MONDAY: Jami Attenberg (THE MIDDLESTEINS) and Francesca Segal (THE INNOCENTS). [BOOKCOURT]
TUESDAY: Claire Messud (The WOMAN UPSTAIRS). [SYMPHONY SPACE]
WEDNESDAY: Max Barry (LEXICON). [B&N 86th ST]
THURSDAY: Book launch for MO META BLUES, by Questlove and Ben Greenman. [POWERHOUSE]
FRIDAY:Derangement of the Senses with Kevin Carter and Miracle Jones. [HAPPY ENDING]
Also, don’t forget to check out BookStalked with Cheryl Strayed (WILD, TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS) if you missed it on Friday!
Cheryl Strayed needs little introduction as a twice-over NYT bestselling author (WILD, TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS) and modern-day feminist guru. She’s known for her radical empathy—her uncanny ability to connect with people through her writing, whether it be memoir, advice columns or fiction. When people ask me for books recs I inevitably mention Cheryl, and I’m unsurprised by how many tell me they’ve already read her and love her. It’s always been a dream of mine to interview Cheryl, and today I’m delighted to offer some of her reading experiences. As you’d expect, they’re both deeply moving and very funny. Read on, after the jump!
Read more
1. It’s only 50,000 words, bro. Perfect for the time-crunched.
2. Nick (the narrator) is bisexual! You remember that from high school? Yep. Just check out the end of Chapter 2.
3. You can have an informed opinion of the movie. (Which I freaking loved.)
4. Great pre-reading for all the Zelda Fitzgerald books that are coming out.
5. You can use it to plan your own Gatsby-esque party.
6. It will make you consider the recent recession in a new historical/cultural context.
7. Set in mostly sunny summertime, it will take you away from all the damn spring rain.
8. You may find yourself picking up a new term of endearment (“old chap”) or two.
9. You can find some sweet covers in used bookstores (see: my version, above).
10. The writing. There’s a reason it’s a classic.
MONDAY: Book launch for Lisa Hanawalt’s My Dirty Dumb Eyes, a collection of her illustrations from places like the NYT, McSweeney’s and Vanity Fair. [POWERHOUSE]
TUESDAY: Khaled Housseini (The Kite Runner) reads from his newest novel, And the Mountains Echoed. [B&N UNION SQUARE]
WEDNESDAY: Bennett Sims will celebrate his debut novel A Questionable Shape along with Fiona Maazel (Woke Up Lonely) and Benjamin Hale (The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore). [HOUSING WORKS]
THURSDAY: National Book Award finalist Joan Silber (Fools) in convo with Stacey D’Erasmo (The Sky Below). [GREENLIGHT]
FRIDAY: John Strausbaugh will share tales from The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues, a History of Greenwich Village. [BOOK COURT]
MONDAY: This Franklin Park event features Karen Russell (Vampires in the Lemon Grove), Elissa Schappell (Blueprints for Building Better Girls), Leigh Newman (Still Points North), Roxane Gay (Ayiti), and Michael Heald (Goodbye to the Nervous Apprehension). [FRANKLIN PARK]
TUESDAY: Kevin Powers (The Yellow Birds) in convo with Michael Pietsch (Hachette chief exec). [MCNALLY JACKSON]
WEDNESDAY: Richard Hell (Television) will read from Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp: An Autobiography. [BOOKCOURT]
THURSDAY: Mapping Manhattan: A Love (and sometimes Hate) Story in Maps by 75 New Yorkers with creator Becky Cooper and panelists Matt Green, Liana Finck, and Eugene Drucker. [POWERHOUSE]
FRIDAY: The Moth StorySLAM. Theme: envy. [HOUSING WORKS]
I am bewildered.
How does Penina Roth, founder of the Franklin Park Reading Series, do it? Not only does she bring in multiple amazing authors, but she does it several times a month (there are two FP events in May), and she draws in a huge crowd, every time. I BookStalked Penina a few weeks ago, and this is something I really should have asked.
