Louise Penny – in person

Last night I went to an author event at Keplers Books in Menlo Park (a great bookstore)…but this was not just any author event – it was LOUISE PENNY — author of the  Chief Inpsector Gamache series based in the fictional village of Three Pines outside of Montreal.  If you don’t know of Louise Penny it is advised that you immediately get yourself to a bookstore or library and get your hands on her first book, Still Life.  You’ll thank me later, or maybe not —  because there is a warning – you won’t be able to wait for the next book in the series to come into the library, and you will happily spend your hard-earned dollars on the next book … and the next.

Here’s some photos from the event.

Ms. Penny is just as I imagined her – warm, funny, self-deprecating, smart, wise, gracious and very very real.  I want to be her new best friend – (but not in a creepy stalking kind of way).

I also got this – see what I mean about spending your money?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her new book – signed.  I started it last night and once I’ve finished I will give it away to any Book Barmy reader who can answer the following question:

What gift did Ms. Penny receive last night from an adoring fan? (And not from me, an originally from Canada fan…)

Submit your answers in the comments section and I’ll announce the winner in a future post.

Meanwhile – I’m leaving now to return to Three Pines, the bistro, Ruth and her duck…I know you’ll understand.

N.B.  If more than one reader has the correct answer, trustworthy husband (he was an Eagle Scout you know) will pick the name at random.

Memoirs as Salvation

~~First an apology for the radio silence. I’ve been neglecting Book Barmy lately.  Last minute travel preparations dominate right now, as we prepare to leave on a grand trip next week.  As a result, my reading has dwindled to a few pages at night- (sometimes the same pages from the night before) until I can’t keep my eyes open. Stay tuned for more on our travel excitement in an upcoming post. ~~

What is it about memoirs?  I gravitate toward them in anxious times and decided it was because I’m a bit of a guilty voyeur combined with a dash of schadenfreude.   I seem to gain solace from dipping into the disastrous lives of others.   So when I came across this wonderful Mary Karr essay HERE , I knew I had a chum — another memoir lover out there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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One of my all time favorites is Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Read this memoir for it’s depiction of a trip of a lifetime and Ms. Gilbert’s personal journey.  Rediscovering joy, peace and love while gaining friends, insights and few extra pounds along the way.  It’s really not as sappy as I just made it sound – honestly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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And now for something similar yet completely different … Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs.  Once again we witness a nightmarish youth and the reparations, but in this case Mr. Burroughs tells his tale in such a way that it is both entertaining and outrageous.  So entertaining, in fact that some studio attempted to make a film based on the book. Just terrible, give it a miss – the film that is – not the book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I was recently reminded of the classic Testament of Youth –  an autobiography of a independent woman who volunteers as a nurse during WWI. I missed many a wild club scene evening buried in its pages back in the 80’s. It’s been adapted into what looks to be a promising film (trailer HERE).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The other evening I started this unique memoir.  Grieving over the unexpected death of her father, Helen MacDonald rediscovers her love of falconry with a prickly and murderous goshawk —  named Mabel.  I’m only a few chapters in and it’s riveting (at least for as long as I’m able to stay awake these recent nights).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not forgetting the other memoirs here on Book Barmy –THIS or THIS

What are your favorite memoirs or autobiographies?

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

I was entranced by this book — just holding the beautiful hardback edition, with its botanical illustrations on the front and back flyleaves, gave me a little thrill.  I was especially hooked by the storyline which follows a  19th century female botanist.  I’ve long been fascinated with the early botanical illustrators who ventured into harsh climes to painstakingly draw and record plant specimens before the advent of photography.  Add to this that I savored Ms. Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love — both the book and the film.  So I was set – that magical feeling of embarking into a book that holds great promise.

The Signature of All Things starts with the turn of the century birth of Alma Whittaker in January of 1800 to unorthodox and wealthy Philadelphia parents.  On the first page we are lead back into Alma’s father’s beginnings  — with this wonderful line:

How her father came to be in possession of such great wealth is a story worth telling here, while we wait for the girl to grow up and catch our interest again. 

