C-SPL Reader of the Month: Heather Gudenkauf

With the release of her new book, Before She Was Found in April, and her approaching book talk at the library on Tuesday May 21, there's no better time to get to know the reading habits of local Dubuque bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf. Heather graciously agreed to be C-SPL Reader of the month for May, and in what follows, we get a glimpse of what influenced the Gudenkauf style.

Heather's Reading Philosophy

“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” 
― Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life

This quote by Anna Quindlen perfectly sums up my personal reading philosophy. I’m a dedicated homebody but love to travel through books. I will read just about any genre but a few of my favorites are mystery/thriller, biographies – especially featuring historical figures, and historical fiction. If you were to knock at my door, chances are I would answer it with a book in my hand. Reading has always been an escape for me.

Q & A with Heather Gudenkauf 

 

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)? 

A. My Ántonia by Willa Cather – My all-time favorite book by my all-time favorite author. Cather’s writing is just beautiful. I love the way that she could describe the setting in a novel and it actually seemed to become a character within the story. I reread My Ántonia and O Pioneers every year.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. I can read just about anywhere but my ideal spot is in bed with my dog Lolo sitting next to me.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I’m excited about starting The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. I’m looking forward to this National Book Award Winner because Sue Davis from River Lights Books recommended it and because it features a dog (of course).

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

 A. I love the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series by Louise Penny about the tiny fictional town of Three Pines just south of Montreal and its inhabitants. I tell anyone who will listen: After reading the first book in the series, Still Life, you will be happy to have met the characters, after the second book you will want to visit Three Pines, and after the third book you will want to pack up and move there. This is how enchanting Penny’s writing is! I’m anxiously awaiting the newest installment ~ A Better Man. I can’t wait!

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?) 

A. I used to be in the camp of if you start a book you should finish it. That’s changed over the years, if a book isn’t connecting with me I’ll set it aside. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a fabulous book, it just means that the story isn’t resonating with me at this particular moment in time.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. I was around six years old when we learned I had a profound hearing loss so learning to read was really hard for me. I was not a fan! After I was fitted with hearing aids the world opened up for me and I slowly started catching on. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when the print on the page began to make sense but I do remember that once it did, I was rarely without a book.

Looking for something to read? Check out Heather Gudenkauf's Favorite Books in the library catalog.

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Luke Vorwald

April's C-SPL Reader of the Month is a paralegal, avid D&D player, and frequent library user. Luke Vorwald has been gracious enough to share all about his reading interests, the best snacks to accompany a book, and—if you're not getting into a story—what page number it's safe to call it quits.

Luke's Reading Interests  

I tend to lean towards fantasy and sci-fi as my go-to genres of books and novels. Rather seldom will I pick up a biography or a book on real-world history. For me, it's all about the story. If the book doesn’t have an interesting narrative, it will get a hard pass from yours truly. In my humble opinion, I get plenty of real-world experience in my adult day-to-day, and while that is important, I would rather spend what precious little free time I have reading something I wouldn't otherwise experience. The same for me is true with video games; why would I play a golfing video game (an extremely achievable real-world act), when I could be shooting dragons out of the sky with lightning bolts?

However, I have been branching out into some non-fiction work, although they would be more on the fantastical side. Books on the paranormal, cults, and lesser-known history are of particular interest to me. Even when it comes to “real world” stories, I love to be astounded and amazed.

I also spend a fair deal of my reading time on published Role Playing Games books, especially Dungeons and Dragons material. While not a traditional book one might use for casual reading, I find these books contain some amazing stories and ideas; furthermore, these books contain amazing stories and ideas you can actually participate in. Playing an RPG with other folks through the vehicle of these books is the closest one can come to actually experiencing and affecting the same stories we love to read. With the support of books such as these, we are able to create our very own version of The Hobbit by living as our very own personal Gandalf. I also enjoy D&D books on a separately nerdy level, being that I love their lore and world building. I really geek out on knowing the ins and outs of different cosmologies, creation stories, magic systems, and rules that come along with these worlds. This gives me more street cred when talking with other nerds.

To me, that which is not real is just as important as that which is real. Works of fiction are both tools to learn from to prepare ourselves for reality, as well as an extension of reality itself. Our species has been given the unique capability of living in both the real and the fictional, so it would be a shame if we didn’t exercise that capacity.

• “Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.”
  ― Neil Gaiman, Dream Country

• “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”
  ― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings

Q & A with Luke

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?

A. Within the past year, I would have to give it to What the Hell Did I Just Read? by David Wong. I checked that book out on a whim (which is something I normally don’t do as I always have a large “to read” pile), and I was so pleased when I finished it. It was the first horror novel I had read in a long time to actual make me feel fear.

As for Ever… the choice is very difficult, but ultimately it has to be American Gods by Neil Gaiman. That novel was probably the most influential story I had ever read. I discovered it my first year on my own away from home in college, and it not only resonated with much of my core beliefs, but also helped to form new ones.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. Location: On my sectional in my living room, on the bed in my upstairs bedroom, a big comfy chair in a library, my futon in my old bedroom at my dad’s house, by the man-made pond of the Waterloo KOA, or on the bench under that huge oak tree on the corner of North West Arterial and JFK. During the fall, preferably.

