, Gordy.

Now what'd you come up with?

Oh gosh, I, you know, the only thing that I was ever any good at sports wise was ping pong.

So, you know, I don't think there's a call for it.

It's good.

It's in the Olympics.

It

counts.

It counts.

Parker,

how

about you?

I was decent enough

at

tennis.

So.

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah.

It's something like you're being modest right now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There must be a water boy role in some of these.

Somebody.

So you go for a call up on being a water boy.

I got

it.

I you know what?

I

would just

gig.

Yeah, I guess I would do that if I if I had gone into sports, which quite clearly I did not.

The two positions that I admire are like hockey goalie and baseball catcher.

You know, in both cases, they're not your typical, you know, on offense, but they're very key to, you know, keeping the game under control and keeping the score from getting run up.

And those are things I might have tried maybe in my next lifetime.

You know, when I do when I do crazy things like

exercise, you know, and any right, I might consider one of those things.

But they

sound like safe

parts of the team.

Well, catchers are that that's

I mean, that's the most difficult position.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you got

baseballs coming

at you the hundred

miles and coming at you.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, there's there's definitely an element of and especially with these catchers nowadays, instead of getting in the traditional squat, they do the one leg ski sticking way out.

And I got to keep this friendly for radio, but a lot of catchers have been getting hurt badly in certain spots in part because that's that's the style they use now.

And I...

I do not recommend I'd rather I'd rather blow up my knees than any anything else that I could possibly talk about here right now.

So there we go.

So there's our pickup emergency sports.

If you need any of us for any of these things you guys know know how to reach us.

John and Courtney joining us from our Civic Media Station in Madison and still ahead.

We'll be talking to author Laura Bird all about book festivals around Wisconsin that are going on this fall.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.

Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

Hey, welcome back just about 823 right now and visiting with our friends John and Gordy from our Civic Media Station in Madison.

And then a little bit later on, Jane Mattenair will join us to talk about Mattenair on air with herself and with Greg Bach coming up 9 to 11 across the Civic Media Radio Network.

We are again, getting to that time we're getting deeper into October, which means we'll be, you know, dealing with trick or treaters and bumpkins and everything else before we know it.

So are you guys

What are you doing in the big old city there?

I mean, are there pumpkin patches in the area or is it just all lined up in front of the big box grocery store and you just grab one out?

Well,

that's the easy way.

That's the easy way.

Woodman seems to have a lot of cheap.

pumpkins on sale, but of course you see them lined up along the roadways, you know, the farmers have it all out there or you pass by the big fields filled with pumpkins, you know, wonder what's going to happen to all those pumpkins, you know, are they

going to

sell

them?

Are they going

to make pumpkin pie, canned pumpkin pie?

I don't know, but I feel sorry for anybody who has to go out into those fields because I did with my kid on a field trip in preschool, they went out to the pumpkin patch and found a great pumpkin to catch.

It was just great stuff, you know, but stepping on the the rotten pumpkins was always something my kid loved to do That's farm life, you know not clean all those kids, you know have fun

Do you do the full pumpkin carving you get you got them out and you know roast the seeds and you come up with like clever designs my my

my go to design is still like, Well, here's two triangles for the eyes.

And here's the mouth.

Other people just go crazy with their part pumpkin.

How do they do

that?

Right?

How do they make those pictures?

Well, fantastic.

They have they have this thing that I lack.

Well, two things, talent and patience, which both are very much required.

Gordy,

you have special.

Well, not I do it occasionally, you know, probably every other Halloween, I'll carve a pumpkin, but for the grandkids.

But

But I think they have these special carving knives, you know, the ones that are very artistic.

They get, you can get a little carving kit.

That's right.

The light shines through and just parts of the

pumpkin.

Those are kind of cool.

That's kind of cool.

Now, Gordy, you're changing addresses so you don't know what you're going to get for trick-or-treaters this year, John.

No

idea.

Yeah, John, do

you get a

bunch?

We have this big house set back in the lot.

No one ever comes up to the house.

It's

very scary.

It does look like a scary house, too.

And we never have the lights on.

So maybe that's another reason that might be real dark back there.

So we never have kids.

But I went to I went to my friend's house in a very busy neighborhood, kind of a McMansion neighborhood.

