The BookReport

Ashley Prentice Norton at BookHampton

Local author Ashley Prentice Norton stopped at her favorite bookstore in East Hampton last Saturday, to read from her fearless first novel, The Chocolate Money. It’s a story about a daughter's fraught relationship with her dysfunctional, tyrannical, and very wealthy mother. Though the book is very much not a memoir, Norton said she wanted to explore the phenomenon of rich families in America through the lens of her own "unorthodox" upbringing, and what a story she's told! By turns funny, frightening, and transgressive, Norton has probed to the heart of her complex cast of characters with insight and empathy.

The novel itself has had quite an interesting life: originally excerpted in Town & Country Magazine—the first fiction to be published in that magazine since Brideshead Revisited—and accompanied by a magazine-directed photoshoot that netted the author offers to appear in The Real Housewives of New York City, the book went on to receive featured reviews in People and Oprah Magazine.

Norton developed the idea while taking a supplemental novel writing course at the YMCA—she's a graduate of New York University's Creative Writing MFA program—and her first agent was none other than Bill Clegg, the author of the addiction and recovery memoirs Portrait of the Addict as a Young Man and Ninety Days.

From its humble beginnings as a manuscript scribbled in the East Hampton library to its two-year journey to publication, The Chocolate Money is the result of Norton's unyielding commitment to her craft. And fans rejoice: her next novel is on the way!

Alec Baldwin Reads The Wizard of Oz at BookHampton

Labor Day Weekend at BookHampton began with a very special event. On Friday August 31 we were joined (for the fourth year!) by our friend and neighbor Alec Baldwin.

Each year we look forward to Alec joining us to celebrate great books by introducing favorite stories to young readers, and this Labor Day weekend we were delighted to settle into our seats, lollipops in hand, and listen as Alec introduced young (and not so young) readers to Frank L.Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

BookHampton was filled to capacity as our crowd of great listeners found themselves enchanted by Alec's reading. We know him as a very funny guy and an acclaimed actor, but to the younger crowd at BookHampton he's the guy who reads every story just right.

In years past, Alec has invited young readers to join him on stage to read a few paragraphs; this year he had an unexpected guest reader: Brooke Shields was there to join in the fun! Once the two of them got the story rolling, Alec did call on a few terrific members of the audience. They read while Alec carefully followed along, remembering to take a quick pause on old-fashioned words.  

We agree with Alec: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of the best books ever; much to our delight we discovered that it's a series. Baum wrote fourteen "Oz" books  (and yes, BookHampton has them all in a beautiful new reprint of the original illustrated edition!)

So, stop in BookHampton for your copy of this great story, and make sure to visit BookHampton.com throughout the year—you'll want to be there when Alec Baldwin returns to read another great book!

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.

 

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!

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

Gail Levin at BookHampton

This past Saturday, one of the largest crowds of the summer came to BookHampton in East Hampton to learn about the life of Lee Krasner, one of the legendary artists who made the Springs a place of artistic pilgrimage in the twentieth century.

Gail Levin, the author of Lee Krasner: A Biography (Harper) has spent much of her career tracing the lives of various painters, including Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keefe. In portraying Lee Krasner, she draws from the knowledge of her personal acquaintance with her, discussing her pioneering path in art as well her marriage to Jackson Pollock. As an author with deep ties to the area, Ms. Levin underscores the beauty of land Pollock and Krasner were drawn to, famous for the interplay of water and light.

Visit BookHampton.com for the complete calendar of all our summer events!

Linda Fairstein at BookHampton

Linda Fairstein is a longtime friend of BookHampton, and we were pleased to have her back with us on a beautiful weekend to read from her latest bestseller, Night Watch (Dutton).  She spoke in East Hampton on Saturday and Mattituck on Sunday afternoon.

Fairstein spoke particularly about how she loved the research for this novel which took her into the famed restaurants of New York City. In the 21 Club she learned about the gates and the secret doors used during prohibition decades earlier.

As in all of her books, Fairstein also delved into her prosecutorial past. This time she used the skills she acquired as the chief of the sex crimes prosecution unit to write about a case ripped from the headlines — the infamous DSK case.

