Wooden Spoons: a novel by Dennis Ruane

My daughter pointed out a novel that she thought I might be interested in. It’s called “Wooden Spoons” by Dennis Ruane. It is promoted as a novel about life, death, love and art. The title and description intrigued me so I bought the novel and read it. It was easy reading and a good summer vacation novel; more like a made-for-TV movie than a great work of fiction, but enjoyable none the less.

It is about a professor who abandons his position at the university, leaves his wife and isolates himself on his old family homestead on a mountain top in southwestern Pennsylvania. He lives in the old ways and begins carving wooden spoons. Don’t expect a lot of details on the wood carving itself. That area is presented in a pretty general manner. The novel touches on themes like: finding out what you were meant to do in life, and then having the courage to do it; preserving historical sites; making utilitarian things from wood with hand tools in the traditional manner; and focusing on what is important in life. All good stuff.  There is a plot conflict with a treacherous land developer that makes things interesting, and a nice ending.


“Wooden Spoons” is a semi-autobiographical novel. The author Dennis Ruane grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania like the character in the book. Also, like the character, Dennis abandoned a career in science to become a full time wood carver. More than just a carver, Dennis is a creative wood artist. Visit his website at: http://www.dennisruane.com/, to will see examples of his work.

You can buy a used (like new) paperback on Amazon for about $10. Enjoy.

The Shape of Spoons to Come

My family has a lot of left-handed people. I am not one of them, but my wife is and so are two of my four children. We once had a family celebration at a restaurant and out of 12 people, 8 were left-handed! This brings me to the subject of left-handed and right-handed spoons. I like carving wooden spoons. They are so utilitarian. You can be very creative and they make good gifts. Recently I have made several non-symmetric, ergonomic shaped spoons. I used cherry and maple “firewood” branches from my backyard. I have designed one shape for a right-handed person; and the other for a left-handed person. In the photo above, the top spoon is the righty; and the bottom spoon is the lefty. “Not so”, says my wife. She would prefer to use the one I designed for a righty, and she is left-handed. I showed her photos of similarly shaped spoons on the Internet. They are all labeled “left-handed” and they are shaped sort of like my design. To make matters worse, all the other lefties in my family agree with her. I guess it’s not right to label things…or people, for that matter.




What do you think? Which spoon shape would you prefer using? Perhaps you would rather use a straight, symmetrical, old-fashioned wooden spoon instead of one with a curvy shape.