After reading our book, I'm sure we're all curious about the sounds a wild snail makes when eating, so here's one of the recordings captured by the JT Bullitt Studio for Elizabeth Tova Bailey and posted on her website:
http://www.jtbullitt.com/smallsounds/20121109_snail/index.html
These two accompanying images are from the Facebook page of JT Bullitt Studio and show the snail eating a slice of carrot and also two pieces of paper nibbled on by the snail. To explore more about the author, visit her website: http://www.elisabethtovabailey.net/.
Saturday Samplers
A Monthly Book Discussion Group at Bernardsville Public Library
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Path of an Infidel
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1969, Ayaan Hirsi Ali followed both a painful and triumphant route across several continents to become a citizen of the United States in 2013. Her path led her from a devout Muslim upbringing, with its attendant practices of female genital mutilation and forced marriage, to the Netherlands where she sought asylum in 1992. Studying at the University of Leiden, she earned a masters degree and became politically active. As an elected member of the Dutch parliament, she was a proponent of Muslim women's rights and the integration of immigrants into Dutch culture. Notoriety and a death threat attached to her in 2004 when Theo van Gogh was assassinated while filming her short film, Submission, which was her protest against female oppression under Islam. Following a contentious period with the Dutch government, she moved to the United States and founded her organization, the AHA Foundation, to defend women against harmful practices such as honor killings and violence as well as against genital mutilation. She continues to maintain her focus on relations between Islam and the West.
Friday, May 5, 2017
Dog-Approved Poetry
Cynthia Rylant
Mary Oliver
Both Cynthia Rylant and Mary Oliver grew up under difficult circumstances and sought comfort in nature and their beloved pets. Cynthia Rylant's parents divorced early, and she was estranged from her father. Nonetheless, she spent several happy years living with her grandparents in West Virginia where she came to appreciate country ways as illustrated in her story book When I Was Young in the Mountains. Cynthia has published many beloved children's books including the Henry and Mudge series and Mr. Putter and Tabby books.
Mary Oliver states that her childhood was not nice and suggests that parental neglect caused her to escape for long walks in the woods outside of Cleveland, Ohio. On these walks, she carried a notebook and began experimenting with poetry. As an adult, she has maintained this practice over the years and is said to have stowed away pencils in the woods lest she should forget to bring one and not be able to jot down her thoughts. Much of her writer's inspiration as an adult has come from her life in Provincetown, Massachusetts, although she has now moved to southern Florida. Mary has received numerous awards for her poetry, notably the Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive.
Saturday, April 1, 2017
Open Doerr, Open Eyes
It is evident from his first short story collection, The Shell Collector, that Anthony Doerr clearly wants us to see (and see clearly) the natural world around us and to reconnect ourselves to it. In a 2010 interview discussing the intersections between the arts and the sciences, Doerr states, "What draws me toward the intersections? Everything! Everything around us right now, the bacteria in our guts, the tiny radio in our cell phones, the combustion engines rumbling out the window. Go look at the nearest, humblest tree and try to really see it: messages radiate between its cells along vast networks of cytoplasm; the leaves are fending off pests and pathogens, rootlets are prowling the soil, photoreceptors are monitoring the amount of daylight, water is coursing up through xylem; sugars and nutrients are dribbling down through phloem—every weed in your yard takes part in a whirling, staggering ballet; it’s making the air we breathe, making food out of photons that have come flying 93 million miles through the crushing, cold vacuum of space—that alone is enough to make a person want to kneel down."
And how does he bring the reader along with him to that intersection, in this case, where the arts can speak for the sciences, where the writer can use the natural sciences as a subject to engage our imagination and give us a better understanding of human behavior? In this same interview, Doerr responds that the short story medium is an excellent way to accomplish that goal. "And I believe the magic of a good short story, in particular, comes from the compression of so many days of thought into a space that can be experienced by a reader in an hour or so. So for me it comes from spending a lot of time in the language of whatever subject I’m interested in at the moment, shells or snow or radio or violin making or whatever, and working slowly, backtracking out of lots of dead-ends, toward a concerted and unified vision."