"You're fascinated the most when you are a police officer or prosecutor and you are trying to help someone but that person will not be honest with you," Fairstein said.

After discussing her new novel, Fairstein took questions from the crowd describing her writing process, how she got her big break and if she knows what's next from Alexandra Cooper.  

"My characters have lived with me since 1995," she said.

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Be sure to visit BookHampton.com for our complete calendar of events!

Cristina Alger at BookHampton

Darkness lurks behind the high hedges and bright lawns of the Darling family, a family whose elegant Hamptons estate has been purchased with lies. Cristina Alger draws on her extensive personal experience in finance and the law to focus in on the blurry intersection of both worlds.

Alger spoke about her best-selling novel The Darlings (Pamela Dorman Books) to an enthusiastic audience at BookHampton in East Hampton on July 14th. Her new career as a writer is off to a promising start, having captivated an audience with her portrait of a familiar sort of family that is not what it seems. Readers asked questions that revolved around her creative process, her early life, and the future of the Darling story: rumor has it that a television series is in the works.

Visit bookhampton.com for our complete calendar of upcoming events!

Diane Ravitch at BookHampton

A large audience was on hand at BookHampton in Mattituck on Saturday when Diane Ravitch discussed her new book The Death and Life of the Great American School System (Basic Books) and the biggest threats to the stability of public education: privatization and standardized testing. The one-two punch of subpar standardized testing scores — disproportionately apparent in non-white, low-income, high-special needs school districts — and the subsequent defunding or shutting down of these underperforming districts has created a vacancy that is increasingly being filled by Wall Street-backed private charter schools that may not have the best interests of its students at heart.

Drawing on compelling examples — such as a program in Louisiana that allows local government to gut underperforming public schools' budgets for the benefit of private charter schools, or the threats of online charter schools that fill a classroom of fifty or sixty kids with computers instead of teachers — Ravitch makes the case that the privatization of education is leading to America's most under-recognized — and most devastating — problem: an education system that is doing nothing to prepare our kids to live dynamic, fulfilling lives.

The audience, primarily composed of educators, including some from states that have already instituted privatization of public school districts, asked many pointed questions about the direction that our country is headed on education. They agreed that No Child Left Behind and the current administration's equivalent, Race to the Top have put unrealistic expectations on educators and their students, and is contributing to a growing sector of for-profit educational businesses — answerable only to their stockholders —who are motivated entirely by their bottom line.

Ravitch suggests that the only way to push back against "charter school creep" is for the local community to get involved; without the community banding together, the future of everyone's education is at stake.

You can learn more about Diane Ravitch and read her insightful blog on education and policy on her website at www.dianeravitch.net.

Visit BookHampton.com for information on all upcoming our events!

Robert Goolrick & Eric Alterman at BookHampton

A warm crowd turned out on Friday evening to welcome Robert Goolrick to BookHampton. Mr. Goolrick earned a loyal fan base with his two previous books, the wonderful novel A Reliable Wife and the heartbreaking memoir The End of the World as We Know It. He returns to the Shenandoah valley of his childhood in his latest novel, Heading Out to Wonderful (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill).

Goolrick spoke of the ways his Southern upbringing influenced his craft, describing it as a culture rich in storytelling and gossip. Memories of real people populate his pages, people with hidden pains and unknown pasts.

Many years work in copywriting also influence Goolrick's writing, teaching him to compress many pages of description into as short a sentence as possible.

 

Eric Alterman spoke on Saturday night to a large crowd at BookHampton in East Hampton, who gathered to hear him discuss his latest book, The Cause (Viking), a history of post-war American liberalism.

Alterman spoke of varying definitions of liberalism, from the classical liberalism that embraces Milton Friedman and Margaret Thatcher to the New Deal liberalism that reigned in America from the days of FDR to the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson. As Alterman describes it, however, the liberal consensus began to fall apart with the rise of civil rights movement and the subsequent departure of the South from the Democratic voting base. Alterman argues that modern liberals should embrace the label instead of shying away with euphemisms such as "pragmatic progressive," which have become standard for left-of-center politicians.

A lively debate broke out after the talk as audience members offered their own opinions of contemporary politics.

Be sure to visit BookHampton.com for the full calendar of all our Summer events!