Yes, it's true, I often feel as though I'm conversing with myself out here in cyberworld until I get a wonderful repsonse out of the blue as I did from P. J. Grath at http://www.dogearsbooks.net/ It's so gratifying to realize that one has made a connection and that feeling, coupled with my thoughts on listening to Nelson Mandela's musings in his latest book, aptly titled Conversations With Myself, has brought me to mulling over this idea of being heard and understood by another person.
No matter how much we may love someone there are always times where words and intentions are misconstrued, feelings are hurt and the sooner fixed the better. But imagine if you possibly can what it must have been like for Mandela, confined as a political prisoner for nearly thirty years, feared by his captors for the damage (to them) that his powerful words could do, yet scorned as a man who expected too much - fair and equal treatment while detained.
Imagine the anguish of trying to communicate with your family, hearing of your wife's imprisonment through a grapevine, of your mother's death from an emissary, or of your first born son's demise in an automobile accident through a smuggled in newspaper. Imagine knowing that each word of anguish you put to paper will be read by strangers, blacked out, reworded, redacted, until it barely makes any sense IF it ever reaches its intended audience.
Mandela, writing in secret from Robben Island - the prison off the coast of Cape Town that I hope to visit in the Fall - came to the slow realization and acceptance of the fact that over the years of his incarceration he was becoming the symbol for the anti-apartheid movement and though he gracefully accepted that mantle, he railed and angrily chafed at the smaller indignities that came with never knowing if he was being heard, by family or friends in the outside world.
I thought I would enjoy listening to this book as the reader, John Kani, has that delightful, lilting voice reminiscent of Mandela's own. The initial format is a bit confusing but one adjusts after a disc or two. Mr. Mandela's thoughts on his mission to end apartheid, his words of love through letters to his family, and interview transcripts can seem disjointed, but they are arranged chronologically so if you listen, do stay with it. This book is one of many tributes to the unbelievable resilience of the human spirit.
A new book showed up yesterday from Library Journal so I'll be incommunicado for a few days while I try to determine, dear readers, whether or not you would enjoy a debut novel by Carolyn Cooke.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Blind Contessa's New Machine
Call me morbid but I always used to dwell on subjects like this: if I had to be blind, would it be easier to have never seen at all (blind from birth), or to lose your sight slowly but at least nurture a memory of what the world used to look like? At least one would have that concept of color and spacial distances ingrained, something to tap into as one adjusted to the darkness.
This question is dealt with in a thoroughly original way in a sweet little debut novel that I picked up off the new book shelf a couple of weeks ago. Author Carey Wallace doesn't even look old enough to have written a book, let alone to come up with such a great opening sentence: "On the day Contessa Carolina Fantoni was married, only one other living person knew that she was going blind, and he was not her groom."
According to her website, Ms.Wallace is, among several other notable attributes, a photographer and perhaps that explains the nature of this imaginative book. http://www.careywallace.com/
Set in some gorgeously rural part of Italy where various villas grace the countryside, boasting lakes and lemon groves, a young Carolina grows up with a tremendous amount of freedom due to a careless mother and a doting father.
Her love of the earth and intellectual curiosity set her apart from other young women, keeping her outdoors exploring plants, trees, and bugs from morning til night. Turri, the neighborhood eccentric, finds in Carolina a kinship that he doesn't share with his wife. An inventor, Turri bounces his ideas off Carolina and an intense friendship flourishes.
When she begins to realize that her eyes are dimming, her parents dismiss her "folly" and her fiance, the sexy but dimwitted Pietro, only laughs. Turri, on the other hand, gets to work and builds a writing machine that becomes the talk of the town, allowing the blind contessa to communicate with the outside world as her family would prefer to diminish her involvement with life.
Ms. Wallace has created a tough minded, passionate character in Carolina, a woman who uses her brains and wit to adjust to her circumscribed condition. She also cleverly points out the duality of human relationships in that it takes two male characters of varying strengths and weakness to satisfy one woman, and even then, not completely. What a delightfully subversive idea!
This question is dealt with in a thoroughly original way in a sweet little debut novel that I picked up off the new book shelf a couple of weeks ago. Author Carey Wallace doesn't even look old enough to have written a book, let alone to come up with such a great opening sentence: "On the day Contessa Carolina Fantoni was married, only one other living person knew that she was going blind, and he was not her groom."
According to her website, Ms.Wallace is, among several other notable attributes, a photographer and perhaps that explains the nature of this imaginative book. http://www.careywallace.com/
Set in some gorgeously rural part of Italy where various villas grace the countryside, boasting lakes and lemon groves, a young Carolina grows up with a tremendous amount of freedom due to a careless mother and a doting father.
