Put this one on your calendar!
On June 12, at 2 p.m., Bay Path College's Longbridge campus will host an event for those who love books and are in bookclubs.
Follow this link to find out more: http://www.baypath.edu/NewsandEvents/EventsCalendar/June2011/BookClubEvent.aspx
Author Hallie Ephron is guest speaker.
This sounds like a blast, and I hope we find more events like this one in other areas of the state!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Some favorite feel-good reads
One of the biggest complaints, when book selection time comes around, is that a book is too dark to enjoy. Depressing books, it seems, are only making readers feel bad.
While we all have a different opinion about bleak reading (I’m thinking of Cormac McCarthy’s haunting take on post-Apocalyptic America in “The Road”), members also can’t agree about what makes them happy. Some wouldn’t touch chick lit with a Nook, while others find good people and good endings just too sugary.
Isn’t that what a book club is all about, though? Being exposed to reading that one wouldn’t ordinarily pick up, and discovering a few wonderful writers we would have otherwise missed? Some clubs make a point of consciously going down that road, seeking out cult writers, first-time authors, or relative unknowns. Others define themselves as mystery book clubs, sci-fi readers or history clubs. It’s all good, really. Every genre has its high points.
In early June, AbeBooks listed 25 Feel-Good Reads on its web site (where you can also find 50 books for 11-year-olds and a selection of bloggers). The editors did their homework. The list includes such classics as Tom Robbins’ “Still Life with Woodpecker,” Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café,” Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” and Nevil Shute’s “A Town Like Alice.” Yes, this author of “On the Beach” could also write of joy.
The list also includes more contemporary finds, like Garth Stein’s wonderful man-dog friendship, “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto.”
Books don’t have to be insipid to make readers happy. They can be beautifully written, or neatly contrived, to produce a good feeling. A book that makes one happy may well come from an author who’s feeling good (at least some of the time). That it finds joy in life does not mean it is false or less than a worthy read.
Some of my favorites:
• Jan Karon’s series on a minister’s life in the fictional southern town of Mitford, beginning with “At Home in Mitford,” portrays good people with light hearts and kind souls;
• Concord, Mass., author Gregory Maguire’s series of reshaped fairy tales (the most famous being “Wicked”) includes a new look at Cinderella (“Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister”) and Snow White (“Mirror, Mirror”); they are wonderfully whimsical and imaginative, always fascinating;
• New Hampshire author Nancy Clark wrote “The Hills at Home,” an enjoyable visit into a family of flaky relatives in close quarters with each other;
• Westborough’s Daniel Bruce Brown (a friend, I must tell you) recently published a farcical take on what the nation’s first Jewish president might encounter. “Roll Over, Hitler” even won the 2010 fiction award from the Independent Publishers Association in May;
• Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” is one of the funniest travel stories I’ve read, drawn on his solo trip along the Appalachian Trail;
• Don’t forget to read “I Feel Bad About my Neck,” Nora Ephron’s wry look at aging; it’s honest and very funny;
• Howard Mosher, a Vermont author, writes warmly and humorously about life in small towns—and among baseball fans—in his books. My favorite, “Waiting for Teddy Williams”;
• A book doesn’t have to be funny to be a feel-good book, either. Kent Haruf is a master storyteller, revealing the fears and failures of people with honesty and kindness. I loved “Plainsong” and its old bachelor farmers—brothers Harold and Raymond McPheron—who take in a teenager who is pregnant and alone;
• Langston Hughes’ “Not Without Laughter” is simply beautiful, a rare look inside the childhood and adolescence of a young black man growing up in the Midwest. It’s semi-autobiographical;
• Oh, how I love Richard Russo. His “Empire Falls” and “Nobody’s Fool” are lasting portrayals of small towns and rich characters. I will always love these two works;
• “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you somehow missed it in school, read it. If you’ve grown up since you first read it, read it again;
• Annie Proulx is a favorite writer. Her “The Shipping News” was atypical, but a satisfying read.
This list is by no means a complete listing of my own favorites; it contains some that I recall best. Share your favorites here as well.
While we all have a different opinion about bleak reading (I’m thinking of Cormac McCarthy’s haunting take on post-Apocalyptic America in “The Road”), members also can’t agree about what makes them happy. Some wouldn’t touch chick lit with a Nook, while others find good people and good endings just too sugary.
Isn’t that what a book club is all about, though? Being exposed to reading that one wouldn’t ordinarily pick up, and discovering a few wonderful writers we would have otherwise missed? Some clubs make a point of consciously going down that road, seeking out cult writers, first-time authors, or relative unknowns. Others define themselves as mystery book clubs, sci-fi readers or history clubs. It’s all good, really. Every genre has its high points.
In early June, AbeBooks listed 25 Feel-Good Reads on its web site (where you can also find 50 books for 11-year-olds and a selection of bloggers). The editors did their homework. The list includes such classics as Tom Robbins’ “Still Life with Woodpecker,” Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café,” Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” and Nevil Shute’s “A Town Like Alice.” Yes, this author of “On the Beach” could also write of joy.
