Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

It helps for a veterinarian to be an animal lover.

It doesn’t help for her to be allergic to cats.

But Karen Fine didn’t let that stop her. Nor was she cowered by the fact that, in the 1980s, when she went to vet school, almost all the students were male. She followed in her physician grandfather’s path and became a veterinarian who made house calls, “laid hands” on her patients and always took time to listen — both the the pets and the caretakers.

Fine’s new book, “The Other Family Doctor” is a collection of stories she amassed while practicing veterinary medicine. But it also functions as a memoir. She weaves in tales of her own pets: the birds, cats, and dogs who have taught her that caring for the animals in our lives can teach us to better care for ourselves.

Join MPR News host Kerri Miller as she talks with Fine about pets, mindfulness and how even vets struggle with knowing when it’s time to say good-bye.

Guest:

• Karen Fine is a holistic veterinarian who owned and operated her own house-call practice for twenty-five years. Her new book is “The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life and Mortality.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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Renown underwater photographer David Doubilet has been donning a mask and flippers and descending into what he calls “the secret garden of the sea” since he was 12. What he saw there captivated him and eventually fueled his career.

He’s photographed powerful sharks, brightly colored fish, the splendor of the coral reefs and the destruction caused by warming oceans. He’s published 12 books chronicling his work and he regularly contributes to National Geographic.

In 2006, Doubilet visited Minneapolis to showcase his work and stopped by MPR News’ St. Paul studios to chat with host Kerri Miller about his passion. We are reviving the conversation now to continue our celebration of April as Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

• David Doubilet is considered to be one of the best underwater photographers in the world. He’s published a dozen books and and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Renown underwater photographer David Doubilet has been donning a mask and flippers and descending into what he calls “the secret garden of the sea” since he was 12. What he saw there captivated him and eventually fueled his career.

He’s photographed powerful sharks, brightly colored fish, the splendor of the coral reefs and the destruction caused by warming oceans. He’s published 12 books chronicling his work and he regularly contributes to National Geographic.

In 2006, Doubilet visited Minneapolis to showcase his work and stopped by MPR News’ St. Paul studios to chat with host Kerri Miller about his passion. We are reviving the conversation now to continue our celebration of April as Animal Month on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

• David Doubilet is considered to be one of the best underwater photographers in the world. He’s published a dozen books and and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Once you start looking, wolves are everywhere.

A wolf plays the the villain in “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs.” The boy who cried wolf is ultimately destroyed by his lie. A person who isolates from society is called a “lone wolf.” A dangerous mob is named a “wolfpack.”

And of course, the animals themselves are both feared and admired.

Wolves have intrigued writer Erica Berry since she was a child growing up in Oregon, where the animals enjoyed an uneasy truce with ranchers. But she believes wolves are more than what they seem — that we project our fears onto them and make them symbols of everything that terrifies us.

Her new book, “Wolfish,” examines that premise, and it’s the perfect launch of Animal Month here on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Don’t miss this thoughtful conversation between MPR News host Kerri Miller and Berry as they talk about why our culture sees wolves as a threat, and how getting close to the wolf could help us transform our fears.

Guest:

• Erica Berry is a writer and teacher. Her nonfiction debut is “Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Once you start looking, wolves are everywhere.

A wolf plays the the villain in “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs.” The boy who cried wolf is ultimately destroyed by his lie. A person who isolates from society is called a “lone wolf.” A dangerous mob is named a “wolfpack.”

And of course, the animals themselves are both feared and admired.

Wolves have intrigued writer Erica Berry since she was a child growing up in Oregon, where the animals enjoyed an uneasy truce with ranchers. But she believes wolves are more than what they seem — that we project our fears onto them and make them symbols of everything that terrifies us.

Her new book, “Wolfish,” examines that premise, and it’s the perfect launch of Animal Month here on Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Don’t miss this thoughtful conversation between MPR News host Kerri Miller and Berry as they talk about why our culture sees wolves as a threat, and how getting close to the wolf could help us transform our fears.

Guest:

• Erica Berry is a writer and teacher. Her nonfiction debut is “Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Diana Abu-Jaber’s family has deep roots in Jordan. Her father came to America after a failed marriage proposal — an act of “revenge immigration,” she laughs. And while he lived in the U.S., married here and raised a family here, his never truly left his homeland behind.

Growing up in a thoroughly Jordanian household within an American context shaped Abu-Jaber’s life. She traveled to Jordan with her family and was often startled to discover hidden aspects to her father during her visits.

It was this mix of identity and heritage, of belonging to a culture or land that one can no longer possess, that inspired her latest novel, “Fencing with the King” — so named because she learned, later in life, that her father was once a favorite sparring partner with the king of Jordan.