Her love of the earth and intellectual curiosity set her apart from other young women, keeping her outdoors exploring plants, trees, and bugs from morning til night. Turri, the neighborhood eccentric, finds in Carolina a kinship that he doesn't share with his wife. An inventor, Turri bounces his ideas off Carolina and an intense friendship flourishes.
When she begins to realize that her eyes are dimming, her parents dismiss her "folly" and her fiance, the sexy but dimwitted Pietro, only laughs. Turri, on the other hand, gets to work and builds a writing machine that becomes the talk of the town, allowing the blind contessa to communicate with the outside world as her family would prefer to diminish her involvement with life.
Ms. Wallace has created a tough minded, passionate character in Carolina, a woman who uses her brains and wit to adjust to her circumscribed condition. She also cleverly points out the duality of human relationships in that it takes two male characters of varying strengths and weakness to satisfy one woman, and even then, not completely. What a delightfully subversive idea!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
On The Fleeting Nature of Fame
It's possible that many of my readers are not in the library profession - possible but not probable. For those who aren't, I need to preface this post with an explanation of "weeding." It's one of my favorite and most difficult of job duties. Libraries pride themselves on keeping an up-to-date, relevant collection. They are also notoriously lacking in space!
The neat freak in me really loves cleaning up the shelves, getting rid of dog-eared, outdated paperbacks and odoriferous (smokers, you have no idea the damage you do), food stained hardcovers, but the book lover in me sobs to see so many beautiful tomes that have rarely been opened. Naturally, the ones that haven't been checked out in years are the ones I would want to read: the Booker finalists, the Pen/Faulkner award nominees, novels written by authors no longer on our radar screens, who once stood before adoring fans reading passages from literature they hoped would stand the test of time.
So why doesn't it? Are readers too lazy? Do they want to stick with the same old/same old and never venture into something new and wonderful? Where are the readers like my mother who spent hours, after school or on Saturdays, three noisy little readers in tow, perusing the shelves at the Mason Library looking for that little gem?
If I could, I'd take every single one of these "gems" home and create my "retirement library" where I'll one day sit and read for hours playing catch up. If there is any kind of existence after this one, I hope all these unloved books will join me as I read and blog into eternity. In the meantime, perhaps they will reach an unexpected, grateful, audience somewhere out there.
The neat freak in me really loves cleaning up the shelves, getting rid of dog-eared, outdated paperbacks and odoriferous (smokers, you have no idea the damage you do), food stained hardcovers, but the book lover in me sobs to see so many beautiful tomes that have rarely been opened. Naturally, the ones that haven't been checked out in years are the ones I would want to read: the Booker finalists, the Pen/Faulkner award nominees, novels written by authors no longer on our radar screens, who once stood before adoring fans reading passages from literature they hoped would stand the test of time.
So why doesn't it? Are readers too lazy? Do they want to stick with the same old/same old and never venture into something new and wonderful? Where are the readers like my mother who spent hours, after school or on Saturdays, three noisy little readers in tow, perusing the shelves at the Mason Library looking for that little gem?
If I could, I'd take every single one of these "gems" home and create my "retirement library" where I'll one day sit and read for hours playing catch up. If there is any kind of existence after this one, I hope all these unloved books will join me as I read and blog into eternity. In the meantime, perhaps they will reach an unexpected, grateful, audience somewhere out there.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Evening with the Authors
Heather Graham, Susan Elizabeth Philips and Ted Bell were among the many who attended the Evening with the Authors at the Royal Palm Yacht Club. So much fun and so down to earth, I'm not sure why I expect authors to walk on water! Guess what? They think we do to!
Oh, and my wish was granted. Yes, I got to meet and introduce the beautiful Alice Hoffman. No, Blackwell is not Becket but a figment of her imagination!
Oh, and my wish was granted. Yes, I got to meet and introduce the beautiful Alice Hoffman. No, Blackwell is not Becket but a figment of her imagination!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Thoughts on the Southwest Florida Reading Festival
For the 12th year the Lee County Library System staff and many, many generous sponsors and volunteers from around the county have put together what has become a premier event for authors from around the country and beyond. (Laura Esquivel came in from Mexico City). This multi-generational celebration of reading seems to run smoother every year and the crowds are more and more grateful and receptive.
Every year I work at this festival and every year I think of the one person whose germ of an idea was the catalyst for our very auspicious beginning. Lesa Holstine http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/ was a branch manager in Lee County, a readers' advisor extraordinaire, an author groupie, and an organizer. She asked a few of us (you know who you are) that she knew were "good" readers to join her committee, got the library administration on board and the Lee County Reading Festival emerged.
The thing about Lesa is that she knew so many authors and wasn't afraid to go after them. Yet, it was never about her. She didn't care to be in front of the microphone. She walked around Centennial Park in a wide brimmed hat, her husband Jim manning the camera. But we all knew that "the lady in the big hat" was the "go to" person.