Learn more about this award-winning (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, O. Henry Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction) author on his website: anthonydoerr.com.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
On Loss and Gain
Ann Hood visited Bernardsville Public Library last year for an author interview concerning her latest publication, The Book That Matters Most. In discussing her life, she shared her personal story of grief at the loss of her five-year old daughter to illness in 2002. At the end of the program, a few of our audience members shared their own stories with her as well. This is a photo from one of those encounters.
Out of her grief, the author came to write such books as The Knitting Circle and Comfort: A Journey Through Grief. But out of this experience she also decided with her husband to adopt a daughter from China, which led to the writing of our book, The Red Thread. On her webpage, Ann Hood writes, "The Red Thread was inspired my family's decision to adopt our daughter Annabelle from China in 2005. Although the characters on that journey in the novel are all fictional, their desire to create families is universal and true. Like many adoptive parents, I wondered about the brave woman who gave up her daughter. Those imaginings led me to write the stories of six women in China who make that same painful decision. The Chinese belief in the red thread inspired both the title, and the metaphor of the story."
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
He Tells Narrative Nonfiction Like It Was
When discussing the motivation behind his writing career, Daniel James Brown states that "My primary interest as a writer is in bringing compelling historical events to life as vividly and accurately as I can." His publications bare this out. Brown is the author of books on the Donner Party (The Indifferent Stars Above), the 1936 Berlin Olympics (The Boys in the Boat), and our current book group selection, Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894. Writing has been his one focus after studying at Diablo Valley College, UC Berkely, and UCLA. Following graduation, he taught the art of writing at San Jose State College and Stanford before moving on to become a technical writer and editor. Here's an author who's directed all his literary skills to the vivid retelling of history in a compelling manner. Visit his website, http://www.danieljamesbrown.com/, to learn more.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Her Royal Readership
Below you'll find a short biography about Alan Bennett from Cyclopedia of World Authors. For those who prefer to read a review of our book, click The New York Times' book review.
Biography
Biography
Alan Bennett, one of England’s most popular and critically acclaimed playwrights, was born in Leeds, England, to Walter Bennett, a butcher, and Lilian Mary (Peel) Bennett. He became interested in the arts as a child, attending concerts by the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. His military service included a brief stint in the infantry followed by assignment to the Joint Services Language Course to learn Russian, first at Coulsdon, and then at Cambridge University. After serving in the army, Bennett read history at Exeter College, Oxford, taking his B.A. degree in 1957. He continued at Oxford, engaging in graduate studies in history and serving as a temporary junior lecturer in history (1960-1962) but left without completing his doctoral dissertation.
Bennett’s stage career began in 1960 when, having performed comedy routines at Oxford, he joined with three other university men to present a revue of comic and satiric skits, songs, and monologues at Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre in Scotland. Invited to participate in the Edinburgh Festival that year, the four performed their revue, titled Beyond the Fringe. The revue moved to London’s Fortune Theatre in 1961 and to New York’s John Golden Theater the following year. Bennett’s partners went on to successful careers: Peter Cook as a nightclub entertainer, Jonathan Miller as a physician, and Dudley Moore as a pianist and actor. Bennett proved successful in a variety of roles in the theater as well as films and television, including actor, director, and, most important, playwright.
After coauthoring Fortune and Golden in the early 1960’s, Bennett saw his first solo play, Forty Years On, produced in 1968. A satiric yet also affectionate look at the passing of an age, Forty Years On includes a play within a play as a comic revue commemorates the retirement of a veteran headmaster at a boys’ boarding school. The play received a London Evening Standard drama award in 1968, as had Beyond the Fringe in 1961.
The 1970’s saw Bennett establishing himself as a major figure in both stage drama and television in England. Getting On earned Bennett another Evening Standard award (1971), and The Old Country was named best new play for 1977 by Plays & Players. In addition, ten of his teleplays appeared on either the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC-TV) or London Weekend Television (LWT).
