The BookReport

Winter Series: Alec Baldwin Reads from Oliver Twist

As an avid and unrepentant Dickens fan, my heart was full to see our community come together to hear our great friend, Alec Baldwin, read from Oliver Twist. With his wry sense of humor perfectly matched to Dickens's own, Baldwin jumped right in to the opening chapters of this beloved masterpiece.

The SRO crowd in BookHampton was treated not only to Dickens's words, but also to Baldwin's ongoing and amusing thoughts and commentary. 

At one point, he introduced his own fourth grade teacher, Bernice Hoffman, whom he credited with introducing him to the joy of Dickens and other great classics. He asked her to comment on just how important the reading of classics is to our young readers.  This, of course, is the definition of a BookHampton friend.

Baldwin called up several youngsters to read alongside him, and these wonderful children proudly dared to take on the often bumpy, but always thrilling, ride of Dickens's prose.

They beamed. They bumbled (there's a Dickensian word!)  As one young man said, "I want to get this right!" As I choked up a little, I thought, "Mission accomplished all around."

— Chris Avena

Winter Lecture Series: Doron Weber and Ali Wentworth

BookHampton hosted two full-house book signings with Doron Weber and Ali Wentworth on Presidents’ Day weekend.
 
On Saturday, Doron Weber read from his book Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir (Simon and Schuster). The book is the life story of Weber's son Damon, who died after a heart transplant when a common infection went undetected.
 
A combination of the author's remembrances and Damon's blog posts (which give Damon a voice that's not just typical kid but also one whose illness made him wise), Immortal Bird relates Damon's early illnesses (he was born with a malformed heart), successful surgery and flourishing of health, spirit and personality that led to Damon's acting career. Fans of the HBO show "Deadwood" may remember the kid with the shock of red hair featured early in the series — that was Damon, whose natural instinct as an actor was a predictor of a strong career to come.
 
However, as some children with Damon's heart trouble do, he developed PLE, which results in the body's inability to absorb protein, in effect starving itself. There is no cure.

Weber began writing Immortal Bird as a way to deal with Damon's illness and death. "Without the book, I don't know how I could have gone on. I was so happy language existed; it gave me a place to go. Writing was essential to me. It was salvation."
 
Immortal Bird tells a personal story of a child lost too soon, and of the medical professional whose arrogance led to an unnecessary and untimely death. It's told with grace and humor and lets us all get to know Damon Weber, whose light went out too soon. (Note: Jeremy's recent blog post about Immortal Bird is here.)
 
On Sunday, Ali Wentworth regaled the packed bookstore with stories of growing up in Washington, DC and returning as an adult, (with stops in Hollywood, stage and screen in between), all included in her New York Times best-selling memoir, Ali in Wonderland (Harper).

Ali's mother, Muffy Cabot, was social secretary for Ronald Reagan, as well as the only Democrat in the Reagan White House. Ali grew up surrounded by newsmakers and world leaders — her stories of swimming with Henry Kissinger are unsettling and funny: while he used their pool for exercise, Kissinger was convinced Ali's stepfather was a spy, so their phones were tapped as well.
 
Ali went on to become an actress and comedian; you've seen her on "In Living Color," "Seinfeld" (Schmoopie from the infamous "Soup Nazi" episode) and much more. However, her marriage to George Stephanopolous brought her back to the world of her childhood in Washington, one that's very different from what she remembers.
 
"When you marry a Greek, you marry Greece," Ali laughed , as she told the story of their oldest daughter's baptism as an infant in the Greek Orthodox tradition. Involving oils and full immersion, it shocked the WASP-y Cabot side of her family. She had the standing-room only crowd in stitches as she poked loving fun at George and her daughters, who were also in attendance.
 
Afterward, during a question and answer session, an audience member asked Ali what makes a good sketch comic. "A good sketch comedian isn't afraid. You have to have a lack of inhibition. You can't be afraid to get ugly. And a lot of it is good instinct."
 
Signed copies of Immortal Bird and Ali in Wonderland are available at BookHampton.
 
