The book I can’t put down these days is Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help.” It’s a fantastic story of three women whose lives intersect during the ‘60s in Mississippi.
That’s why I was thrilled when her publicist said yes to our book club’s request to host Ms. Stockett at our next book club function.
Join us on Thursday, June 4, at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall. We’re expecting a big crowd so please R.S.V.P. by e-mailing me at alison@thecharlotteweekly.com.
Stay tuned! There will be an exclusive interview with Ms. Stockett on this blog shortly. To read more about her, visit the author’s website at www.kathrynstockett.com
I believe that the right book finds you at exactly the moment you need it. With thousands of people around the globe in dire straights for a variety of reasons, there’s never been a better time to look within. This month, our book club selection takes readers on one character’s thrilling voyage within. Our selection is Paul Coelho’s “The Alchemist.”
The story is a mythical tale with parallels to our everyday lives. It is the story of Santiago, a young boy in Spain and his quest to discover his personal legend. He is guided by dreams and the way events in his life unfold. Besides the book’s poetic quality, the story aims to help everyone understand that each life has a purpose and it seeks to help us understand how to find it.
Author Paul Coehlo is a Brazilian journalist, actor, theater director turned novelist. In 1986, he walked the famed Christian pilgrimage path in northern Spain, known as the Santiago de Compostela. A year later he documented his walk in the book, “The Pilgrimage” – a book I read and fueled my own passion to walk the same path later this year in June. A year later, Coehlo wrote “The Alchemist.”
Despite initial slow sales, the book is now one of the single most successful books in modern literature. Last year, the book celebrated its 20th anniversary with an announcement that actor Lawrence Fishbourne and producer Harvey Weinstein would make the book into a movie. The book has been on a bestseller lists in 74 countries, and so far has sold 35 million copies. In 2008, it earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for most translated book in the world – 67 languages.
Join us Thursday, April 30 at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall to discuss this exciting work. Please RSVP by e-mailing bookclub@carolinaweeklynewsgroup.com.
If you are looking for the most magnificent example of how to take a beloved book and take it to the screen, look no further. Alexander McCall Smith (former SV book club author)and artists such as Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella have brought the best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series to HBO.
Make sure you tune to HBO every Sunday night at 8 PM EST for the latest installment. You won't be disappointed. It is a pure delight. Seeing the first installment last Sunday made me start reading the series all over again. Watch the trailer below!
My deepest thanks to all the book club members and Weekly newspaper readers who have been so kind to share their condolences, prayers and best wishes after my family's recent loss of my beloved brother, Mike.
Many of you have shared your own stories of love and loss and it's humbling. When something like this happens, it underscores how important it is that each of us spend each day with people and doing the things that make our heart sing.
I am forever grateful to all the book club members and the staff at Carolina Weekly Newspaper Group for being such a wonderful family of people whom I love dearly.
Stephanie Kallos, author of our book club favorite "Broken for You," visits Charlotte next week to discuss her latest book, "Sing Them Home." I am forever indebted to Kallos. Not only did is "Broken" one of the best books our book club has ever read, she was one of the very first authors who did a phone chat with us when we were just getting our sea legs. I can't believe that was four years ago!
Run, don't walk to buy her latest book. She is an exceptional writing talent who creates characters that live with you long after the end of the book. She will be appearing at Park Road Books on Thursday, Feb. 5 at 7 P.M. For more details, visit their bookstore at 4139 Park Road, in Charlotte's Park Road Shopping Center, or call them at 704-525-9139.
Want to get to know Kallos better? Here's an indepth interview with the author.
The idea for SING THEM HOME has clearly been with you for quite a while. Where did the story come from? How close is the final story to your original idea?
The initial idea for SING THEM HOMEarose from a photo from the March 1974 National Geographic—and from my family’s personal connection to that photo. Until I was five, my parents and I lived in Wymore, Nebraska, and among my folks’ best friends at that time were Ed and Hope McClure. They lived a few miles outside of town in a nineteenth-century farmhouse that had great historical significance to the community and that Hope had lovingly restored and furnished with period antiques. I still remember a great deal about that house—even though the last time I saw it was in 1960, which is when we moved away.
In 1974, in one of those examples freakish tornadic behavior, a funnel cloud came through, passing by the farmhouse across the road, bouncing over the highway, and landing on the McClure house. Hope—who had MS, and was in a wheelchair at the time—was home alone with the youngest of her five children, who was at that time a toddler. The baby was found wandering the fields wearing her diaper, having suffered nothing but a few scratches and (one would assume) a terrible scare; Hope was badly hurt, but survived. The house—and everything in it—was gone.
The National Georgraphic photo was taken a few miles away, near Blue SpringsNebraska. It shows a vast, flattened, muddied milo field with a farmer leaning over the remains of Hope’s baby grand piano. It was the only thing that came down in any kind of recognizable form. My mom used to say, “How can a deep freezer just disappear? How can a washing machine disappear? All those things—where did they go?” These questions—and their implications—have haunted me ever since.
I always envisioned the book as the story of three siblings whose mother went up but never came down, and the grief surrounding such a loss—so in that sense the story didn’t change. But the book took on a new and deeper significance when I lost both of my folks during the writing process—my dad in January 2005 and my mom a year later, almost to the day. For that reason, SING THEM HOME evolved into a much more personal book. The gift of my own loss I suppose is that it allowed me to stand with more authenticity, humility, and empathy in my characters’ shoes. For years I believed that this book would be my first novel; I’m glad it wasn’t.
There are many strands to the novel including letters, diary entries, shifts in time and point of view. In what order did you actually write the various strands?