This past Monday, I traveled to Crown Heights and had the pleasure of seeing the following authors: Ben Greenman, Touré, Amelia Gray, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Sam Lipsyte. (The next event, on May 13, features Karen Russell, Elissa Schappell, Leigh Newman, Roxane Gay, and Michael Heald.)
Some highlights:
Read more
MONDAY: Franklin Park Reading Series has a seriously sweet lineup this week: Ben Greenman (The Slippage), Sam Lipsyte (The Ask), Toure (I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon), Claire Vaye Watkins (Battleborn) and Amelia Gray (Threats). [FRANKLIN PARK]
TUESDAY: Book launch for Gavin Edwards’s VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave. [POWERHOUSE]
WEDNESDAY: Sharp: A Discussion of Women and Criticism with Kate Bolick (The Atlantic), Ruth Franklin (The New Republic), Laura Miller (Salon), Miriam Markowitz (The Nation), Michelle Orange (The Rumpus), Parul Sehgal (New York Times Book Review) and moderator Michelle Dean (The Awl). [HOUSING WORKS]
THURSDAY: Celebrate new book of essays What My Mother Gave Me with Mary Morris, Maud Newton, Elissa Schappell, and Emma Straub. [GREENLIGHT]
FRIDAY: Aimee Molloy will read from However Long the Night, which is about Molly Melching, a women’s rights activist in Senegal. [BOOKCOURT]
Also, be sure to check out my writeup of last week’s Cheryl Strayed event — it was a fun one.
Cheryl Strayed has become a bonafide feminist guru.
Last Thursday I waited in line for fifteen minutes at Public Assembly to get into a sold-out Largehearted Lit event featuring Cheryl, Elissa Schappell and musical act Sweet Soubrette. Inside, it was so packed that I could barely make my way to friends.
Sipping drinks, the mostly female and twenty-somethings in the crowd waited with giddy anticipation. They weren’t just there to see an author—they were there to meet someone they felt they already knew. As I mentioned the last time I saw Cheryl, her memoir Wild made even her (male) New York Times reviewer weep. Cheryl has an uncanny ability to connect through her words (see: her collection of advice columns Tiny Beautiful Things) with a combo of searing honesty and an insistence that people lift themselves up.
Read more
The Arabic saying “bukra fil mish mish” means “tomorrow, apricots may bloom.” Jessica Soffer’s debut novel Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots focuses on two surprising friends facing uncertain futures. Young Lorca, about to be sent off to boarding school, thinks that if she’s able to make her mother’s favorite Middle Eastern dish, she might be allowed to stay. Victoria, an Iraqi Jewish immigrant and grieving widow in New York, teaches cooking lessons to Lorca. As they uncover secrets from their pasts, they begin to suspect that their connection runs deeper than food. Apricots has been called “a profoundly redemptive story” (O Magazine) and “a work of beauty in words” (New York Journal of Books). Jessica has just started doing readings about town, and she was kind enough to share some of her most memorable event experiences thus far — after the jump!
Read more
In light of this nonsense, I’d like to offer a week of events featuring awesome lady writers. (And wouldn’t you know it, there’s SO MANY.)
MONDAY: Meg Wolitzer (The Interestings) in convo with Jami Attenberg (The Middlesteins). [WORD]
TUESDAY: Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologue) on her memoir, In the Body of the World. {B&N UNION SQUARE]
WEDNESDAY: Whoa, get this:
-Rachel Kushner (The Flamethrowers) [STRAND]
-AND Claire Messud (The Woman Upstairs) [CENTER FOR FICTION]
-AND Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping) [CUNY]
THURSDAY: Cheryl Strayed (Wild). [PUBLIC ASSEMBLY]
FRIDAY: PEN World Voice Festival: Master/Class with Fran Lebowitz and A.M. Homes. [NEW SCHOOL]