And the kids came by and I was just I

I was just so impressed with children and kids and the way they acted at the door and they're so darn cute

and

everything.

I just I just melted every time a kid came to the door.

I just melted because we never get kids at the door and it was my one time that I did it and it was just I was almost in tears because some of the kids were just so darn cute and the way they asked for the candy.

I, you know, and I couldn't resist and I had to give more candy than they wanted.

I was

gonna say, do you do just the little fun size things or do you go crazy with what you hand out for trick-or-treating?

I went crazy

with my friend's handouts.

With your friend's handouts.

Yeah, again, we don't get kids at our house, but man, I gave all their candy away very quickly, but the

kids were just cute.

When we first moved to Chippewa Falls, the girls were four and six.

Of course, this was 30 years ago.

And it was great to take them around the neighborhood, especially the area where some of the other doctors lived.

And one in particular took great joy in being the house that everybody else, every other parent didn't like because they gave out to every kid a full-size candy bar and a can of Mountain Dew.

Oh,

yeah.

Why do you hate

your neighbors so much.

Oh, it's for Halloween.

You got to give the kids, you know, if you're gonna have sugar, just have sugar all the way.

Sure, enough caffeine to drop a horse.

Sure, why not?

Yeah,

guy

works for a beverage distributor, that helps.

Yeah, you would.

Yeah, you would think so.

We just we go with the regular, you know, traditional fun sized stuff.

And of course, for me, it's KitKats, because I could, if there's one thing I don't think I could ever get sick of is it's KitKats.

Everybody's got something.

Or there's there's some

and you could never eat again because you ate so many of them.

I'm sure there's things like that as well.

But for me, you're gonna get KitKats if you come over here.

You guys

have a

favorite?

The candy we pass out is the candy that we would eat ourselves because if there's any left, we're gonna eat it ourselves.

But that's what makes me wonder when I was a kid, who has given out popcorn balls because we'd get these popcorn balls.

Yeah, which were just stale and sticky and just gross.

I'm like, what made people back then think that that was such a good idea?

But you get them because I lived in a big apartment complex.

And so you brought a pillowcase.

And that pillowcase got at least half full.

You know, candy, we had we had candy for months after well, months for most we

for me, which is why I have so many fillings as I do.

But, you know, we just lived in one of those where we got all kinds of stuff.

But yeah, stuff that you also look like

Who thought the popcorn balls were a good idea or some of the other things that they they hand

out a carmel apple?

I remember that wasn't a good idea to put in the bag, you know

I don't know about you pat But I think in the old days as far as when I was a kid going out trick-or-treating you could go as late as pot I mean, oh, yeah until seven eight nine o'clock You know as long as you want but now they put time limits on it, you know just for safety's sake.

I'm sure

But you

know, I totally get it, but it is, it is a different time where yeah, you didn't know.

I mean, and of course, the kids would get older by sometime after nine o'clock, you hear the doorbell, and it would be some, you know, 15 year old and he was

no

costume.

Well, a t-shirt was like a pack of cigarettes rolled up on the sleeve, pretending to be Fonzie or something like that.

And it's like, well,

I'll give you my last candy bar now.

I'm shutting the porch light off after that.

Looking forward to it.

It's a good sign of the changing season because as much as we don't have the brewers to think about anymore, we now are turning to a packer team that is winning.

We've got Halloween.

And I think you all know what that means.

You're all good.

You're thinking, wait a minute, they got another week.

Can't they talk about Halloween next week?

No, next week we have to talk about Christmas.

Because

that's the

way the merchandise calendar works in this country.

Exactly.

Everything will be out on the shelves.

Trust me.

John and Gordy, thanks so much, guys.

Appreciate it.

Have a great week.

Thank you.

Thank

you, Pat.

All right.

When

we come back, we will talk to Laura Ann Bird, author about book festivals happening around Wisconsin right after this on the Civic Media Radio Network.

You know you can follow up north news on social media.

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Let's talk to author Laura Ann Bird about book festivals.

There are a couple of nice ones coming to Wisconsin in the coming days.

And before we will find out some of the books that are going to be highlighted, we got to get to the basics about what is a book festival.