After that first shaky year we were able to attract a young man, just starting to make a name for himself in the mystery writing genre. Dennis Lehane agreed to join us and some writing buddies of his came along too. Jan Burke, James Hall, and Les Standiford stand out. Maryellen was beside herself as she was assigned the enviable task of picking up Carl Hiaasen and bringing him down to the outside stage where he proceeded to regale folks with his snarky tales of politics and corruption.
As the years went by, the Lee County Reading Festival became such a big deal that we had to hire someone to run it as a full time job! I had the pleasure of eating dinner the other night at the Evening with the Authors at Heather Graham's table and we commiserated about the rapid passing of time. I reminded her that she had been our keynote speaker years ago before we even had the Harborside Event Center as an indoor venue. She spoke out on the lawn in her spike heels under a white tent and it was so hot, folks were keeling over in their chairs! http://eheathergraham.com/index.htm
Lesa has moved on to greener pastures - lucky Glendale, AZ - festival coordinators have come and gone, but some of us have stayed on volunteering because we LOVE this! We have often discovered that the most famous writers are the easiest, most gracious people to work with. Think of Sue Grafton, Elizabeth Berg, Janet Evanovich, and David Baldacci who donated the proceeds of his sales to his charity. http://feedingbodyandmind.com/
I can scarcely single out all the lovely people we have briefly crossed paths with over the last twelve years, most recently the beautiful Alice Hoffman who received our Distinguished Author award this year for her work with young writers and in breast cancer research http://www.alicehoffman.com/. Then there was Dr. Michael Palmer and Jeffrey Deaver who were like a stand up duo, playing off each other and leaving the audience in stitches - pun intended. And what about Nelson DeMille who demurred at being considered the "keynote" speaker, leaving that spot to the incredible Linda Fairstein.
Oh, I could just go on and on but....once again, I'm told that long posts lose people's attention. We are a nation with attention deficit disorder, aren't we? I guess I just wanted to write a paean to authors and to Lesa, in particular, to thank her for her foresight that resulted in this labor of love. We miss you lady!
Every year I work at this festival and every year I think of the one person whose germ of an idea was the catalyst for our very auspicious beginning. Lesa Holstine http://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/ was a branch manager in Lee County, a readers' advisor extraordinaire, an author groupie, and an organizer. She asked a few of us (you know who you are) that she knew were "good" readers to join her committee, got the library administration on board and the Lee County Reading Festival emerged.
The thing about Lesa is that she knew so many authors and wasn't afraid to go after them. Yet, it was never about her. She didn't care to be in front of the microphone. She walked around Centennial Park in a wide brimmed hat, her husband Jim manning the camera. But we all knew that "the lady in the big hat" was the "go to" person.
After that first shaky year we were able to attract a young man, just starting to make a name for himself in the mystery writing genre. Dennis Lehane agreed to join us and some writing buddies of his came along too. Jan Burke, James Hall, and Les Standiford stand out. Maryellen was beside herself as she was assigned the enviable task of picking up Carl Hiaasen and bringing him down to the outside stage where he proceeded to regale folks with his snarky tales of politics and corruption.
As the years went by, the Lee County Reading Festival became such a big deal that we had to hire someone to run it as a full time job! I had the pleasure of eating dinner the other night at the Evening with the Authors at Heather Graham's table and we commiserated about the rapid passing of time. I reminded her that she had been our keynote speaker years ago before we even had the Harborside Event Center as an indoor venue. She spoke out on the lawn in her spike heels under a white tent and it was so hot, folks were keeling over in their chairs! http://eheathergraham.com/index.htm
Lesa has moved on to greener pastures - lucky Glendale, AZ - festival coordinators have come and gone, but some of us have stayed on volunteering because we LOVE this! We have often discovered that the most famous writers are the easiest, most gracious people to work with. Think of Sue Grafton, Elizabeth Berg, Janet Evanovich, and David Baldacci who donated the proceeds of his sales to his charity. http://feedingbodyandmind.com/
I can scarcely single out all the lovely people we have briefly crossed paths with over the last twelve years, most recently the beautiful Alice Hoffman who received our Distinguished Author award this year for her work with young writers and in breast cancer research http://www.alicehoffman.com/. Then there was Dr. Michael Palmer and Jeffrey Deaver who were like a stand up duo, playing off each other and leaving the audience in stitches - pun intended. And what about Nelson DeMille who demurred at being considered the "keynote" speaker, leaving that spot to the incredible Linda Fairstein.
Oh, I could just go on and on but....once again, I'm told that long posts lose people's attention. We are a nation with attention deficit disorder, aren't we? I guess I just wanted to write a paean to authors and to Lesa, in particular, to thank her for her foresight that resulted in this labor of love. We miss you lady!
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