All posts by Terri Peterson Smith

Memphis

Go Off The Beaten Page in Memphis

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Off The Beaten Page on Beale Street, Memphis
Off The Beaten Page on Beale Street, Memphis

In my opinion, if you’re looking for one place where you can go to get an understanding of the United States–its culture, its history and its struggles–it’s Memphis.  Robert Gordon says in It Came from Memphis, “No city has had more of an impact on modern culture.”

Those are pretty big statements, but after visiting Memphis, I think it’s true. I had never been there until I went on a “reconnaissance mission” while writing Off The Beaten Page:  The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways and by the time I left I felt a tie with Memphis that makes me want to go back to this gritty city on the Mississippi over and over.

It’s not a fancy place, like, for example another Southern city I love, Charleston. But, Memphis moves you. The Memphis mojo makes even the most reserved person want to snap her fingers and start dancing with abandon. In fact, go to the Stax Museum, “Soulsville, USA,” and hit the dance floor there which is surrounded by a video wall. Or, visit Sun Studio where a few guys named Elvis, Johnny, and Jerry Lee recorded their hits. Try to stand still; I dare you. I predict you’ll be rockin’ before you even notice it.

But it’s not all so happy-go-lucky. Memphis was a hub for the civil rights movement and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated there at the Lorraine Motel, which is now

The Lorraine Motel, and the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.
The Lorraine Motel, and the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.

the National Civil Rights Museum, another “moving” place.  This is mecca for anyone interested in the civil rights movement.  It’s undergoing an extensive renovation and is currently featuring the exhibit, “Freedom’s Sisters.”  Before you go, read Hampton Sides’ Hellhound on His Trail for background and to feel a very close connection to those events.

Then get rollin’ on the river with Mark Twain.  His classic Life on the Mississippi outlines not only his experience as a young riverboat pilot but also his observations from a later trip on the river where he observes the cotton culture, the people and many other aspects of life on the Big Muddy.  Take a short riverboat cruise and you’ll feel the river’s power and learn a little more about its history and integral role in the development of the country.

Need more excuses to visit Memphis?  Check out a few of the city’s upcoming events including Elvis Week, the King’s birthday celebration (this year from August 10-17), and of course Graceland. The Memphis Music and Heritage Festival takes place every year on

You'll also want to visit the gift shop at the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis
You’ll also want to visit the gift shop at the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis

Labor Day weekend. It’s organized by the Center for Southern Folklore. And, now through October you can visit Mud Island Park to see “Discovery: A Journey of Exploration and Imagination of America’s Waterways,” a traveling exhibit of the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium and the National Rivers Hall of Fame.

Ideas for Book Clubs

Books, Travel, Friendship: Inspiration for Girls’ Getaways

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On a book club getaway in Chicago.
On a book club getaway in Chicago.

Reading and travel make a dynamite combination. Camaraderie is also a key attraction of literary getaways. Traveling to a literary destination with friends allows you to get away, at least for a while, from the pressures and distractions of work, motherhood, soccer practice, and so many other responsbilities.  You gain just a little time to explore new places and ideas, try new things and expand your personal horizons. If nothing else, lit trips offer the chance to have a lot of fun in each other’s company.

If you’ve considered taking a trip with your book club or any other group of friends, you’ll want to take a look at Have Tote Will Travel, the work of Oregon-based Nicole Meier. htwt-logoShe says, “I’ve got two incredible, older sisters with whom I love to travel. I hope my blog inspires other women, whether they are friends or sisters, to take the time to travel together and create amazing girls’ trip experiences of their own.” Meier recently posted her interview with me about literary travel and my book Off The Beaten Page in her “Travel Reads” section. She has tons of gals’ travel ideas, so if you’ve been thinking about a trip with your book club or a getaway with mothers, daughters, sisters or a group of friends, check out Have Tote Will Travel.

And, a reminder, if you have had a great lit trip experience, please tell me about it at  tsmith952@comcast.net.  I love sharing those stories.  You’ll find them on the “Book Club Travel Tales” section of this blog.

