Dear Great Book Guru,  I was at the opening of Karen Kessler’s great new Sea Cliff Stitchery.  What fun and such beautiful things! I signed up for a class with Karen and can’t wait for it to begin. While we were there at the K. DiResta Collective, many people were talking about the late Pete Seeger.  I would love to learn more about the man and his times- do you have a book you would recommend?   Seeger Fan

Dear Seeger Fan,   I read a wonderful biography of Woody Guthrie  a few months ago that presented a detailed description of Pete Seeger and the  movement Seeger led for so many years. The book was RAMBLIN MAN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WOODY GUTHRIE by Ed Cray. While a rich record of Guthrie’s troubled life, this book also highlights a vast array of  characters that brought song and protest together: Leadbelly,  the Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem,  Jack Elliott, Cisco Houston, Joan Baez, Alan Lomax,   Bob Dylan… with Pete Seeger- ever present and ever the movement’s  moral compass.  Guthrie was a much more ambiguous character- an immensely talented song  writer  and chronicler of the country’s political and economic ills, but  tortured by debilitating illnesses,  family tragedies, and a ruthless determination to become a legend in his own time. This book is a tribute indeed to those men and women who with their songs attempted to create a more just society.  Highly recommended!