So first we got to say good morning to Laura how

Good

morning.

I'm great, Pat.

Thanks for having me.

It's good to

see you.

Yeah, thank you for being here.

So let's start with when we hear that there are book festivals and specifically we're going to talk about the Chippewa Valley Book Festival and then the Wisconsin Book Festival.

What, Laura, is a book festival?

Well, I just want to say that they are for everybody.

You don't have to be a writer or a poet or a real book nerd like me.

Anybody can go, and you can just go and listen to an author who's speaking about a book or an idea that interests you.

So these book festivals are free and easy, and they're a real celebration of ideas and storytelling.

And I don't know about you, but I feel really fortunate to live in a place that values those things.

One other thing I want to, oh, sorry, what was that?

No, yeah, I totally agree.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I, I just want to like reassure listeners out there that you don't actually have to read the book to go to a book festival event.

I think people feel like they need to prepare somehow.

You just show up, right?

That's gonna say the author's not going to quiz you like you didn't actually read my book.

No, and I think the assumption actually is that most people haven't read the book.

And so they'll be talking kind of big picture about their books and, and they're for everybody.

So.

Check it out.

So what do you typically see?

I mean, I'm guessing there's an area with books and vendors, but then an area where authors and other people speak, or are there other elements of it that I'm missing?

Yeah.

Well, I guess it depends on what book festival you go to.

I can speak to the Wisconsin Book Festival, which I'll talk about in just a minute, but most of the events take place at Central Library in downtown Madison, and they have a few rooms reserved, and they're seating, and the author is up front, you know, and everyone else.

comes and listens and usually the author is in conversation with someone else and so it's a conversation it's a dialogue back and forth and audience members can jump in and ask questions it's it's really laid back

okay and we'll get we'll come back to that one but there's also the Chippewa Valley Book Festival which is actually getting its start

tomorrow it is October 21st through the 25th

Chippewa Valley Book Festival, check them out online, cvbookfest.org.

They are offering both in-person and virtual events, and all of them are free.

They do want you to register ahead of time though, I think just to kind of get a handle on numbers, and all the events take place at the L.E.

Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire.

They have a bunch of people coming and speaking, but I just wanted to focus on three exciting titles that I think might get people excited to go.

And I do want to say too to listeners out there, even if you can't attend these book festivals.

Stick with our conversation here because I have some really good recommendations.

I mean, all these books are like buzzy and hot this fall, so you'll get some good reading ideas.

So the first one is food writer Lori Frederick is coming to talk about her new book, Wisconsin Field to Fork, Farm Fresh Recipes from the Dairy State.

I want to buy a copy of this for myself.

It's a cookbook that weaves the stories of local farmers with 70 recipes using Wisconsin grown ingredients.

And so she really offers a fresh perspective on the value of local food.

So I think that'll be a great one.

That will

be okay.

What's next?

Christina Clancy, beloved Wisconsin author, who is delightful to listen to and engage with.

So she'll be really fun at her presentation.

She'll be talking about her latest novel, The Snowbirds, which explores a Midwestern couple's attempt to work on their relationship.

And they do that by trading their harsh Wisconsin winter for the sunshine in Palm Springs.

And everything goes great.

until it doesn't.

So she'll be talking about like midlife, long-term relationships, and the power of place.

And last, Leif Enger, Minnesota author from Duluth, who I love, he's one of my favorite writers, he'll be talking about his latest novel, I Cheerfully Refuse.

And this is kind of an interesting book because it's a strange mashup of literary fiction and dystopian fiction.

And I don't know how Leif does it, but he does it and it's tremendous.

And it's the story of a musician who sets sail across Lake Superior in search of his departed wife.

And he sort of is like this modern day gulliver figure as he navigates the wild sea.

So it's really good.

Yeah.

So those are being highlighted at Chippewa Valley Book Fest, and again, that is CVbookfest.org.

I'm looking at their website here where it says you can listen to stories, engage with the authors, you can inspire young writers, you can create some lasting memories.

There's all kinds of things that you can do there at the Ellie Phillips Memorial Public Library, downtown Eau Claire.

Let's get over it out to the Wisconsin Festival, which like you mentioned is there in Madison.