And so we learn of the world-spanning exploits of Henry Whittaker, thief turned botanist, in the late 1700s, where money follows Alma’s father around like a small, excited dog.

When we do meet Alma Whittaker some 50 pages in, she is being tutored by her parents in languages, acute observation and critical thought  — they expect her, from a young age, to actively participate in their glittering intellectual dinner parties. She is cocooned within their estate — White Acres and the plant world — so beloved by her father.  There is even a large indoor botanical garden patterned after George III’s own design.

Alma learned to tell time by the opening and closing of flowers. At five o’clock in the morning, she noticed, the goatsbeard petals always unfolded. At six o’clock, the daisies and globeflowers opened. When the clock struck seven, the dandelions would bloom. At eight o’clock, it was the scarlet pimpernel’s turn…

But, before long, Alma has descended into a prematurely sad, old woman. She is someone whose intellectual life is more important than any emotional one — she had too much to accomplish.

Whenever a beam of light shone through one of the tall, wavy-glassed windows, Alma would turn her face up toward it, like a tropical vine in one of her father’s botanical forcing houses, wishing to climb her way out.

Alma becomes an expert on mosses – her own botanical choice – as no one had ever studied their miniature ecosystems in depth.  Alma publishes several highly-regarded botanical volumes on mosses during her years.

Moss grows where nothing else can grow.  It grows on bricks.  It grows on tree bark and roofing slate.  It grows in the Arctic Circle and in the balmiest topics …moss is the first sign of botanic life to reappear on land that has been burned or otherwise stripped down to barrenness.  The only thing moss needs is time, and it was beginning to appear to Alma that the world had plenty of time of offer. 

Eventually Ambrose, an androgynous orchid illustrator,  captivates her with his words and his art – and so she marries him  — but alas, no romance for Alma.

For many years (even before Ambrose) Alma has found her sexual pleasure in a closet by herself – and we are given great detail of  her “self-pleasuring” exploits.  (Just as with the one and only porn film I watched, it quickly becomes painfully absurd.)

Alma lives well into her 9th decade, and her adventures, and those of her father, weave together the development of evolutionary thought during the mid-1800s.  We learn how Captain Cook influenced Charles Darwin and we even get to meet  A.R. Wallace who posited a theory of biodiversity concurrent with Darwin’s.  Alma, too, comes upon her own theory of evolution via her moss studies, but Darwin beats everyone to the punch and garners all the fame.  Ms. Gilbert fascinates in telling of these historical scientific discoveries, exploits and follies.

In an interview, Ms. Gilbert tells of  years doing research and a 70-page outline.   This exhaustive research and hard writing work clearly shines through in The Signature of All Things.

Where the novel falters is in the secondary characters who are introduced, one per chapter, as if even Ms. Gilbert was getting bored with her story and wanted new players.   Alma’s adopted sister Prudence and their friend, Retta are meant to contrast with Alma’s cerebral character —  but I found them unbelievable.  The novel becomes a little un-tethered (as does Alma) once she leaves White Acres for Tahiti and Amsterdam where the complicated and dramatic relationships feel a bit contrived.

I found the novel at times strikingly beautiful  —  there is some jeweled writing — but also at time, tedious.  Even though I merely scanned more than a few pages, I had to keep reading through to the end– as Alma’s story is ultimately fascinating and heartrending.

 

N.B.  The title of the book refers to the theory that all life contains a divine code which was put forth by 16th century botanist, Jacob Boehme in his book De Signatura Rerum (The Signature of All Things).

Can Reading Make You Happier?

You may remember that I read and reviewed The Novel Cure, wherein I discovered my perfect second-half-of-life career choice –  Bibliotherapist.

 

Here’s a wonderful New Yorker article that delves further into this concept.

 

 

 

From the article:

Bibliotherapy is a very broad term for the ancient practice of encouraging reading for therapeutic effect. The first use of the term is usually dated to a jaunty 1916 article in The Atlantic Monthly, “A Literary Clinic.” In it, the author describes stumbling upon a “bibliopathic institute” run by an acquaintance, Bagster, in the basement of his church, from where he dispenses reading recommendations with healing value. “Bibliotherapy is…a new science,” Bagster explains. “A book may be a stimulant or a sedative or an irritant or a soporific. The point is that it must do something to you, and you ought to know what it is. A book may be of the nature of a soothing syrup or it may be of the nature of a mustard plaster.”