I’d like to say that I went about writing this novel in a methodical,ordered way, but that was not the case. I did work with a detailed outline (even though I ended up deviating from it quite a bit) and that provided a way for me to move around in the story without always moving chronologically. In other words, if I woke up one morning to find Bonnie clamoring for attention, the outline gave me a kind of mental “filing cabinet” so that I knew roughly where that scene would occur. The only part of the book that I wrote all at once and in order were the Hope diary entries—with all the skipping around in time and through memory that the other characters do, I wanted the reader to at least have one point-of-view character who told their story in a traditional, chronological manner!
Do you have a favorite Jones child?
Nope. That would be something like saying I favor one of my children over the other, wouldn’t it? I love all the Jones kids, deeply. The challenge of writing about siblings was new to me, however. I’m an only child, and although I daydreamed about having brothers and sisters for much of my childhood, that hardly qualified me to write about them in a credible way! I’ll be interested to hear from people who have brothers and sisters to see if I got it right. I love meeting people’s families. I’m always asking folks about their families and never tire hearing about what it’s like to have siblings.
Also—and I’m not sure if this was a conscious choice at the very beginning of the writing process, but it certainly became conscious over time—I gave each of the Jones children different parts of myself—the flawed parts, that is. This helped me feel a personal, empathetic connection with each of them—and perhaps allowed me to avoid the danger of favoritism. (Actors have to do this, too: find the common ground that you share with the character, so that you don’t stand outside of them and judge them. The worst thing an actor playing Lady Macbeth could do would be to think of her as a “bad” person. But that’s another discussion.)
So Larken got my body image problems and my desperate need to please; Gaelan got my innate fear of being undeserving of anything good and of being “found out” as someone who’s not terribly competent or bright; Bonnie got my obsession with looking for signs and my sometimes unhealthy preoccupation with the little picture. And my frustration with blenders.
There is a point in the novel where the reader knows all the big answers, but the details—Hope’s final actions, her location, the details in her diary, the letters she wrote—are never going to be known to Viney and the Jones children. It seems that denying them that information is a key element in keeping the ending from being too pat, too standard “happy ending.” Their challenge is to achieve redemption/resolution without benefit of this knowledge. Only then can they move on in their own lives. Still, did you worry about things working out too easily, too completely?
Interesting that you ask this, because in the first draft of the book, the siblings found Hope’s body. That initial resolution did indeed seem too easy, too pat. It also undermined the substantial growth the characters had found without that deus ex machina.
And in the end, I became interested in the kind of people— there are so many in this world and in these times—who have to learn to live with that very special kind of unresolved grief, the grief of never receiving what Hope calls “the gift of bones.” I was interested in trying to bring my characters to a place where—even if they couldn’t ever get over Hope’s death or that fact that her body’s whereabouts would always be a mystery—they could at least believe that she was somewhere, and that a relationship with her was possible.
Hope writes in one of the entries about how she wants her children to be able to find her after she is gone, not in the things she leaves behind (which would include a body) but in the air they breathe. In her suicide note, she encourages them to “turn the coin over” and find her on the other side of heartbreak. I wanted the characters to learn over the course of the story to do this, to find her elsewhere—in the gestures and expressions of strangers, in music, in coincidental encounters. Because after all, this is really the only way we can really find those we’ve lost. They’re not in their coffins, not really. They’re not lingering in the vicinity of their remains. They’re somewhere else. I’ve come to believe that if one is open for business, the dead make themselves known to us. They have ways of saying hello. That’s been my experience, anyway. Knowing where a loved one is buried is a comfort, to be sure. But in this story, I wanted to look at how people might come to find comfort and redemption and the ability to move on without that knowledge.
The Welsh elements in SING THEM HOME create such a strong and unique community. Do you have any personal connections that you drew on to create this community?
Wymore, Nebraska, has a strong Welsh heritage— I didn’t know this when I lived there, it was only after I visited in April of 2004 with my dad in the interest of research that I learned about this. There is a WelshHeritageMuseum in Wymore, and a great deal of pride surrounds that historical legacy. Part of my research involved understanding why the Welsh settled in Nebraska. Another part was understanding what it means to be Welsh, why there is pride surrounding that. It’s not a culture that most of us have an immediate, clear sense of—at least I didn’t. It’s not like Italy or France or Greece—most of us have ideas, even if they’re erroneous, about what it would mean to be from one of those countries. But Wales? What does it mean to be proud of being Welsh?
The Welsh component gives the people of Emlyn Springs something that is unique to them, something that wouldn’t necessarily get them on the front page of a newspaper (or even the back page of a travel brochure) but which endows them with a sense of pride. Thus the special funeral celebration evolved over the years, Fancy Egg Days, the speaking of Welsh. I very much wanted the town of Emlyn Springs to be a character in the book, and for the sense of place to contribute in a large way to the characters’ stories.
I think sometimes it’s easy for people from larger communities to write off small towns as bland, culturally deprived, and unenlightened, as places where nothing daring or outrageous ever happens. And yet, people make their lives and deaths in those small towns and are often very proud of their communities. When a natural disaster strikes such places (and we’ve had no limit on that kind of story lately, it seems) the fortitude and courage of those small town folks astounds me.
I heard an interview with Wendell Berry when I was working on this book—he was reflecting on something that was happening in a small town in West Virginia, I believe, talking about a certain kind of mining being done there that essentially removes a mountain, bit by bit, from the top down. He said something that made its way into the book—it was about the special kind of suffering these people were experiencing, a unique suffering that comes from loving a place that has been utterly destroyed. Small town people have that kind of love. It’s a unique courage and one I very much wanted to commemorate in this book.
In regard to your first novel, Broken for You, you once discussed how you wrote letters to some of the characters while or after you had finished writing the book. Did you need to write a letter to any of the characters in SING THEM HOME?
