The BookReport

Angelina Ballerina & Katharine Holabird at BookHampton

At BookHampton we know that for a picture to be worth 1,000 words it has to be a very, very good picture!

On Sunday morning, August 26th, all our friends lined up to enjoy that littlest Ballerina, Angelina!

We were in a sea of pink tutus! And Ms. Holabird wore pink, too!

Before Ms. Holabird read, she introduced the Special Ballerinas: (left-right) Sarah, Hannah, Nora, and Sophia!

They know how to go en pointe (on their toes)!

We were getting ready for the story, and Sophia got ready to play ANGELINA!

Oh,my goodness! ANGELINA stepped into the Cheddar Cheese Pie!

She's sorry. She is. (Her feet and her ears both turn out!)

Well of course she was forgiven!

 

ANGELINA is BookHampton's favorite ballerina. Our Ballerina visitors thought so, too!

 

Following the performance, Ms. Holabird was kind enough to sign books for all the Ballerinas.

 

Thank you Ms.Holabird! Thank you Angelina! Thank you Sophia! Thank you to all our neighborhood ballerinas!

Click HERE to see the complete photo album!

ANGELINA BALLERINA by Author Katharine Holabird, Illustrator Helen Craig

"Angelina at BookHampton" danced by Sophia Massie

Photos by Gabriel Nussbaum ©BookHampton 

 

David Sanger at BookHampton

A full house of politically savvy readers attended chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times' David Sanger's discussion of his new book, Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power (Crown).

The follow-up to his 2010 best seller Inheritance, which focused on the status of the nation and world when President Obama took office in 2009, Confront and Conceal delineates the myriad ways Obama has quietly waged war since 2009.

"The Right expected a 'community organizer' and have been shocked by Obama's aggressiveness, said Sanger. "The Left was shocked because they believed Obama's promise to engage our enemies and didn't expect the aggression."

"The fact that he doesn't talk about it signals an emerging doctrine," Sanger said, describing the covert cyber offensives and drone strikes that Obama put to purpose but the Bush White House planned.

"Obama has developed a 'light-footprint' strategy—he's dealing with US adversaries by going in quietly and getting out quickly."

Sanger discussed “Olympic Games” in depth—the cyber-warfare operation that destroyed Iranian nuclear scientists centrifuges, thus setting back Iran's goals of creating a nuclear bomb.

"We're in a high-transition period of time," said Sanger. "We're trying to cope with these new technologies, and that we're not always going to be the super-power in the world."

Signed copies of Confront and Conceal and Inheritance are available at BookHampton in Sag Harbor and online at BookHampton.com.

 

Chris is Reading: Double Cross

Those seeking nonfiction thrills should look no further than Double Cross by Ben Macintyre (Crown). The bestselling author of Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat tells the true story of the D-Day spies. On June 6, 1944, Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, and won one of the fierest battles of the war with a surprising lack of casualties.

Double Cross is the untold story of Operation Fortitude, which plotted and supported the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which turned German spies into double agents — agents who tricked the Nazis into believing that the attack would come elsewhere. The Operation was the most successful deception of the war, keeping Hitler far off the mark, and crippling the Nazis on that fateful day. Macintyre documents this amazing story with gripping panache, sealing his reputation as one of our greatest historians.

— Chris Avena

Amy Sohn at BookHampton

Amy Sohn gives the extreme voices of trendy Park Slope parents a vicious send-up in her hilarious new novel, Motherland (Simon and Schuster). Lucky for us, Sohn stopped by BookHampton in Mattituck to regale her audience with anecdotes of Prospect Park West—many of the stories in the book come from real events, she said—and answer audience questions about living in one of the trendiest neighborhoods in America.

“I write about Park Slope as though it were interesting,” Sohn said. “I have no interest in making everyone's miserable lives in Park Slope more miserable.” The five parents in her novel—all young, all trendy, all coming to parenting from different backgrounds—suffer a variety of midlife crises while struggling through the vicious, cloying world of upper-class motherhood.

Sohn said that her secret motivation for writing the book was to entice (via scandal) two Park Slope women to read the book and stumble into an improbable conversation about something actually personal. “This is my hope for a richer, more scandalous neighborhood than I actually live in,” said Sohn.

— Be sure to visit BookHampton.com to see our full calendar of upcoming events!

Chris is Reading: The Age of Miracles

As we become immersed in the heady, humid days of August, thank heavens there are a bunch of great books to calm and cool you. I’m a big fan of debut novels; they give me hope for the future. One of the best I’ve read this year is The Age of Miracles (Random House), by Karen Thompson Walker.