And then there’s this:

For all avid readers who have been self-medicating with great books their entire lives, it comes as no surprise that reading books can be good for your mental health and your relationships with others, but exactly why and how is now becoming clearer, thanks to new research on reading’s effects on the brain.

I haven’t secretly fist-pumped such information since they proved the scientific health benefits of a glass of red wine.

Turns out the authors of The Novel Cure (Berthoud and Elderkin) practice their Bibliotherapy through The School of Life, founded by one of my favorite authors, Alain de Bottom.  His book The Art of Travel is a beautiful volume of essays to be carefully savored one delicious essay at a time.

So the Book Barmy Bibliotheraphy Practice doors are officially open.

Be my guinea pigs, send me your problem or issue either via comments or email — and I’ll recommend a book or two to help you get through it.

No charge.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, I’m in the middle of this – stay tuned…

 

The Bookstore Mouse by Peggy Christian

Just next door to the bookstore where I work/volunteer, there’s a children’s arts center with afternoon classes.  When class is over the children often run (with parents trailing behind) into the store and quickly gravitate to our special children’s room/play area (click to see full size).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The parents can then, while keeping an eye on the little ones, slip over to the cafe and grab a coffee (they also sell wine and beer but I’ve never seen any parental indulgence  –strong folks these parents).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the months, I’ve formed a friendship with one little girl who comes in every week after art class and her mom lets her buy a book or two.  I’ll call her Penny because she is just as bright as a penny (no real names or photo for obvious reasons).  Penny is a sturdy little girl, cowboy boots, a big wide grin, bangs I suspect she chops at herself, and an eclectic sense of colorful mismatched clothes. One can tell she must be a handful for parents and teachers alike — that combustive combination of open intelligence, imagination, impatience and enviable self-confidence  – I liked her instantly.

Almost every week, she’ll find me in the store, just to say hello and to talk about things – what she did in art class (she once made me an origami bird), the books she’s reading, the books I’m shelving — Penny just loves to talk.  But no idle chatter for Penny, she wants to know things — her conversations are real and her questions intense.  Mostly we talk about books while her poor mother grabs a to-go coffee from the cafe.  One week I pressed Blueberries for Sal into her hands promising her she would love it – she did.  She can’t wait to read Harry Potter, but bemoans that she is still to young to read “such big books”.

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One day she brought this little book up to the register to purchase. Penny and I agreed it was a great find (the children’s books are not organized in any way, so the search is half the fun) and that it looked to be a very good book.  I asked her to tell me about it once she’d read it because, of course, I love stories about bookstores and books.

A couple weeks later Penny brought her book back and handed it me…saying “You can borrow this to read yourself.  My Dad helped me, we had to look up lots of the words, but I think you will really like it  – it’s soooooooo good, but I want it back, please, when you’re done.”

I know, I know, let’s have a collective moment of awwwww.  I especially like that she was quite firm  — SHE WANTS HER BOOK BACK – a fellow book hoarder in the making.

So during this week I read The Bookstore Mouse.

It’s the story of a mouse named Cervantes who lives in a bookstore and actually survives physically and emotionally on words – by eating them out of cookbooks, history books, novels. This little mouse has an impressive knowledge of words because the dictionary is his favorite book.

The words are typeset in differing fonts to show their meanings — anger, hunger, fright – as so…

One day Cervantes, trying to escape the bookstore cat, jumps into a book and  gets pulled into a story about a scribe who has to save a village from a dragon. The scribe has trouble finding the right words and Cervantes (and the child reading the story) tries to fill in just the right word.   During the story they meet a giant who makes up very big words that mean nothing and we learn that big words can get in the way — smaller words often have more meaning.

I can see why Penny (and her Dad) had to look up words – here’s a sample of some of vocabulary I had to look up:  prodigious, infandous, cacography —  and then there are the made up words like nigmenog, whosits.