The list also includes more contemporary finds, like Garth Stein’s wonderful man-dog friendship, “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto.”
Books don’t have to be insipid to make readers happy. They can be beautifully written, or neatly contrived, to produce a good feeling. A book that makes one happy may well come from an author who’s feeling good (at least some of the time). That it finds joy in life does not mean it is false or less than a worthy read.
Some of my favorites:
• Jan Karon’s series on a minister’s life in the fictional southern town of Mitford, beginning with “At Home in Mitford,” portrays good people with light hearts and kind souls;
• Concord, Mass., author Gregory Maguire’s series of reshaped fairy tales (the most famous being “Wicked”) includes a new look at Cinderella (“Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister”) and Snow White (“Mirror, Mirror”); they are wonderfully whimsical and imaginative, always fascinating;
• New Hampshire author Nancy Clark wrote “The Hills at Home,” an enjoyable visit into a family of flaky relatives in close quarters with each other;
• Westborough’s Daniel Bruce Brown (a friend, I must tell you) recently published a farcical take on what the nation’s first Jewish president might encounter. “Roll Over, Hitler” even won the 2010 fiction award from the Independent Publishers Association in May;
• Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” is one of the funniest travel stories I’ve read, drawn on his solo trip along the Appalachian Trail;
• Don’t forget to read “I Feel Bad About my Neck,” Nora Ephron’s wry look at aging; it’s honest and very funny;
• Howard Mosher, a Vermont author, writes warmly and humorously about life in small towns—and among baseball fans—in his books. My favorite, “Waiting for Teddy Williams”;
• A book doesn’t have to be funny to be a feel-good book, either. Kent Haruf is a master storyteller, revealing the fears and failures of people with honesty and kindness. I loved “Plainsong” and its old bachelor farmers—brothers Harold and Raymond McPheron—who take in a teenager who is pregnant and alone;
• Langston Hughes’ “Not Without Laughter” is simply beautiful, a rare look inside the childhood and adolescence of a young black man growing up in the Midwest. It’s semi-autobiographical;
• Oh, how I love Richard Russo. His “Empire Falls” and “Nobody’s Fool” are lasting portrayals of small towns and rich characters. I will always love these two works;
• “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you somehow missed it in school, read it. If you’ve grown up since you first read it, read it again;
• Annie Proulx is a favorite writer. Her “The Shipping News” was atypical, but a satisfying read.
This list is by no means a complete listing of my own favorites; it contains some that I recall best. Share your favorites here as well.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Online and inline for reading
For central Mass. book clubs
• Seeking others who love reading? Scanning through www.meetup.com, one finds dozens of interest groups, among them readers and writers.
• Leominster’s “Literary Critics” lists 60 members. Find it at http://www.meetup.com/Reading-Sharing-and-Laughing.
• There are 53 members in Baldwinville’s Cover to Cover Book Club, which meets at Gardner cafes and homes. You can find them on Facebook, or at http://www.meetup.com/covertocoverbookclub/
• Candlelight Readers Circle of Ware’s 17 members are also on the Net. Look for them at (http://www.meetup.com/Candlelight-Readers-Circle-of-Ware/).
• Check out the Mark Twain House web site for a listing of Connecticut-area book discussions and author appearances it sponsors, including The Nook Book Club’s Harriet Beecher Stowe discussion on June 2, and an imaginative day dedicated to family activities surrounding Tom Sawyer, “Yo Ho—The Pirate’s Life,” on June 11.
Explore the writing of T.C. Boyle
Los Angeles novelist and short story writer T.C. Boyle, wry and insightful, writes across a diverse territory of very human characters in conflict with their world. While he’s among the most-published writers in the magazine world, not many book clubs read him yet. I first encountered Boyle through short stories like “Greasy Lake” and “Dogology.” Two of his novels, The Tortilla Curtain and Talk Talk, are favorites. His latest is When the Killing’s Done, exploring the conflict between animal rights activists and biologists. While he sticks to fiction, he’s creatively explored the life of architect and philanderer Frank Lloyd Wright in The Women and the cornflakes’ founder, John Harvey Kellogg, in The Road to Wellville. He even hit on Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle.
• Seeking others who love reading? Scanning through www.meetup.com, one finds dozens of interest groups, among them readers and writers.
• Leominster’s “Literary Critics” lists 60 members. Find it at http://www.meetup.com/Reading-Sharing-and-Laughing.
• There are 53 members in Baldwinville’s Cover to Cover Book Club, which meets at Gardner cafes and homes. You can find them on Facebook, or at http://www.meetup.com/covertocoverbookclub/
• Candlelight Readers Circle of Ware’s 17 members are also on the Net. Look for them at (http://www.meetup.com/Candlelight-Readers-Circle-of-Ware/).
• Check out the Mark Twain House web site for a listing of Connecticut-area book discussions and author appearances it sponsors, including The Nook Book Club’s Harriet Beecher Stowe discussion on June 2, and an imaginative day dedicated to family activities surrounding Tom Sawyer, “Yo Ho—The Pirate’s Life,” on June 11.