This Saturday, February 25th at 2:00pm in East Hampton, join us for a very special event: Alec Baldwin returns to BookHampton to read selections from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, in honor of Dickens' 200th birthday. Our full calendar of events is available on our website.

Winter Lecture Series: Michael Striffler Plays from the American Songbook Part II

Pianist Mike Striffler returned for a standing-room-only performance of selections from the American Songbook at our East Hampton store on Saturday.

Focusing on post-WWII and Broadway composers and their songs, Mike played selections from West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Guys & Dolls, the Sound of Music and more as listeners sang along. It was a cozy and friendly way to spend the afternoon. He also discussed the era, the composers and the songs, putting them in historical context.

If you missed the chance to hear Mike play, and you'd like to do some singing with your family, friends and neighbors, he'll be repeating his series on the American Songbook in BookHampton in Southampton (93 Main Street). Part One will be performed at 2:00PM this Saturday, February 18th, and part two will be at 2:00PM on Sunday, February 26th. For information on all our news and events, visit our website at bookhampton.com.

Jeremy is Reading: Immortal Bird

I just finished reading Doron Weber's remarkable book Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir (Simon and Schuster), an experience which is both exhausting and exhilarating. It deals with what is surely every parent's nightmare, the illness and eventual death of a child, but as we come to know the child and his family it becomes inspirational as well.

The author's first child, Damon, was born with a heart defect and was saved by a very complex operation while still an infant. The next few years (in which two other children were born, neither with any comparable health problem) allowed the family to exist in a normal life; indeed to any onlooker they would seem to have had everything: devoted parents, gifted children, a house in a nice neighborhood in Brooklyn, extensive travels, many friends.

Winter Lecture Series: Michael Striffler Plays from the American Songbook

BookHampton readers were treated to a trip back in time via talented pianist Michael Striffler's selections from the American Songbook in East Hampton Saturday afternoon.

Featuring the romantic, silly and wonderful songs of composers Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin, listeners hummed and sang along while the multifaceted Striffler played. Between songs, he described the times and lives of the composers, postwar America's prosperity, the relaxed morals that led to Prohibition and the influence of a burgeoning African American musical culture that caught the ear of many a New York musician.

Striffler, who hails from Long Island and studied music at SUNY Stony Brook, has played at many local venues. He'll return to BookHampton this Saturday the 11th at 4 PM to pick up where his musical timeline left off, featuring Broadway hits (and more) from the 1950's and 1960's.

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Also this weekend, join us as we help celebrate HarborFrost, Sag Harbor's winter festival of ice, music, and fireworks.

Our Winter Lecture Series schedule, and all of our upcoming events, are listed on our website.

The Topic Was: Moby-Duck

The audience was spellbound as author and adventurer Donovan Hohn read from his amazing new book, Moby-Duck.

The book is a true adventure tale, unlike any other. Part Jack London, part Hunter Thompson, Hohn, who in his real life is an editor and noted poet, set out on a  most unusual quest and the result is Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,000 Bath Toys Lost at Sea (Viking, 27.95).

photos © Jeremy Nussbaum

Hohn, whose young family joined him for this reading, has written a behind-the-scenes look at what it means to be an "explorer." His quest found him going off to sea, sea-sick, scared, home-sick — and lucky for us, wide-eyed.

His writing is enchanting, and our audience at BookHampton this past Saturday was delighted to be introduced to one of our most original new writers. Come pick up a copy of Moby-Duck, and with any luck Donovan Hohn will be back on our shores in early July.

Please join us next Saturday, April 9 for our continuing Lecture Series featuring linguist William Taylor on the topic “Chasing Chaucer: Translation and the Quest for a Contemporary Canterbury Tales.”

The Topic Was: Jonathan Franzen and the Creation of Character

You could have heard a pin drop in East Hampton on Saturday as Joseph Salvatore, founding editor of The New School's literary journal,  "LIT" and professor at The New School discussed the building of characters in modern fiction. Citing Jonathan Franzen's novels The Corrections and Freedom,  Salvatore explained the author's intent to restore the social novel a la Henry James.

