2021 Fall Read

Hi, I’m Marcy McKay from Amarillo, author of the award-winning novel, Pennies from Burger Heaven. I’m excited to be a Radio Reader for High Plains Public Radio’s Book Club.I just finished rereading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, which takes place in the American South in the 1840’s. Huck is the son of the town drunk and has no mom. He ends up on the run with a slave named Jim, floating down the mighty Mississippi – desperate to be free.

This is Mike Strong, in Hays, for HPPR, Radio Reader’s Book Club. The book is “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.My grandmother on my stepdad’s side was a farm wife who, with her husband, arrived from Germany in the early 1900’s. They established a farm south of Stanton, Nebraska.

If you’ve encountered words so offensive, so profane, you simply can’t bear to hear, you’ve likely been awakened to an idea expressed by cultural critic bell hooks: “Language is a place of struggle.” Sometimes we are united in the struggle, and sometimes we are not. Do you know the comedy bit “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television”? Made famous by stand-up comic George Carlin back in 1972? Still true for the words listed, but what strikes me is that none of the seven words are racial or ethnic. Places where, in language concerns, we tend to disagree.

This is Nicole English coming to you from the Sociology Department at Fort Hays State University for HPPR's Book-Bytes. This is a discussion of the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.Although it was written in 1884, this book is as controversial today, as it was when it was published. You may wonder why a story about an orphaned runaway boy would create such a stir...

This is Leslie VonHolten broadcasting from the High Plains of Kansas with another HPPR Radio Readers Book Byte.When it comes to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, my heart races with anxiety. What a wonderful book. What a heavy, complicated, imperfect book. It was immediately controversial when it was published in 1884, and 137 years later, it is still one of the top stars of the Banned Books list.

Here we are, Radio Readers, midstream in our fall book club series on rivers and making meaning. How could we not talk about one of the most iconic –and controversial—of American novels, set along and upon the mother of American rivers, the mighty Mississippi?

Returning for our Fall Season, Jane Holwerda -- author, administrator and educator --gets the pleasure of reviewing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.Dr. Holwerda holds a PhD in American Studies from Saint Louis University in Missouri, and her short fiction, essays, and poetry has appeared in publications such as: Cottonwood, Hurricane Review, MacGuffin, Red River Review, Sou’wester, South Loop Review, The Langdon Review, Guilty Pleasures, Out of Line, and Elegant Rage.

Despite the controversary surrounding this classic novel, the themes are most relevant to life today.First published in the United Kingdom in 1884 and then in the U.S. in 1885, Huck Finn is considered one of the great American novels. It is told in first person by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and narrator of two other Twain novels.

I'm John Harrington from my retirement location in southwest Washington state for High Plains Public Radio, Radio Readers Book Club.Elizabeth Kolbert begins her latest book, Under a White Sky, The Nature of the Future, with a chapter: “Down the River”

This is Mike Strong, in Hays, for HPPR, Radio Reader’s Book Club The book is “Elevations” by Max McCoy.In Wichita, where the Arkansas River runs over a low-head dam under the 21st Street Bridge, the river claimed the life of 24 year old seminary student, Brian Bergkamp, who was kayaking in a 5-person group..