Our book club will be meeting on June 6th. to discuss Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Friday, May 29, 2009
June 6th. 4:00 pm Dr. Nancy Irwin- You Turn
Nancy Irwin, a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist, released a nonfiction titled YOU-TURN: Changing Direction in Midlife. This collection of “over 40 stories of people over 40” chronicles successful transitions in people’s personal and/or professional lives. Originally from Atlanta, where she trained as an opera singer, Dr. Irwin moved to New York City in 1985 to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian. She worked all over the country and abroad, and moved to L.A. in 1994 when she heard that Hollywood needed more blondes…She quips: “The road from comedy to mental health is very short, indeed.”
Dr. Nancy experienced an epiphany when she began volunteering for a shelter for sexually abused children. It changed her life, and prompted her to pursue a doctorate in psychology and to specialize in the prevention and healing of child sexual abuse. You-Turn not only shares her own story, but also 43 other youturns from a variety of people - - some simple, some dramatic: a convicted crack dealer who became a real estate investor, a mother of nine who started a foundation for the leprosy-affected, a monk who became a motivational speaker, a recovering pedophile, a man who became a spouse and parent after 40, a woman who finally embraced her sexual identity after years of denial and abuse, and more. The stories are divided into two parts: change by default (injury, break-up, lay-off, etc.) and change by choice (boredom, lack of fulfillment, etc).
Like a Chicken Soup for the Soul for Baby Boomers, this book is for the fearful and frozen….anyone who feels stuck in struggle yet really wants to move forward. Dr. Irwin states: “I’ve included some professional tips on navigating change at any age, but the emphasis of the book is on the stories told in first person. Everyone can identify with one or more of the stories in this book. I did not want to write an academic ‘do-this-in-order-to-feel-that’ book, because what has helped me reinvent myself so many times was seeing real-life people do amazing things. I figured if they could do it, why couldn’t I? It is my hope that we all begin seeing you-turns everywhere, so they become the rule rather than the exception. Twenty- and thirty-somethings especially can benefit from these stories so they will feel free to explore, question choices, and change directions, to avert what used to be called a “middle age crisis.” We now call it a middle age blaze!!!”
Dr. Nancy experienced an epiphany when she began volunteering for a shelter for sexually abused children. It changed her life, and prompted her to pursue a doctorate in psychology and to specialize in the prevention and healing of child sexual abuse. You-Turn not only shares her own story, but also 43 other youturns from a variety of people - - some simple, some dramatic: a convicted crack dealer who became a real estate investor, a mother of nine who started a foundation for the leprosy-affected, a monk who became a motivational speaker, a recovering pedophile, a man who became a spouse and parent after 40, a woman who finally embraced her sexual identity after years of denial and abuse, and more. The stories are divided into two parts: change by default (injury, break-up, lay-off, etc.) and change by choice (boredom, lack of fulfillment, etc).
Like a Chicken Soup for the Soul for Baby Boomers, this book is for the fearful and frozen….anyone who feels stuck in struggle yet really wants to move forward. Dr. Irwin states: “I’ve included some professional tips on navigating change at any age, but the emphasis of the book is on the stories told in first person. Everyone can identify with one or more of the stories in this book. I did not want to write an academic ‘do-this-in-order-to-feel-that’ book, because what has helped me reinvent myself so many times was seeing real-life people do amazing things. I figured if they could do it, why couldn’t I? It is my hope that we all begin seeing you-turns everywhere, so they become the rule rather than the exception. Twenty- and thirty-somethings especially can benefit from these stories so they will feel free to explore, question choices, and change directions, to avert what used to be called a “middle age crisis.” We now call it a middle age blaze!!!”
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
May 16th. 4:00 pm Diane Hammond-Hannah's Dream
An elephant never forgets . . . but can she dream?
For forty-one years, Samson Brown has been caring for Hannah, the lone elephant at the down-at-the-heels Max L. Biedelman Zoo. Having vowed not to retire until an equally loving and devoted caretaker is found to replace him, Sam rejoices when smart, compassionate Neva Wilson is hired as the new elephant keeper. But Neva quickly discovers what Sam already knows: that despite their loving care, Hannah is isolated from other elephants and her feet are nearly ruined from standing on hard concrete all day. Using her contacts in the zookeeping world, Neva and Sam hatch a plan to send Hannah to an elephant sanctuary—just as the zoo's angry, unhappy director launches an aggressive revitalization campaign that spotlights Hannah as the star attraction, inextricably tying Hannah's future to the fate of the Max L. Biedelman Zoo.
