Frank Bures

Jon Ronson meets David Grann in this fascinating, wildly entertaining adventure and travel story about how culture can make us go totally insaneThe Geography of Madness is an investigation of "culture-bound" syndromes, which are far stranger than they sound. Why is it, for example, that some men believe, against all reason, that vandals stole their penises, even though they're in good physical shape? In The Geography of Madness, acclaimed magazine writer Frank Bures travels around the world to trace culture-bound syndromes to their sources—and in the process, tells a remarkable story about the strange things all of us believe.Book Club Discussion Questions: For the paperback edition, a list of book club discussion questions is also being issued. If you’d like to add the The Geography of Madness to your group’s reading list, here are several conversation starters:1) One main themes of The Geography of Madness is that stories (about the world, about our lives, about our bodies) are contagious. Can you think of a story, or an experience, that changed what you believed was possible?2) Do you believe the brain and the mind are the same thing? If not, what is the difference? 3) The stories in The Geography of Madness raise the question of free will: How much do you choose the life you live? How much do you learn (or catch) you life choices from those around you? 4) Have you ever found yourself immersed in a situation where you did not know the rules? What was that like?5) In The Geography of Madness, the author argues that our mindset and our expectations have biological consequences. Does that resemble your experience? If so, how?6) Try to imagine living in a world where it was possible to have your genitals stolen, either by magic or by ghosts. How would you protect yourself?7) In The Geography of Madness, the author argues that a strong sense of self—of your story— can help to activate your endogenous (internal) healing systems and vice versa. Do you remember a time when a stressful or difficult period seemed to be followed by a health problem or sickness? 8) In The Geography of Madness, did anyone’s genital actually disappear? If not, what happened? Does it matter?9) Is there a belief that everyone around you holds, but that you don’t share? How did you come to doubt this?10) The Handbook of Depression points to a genetic marker associated with greater vulnerability to depression. Yet this link only holds true in Western cultures. Why would that be?11) Have you ever had a health problem you were afraid to talk about, or that others didn’t believe in?12) In The Geography of Madness, the author argues that cultural syndromes are “real” syndromes, but that their causes might not lie where we think they do. Do you think they are “real” or “imaginary”? 13) Over the last few years, gluten intolerance has been rising. This rise occurs at a time of increasing anxiety about the relationship between food, health and identity. What’s changed: our bodies or our culture?14) After reading The Geography of Madness, how would you describe what culture is?15) How much does a your culture create you? How much do you create your culture?16) Have you ever had a cultural syndrome?

In recent years, Minneapolis has become a literary powerhouse. Under Purple The Minneapolis Anthology collects some of the most exciting work being done in, or about, Minneapolis and the Twin Cities area, with narrative threads that stretch back not just to Scandinavia, but across the world. The writers here have won, or been shortlisted for, the Newbery Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer, the Caldecott Award, the National Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award, and many others. Contributors include Kelly Barnhill, Marlon James, Kao Kalia Yang, Michael Perry, Bao Phi, Danez Smith, Shannon Gibney and many more, alongside new and first-time writers.

Tales of ambition, terror, rivalry, adventure, endurance, friendship, and love on the waters of the Mississippi River and beyond.In this collection of thrilling stories, award-winning writer Frank Bures tells stories as varied as the waters and weather and rhythms of a canoe trip. Bures recounts the terror of two kayakers who barely escaped from the 2011 Pagami Creek Fire in the Boundary Waters. He investigates the talk of two young campers who got a supernatural scare in Canada’s Quetico Provincial Park in the 1970s. He provides his insider account of the battle for the Mississippi River paddling record. And much more.In his longest story, Bures narrates the lost history of the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby, an annual 450-mile race run on the Upper Mississippi in the 1940s and 1950s that gave canoe-racing legend Gene Jensen his start—and which changed the course of modern canoeing. The tale includes the dominance of racers from the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, including many members of the Tibbets family, and the unacknowledged contributions of Ojibwe canoe builders Jim and Bernie Smith, whose design features are now part of the modern canoe-racing landscape. Pushing the River is an essential read for anyone who loves what legendary canoeist Bob O’Hara called “the sense of perpetual adventure” that comes in the seat of a canoe, where you never quite know what you will encounter around the river’s next bend.

The Shape of the Essays on Travel, Culture, and Belief from Rotary MagazineIn this collection, long-time Rotary magazine contributor Frank Bures explores everything from the rewards of taking risks, to the power of stories and words, to the need for human connection. Written with humor and empathy, Bures travels across the world, and across cultures, to shed light on what we can learn about our own. The essays included have been selected as "Notable" in the Best American Essays anthologies, won Folio magazine's Eddie & Ozzie Award and received other honors."Reading through these columns again now, I’m struck by the timelessness of his work. Even after more than 10 years in some cases, the pieces are as relevant as when they first appeared —some of them even more so."--Jenny Llakmani, former Managing Editor, Rotary magazine, from the introduction

When journalist Frank Bures heard that penises where being stolen through witchcraft in Africa, and people were being killed as a result, he flew to West Africa to get to the bottom of the mystery. What he found was even stranger than it appeared.