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Celebrate Dad with a Literary Adventure Together

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Looking for a creative Father’s Day gift? Think books-and-adventure. 

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Scott and Mike Smith prepare for a Father’s Day father/son skydiving adventure at West Side Skydivers. westsideskydivers.com

Say “literary travel” and people usually conjure up images of following in the footsteps of the Bronte sisters in England, visiting Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West, or perhaps tracing the route of the fictional Robert Langdon through Florence in Dan Brown’s latest, Inferno.  Those are great ideas, but for most of us, such excursions mean a major investment of time and money.  Instead, I maintain that you can concoct a lit trip just about anywhere if you find the right book and activity combo.  A short lit trip doesn’t have to take a huge chunk of your budget or your schedule.  And it doesn’t require plowing through high-brow literature. The idea here is to have fun.

Like moms, fathers love spending time with their kids. Unlike moms, “together time” for dads may involve watching golf or ESPN. A lit trip with dad provides just the right catalyst to propel everyone away from watching sports on TV to watching events in person or better yet, participating. Reading the same book  (fiction or non-fiction) just naturally brings people together over shared stories and ideas. A literary adventure, near or far, extends the pleasure of sharing a book by adding an experience to the mix, creating an opportunity to live the book. So, it a lit trip doesn’t have to be a scholars exercise, just a way to try out new ideas, activities, and even meet new people.

At almost all of the events and appearances I do for my book Off the Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways, men come up to me and say I should do a book for guys.  Often, the books and itineraries in my book can be enjoyed by both men and women, so I imagine an Off The Beaten Page, Men’s Edition would offer much of the same sort of content but with a bit of fine-tuning… more NASCAR, less shopping.  Here are a few ideas for literary adventures for guys, dads and otherwise.

A Flying Leap

Is there something on dad’s bucket list that he just needs a little encouragement to try? Sky diving was on my husband’s list for ages and he finally talked one of our sons into going with him as a Father’s Day treat for himself.

Read: Above All Else: A World Champion Skydiver’s Story of Survival and What It Taught Him About Fear, Adversity, and Success by Dan Brodsky-Chenfield.  (Okay, I’m thinking you may want to go skydiving first, then read the book.)

Go: skydiving

How to Be Manly

Not so hot on extreme adventures like skydiving?

Read: Man Made: In Which a Dad Learns to Be a Man for His Son by Joel Stein. In man-made-coverhardback, this book had a title I liked better, A Stupid Quest for Masculinity. Stein confesses that he’s not a “manly man” and so undertakes an investigation of how to become one in this very funny book. Chapter One: “Surviving Outdoors”

Go:  camping or simply take a hike.

America’s Game

“Baseball travel” is a favorite form of travel for many guys, with groups traveling across the country to tick off visits to both major league and minor league stadiums.  (Read my post on Major League Vacations.)

Read: Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball’s Golden Age by Allen Barra.  This new book had been well received by critics.

Go: Take in a baseball game together.

The Scene of the Crime

It’s no wonder that crime is one of the most popular literary genres.Unknown-9

Read: Revisit the classics, books like Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon or Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely. You just can’t beat those hard-boiled gumshoes. Or, pick up more recent classics like Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer or Walter Mosely’s newest Easy Rawlins mystery, Little Green.

Go: visit the people in blue at your local police department.  Even small-town police departments offer some amazing behind-the-scenes tours and some even give you a look at offer their crime labs, ala CSI.

Grill n’ Chill

Cooking is a great creative outlet for just about anybody and there’s plenty of great food writing to go with it.

Read: Calvin Trillin’s The Tummy Trilogy or MFK Fisher’s classic The Art of Eating.Unknown-11

Go: take a cooking or grilling class together.

The sky’s the limit.  Just think book and “field trip.” For any dad, the memories of a literary adventure with his kids will stay with him far longer than a Hallmark card. If the kids are too young to share adventures with dad, you’ll want to check out the funny “Literature For Dads” video from The Dad Lab. They suggest avoiding Cormac McCarthy’s The Road–not an uplifting father-son travel idea.

