Blog Post
AADL Talks to Delia Ephron
by muffy
If you missed Delia Ephron's program here at the AADL on a recent sunny Sunday afternoon, here is a chance to meet her as she sat down with us before the program for a lively discussion.
Her parents Henry and Phoebe Ephron were both Hollywood screenwriters. We asked her about growing up in Beverly Hills in the shadow of the film industry, and how her parents might have influenced her as a writer. She also talked about coming East for college, living in the Village and getting published.
We asked how she came up with the topic for her first published work (under the name Delia Ephron) How to Eat Like a Child and Other Lessons in Not Being a Grown-up? and how different it is writing teen and adult fiction.
Then we went on to the very important topic of wardrobe (not fashion but wardrobe!)
Her play Love, Loss and What I Wore which she co-wrote with sister Nora, based on a book by Ilene Beckerman is about women's relationships and wardrobes. The off-Broadway production won several very important awards. Speaking of jeans, she shared the secrets of her favorite brand, and when we posed the Desert Island question - she was happy to comply.
Don't miss our conversation with Delia. It was open, warm and full of humor. And if you haven't read her latest novel, out this spring The Lion is In ,like the author, it is a real treat.
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Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #336
by muffy
This memorable debut collection Happiness is a Chemical in the Brain: stories * * * by award-winning ( MacArthur Fellow, and Pulitzer Prize finalist) poet Lucia Perillo (author website) is not be missed.
Critics and reviewers are calling it "bleakly funny and harrowing", "unpredictable, relentlessly frank and incisive with stunning imagery", Perillo's denizen from a small town in the Pacific Northwest will earn your admiration, if not your respect. Bonnie Jo Campbell remarked that while these "working-class mothers, daughters, and sisters, who don't bitch or ask for sympathy from anyone... they may work shitty jobs, fool around with men they don't love, and sport unfortunate tattoos, but they triumph by inhabiting their bodies fully".
Among them, you will have your favorites - whether it is the self-medicated housewife, stranded and marginalized, who finds solace in state-of-the art vacuum cleaners and their door-to-door salesmen (in "Doctor Vicks"); or Jill, the sweater-and-pearls variety who recounts tales of armed robbery (in "Report from the Trenches"); or Louisa, a 30 year-old with Down syndrome who serves as an accomplice to her younger sister's sexual exploits (in "Bad Boy Number Seventeen") and her aging mother's fantasies of revenge. The one thread that runs through them might well be the way they heroically, though not always wisely, "wanting to flaunt the way all the rest of us think that we're stuck with the cards that we've been dealt".
"Emotionally unflinching stories of considerable power, wonder and humor", like their protagonists, they will move you and steal your heart. For readers who enjoy the short stories of Alice Munro, William Trevor, and Thomas Lynch.
* * * = starred reviews
Blog Post
June's Books to Film
by muffy
Snow White and the Huntsman. In this retelling of the most beloved fairy tales of all times, Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White ( Kristen Stewart) must join forces with the fierce Huntsman ( Chris Hemsworth), who was recruited by the evil Queen ( Charlize Theron) obsessed with being the fairest woman in the land. Meanwhile, a handsome prince ( Sam Claflin) falls hopelessly under Snow White's spell.
Bel Ami Guy de Maupassant's classic tale of passion in late18th-century Paris is adapted in a scintillating erotic drama starring Twilight's Robert Pattinson as a destitute young soldier who plots to gain power by seducing the mistresses of the city's most influential men. Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Colm Meaney co-star.
In The Woman in the Fifth, adopted from the novel by Douglas Kennedy, American professor and novelist Tom Ricks traveled to Paris to see his young daughter, hoping also to reconnect with his estranged wife. After being robbed, he was forced to work in a seedy hotel as a night watchman, until he met a sophisticated woman named Margit at a literary event. Margit encouraged Tom to write again but he was unsettled by a series of murders taking place around him. Starring Ethan Hawke, and the very busy Kristin Scott Thomas (MPAA Rating: R)
The multifaceted Seth Grahame-Smith - novelist/producer/cinematographer has adopted his own novel for the big screen in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Benjamin Walker plays Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, who discovers vampires planning to take over the United States. He makes it his mission to eliminate them.