“It’s like he had a before and after life,” she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “Dad was trained to spar with King Hussein, and this was something he never talked about when we were growing up. I didn’t even know he knew how to fence until I was an adult.”

Her book vividly takes readers on a journey to the modern day Middle East, where questions of displacement and reclamation, of family identity and inheritance linger. Join Abu-Jaber and Miller for a conversation about homeland, myths and legacy on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, Friday at 11 a.m.

Guest:

• Diana Abu-Jaberis an award-winning author and a professor at Portland State University. Her latest book, “Fencing with the King,” was just released in paperback.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Diana Abu-Jaber’s family has deep roots in Jordan. Her father came to America after a failed marriage proposal — an act of “revenge immigration,” she laughs. And while he lived in the U.S., married here and raised a family here, his never truly left his homeland behind.

Growing up in a thoroughly Jordanian household within an American context shaped Abu-Jaber’s life. She traveled to Jordan with her family and was often startled to discover hidden aspects to her father during her visits.

It was this mix of identity and heritage, of belonging to a culture or land that one can no longer possess, that inspired her latest novel, “Fencing with the King” — so named because she learned, later in life, that her father was once a favorite sparring partner with the king of Jordan.

“It’s like he had a before and after life,” she tells MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “Dad was trained to spar with King Hussein, and this was something he never talked about when we were growing up. I didn’t even know he knew how to fence until I was an adult.”

Her book vividly takes readers on a journey to the modern day Middle East, where questions of displacement and reclamation, of family identity and inheritance linger. Join Abu-Jaber and Miller for a conversation about homeland, myths and legacy on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas.

Guest:

• Diana Abu-Jaberis an award-winning author and a professor at Portland State University. Her latest book, “Fencing with the King,” was just released in paperback.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Author Diana Abu-Jaber returns to MPR News this week.

Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas will feature a conversation between host Kerri Miller and Abu-Jaber about her latest novel, “Fencing with the King,” a book set in Jordan that explores family dynamics and inheritance.

It’s not the first time Abu-Jaber and Miller have talked. For this week’s blast from the past, enjoy their 2011 discussion about “Birds of Paradise,” which NPR named one of the top books of that year and won a 2012 Arab-American National Book Award.

Guest:

• Diana Abu-Jaber is an award-winning author and a professor at Portland State University. Her latest book, “Fencing with the King,” was just released in paperback.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Author Diana Abu-Jaber returns to MPR News this week.

Friday’s Big Books and Bold Ideas will feature a conversation between host Kerri Miller and Abu-Jaber about her latest novel, “Fencing with the King,” a book set in Jordan that explores family dynamics and inheritance.

It’s not the first time Abu-Jaber and Miller have talked. For this week’s blast from the past, enjoy their 2011 discussion about “Birds of Paradise,” which NPR named one of the top books of that year and won a 2012 Arab-American National Book Award.

Guest:

• Diana Abu-Jaber is an award-winning author and a professor at Portland State University. Her latest book, “Fencing with the King,” was just released in paperback.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Paul Harding says it’s no accident that the residents of the small interracial community he imagined for his new book are uprooted from their island home at the same time as the first International Eugenics Congress was being held in London. In fact, learning about the conference inspired him to write his book.

The seeds of “This Other Eden” are planted in the true story of Malaga Island, an isolated island off the coast of Maine that was one of the first racially integrated towns in the northeastern United States. Populated by Native Americans, freed slaves and European Americans, the inhabitants led a sheltered — some would say naïve — life, unaware of the uniqueness of their situation.

Their community was shattered in 1911, when Maine government officials inspected the island and found the mixed races offensive. All 47 residents of Malaga were evicted, and some were rehoused in institutions for the "feeble-minded."

Maine publicly apologized for this deed in 2010. But the real-life story inspired Harding to imagine what it would have been like for the inhabitants to be displaced from their own private Eden, even as the world debated how to cull the weak from the herd, and who is worthy of salvation.

Displacement is an archetype, Harding told MPR News host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. The Israelites were forced out of Egypt, humanity out of the Garden of Eden. “It’s essentially human,” he says, “as old as humanity but also as contemporary as this morning.” Who gets to decide the norms? If some groups live on the margins, who set the boundaries? Don’t miss this thoughtful and introspective conversation.

Guests:

• Paul Harding is the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning “Tinkers.” He is director of the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature at Stony Brook University, and lives on Long Island, New York. His new novel is “This Other Eden.”

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcastonApple Podcasts,Google PodcastsorRSS.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletterfor the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.