March 27, 2007
Every L-train-riding Brooklynite’s favorite author, JONATHAN LETHEM, is back on tour for his follow-up to 2003’s Fortress of Solitude. You Don’t Love Me Yet is a departure from the author’s native New York: this time around, the setting is the smoggy sparkle of Los Angeles, but Lethem’s hipster fan base won’t be disappointed by his choice of character archetypes. Lucinda (bass guitarist) and Matthew (frontman) are in an unstable relationship with each other, not to mention members of a band without a name and only a few half-finished songs. Can they pen a great pop song and still sleep together? Can Lethem write a comic novel with as much authority as a three-decade narrative on race relations? Find out when he reads and signs at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St, Boston | March 27 at 6 pm | $2 | 617.566.6660.
ELSEWHERE: Sound of the City is offering a pretty mp3 of Hallelujah the Hills' version of "Monster Eyes," one of Lethem's fictional rock songs in Love Me. It's so Brooklyn, it isn't even on Stereogum yet. Sucker. They played in NYC yesterday, but you can still download, listen, and read.
March 27, 2007
Every L-train-riding Brooklynite’s favorite author, JONATHAN LETHEM, is back on tour for his follow-up to 2003’s Fortress of Solitude. You Don’t Love Me Yet is a departure from the author’s native New York: this time around, the setting is the smoggy sparkle of Los Angeles, but Lethem’s hipster fan base won’t be disappointed by his choice of character archetypes. Lucinda (bass guitarist) and Matthew (frontman) are in an unstable relationship with each other, not to mention members of a band without a name and only a few half-finished songs. Can they pen a great pop song and still sleep together? Can Lethem write a comic novel with as much authority as a three-decade narrative on race relations? Find out when he reads and signs at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St, Boston | March 27 at 6 pm | $2 | 617.566.6660.
ELSEWHERE: Sound of the City is offering a pretty mp3 of Hallelujah the Hills' version of "Monster Eyes," one of Lethem's fictional rock songs in Love Me. It's so Brooklyn, it isn't even on Stereogum yet. Sucker. They played in NYC yesterday, but you can still download, listen, and read.
March 26, 2007
Mrs. Andy Richter, a/k/a actress and writer SARAH THYRE, was dubbed the “family liar” by her father almost as soon as she learned to talk. In her attempt to live up to this infamous nickname, high jinks and hilarity ensued, and she resurrects all her old raunchy anecdotal ghosts in the new memoir Dark at the Roots, which comes packaged with breathless plugs by the likes of David Sedaris and David Rakoff. Take an absurd trip down memory lane with Thyre at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Boston | March 26 at 7 pm | free | 617.566.6660 | or at the Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Ave, Cambridge | March 27 at 7 pm | free | 617.499.2000.
Emerson creative writing teacher and Post Road co-founder JAIME CLARK once went through a phase where he believed himself to be Ferris Bueller. He’s come full circle in editing Don’t You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes, which includes essays by Elizabeth Searle and John McNally. Clarke appears at the Coolidge Corner Theatre for a signing event that includes a screening of FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF and a panel discussion with his Molly Ringwald–obsessed contributors | 290 Harvard St, Boston | 7 pm | $9 | 617.566.6660.
March 20, 2007
If you’re hankering for yet another tale of an adolescent loner with major family issues, consider dipping into The God of Animals. New writer ARYN KYLE pulls off a YA/adult-fiction crossover with her tale of a young girl living on a Colorado ranch who’s fixated on a drowned classmate and then finds herself spending extra time with her unpopular English teacher. Sounds to us like an interesting plot mix of Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia and Jennifer Egan’s Look at Me. Decide for yourself when Kyle reads and signs at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Boston | 7 pm | free | 617.566.6660.
March 19, 2007
The author of The Piano Tuner, DANIEL MASON, follows up his bestselling debut with yet another journey story. The Harvard grad’s second book, A Far Country, trails 14-year-old Isabel on her voyage from a rural area of her impoverished country to the outskirts of a city. After her brother goes missing, Isabel does exactly what most confused teenagers would do in her place: she tries to find him on her own. Mason will expand on Isabel’s search when he reads and signs at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St, Boston | 7 pm | $2 | 617.566.6660.