Walker’s premise is brilliant: one day, for no apparent reason, the earth begins to slow down in its revolution. We see the consequences through the eyes of our narrator, 11 year-old Julia. Her life, her parents, her loves. This fantastical novel is really a beautifully written coming-of-age story, with all the awkward and achey moments deftly displayed. No matter how fast or slow the world moves around her, Julia moves at her own speed, as we all should — or realize that everyone can topple off their own axis.

— Chris Avena

Emma Forbes at BookHampton

The Olympics were (gently) pushed aside Friday night as Londoner Emma Forbes  charmed our BookHampton audience. Emma, who is a familiar name to all of Great Britain as the host of lifestyle programs and the wildly successful internet magazine ForbesStyle, is visiting our shores for a summer holiday, so we grabbed the opportunity to have her come and share a bit of “how it's done" fun.

Her new book Life and Soul is an absolutely wonderful addition to the Martha-Ina-Rachel shelf! Emma radiates fun and an enjoyment of life that is completely contagious. Already recognized in Europe as a "lifestyle guru" Emma took pains to explain her other moniker, “Yummy Mummy." True, she is very beautiful, but in the bookstore world we don't let that count.

So what’s with the Yummy Mummy? Her own kids adore her! And she seems to be an imaginative and ingenious kid-party planner! For her son's 9th birthday she sent out invitations in plastic tubes that were packed with a note, a bit of garden dirt and rocks, as well as a plastic garter snake that popped out (surprise!) — a perfect boy's invitation. For her daughter's 16th? The annual family fireworks fest will have a cordoned off-section for the grown-up 16 crowd (a party within a party!) .

Emma, whose new book not only landscapes the party but also provides absolutely wonderful and hostess-friendly recipes, was open to all sorts of questions including how to limit the number of young guests at an adult party (ah, summer problems!). WIth true Brit self-aplomb Emma also shared a bit of good advice: No matter what happens when you're the hostess you may never walk out on your own party — she did it once, and never again — no matter what.

Well, we'd like to be invited to any of Emma's parties — and until we are we'll recommend Life and Soul, a wonderful new look at lifestyle and life enjoyment! We have copies of the UK edition — only at BookHampton!

Cheryl Strayed at BookHampton

Think Cheryl Strayed, and what are the first words that come to mind? Courage and self-reliance for sure. But kindness? Overflowing. And we had an overflow house in East Hampton on Saturday as the bestselling author of Wild (Random House) and the riveting new paperback, Tiny Beautiful Things (Vintage) took us on a new kind of journey.

Hailed by Oprah and The New York Times, Wild is a one-woman-against-the-world tale that combines derring-do with daring-to-look as the heroine, Strayed, takes a long look at the wrong paths before finding her way out into the rest of her life. The sections she read were powerful, and the audience reacted with laughter that signaled self-recognition and then wild applause. Kindness? Yes. Wild tells us that if Cheryl (Strayed's the name she gave herself) could get back on the path — away from drugs, hike the Pacific Coast, navigate Alaska, and return home to a loving relationship and two glorious children —  then perhaps we might find the same courage in our lives. Tiny Beautiful Things tells us how, and that's where kindness is overflowing.

Strayed, writing as Internet columnist Dear Sugar, has put together a book of answers to life's many layers of questions. Her answers bring us the best of self-help — the sort of pull-yourself-together and you-can-do-it advice that everyone seeks. Writing mostly to a young (please, Internet not newspaper!) audience, Dear Sugar speaks with the comforting voice of an older sister.

She read a letter from a correspondent who asked how one might survive a break-up in this day of constant social network  information (Twitter, Facebook... if you have to ask, keep reading).

And here's where kindness kicked in: Strayed as Sugar doesn't belittle the writer, nor does she (Dr. Phil and others take note) blame the victim; instead she says that we have all — Sugar, too — been there. Back in the day (five years ago was it?) telephones were the instrument of emotional torture. That link to the other, Sugar says, suddenly became the extension of heartbreak as the beloved would no longer call and we would wait for the phone to ring! Who hasn't been there (people under 25, this is how it was!). You would wait and wait and then with eyes puffy with tears, you'd try one cool and collected call, all to no avail. He/she, the beloved, would only say once more that you were 'through."

So what is it about Tiny Beautiful Things (and the phrase is from a reply that is so touching that I won't touch it here)? Cheryl Strayed has been through a lot, she's put herself through more, and she's not afraid to speak from her heart to you. “Dear Reader: Take courage,” she says. She has enough to share, and she does.

Wild (26.95) and Tiny Beautiful Things (14.95) are available in our stores and at BookHampton.com.  Order both and give one to your best friend —she'll thank you, and we’ll thank you with 15% off. 

I'd like to hear your thoughts about both of these books — please leave a comment below, and we’ll start a conversation.

— Charline Spektor