Explore the writing of T.C. Boyle
Los Angeles novelist and short story writer T.C. Boyle, wry and insightful, writes across a diverse territory of very human characters in conflict with their world. While he’s among the most-published writers in the magazine world, not many book clubs read him yet. I first encountered Boyle through short stories like “Greasy Lake” and “Dogology.” Two of his novels, The Tortilla Curtain and Talk Talk, are favorites. His latest is When the Killing’s Done, exploring the conflict between animal rights activists and biologists. While he sticks to fiction, he’s creatively explored the life of architect and philanderer Frank Lloyd Wright in The Women and the cornflakes’ founder, John Harvey Kellogg, in The Road to Wellville. He even hit on Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle.
The dearly departing
Feeling inundated? Cluttered? There are solutions.
Those who love the sensations of paper and print, clinging to books despite electronic readers, can become hoarders of the best sort, jamming books into bags and backpacks, squeezing them onto shelves and bedside tables, sharing them with friends. But sometimes friends must part—at least those less-loved—and that’s where library sales, second-hand stores, book boxes and book swaps come in. In some cases, donated books make a big difference in others’ lives.
‘Read It and Reap’ feedback indicates readers stand firm: Give us this day our daily book! They treasure their books. As the mega-stores pare down their books and extend into other retail areas, we may even see a resurgence of small, independent bookstores. Every town needs a place to read, hang out with computer/wifi, meet friends, buy books and enjoy coffee and snacks. Is there anything better?
Admittedly, e-readers are aboard airplanes, in cafes and waiting rooms, but books aren’t going away. The reading life is about more than a screen: collectors love to acquire, and book lovers are no different. But we all need to thin the shelves occasionally. With over 1,000 books, I'm faced with the task too often, gleaning the chaff from the shelves. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Here are some ways to pare down:
• Book exchanges. Have each club member bring books to a meeting. You set the rules: book for book, or open selection. Donate what’s left over to the local library.
• Store collections. Some cafes, like the Starbucks in Leominster, have a nook for “leave-one, take-one” choices. We’ve even seen them at The Strand movie theater lobby in Clinton, in medical offices, even some very good ones in our hairstylist’s waiting room.
• The Prison Book Program (www.prisonbookprogram.com). This national organization's Massachusetts chapter is in the basement of United First Parish Church in Quincy, as the "Lucy Parsons Bookstore." Donated books in good condition are redistributed to prisoners throughout the state, to provide educational and recreational reading for prisoners, especially as state budgets reduce funds for such materials. Prisoners aren’t allowed books from family or friends; they must either be shipped from bookstores and publishers or received through the prison library. This program accepts books with an ISBN (bar code) on the cover or jacket, and textbooks no more than three years old, but not damaged books, encyclopedias or academic journals and magazines. Phone (617) 423-3298 or write info@prisonbookprogram.org for drop-off details.
• Amazon.com's buyback program accepts recent textbooks from a designated listing. You'll be paid, if they're accepted, with an amazon.com credit.
• Used bookstores vary as to which topics they like, but often have websites listing their preferences. The Toadstool, an excellent bookstore with used and new books, is in Keene and Peterborough, N.H. The Book Bear on Route 9, West Brookfield (www.bookbear.com) is a big store, buying and selling. The Rabbit Hole in Fitchburg features an eclectic collection including used vinyl and books. The Haunted Bookshop in W. Boylston is another specialty shop with collections of uncommon books on history, art, medieval life. Call (508) 835-4738 for details. Barely Read Books on Route 20 in Sudbury is terrific. While some shops are better, and more varied, payback is usually a few dollars.
• Libraries. Most libraries hold daily, weekly and annual book sales as a way to raise money for operations. Worcester Public Library's "storefront" bookshop is open most days. Libraries love your new used books, children's books, classics in good condition, how-to manuals and cookbooks. (Check upcoming library sales at www.booksalefinder.com/MA)
• Worcester. John and Anne-Marie Monfredo, founders of Worcester: The City that Reads Committee, run an annual book drive (the fifth ended in May), seeking books for children in preschool through Grade 8. They are distributed to schools, preschools and local organizations in June. For more information, call the Monfredos at (508) 853-3444.
Ann Connery Frantz’s past columns are included on her blog about books and book clubs at http://readitandreeap.blogspot.com (note the two ee’s). Email comments or questions to ann.frantz@gmail.com.
Those who love the sensations of paper and print, clinging to books despite electronic readers, can become hoarders of the best sort, jamming books into bags and backpacks, squeezing them onto shelves and bedside tables, sharing them with friends. But sometimes friends must part—at least those less-loved—and that’s where library sales, second-hand stores, book boxes and book swaps come in. In some cases, donated books make a big difference in others’ lives.
