SHSU Common Reader 2024: Callings

This guide is for a book that contains discussions of and references to real experiences of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.

Booklist
Book Review

"We’re admonished to find a calling in order to live a fulfilled life. And while 'job' is an ancient construct, storytelling is a far older one. The fifth book by Isay (All There Is, 2012), founder of StoryCorps, merges both beautifully. Since 2003, StoryCorps has recorded over 65,000 personal interviews, preserving and sharing American oral history for future generations. Gleaned from the thousands of work-related interviews, Callings introduces readers to dreamers, healers, multigenerational xyz-ers, philosophers, and groundbreakers. Whether inspired by teacher, parent, or mentor or self-motivated to help change the world around them, these men and women proudly squeeze more out of their jobs than paychecks. They make things, serve others, create opportunities, endure sacrifices, and take risks. Callings will inspire readers at every stage of their careers to view work with a new appreciation for the possibilities it holds beyond the mundane."

Kirkus Reviews
Book Review

"A distinguished public radio producer’s collection of conversations with Americans who 'found…their way to doing exactly what they were meant to do with their lives.'

StoryCorps founder Isay (Ties that Bind: Stories of Love and Gratitude from the First Ten Years of StoryCorps, 2013, etc.) discovered his calling as a radio broadcaster at age 22, just as he was about to begin medical school. In this book, he presents his conversations with people—ages 10 to 90 from different backgrounds and geographical locations in the United States—who discuss what makes work meaningful for them. The author culled these stories from thousands of interviews recorded over more than a decade, but many have neither been published nor broadcast until now. The first section, titled 'Dreamers,' features discussions with people engaged in unusual occupations, such as street corner astronomer or bridge-tender, or in more conventional ones like doctor or astronaut that have required great personal sacrifice and commitment. In the second section, 'Generations,' people talk about their work in a historical context. A father and son, for example, discuss their work as firefighters and the pride they take in being part of a family tradition of saving lives, while a New York–based sculptor tells her ex-husband about the artist mother who became her 'greatest muse.' In the third section, 'Healers,' Isay interviews people like an oncology nurse and a public defender, who help restore everything from broken bodies to damaged social systems. The fourth section, 'Philosophers,' features stories from individuals—such as the accountant-turned–lox-slicer whose work brought him unexpected Zen-like peace—who have developed especially unique perspectives on life through the work they do. In the final section, 'Groundbreakers,' the author provides stories about unsung professional pioneers. Two children of video game inventor Jerry Lawson, for example, discuss their father’s passion for experimenting even as diabetes came to rule, then claim, his life. Thoughtfully organized and edited, each story is a reminder of the essential role work plays in the pursuit of human happiness.

Inspiring, insightful, and thoroughly readable."

Publishers Weekly
Book Review

"StoryCorps founder Isay culls and collects wise words and powerful stories about searching for meaning in work from the more than 65,000 stories recorded in StoryCorps booths across America over the past 12 years. Every one of the stories in this inspiring collection reveals the deep love that motivates the storytellers as they discover and embrace their vocations. For example, Eric D. Williams, a reverand [sic], admits that 'he came into this work kicking and screaming... but my heart was pulled,' and he changed both the character of his ministry and his community by performing a funeral of young man who had died from AIDS when other churches refused to do so. Emergency medical technician Rowan Allen saved Brian Lindsey’s life after Lindsey was critically injured in a bicycle accident; the experience so transformed Allen that he became a nurse, and he and Lindsey’s family formed such a bond that Lindsey’s family showed up at Allen’s graduation from nursing school. Beekeeper Ted Dennard talks to his friend, Clay Culver, about the wisdom he’s gained from his work and the bees: 'My favorite thing about bees is that they have this give-in-order-to-receive—or receive-in-order-to-give—way of living.' These wonderful stories reveal that work becomes meaningful to those who choose—or are in some cases chosen by—the calling that motivates, energizes, and inspires them."