Penn, Pattinson circle 'Water'

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One of my all-time favorite books and one of our previous book club selections, Sara Gruen's "Water for Elephants," is being made into a movie.

Slated to star is Reese Witherspoon. And currently the studio is talking to Sean Penn and "Twilight's" Robert Pattinson. Read more on "Variety." Penn, Pattinson circle 'Water'

Brace for Impact Signing at Park Road Books

Hi everyone,

Who can believe it's been a year since we first heard of Capt. Sullenburger and the entire crew of US Air Flight 1548?

A number of survivors on the flight will be at Park Road Books this Saturday at 2 PM for a signing of their new book, "Brace for Impact." Visit PRB's website for more details.

Game Change: The Book I Cannot Put Down

I was thrilled to receive a copy of "Game Change" the hot new political book about the 2008 race Friday. I thought I'd read a few pages over the weekend and savor it. NOT! I cannot put this book down. My eyes were so tired from reading half the book that by Saturday night they were watering.

I'll have more later this week including an interview with the authors but wanted to share that if you are even remotely interested in living history, run, don't walk, to pick up a copy of this book.

Alison

A New Kind of Book Tour

Ever wonder what book tours are like for authors? Stephen Elliott shares his own DIY book tour in a fascinating new essay in the New York Times.

Having gone on tour last year, I can tell you that it's somewhat of a surreal experience. Sometimes you have big crowds, sometimes, not so big. But it absolutely is a completely different dimension than writing the book. One of the most satisfying, for me at least, was hearing how your book impacted a person and that they were able to put to use some of the concepts and ideas in your book to much success.

The dynamic between author and reader is so important. You need both. If you're a reader, consider going out to a reading a month. It brings a book to life in a way you probably never expected.

January 2010 Book Club Selection: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

For January, we're reading something completely different: a thriller!

"The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" by Stieg Larsson.

The plot is lengthy and fascinating and a great summary of it can be found on Barnes & Noble.com.

Winter feels like it's the perfect time to curl up with a mystery and a great one at that!

A SMALL CHANGE TO OUR ORIGINAL POST:

We'll be meeting ONLINE in our first virtual event for 2010 on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 7 PM. Kindly RSVP by e-mailing me at bookclub@carolinaweeklynewspapers.com and I'll send you the links and all the info.

Happy January everyone!

Alison

New Year, New Beginnings!

Hello everyone and happy new year on this fourth day of January!

Isn't a fresh start a wonderful thing? It feels like the world is full of possibilities!

Did you make your resolutions yet? How's that going? One of mine is to keep this blog updated on a regular fashion. December came and went so quickly. But thank you to all who made it the Ritz Carlton to discuss "Holiday on Ice" by David Sedaris.

I'm looking for 2010 reading sugggestions. What are you reading now that you cannot put down? Winter inspires thoughts of cozying up on the sofa curled up with a fanastic read. Did you ever notice how reading is very addictive? It's a high I love!

Some of the books I am most looking forward to this season is Elizabeth Gilbert's newest "Committed" and a new bio on actor/director Warren Beatty. I've never been a huge fan of his personally but I think as an artist, he's a fantastic study. Hopefully the book won't be too tawdry.

Thanks everyone for keeping up with us for yet another great year!

Hope to see you all soon!

Alison Woo
Book Club Editor
Carolina Weekly Newsgroup

A Note from Author Maryann McFadden

Last week's book club meeting was a smash! Thank you to all who came! We were chatting about how wonderful authors are and one of our book club favorites just sent me a note for you all. Here's a note from Maryann McFaddeen:
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Happy Holidays!


I can't think of a better way to thank you for your support and enthusiasm than to give away signed and personalized copies of SO HAPPY TOGETHER and THE RICHEST SEASON, along with handcrafted bookmarks to go with them.

I hope you'll visit my website to get the details. Winners will be drawn 12/31 and I hope you're one of them!

Simply go to www.maryannmcfadden.com Details are right on top!


Have a Wonderful Holiday and a Blessed New Year!

Maryann McFadden

Know a Senior Who's Ready to Downsize?

Get yourself to Park Road Books this Friday!

From 12:30 - 2PM, author Jan Robbins Durr will be signing and discussing her book, "De-Stuff: A Step by Step Guide for Seniors Preparing for an Estate Sale & Downsizing." Written particularly for those individuals who don't know what to do with their lifetime accummulation of 'stuff', this book covers how to sort, research, price, advertise, hold the sale, and disposition after the sale.

To learn more about Durr, visit her Web site at: www.robbinsappraisals.com. For Park Road books, visit www.parkroadbooks.com.

Book Club Selection for November 2009: The Receipe Club

Just in time for the holidays and the season of food and family, CWG has chosen a book that celebrates a dynamic relationship between two friends and the sharing of recipes in an inventive new novel, “The Recipe Club” by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel.

Barnes & Noble writes:

Lilly and Val are lifelong friends, united as much by their differences as by their similarities. Lilly, dramatic and confident, lives in the shadow of her beautiful, wayward mother and craves the attention of her distant, disapproving father. Val, shy and idealistic-and surprisingly ambitious-struggles with her desire to break free from her demanding housebound mother and a father whose dreams never seem to come true.In childhood, "LillyPad" and "Valpal" vow to form an exclusive two-person club. Throughout the decades they write intimate letters in which they share hopes, fears, deepest secrets-and recipes, from Lilly's "Lovelorn Lasagna" to Valerie's "Forgiveness Tapenade."

Readers can cook along as the girls travel through time, facing the challenges of independence; the joys and heartbreaks of first love; and the emotional complexities of family relationships, identity, mortality, and goals deferred.But no matter what different paths they take or what misunderstandings threaten to break them apart, Lilly and Val always find their way back together through their Recipe Club . . . until the fateful day when an act of kindness becomes an unforgivable betrayal.

Now, decades later, while trying to recapture the trust they've lost, Lilly and Val reunite once more-only to uncover a shocking secret. Will it destroy their friendship, or bring them ever closer?

To celebrate, join us Monday, Nov. 30 at a private home in south Charlotte at 7 PM where we’ll chat with the authors live via SKYPE. Bring a dish that has a memory associated with it to share and come delight in great food and conversation. To RSVP, e-mail bookclub@carolinaweeklynewspapers.com.

Brush up your Shakespeare!

I had the most delightful evening Tuesday night at the Booth Theater watching the "Reduced Shakespeare Company here in Charlotte.

All it took was 97 minutes to condense all of the Bard's 37 plays -both tragedies and comedies with some sonnet relief to boot!

Even though some of the material was fairly new to the audience, I have to say it helps if you know the plot of "Romeo and Juliet" or at least the movie, "Shakespeare in Love." You'll get a lot more out of the inside jokes.

For a delightful evening, run, don't walk and get the to the theater!

More info...

Reduced Shakespeare Company: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) plays October 27 through November 1 at the Booth Playhouse (130 North Tryon St., Charlotte, NC, 28202).Tickets start at just $24.50.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call 704-372-1000 or visit BlumenthalCenter.org.

Book Club Pick for October: The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown is at it again! And we're reading the adult version of the Harry Potter mania for October's book club.

Join us Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 PM at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall to discuss "The Lost Symbol." Kindly RSVP by e-mailing bookclub@carolinaweeklynewspapers.com.

Happy reading!
Alison

Charlotte Writers' Club Hosts Robert Inman

Charlotte Writers’ Club Hosts Robert Inman
by Jerri Gibson McCloud

The multi-talented journalist turned novelist, screenwriter, and playwright, Robert Inman will be guest speaker at the Charlotte Writers’ Club meeting on October 20th at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, SouthPark, 7 p.m.

Numerous Charlotteans will remember “Bob” Inman as anchor/reporter in 1970 for WBT TV, the #1 station in Charlotte during his 5-year stint. He left WBT in 1975 only to return in 1979 to become one of Charlotte’s most recognized anchor over the next 17 years.

Enamored by his passion for writing, in 1996 he left WBT to pursue a new career of writing.
Success continued for Inman with his first novel Home Fires Burning, followed by Old Dogs and Children, Dairy Queen Days and Captain Saturday. His down-home style and rich sentiment pulls the reader into his stories. He captured the south and brought the reader back to their own experiences in days long forgotten.

Inman crossed over from fiction to non-fiction with Coming Home: Life, Love and All Things Southern, and yet another genre, he wrote his first stage play Crossroads, writing the book, music and lyrics. The author of six motion pictures of which two were presented by Hallmark Hall of Fame, Inman has received many awards for his outstanding work, too numerous to list here. For additional books, plays, awards, education, please visit his website:
www.robert-inman.com.

Charlotte Writers’ Club is all about furthering its members’ writing experiences and encouraging them to soar to greater heights of writing. Robert Inman’s story will please all. Visitors welcome.
Jerri McCloud
President
Charlotte Writers' Club
www.charlottewritersclub.org

September Book Club Meeting

The book club event will go forward on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 7 PM at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Place Mall as originally scheduled.

Please RSVP at bookclub@carolinaweeklynewspapers.com.

Thanks!
Alison

City at the Cusp: How the Culture of Plenty Demolished the American Economy

Listen to our interview with author J. Allison Brown about her debut nonfiction book.

City at the Cusp: How the Culture of Plenty Demolished the American Economy

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For more, visit www.cityathecusp.com.

Fall sizzles with best-selling authors

The Queen City will host some of the nation’s best-selling and most beloved authors. The following is a list of some of the author visits book lovers can look forward to this fall.

Noted documentary film maker and author Ken Burns will appear at Joseph-Beth at SouthPark on Sept. 14, at Noon, to discuss the companion book to Burns’ newest documentary “The National Parks: America's Best Ideas.” Burns, whose illustrious 25 year of filmmaking includes documentaries on baseball, jazz and the Civil War, wrote the introduction to the book; writer Dayton Duncan wrote the book and co-produced the series.

The series looks at NPS’ span from inception to current status. Now almost 150 years old, there are parks in every state of the nation, except for Delaware. The National Parks System now includes 400 individual sites and 84 million combined acres.

“Parks” is a six-part series that will begin airing on PBS stations around the nation on Sept. 27.
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Dr. Andrew Weil, best-selling author and health guru, will speak on Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. at Queens University of Charlotte. The Harvard-trained physician will discuss this and other topics included in his newest book, "Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future. The book shares his analysis of where he believes the American healthcare system has gotten off track and he offers suggestions for new wellness-based models.
Weil’s other 10 books include "Healthy Aging," "Spontaneous Healing" and "8 Weeks to Optimum Health.”

Tickets are $40. The event will take place at the Dana Auditorium. To purchase, click here.

The visit is being sponsored by The Learning Society of Queens.
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Elizabeth Gilbert, author of mega best-seller and our own book club favorite, “Eat, Pray, Love” will speak with her sister, Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m. at Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall.

The New York Times named “Love” as one of the top 10 books of 2006; filming is currently underway for the movie version starring Julia Roberts. Gilbert is putting the final touches on her new book, “Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage,” which is due out early next year.

Gilbert’s sister, Catherine Gilbert Murdock is the author of young adult novel “Dairy Queen” -- the story of a girl who runs her father’s struggling dairy farm and tries out for the high school football team. Its sequel (and third book in the series) “The Off Season” will be published this fall.

Tickets are free, and are available at Davidson’s College Union from 10-4 weekdays, and will be distributed at the door beginning an hour before the presentation.

September and October selections

Hi all!

Thanks to everyone who came last Monday to our book club discussion. It was a wonderful, ecclectic mix of women from 20-80 about the wonderful book, "Gift from the Sea."

For September, we'll be reading, "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Meeting date is TBA but will most likely be the last Thursday of the month. After getting some feedback from book club members, it looks like Monday is getting a bit difficult. And who wants to miss Dancing with the Stars!

For October, we may has well join the mayhem and find out if Dan Brown's newest and much anticipated book, "The Lost Symbol" was worth the wait. We'll be meeting in October to discuss the book that is the adult's version of the latest Harry Potter book. Buy your book early and you can get significant discounts. Look for online specials, too but definitely check in with your favorite bookseller.

As always, please RSVP by sending me an e-mail at bookclub@carolinaweeklynewspapers.com and let me know you'll be there.

See you soon!

Alison

7 Days of Kindle: Day 7: Experimental Features

Kindle offers three new cool features including a basic web browser, the ability to play MP3 files and text to speech. You can also e-mail yourself documents and PDFs and read it on your Kindle. I tried the feature and liked it a lot. It’s perfect for the commuter who doesn’t want to pull out their bulky laptop.

I liked their battery life and be sure to get the leather cover. It kept the Kindle clean and portable. There is the standard black leather but I am groovin for the purple leather cover, available at Amazon, which is delicious looking.

The result:
Would I get the Kindle right now? Maybe.

The portability factor is amazing. This is a HUGE selling point. I have to say that a few days down the line, I really miss it. And the only other piece of tech equipment I feel that way about is my iPod.

Prices just dropped to $299 but if Apple has taught us anything it’s wait for the next generation to get more features at a lower price. I love the convenience and the cool factor of the Kindle. But I really want the color screen and better navigation for the newspaper articles. I’ll be eagerly waiting for those features and then I’ll pounce.

August 2009 Book Selection: Gift of the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

As we face the peak of summer, we all slow down just a bit more and start to contemplate life and what’s important. This is a time honored tradition of the season. Author Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote “Gift from the Sea” in the ‘50s but her advice and contemplation rings true for women of every age and at every stage of their lives, including those living in this fast-paced millennium. Lindbergh’s key question: How can a woman blend all her roles of mother, sister, daughter and friend while still having time for herself?

It was a question the author lived her entire life. Lindbergh led a life of adventure. She is the first American woman who earned a first class glider’s pilot license in 1930 and travelled with her husband, Charles Lindbergh around the world. Their son’s kidnapping, the famed Lindbergh baby case, was the scandal of the 30s. She moved to France shortly after the kidnapping trial and went on to raise five other children.

Lindbergh remained a woman of accomplishment for decades and wrote more than a dozen books. In 2001, she died, just four years before “Gift” celebrated its 50th year in print. Join us on Monday, August 17 at Barnes & Noble at Carolina Pineville Mall at 7 PM to discuss what I like to think of as a palate cleanser for the mind and soul. RSVP by e-mailing bookclub@carolinaweeklynewspapers.com.
-Alison Woo

Author Maryann McFadden discusses So Happy Together

Hear book club favorite author Maryann McFadden discuss her newest book, "So Happy Together" during her trip to Charlotte's Park Road Books.

Author Maryann McFadden discusses So Happy Together

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Mortons: The Cookbook

Hear from Tylor Field, co-author of Mortons: The Cookbook to find out how you can bring the delicious flavors of fabulous food from one of the nation's most respected steakhouse restaurants to your home and grill.

Mortons: The Cookbook

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