Longmire is the new A&E television series based on the popular mystery series by Craig Johnson. Robert Taylor plays Walt Longmire, the charismatic, dedicated and unflappable sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming. Widowed only a year, Longmire is a man in psychic repair, trying to bury his pain behind a brave face and dry wit. Often turning to close friend and confidant Henry Standing Bear ( Lou Diamond Phillips) for support, he sets out to rebuild both his personal and professional life, one step at a time.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #335
by muffy
STOP!!! If you are an adrenaline junkie, go no further. This WWII espionage by Laurent Binet will leave you wanting. But if you are a patient reader of literary fiction and a student of history, then you would find HHhH * * * quite a little gem. (Also available in the original French in our World Language Collection).
HHhH = Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich ("Himmler's brain is called Heydrich" ) - the most dangerous man in Hitler's cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich : "The Blonde Beast", "The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia", "The Butcher of Prague", "The Man with the Iron Heart" - implacable cruel and seemingly indestructible, until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service, tried to kill him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, in a most daring assassination plot, codenamed Operation Anthropoid.
In this debut novel, winner of the 2010 Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman, though we know the outcome of this historic event, we willingly agreed to be led, by the seasoned hand of a master storyteller to follow Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis from their dramatic escape of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England; from their recruitment to their harrowing parachute drop into a war zone, from their stealth attack on Heydrich's car to their own brutal death in the basement of a Prague church. A parallel storyline is the narrator/author's effort to capture this heroic act on paper. A "zealous amateur historian", disarmingly honest with his mistakes, but relentless and dogged with his subject and materials, attempts to lay the whole affair in geopolitical context.
"A seemingly effortlessly blend of historical truth, personal memory, and remarkable imagination... a work at once thrilling and intellectually engrossing", Paris born Laurent Binet, is the author of La Vie professionnelle de Laurent B., a memoir of his experience teaching in secondary schools in Paris. He is a professor of French Literature at the University of Paris III. The fluid translation by Sam Taylor is a superb choice for lovers of historical literary works and WWII fiction, especially The Girl in the Blue Beret.
Watch-alike: Valkyrie, and Army of Crime.
* * * = starred reviews
Blog Post
"Lamb," an Unusual Gospel
by articia
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I am currently on my second copy of Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. My first copy of Christopher Moore's novel was read, re-read, and loaned out so often by myself and others that it eventually fell apart.
Jesus' pal Biff is brought back from the dead to fill in the missing thirty-year "gap" in the Gospels by writing his account of growing up with the Messiah. Moore writes with a sense of humor and sarcasm that some may find crude or offensive, but others may find themselves laughing out loud every few pages. This "gospel" is nothing like what you would expect; it's full of all the taboo topics: religion, politics, sex, drugs, and rock (just rock, you know...stonemason stuff?). Since Moore pokes fun not only at Christianity, but also at Buddhism, Hinduism, and just about every other major religion, this is a book for those who don't take religion or life too seriously. I find myself picking up Lamb any time I need a good dose of wit and sarcasm or a good reminder to step back and laugh.
Blog Post
Youth Historical Novel: "The Lions of Little Rock"
by annevm
While researching The Lions of Little Rock, author Kristin Levine zeroed in on 1958 when Little Rock, Arkansas, was starting to react to forced integration of the public schools. By setting her novel at that time, she gives it a compelling undertone, as readers witness the governor closing the high schools and citizens forming groups such as the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC).
This historical novel for youth offers dynamic characters and plot, starring painfully shy twelve-year-old Marlee. Readers will be moved when Marlee bids good-bye to her beloved older sister who is sent away for high school. Left at home, Marlee struggles to make friends, when suddenly an unexpected friendship with a new girl, Liz, boosts her confidence and helps her to understand where she stands in the fight against racism. I found Levine's book informative, warm, and highly entertaining. Reviews have been strongly positive, including this from the New York Times Book Review: ". . . Satisfying, gratifying, touching, weighty — this authentic piece of work has got soul." Levine also wrote The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.
Blog Post
Fabulous FIction Firsts #334
by muffy
The Green Shore opens in Athens, on an April evening in 1967, when a military coup in Greece ushered in a period of devastating brutality and repression. Told from the multiple perspectives of one family that share strong political conviction, it is "a family saga and revolutionary romance."
Eleni, a widowed doctor, struggles with the latest challenge to democracy when the hospitals are forbidden to treat torture victims. While son Taki chooses to emigrate, 21 year-old Sophie, a student of French literature, gets swept up in the dangerous resistance movement, partly inspired by her uncle (Eleni's brother) the poet Mahalis. The youngest, Anna, watches events unfold with increasing anxiety.
