In this edition of Madison Book Beat, host Lisa Malawski talks with local Madison author Tammy Borden.

Tammy is a professional copywriter turned novelist. She has had a whirlwind of a year since releasing her novel, Waltraud. She has reached thousands of readers on 5 continents, had more than 70 speaking or book-related events, and approximately one thousand reviews! Waltraud was self-published by Tammy Borden in 2023.

Waltraud is about a true story of Tammy’s mom growing up in Nazi Germany. Tammy grew up hearing her mom’s first-hand accounts of coming of age under Hilter’s regime. Through the years, she secretly recorded these conversations fully intent on writing a book based on her mom’s true story.

Tammy’s mom was 12 years old when the war broke out in Germany. Her father was forced to serve in a Nazi army. There was not enough money coming in and they had to live off of rations. A lot of people do not realize that the Nazis oppressed their own people. One story in the book which may come as a surprise to readers is that Waltraud helped to feed English airman hiding in a barn after their plane crashed until the war was over.

Tammy spoke at the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) where she shared a story where an American pilot fell to his death after shooting down a German fighter plane. Tammy wanted to find out who the pilot was. Tammy went to the US Military archives and searched her mom’s town in Germany which led to one man. Tammy found the man’s niece and they have now connected. Author connects with WWII pilot's family through mother's story - YouTube

Tammy initially wrote Waltraud in the third person and then had a revelation that she had to write this book in first person. Waltraud passed away at the age of 93 in 2020. Tammy wishes her mom could have seen the book. She is thankful that her mom was willing to share her stories. So many from Waltraud’s generation hide the horrors of their past inside. A quote from author, Tammy Borden: “If you don’t deal with your past, it’s still your present. You have no idea the healing that your story can bring to someone else.”

On this edition of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie speaks with author, geologist, and Lawrence University professor Marcia Bjornerud about her new book, Turning to Stone.

Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years, keeping a record of its experiments in the form of rocks. Yet most of us live our lives on the planet with no idea of its extraordinary history, unable to interpret the language of the rocks that surround us. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud believes that our lives can be enriched by understanding our heritage on this old and creative planet.

Contrary to their reputation, rocks have eventful lives–and they intersect with our own in surprising ways. In Turning to Stone, Bjornerud reveals how rocks are the hidden infrastructure that keep the planet functioning, from sandstone aquifers purifying the water we drink to basalt formations slowly regulating global climate.

Marcia Bjornerud is a structural geologist whose research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building. She combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has done research in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island), as well as mainland Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. Her books include Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth; Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World and Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities. Timefulness was longlisted for the 2019 PEN/E.O.Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing, and was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in Science and Technology.

In his 1979 Whole Earth Catalog, Stewart Brand wrote, “We are as gods, so we might as well get good at it.” Based on his time on the Mississippi River, however, Boyce Upholt concludes “that we do not make very good gods.” In the final pages of The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, Upholt reflects, “The river is an unappeasable god, and to react to it with fear and awe is not wrong. . . . Perhaps what people learn after thousands of years of living along one of the world’s greatest rivers is that change is inevitable, that chaos will come. That the only way to survive is to take care–of yourself and of everyone else, human and beyond.”

Boyce Upholt is a “nature critic” whose writing probes the relationship between humans and the rest of the natural world, especially in the U.S. South. Boyce grew up in the Connecticut suburbs and holds a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College and an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His work has been published in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications, and was awarded the 2019 James Beard Award for investigative journalism. His stories have been noted in the Best American Science & Nature and Best American Nonrequired Reading series. Boyce lives in New Orleans.

Book photo courtesy of Boyce Upholt.