The Perfect Antidote to James Frey....

Author Haven Kimmel grew up in a town so small it didn't have a traffic light. Hardly a hotbed of hard-hitting action. I havenen't read her new book, She Got Up Off the Couch: And other Herioc Acts from Mooreland, Indiana but I am ready to run out and buy it after hearing her lovely and thoughtful interview today on WUNC--North Carolina Public Radio's program "The State of Things." Through the magic of podcasting, you can listen to the show, too. Give them a day to get today's show archived, then visit WUNC's website, or access the file through the iTunes Podcast Directory.

Haven thinks like a writer and talks like a writer, in the best possible sense of the word. I loved hearing her talk about how she looked at her family differently as an author, as writing forces you to empathize with each character's point of view, even if you disagree in real life. If anything good will come out of the farce surrounding A Million Little Pieces it will be that readers start to appreciate quality memoirists.