AND–if you have any other book-and-travel pairings that a dad would like, please send them to me.  You can comment below, send links to favorite travel blogs, or email me at tsmith952@comcast.net with your ideas.  I’ll add them to this blog. But be quick.  Father’s Day is June 16.

Charleston

Spoleto Fests Large and Small in Charleston

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A carriage ride is a great way to get your bearings in Charleston.

“We just love the way y’all talk,” a Charleston carriage driver comments on my Midwestern accent. He says it, no doubt, with a bit of irony because so many Midwesterners say the same thing to him. Our banter is all in good fun. As we roll through some of Charleston’s most historic and elegant neighborhoods, I feel the warm, humid breeze from the bay blow over me and start to settle into the friendly, genteel hospitality of Charleston. It’s clear that the city still holds the same appeal that it did for Rhett Butler in the closing lines of Gone With the Wind. He tells Scarlett O’Hara that he’s going back home to Charleston, where he can find “the calm dignity life can have when it’s lived by gentle folks, the genial grace of days that are gone. When I lived those days, I didn’t realize the slow charm of them.”

Charleston is one of America’s oldest cities and many of its old guard trace their roots to English colonists, who laid out its series of broad, elegant boulevards. But while the city works hard to preserve its colonial and antebellum historic sites, it is by no means stuck in the days of tight corsets and hoop skirts.  The city is home to charming shops (see upper and lower King Street and Broad Street) and restaurants such as Husk that I dream about long after I leave. Most notably, Charleston displays its vibrant cultural life with the Spoleto Festival USA which runs until June 9  and fills the city’s historic theaters, churches and outdoor spaces with performances by world renowned artists as well as emerging performers in opera; theater; dance; and chamber, symphonic, choral and jazz music.

Spoleto brings in artists from around the world. It’s the big boy in town. But if you’re

Piccolo Spoleto Poster
Piccolo Spoleto Poster

looking for a taste of regional arts and culture head for Piccolo Spoleto, which focuses primarily on artists of the Southeast region with an emphasis on events for children and families.  There’s also a piccolo literary festival. Piccolo Spoleto offers performances and event either free of charge or at prices that are more affordable than its big brother.

No matter which Spoleto you choose, or if you prefer to simply stroll Charleston’s streets or visit nearby plantations, you’ll feel as at home here as Rhett Butler did. Heading for Charleston?  Here are a few don’t-miss books to read before you go:

Pat Conroy- South of Broad, The Prince of Tides, Beach Music 

Dorothea Benton Frank – Bulls Island, Folly Beach, Lowcountry Summer

Gloria Naylor, Mama Day

Edward Ball, Slaves in the Family

Alphonso Brown- A Gullah Guide to Charleston: Walking Through Black History.

Looking for an itinerary for your visit to Charleston? The city is a featured destination in Off The Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways.

 

South Dakota

Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background, South Dakota

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Hiking with the Nature Conservancy in the Samuel H. Ordway Memorial Preserve in South Dakota

On the prairie, the background is the story. More than most other places, the vast grasslands of the Dakotas make us stop and look for a moment at open spaces and realize that they are far from empty.

Gretel Ehrlich says in The Solace of Open Spaces, “We Americans are great on fillers, as if what we have, what we are, is not enough. We have a cultural tendency toward denial, but being affluent, we strangle ourselves with what we can buy. We gave only to look at the houses we build to see how we build “against” space, the way we drink against pain and loneliness. We fill up space as if it were a pie shell, with things whose opacity further obstructs our ability to see what is already there.”

Newport, Rhode Island

Things To Do in Newport, Rhode Island

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Newport Rhode Island, www.offthebeatenpagetravel.com

There’s plenty to do in Newport, Rhode Island, year-round, but “America’s first resort” really swings into action starting Memorial Day weekend, through Labor Day. For example, you can spend a weekend sampling great chowder in Newport any time of year, but the Great Chowder Cook Off takes place June 1. You can plan a picnic and head for Brenton Point State Park to fly kites and enjoy the fabulous scenery and the Newport Kite Festival July 13 and 14. And, there’s the world famous Newport Jazz Festival August 2, 3, and 4.  You can watch polo events and tennis tournaments, attend sailing regattas and find opportunities to go sailing yourself.

Admittedly, when you arrive in Newport,  you may feel like you somehow stepped out of your car and into a Ralph Lauren ad.  The town is a haven for hot-pink and lime-green plaid shorts, deck shoes, and monogrammed sweaters. But, as you may have seen from a few of my previous posts (see “The American Stories Behind Downton Abbey,” “Gifts for Mom“) I really love Newport, because it offers activities for just about every taste, even if you’re not part of the preppie set.  And, while modern-day events like those above abound, the town also offers a special chance to glimpse its Gilded Age history when you go “calling” at the fabulous mansions along Bellevue Avenue.  To get in the mood for your Newport trip, be sure to read Edith Wharton’s The Buccaneers, Thornton Wilder’s Theophilus North, or non-fiction works such as Lucius Beebe’s The Big Spenders or Amanda Mackenzie Stuart’s Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age. You’ll also want to check out a blog I’ve found, The American Countess, which is written by someone even more intrigued with Gilded Age Newport than I.

Newport is one of the destinations I investigate in  Off The Beaten Page: 
The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways. Find out more at http://www.terripetersonsmith.com

California, Minnesota, San Francisco

For San Francisco Travel, Armistead Maupin’s “Tales” Are Still Relevant

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The first volume of Armistead Maupin’s many tales of San Francisco

Author Armistead Maupin was in the Twin Cities last week speaking at the wonderful Pen Pals, an author lecture series that raises funds for the Hennepin County Library system. I’m sure that when they booked him for the event no one knew that it would coincide with the passage of the bill that made Minnesota the twelfth state to legalize gay marriage, but his appearance last week couldn’t have been more timely.

Maupin is the author of the beloved Tales of the City series that began as a newspaper column in the 1970s, first in a Marin County paper and then in the San Francisco Chronicle.   Much the way Charles Dickens’s work appeared in serial installments, each Tales of the City column delivered a new episode in the lives of a quirky and sometimes bizarre collection of transsexual, straight, and gay characters who reside at the fictional 28 Barbary Lane, San Francisco. The series grew into eight best-selling novels, a television miniseries, a film and a musical.

Maupin was one of the first openly gay authors and his stories were ground-breaking in a time when there were no gay people in popular culture. I was thinking as he spoke about how much things have changed, particularly in light of Minnesota’s new marriage law. His conversation was peppered with a few “motherfuckers” and some colorful comments about his sexual behavior. I wondered if such in-your-face speech seemed a bit dated, unnecessary in the era of Ellen Degeneres and “Modern Family” when gay people are more part of the mainstream. That was Friday. Then Saturday night in New York’s Greenwich Village, a gay man was murdered in what was clearly a hate crime. So, that answered my question. Maupin’s attitude and his stories are as pertinent as ever. When he started writing there was the homophobic Anita Bryant.  Now we have Rep. Michelle Bachmann.

Maupin’s groundbreaking stories incorporate the politics of the 1970s but also focus on universal themes of love and longing that have made the “Tales” endure over the decades with broad appeal. Maupin says, “We read to feel less alone, to find our experience reflected in that of others.” I would add that reading opens our minds to the the experience of others even if it isn’t the same as ours. The best thing about reading: it fosters empathy.

For anyone traveling to San Francisco, the Tales are a must read and Maupin’s web site offers a great map to the real places that you read about in the books. That reading and travel combination gives insight into the city’s history not only as ground zero in the gay rights movement but also its position as the America’s foremost place for iconoclasts–the Beats, hippies, immigrants from around the world, and cultural and spiritual seekers of all sorts who have changed the way we think and influenced our culture.

Though he will forever be associated with San Francisco, Maupin and his husband Christoper Turner, have decamped for Santa Fe, for what Maupin says is a new adventure in a place that has amazing vistas, adobe homes, and wide open spaces.  But, he says, “San Francisco is still in my heart.”