Yes, and I'm kind of biased here because I'm an ambassador for the Book Festival.

So I could talk about it all day.

I love it so much.

Truly, it's one of the largest and most respected book festivals in the country.

It's really huge.

It's October 21st through the 25th.

Wisconsin Book Festival does offer books, I'm sorry, programs and events throughout the entire year, but this is the four-day centerpiece.

There are more than 70 presenting authors participating in 55 events over these four days, so it's huge.

Most of the events are held at Central Library in downtown Madison, but not all of them, so you're gonna wanna check the schedule, which is found at wisconsinbookfestival.org.

Every event is free and open to the public with no tickets or registration required.

And you kind of alluded to this before and I'm glad you mentioned it.

There are three local booksellers here in Madison that are having like pop-up stores at Central Library.

So you can actually buy the books that are featured and in almost all instances the authors will be there signing them, which is really cool.

Yeah.

All right.

And you got some of the books that will be highlighted?

Absolutely.

I've got some great ones.

I should also mention, too, if you don't live close to Madison, the festival tries to record almost all of the events, and then they'll be put up online a couple of weeks after the event.

So make sure to check the website so that you can actually watch.

I noticed

that on the website.

That's

a great feature.

It's really cool.

So the first book, I'm biased again because I'm so excited about this one.

It's Destroy This House by Amanda Yuli.

I'm actually her conversation partner on Friday night.

So I'll be sitting up there asking her about her memoir.

This book is so good.

It's about growing up with a mother who had a really serious hoarding problem and a father who never quite told the truth to Amanda and her little brother.

It's a really hard story.

I give her a lot of credit for telling it.

you know, she, she got through her childhood and here she is on the other side writing in this really fresh, engaging voice.

So we're going to have a great conversation.

Okay.

And again, that was destroyed this house

fiction by great.

I'm sorry, the title is Great Black Hope.

It's fiction and it's by Rob Franklin.

This is a really buzzy book this fall.

It's a debut about a young black man caught between all these worlds.

He's caught between race and class, glamour and tragedy.

And the main character is Smith and he has to deal with his friend's mysterious death and his own subsequent arrest.

And so this story takes you from like the nightclub to the courtroom.

So that'll be really good.

OK, this is going to be a hot event at Wisconsin Book Festival on Sunday.

Mary Roach is coming to talk about her newest nonfiction title, Replaceable You, Adventures in Human Anatomy.

So she is really famous.

She writes about science in a really entertaining way, and all of her titles have just done really, really well.

So Replaceable You is her latest, and in it she examines regenerative medicine.

And that's sort of like looking at the questions prompted by the failings of the human body.

Like, how does a person decide if they would be better off with a prosthetic limb?

Can a donated heart be made to beat forever?

I don't know the answers, but Mary Roach does, and she'll be talking about them.

Another really hot book this fall is The Dream Hotel by Leila Leilami.

If you like sci-fi or kind of dystopian stuff, this one is gonna be for you.

It's eerie and urgent and it explores the seductive nature of technology.

And the author asks, like, how much of ourselves should remain private and can even the most invasive forms of surveillance capture who we really are?

So that's going to be a really good one.

Switching topics entirely, let's talk about Cheese.

This is a great new book out called The Wisconsin Way, She's Making in the Driftless, and of course- And by

way, of course, W-H-E-Y,

right?

Yep, yep.

And the four authors, Nicole Bajeski, Kristen Mitchell, Keith Burroughs, and Leslie Damaso.

traveled through western wisconsin from shoalsburg to wesby and they met with all of these cheese makers and this book tells the stories and really celebrates their dedication to our state's incredible cheese making tradition and i have heard through the grapevine there will be samples at this event oh well okay now

i'll put food in the mixer too

exactly all right good thanks all right what's next two last novels to share with you

Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela is hilarious and heartbreaking.

The main character, the narrator, is living the dream.

He has a doting husband, two precious children.

and a sexy younger boyfriend.

So this book sort of skewers the unspoken rules we live by and offers some really surprising perspectives on love, loss, and reinvention.

So I think this will be a great one to go see.

And last but not least.

ending on a high note, The Phoebe Variations by Jane Hamilton.

So Jane Hamilton is a Wisconsin legend.