The only character I remember being slightly recalcitrant in the early stages was Larken, and I think we did have an epistolary exchange at one point early on. She’s just not a warm and fuzzy, trusting type, and I also think she needed to be reassured that I wasn’t judging her based on her looks. There was also a lot of shyness/resistance about writing the sex scenes—particularly the first time that Viney and Welly get together. But I think that came less from the characters and more from me. I’m very shy about writing sex scenes. My agent and my editor had to really nudge me hard to get those written. I’m glad they did. They really needed to be in there.
Now that you have finished the second novel, which can be so difficult for many authors, are you working on a third?
I’ve just started daydreaming about the third novel, taking notes in my journal, reading books related to the territory I expect to explore, mining my dreams. Again, I’ll be revisiting a subject and characters that have had a fascination for me for years. Ghosts, talking to the dead, the Spiritualism movement in America, the intersection of the creative impulse and religious faith—that’s some of what I’ll be obsessing about for the next few years.
I really do feel as though it was a huge milestone getting through that second book— which, if you listen to the majority opinion, is doomed. Amy Tan’s essay “Angst and the Second Novel” was a tremendous comfort, and it’s something every writer struggling with that second book should read. I passed it on to my editor, who didn’t know of it. She immediately photocopied it for all her colleagues at Grove and now I understand it’s required reading!
This month, we're reading historical fiction best-seller, "People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks.
SUMMARY In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, which has been rescued from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with images. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding-an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair-she begins to unlock the book's mysteries.
Hanna's investigation unexpectedly plunges her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultra- nationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and the man she has come to love.
JOIN US! Join us Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 P.M. at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall for a phone chat with the author. Please RSVP by e-mailing us here.
New York Times best-selling author Dr. Cornell West will visit Charlotte next week. Before his trip, I had a chance to speak with this incredible philosopher, author and deep thinker.
Every year, roughly 1 million girls are abandoned by their families in China. This staggering statistic is a direct result of the government’s one-child-per-family policy set by the communists in 1979 to limit the nation’s growing population, which is currently straining at the seams with 1 billion people. However, the culture’s predisposition to value male heirs over females has left a growing tragedy on China’s hands. In an effort to stem the tide, the government allowed parents to give up their unwanted babies for international adoption in the mid ’90s. American families adopted approximately 6,493 children by 2006, according to the U.S. State Department.
The numbers paint a broad picture. But first-time author Beth Nonte Russell puts it into personal perspective in her riveting and impossible-to-put-down memoir, “Forever Lily: An Unexpected Mother’s Journey to Adoption in China.”
Unexpected mother, author Russell was a 30-something psychologist living in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband and three stepchildren when her neighbor, Alex, asked her to accompany her to China where Alex planned to adopt a child. The story takes a dramatic turn and soon Russell finds herself embroiled in the midst of an emotional roller coaster. Alex is ambivalent about wanting the baby and suffers a nervous breakdown, asking Russell to take the baby. Just when Russell warms to the idea, Alex wants the baby back. Set with the backdrop of the already cumbersome and heartbreaking adoption process where scores of babies are left to die and wither away unattended, the story ultimately has a happy ending.
Though the author wasn’t a working writer at the time she visited China, she’s a skillful narrator who displays elegant prose that is thoughtful and insightful, both into her mind’s own inner workings and the unfolding situation. “When I returned from China, I knew beyond a doubt that I would write this story and try to share it with others,” she said. “There was a strong urge to tell others about the abandoned children that I had seen in the orphanage there; I felt obligated to be their voice. Thoughts of those children would not let me go, and I began writing the book a year after I returned.”
“Forever Lily” raises real-life questions that prompt the reader to explore ideas of what constitutes a family, and how spiritual bonds can sometimes grow deeper than physical ties. The story sends strong messages of love, hope and inspiration that readers will find meaningful whether they’re considering adoption or not. It’s one of the finest nonfiction books I’ve read in a decade.
Sharing the experience Russell’s psychological training gave her the necessary tools to break down the complex emotions that accompany adoptions, but it also gives her a unique way to approach the memoir. “With ‘Lily’ I did not set out to write a memoir to tell ‘about’ my life; instead, I hoped to give the reader a chance to share the experience and bridge the gap of subjectivity,” she said. “My primary intention was to let the reader enter my own internal psychological, emotional and spiritual process as it took place in the context of this particular event.”
Ultimately, Russell and her husband adopted the unwanted child and a few years later returned to China to adopt a second daughter. She sees herself not as their “adoptive” parent but as their mother, in a complete sense. But while she wants her children to know about where they came from, she is preparing them for their own unique futures. “In my view, I am raising two American daughters who happen to have been born in China,” Russell said.
“Forever Lily” is available at booksellers everywhere.
I'm thrilled beyond measure to announce that our January book club selection will be famed American author Richard Russo's "Bridge of Sighs." Mr. Russo will be joining us via a phone chat on Monday, January 19, 2009 at 7 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall.
Join us Monday, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. to discuss "The Glass Castle" at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall. Please RSVP by e-mailing alison@thecharlotteweekly.com.
Sue Monk Kidd's beautiful book "The Secret Life of Bees" is coming to a theater near you October 18! Be sure to see it. Take a gander at the trailer here.
This month's selection is The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden. Join us on Monday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble in Carolina Place Mall to chat with the author about her breakthrough novel. To RSVP, please e-mail me at alison@thecharlotteweekly.com.
To read more about our selection, read the interview I did with McFadden when she visited Charlotte in July.
Breakthrough author Self-published author turns story into mainstream success
Some authors put all their drama and intrigue on the page. But for Maryann McFadden, the author of “The Richest Season,” the story of how she became an author is worthy of its own book. This former public relations and marketing professional, who took a twenty year detour as a real estate agent, has written of the most unputdownable books of the season.