A charming, poignant, and captivating novel certain to enthrall readers of Water for Elephants, Diane Hammond's Hannah's Dream is a beautifully told tale rich in heart, humor, and intelligence.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Doorbells of Florence-Andrew Losowsky
May 9th. 5:00 pm- Meet Author Andrew Losowsky at Metropolis Books
Writer and photographer Andrew Losowsky captured the alluring and varied doorbells of Florence, Italy and then imagined the stories of those who might dwell within. Charming, whimsical, and elegant, each story is a perfect match for its photo, balancing the Old World appeal of Florence and the contemporary, gritty realities of a modern city.
The Doorbells of Florence enters hidden worlds of fated love, chance encounters, invented languages, false maps, and a secret beneath the floorboards. Travelers, lovers of Italy, and imaginative wanderers will delight in this collection, which features handdrawn lettering and a silk-screened cover.
Originally a cult online hit, The Doorbells of Florence won the Lulu Blooker Prize for Fiction for books that began life on the internet.
Andrew Losowsky has taught Chinese gang members in Hong Kong, spent the night in a tunnel on the London Underground, crashed a motorcycle in Vietnam, and explored the dark side of Barcelona with a plain-clothes policeman. His stories have appeared in the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, the Times of London and The Believer. This is his first fiction book.
"With this book, the author frees his characters from reality and offers them "a moment of freedom from the ordered world that was holding them back." He offers readers the same. It's a breath of fresh air for those willing to lose their grip on rationality and accept Losowsky's sometimes outrageous sensibility." - Stephanie Harnett, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Micah Linton-May 2nd. 4:00 pm Weebeasts
Weebeasts were first discovered and chronicled by self professed weebeastologist Micah Linton, after years of exhaustive research and physically challenging expeditions. Finally enough intangible facts have been discovered and journal notes with detailed watercolor paintings have been archived to prove the existence of the fictional species weebeasts and that they are called by many things in different regions around the world such as gremlins, pixies, goblins, elves, trolls, gnomes not to mention a variety of other names depending on geographical mythology and local folklore. Now the author has amassed enough evidence to tell the story of the weebeasts for the first time. Discover the origins of weebeasts in the first book of this exciting new series.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Sat. April 11th. 4:00 pm Barbara Dana
BARBARA DANA’s first play, War in Paramus, was presented at HB Playwrights and went on to Abingdon Theatre Company’s 2005 production, directed by Austin Pendleton. The play is included the Smith & Kraus anthology New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006. An award-winning author of books for children and young adults, her books include: Zucchini, Zucchini Out West, Necessary Parties, Crazy Eights, Rutgers and the Water Snouts, and Young Joan, a historical novel based on the young life of Joan of Arc. Her screenplays include Chu-Chu and the Philly Flash and Necessary Parties, adapted from her novel. She is co-editor, with Cindy MacKenzie, of the recent book, Wider than the Sky: Essays and Meditations on the Healing Power of Emily Dickinson (Kent State University Press). She is an actor as well as an author, having made her NY stage debut at the age of seventeen in the off-Broadway production of Arthur Laurents’ A Clearing in the Woods. Her new novel is A Voice of her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson (HarperCollins Publishers).
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
March Madness-Events Fri-Sat-3/27-3/28
Friday, March 27th (600 PM)
Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel Jal has won worldwide acclaim for his unique style of hip hop with its message of peace and reconciliation born out of his experiences as a child soldier in Sudan. His music can be heard alongside Coldplay, Gorillaz, and Radiohead on the fund raising ‘Warchild - Help a Day in the Life' album, as well as in three ER episodes, the National Geographic documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and more recently in the feature film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He also featured on John Lennon's ‘Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur' amongst the likes of U2, REM and Lenny Kravitz.
Emmanuel Jal was born in war-torn Sudan, and while he doesn't know exactly when, he believes it was in the early 1980s. He was taken from his family home in 1987 when he was six or seven years old, and sent to fight with the rebel army in Sudan's bloody civil war. For nearly five years, he was a "child warrior," put into battle carrying an AK-47 that was taller than he was.
By the time he was 13, he was a veteran of two civil wars and had seen hundreds of his fellow child soldiers reduced to taking unspeakable measures as they struggled to survive on the killing fields of Southern Sudan. After a series of harrowing events, he was rescued by a British aid worker (Emma McCune) who smuggled him into Nairobi to raise him as her own.
To help ease the pain of what he had experienced, Emmanuel started singing. In 2005, he released his first album, Gua ("peace" in his native Nuer tongue), with the title track broadcast across Africa over the BBC and becoming a number one hit in Kenya. Gua also earned him a spot on Bob Geldof's "Live 8″ concert in the UK.