‘Read It and Reap’ feedback indicates readers stand firm: Give us this day our daily book! They treasure their books. As the mega-stores pare down their books and extend into other retail areas, we may even see a resurgence of small, independent bookstores. Every town needs a place to read, hang out with computer/wifi, meet friends, buy books and enjoy coffee and snacks. Is there anything better?
Admittedly, e-readers are aboard airplanes, in cafes and waiting rooms, but books aren’t going away. The reading life is about more than a screen: collectors love to acquire, and book lovers are no different. But we all need to thin the shelves occasionally. With over 1,000 books, I'm faced with the task too often, gleaning the chaff from the shelves. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Here are some ways to pare down:
• Book exchanges. Have each club member bring books to a meeting. You set the rules: book for book, or open selection. Donate what’s left over to the local library.
• Store collections. Some cafes, like the Starbucks in Leominster, have a nook for “leave-one, take-one” choices. We’ve even seen them at The Strand movie theater lobby in Clinton, in medical offices, even some very good ones in our hairstylist’s waiting room.
• The Prison Book Program (www.prisonbookprogram.com). This national organization's Massachusetts chapter is in the basement of United First Parish Church in Quincy, as the "Lucy Parsons Bookstore." Donated books in good condition are redistributed to prisoners throughout the state, to provide educational and recreational reading for prisoners, especially as state budgets reduce funds for such materials. Prisoners aren’t allowed books from family or friends; they must either be shipped from bookstores and publishers or received through the prison library. This program accepts books with an ISBN (bar code) on the cover or jacket, and textbooks no more than three years old, but not damaged books, encyclopedias or academic journals and magazines. Phone (617) 423-3298 or write info@prisonbookprogram.org for drop-off details.
• Amazon.com's buyback program accepts recent textbooks from a designated listing. You'll be paid, if they're accepted, with an amazon.com credit.
• Used bookstores vary as to which topics they like, but often have websites listing their preferences. The Toadstool, an excellent bookstore with used and new books, is in Keene and Peterborough, N.H. The Book Bear on Route 9, West Brookfield (www.bookbear.com) is a big store, buying and selling. The Rabbit Hole in Fitchburg features an eclectic collection including used vinyl and books. The Haunted Bookshop in W. Boylston is another specialty shop with collections of uncommon books on history, art, medieval life. Call (508) 835-4738 for details. Barely Read Books on Route 20 in Sudbury is terrific. While some shops are better, and more varied, payback is usually a few dollars.
• Libraries. Most libraries hold daily, weekly and annual book sales as a way to raise money for operations. Worcester Public Library's "storefront" bookshop is open most days. Libraries love your new used books, children's books, classics in good condition, how-to manuals and cookbooks. (Check upcoming library sales at www.booksalefinder.com/MA)
• Worcester. John and Anne-Marie Monfredo, founders of Worcester: The City that Reads Committee, run an annual book drive (the fifth ended in May), seeking books for children in preschool through Grade 8. They are distributed to schools, preschools and local organizations in June. For more information, call the Monfredos at (508) 853-3444.
Ann Connery Frantz’s past columns are included on her blog about books and book clubs at http://readitandreeap.blogspot.com (note the two ee’s). Email comments or questions to ann.frantz@gmail.com.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Book collection needs your help
John and Anne-Marie Monfredo, founders of the Worcester: The City that Reads Committee, recently kicked off their fifth annual book drive.
They hope to gather more than 25,000 new or gently used books for children in preschool through Grade 8. The books are distributed to schools, preschools and local organizations in June. Collection sites will gather books between now and May 15 and are spread throughout the city and include banks, bookstores, the Worcester Public Library, supermarkets, restaurants, the Senior Center on Vernon Street, the DCU Center, the Jewish Community Center on Salisbury Street, the Greendale YMCA and a variety of other businesses.
Individual public and private schools, colleges, organizations, and businesses are holding individual drives to benefit the effort, and Scholastic Books has already donated more than 1,500 books to get the drive started. For more information, call the Monfredos at (508) 853-3444.
They hope to gather more than 25,000 new or gently used books for children in preschool through Grade 8. The books are distributed to schools, preschools and local organizations in June. Collection sites will gather books between now and May 15 and are spread throughout the city and include banks, bookstores, the Worcester Public Library, supermarkets, restaurants, the Senior Center on Vernon Street, the DCU Center, the Jewish Community Center on Salisbury Street, the Greendale YMCA and a variety of other businesses.
Individual public and private schools, colleges, organizations, and businesses are holding individual drives to benefit the effort, and Scholastic Books has already donated more than 1,500 books to get the drive started. For more information, call the Monfredos at (508) 853-3444.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
for Book clubs - get moving!
Don’t just sit there—get moving. While many book groups simply greet, meet and treat, some groups are more enterprising: they explore, travel, invite in or Skype with authors, play with book themes (like Sutton’s cupcake party for Buttercream Bumpoff, mentioned Feb. 27).
Members’ appetites are voracious and they want more. It’s out there, waiting for them; they just have to locate it.
