Sunday’s Globe rounds up literary references to Boston. Literary Boston Neighborhoods includes Dennis Lehane, Roland Merullo and Nathaniel Hawthorne. There’s a handy map that accompanies the article.
From Revere Beach Boulevard:
“The language of racing felt like my true native tongue. And the track itself - Suffolk Downs, with salty breezes shifting in off the ocean, and the sweet smell of cigar smoke, and crowds of bettors … lining up at the windows - felt like my truest home, a place where the rules were as familiar to me as my own face in the mirror.”
The Times Travel section visits Provincetown – The Land and Words of Mary Oliver, the Bard of Provincetown. The story focuses on poet Mary Oliver and the inspiration she draws from Provincetown.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Morsels - A literary look at Massachusetts
Monday, January 12, 2009
Libraries in tough economic times
I think we can all sadly agree that times are tough. But there’s still a place that’s free. It doesn’t cost to check out a book, read a magazine, surf the Web or work on your resume.
It’s the library.
According to the Boston Globe’s Derrick Jackson the Boston Public Library has seen a surge in visitors and activity.
“New library cards are up 32.7 percent from July to November of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007. Visits are up 13 percent, from 1.4 million visits to 1.6 million. Checkouts of books, CDs, and DVDs are up 7.2 percent overall over the last fiscal year. More telling is that checkouts have soared between 27 percent and 37 percent at the
The library is more than just books these days. Most libraries have tickets to museums, aquariums, etc. You can also take out music, movies and books on tape. My library has access to hundreds of other books and media at other libraries. There’s also a plethora of events geared towards families as well as activities like book club.
Unfortunately, many cities and towns constantly grapple with having enough financing to keep school and town libraries open/ fully functioning. When I was a reporter I saw too often the struggle towns went through to convince citizens that libraries are worth funding.
While many immediately understand the benefits of say police, fire or public works, the intangible benefits of a library can often be hard to understand. I think that libraries pay a crucial role in the community that can’t be underestimated. I’ve outlined a variety of services libraries offer, but most importantly they offer knowledge. There’s thousands of worlds in the library.
To quote a poem:
“Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!”
The library - a recession sanctuary - http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/03/the_library___a_recession_sanctuary/
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Summer reading
The Boston Globe weighs in with recommendations. Their list aims to be “quirky.” Their criteria were that the books had to be short – 250 words or less, overlooked and while not traditional beach fare were picked because “while none is a "beach read," all are more for pleasure than improvement.”
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A shaky house of cards
I held off posting about Love and Consequences because I felt like it might not have been timely enough. Sadly enough, another non-fiction work is drawing criticism for possibly blending the line between truth and well, fiction.
Sunday’s Boston Globe leverages some damning charges against Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions by Ben Mezrich, which chronicles a group of MIT students adventures in Vegas. According to sources the Globe interviewed, certain events described in the book never happened, events were exaggerated and characters created.
The author and publisher are defending the book, saying they had a disclaimer that some characters were composites and that the timeline was altered.
From the Globe:
"The idea that the story is true," he (Mezrich) adds, "is more important than being able to prove that it's true."
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Yet "Bringing Down the House" is not a work of "nonfiction" in any meaningful sense of the word. Instead of describing events as they happened, Mezrich appears to have worked more as a collage artist, drawing some facts from interviews, inventing certain others, and then recombining these into novel scenes that didn't happen and characters who never lived. The result is a crowd-pleasing story, eagerly marketed by his publishers as true - but which several of the students who participated say is embellished beyond recognition.
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"When the public learns that a small piece of a supposedly nonfiction story has been fictionalized, they begin to doubt everything in that story, and when they begin to doubt a particular story then the doubts occur in their mind about whether they can trust any work, or any work of nonfiction," says Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute.
Just weeks ago Love & Consequences, which was supposedly written by a former gang member who grew up in
I realize some might argue that you really can’t compare Seltzer and Mezrich, but I think both raise troubling issues. For whatever reason, it appears writers think it’s easier to pitch non-fiction than novels. I remember reading James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces was originally pitched as a novel.
These kinds of shenanigans really make my blood boil. Have a compelling story, but don’t have the facts to back it up? Then write a novel.
What these writers are doing hurts readers, publishers and fellow writers.
It’s lying. Let’s not pretend otherwise. You can dress it up any way you like, but it’s a falsehood. Seltzer claimed she was trying to bring other’s plight to light. Then work with inner-city children, help them learn how to express their stories.
When the James Frey debacle started, I sold my copy of A Little Million Pieces to the local bookstore without even reading it. I just bought Bringing Down the House at a library sale and it’s going right on Paperbackswap.com. That may seem a little harsh, a little reactionary. But my interest in reading it has taken a blow.
There are so many wonderful books out there waiting to be discovered that I don’t want to waste a second on something that might be built, pardon the pun, on a shaky house of cards.
What do you think?
House of Cards, http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/04/06/house_of_cards/
Is Bringing Down the House a fraud?
http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/is-bringing-down-the-house-a-fraud/
‘Margaret,’ another memoir too good to be true, http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/ny-bkcov5627035mar30,0,7904690.story
An antidote to the Margaret Joness, http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/books/la-bkw-hamilton9mar09,1,7387611.story
This Column Is Real, But Not All Authors Stick to the Truth, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120752688255593701.html?mod=googlenews_wsjFooled Fooled Again, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/opinion/16pubed.html?ref=opinion
Monday, April 7, 2008
Morsels
Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States is a staple in most college’s introductory
Zinn is a Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at
A People's History of American Empire.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/gallery/040108_zinncartoons/
Howard Zinn tells history, in comic form
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080404/ap_en_ot/book_review_people_s_history;_ylt=AnaaEl.i.DrzokDRz7ZnIrJREhkF
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New York Times Book Review has a funny essay this week mocking the questions included in the backs of books these days – There Will Be a Quiz.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/books/review/Queenan-t.html?_r=1&ref=review&oref=slogin
Often the questions drift away from the book itself, as in one I read vis-à-vis “Pride and Prejudice”: “Have you ever seen a movie version in which the woman playing Jane was, as Austen imagined her, truly more beautiful than the woman playing Elizabeth? Who doesn’t love Elizabeth Bennett?!!”
He even takes a crack at writing his own odd ball questions.
If it took Odysseus 10 years to make a short trip across a microscopic body of water, why does everyone in “The Odyssey” keep insisting he’s so smart?
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The Boston Globe released its picks for best books of 2007. I don’t want to sound critical, but it seems odd to release this in April.
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/gallery/2007_best_of/
Their picks include On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan, Cheating at Canasta – William Trevor, and Brother, I'm Dying - Edwidge Danticat. I have to add Danticat’s memoir to my must read list.
I only read one book in the Globe’s list. For additional reading suggestions, I would recommend The Dew Breaker by Danticat or The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Morsels
Club Passim, the stomping ground of folk legends like Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Suzanne Vega, Nanci Griffith and Shawn Colvin, is turning 50 this year. Boston Globe’s Sunday magazine profiles Joan Baez, who got her start at Club Passim and brought along a friend of hers you might have heard of – Bob Dylan.
” Joan Baez, waitressed at the club during the week, cooked on Sundays, and ran the art gallery in the afternoons…”
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/03/23/where_folk_history_lives/
Update: I just browsed their online calender. There's so many good shows coming up: Cheryl Wheeler, Antje Duvokot, The Nields, Girlyman. Wow. Richard Thompson sadly is WAY out of my price range. If you've never seen him, he's amazing live.
