Book About Family Turned Into A Labor Of Love

When Rob Woupat agreed to write his book on former Central Valley High School teacher and coach Sig Hansen, he had no idea what he was getting into.

For not only did Woupat end up with a book, he ended up with a wife as well.

Woupat, who lives in Bremerton, will read from his book “Indelible Gifts: The Story of a Twentieth Century American Family” (166 pages, $14.95 paperback, ISBN 0-9653028-0-6) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Woupat had been working as a freelance writer in Minnesota when he was contacted by the Hansen family. He’d known Hansen’s daughter, Marilee, since 1960 when both had been students at the University of Vienna.

“We had been in touch over the years,” Woupat says. “She knew I had been doing some writing, selling articles in the Midwest. So she and her brothers hired me to do this book.”

After arriving in Washington, Woupat says, “I spent a number of weeks traveling around Eastern Washington and Idaho and Montana interviewing people.” He returned to Minnesota, wrote the book and gave it to the Hansens.

Where it remained, in manuscript, for a decade.

But the book may have remained still, Woupat didn’t. “During that time, I married into the family,” he says.

And last spring, following the deaths of Hansen, his wife Beverly and their son Pete, Woupat updated the book and self-published it.

Woupat and his wife now live in Bremerton, where she retired in 1994 as high school principal. He is retired from the Washington Special Olympics.

“I’m writing full time now,” he says. His main project: “a collection of light essays on househusbandry.”

And what advice does he have to share about the experiences he had while writing “Indelible Gifts”?

“Beware when you take on writing jobs,” he says with a laugh.

Map of the world

If you have a student in your household who needs access to an up-to-date world atlas, you could do worse than to purchase a copy of The DK World Reference Atlas (DK Publishing, 730 pages, $49.95 ISBN 0-7894-1085-0).

Set up alphabetically, the book offers a detailed study of 192 different countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Other sections include a more general look at “The World Today,” specific “Global Issues” such as population and environment and an “Index-Gazetteer” that carries information on various organizations, geographical place names and a glossary of geographical terms.

Even if you don’t have a student, this is a great browsing book, complete with maps, graphs and all the statistics you’d ever need for that next neighborhood “Jeopardy” competition.

Northwest pages

Strawberry Hill Press of Portland makes a specialty of publishing books that you aren’t likely to otherwise hear of. Two of its latest efforts are Northwest-oriented stories.

“On the House, With Love” (210 pages, $12.95 paperback, ISBN 0-89407-110-6) by Sheila Horder is the story of Seattle-based architect Morley Horder whose life work was to design and build houses customized to each home-owner. The author is Horder’s wife.

“Going Where I Have to Go: Essays From Within” (166 pages, $9.95 paperback, ISBN 0-89407-110-6) by Harold P. Simonson is a collection of reminiscences by a professor emeritus of English at the University of Washington.

While the title makes this book sound like a scholar’s boring ruminations on, say, aesthetics, nothing could be further from the truth. Simonson’s stories are of his childhood, which was spent during the Great Depression, and of the lessons that he learned early and well concerning the value of such things as honor, charity, respect and love.

To order from Strawberry Hill Press, call (503) 235-5989.

Fresh from the radio

Diane Roberts, a features writer for the Atlanta Constitution and regular commentator for National Public Radio, will read from her non-fiction during two upcoming literary events.

At 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Roberts will speak on the second floor of the Eastern Washington University Spokane Center, First and Wall. On Friday, she will read at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Both readings are free and open to the public.

The reader board

Bonnie Shields, a Sandpoint artist who illustrated the new Marguerite Henry book “Brown Sunshine,” will appear from 2 to 4 p.m. today at the Children’s Corner Bookshop, 714 W. Main on the Skywalk level of River Park Square. Shields, who is bringing some of her artwork to sell, will talk about the life of an illustrator.

Rob Woutat, author of “Indelible Gifts,” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.

Alan Liere, author of “… and pandemonium rained,” will read from his book of outdoor humor at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Diane Roberts, author of “The Myth of Aunt Jemima,” will read from her non-fiction at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Barb Griffith, author of “Simply Fat Free,” will sign copies of her book from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore.

Carlos Schwantes, a University of Idaho professor of history and author of “So Incredibly Idaho!” will read from his book at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Auntie’s Bookstore.

, DataTimes