Just the Right Book Podcast is celebrating Mother’s Day with one of Roxanne’s favorite Mother’s Day poems. In this very special Tidbit, Roxanne reads The Lanyard by Billy Collins. 

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The Lanyard by Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly-
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-clothes on my forehead,
and then led me out into the air light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift – not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-toned lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

RJ Julia recently hosted an event for one of their favorite authors, Dani Shapiro and Just the Right Book Podcast was there every step of the way. The best-selling novelist and memoirist caught up with Roxanne prior to the event to discuss her latest memoir, “Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage.” The book, says Roxanne, is an “exquisite jewel” that you will want to read whether you are thinking of marriage, newly married, or have been married for a long time. Shapiro describes the joys and challenges of matrimonial life as, “Just that sense of what it is to go through life together… the all of it, the beauty and the terror.

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Books in this episode: 

Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage by Dani Shapiro 

Devotion by Dani Shapiro 

Slow Motion: A Memoir of a Life Rescued by Tragedy by Dani Shapiro

Veteran rock journalist Tom Doyle has interviewed Paul McCartney, U2, Madonna, Ringo Starr, David Bowie and many more. Doyle joined Just the Right Book from across the pond in England to talk about his newest biography, Captain Fantastic: Elton John’s Stellar Trip Through the ’70s, based on his one-on-one interviews with the legendary superstar. The book chronicles Elton’s career in the 1970s, covering hit after hit, his close professional relationships, and even his struggle with sexuality. Doyle also shares the behind-the-scenes on what it’s like to profile music legends like Paul McCartney and Keith Richards and the time he spent with Amy Winehouse in her last days.

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Books in this episode:

Captain Fantastic: Elton John’s Stellar Trip Through the 70’s By Tom Doyle

The Wasp Factory By Iain Banks

Songs in this episode:

Runaway Train by Elton John

Rocket Man by Elton John

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting by Elton John

Albums in this episode:

A Single Man by Elton John

Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

Band On the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings

You probably know Kimberly Williams-Paisley as Annie Banks in the popular Father of the Bride movies, from one of her many TV roles, or as the wife of country music star, Brad Paisley. The New York Times bestselling author of Where the Light Gets In: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again opens up to Roxanne, who lost her own mother, Viola Ohlbaum, just days prior to recording this interview, on a special episode of Just the Right Book Podcast. Kimberly documents her mother’s rare form of dementia and tracks her family’s actions and emotions through the process leading up to her death last year. “My mother didn’t want us to talk about her illness; she wanted it to be the family secret,” says Williams-Paisley. While she wanted to honor her mother’s wishes and protect her pride, Kimberly admits, “It was a mistake, and I regret it. By keeping it secret, we missed out on a lot of resources we could have been using.” The book, says Roxanne, “does a brilliant job of normalizing a situation that many people find hard to think of as normal.”

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For More Information on Alzheimer’s & Dementia visit the Alzheimer’s Association website

Books in this episode:

Where the Light Gets in: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again by Kimberly Williams-Paisley

In Lieu of Flowers: A Conversation for the Living by Nancy Howard Cobb

Ann Patchett is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville and the author of seven novels. In 2012, Time Magazine named her as one of their 100 Most Influential People in the World. The Bel Canto author recently joined “Just the Right Book” from her home in Nashville to talk about being a bookseller and about her most personal novel to date, Commonwealth. “My father was dying as I was writing this novel,” Ann tells Roxanne. “I knew he’d hate this book, but I knew I was writing it because he was never going to read it.” The specific actions of the characters are not the same, but the emotions are. “As my mother would say, ‘None of it happened, and all of it is true.'”

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Books in this episode:

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead