A flub leads to book suggestions

The inspiration for this column came from clubs—and a flub.

The first is obvious: there are some interesting area groups that haven’t been mentioned, and should be. Because they may interest readers, I present them here.

The “flub” relates to a March 25 column which briefly mentioned a nonfiction book, “The Man Who Loved Books Too Much,” about a rare books thief. Unfortunately, the “thief” I named was Ken Sanders, instead a rare books dealer and former security chairman for the Antiquarian Booksellers Assn. of America—who actually helped apprehend the thief. Ah, dear. I put the mea in culpa, and couldn’t say “sorry” fast enough. I also asked Sanders, who says he’s had more than one chuckle about the mistake, to share some selections T&G area clubs might want to consider. His tips follow the club info.

The Spiritual Book Club meets in Westborough at Tatnuck Book Store, 18 Lyman St. Members are invited to meet beforehand for dinner, at 5 p.m. in the Tatnuck Café. They discuss their book from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. in the events room. Members consider life-changing books that help readers gain insight on themselves, their relationships, and their spirituality. Members read one or more chapters during the meeting, then share insights and perspectives, eliminating the need to read at home. New members, both male and female, are invited, member Jacki Rose says. There are already some male members.

The group has begun Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now,” with remaining discussions slated for Tuesdays, May 29, June 5 and 12, and again on Mondays, June 18 and 25. Next, the group will begin Lynne Robinson’s book on intuition, “Listen.”

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Leominster’s Reading, Sharing and Laughing meets at Chaibo, a Fitchburg coffee house. Toni Morrison’s writings will be the topic for the group’s 7 p.m., June 27 meeting. For specifics (or to join), contact Heather Munkacsy at: http://www.meetup.com/Reading-Sharing-and-Laughing.

Members meet the last Wednesday of the month, “except when we do field trips or movie night,” Munkacsy said. “We once read “Dark Tide,” about the molasses flood in Boston's North End. We took a tour of the North End, discussing the book while eating yummy Italian food at a North End restaurant.” They plan to read “Little Women” and tour the Alcott House in Concord, followed by discussion at a Concord café.

“We watched Eat, Pray Love at a member's house a few months after reading the book,” she said. “Attendees brought Italian, Indonesian or Indian food. We've also gone to see Water for Elephants and The Help, which we read prior to watching the movies.”

Summer reading is often light or funny in nature. An earlier read: ‘My Fair Lazy’ by Jen Lancaster (a funny account of escaping reality TV addiction).

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Northborough Metaphysical Book Club, formed last month, focuses on personal growth, spiritual beliefs and teachings. The group is reading Deepak Chopra’s “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success,” with a meeting scheduled for 10 a.m., Tuesday, June 5, in the Northborough Free Library, 34 Main St. For details, call the library, 508-393-5025, or contact organizer Harry Kroner at www.meetup.com.

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 And now, Ken Sanders’ list: “Here are just a few observations on books I've read the past few years that have stuck with me,” he writes. “No particular theme, or order; fiction and non-fiction intertwined. As I'm in the rare and used book business, I often don't stumble across an author or actually read a particular book until long after its pub (publication) date. In some instances, decades!”

Wendell Berry. “Kentucky poet farmer, essayist and novelist, Wendell Berry writes extremely well in any genre and is one of our most important authors.” He suggests: “Nathan Coulter,” “Hannah Coulter” (novels), “The Unsettling of America,” “The Gift of Good Land” (essays) and “The Mad Farmer Poems” and “Leavings” (poetry).

Charles Bowden. “Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America.” Blood Orchid is first in a trilogy as “original and hard-hitting examinations of America and Americans. Not for the faint of  heart.” Other titles include “Blues for Cannibals” and “Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing.” Sanders describes Bowden, a former Tucson-based journalist, as “the most fearless literary voice in America today.” He also suggests: “Killing the Hidden Waters,” “Red Line,” “Desierto,” and “Dreamland: The Way Out of Juarez.”

Peter Bowman. “Blood Red, the first anti-war novel published after the war in November of 1945. A prose poem really, this novel is written in two-page pairings, ending with an aphorism, and with each stanza intending to represent one minute in real time in a Pacific beach invasion during the war.” This book, he says, “makes Norman Mailer's ‘The Naked and the Dead’ read like a children's fairy tale. Despite being a Book of the Month Club main selection, the book has not been reprinted to date, and never appeared in paperback.” He calls it “a book ahead of its time.”