“I so wish that some of the local Worcester colleges would host occasional lectures, open to the public, on classic books like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Steinbeck,” wrote Brenda Yates, of the Sutton group, “Full Court Press.”
We second that idea, but add that contemporary fiction is just as interesting to some. Published authors especially fascinate both readers and aspiring writers; increasingly, authors and bookstores are catering to book groups, as a way of increasing sales. Anita Shreve lectured and signed books at Tatnuck Booksellers in Westborough last year. She packed the store’s meeting room. The Toadstool bookstores in Keene and Peterborough, N.H., regularly bring in regional authors to good-size crowds.
When Fitchburg State College invited Jodi Picoult to speak at its 2006 New England Writers Series, she also visited the Leominster Barnes & Noble to sign books—and a long line formed as dozens of fans presented her with their books, many of them planned to attend the FSC session that evening.
Oh, yes; the interest is there. “I think that there are enough book groups in the area that if local colleges would sponsor some evening book seminars—perhaps pay as you go, $15 to attend a lecture or something—that there would be a good market for it,” Yates said. “I think there are plenty of people who would love to read a book and then have the book taught to them. I just read Wuthering Heights and I sure would like someone to explain that one to me!”
Those who love writing love books as well—and dozens of people in this region hone their craft in writing groups. The Worcester Writers Group’s 67-person membership is hardworking and healthy. The poets of Worcester’s Poets’ Asylum are just as active. In Berlin, the Metrowest area, Lancaster, Shrewsbury—community after community—writers groups have formed alongside their reading counterparts. And they share a love for sessions with authors.
Being so close to Boston, there’s a generous amount of activity in this area (as there is in the Berkshires). Emerson College in Boston, home to Ploughshares literary journal, sponsors readings, as do PEN New England and Grub Street—“the” center for serious writers. PEN’s monthly series is generally free, but involves jogging into the Boston area.
Once a year, the Boston Book Festival hosts a passel of noted writers and hundreds wander about freely, listening to and seeing writers like Dennis Lehane, Joyce Carol Oates and Bill Bryson. It’s a premiere event and a great fall field trip.
To find events, check regional book stores and libraries (where your club can also rent a movie that pairs with what they’re reading). Libraries bring in speakers when funding permits. The New England Crime Writers makes the rounds of many area libraries, discussing mysteries and writing—they’re a large group, made of fledgling as well as more published mystery writers. Groton Library’s large endowment permits it to bring in a roster of speakers. The Greater Worcester Community Foundation funds speaker programs within area libraries.
Speak up. Librarians want to know what you’d like, and they’ll try to move mountains to get it. Lucky libraries have a few thousand set aside for speakers (and willingly accept donations to the cause). Book sales are a critical resource for funding such activities, so take your satchel and buy, buy, buy. Find out if your library offers free meeting space for book club events, and ask if such assists as Skype—for phone-video interviews—and large-screen projection are available.
“We travel at least twice a year,” reports Debby McDonald of Millbury’s Roving Readers Book Club (second Tuesdays, monthly, 2 p.m., at Barnes & Noble in Millbury). “We read a book and choose a destination connected it.” The club’s 12 to 15 members met at the Orchard House in Concord while reading Louisa Mae Alcott’s Little Women—and there are several writer-connected sites in the region. Mark Twain’s Hartford, Conn., residence is a historical site with many book-related events (www.marktwainhouse.org).
The Millbury group’s meetings are published in Millbury’s Barnes and Noble newsletter as well, promoting interest. Reading Ethan Frome, they traveled to author Edith Wharton’s house. “While reading The Diaries of Adam and Eve, we went to the Mark Twain House,” McDonald said. “We went to Salem to a museum, to see a Chinese home, as we had read so many Chinese stories. We have had two different authors come and talk to our group; one was Amy Belding Brown, the author of Mr. Emerson’s Wife.”
Food matters. The group has had a formal tea at one member’s house. They always plan a visit to a good restaurant in their travels. (Currently, McDonald says, they’re reading Jodi Picoult’s House Rules.)
If your group has had different adventures, share them through this column. I’m glad, also, to include other libraries and clubs as they make their programs known. Princeton Public Library’s book club meets monthly—with an evening and an afternoon group, as well as two children’s book groups, says Wendy Pape, director.
Ann Connery Frantz is a journalist and fiction writer. Past columns are included on her blog about books and book clubs at http://readitandreeap.blogspot.com (note the two ee’s). E-mail your comments or questions to ann.frantz@gmail.com.
Members’ appetites are voracious and they want more. It’s out there, waiting for them; they just have to locate it.
“I so wish that some of the local Worcester colleges would host occasional lectures, open to the public, on classic books like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Steinbeck,” wrote Brenda Yates, of the Sutton group, “Full Court Press.”
We second that idea, but add that contemporary fiction is just as interesting to some. Published authors especially fascinate both readers and aspiring writers; increasingly, authors and bookstores are catering to book groups, as a way of increasing sales. Anita Shreve lectured and signed books at Tatnuck Booksellers in Westborough last year. She packed the store’s meeting room. The Toadstool bookstores in Keene and Peterborough, N.H., regularly bring in regional authors to good-size crowds.