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Gifts for Mom: Ten Book Ideas to Inspire A Mother’s Day Adventure

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Give your mom the Mother’s Day gift she really wants: time with her kids and a good book.  

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My 80-plus-year-old mother and I went sailing last year in Narragansett Bay while doing a Edith Wharton-related trip to Newport, Rhode Island. You can create a lit-trip just about anywhere, a great Mother’s Day gift.

It’s often a challenge to find an interesting way to celebrate Mother’s Day beyond flowers and candy, or maybe breakfast in bed.  But the gift of a good book and a book-based adventure to go with it makes a present any Mom will treasure.

Women love to bond over books. The popularity of book clubs proves that. But Moms and their kids—of any age—can also share the experience of reading a great book together.  Better yet, take reading a step further with a “lit trip,” based on the book. Meaningful time with her kids is the gift every mother wants.

My book, Off The Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs, and Girls on Getaways offers reading lists and itineraries for three-day “lit trips” to 15 U.S. destinations. But it’s easy to create your own lit trip close to home, no matter where you live. Think “field trip” like the kind you took in school, only without the yellow bus and the sack lunch. Find a book topic that interests both you and your mother (or your kids), then think of place to go where you can experience the subject of the book in person. These don’t have to be high-brow or “girly” outings. We’re not talking reading Keats or Shelley and dancing the gavotte.  Here are a few of my ideas for Mother’s Day lit trips for readers, from young adults to the young at heart:

  1. For those who love horses or horse-racing- Read Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit
    Read Seabiscuit and head for the racetrack
    Read Seabiscuit and head for the racetrack

    and spend an afternoon at the track or visit a horse farm.

  2. For fans of “whodunits” – Read a book about an art heist such as The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser or The Rockwell Heist by Bruce Rubenstein and visit an art museum.
  3. For history buffs – Read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (or ask a librarian for tips on great books about your local history) and visit an historical society, battlefield or landmark.
  4. For baseball fans – Read Bernard Malmud’s The Natural or Michael Lewis’s Moneyball and take in a game together.
  5. For animal lovers – Read Temple Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human or Julie Klan’s Love at First Bark: How Saving a Dog Can Sometimes Help You Save Yourself and visit or volunteer at an event at your local humane society or animal rescue group.
  6. For the outdoorsy – Read Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest  Trail and go take a hike.
  7. For music fans– Read an autobiography by a favorite musician or other book about music and take in a concert. Try Cash: The Autobiography; Blues All Around Me by B.B. King; or  Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller.
  8. For cooks – Read Animal Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver or My Life in France by Julia Child and visit a farmers’ market or take a cooking class.
  9. For movie goers – Read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby or Therese Anne
    How does the movie compare to the book? Read the Great Gatsby and then take in the movie. A great outing for Mother's Day.
    How does the movie compare to the book? Read the Great Gatsby and then take in the movie. A great outing for Mother’s Day.

    Fowler’s Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and see the new Gatsby movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

  10. And, for moms who really do love flowers, read The Language of Flowers: A Novel, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and go on an arboretum or garden tour.

Off The Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs, and Girls on Getaways, published by Chicago Review Press, is available now in bookstores and online everywhere.

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Off The Beaten Page Interview on Minnesota Monthly Blog

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Minnesota Monthly recently posted an interview that Joel Schettler did with me about

Off the Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways is now on sale everywhere.
Off the Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways is now on sale everywhere.

Off the Beaten Page and literary travel.

“Designed for lovers of literature and travel, Off the Beaten Page: the Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs, and Girls on Getaways, written by Edina resident Terri Peterson Smith, turns the power of a great story into a travel experience, taking readers on a tour of America’s most literary destinations. From a Mark Twain-inspired steamboat cruise on the Mississippi, to a walking tour of New York in the shoes of Holly Golightly from Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, detailed travel ideas and itineraries are crafted for 15 destinations across the United States that are featured in the works of famous writers—including an entire chapter on Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“I had opportunity to ask the author about her inspiration for the book, which will be published next week. Hear her speak in person on May 28 at Barnes and Noble at the Galleria in Edina beginning at 7 p.m.”  Read the rest of the article.