Scott Carrier. “Running After Antelope” and “A Prisoner of Zion.” Sanders says: “Quirky sometime-NPR  journalist (This American Life, The Friendly Man), has only published two slender volumes of stories, but they're worth seeking out. (He) has a voice and a viewpoint unlike any other in radio.”

Michael Chabon. “The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay.” “Although a Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Chabon's fictional account of the birth of the comic book industry in America, and the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s and ’40s may well be the best history yet written on that subject.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón. “The Shadow of the Wind.” A Barcelona-set biblio-mystery involving a ‘forgotten’ library and an even more obscure author and his forgotten novels. Old world, romantic, mysterious, brooding and intriguing.”

What’ is your group going to read next season? Share your choices by contacting me at ann.frantz@gmail.com.

This column, about  Central Massachusetts book clubs and books, is published the last Sunday of each month in the Telegram & Gazette, Worcester, Mass. Clubs are welcome to comment or ask questions here or to ann.frantz@gmail.com.

 

Midnight in the Garden of Should and Sequel

So P.D. James has decided to bring "Death" to Pemberly, Jane Austen's setting for the gentility, romance and beloved characters of "Pride and Prejudice."
Here we go again.
Scarlett O'Hara found true happiness with Rhett Butler in Alexandra Ripley's sequel to "Gone With the Wind."
Holden Caulfield, the perennial adolescent of "Catcher in the Rye," became an old man in "Coming Through the Rye," a book legally challenged by J.D. Salinger, author of the original; it was eventually--glad to hear it--limited to publication across the water in Great Britain.
They're called "derivative" works, and I dislike them.
When an author creates and peoples a fictional world, using years of time and learning to do it, why should all that simply be lifted for use by an up-and-comer writer (with the exception of James, who has earned her own stripes)?
And, in reverse, why would a writer want to spend so much time reworking someone else's creation?
I learned this the hard way.
When I was 11 or 12, assigned to write a novel over the weekend, I sat down with enthusiasm and ideas to write my very own Nancy Drew mystery. Having been a fan of the Cherry Ames nursing series, I had noticed two listed authors, Helen Wells and Julie Tatham (also the creator of Trixie Belden). Tatham picked up the series after Wells turned to new projects.
Great idea, I thought. I could do that. I'd use the same framework but write my own story.

My English teacher didn't agree. She slammed a bright red D- on top, and added scathing comments about plagiarism.
It hadn't even occurred to me that I had taken someone else's work, in the sense that I used it. I was so embarrassed, and so young and ready to cry, that I never explained the idea and the original storyline I'd created to the instructor. Sad that she didn't bother to talk with me about it.
Perhaps that was the impetus to my dislike of derivative works. The old envy bean growing in my garden--Wah; I couldn't do it, so why should they?!)
But I suspect it's more about quality control.
More than one critic has said it, and I agree: these so-called sequels aren't as good as the original--meaning, they're lame. They're not as interesting, as authentic or as well-written. In truth, they're more like cold leftover pizza served on the literary table. Bleah!
As a writer, I can't stomach the idea that someone might take a character I created and turn her into an adult psychopath, a naughty librarian or any other incarnation that I didn't intend. I can only imagine how upset these developments would make Martha Mitchell (whose family authorized a sequel), Austen or Salinger.
And they're not the only ones. Lately, flipping books like hot properties seems the in thing to do. Are publishers encouraging this? Possibly. There is certainly a lot of promotional effort behind some of them.
But I see it as yet another step in the erosion of copyrights, as well as capitalizing on someone else's justly earned fame to sell a book.
I get parody and satirical or political takes on the old favorites. Even simplifying the classics for modern or younger consumption rings true. These efforts are not the same thing as going beyond what is perhaps the most famous ending in literature to revisit that "tomorrow" of Scarlet's thoughts. Frankly, I do give a damn. So just don't do it.
I don't want to meet Heathcliff on a motorcycle or Emma Woodhouse stuffed into a slinky bra and high heels as a modern-day hooker. Anyone contemplating those directions is invited to amputate their keyboard fingers.
What's wrong with using one's own ideas in a book?
Camping out in a famous author's yard this way is nothing more than selling cheap trinkets on the steps of a famous museum. They might have a moment's attractive appeal, but they lose it fast at home.
So give me Emma in Austen's own writing, and give me Heathcliff in the dark, deranged manner Emily Bronte wrote him. It was her only novel, for pete's sake--leave it alone.
And now, I must return to my new novel: "Midnight in the Garden of Should and Sequel."