Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Saturday, June 28, 2008

By the Book: “Finding Josie”

Author: Wendy Bilen

Meet the author: Bilen will discuss her memoir from 10 a.m. to noon June 28 at Pearl Street Books, 323 Pearl St.

About the book: Weaving the story of a 1940s Midwestern farm wife — her grandmother, Josie Brodhead — with her own life’s journey, Bilen creates an account of how our lives intersect with our ancestors’ lives and what we gain from the search to know them better. “In looking for Josie,” she writes, “I’ve stumbled onto myself.” Bilen’s quest begins in Carson, N.D. — Josie’s birthplace — and winds through the coulees and river valleys of the upper Midwest, taking her further and further into the details of her grandmother’s past, as well as her own.

About the author: Bilen, 35 and newly married, recently left her corporate job in Chicago and entered a writing program. For this book, she tracked down relatives and friends, wandered through cemeteries and farm fields, and sat down at the kitchen table of the family farmhouse in La Crosse to listen to stories about Josie.

Buy the book: $26.95, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press

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