When Fitchburg State College invited Jodi Picoult to speak at its 2006 New England Writers Series, she also visited the Leominster Barnes & Noble to sign books—and a long line formed as dozens of fans presented her with their books, many of them planned to attend the FSC session that evening.
Oh, yes; the interest is there. “I think that there are enough book groups in the area that if local colleges would sponsor some evening book seminars—perhaps pay as you go, $15 to attend a lecture or something—that there would be a good market for it,” Yates said. “I think there are plenty of people who would love to read a book and then have the book taught to them. I just read Wuthering Heights and I sure would like someone to explain that one to me!”
Those who love writing love books as well—and dozens of people in this region hone their craft in writing groups. The Worcester Writers Group’s 67-person membership is hardworking and healthy. The poets of Worcester’s Poets’ Asylum are just as active. In Berlin, the Metrowest area, Lancaster, Shrewsbury—community after community—writers groups have formed alongside their reading counterparts. And they share a love for sessions with authors.
Being so close to Boston, there’s a generous amount of activity in this area (as there is in the Berkshires). Emerson College in Boston, home to Ploughshares literary journal, sponsors readings, as do PEN New England and Grub Street—“the” center for serious writers. PEN’s monthly series is generally free, but involves jogging into the Boston area.
Once a year, the Boston Book Festival hosts a passel of noted writers and hundreds wander about freely, listening to and seeing writers like Dennis Lehane, Joyce Carol Oates and Bill Bryson. It’s a premiere event and a great fall field trip.
To find events, check regional book stores and libraries (where your club can also rent a movie that pairs with what they’re reading). Libraries bring in speakers when funding permits. The New England Crime Writers makes the rounds of many area libraries, discussing mysteries and writing—they’re a large group, made of fledgling as well as more published mystery writers. Groton Library’s large endowment permits it to bring in a roster of speakers. The Greater Worcester Community Foundation funds speaker programs within area libraries.
Speak up. Librarians want to know what you’d like, and they’ll try to move mountains to get it. Lucky libraries have a few thousand set aside for speakers (and willingly accept donations to the cause). Book sales are a critical resource for funding such activities, so take your satchel and buy, buy, buy. Find out if your library offers free meeting space for book club events, and ask if such assists as Skype—for phone-video interviews—and large-screen projection are available.
“We travel at least twice a year,” reports Debby McDonald of Millbury’s Roving Readers Book Club (second Tuesdays, monthly, 2 p.m., at Barnes & Noble in Millbury). “We read a book and choose a destination connected it.” The club’s 12 to 15 members met at the Orchard House in Concord while reading Louisa Mae Alcott’s Little Women—and there are several writer-connected sites in the region. Mark Twain’s Hartford, Conn., residence is a historical site with many book-related events (www.marktwainhouse.org).
The Millbury group’s meetings are published in Millbury’s Barnes and Noble newsletter as well, promoting interest. Reading Ethan Frome, they traveled to author Edith Wharton’s house. “While reading The Diaries of Adam and Eve, we went to the Mark Twain House,” McDonald said. “We went to Salem to a museum, to see a Chinese home, as we had read so many Chinese stories. We have had two different authors come and talk to our group; one was Amy Belding Brown, the author of Mr. Emerson’s Wife.”
Food matters. The group has had a formal tea at one member’s house. They always plan a visit to a good restaurant in their travels. (Currently, McDonald says, they’re reading Jodi Picoult’s House Rules.)
If your group has had different adventures, share them through this column. I’m glad, also, to include other libraries and clubs as they make their programs known. Princeton Public Library’s book club meets monthly—with an evening and an afternoon group, as well as two children’s book groups, says Wendy Pape, director.
Ann Connery Frantz is a journalist and fiction writer. Past columns are included on her blog about books and book clubs at http://readitandreeap.blogspot.com (note the two ee’s). E-mail your comments or questions to ann.frantz@gmail.com.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Review of A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse
A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé, published by Europa Editions in 2009.
Cossé, a journalist, playwright, critic and author of historical novels and a satirical thriller, lives in
In her fanciful mystery, a paean to great literature, “A Novel Bookstore,” author Laurence Cossé portrays the world of books and booksellers while, at the same time, blissfully indulging in those thoughts about great writing that entertain so many who love literature.
Publishing and bookselling are in a crisis—as threatened in other nations as they are in the U.S.—with electronic books and mass-produced best-sellers grabbing the top focus among those who market and sell books. But what of true readers, Cossé asks; who serves those who love great writing and savor works they can place on their shelves at home? Who or what in the publishing industry is serving them by devoting the bulk of promotion money and display space to those who write the kind of thrillers and romances, non-fiction “how-to” books, trashy biographies and personal exploits that have come to dominate the once-enviable best-seller lists at respected journals and newspapers? It is as much an indictment of the reader as the industry.
