A Salute to Philip Roth – An American Master

March 13, 2013

Celebrations are in the works to help commemorate Philip Roth’s 80th birthday next week (March 19). For those of us who can’t get to Newark for the $35 bus tour traveling to places recalled in his books, or who weren’t invited to the literary party given by New York magazine, we can look forward to […]


Champagne Amid the Stacks

March 12, 2013

A couple had planned on getting married at a local courthouse which was closed due to bad weather, so they shifted the locale to their favorite bookstore. Since Mark Hutson had proposed to Melanie Frances at the Annapolis Bookstore, they thought that was the next best place for their wedding. After checking ahead with the […]


Life as a Sweet Valley High Ghostwriter

March 10, 2013

Boston College English professor Amy Boesky has a fascinating essay in The Kenyon Review about her time as a ghostwriter for the popular Sweet Valley High series. For six years while she was a Harvard graduate student, Ms. Boesky – under the pseudonym “Kate William” – turned the free-verse “story plots” Francine Pascal created into “chapter outlines” that […]


Local Art @ EPL

March 2, 2013

We are very happy to introduce local printmaker Ed Dougal as the next artist in our ongoing exhibition series Local Art @ EPL.  From now through the end of March, his vibrant collection Monoprints, Mirrors, & More will be on display on the 2nd floor of EPL’s Main Branch. Influenced by his studies with the […]


Poetry 365

February 28, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring Marcus Wicker’s stellar new book Maybe the Saddest Thing.  Winner of the 2011 National Poetry Series Prize as selected by D.A. Powell, Wicker’s outstanding debut mixes meditations on memory, family, race, and desire with complicated love letters to African-American icons such as Pam Grier, Flavor Flav, and Dave […]


Van Cliburn, 1934-2013

February 27, 2013

Acclaimed American pianist Van Cliburn died this morning in Fort Worth, Texas at the age of 78. Mr Cliburn skyrocketed to fame after winning the first Tchaikovsky International Competition in 1958 when he was only 23 years old. Given a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan, Van Cliburn’s award held in Moscow “was viewed as an American […]


Judging a book by its cover

February 27, 2013

In London the 35th Diagram Prize is going to be awarded soon to the oddest book title of the year. Will it be Lofts of North America: Pigeon Lofts; How to Sharpen Pencils; Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop; or (my favorite) How Tea Cosies Changed the World? These four gems (all real books!) are on a […]


On the Avenue, 5th Avenue

February 26, 2013

A recent trip to New York City found me strolling one morning on 5th Avenue admiring all the really, really posh window displays of things I’ll never buy. When I got to the final block before Central Park, there was Bergdorf Goodman with “Great Moments in Literature,” paying homage to books and authors. Five authors […]


The Buzz on Reading

February 18, 2013

This NYTimes article explores  word of mouth networking for book lovers and its impact on the business of bookselling. Many of you are already familiar with Goodreads. The website’s success is attributed to readers’ ability to access honest reviews, untarnished by the ulterior motive of companies trying to sell books. As the article states, “Goodreads and […]


Morgan Library Celebrates Swann's Way Centennial

February 15, 2013

Just in time for Evanston Public Library’s yearlong discussion of Proust, New York’s’ Morgan Library & Museum opened a new exhibition in honor of the 100 year anniversary of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way – the first volume in his 7-volume novel À la Recherche du Temps Perdu  (Remembrance of Things Past). The materials, being shown […]


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