During the 1980’s Bennett added screenwriting to his accomplishments, with A Private Function and Prick Up Your Ears. The former is an examination of British social classes; the latter is a biography of playwright Joe Orton and has been noted by critics for its skillful use of irony, an ingredient in much of Bennett’s work. On the stage, Kafka’s Dick was named best new play of 1986 by Plays & Players. The play features an insurance salesman obsessed with author Franz Kafka. The Insurance Man, produced the following year, also is concerned with Kafka, an author whose seemingly contradictory desires for obscurity and fame appeared to resonate with Bennett’s own motivations.
Bennett’s many teleplays during the 1980’s included An Englishman Abroad, an account of English spy Guy Burgess seven years after he defected to Russia, which earned the British Academy of Film and Television Arts writers award (1983) and the Royal Television Society Award (1984), and Talking Heads, a series of six monologues by lower-middle-class individuals from northern England expressing the alienation and loneliness of their lives, which won the Hawthornden Prize (1989).
Despite having left his doctoral studies unfinished, Bennett was named an honorary fellow of Exeter College in 1987 and within a few years expanded his fame by drawing on his knowledge of history, the discipline in which he had once aspired to an academic career. In the 1990’s Bennett became famous with American audiences, primarily because of the popular and critical success of the film The Madness of King George, based on his play The Madness of George III. The film received four Academy Award nominations, including one for Bennett’s screenplay. The author appeared in a minor role in the film, continuing an acting career that has seen him perform in many of his own works.
In addition to his dramatic writing, Bennett published Writing Home, a collection of essays, prefaces, character sketches, and diary entries, in 1994. This somewhat fragmented memoir became a best-seller in England. He also turned increasingly to fiction, publishing his first novel, The Clothes They Stood Up In, and a collection of stories, The Laying On of Hands.
By the end of the twentieth century, Alan Bennett was widely acknowledged as one of the most important British playwrights, with some critics calling him the foremost British author writing for the stage. He has been especially praised for his rich dialogue, complex use of irony (usually aligned with sympathy for his subjects), verbal wit, facility at finding the precisely correct word, and humor.
Essay by: Edward J. Rielly
Thursday, November 3, 2016
If You Liked Susan Meissner, Try These Author Read-Alikes From Our Ebsco Database
Read-alikes for Meissner, Susan
Find more read-alikes in NoveList.
Meissner, Susan
Read-alikes
1. | Thornton, Margaret, 1934-
Reason: These authors' works are Engaging and Character-driven, and they share: the genres 'Christian fiction' and 'Historical fiction' and the subjects 'England' and 'Men/women relations'.
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2. | Shaffer, Mary Ann
Reason: These authors' works are Moving and Intricately plotted, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'England'.
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3. | Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971-
Reason: These authors' works are Moving and Character-driven, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Identity (Psychology)'.
|
4. | Tan, Amy
Reason: These authors' works are Atmospheric, Moving, and Character-driven, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'Identity (Psychology)'.
|
5. | Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, 1977-
Reason: These authors' works are Moving and Character-driven, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subjects 'England' and 'Men/women relations'.
|
6. | Moyes, Jojo, 1969-
Reason: These authors' works are Moving, Engaging, and Character-driven, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subjects 'England' and 'Men/women relations'.
|
7. | Waters, Sarah, 1966-
Reason: These authors' works are Atmospheric, Character-driven, and Intricately plotted, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'England'.
|
8. | Rubino, Jane
Reason: These authors' works are Atmospheric, Engaging, and Character-driven, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subjects 'England' and 'Men/women relations'.
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9. | Mantel, Hilary, 1952-
Reason: These authors' works are Atmospheric, Moving, and Character-driven, and they share: the genre 'Historical fiction' and the subject 'England'.
|
Friday, September 30, 2016
Witty and Wilde
"Demolishing the complacency of Victorian social, moral, and artistic assumptions with the weapons of wit, Wilde delighted in turning stuffy platitudes upside down and then turning to the audience for applause. It was a brilliant performance that ensured that during his life, Wilde would be both greatly admired and maliciously mocked."
"Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854, the second son of Sir William Wilde, a prominent surgeon, and Jane Wilde (née Elgee), a poet and Irish nationalist. He was raised in an affluent, successful, and intellectually stimulating home. From an early age, Oscar and his brother Willie were allowed to sit at the foot of the adults’ dinner table and listen to the conversations of the Wildes and their guests, many of whom were prominent in Irish social and literary circles...He excelled in Latin and Greek and won a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin, which he entered in October, 1871...and won a scholarship worth ninety-five pounds per year at Magdalen College, Oxford, which he entered in October, 1874."
"It was at Oxford that Wilde encountered two men who were to influence his thought. The first was art critic and writer John Ruskin, who was at the time a professor of fine arts. Ruskin believed that art should have a moral component, and as Wilde worked with him on a road-building project, Wilde found the idea that art might promote the improvement of society to be an attractive one. Wilde was also exposed to a contrary, and more important, influence in the form of Walter Pater, fellow of Brasenose College. According to Pater, what mattered in life and art were not moral or social concerns, but the intense appreciation of sensual beauty, especially that produced by works of art."
"In 1888, Wilde entered the seven-year period of his greatest success, during which he published almost all the work — as novelist, short story writer, dramatist, and social and literary critic — on which his reputation rests..." Among these works are The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Canterville Ghost first appeared in The Court and Society Review in 1887.
Wilde's affair with the son of the Marquis of Queensbury set the stage for the author's notorious court case and downfall. He was found guilty of "gross indecency" and sentenced to several years of very harsh imprisonment. Upon release in 1897, he moved to France, penniless and without family, where he died in 1900.
Quoted text is from "Oscar Wilde" By: Aubrey, Bryan, Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century, Literary Reference Center database.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
BYOB -- Bring Your Own Book
Here's your chance to recommend a few books you've enjoyed reading. Bring them in to pass around as you discuss what you liked about them. We're going to get some great ideas from this meeting!
Monday, June 27, 2016
Chomp! The Dinner
Satirist, actor, and novelist, Herman Koch has set off shockwaves among international readers who view the characters and core dilemma of The Dinner through different cultural lenses. To get his take on this, refer to this Stuff.co.nz interview with the author.
Koch, who has a teenage son of his own, was born in the Netherlands in 1953 and has made a career of satire, comedy and writing. The Dinner is his first international success, having been translated into more than 20 languages. An English film adaptation of The Dinner starring Marissa Tomei and Richard Gere is currently in the works, and Koch has subsequently published another book in a similar vein, Summer House with Swimming Pool.
Friday, June 3, 2016
We're In Love With Red-Tails In Love
Unlike a New York City resident's experience, it's commonplace for us to see hawks in flight above our homes and farmlands. We can also visit a wonderful local resource,
The Raptor Trust in Millington, NJ, to see hawks and other raptors up close. The Trust is a wildlife refuge and infirmary for raptors and other injured birds, and it plays a prominent role in our book, Red-Tails in Love, as does its founder, the late Len Soucy. In addition to sheltering several red-tailed hawks, The Raptor Trust houses other raptors mentioned in the book, including three tiny saw-whet owls. There are a number of other owl varieties in residence as well as two bald eagles (seen in the last photo) and two huge common ravens with an impressive repertoire of bird calls. For more information about The Raptor Trust, refer to http://theraptortrust.org.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
Sorry, We Can't Talk About Something More PLEASANT; This is a Book Discussion!
She favored sick jokes as a kid, Charles Addams' cartoons as a teen, and fear of death as a subject to be laughed at in her professional career. As cartoonist and book illustrator Roz Chast notes, "I love the end-of-the-world sign guys and tombstone gags. Anything to do with death is funny."
Except, of course, when it's personal and painful, as in her memoir ''Can't We Talk About Something More PLEASANT?" Even then, our author found that cartooning provided her the perfect means to express her frustrations and fears about dealing with the decline of her elderly parents. What we learn about her childhood, career, and relationship with her parents in this memoir is given further authentication in this interesting excerpt from "I Only Read It for the Cartoons: The New Yorker's Most Brilliant Twisted Artists" by Richard Gehr. Enjoy it! http://goo.gl/8fLodh
Except, of course, when it's personal and painful, as in her memoir ''Can't We Talk About Something More PLEASANT?" Even then, our author found that cartooning provided her the perfect means to express her frustrations and fears about dealing with the decline of her elderly parents. What we learn about her childhood, career, and relationship with her parents in this memoir is given further authentication in this interesting excerpt from "I Only Read It for the Cartoons: The New Yorker's Most Brilliant Twisted Artists" by Richard Gehr. Enjoy it! http://goo.gl/8fLodh
Friday, April 1, 2016
Which One Were You?