“Season” tells the story of what happens when a dutiful wife whose husband works in corporate America dares to dreams about what her life could be now that her kids are grown up and have gone off to college. Faced with an empty nest, Joanna Harrison decides to leave her comfortable life in a New Jersey suburb to discover herself in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. There she discovers depths she had forgotten she had and her life, her husband’s life and the life of the woman she takes care of will never be the same again.
McFadden is clear; “Season” is not an autobiography. “I don’t think a woman has to leave her husband to find herself,” she said during a stop earlier this month at Park Road Books. “But I do think there is immense value in leaving the routine of your day-to-day life so you can pull back and get a grander vision of what your life could be.”
But it was McFadden’s life as a real estate agent that inspired her character’s dilemma. “I remember being with a client and their 4-year-old son was screaming and crying because he didn’t want to move,” McFadden said. “That what made me realize that there was a dynamic here that was worth exploring and a story we had not heard before.”
Rich back story How the book came to be is another story worth telling. After her kids had grown up she decided to pursue her Master’s degree to teach but it was a writing course that rekindled her passion in the craft of putting words to paper. “Soon I wondered why I ever left writing to begin with,” she said. “I was back in love and had rediscovered a part of myself that I had closed off while I was raising a family.”
“Season” started off as a short story but turned into a 120-page thesis. She tried the traditional route of getting an agent to represent her work to a publishing house to no avail. Finally buoyed by questions of fellow book club members who asked her when she was going to publish and her 50th birthday looming in the near future, McFadden decided to self-publish her book. “Having been in PR I knew what it would take to build buzz around a book,” she said. After a self-financed book tour up and down the east coast, and events with bookstores and book clubs, within seven months an astonishing 2,000 books were sold.
Another key component in her success was getting independent booksellers on the “Season” bandwagon. “Once I read it, I knew I could hand sell it to anyone just based on the story,” said Frank Burlson, a 26-year veteran of Park Roads. McFadden says she secretly hoped that having been denied the traditional publishing route, she could come in through the back door. “One night I was watching ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and I said, I’ve got to reach out to agents again’ so I put everything I had done – how many copies were sold, how I marketed the book, reviews from booksellers – everything!” she said. “I e-mailed it to a handful of agents. By the morning I was asked by a top agent for an exclusive.”
The agent asked her to pump up the first chapter and make Joanna’s husband a more prominent character earlier in the book, which was feedback readers had given as well. Soon many of the top houses were in a bidding war for the rights to her novel. McFadden signed a two-book deal with Hyperion Publishing, owned by Disney. McFadden is touring the country, selling the book which she calls “the expanded version” to many of the readers who loved the book the first time around. She’s also working on a second novel, tentatively titled “So Happy Together” which is a story about the sandwich generation.
After the entire struggle, McFadden is serene and sanguine. “After years of effort I can’t believe how lucky I am but this has always been my dream, and I can’t believe I get to live it.”
Want an autographed copy? Park Road Books has a limited number of signed editions at their store at 4139 Park Road. For more information, visit http://www.parkroadbooks.com/. Or buy your copy at booksellers everywhere and bring it with you on Oct. 20.
Ah, the controversy of the eternal question -- which is better? The book or the movie. My answer: it always varies. But I did have a chance to catch the movie Elegy this past weekend. And it was fantastic! Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruise and Dennis Hopper are at their finest. There's even a turn by Blondie's Debbie Harry that will take you by surprise. I found the movie to be thoughtful, thought provoking and brutally honest. If you are in Charlotte, run to Park Terrace -- they are now an art house! If you are anyplace else, visit Fandango and find it at a theater near you!
Written with fellow book club member, business partner and friend, Lena Claxton, the book came as a natural outgrowth of seminars we did on technology. We realized that businesses were clammoring for information on technology and that we could help them.
I'll post more information here over the next couple of weeks but we'll be having two big kickoff events:
Run, don't walk to pick up a copy of "Two Dudes, One Pan" by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo. These guys are the real deal and honed their skills in Hollywood cooking for the likes of George Clooney and friends. What I love is that this is the kind of book you can curl up on the sofa and dream about making such mouth-watering delights. It's real food that's really good. Simple stuff like roasted chicken and lemon bars and Sunday specials such as braised roasts.
Read more about why I call them the cookbook for the season in this week's Charlotte Weekly and Union County Weekly.
Love and loss are familiar themes in life and literature. But National Book Award winner and literary legendary author Philip Roth takes a new look at the topic in “The Dying Animal,” Charlotte Weekly’s book club selection for September. Hollywood producers revived interest in the novella and currently Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruise play the central characters in “Elegy” the movie inspired by the book.
The story follows cultural critic and star lecturer David Kepesh at a New York college who hopes to rediscover himself through his relationships his students. But into his life comes Consuela Castillo, a Cuban exile, who turns the table on him. In the book Roth examines the themes of eros and mortality, license and repression, selfishness and sacrifice.
Since his first book, “Goodbye, Columbus,” which won the National Book Award, Roth has been a darling of the literary scene. Numerous other best-selling books followed including “American Pastoral,” “I Married a Comunist” and “The Plot Against America.” He has made a career looking at the dissolution of relationships, the absurdity of neuroses, and the downside of his own literary fame. So much of his work draws on his roots born in New Jersey, the son of immigrant parents. Many of his readers believe that Roth has been writing his own story for nearly fifty years.
Roth’s twenty-ninth book, “Indignation” comes out on September 16 and Charlotte Weekly has won an exclusive interactive webinar with the author. Join us on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall in Pineville where we will discuss his book, “The Dying Animal” and hear from the author himself about his latest work. Please RSVP by e-mailing alison@thecharlotteweekly.com.