Salvatore explained the differences between the character-driven plot, which features what E. M. Forester called "round" characters -- characters that experience change or a catharsis, and the plot-driven novel, which features "flat" characters that could be inserted into the story without any resulting change; the "flat" character serves only the plot.

Salvatore also pointed out Franzen's use of what he calls "characterization through correction:" the character that creates tension in the story by trying to correct a perceived wrong. The tension occurs when the character is prevented from easily achieving their goal.

Salvatore also read from the opening chapter of Freedom  in order to illustrate the numerous voices and points-of-view Franzen masterfully utilizes in describing two of his main characters, Walter and Patty Berglund. It was an almost "Inception"-like "kick-up-the-layers" as Salvatore noted the changes of perspective that overlap and switch back on themselves in the first few pages.

A lively question and answer period followed with discussion of Tolstoy, Nabokov and of course, more Franzen. Salvatore's story collection, To Assume a Pleasing Shape will be published by BOA Editions in November.

Join us next Saturday in East Hampton at 5:00pm when we welcome author Donovan Hohn to read from Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them.

The Topic Was: The Brontës

They were young and motherless, but highly imaginative and educated. They stood out in Yorkshire even as they kept to themselves, creating a world of poetry and prose that began for their own entertainment and ended up shocking some of Victorian England's more precious sensibilities. They all died young, with the eldest reaching only 38 years. Their legacy lives on in the works they left behind and in the dozens of movies, biographies and novelizations based in their lives.

And if you think you haven't felt their impact, you're wrong.

They were the Brontes: Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Bramwell, and they were the timely topic that Carole Stone discussed in front of a standing-room only crowd at BookHampton's Winter Lecture Series in East Hampton on Saturday.

Stone painted a portrait of the poor and isolated family that held listeners rapt. Most of the audience were familiar with Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester and Cathy and Heathcliffe, but Stone wanted to recommend Charlote Bronte's Villette as the most autobiographical of the novels. Based in the sisters' time in Brussels, Villette tells the story of Charlotte's love for her tutor.

Stone also pointed out how anti-religion the Brontes works read. Children of a curate and educated in church-run schools, Stone posited that their overall experience at the hands of the church were so negative, that their true feelings leeched into their writings. "Their schools were certainly Dickensian," Stone noted. "One thing I'll always remember is the cold they must have experienced."

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Come in from the cold next week — Saturday March 26 at 5:00pm in East Hampton — when The BookHampton Winter Lecture Series welcomes Joseph Salvatore, who asks "Is Jonathan Franzen Our Henry James?"

The Topic Will Be: The Brontë Sisters

The Brontë Sisters

Emily, Charlotte, and Anne

Join us this Saturday at 5:00pm in East Hampton when Carole Stone, poet and professor of 19th Century literature, explores the sisters' writing and influence.

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The BookHampton Winter Lecture Series

Saturday, March 19 at 5:00pm

41 Main Street, East Hampton

The Topic Was: Women in Shakespeare

Shakespeare lovers gathered in BookHampton's East Hampton store on Saturday to welcome CUNY professor Mario DeGangi as he discussed the roles of women in Shakespeare's plays. DeGangi divided his talk into three archetypes of women featured in Shakespeare's works: maids, wives, and widows.

Reading selections from plays we all know and love, including Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and The Taming of the Shrew, DeGangi showed the audience just how sympathetic Shakespeare was to women and how he recognized the  constraints of the traditional trajectory of women's lives. He also touched on Shakespeare's empathy for women whose lives were outside Elizabethan expectations, including witches, nuns, and prostitutes.

DeGangi accompanied his lecture with illustrated handouts depicting fascinating aspects of women's lives and cntemporary attitudes and practices. His scholarly expertise, combined with his dramatic skills as a reader of Shakespeare made for a wonderful evening and led to a lively discussion.

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Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is truly a heroine for every age, and the newest film version which is receiving rave reviews, has put her in the spotlight again. BookHampton is especially thrilled to have Carole Stone, Professor of 19th Century literature and a well-recognized authority on the Bronté sisters, join us at the next BookHampton Winter Lecture on Saturday, March 19 at 5:00pm. The topic will be: "The Brontës: The Female Legacy of the Sisters." We hope you'll be there!