Jal performed at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebrations in Hyde Park, London, June 08, he shared a stage with Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, Damien Marley and Stephen Marley at the Black Ball in London in July 08 and also addressed delegates at the UN in New York in the same month. Jal has also performed with Razorlight, Supergrass, and Faithless in Europe.
Last October Emmanuel toured the United States as part of the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival, in which he performed in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and New Orleans. Jal also performed with Moby and Five for Fighting in the 2007 live concert film, The Concert To End Slavery (www.concerttoendslavery.com/trailer).
Jal has a full-length documentary on his life and times which has been touring the film festival circuit. It premiered at the Berlinale festival this year, and won the Cadillac audience choice award at the Tribeca film festival. His autobiography has been sold to St. Martin's Press with anticipated release of spring 2009. His new album ‘Warchild' was released on 12th May 2008 on the Sonic360 label (distribution by ADA Global) with additional production and mix by Neal Pogue, (Outkast, Talib Kweli, Pharohae Monch).
www.myspace.com/emmanueljal
http://www.sonic360.com/
http://www.warchildmovie.com/
Facebook Fan Page
NY Times book review of War Child
Time Magazine Book Review
Washington Post Book Review
Rolling Stone Interview
Saturday, March 28th (400 PM)
Mystery Weekend
***
Joan Del Monte, Hannah Dennison, Melinda Wells
Joan Del Monte was a featured author at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington, D.C. in September 2007. She is also a multi-faceted woman, and has owned an antique shop, a real estate agency, and art gallery in Venice. She taught courses in antiques at UCLA extension and the California State College system; lectured on antiques on radio and wrote a bibliography of small antiques for the Los Angeles Public Library.
"Mud Blood - Murder in the Sacramento Delta" was awarded Editor's Choice by iUniverse.
A criminal lawyer, FULTON YEE, disappears, and the search for him is no place for a lady, But unconventional mystery writer VERA MOONACHIE has to find him, because he is churning his files of nasty crimes for her plot and he has the solution to her current mystery.
From the moment she starts her search, Vera is confronted with a hornets nest of fragile egos, including Fulton's trio of feuding ex-lovers. We meet Nancy Branscomb, an editor Fulton met years before when he visited her family's cabin in the Sacramento Delta. We meet Florence Loring, a real estate agent with a past so colorful that she met Fulton when he was defending her in court. And we meet Emma Sawtooth, a haystack-shaped earth mother who runs a writer's group. Vera encounters an authorship dispute based on a notebook. And when Vera picks up that notebook, she picks up the deadliest kind of enemies--people with something to hide.
Hannah Dennison is the author of the Vicky Hill mystery series. Aspiring investigative journalist Vicky Hill faces two challenges. The first is to escape the stultifying boredom of funeral reporting for the Gipping Gazette by making a career-enhancing front-page splash. The second is to lose her virginity-a heavy burden for a woman of twenty-three. Vicky's chance for a scoop comes with the discovery of three grisly chicken corpses, which are bizarrely connected to the unusual death of elderly Sir Hugh, the local hedge-jumping enthusiast. As Vicky delves deeper into village affairs, she is thrilled to find the sleepy English market town harbors more than its fair share of secrets. The new installment in Vicky's adventures is entitled Scoop.
Linda Palmer is the author of 7 published novels, and a non-fiction book on screenwriting titled How To Write It, How To Sell It: Everything A Screenwriter Needs To Know About Hollywood. She is also a produced screenwriter, and was a production vice president of Tri-Star Pictures.
Beginning in 2004 her mystery novels have been coming out once a year. Love IsMurder (2004), Love Her to Death (2005), Love You Madly (2006), and Kiss of Death (2007) were written under the name Linda Palmer. In her new series of mysteries - culinary mysteries (that's murder with recipes in the back of the book) she is using the pen name Melinda Wells. The latest installment in the series is Death Takes The Cake.
Saturday, March 28th (600 PM)
The Book Club will meet after the Mystery Book event
Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel Jal has won worldwide acclaim for his unique style of hip hop with its message of peace and reconciliation born out of his experiences as a child soldier in Sudan. His music can be heard alongside Coldplay, Gorillaz, and Radiohead on the fund raising ‘Warchild - Help a Day in the Life' album, as well as in three ER episodes, the National Geographic documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and more recently in the feature film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio. He also featured on John Lennon's ‘Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur' amongst the likes of U2, REM and Lenny Kravitz.
Emmanuel Jal was born in war-torn Sudan, and while he doesn't know exactly when, he believes it was in the early 1980s. He was taken from his family home in 1987 when he was six or seven years old, and sent to fight with the rebel army in Sudan's bloody civil war. For nearly five years, he was a "child warrior," put into battle carrying an AK-47 that was taller than he was.
