Bob Barry, Oklahoma’s sports announcer
I just realized we didn’t have a copy of Voice of Bedlam , the new sports book about Bob Barry and will soon fix that oversight, and you should do the same. Who doesn’t know Bob Barry? If you’ve lived in Oklahoma for more than one sports season then you must have heard of him. The book is written by Oklahoma native, Bob Burke, another well known name in Oklahoma for his many, many books about Oklahoma people and places. To get a feel for just how prolific Bob is Voice of Bedlam is his 101st book . Michael Dean is co-author of the book. 
Published by the Oklahoma Heritage Association.
This book highlights Bob Barry’s life and work as a television and broadcasting icon for Oklahoma’s sports community. It also gives a history of football and basketball at Oklahoma’s two largest universities, OU and OSU.
I know the three have been appearing at various bookstores throughout the state, but here’s one more that you can catch….
Appearing at Steve’s Sundry in Tulsa, Thursday, Dec.16
5:00-7:00
Voice of Bedlam: The Life of Bob Barry
$25.95
Come out on a Thursday night and meet Bob Barry,
co-authors, Bob Burke and Michael Dean.
Eight Months with Young Ari
Young Bill Young here. I’ll be your guest blogger for the next couple of days while Kitty is out of town. First up: Oklahoma author CJ Cherryh’s latest sci-fi triumph, Regenesis. (Yes, I know CJ has moved to cooler climes, but she was raised here, taught school here, and wrote here for many years. We still claim her. Who wouldn’t?)
Regenesis is the long-awaited sequal to the Hugo Award-winning Cyteen—and yes, you do need to read Cyteen before tackling Regenesis, despite what some reviewers say. It took more than two decades for the sequel to see light, and Cherryh dedicates the book to Daw Books publisher Betsy Woolheim’s “determination.”
Cherryh’s Union/Aliance universe, the setting for Regenesis, is rich and complex, and I’ll let you follow this link to find out more about it.
When Regenesis opens, Arianne (Ari) Emory is 18 years old, and heir to the Reseune company which operates on the planet Cyteen, headquarters for the Union government. She is the clone of the original Arianne—a brilliant, but morally suspect, scientist whose genius has allowed Union’s population to grow (through cloning), giving it an advantage over its Earth and Alliance foes. Following the murder of the original Ari, Emory is cloned. Much of Cyteen focuses on the effort by Reseune personnel to make sure young Ari turns out as brilliant as her predecessor. This leads to cruel familial separations so that young Ari has the same traumatic experiences as her “parent,” but it ultimately makes Young Ari very different from the original: Old Ari doesn’t trust. Young Ari wants desperately to trust. Old Ari has no friends. Young Ari has several friends. Old Ari doesn’t (or can’t) love. Young Ari *does* love.
Where Cyteen was epic in scope, Regenesis is more intimate, taking place in the space of only eight months. But it is an eight-month period filled with political and psychological suspense as the young genius works to keep herself alive, solve her parent’s murder, protect Reseune and Union interests, and protect those she loves.
While telling the story, Cherryh weaves in the big issues that humans deal with: the need for development versus the need to respect nature; the meaning of identity; the need for self preservation versus the need to trust; and (especially in a post 911 world) the rights of the individual versus the need to stay alive and protect a way of life.
Cherryh doesn’t shy away from the big issues. (Why would you write science fiction if you were timid?) But she knows how to tell a story, too, and how to make you care about the characters (both born and cloned) that populate Regenesis.
Ok Heritage Association, lunch with Oklahoma Voices
The Oklahoma Heritage Association started a lunch with an Oklahoma Author program, called Oklahoma Voices. The Association itself has published more than 100 books celebrating Oklahoma history and culture. For ten dollars, or for twenty five which would include an autographed book, you can lunch with an Oklahoma Voice. The first event is a sit down with Peter G. Pierce, author of Baseball in the Cross Timbers: The Story of the Sooner State League, on Feb. 4th.
The next event will be on March 4th, this time with Bob Burke and Gini Moore Campbell, authors of Lee Allan Smith: Oklahoma City’s Best Friend.
And I think the April event will be very intriguing with Larry Lewis discussing Struggles in a New State: The 1910 Journey of the Abernathy Boys as a Framework of the Political Issues and Societal Changes in Oklahoma.
So get yourself signed up and have lunch with an Oklahoma author.