This summer, my dad decided he wanted to grow cucumbers in his garden. This is my dad’s first foray into growing “serious” vegetables. His first was last summer when he grew some miniature chilies, tomatoes and some scallions on pots on his deck. Now that my parents bought a house, his first thought was “Now I can grow some real vegetables.” I neglected to remind him that a decade ago my mom and I grew cucumbers in another house we had on Long Island and they completely took over the yard. The creeping vine strangled all the other vegetables we put in the same area but I figured planting seeds is like planting hope. You optimistically hope for the best. And grow the next vegetable at least 20 feet away.
Watching the tiny yellow flowers turn into giant cukes brings one much closer to the miracles of daily life. It’s crazy to think that just outside the kitchen window the magic happens, and even I find myself rushing out to check on the plant’s progress each day. With food prices rising more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year, it seems like growing your own food is a much more economical idea and one that could catch on. For the reasons mentioned above, we’ve chosen best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver’s novel “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” as our summer book club selection.
Kingsolver, who is mostly known for her 11 novels (including “The Poisonwood Bible”), decided to devote one year of her and her family’s life and only eat things that she could grow, trade with her neighbors or buy from local farms. This idea of sustainable living is often encouraged to subsidize trips to one’s local grocery store but very few people have done it to such depths and heights.
“This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air,” Kingsolver writes as the book’s central narrator. Also adding their perspectives in the form of sidebars are Kingsolver’s husband, Steven Hopp, a professor of environmental sciences, and her daughter Camille offers brief essays on her then- nineteen-year-old’s perspective on the local-food project.
The author was born in Maryland, and grew up in rural Kentucky. In 2004, after more than 25 years in Tucson, Arizona, she left the southwest and now lives with her family on “a farm in southwestern Virginia where they raise free-range chickens, turkeys, Icelandic sheep, and an enormous vegetable garden.”
We're meeting Monday, August 18 at 7 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall. To R.S.V.P., e-mail me at alison@thecharlotteweekly.com.
Lisa See, our first guest was magnificent. Her insights into Peony in Love makes you want to read the book all over again. To listen, click on the radio player.
OK, book club fans, get ready for the online version of our book club.
Each month we chat with wonderful authors but now we've decided to let all our readers get involved. This Tuesday we'll be interviewing June Book Club author Lisa See to chat about "Peony in Love."
Next month with will mark the third year of Charlotte Weekly/Union County Weekly's book club, Speaking Volumes. It's been an honor leading the club for these three years. And to celebrate we have a wonderful evening planned.
Best-selling author Lisa See's own life story is as interesting as the books she pens. And when she puts pen to paper it’s easy to see amazing results. Her latest novel, “Peony in Love” is Charlotte Weekly’s book club selection for June.
Ms. See was born in Paris but grew up in Los Angeles, spending much of her time in Chinatown. Her first book, "On Gold Mountain: The One Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family" traced the journey of Lisa’s great-grandfather, Fong See, who overcame obstacles at every step to become the 100-year-old godfather of Los Angeles’s Chinatown and the patriarch of a sprawling family. That book not only hit the top of the best-seller’s lists, it also became an opera, for which See wrote the libretto and it debuted in June 2000 at the Los Angeles Opera.
Following her nonfiction success, See, who was a journalist and book reviewer, decided to write novels including two mystery thrillers and the smashing hit “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.” With “Peony” See continues her historical fiction trip to China. This book takes place in 17th-century China in the Yangtzi River delta. It’s based on the true story of three "lovesick maidens," who were married to the same man – one right after the other, not one reaching age twenty. Together they wrote the first book of its kind to have been written and published anywhere in the world by women. Interestingly enough, the lovesick maidens were part of a much larger phenomenon. In the 17th century, there were more women writers in China who were being published than altogether in the rest of the world at that time. Ultimately, Peony in Love about the bonds of female friendship, the power of words, the desire that all women have to be heard, and finally those emotions that are so strong that they transcend time, place, and perhaps even death. Join us as we discuss “Peony” with author Lisa See via a phone conference and celebrate CW’s third anniversary with wine and Chinese appetizers on Monday, June 23 at 7 p.m. Please R.S.V.P. by e-mailing alison@thecharlotteweekly.
OK, it's official. My love affair with Anthony Bourdain continues. Following Kitchen Confidential, I headed head first into HEAT by Bill Buford. The swaggering story about Mario Batali (star of Food Network's Molto Mario and owner of Babbo and a number of other fabulous eateries in NY) is charming. But despite the somewhat interesting banter of a journalist who takes to the kitchen, I seriously missed Bourdain's "voice."
So heading to my neighborhood library (one of the handful of exceptional things about non-NY living is the amazing libraries there are out here) on Rea Road, I loaded up on all things Bourdain. Not the fiction. I have to pace myself. But I walked away with Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook, No Reservations and The Nasty Bits.
The Les Halles cookbook may be one of my all-time favorite cookbooks ever. Not because I'm going to make pot au feu anytime soon. But more because it's what I would think it would be like having the man himself standing over my shoulder guiding my every step. Be warned. This cookbook is not for the meek of heart. His commentary is on target and hilarious. When discussing the preparation and right temperature for grilling steak, he writes, "F*** the health department. The meat needs to be room temperature." Though it may seem hard-core and uncaring the truth is he does care. Passionately. About the food. And that shines throughout each page.
No Reservations was OK but not a must-read. It's mostly tidbits of the behind-the-scenes action of his show on the Travel Channel. Your time might be better off reading his blog. But the pictures are phenomenal and colorful. And if you're a fan of the show (like me!) you get to see some of the most memorable photos and bits of the stories that didn't make the show. My all-time favorite episode is the one he did on Hong Kong (where I was born) and the incredible food culture that exists there. It's like no where else on the planet.
But The Nasty Bits is a delight. Treading the material similar to Kitchen Confidential, it's more from the life and times of bad-boy chef Bourdain. I'm reading it very slowly, savoritng it like a nine-course meal. It's the first time I can truthfully, Nasty is lovely. It's well worth the read and should be savored.
