August 24, 2012
Mark your calendars: Oct. 16 in NY Ann Patchett will have a public discussion with JK Rowling about her new book for grown-ups, The Casual Vacancy. Their meeting will take place at Lincoln Center. (photo of Queen with JK in 2001) Shira S
August 22, 2012
This article in the NY Times discusses the recent publication of Orwell’s diaries, which are not totally as profound as one may have expected. The writing takes place over two decades and reflects Orwell’s activities, such as gardening (although he was a serious gardener). There is also much writing on the […]
August 22, 2012
The anniversary of Claude Debussy’s 150th birthday seems to have been somewhat overlooked by such notable institutions as Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center. Considered by some as music’s great impressionist, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians defines him as a symbolist. But whatever movement one places him in, Debussy […]
August 15, 2012
Born 100 years ago today, Julia Child revolutionized cooking in America when her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961.The Dining & Wine section of today’s New York Times has some wonderful tributes to her, including one from her friend and colleague Jacques Pepin, and food writer Julia Moskin. Don’t miss […]
August 14, 2012
During early 1960s, the era during which TV’s Mad Men is set, there appeared on the publishing scene a young writer who expressed the up to then only whispered idea that single women not only had sex but enjoyed it. Thanks to Helen Gurley Brown’s gutsy outspokenness and the messages embodied in her magazine”Cosmopolitan,” the behind-closed […]
August 13, 2012
Sight & Sound magazine compiled the votes of 846 programmers, academics and distributors to name Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo the greatest film of all time, ousting Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. Film critic Roger Ebert called the poll “the most respected of the countless polls of great movies” and “the only one most serious movie people take […]
August 8, 2012
Pulitzer-winning (Lonesome Dove) author Larry McMurtry owns an enormous bookstore in his tiny hometown of Archer, Texas. He’s known for writing westerns and has some very successful screenplays under his belt, as well. He’s decided to auction off most of the 500,000 books at the store. Dealers, prepare to lasso up some bargains! Fascinating story […]
August 8, 2012
Pulitzer-prize winning composer Marvin Hamlisch died Monday at the age of 68. He is one of a handful of artists to win all the major creative prizes, including an Oscar for The Way We Were, a Grammy for best new artist, and a Tony and Pulitzer for A Chorus Line. Born in 1944 in New […]
August 6, 2012
On August 5, 1962 Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her Los Angeles home at the age of 36. And although she’s been dead for 50 years, her mystique grows stronger every year. New fiction and non-fiction books, including Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox and The Empty Glass, continue to be published, a Marilyn Monroe […]
August 2, 2012
A popular author of novels featuring memorable characters, complicated plots and sub-plots, and generally uplifting and positive themes, Binchy did not publish her first novel, Light a Penny Candle, until 1982 when she turned 42. It was an instant bestseller. She went on to pen seventeen more books with the last one, A Week in […]