March 15, 2007
Friday night, March 16, Grub Street hosts one of their "Grub Gone . . ." parties. Tomorrow evening's theme: Grub Gone Silly. Besides being boozey affairs (free beer for anyone who brings a book to contribute to the Grub library!), the parties involve a few quick readings. Jonathan Ames, Kris Frieswick, and Leslie Talbot bring on the guffaws for this installment. Anita Suhanin sings, and Alarm Clock Theater does some acting. Party starts at 7; readings start around 8; and the beer flows all night. Tickets are $8 ($5 for members) and you should grab them here fast.
March 15, 2007
From today's Publisher's Lunch:
Crown has pulled back on another high-profile acquisition, deciding not to go forward with Melissa Dumas' LIVE TO TELL: My Life as Madonna's Nanny, which had been pre-empted in a major deal. The house simply says "it will not be publishing the memoir to be authored by Madonna's former nanny, Melissa Dumas. The rights to the book have been released to the author, who is represented by Martin Literary Management." Sharlene Martin says, "I deeply regret that Crown decided not to move forward in publishing Melissa Dumas' book. I had a wonderful experience with them with a previous nanny tome, You'll Never Nanny in This Town Again by Suzanne Hansen, and had hoped to repeat that experience."
Separately, England's Mirror reports that "Madonna, predictably enough, has risen from the lotus position to turn the full force of her legal team against rogue nanny Melissa Dumas in an attempt to silence her." (They also add an extra zero to the size of the advance Crown had offered.)
Geez, Madge, what could you possibly have to hide?
We're quite sure you're a wonderful parent and an excellent employer. Please do move back to New York. The city needs more aging hipster parents just like you!
March 14, 2007
Our obsession with Radar (now in its third print incarnation thanks to yet another relaunch) notwithstanding, we know the voice of its Fresh Intelligence blog, or Gawker, for that matter, couldn’t have existed without Spy. KURT ANDERSEN co-founded the original media/celebrity/politics satire rag, but he’s written a surprisingly serious historical novel called Heyday. The book’s protagonist? A 19th-century English aristocrat whose fascination with all things American includes a prostitute named Polly. Yeah, well, no one having anything to do with those “Separated at Birth” and “Celebrity Math” features could ever be too serious. Andersen reads and signs at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline | 7 pm | free | 617.566.6660.
March 05, 2007
Check this slightly hysterical rant of a Salon feature: "Oprah's Ugly Secret." Peter Birkenhead's screed is a meaty, 3-page attack of Oprah, damning her support of the best-selling self-help book The Secret. The book is currently No. 1 on best-seller lists and has shot ahead of the final Harry Potter tome in sales. Editors at Scholastic are probably shitting bricks right now. But Lady O is the one with something real to lose here.
When's the last time someone held her to scrutiny for something other than her weight? That would be another books-related scandal, back when she chose James Frey's A Million Little Pieces for her Book Club and then proceeded to crucify him on her show for being a lying recovering alcoholic junkie. Things got ugly. Looks like The Secret backlash has begun...
Remember your spirit, indeed.
March 02, 2007
On Monday night at Memorial Hall in Cambridge, writer, editor, and publisher Dave Eggers was joined by Samantha Power, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, and Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese "Lost Boy," and the subject of Eggers's fictional biography, What Is the What. Power moderated as Eggers and Achak Deng discussed the process of fictionalizing a true story, blurring the lines between fiction and non-, and inciting political action by rousing public interest. We recorded the event, and you can listen to it here.
Also, new in this week's Phoenix, I did a piece on doctor and Harvard Divinity School student Chris Adrian's new novel, The Children's Hospital. You can read that here.
March 02, 2007
On Monday night at Memorial Hall in Cambridge, writer, editor, and publisher Dave Eggers was joined by Samantha Power, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, and Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese "Lost Boy," and the subject of Eggers's fictional biography, What Is the What. Power moderated as Eggers and Achak Deng discussed the process of fictionalizing a true story, blurring the lines between fiction and non-, and inciting political action by rousing public interest. We recorded the event, and you can listen to it here.
Also, new in this week's Phoenix, I did a piece on doctor and Harvard Divinity School student Chris Adrian's new novel, The Children's Hospital. You can read that here.