If you’ve ever worked in an office, then you are keenly aware of the interesting blend of personalities and family unit that forms when individuals are thrown together for a common purpose. As Americans we spend more than 80 percent of our lives at work. The resulting formula means that most of our live we are engaged with behavior ranging from madcap comedy, high drama, peculiar personalities and friends we will bond with for life—sometimes all in one setting. Author Joshua Ferris offers the most modern and insightful look at our workplace relationships, which are rich for examination in his novel, “Then We Came to An End,” Charlotte Weekly’s book club selection for May.
Ferris’ novel is set at an advertising agency in Chicago just after the dot com bust. Be warned: this book is not for the meek. Be prepared to laugh hard. Really hard. You will see yourself and everyone you’ve ever worked with in this novel. People either get fired or die – the former being worse because they keep hanging around the office and finding reasons to return. The workers lament about the infrequent appearance of free bagels and the office worker who is always happy and sees goodness in everyone and everything (you know who you are). The pointless meetings are lambasted with equal measure to the coworkers who e-mail the entire group about personal trivialities.
My best advice: Don’t read this book in public. The continual outpouring of rip-roaring laughter may send people scurrying away. Join us on Tuesday, May 20 at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at 11025 Carolina Place in Pineville. Please R.S.V.P. at http://www.thecharlotteweekly.com/.
Having a blog means never having to say...I'm lacking for things to say. I've been so immersed in some great books recently. Although I'm usually juggling at least 6-8 great reads at time, the one I take with me to bed has been Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential".
If you've seen his show on the Travel Channel, you'll know that Bourdain is no lightweight. Condeming of so-called chefs such as Rachel Ray, he is tough, abraisive and sometimes crude. But what he always is is true.
Agents and publishers talk about the need for books to have a "strong voice." If you've ever wondered what that is, run, don't walk to pick up his book.
His tales of woe and wow in the kitchen are revelational. I shall never look at a Sunday brunch the same way again. As someone whose father owned several succesful restaurants, this is the stuff I never heard of. And as someone who frequents great restaurants quite often, I can honestly say I never look at anything in them -- from the bread to the waiters -- quite the same way. If you like to eat, read this book!
One of the joys of reading an unforgettable book is the passion that comes in sharing what the reader has read and learned. When Diane Setterfield’s “The Thirteenth Tale” was published in hardcover in 2006, many of my book-loving friends called and e-mailed to say how amazing it was and how I needed to race to the bookstore to get it. But sometimes life gets in the way of a great read, and the novel remained on my list of books to read in the not-too-distant future. After discussions with our passionate book club members, it’s clear this is indeed the perfect time. Charlotte Weekly’s Speaking Volumes book club selection for April is “The Thirteenth Tale.”
Borrowing from literary classics such as “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre,” the story is set in the mists of England, where glamorous, well-known author Vida Winter asks Lea’s Antiquarian Bookshop owner Margaret Lea to come to her estate and write her life story. While living in the stately Gothic home, Lea tries to untangle fact from fiction as family secrets, lost loves and a mystery that keeps you guessing until the last page entwine her and her subject. Setterfield’s first novel may be one of the most well-written books of the decade. She possesses incomparable storytelling skills; the result is a book you won’t want to put down.
New book, new location
To reach out to more book club members and see more of Charlotte, our well-established book club of three years will visit several bookstores in the months to come. Join us to discuss this riveting tale on Monday, April 21, at 7 p.m., at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall, 11025 Carolina Place Parkway, Pineville. Please RSVP at http://www.thecharlotteweekly.com/.
It was great. For 10 minutes. The best part was author Eckhard Tolle and Oprah chatting amongst themselves. It tanked when they took questions. Oprah, ditch the questions. Stick to what you do best. The information is great. Keep it comin'!
Knitting is hot! We chose the best of the literary bunch for our March pick. Join us Monday, March 17 at 7 p.m. to talk to author Kate Jacobs and find out more about this delightful book.
This is my dream book! And our January selection. If you have time, read Laura Esquivel's other books, such as "Law of Love," "Swift as Desire" and "Malinche."
Charlotte Weekly and Ballantyne Village Theatre will host a special advanced screening of Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Marisa Tomei. The movie is garnering great Oscar buzz and our screening will be held Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 7:15 p.m. at Ballantyne Village Theatre in Charlotte.
Seating is limited and you must R.S.V.P. to attend. Please e-mail your tiquet requests as soon as possible to Sean O'Connell at sean@thecharlotteweekly.com, Be sure to include the film's title in the subject line, and the number of people who will be attending the screeing in the body of your e-mail. The screening will be a first-come, first-served affair, and all winners will be notified by e-mail.
The movie is already garnering Oscar buzz as a potential Best Picture nomination. Check back here to find out the date and location for an exclusive showing of the movie.
This month, we're reading "Atonement" by Ian McKewan.
We're working on securing a date. Most likely it will be in early December. We're also working on securing a date for an exclusive movie preview. But in the meantime, I know a lot of readers are eager to start reading our pick.
Ian McEwan's symphonic novel of love and war, childhood and class, guilt and forgiveness provides all the satisfaction of a brilliant narrative and the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.
On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment's flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia ' s childhood friend. But Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives - together with her precocious literary gifts - brings about a crime that will change all their lives.
As it follows that crime' s repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.
With tons of great events this month, it's hard to choose which ones to go to. Circle your calendars and try to make as many as you can!
