The Book Shelf

Wednesday, December 21st   7:00pmFree and Open to the Public. We exist. We try to lead good, thoughtful lives. And while we all try our best, we can’t avoid the startling moments, or we make mistakes and experience little shocks and embarrassments—our lesser horrors—that make us wince and come back to haunt us again and again.For Peter Smith—whose weekly essays for Minnesota Public Radio have endeared him to thousands of listeners and readers—these awkward times are not without their humor, and a healthy dose at that. We all know the circumstances and places the lesser horrors are likely to await—sibling rivalries, high school gym class, job successes and failures, raising children. In this series of funny, honest, and moving pieces, Smith explores a few messy episodes from his own life: growing up Catholic on the south side of Chicago, seeing his tricycle stolen before his eyes, and onward to American life in the ’50s and ’60s, Vietnam, and a career in advertising, where bosses feed employees anxieties to increase creativity. Along the way, Smith discovers how these moments not only help define what it is to be human but are also a major source of our inspiration and imagination.So cover your eyes, peek through your fingers. Life is a cavalcade of lesser horrors. They may not be the easiest memories to relive, but they are often among the funniest. And by facing them squarely and perhaps even with a smile, Smith finds himself uncovering a simple reassurance, an uneasy truth we should take to heart: we’re all on this wild ride together.  Peter Smith lives in Hopkins, Minn. He writes essays, fiction, poetry and an occasional op-ed piece. His short stories appear in writing competitions now and then. When all else fails and the wolf appears at the door, Smith has been known to resort to writing advertising -- a fact that he and his siblings have gone to great lengths to hide from his mother. In autumn 2010, the University of Minnesota Press will publish "A Porch Sofa Almanac," an anthology of his essays for MPR. A second book, a memoir entitled, "A Cavalcade of Lesser Horrors," is scheduled for publication in autumn 2011. Smith blogs at petersmithwrites.blogspot.com. You can follow him on Twitter at petersmithwrite or on Facebook at Peter Smith Writes.