"As Eleni's family and their circle of friends and lovers fight for their ancient country's history, tradition, beauty, and future, they also discover hidden strengths and harbor secret longings that will have unforeseen repercussions. Deeply imbued with the passion and honor synonymous with Greek culture, abundant with sensuous imagery and stimulating discourse, this debut novel is a sumptuous and provocative portrait of the nexus of the personal with the political."
Debut novelist Natalie Bakopoulos is a graduate and current faculty of the University of Michigan. A recipient of a 2010 O. Henry Award, a Hopwood Award, and Platsis Prize for Work in the Greek Legacy, she is a contributing editor for the online journal Fiction Writers Review. Each summer she teaches creative writing at the Aegean Arts Circle in Andros, Greece.
On Tuesday, June 5th @ 7 pm, Natalie Bakopoulos will be at Nicola's Books for a reading and signing of her novel. For more info.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #333
by muffy
Three weeks is a long time to fuss with a blog and it's time to let go. I still don't think I am doing this book justice but I hope you will trust me about this "luminous, haunting, and unforgettable" debut novel by Karen Thompson Walker. The premise is rather simple while the narrative voice is not.
The world awakes one Saturday morning in October to find the rotation of the Earth on its axis slowing down (thus The Slowing). Days and nights grow longer. Gravity is affected. Birds can't fly and people are getting sick. In a California suburb, 11 yr. old Julia is dealing with the catastrophe utterly "unimagined, unprepared for, unknown", with stoic determination and optimistic innocence.
The Age of Miracles * * is middle school - "the time when kids shot up three inches over the summer, when breasts bloomed from nothing, when voices dipped and dove". While some girls turn beautiful, a few boys grow tall, Julia still looks like a child. Apart from the usual adolescent angst of friendship, first love, budding sexuality, Julia must navigate her family's volatile dynamics and secrets; learn the meaning and demands of loyalty, honesty, kindness, and responsibility, against the backdrop of an ever-shifting reality.
"Walker (a former Simon & Schuster editor) captures each moment, intimate and universal, with magical precision. Riveting, heartbreaking, profoundly moving".
Inspired by the Tsunami which packed a force powerful enough to shorten the length of the day by microseconds, the rights to this debut have been sold to 25 countries, with an initial print run of 100,000 - HUGE.
* * = starred reviews
Blog Post
Geek Pride Day
by articia
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"Towel Day", "Glorious 25th of May", or "Star Wars Day", whatever you prefer to call it, May 25th is Geek Pride Day and what better way to celebrate it than by visiting your local library? You don't have to be a Sci-Fi geek, or a math geek to celebrate Geek Pride Day, just celebrate whatever you "geek". "Whatever you geek, the public library supports you." Geek The Library reminds us that "No matter who you are, there are things you are passionate about—things you geek. The Geek the Library project is a community public awareness campaign aimed at spreading the word about the vital and growing role of your public library, and to raise awareness about the critical funding issues many U.S. public libraries face." Think of all the resources your library has to offer, be they entertainment like Star Wars or Douglas Adams books or movies, Homework Help or Test Prep, Foreign Language Materials or Foreign Language Learning from our Services and Research pages that you have access to through our website, our super nifty new Orion Starblast 4.5 Astro Reflector Dobsonian Telescope, or one of our neat Science To Go Kits from our Unusual Stuff to Borrow collection.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #332
by muffy
The colorful notes taken by Evangeline (Eva) English for A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar * , the working title of a travel guide, make up one of two story lines in this debut novel by Suzanne Joinson.
In 1923, sisters Eva and Lizzie, missionaries in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar are met with suspicion and hostility (no surprise there), but when a humanistic endeavor gone wrong places them under house arrest, their safety is seriously compromised. Eva, however, continues to capture her adventures in this insular and exotic locale at the brink of war on her glorious, green BSA Lady's Roadster.
In present day London, solitary Frieda befriends Tayeb, a displaced Yemeni sleeping outside her door, and discovers an artist with an exquisite talent with birds. When Frieda learns she has inherited the contents of an apartment belonging to a dead woman she has never heard of, they embark on an unexpected journey together.
"Beautifully written, and peopled by a cast of unforgettable characters, the novel interweaves the stories of Frieda and Eva, gradually revealing the links between them and the ways in which they each challenge and negotiate the restrictions of their societies as they make their hard-won way toward home".
For more tales of intrepid women adventurers, try Lulu in Marrakech by Diane Johnson; The Tattoo Artist by Jill Ciment; and The Lost Girls : three friends, four continents, one unconventional detour around the world by Jennifer Baggett.
Suzanne Joinson works in the literature department of the British Council, specializing in the Middle East, North Africa, and China.
* = starred review