If you hated Serial, Season One, here's validation of your opinion.
If you were engrossed by it, here's validation of your opinion.
Friday, March 4, 2016
Serial, Season One
Here is the podcast link to Serial, Season One: https://serialpodcast.org/season-one. Listen to each episode on your computer by clicking on the episode titles or download the entire series. Each episode is at least 35 minutes long, so pace yourself! While you're on this website, look around at the "Related Material."
For those who wish to read rather than listen, Serial does not provide transcripts, but various followers have transcribed the episodes. I'm providing these transcripts below (without any guarantee of their accuracy.)
Episode 1
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tf9zC1atDaClrBt2waYpMQP8UHB034FdxzvhajOFw2A/edit
Episode 2
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cy0p5YZ98oxeIJnkRY5gyu0lGfGv7uz2s8JhG72RPS4/edit#heading=h.7jixl6s0wlj5
Episode 3
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KsNk0KBtvcnYJV6EIzbOM8MG_EPezzGkbu7pqUoNq9w/edit
Episode 4
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VZQlcGetYcE3EW4MTOCG_bwDVFJ9H9lNQFrdQriYaWw/edit
Episode 5
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_vl8_Fs2B36p7dw4GlQxHzWrr-Ulk94RAxbr8LHP5cc/edit
Episode 6
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k1o1Uoaj1i_TJ372Qyp4HkPKzVS7NozodI0fKFAn1K8/edit
Episode 7
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1996kTzJO6OmXawcNb4kbSDTDqG6XKFc6_oReFi0IHfU/edit
Episode 8
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-rSBXb-y3xhWCPNHdshqj7ayeWw265j7iFmSWBYyaDI/edit
Episode 9
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xdT-NIz4B_wc4_80f652YxP6LOpXGeWmzYrErJvotLA/edit
Episode 10
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J86pkWfNOUQUEld0k88H8Jpe5-IG7rssPp3epZhRLpc/edit
Episode 11
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P_mKbKLmYSnDolYTt-xa-RDROO68zTFbpxCUPWATGEw/edit
Episode 12
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p_fD5pERxTN6rbJhi9s9FCJf0PPt96w9C664RcXDrbY/edit
Two Stories
Born in Leeds, Yorkshire, in 1934, Alan Bennett graduated with honors from Oxford in 1957 and lectured there before embarking on a writing career. His plays include The Madness of George III and The History Boys, both of which were adapted to film. He is the author of numerous commentaries, novellas, and short stories, including The Lady in the Van, currently adapted to film and starring Maggie Smith. According to Guy Woodward writing for the British Council Literature in 2009,
"Alan Bennett’s diffident, often shy public persona has arguably been crucial to his sustained and ever growing success, but any perceived aura of cosiness belies a sharpness of intellect and wit that has proved adept at dissecting the mores of the English and their institutions across a variety of genres."
Here's an enjoyable interview with Bennett regarding Mrs. S. and the new film about her. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/the-lady-in-the-van/alan-bennett-hay-interview/
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Two Years at Sea in a Dry Land
Our author, Qanta Ahmed, is a board certified sleep disorders specialist at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New York, as well as associate professor of Medicine at the State University of New York (Stony Brook). Further, Dr. Ahmed is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Born into a Muslim Pakistani family in England, Dr. Ahmed completed her medical residency in New York City before practicing medicine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the location of her memoir. Following her return to the United States, where she is now a citizen, she has written and spoken critically about the growth of the Islamist movement among Muslim populations around the world. She is currently writing her second book, a non-fiction work which will focus on interfaith relations between Muslims and Jews.