The Topic Was : Awkward Questions

How do you get your grandchildren to write thank-you notes? Should you even expect them to?

Philip Galanes, the genius behind the New York Times Social Q's column, offered lighthearted (but thought provoking) answers to this and other questions of social behavior on Saturday at BookHampton's Winter Lecture Series in our East Hampton store. The event was filmed by the hot new New York City website Paper & String; clips of Galanes' talk will be available for viewing soon (check back here for the direct link).

Galanes, who specializes in entertainment law, explained how he came to write the popular weekly column that deals with sticky social issues in our fast-moving, modern world. "They really liked the voice I created in my first book, Father's Day, and asked if I could write a column in that voice." That same voice gives patient, thoughful advice to readers across the globe every weekend in the Style Section of the Times.

"I'm not an expert by any means," said Galanes. Part of the enjoyment of writing Social Qs is the discussion that occurs after the column goes to print. The same sort of discussion was lively at BookHampton, too.

"How should you handle someone who keeps checking their Blackberry on a date? On a first date?" provoked a lively discussion. Galanes suggested asking that the phone be put away, but acknowledged that if the person who was checking had something urgent they were waiting to hear about, perhaps it was excusable. Another suggestion was to get up and walk out on the boor.

Neighbors tardy about removing their outdoor holiday lights was another peeve. "Ask yourself," smiled Galanes, "Why does this even matter?"

Oh, and those grand-kids? Galanes pointed out that we don't give gifts to get thanks, but for the joy of giving. "If you can't even talk to your grandchildren about wanting them to be gracious and thank you, your problem is bigger than not getting thank you notes."

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Join us on Saturday, March 12 at 5:00pm when the BookHampton Winter Lecture Series presents Mario DeGangi, a noted Restoration scholar, discussing "Women in Shakespeare."

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Photographs by Jeremy Nussbaum

Around BookHampton: Lou Ann Walker and Lona Flam Rubenstein

Eager readers in both Sag Harbor and East Hampton were treated to two great events at BookHampton last weekend.
 
Local author Lona Flam Rubenstein read from and discussed her historical novel Itzig (Arete Press, 30.00) in Sag Harbor on Saturday afternoon. A story of change and identity, Itzig sweeps across early 20th Century Germany, when the name "Itzig" (translation: "jewboy") was given by Germans to newly emancipated Jews as a joke of a last name. Rubenstein followed her reading with a question-and-answer session and book signing.

Later  in the afternoon, BookHampton in East Hampton hosted a standing-room only crowd for Lou Ann Walker's discussion of memoir writing, part of our Winter Lecture Series. Author of A Loss for Words and currently working on her second memoir about life with her husband, she had some fresh advice and interesting exercises for would-be writers. She also answered the audience's questions and signed copies of her book.

"If it's too good or too bad to be true, it won't be believable," Walker advised. "People respond to stories that resonate, and that make some sense." The main reason to write a memoir should be self-expression, she noted, and she offered up a liberating exercise:

"Write a secret that you've never, ever told anyone on a piece of paper. Then destroy the paper; shred it, burn it, eat it — any way you like." The result of this exercise should be some kind of release in one's life. Walker cited blind studies in which the exercise was performed, and students who destroyed their secrets went on to better grades and attitudes about writing.

More exercises from Lou Ann Walker to free up your writing:

• Write about something that prompted a fight — of any kind.
• Write about a moment when you saw someone do something utterly immoral.
• Write about a moment of extraordinary pleasure.
• Write about a time when you experienced a rite of passage.
• Write about a time when you saw your parents do something utterly disappointing.

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Join us in East Hampton this Saturday March 5 at 5:00pm as the BookHampton Winter Lecture Series continues. We'll be welcoming Philip Galanes, The Sunday New York Times "Social Q's" columnist. Galanes, the author of the acclaimed novel Emma's Table, writes his weekly column about civility in modern life, answering readers' questions with a wonderful mix of social grace and life-saving wit. He'll take questions from the audience and offer gentle answers.