She is a novelist who lives on an apple orchard in the southeastern part of the state.

And if you recognize her name, it's because way back her two early books, The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World,

were not just New York Times bestsellers, but they were also Oprah Winfrey book club picks.

So Jane Hamilton, she's just wonderful.

So this is her latest.

It's hot off the press.

Again, it's called The Phoebe Variations, and it's a coming-of-age novel about daughters, mothers, and finding one's way in the world.

And of course, Wisconsin plays a big part in the story.

It's one of the settings there.

All right, so these are all that will, these and many more will be highlighted at the Wisconsin Book Festival, Wisconsinbookfestival.org.

That's easy enough for you to find.

And then the Chippewa Valley Book Festival, which begins tomorrow.

No, Claire, that is CVbookfest.org.

So it was.

Great that you happen to know that these couple were coming up on the calendar and helping people know because, I mean, is there, is this like a book festival season or is this kind of a year round thing that you'll see different communities have book festivals?

Yeah, that's a great question.

So actually there are some other book festivals in Wisconsin that are also annual events, just like the two that I spoke about.

If you live in the Waukesha area, the Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books is coming up also.

So that's November 7th and 8th.

The website for that is s-e-w-i-bookfest.com.

That's an annual event.

And then next year, looking forward to 2026, in the Stevens Point, Warsaw, Wisconsin Rapids area, that is the central Wisconsin Book Festival.

And that's usually held in September every year, as is the Washington Island Book Festival.

So those are annual events.

Look out for those.

Where you can add to your ever-growing to be red list.

Yes, the TBR.

You should see my TBR.

It's huge.

I was

just going to ask how big the TBR list is right now for you, Laura.

I have TBR stacks around my house.

Ask my husband.

He's always tripping over them.

They're everywhere.

Sounds like somebody needs TBR triage to be done over here.

Laura Bird, thank you so much for telling us about the festivals, and we'll talk to you next month.

Thank you so

much.

Thanks.

All right, have a wonderful day.

All right, when we come back, we'll be talking to Jane Mattenair.

She and Greg Bach will have Mattenair on air coming up from 9 to 11 across the Civic Media Radio Network.

And don't forget, tomorrow we'll have my interview with Francesca Hong, also Cam Stevenson from Courier Newsroom, live from Washington, D.C.

and Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area.

That's all tomorrow.

I'm Pat Krightloff, you're up north.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

All right, back now with Jane McNair, Matt Nair on air, coming up next across the Civic Media Radio Network, you and Greg Bach.

Hopefully, I mean, I know you kids have been arguing lately.

My goodness.

Things got hot.

Somebody was listening during the commercial break here and PJ writes, Greg's breakfast sounds boring.

So that's a spoiler alert.

There's gonna be a breakfast debate coming up on today's show.

Well, for the last half an hour of the show, Pat, we call it audio survey where we get away from the news and just talk about lighter things so we all don't collectively lose our minds.

And we were talking as we were prepping the show this morning about what do we want to do for audio sorbet?

And it's chicken and waffle day, which I know you mentioned when you do this day in history.

I think we

overlooked

that one, Parker.

I

did not see that.

It is chicken

and

waffle day.

And this led to a discussion about whether or not sweet things should ever be involved in breakfast, which led to a 15 minute argument.

Okay,

we

were getting ready for the show so breakfast Wars will be our audio Sorbet topic for today Can you have waffles with syrup and a sausage croissant?

Or is that a food crime?

All right.

These are

the important things.

I love food fights on the radio.

I do.

I love food fights.

So that'll work out just well.

And by the way, while we're doing things in the comment sections here, let's see.

Alicia says, I'm not a chicken and waffles kind of lady.

But she says, I did just get a new bookshelf to hold my growing TBR.

meaning to be read.

So with with all of the recommendations that Laura just gave me, I know I there's a lot of TBR on the bookshelf here behind me.

But that too, it's my TBR IR list to be read in retirement, because there's probably when I'm going to have time for that.

So what else you had happened on today show?

Well, today, we are going to talk, we're going to start off and talk about the No Kings rallies.

One of my sisters and I went out on Saturday, we were in Brookfield.

And it was a very positive experience, except for I would say the three cars who drove by and insisted on flipping us off.