Friday, December 4, 2015
The Me in Memoir
Joan Anderson has written a whole slew of self-help books since her initial memoir, A Year by the Sea, which we will discuss this month. She has certainly grasped the first two letters in the word memoir and run with them, bringing many women along with her on her self-discovery journeys. In addition to writing these books, Ms. Anderson offers frequent workshops and retreats as seen here. She appeared at Bernardsville Public Library in 2002 at a ticketed event to support Jersey Battered Women's Services, but has cut back on appearances to refocus herself...on herself. In this interview with More.com, we are reminded again how healing it is to retreat to a home by the sea or a remote island like Iona in Scotland! Oh well.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Add a Pinch or Two of Family
Laura Schenone is as expressive and heartfelt in person as she is in her style of writing. Several members of our Saturday Samplers bookgroup took the opportunity to hear her speak recently at Bernardsville Library about her book "The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken," selected as our One Book Bernardsville reading for 2015. Laura shared slides of her time in Italy and images from her research to find the roots of her family's heirloom recipes. She also answered questions about family dynamics that come into play when a writer reveals background details about family history. Her next book will take a detour into the world of animals, as inspired by her son. Family seems to be an ever-important ingredient in her writing!
Saturday, October 3, 2015
Doubt: A Timely and Timeless Parable
As background information for our discussion of Doubt: A Parable, here are some excerpts from an interview with John Patrick Shanley. (Cob, Robert, "The Evolution of John Patrick Shanley," American Theatre, Nov. 2004, vol. 21, issue 9)
"I went to a Catholic Church school in the Bronx and was educated by the Sisters of Charity in the '60s. That's a world that's gone now, but it was a very defined place that I was in for eight years. I realized later on when the Church scandals were breaking that the way a lot of these priests were getting busted had to be by nuns. Because nuns were the ones who were noticing the children with aberrant behavior, distressed children, falling grades, and in some cases they had to be the ones who discovered what was happening. But the chain of command in the Catholic Church was such that they had to report it not to the police but to their superior within the Church, who then covered up for the guy. This had to create very powerful frustrations and moral dilemmas for these women. It was very shortly after that that they started to leave the Church in droves.
...So showing this experience was one of the motivations behind Doubt. Another was that I saw a dark side to the Second Vatican Council's message of "go out into the community." When I was a kid, priests were not going to take boys out of church [to outside activities]. They were priests, they were in the rectory. And so I think this explosive combination of celibacy and "go out and make believe you're just one of the other folks" had a lot to do with the problems that followed.
But over and above that, the more interesting thing to me doesn't have anything to do with the scandals, and that is the cathartic, philosophical power of embracing doubt--of embracing not knowing, embracing that you may never know the truth or falsity of a story, of a scenario, and that you cannot morally stand in judgment from any place that is utterly firm in relation to another person's life. And yet actions must be taken if you feel the imperative, if you feel that you have the clarity of thought and know what should be done. And that powerful, explosive dilemma for an individual is really fraught for me. Here are these women who stumble on what may be something--and the choice is to go through the normal chain of command, which will lead to the complete exoneration and literally the safety of an abusive priest.
You know a member of my own family was molested by [Father John] Geoghan, the guy who was strangled in prison. And my family members went to Cardinal O'Connor, after they'd gone to everybody locally and gotten no satisfaction, and Cardinal O'Connor took them by the hands and said, "I am so sorry this happened. I will take care of it." And then he promoted him. Unbelievable. So they left the Church, but after 10 years they went back, and that Sunday the Monsignor got up and gave a sermon saying that these children who were abused, it was the parents' fault. That's when they left the Church again.
...I think when you see the play you'll see that my relationship to it is very complicated. There's an even weirder level: Is what some of these guys do totally bad? That I also have doubts about. When I was growing up, at certain points I was championed by homosexual teachers who were the only people watching out for me. And why were they doing it? They were really into boys. They were really into my problems. Did they do anything to me? No. Did they want to? I don't know. Did they make a pass? No. Was that in the air? Somewhere yes, it was in the air. Did I take advantage of the good things they were offering me? Yes, because I needed to, because I was isolated and there was no one else. Did that make them bad people? Not to me. Not to me at all.