There is a passion to great literature, believe the founders of The Good Novel bookshop, and they attempt to conduct a business dedicated only to the top one or two percent of writers, refusing to sell what is deemed less than wonderful by their board of secret writing advisers. The goal seems simple enough, but it upsets the publishing world around Paris.
A mystery takes shape amid the framework of likeable, dedicated characters, whose love for literature can’t permit them to sell anything but the best; members of their advisory board—who don’t even know each other’s identity—are being killed or injured. Alarmed by this, the owners quietly attempt to work with an investigator who can link the incidents to the perpetrator. At the same time, their lovely idea begins to turn to chaos: not because the people don’t like their bookstore, but because they, in fact, do.
Everyone who is left out by the selection process wants in. And, therein, jealousy is born.
Competitors stake a place for themselves on the high road, decrying the store as a self-indulgent, wasteful drain on the “fragile publishing economy.” The biggest of the chains, VLAM, cannot tolerate The Good Novel’s existence (yes, we get the tongue-in-cheek reference), and charges elitism, class condescension, the impossibility of judging what is destined for greatness over time. The chain challenges the little store’s values, placing itself in the position of servant to the masses and moral champion. In a published statement, VLAM exclaims, “Our love of the novel and of the book is so great that we cannot see why, or even how, one could exclude, by means of a selection process, 99 percent of the titles available. Our passion, and our cause, is to respect the diversity of cultures, and the diversity of individuals.” It sounds so noble, so correct—but is it?
Indeed, The Good Novel bookstore, in Meribel, France, represents an improbable concept for operating a profitable business, but VLAM’s campaign raises a counter hue and cry among book lovers, who flock to the little store with their purses, ready to buy books in support of the idea that great literature must be supported. A sympathetic letter from an author tells of the same response to the success of an early novel—first praise and excitement, then “the attacks” from every quarter. It is the world of ideas at its worst, is it not?
The war of words carries over to the internet, where readers duke it out in support, or rejection, of the store’s ideals. An actress tells of her weariness with books recommended by others, and her need to escape her work through reading. She praises The Good Novel for bringing her the relief she seeks. “How can people attack a place that is so good for you?” she writes.
“Every subtlety in life is material for a book,” Cossé writes through a character. “Novels don’t contain only exceptional situations, life or death choices, or major ordeals; there are also everyday difficulties, temptations, ordinary disappointments; and, in response, every human attitude, every type of behavior, from the finest to the most wretched. … Literature informs, instructs, it prepares you for life.”
In the aisles of The Good Novel, readers quietly, and excitedly, explore worlds they had not discovered through the massive walls of popular culture in larger bookstores. While many of the novels cited are French, Ivan Georg, known as Van, is the store manager, and a partner to Francesca in the enterprise. An American by birth, he holds Cormac McCarthy as the greatest living author on the planet, thus introducing French customers to All the Pretty Horses and its successors, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. Van is captivated by people he sees in public, reading great books; they alone fascinate him, leading to long conversations with strangers about literature. “… One of the most fortunate purposes of literature is to bring like-minded people together and get them talking,” he says to a fellow bus rider. And that explains the great popularity of book groups these days, as well—even if they do dip into the less-than-great works available to them. After all, A Novel Bookstore’s concepts are arguable among many who love reading not just for greatness but for its gifts of experience and entertainment. And that is one of the devices that keeps this novel going: one wants to know whose idea will win.
The mysterious deaths? On one level, they are symbolic of the store’s battle to survive amid industry-wide self-immolation—catering to the lowest common denominator in a world polluted by that sensibility. They will be solved, or not, toward the book’s end.
We all love to take a breather in a popular novel sometimes; that doesn’t make us bad, simply human. Most of us will admit, secretly at least, that we are as ready to snack on the latest chiller-thriller or well-written romance as the next browser. We want that change of pace, that easily digested tidbit. But when we’re ready for an eight-course meal, we must seek a great book—and those are the books on The Good Novel’s shelves. A different menu for a different customer. Call it snobbery, if you will, but who does superiority better than the French.
A friend once commented that he never reads novels, that only nonfiction meets his desire to learn more of the world. Yes, we reply—you’ll learn about the world. But what of its emotions, the desires and failures of the people who make things happen, the parallels between one stage and another, the mechanics of life when they’re first felt, rather than demonstrated by history? What about imagination, joy, bitterness and cries from the unheard? They are in fiction—in Dickens and Dumas, in McCarthy and Mistry, in Hemingway and Faulkner—on the shelves of The Good Novel bookstore.
Cossé, a journalist, playwright, critic and author of historical novels and a satirical thriller, lives in
In her fanciful mystery, a paean to great literature, “A Novel Bookstore,” author Laurence Cossé portrays the world of books and booksellers while, at the same time, blissfully indulging in those thoughts about great writing that entertain so many who love literature.