There is wordplay meant for very clever readers or adults.  For example, the dragon is appropriately named Censor. Then there are underline worthy quotes such as this:

A page of print is like a secret passage that leads you to worlds so far away, you cannot imagine them until the magic of reading carries you there.

This is a tale where the words are the main character and these words need untangling and then become weapons, power and protection.  This book will not only improve a young vocabulary, but deserves to be read aloud (while stopping to look up words together) with a bright young person in your life

Thank you Penny.

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Helene Hanff – a love affair

Thanks to Simon at Stuck in A Book, I was reminded of my long-time love affair with Helene Hanff -a lesser-known author who has achieved cult status among bibliophiles.  Ms. Hanff was a hard working writer–she wrote essays, television screen plays, magazine articles and industry trade publications –most anything to pay the rent.  She was also witty, intelligent and incredibly well read.   She put her love of literature, London and New York City into her wonderfully captivating writing. Her books are just plain terrific, based on her own experiences — no fiction necessary here — and none will take you long to read.   I believe all are well-worth a permanent place in your personal libraries.

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Ms. Hanff (and yes she would have insisted on ‘Ms’) is most famous for her book 84 Charing Cross Road, which I have read and re-read so many times I had to buy myself a new copy. In case you don’t know of this book – it is must reading for any bibliophile.  It chronicles the 20-year  correspondence between Ms. Hanff and a London antique bookshop located at 84, Charing Cross Road.  Ms. Hanff writes to this bookshop seeking various English literature titles in nice affordable volumes.  To her delight, she receives not only affordable, but beautifully bound antique editions of her requests — “so fine they embarrass my orange-crate bookshelves”.  The letters back and forth over the years are funny, warm and sometimes heartbreaking.   The correspondence captures not only the shared love of literature, but family news, dental woes, wartime shortages  (she sends the shop food packages during war rationing years) and finding book treasures at English estate sales.  The book was made into a 1986 film which did a passable job of portraying the characters and the premise.  It stars Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins so you won’t be wasting your time.  Remember tingle books?  84, Charing Cross is on my top 10 list.

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The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street  chronicles Ms. Hanff’s experiences in London after the publication of 84, Charing Cross Road.  She finally makes her first long overdue trip to London and meets her friends from the bookshop, as well as her fans.  Taken completely by surprise, Ms. Hanff and her book are
celebrities in London.  Here she tells of this once-in-a-lifetime trip where she is treated to a whirlwind of introductions, dinners, teas, tours and finally seeing her precious London.

 

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If you’re going to New York City, live there, or just love the city from afar, you need to find yourself a copy of Letter From New York. 

From the back cover:  From 1978 to 1984, Hanff ( 84 Charing Cross Road ) recorded a five-minute broadcast once a month for the BBC’s Woman’s Hour about her everyday experiences as a resident of New York City.

Here you’ll meet her friends, neighbors and fellow apartment-house dwellers.  She describes free concerts, out-of-the-way city parks, her favorite neighborhoods, people and dogs.  This is Ms. Hanff’s New York City – sweetly old-fashioned, intimate and never pretentious.

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Ms. Hanff was unable to finish her college education, she simply ran out of money.  So she decided to educate herself at the public library by working her way through English Literature A to Z.  Q’s Legacy chronicles how she discovers Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch –the infamous Cambridge Dean of English Literature and his book “On the Art of Writing”. Reading “Q” spawns a long reading list which now includes English lit classics from Milton, Newman and Walton.  Ms. Hanff is unable to find affordable or attractive copies in NYC bookstores.  Then one day while reading The Sunday Review of Literature, she spots an advertisement for a bookshop in London …and so the story loops back to the genesis of  84, Charing Cross Road. 

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Here’s a photo of the bookshop – Marks & Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a portrait of Ms. Hanff – her favorite.

 

 

 

 

 

Ms. Hanff passed away in 1997 – poor and without any surviving relatives.  Her NY Times obit HERE.

I think that somehow she must know her books are beloved, re-read and cherished by many a book lover.