Cynthia Nixon will play poet Emily Dickinson in A Quiet Passion
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz14549000
from British director Terence Davies (House of Mirth), who also wrote
the screenplay for the film that "will trace Dickinson's life from
precocious schoolgirl to the tortured recluse who saw only seven of her
more than 1,000 poems published in her lifetime," the Hollywood Reporter
wrote.
"I wrote the screenplay with Cynthia in mind," Davies said. "It was the
kind of dream casting you hope for. I never, for a moment, imagined my
wishes would materialize. Cynthia has such a strong feeling for the
work--and now she is our Emily Dickinson. I'm over the moon."
"When I read what Terence had written, I was consumed by the character
he had so beautifully put on the page," Nixon observed. "Emily
Dickinson's words and Terence's somehow dovetail to create a heady
elixir. When I put the script down, I knew it was a story that I simply
have to be part of."
This seems like such a great idea to me, to pass the time while you're on a ferry boat. I have a friend on Facebook who lives in Kitsap, and I wonder if he became part of this book group?
For its monthly Ferry Tales
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz14548987 book group
program, the Kitsap Regional Library takes to the water via the
Washington State Ferries system on the trip between Seattle and
Bainbridge Island. At Boing Boing, librarian Audrey Barbakoff explained
that in "the direction of the commute, a group of regulars discusses one
title each month; in the other, I host a drop-in, ask-a-librarian
session. I love helping our community of commuters get to know each
other, expand our reading horizons, and just share an incredibly
enjoyable ride!"
I imagine that lots of people left these books behind, and I am glad that someone is offering a better book in trade:
"Hotels may be creating packages around the novel Fifty Shades of Grey
to attract visitors, but turns out visitors are leaving their copies
behind when they check out of hotels," according to ABC News, which
reported that E.L. James's erotic bestseller was the book most often
left behind http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz14539330
at Travelodge U.K. properties.
The hotel chain's annual survey found that 7,000 copies of the novel
were discarded, amounting to nearly one-third of the total 21,786 books
left behind in 36,500 Travelodge hotel rooms.
"It is interesting to see that our list is not dominated by celebrity
biographies and chick lit
books, which it has been in the past," a Travelodge spokeswoman told the
Telegraph.
But if you're in more of a trading than leaving behind mood, publisher
OR Books is currently featuring a "Bonnets for Bondage Giveaway"
promotion through which OR will "send the first fifty respondents a
free, illustrated copy of Fifty Shades of Louisa May
http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz14539332...
which is simply a superior read, and might actually rock your world, old
school style."
I adore Carl Sandburg's poems, too, and I hope to be able to record this on Monday.
American Masters: The Day Carl Sandburg Died, commemorating the 45th
anniversary of the author's death, makes its premier Monday, September
24, at 10 p.m. on PBS stations. Film outtakes featuring Peter Seeger,
Studs Terkel, Norman Corwin, a Sandburg playlist, podcast and more can
be found here: http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz14539343.
It is nice to know that Roger Page and company at Island Books held firm in the face of censorship and fatwas from third-world despots! This is from Salman Rushdie himself, as he has now written a book about his experiences during that terrifying time:
"In February 1989, my novel The Satanic Verses was published in the United States a few days after the Khomeini fatwa; in the eye of the storm, in other words. What happened in the months that followed was something I will never forget. American writers gathered together in a show of almost complete unity to defend freedom of speech. Thousands of ordinary Americans wore “I am Salman Rushdie” buttons to express their solidarity. The independent booksellers of America put the book in windows, mounted special displays, and courageously stood up for freedom against censorship, refusing to allow the choices of American readers to be limited by the threats of an angry despotic cleric far away. The bravery of independent booksellers influenced other stores to follow their lead, and in the end a key battle for free expression was wonnot by politicians who, as usual, arrived cautiously and tardily at the battlefield, but by the determination of ordinary people that it not be lost. I have never ceased to be grateful for what the independent booksellers of America did in 1989 and, now that I have finally been able to tell the full story of that battle, I’m glad to be able to honor your courage and give you all your due, both in the pages of my book and in what I will say about it when it is published. This is just to thank you personally. It was a privilege to be defended by you, and I have been trying, and will continue to try, to be worthy of that defense."
Island Books was one of the independent stores that kept The Satanic Verses on the shelf, selling it nervously and proudly.
I can't see the words "Shadow of Night" without hearing Pat Benatar's song "Shadow of the Night" in my head, running in an endless loop. The music video for that song was the intrepid Ms Benatar in a WWII airplane dog-fighting for the Allies and belting out her defiant tune to those Mezerschmidts full of Nazis. "We're runnin' with the shadows of the night, so baby take my hand it'll be alright, surrender all your dreams to me tonight, they'll come true in the end."
So it was with great nostalgia that I opened my hardback copy of the sequel to "A Discovery of Witches," which had us meeting professor Diana Bishop and Matthew de Clermont, soon to be star-crossed lovers. Diana, it turns out, is a witch from a long line of witches, and Matthew is a vampire, and though they are forbidden by Covenant law to wed or engage in sexual activity, inevitably, they do both, and end up running away through time to 16th century England, where they are supposed to find a magic book, and Diana is supposed to learn more about her powers and how to control them. Hence the first part of Shadow of the Night finds us touring London in 1591, complete with discussions of clothing, food, shopping, life at Queen Elizabeth first's court, etc. Being a history major, I enjoyed the daily life of Elizabethan England paragraphs, and I found Harkness' treatment of actual historical figures, such as Kit Marlow and Shakespeare fascinating. I also enjoyed the people surrounding Diana and Matthew, the 'regular' people, like the little pickpocket they take in, and the local creepy vampire king, who, like the Holy Roman Emperor, wants to get his hooks into Diana because she's apparently irresistible. And therein lies one of my problems with the book, Diana seems to be a bit of a ninny for someone who has multiple degrees from Ivy League colleges and who didn't grow up in an era where women were supposed to be demure or reticent. Once she's in 16th century England, she seems to become more 'girly' and less intelligent, and makes it clear that she wants Matthew to dominate her in every way possible, as this seems to be her ideal of what makes a good relationship. Much discussion is had about vampires being "possessive" of their mates, and things get even more strange when Diana becomes pregnant, and then loses her child (only to become pregnant with twins later, of course). There is also a great deal of attention paid to how beautiful and extremely attractive Diana is, how her strawberry blond hair is so luxurious and I almost expected a "Twilight" like reference to surface about how her hair smelled of strawberries, just like that idiot Bella Swans did in those vile YA vampire novels. Fortunately, Matthew tells us she smells of honey, instead, which is, I suppose, a marked difference between the two heroines. However, despite its shortcomings with stereotypical characters and lots of black and white characters (good vs evil), I did enjoy this fantasy novel, and was surprised that it wasn't wrapped up in the end, so I can only assume there is another novel on the way that will bring readers closure in the Diana and Matthew saga. All in all, a B+ novel that will appeal to Twilight fans and to historical romance fans as well.
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