At Joseph-Beth Booksellers, SouthPark, 4345 Barclay Downs Dr., (704) 602-9800
Thursday, November 8 at 6:00 P.M International Bestselling AuthorPATRICIA SCHULTZ discusses and signs 1,000 Places to See in the USA & Canada Before You Die . Join us for the latest installment of this very popular book. Mann Travel will be here to present brochures and information. We will also have Sharon Luggage here to give us some packing demonstrations. Join us for a wonderful time that will make you want to catch the next plane to...well, you will just have to wait and see the destinations that are covered. The demos begin at 6pm and Patricia Schultz will join us at 7pm.
Wednesday, November 14 at 11:30 a.m. CHEF RODNEY FRIEDANK Discusses and signs Soby’s New South Cuisine Cookbook Rodney Freidank is a transplanted New Yorker whose first job, at age 16, was at a Long Island delicatessen. He later headed south to help out at a family-owned restaurant in Wilmington, North Carolina. Then he moved to Greenville to take a job at The 858 Restaurant, where he displayed his talent for bold flavors and his insistence on topnotch ingredients. He worked at the highly rated Occasionally Blues before signing on as chef de cuisine at Soby's. Check out this great cookbook highlighting Soby’s talented chefs.
Saturday, November 17 at 1:00 P.M. Charlotte AuthorCURTIS CHISHOLM signs Balloons Filled with Water Balloons Filled With Water is a reflective and engaging poetry collection which captures the pleasant and unpleasant experiences of life. The collection is made even more inviting as the author effectively blends information and imagination that make the work accessible for the novice and entertaining for the more seasoned poetry reader.
Tuesday, November 20 at 7:00 P.M. Charlotte Writer’s Club host Novello Press Winner MIRIAM HERIN discusses and signs Absolution Absolution is the story of Maggie Delaney, an idealistic wife and mother whose world implodes when her husband is murdered in a seemingly random act. When Maggie attempts to find out what really happened, her search leads her back to her Carolina roots and through the streets of modern-day Boston. In the jungles of Southeast Asia, she uncovers a legacy of secrets about the man she thought she knew – and the troubled world they shared as they came of age together.
Thursday, November 29 at 7:00 P.M. North Carolina AuthorNANCY SMITH THOMAS discusses and signs Moravian Christmas in the South This inviting book explores the Christmas celebrations of the Moravian Church in the South, whose members were marking the holiday as early as the 1780s in ways recognizable to modern Americans. This abundantly illustrated volume explores the many facets of traditional Moravian Christmas celebrations, including decorations, food and beverages, gifts, services, and music. Thomas discusses how these traditions evolved over time, within and outside the Moravian communities, as well as how certain non-Moravian Christmas traditions were incorporated into the Moravian customs. For more information, visit www.josephbeth.com
At Park Road Books, 4139 Park Rd. (704) 525-9239
November 8th Thursday 7 pm Notes From A Classroom: Refections on Teaching Charlotte Observer community columnist Kay McSpadden will be here to sign copies of her fascinating accounts of teaching school for over 30 years in South Carolina.
November 9th Friday 6 pm Perils and Promises Francis Seymour will be here to sign copies of her book. Perils and Promises is a moving account of the spiritual calamity faced outside one's one's comfort zone.
November 10th Saturday 1pm Cooking: First Presbyterian Church Recipes and Reflections from the Heart of Charlotte Come by and have some samples from this beautiful cookbook.
November 12th Monday 6 pm Boone: A Biography Robert Morgan, bestselling author of Gap Creek & Brave Enemies, will be here to talk about and sign copies of his new biography of the American scout.
November 17th Saturday 2pm Broken Hearts Pamela Miller will be here to sign her book.
November 18th Sunday 2 pm Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire Cecil Bothwell will be here to sign books.
November 23rd Friday 2 pm Jack’s Christmas J. Paige Straley of Charlotte will be here to sign copies of his new Christmas classic.
November 24th Saturday 11:30- 1:15 The Care & Feeding of an Athlete and The Care & Feeding of a Dancer Toni Branner will be here to talk about and sign copies of her books.
The news broke on Saturday. I'm more surprised about the reaction than the news itself. Not that I ever really thought about Dumbledore and his sexual preferences. I don't have the time or inclination to think about what anyone does in the privacy of their own home. But a firestorm of conversation has started.
Here are my two cents: It doesn't matter!
The people who love and admire Dumbeldore will continue to love him. Those who have banned the Potter books will just see it as another reason why they won't let their children read them. Why must we pretend to live in a world of moral absolutes when the rest of the world is grey? That's madness!
J. K. Rowling, author of the worldwide best-selling Harry Potter series, met some of her American fans Friday night and provided some surprising revelations about the fictional characters who a generation of children have come to regard as close friends.
In front of a full house of hardcore Potter fans at Carnegie Hall in New York, Rowling, sitting on the stage on a red velvet and carved wood throne, read from her seventh and final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," then took questions. One fan asked whether Albus Dumbledore, the head of the famed Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, had ever loved anyone. Rowling smiled. "Dumbledore is gay, actually," replied Rowling as the audience erupted in surprise.
She added that, in her mind, Dumbledore had an unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald, Voldemort's predecessor who appears in the seventh book. After several minutes of prolonged shouting and clapping from astonished fans, Rowling added. "I would have told you earlier if I knew it would make you so happy."
In answer to the question "Did Hagrid marry?" Rowling replied that sadly, no. The half-giant had a flirtation with a giantess but she found him "a tad unsophisticated" and the relationship never went forward. In response to the audience's groans of dismay, Rowling said, jokingly, "OK, I'll write another book." And when the audience continued to express disapproval added, "at least I didn't kill him." Other minor characters, according to Rowling, came to happier ends. Neville Longbottom, Harry's meek and hapless classmate, married Hannah Abbott, another classmate.
The conversation, and sometimes controversy, about whether great books can turn into great movies is getting even more serious. The agents who 'discovered' "The Kite Runner" manuscript have been lured to Random House from their home at Penguin and are now helping the aforementioned publisher turn great tomes into ideally, great flicks!