By the time he was 13, he was a veteran of two civil wars and had seen hundreds of his fellow child soldiers reduced to taking unspeakable measures as they struggled to survive on the killing fields of Southern Sudan. After a series of harrowing events, he was rescued by a British aid worker (Emma McCune) who smuggled him into Nairobi to raise him as her own.
To help ease the pain of what he had experienced, Emmanuel started singing. In 2005, he released his first album, Gua ("peace" in his native Nuer tongue), with the title track broadcast across Africa over the BBC and becoming a number one hit in Kenya. Gua also earned him a spot on Bob Geldof's "Live 8″ concert in the UK.
Jal performed at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday celebrations in Hyde Park, London, June 08, he shared a stage with Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, Damien Marley and Stephen Marley at the Black Ball in London in July 08 and also addressed delegates at the UN in New York in the same month. Jal has also performed with Razorlight, Supergrass, and Faithless in Europe.
Last October Emmanuel toured the United States as part of the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival, in which he performed in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and New Orleans. Jal also performed with Moby and Five for Fighting in the 2007 live concert film, The Concert To End Slavery (www.concerttoendslavery.com/trailer).
Jal has a full-length documentary on his life and times which has been touring the film festival circuit. It premiered at the Berlinale festival this year, and won the Cadillac audience choice award at the Tribeca film festival. His autobiography has been sold to St. Martin's Press with anticipated release of spring 2009. His new album ‘Warchild' was released on 12th May 2008 on the Sonic360 label (distribution by ADA Global) with additional production and mix by Neal Pogue, (Outkast, Talib Kweli, Pharohae Monch).
www.myspace.com/emmanueljal
http://www.sonic360.com/
http://www.warchildmovie.com/
Facebook Fan Page
NY Times book review of War Child
Time Magazine Book Review
Washington Post Book Review
Rolling Stone Interview
Saturday, March 28th (400 PM)
Mystery Weekend
***
Joan Del Monte, Hannah Dennison, Melinda Wells
Joan Del Monte was a featured author at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Washington, D.C. in September 2007. She is also a multi-faceted woman, and has owned an antique shop, a real estate agency, and art gallery in Venice. She taught courses in antiques at UCLA extension and the California State College system; lectured on antiques on radio and wrote a bibliography of small antiques for the Los Angeles Public Library.
"Mud Blood - Murder in the Sacramento Delta" was awarded Editor's Choice by iUniverse.
A criminal lawyer, FULTON YEE, disappears, and the search for him is no place for a lady, But unconventional mystery writer VERA MOONACHIE has to find him, because he is churning his files of nasty crimes for her plot and he has the solution to her current mystery.
From the moment she starts her search, Vera is confronted with a hornets nest of fragile egos, including Fulton's trio of feuding ex-lovers. We meet Nancy Branscomb, an editor Fulton met years before when he visited her family's cabin in the Sacramento Delta. We meet Florence Loring, a real estate agent with a past so colorful that she met Fulton when he was defending her in court. And we meet Emma Sawtooth, a haystack-shaped earth mother who runs a writer's group. Vera encounters an authorship dispute based on a notebook. And when Vera picks up that notebook, she picks up the deadliest kind of enemies--people with something to hide.
Hannah Dennison is the author of the Vicky Hill mystery series. Aspiring investigative journalist Vicky Hill faces two challenges. The first is to escape the stultifying boredom of funeral reporting for the Gipping Gazette by making a career-enhancing front-page splash. The second is to lose her virginity-a heavy burden for a woman of twenty-three. Vicky's chance for a scoop comes with the discovery of three grisly chicken corpses, which are bizarrely connected to the unusual death of elderly Sir Hugh, the local hedge-jumping enthusiast. As Vicky delves deeper into village affairs, she is thrilled to find the sleepy English market town harbors more than its fair share of secrets. The new installment in Vicky's adventures is entitled Scoop.
Linda Palmer is the author of 7 published novels, and a non-fiction book on screenwriting titled How To Write It, How To Sell It: Everything A Screenwriter Needs To Know About Hollywood. She is also a produced screenwriter, and was a production vice president of Tri-Star Pictures.
Beginning in 2004 her mystery novels have been coming out once a year. Love IsMurder (2004), Love Her to Death (2005), Love You Madly (2006), and Kiss of Death (2007) were written under the name Linda Palmer. In her new series of mysteries - culinary mysteries (that's murder with recipes in the back of the book) she is using the pen name Melinda Wells. The latest installment in the series is Death Takes The Cake.
Saturday, March 28th (600 PM)
The Book Club will meet after the Mystery Book event
Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey
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