Sound: Either rustling leaves or those long videos on YouTube of post-rock albums with no lyrics. I could also deal with some of those long lo-fi atmospheric videos as well.

Snacks: York Peppermint Patties, beef jerky, belVita blueberry crackers, Crown Royal Apple, some Stone Cliff wine, and a glass of milk. Not all at the same time though.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I am most excited to read Fire and Blood by George R. R. Martin. I had finished A Dance with Dragons on this most recent Thanksgiving, and I am jonesing for more Ice and Fire. For me, as well as pretty much all the other fans of his work, I love to piece together the subtle connections Martin works into the story, as well as realizing how he takes classic fantasy tropes and filters them through a lens of realism.

I’m also pumped for The Adventure Zone: Murder on the Rockport Limited by the McElroys, which I believe is to be released this year. Those good boys are just too funny and make content with a lot of heart.

Lastly, Jim Butcher, please will you finish and publish Peace Talks? Pretty please???

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. The book that challenged me the most would have to have been Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. As you can tell by the majority of the books provided as my favorites in the attached list, I primarily read fantasy and sci-fi. This book, however, is a western, and a very lengthy one at that. I decided to read it as the 4-part made-for-TV mini-series has a very special place in my heart, thanks to growing up watching it with my family. Lonesome Dove was such a challenge for me due to its lack of familiarity. There were no dragons, no vampires, and no magic systems to learn. The demons and monsters the protagonists faced came in the form of other men and from within themselves. This book is about as raw as it gets in terms of what it means to be human. While I had to completely readjust how I view a novel while reading it, I enjoyed it all the more for doing so.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to

the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)

A. A wise man once told me that in order to determine when it is ok to give up on a book, one must take 100 minus your age. The result is the page at which you can truly determine if the book is not for you and can toss it over your shoulder. I will admit I have not always followed this method, and I have given up on a book before the end. There have been times when I read books all the way through, only to find the rewarding lesson at the end was that I wasted my time. It seems to me I could have been using my precious reading time on books I actually would enjoy.

However, it's still worth giving books their fair shake. The Way of Kings was a bit of a rough go for me until about page 800 (out of approx. 1,200) when I first read it, but I am so glad I finished it (and all of the books that follow it).

However, if you don’t want to use the method I provided above, you could always use the Luke Vorwald Method: your heart will tell you when to raise the white flag. 


Check out  Luke's Favorite Reads for a list of books in the library catalog!

C-SPL Reader of the Month: Sharon

Youth Services Librarian Sharon Daly is the C-SPL Reader of the Month for March. In this interview, she shares about her love for the Beatles, psychological mysteries, and more.

Q & A with Sharon

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?

A. Is this a trick question? I feel like Forrest Gump trying to choose from a box of chocolates. My choice from the past year is going to be…drumroll please… She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah by Ann Hood. Why did I choose this young adult book about a girl spending the summer of 1966 planning, and scheming, and hoping to meet Paul McCartney? Because I could have written this book!  I felt every thrill and heartache Trudy did, and I could hear every Beatles song played on the radio that summer, and I loved (love) Paul McCartney! This book is all about hopes and dreams with a wonderful twist at the end that, I’ll admit, made me cry. Nostalgia at its best, and even though I cried, I also smiled...a lot.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. Sitting in a lounge chair on the beach with a soft breeze, and the palm trees providing the perfect balance of sun and shade. Oh, and a peach margarita on the table next to me.

If the beach isn’t an option, then my recliner at home with my two dogs on my lap and either coffee, tea, or a glass of wine. 

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. The Witch Elm by Tana French

I love a good psychological mystery, and Tana French is a master at her craft. Ms. French’s many characters are always very complex and multifaceted. Just when you think you have it all figured out, the plot will spiral into another direction. The answers are never obvious. Her stories are always original, and the crime elements are perfect. I can’t wait to sink into this book, maybe on that beach, but more likely in the recliner.

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

This beautiful, peaceful book is timeless and offers wisdom and guidance in such an eloquent and poetic way. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death. It has been translated into 108 languages and has never been out of print. The Prophet was originally published in 1923.

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game is a science fiction book written in 1994, well before reading dystopian-type books became popular. I found the plot to be quite disturbing after realizing how the children are exploited and used in the Battle Room. The challenge I faced with this book was trying to remember that it was fiction and not reality. Even after I finished reading the book, those troubling feelings stayed with me.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? (In other words, do you read every book to

the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?)

A. I have suffered through many books, hoping for a redeeming moment or a literary epiphany of some sort. Then I saw the t-shirt, So Many Books, So Little Time. Now, if I think a trip to the dentist would be less painful then reading, I know the time has come to put the book down.


Check out Sharon's other favorite books here: https://catalog.dubuque.lib.ia.us/cgi-bin/koha/opac-shelves.pl?op=view&shelfnumber=1422&sortfield=title