See the latest from Variety.
Random House, Focus take 'Dog' Duo option Beth Raymer's gambling memoir By DIANE GARRETT
Random House Films and Focus Features have optioned the bigscreen rights for "Lay the Favorite, Take the Dog," an upcoming gambling memoir by Beth Raymer.
Tome, which traces the scribe's journey into the world of professional sports gambling, is skedded to be published by Random House's Spiegel & Grau division in spring 2009. Division snared book and audio rights in an auction; bigscreen rights were negotiated separately. Under their partnership, Random House Films and Focus jointly acquire bigscreen rights for lit properties and partner on all stages of development through marketing and publicity; co-productions are jointly owned, with Focus hanging onto worldwide distribution and sales rights. Raymer fell into professional gambling in Vegas, where she started working as a cocktail waitress in hopes of making fast cash. Her gambling led her to New York and the Caribbean, with gamblers soon becoming her second family. But when she fell in love, she had to re-evaluate her life.
Raymer, an MFA candidate at Columbia U., will continue to report on offshore gambling in Central America under a recently awarded Fulbright Fellowship.
"Beth Raymer has that extremely fortunate and rare combination of having lived through some extraordinary times and having the means to write about them with assurance and style," said Julie Grau. "The world she opens up to her readers is fascinating, dangerous, memorable, and terrifically funny."
Random House Films prexy Peter Gethers said the book proposal "connected perfectly" with the shingle's literary and film sensibilities. "This is going to be a fun one," he said.
The project will be part of Focus's expanded production slate. "Reservation Road," the first film under the partnership, made its limited debut last weekend.
Charlotte Weekly/Union County Weekly hosted an exclusive showing of "The Kite Runner" Monday, Oct. 8 at Ballantyne Village Theatre. Based on the best-selling book by Khaled Hosseini, the story is about two boys growing up in Afgahanistan before the revolution in the late '70s. More than 250 guests had the opportunity to watch this breathtaking movie, whose wide release date was postponed because of safety concerns over the two young Afgani actors.
This forum is a place to share your thoughts on the movie.
How did the movie compare with the book?
What impact did the movie have on you?
Would you recommend this movie to a friend? Why or why not?
Feel free to leave your thoughts here.
All the best,
Alison
*A special thanks to Sean O'Connell, CW/UCW's arts and entertainment editor for helping to make the screening happen.
From the stunning stained-glass window turned book cover, it would be easy to think that “Loving Frank” is the story of the private life of a controversial public man – Frank Lloyd Wright. But the book is far more than that. It’s an exploration of one woman’s life and her choices that brilliantly captures the struggle many women still face today.
This historical fiction is based on some nuggets of truth. Wright arguably made one of the most indelible imprints on American architecture. With his emphasis on harmoniously blending nature into private spaces, and his desire to create a uniquely American style, he created many waves in the architecture community. Those soon translated to the personal level after the brilliant, but difficult architect designed a home for Mamah Borthwick Cheney and her husband in Oak Park, Illinois at the turn of the century. Both trapped in loveless marriages, the two quickly became engaged by the other’s wit and charm, and a scandalous personal relationship grew. Horan uses her training as a journalist to convey the details of Cheney’s unraveling heart and the excruciating decisions she was forced to make. Her characters ask questions such as, “What role do women have?”, “What use is it to stay in an unhappy marriage for the sake of the children?” and “What duty do adults have to themselves when it comes to their happiness?”
Although the story of “Loving Frank” is enmeshed in the details of Wright and Cheney’s relationship, it does what great literature is supposed to do: it makes you think. Horan creates a world so beautiful, readers might slow their page-turning just to be engrossed in her lushly written world a bit longer.
Join Charlotte Weekly’s book club on Monday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. at Joseph-Beth Booksellers at SouthPark for a phone chat with the author of “Loving Frank.” R.S.V.P. at http://www.thecharlotteweekly.com/.
The newest Potter book is easily the best in the entire series.
It may also be the most satisfying read I've dived into in the last five years. Great closure. Favorite chapter is the one right before the end where Harry and "the creature" are in somewhat of a limbo state. Just the best book ever!
Congratulations to marvelous author Khaled Hosseini, whose "A Thousand Splendid Suns" -- our book club pick for June, is No. 1 on The New York Times' best-selling list.
Here are the top 10 hardcover fiction books for this week:
1 . A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini. (Riverhead, $25.95.) A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.
2. THE QUICKIE, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. (Little, Brown, $27.99.) A police officer’s attempt to get back at her husband, whom she suspects of cheating on her, goes dangerously awry.
3. HIGH NOON, by Nora Roberts. (Putnam, $26.95.) A hostage negotiator must face down her unknown stalker.
4. THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN, by James Lee Burke. (Simon & Schuster, $26.) The Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux copes with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
5. LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN, by Janet Evanovich. (St. Martin’s, $27.95.) The New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum becomes a suspect when her ex-husband disappears.
6. UP CLOSE AND DANGEROUS, by Linda Howard. (Ballantine, $25.95.) After a suspicious plane crash, a woman struggles to find a way out of the Idaho wilderness.
7. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT, by Brad Thor. (Atria, $25.95.) Scot Harvath, a Homeland Security superagent, is stalked by a terrorist mysteriously released from Guantánamo.
8 . SOMEONE TO LOVE, by Jude Deveraux. (Atria, $25.95.) A haunted house in England holds the key to a young woman’s mysterious death.
9 . THE JUDAS STRAIN, by James Rollins. (Morrow, $25.95.) Sigma Force operatives trained in science search for the secret behind the re-emergence of an ancient plague.
10. BUNGALOW 2, by Danielle Steel. (Delacorte, $27.) A writer must deal with the effects of Hollywood success on her family life.