...I'm not interested in issue plays per se, although I'm more interested in them now than I used to be. What I'm not interested in is writing polemics on one side of an issue or another. Doubt does not have to dismantle passion. It can be a passionate exercise."
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Empty Mansions: A Matter of Choice and "Will"
Huguette Clark lived her long life the way she wanted, never according to convention or expectation, and not at the command of others. Whether she was in some way controlled in her latter years by her caretakers is a matter of discussion as well as legal settlement. While readers may be perplexed by her choices, Huguette seemed to have successfully navigated a world she deliberately isolated herself from, acquiring the collections that fascinated her, giving lavish gifts to those she trusted, and turning her back on her great wealth to live a circumscribed life, not of luxury, but of remarkable simplicity. To learn more about Huguette Clark, her upbringing, and the book Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr., please refer to this website: http://www.emptymansionsbook.com/.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Could You Defend Jacob?
To learn about the author of Defending Jacob, please refer to William Landay's website: http://www.williamlanday.com/books/defending-jacob/.
Here is The New York Times book review by Janet Maslin: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/13/books/defending-jacob-by-william-landay.html.
And, for your convenience, I have copied below a Boston Globe review by Hallie Ephron. This is the link for it: http://bit.ly/1QvEpfB.
By Hallie Ephron FEBRUARY 19, 2012
Many crime fiction writers have imagined the horror of losing a
child. William Landay’s “Defending
Jacob’’wades into similarly dark territory, exploring the anguish of
parents who discover that their child may be a murderer.
The setting is Newton. The father is Andy Barber, chief trial
attorney in the Middlesex DA’s office. He’s among the first at the scene where
14-year-old Ben Rifkin is found dead with stab wounds to the chest, “as if he’d
been forked by a trident.’’ Ben was a classmate of Andy’s son Jacob, and Andy’s
decision to take charge of the case comes under scrutiny when evidence mounts,
implicating his son.
Haunted by the knowledge that violence runs in families, Andy gets
busy doing what he calls “lawyering away at the evidence.’’ He has no illusions
that criminal justice delivers just verdicts. Jacob’s mother Laurie shoulders
the blame, dredging up incidents from Jacob’s childhood that she can no longer
rationalize.
In riveting courtroom procedure, opposing counsel - Jacob’s
unflappable defense attorney Jonathan Klein and prosecutor Neal Logiudice who’s
gunning for Andy’s job - match wits. Meanwhile Jacob, in his faded hoodie,
droopy jeans, and bangs covering his eyes slouches along, impervious to
concern.
One story line dramatizes the murder and its aftermath. A second
presents grand jury proceedings a year later, the subject of which the reader
only gradually comes to understand. Even with unexpected twists and turns, the
two narratives interlock like the teeth of a zipper, building to a tough and
unflinching finale. This novel has major motion picture written all over it.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
The Art of Racing in the Rain Man
Garth Stein is the author of four published novels, but The Art of Racing in the Rain is his standout best seller. It has been adapted into young adult and children's editions as well as a stage production. Currently, the book is being developed into a major motion picture by Universal Studios. The Art of Racing in the Rain has the distinction of landing on The New York Times best seller list for three years. The author is a long-time resident of Seattle, the setting for this book, and, along with a wife and three sons, he has a dog named Comet. Here is a review of the book by The Bark magazine because, why not?! http://thebark.com/content/art-racing-rain
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Rosie-Colored Glasses
Graeme Simsion's debut novel, The Rosie Project, has proven to be a very successful breakout for him from his earlier career in information technology. (The author earned a PhD in 2006 with his thesis on data-modelling for information systems.) Simsion clearly understands the potential for technical minds to discount the value of human emotion, and he fashions just such a main character in Don, a geneticist with Asperger's syndrome. Don is so socially remote and self-unaware that he doesn't even recognize his own symptoms. Enter Rosie, the personification of human emotions, then add a wacky genetics projects, thwarted attempts at romance, and you have an enjoyable book!
Below are two book reviews to consider, if you wish, before our book group discussion:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/05/rosie-project-graeme-simsion-review
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/books/review/graeme-simsions-rosie-project.html?_r=0
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