Publishing and bookselling are in a crisis—as threatened in other nations as they are in the U.S.—with electronic books and mass-produced best-sellers grabbing the top focus among those who market and sell books. But what of true readers, Cossé asks; who serves those who love great writing and savor works they can place on their shelves at home? Who or what in the publishing industry is serving them by devoting the bulk of promotion money and display space to those who write the kind of thrillers and romances, non-fiction “how-to” books, trashy biographies and personal exploits that have come to dominate the once-enviable best-seller lists at respected journals and newspapers? It is as much an indictment of the reader as the industry.
There is a passion to great literature, believe the founders of The Good Novel bookshop, and they attempt to conduct a business dedicated only to the top one or two percent of writers, refusing to sell what is deemed less than wonderful by their board of secret writing advisers. The goal seems simple enough, but it upsets the publishing world around Paris.
A mystery takes shape amid the framework of likeable, dedicated characters, whose love for literature can’t permit them to sell anything but the best; members of their advisory board—who don’t even know each other’s identity—are being killed or injured. Alarmed by this, the owners quietly attempt to work with an investigator who can link the incidents to the perpetrator. At the same time, their lovely idea begins to turn to chaos: not because the people don’t like their bookstore, but because they, in fact, do.
Everyone who is left out by the selection process wants in. And, therein, jealousy is born.
Competitors stake a place for themselves on the high road, decrying the store as a self-indulgent, wasteful drain on the “fragile publishing economy.” The biggest of the chains, VLAM, cannot tolerate The Good Novel’s existence (yes, we get the tongue-in-cheek reference), and charges elitism, class condescension, the impossibility of judging what is destined for greatness over time. The chain challenges the little store’s values, placing itself in the position of servant to the masses and moral champion. In a published statement, VLAM exclaims, “Our love of the novel and of the book is so great that we cannot see why, or even how, one could exclude, by means of a selection process, 99 percent of the titles available. Our passion, and our cause, is to respect the diversity of cultures, and the diversity of individuals.” It sounds so noble, so correct—but is it?
Indeed, The Good Novel bookstore, in Meribel, France, represents an improbable concept for operating a profitable business, but VLAM’s campaign raises a counter hue and cry among book lovers, who flock to the little store with their purses, ready to buy books in support of the idea that great literature must be supported. A sympathetic letter from an author tells of the same response to the success of an early novel—first praise and excitement, then “the attacks” from every quarter. It is the world of ideas at its worst, is it not?
The war of words carries over to the internet, where readers duke it out in support, or rejection, of the store’s ideals. An actress tells of her weariness with books recommended by others, and her need to escape her work through reading. She praises The Good Novel for bringing her the relief she seeks. “How can people attack a place that is so good for you?” she writes.
“Every subtlety in life is material for a book,” Cossé writes through a character. “Novels don’t contain only exceptional situations, life or death choices, or major ordeals; there are also everyday difficulties, temptations, ordinary disappointments; and, in response, every human attitude, every type of behavior, from the finest to the most wretched. … Literature informs, instructs, it prepares you for life.”
In the aisles of The Good Novel, readers quietly, and excitedly, explore worlds they had not discovered through the massive walls of popular culture in larger bookstores. While many of the novels cited are French, Ivan Georg, known as Van, is the store manager, and a partner to Francesca in the enterprise. An American by birth, he holds Cormac McCarthy as the greatest living author on the planet, thus introducing French customers to All the Pretty Horses and its successors, The Crossing and Cities of the Plain. Van is captivated by people he sees in public, reading great books; they alone fascinate him, leading to long conversations with strangers about literature. “… One of the most fortunate purposes of literature is to bring like-minded people together and get them talking,” he says to a fellow bus rider. And that explains the great popularity of book groups these days, as well—even if they do dip into the less-than-great works available to them. After all, A Novel Bookstore’s concepts are arguable among many who love reading not just for greatness but for its gifts of experience and entertainment. And that is one of the devices that keeps this novel going: one wants to know whose idea will win.
The mysterious deaths? On one level, they are symbolic of the store’s battle to survive amid industry-wide self-immolation—catering to the lowest common denominator in a world polluted by that sensibility. They will be solved, or not, toward the book’s end.
We all love to take a breather in a popular novel sometimes; that doesn’t make us bad, simply human. Most of us will admit, secretly at least, that we are as ready to snack on the latest chiller-thriller or well-written romance as the next browser. We want that change of pace, that easily digested tidbit. But when we’re ready for an eight-course meal, we must seek a great book—and those are the books on The Good Novel’s shelves. A different menu for a different customer. Call it snobbery, if you will, but who does superiority better than the French.
A friend once commented that he never reads novels, that only nonfiction meets his desire to learn more of the world. Yes, we reply—you’ll learn about the world. But what of its emotions, the desires and failures of the people who make things happen, the parallels between one stage and another, the mechanics of life when they’re first felt, rather than demonstrated by history? What about imagination, joy, bitterness and cries from the unheard? They are in fiction—in Dickens and Dumas, in McCarthy and Mistry, in Hemingway and Faulkner—on the shelves of The Good Novel bookstore.
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