“Freedom,” “The Dovekeepers,” and “Fifty Shades of Grey”
Last month I was at R. Julia Booksellers, an independent bookstore in Madison, Connecticut to attend an author forum. A two-story building that looks like a town landmark, R. Julia Booksellers was opened twenty-two years ago by Roxanne Coady who has put and kept this small bookstore on the literary map despite the growth of the big chains and the mammoth bookseller of all: Amazon whose very existence threatens all independent booksellers (full disclosure: I buy books from Amazon). Read more 
“Farther Away”
Jonathan Franzen, author and “Great American Novelist” (as declared by Time Magazine on its August 23, 2010 cover) has published a collection of 21 essays that fall generally into one of three broad categories: Perspectives on Life and the World, Thoughts on Writing, or Underappreciated Authors and Great Books. “Farther Away” offers both serious and humorous narratives that stand on their own but collectively provide a broad overview of the issues, authors and books that are important to Franzen as a writer and a human being. Read more
“The Invisible Bridge”
At a recent author forum in West Hartford, Connecticut, Julie Orringer spoke about how she came to write “The Invisible Bridge.” An American by birth, Orringer’s roots are in Hungary and the novel is loosely based on her grandfather and his brothers’ lives in the years leading up to and during World War II, before the family immigrated to the United States. As an adult, Orringer realized the stories she heard as a child needed to be told because people – and in particular her family – were deeply affected by the seismic events that took place in Europe in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. That her ancestors were Jews in a country that was aligned with Germany at the time adds to the sense of horror. Using personal accounts from her family, historical research and a talent for story telling, Orringer wrote the novel “The Invisible Bridge:” a fictional story of a Hungarian family whose lives were shattered because they were Jewish. Read more
“The Dovekeepers”
Two years ago, I traveled with my family to Masada, a remote fortress on a mountain in the Judaean Desert of southern Israel by the Dead Sea. Masada is legendary for being the place where more than 900 Jews killed themselves rather than be tortured, killed or enslaved by the Romans approximately 2,000 years ago. The day of our visit was brutally hot and there was little shade in this fortress that King Herod built as a refuge. As the sun was beating down and I looked in every direction and saw only the dry earth of the desert and the salty Dead Sea in the distance, I remember thinking “why did they die for this?” “The Dovekeepers” by Alice Hoffman answers that question. Read more
“By the Iowa Sea”
“By the Iowa Sea” is a memoir by Joe Blair, a middle-aged Massachusetts-born motorcycle-lovin’ adventurer who examines how he became so profoundly unhappy with his life, his marriage, and with himself. In the summer of 1989, 25-year old Blair is trying to figure out what to do with his life when he decides to leave his hometown (Boston) and take a cross country trip on his motorcycle. With $1,500 in his pocket he spends two months exploring the US and decides he will always travel, never cave in to convention, or settle down. Read more
“Wild”
Cheryl Strayed, author of “Wild” is a 43-year old writer, wife, and mother who lives in Portland, Oregon. When Strayed was 22 years old, she lost her 45-year old mother to lung cancer and spent the next four years alternating between trying to preserve her family and her marriage, both of which disintegrated by the time she was 26 years old. Recognizing the need for a change, Strayed (the name she chose for herself after her divorce) set out to hike 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), a 2,663 mile trail that lies east of the Pacific coast from California to Washington, and then write about the experience. Read more
“Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage”
One hundred years ago today – April 10, 1912 – the Titanic left Southampton, England on its maiden voyage stopping at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland before continuing across the Atlantic Ocean towards New York. Four days later on April 14, 1912 at nearly midnight, while maneuvering through the icy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic hit a massive iceberg causing enough damage for the ship to sink 2 hours and 40 minutes later on the morning of April 15, 1912. Read more
” The Sense of an Ending”
Winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize (an annual award for the best original full length novel written in English by a citizen of the Commonwealth), “The Sense of an Ending” by Julian Barnes, is a story told from the perspective of Anthony (Tony) Webster, a British pensioner who finds cause to reexamine the past after an old friend comes back into his life. Read more
“Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?”
Jeanette Winterson is a British born writer who wrote the best-selling and award-winning book “Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit” which is a contemporary story of a woman coming to terms with her sexuality.”Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?” is not a sequel but a complementary book that reveals the author’s attempt to come to terms with her childhood and adult life. Read more
“F in Exams”
My daughter was in a French school from 1st – 4th grade and a bilingual French/English school from 5th – 8th grade which used an International Baccalaureate grading system of 1-7, where 1 is the lowest score, 4 is passing, and 7 is a perfect score. When she came back to the US to attend a high school school where the primary language was English, she had to abandon the metric system of measurements, adjust to the language, and adopt a letter grading system which led to this conversation: Read more
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