They were the angriest people I recall seeing.

I kept asking folks.

Are you Antifa?

Are you, uh, you know, do you

have?

Yeah, where's

your card carrying member of Antifa because that's what all the Republicans who had said who was going to be out on Saturday and nobody, uh, claimed to be with Antifa and no one had a check from George Soros.

So I was very disappointed.

I know.

Come on, George.

Let's let's pony this stuff up.

Yeah.

Come on.

The guy says you're you're paying us.

So it must be true.

Yeah.

Also on the show.

day, Pat, we are going to talk about the shutdown, Brian Stile and Gwen Moore were on up front on WISN over the weekend.

By the way, Brian Stile has been off of work for a really long time.

If you wanted to leave him a call, you could probably do that and tell him what a fine job he's doing.

Also coming up on the show today, all the best commutations.

George Soros, of course.

George Santos.

George Santos.

I'm sorry.

Yes, George.

George Santos.

Again, when you elect a criminal as president, the criminals are going to be released from prison and replaced with folks like us who

have not

committed crimes.

And that's exactly what we're seeing here.

And again, I don't know where you know, the tipping point is for any given person.

But once again, I'm pretty confident that there were a couple of people yesterday that were like, really?

Yeah, we're letting George Santos out now.

So I could see where that would be the case.

I'm betting you're as well going to get into Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem's new private jets jets.

plural yes jets jets jets

jets jets for Christie.

I've been thinking a lot about this and I think I have determined why she needs two separate jets pad.

It's

one for her and just one for her hair extensions because they can't travel at the same time.

Oh my goodness.

The

weight is too much.

So you have to you have to spread it out over to two private jets.

It's only $172 million

only $172 million which they can afford along with

a ballroom for the White House, endless golf trips.

You've got the military occupying cities.

You've got all of the ice hirings and raids that are going on.

You're getting a plane from Cutter that you have to retrofit for like $400 million.

And we'll give you a base in Idaho as well.

And then of course, there's the 40 billion that's about to go to Argentina.

While our farmers have no market and Trump's response was well, we're gonna buy more Argentine beef to which cattle farmers in the United States are like Wait a minute.

Yeah, and he was asked about that on Air Force One returning

from a golf trip about American farmers kind of feeling like they're getting the shaft.

And he essentially said, you know, Argentina is having a really tough time right

now.

It's

hard

to

help.

I need to help Argentina because I like the president.

And Scott Bassant, of course, he didn't say this, has a lot of friends who have invested in Argentina, but that's a whole guy in the little

cell.

Well, that's the thing.

You've got a leader there whose nickname is El Loco.

Because he is he is very Trumpy, I guess you could you could call it.

And he is up for reelection later this month.

And suddenly Trump he was one of the few world leaders that showed up for Trump's inauguration.

who came to DC and so yeah so El Loco is getting 40 billion of our money and now maybe we're buying some Argentine beef and I put all this in in yesterday morning's newsletter and you know just made real clear that at this point there is a nickname for folks who still believe that this is a president who's putting America first and that nickname is El Loco because it's crazy if you think that's what we're doing here.

You have a lot of ground to cover today.

We do.

You probably need two hours for this.

Well, it will be two hours.

Yes, absolutely.

So I hope you can join us.

You can always listen on the live stream.

You can listen on the app.

Catch us that way if you are not in the

market.

Yes.

And the app and also by there's there's podcasts.

There's there's so many different ways.

So but the best one, the best one, nine to 11 weekday mornings.

I appreciate that, Pat.

I

appreciate that, Parker.

Go have some chicken and waffles.

Live on the

edge.

Push

it.

All right.

Go crazy.

That's all after I hear you and Greg.

One of you is going to sway me one way or the other.

Thank you, Jane.

Talk to you later.

All right, have a great day, Parker.

Thank you for everything.

We'll see all of you back here tomorrow as well.

We've got a full load here.

We've got the representative Francesca Hong talking about a race for governor, Dan Schaefer, Cam Stevenson, Steve Bo, Dan Hagen, James Kelly.

You're going to want to stick around.

It's going to start at 6am tomorrow morning.

We'll be welcoming you back here up north.

I'm back right now.

Have a great

day.

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