David Remnick, Mon Apr 19 at 7:30 pm

When New Yorker editor David Remnick writes a book, he doesn’t shy from big topics, or big subjects. His 1994 book Lenin’s Tomb, about the collapse of the Soviet Union, won the Pulitzer Prize; he’s also the author of King of the World, the story of Muhammad Ali during the civil-rights movement. His latest book, The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, charts the president's evolution from a confused young man to an icon of hope. UW Communication Professor David Domke will discuss the book with Remnick. Presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures.

Tickets are $15 general/$30 patron, at www.brownpapertickets.com, 800/838-3006, or at the door. A reception with Remnick for patron ticketholders will be held from for more information.

Black Female Pioneers in the Old West , April 15, 7-9:30 PM

There are some saucy tales to be told as this generation moved from emancipation to madams, mothers, cowgirls, and society ladies. Despite oppressive circumstances, by grit, they thrived.

Northwest African American Museum
2300 S Massachusetts St
Seattle, WA 98144
April 15, 7-9:30 PM
Buy Tickets ($7) @ http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/72065

Hunger, a film (Steve McQueen)

Hunger is a film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike by the Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. Written by Enda Walsh and Steve McQueen, who also directed, it premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and won the Caméra d'Or award for first-time filmmakers.

The imagery in this film is haunting. The naked, bony bodies of the proud, defiant men. The ugly brutality of the conditions. The visceral pain. The hunger epitomized in the starving body of Bobby Sands. A film that is riveting and difficult to watch.

Writing prompt: Write a scene in which one of the characters is furiously angry and powerless against the forces at work in the scene or other characters.

Hunting and Gathering (Anna Gavalda)

I lucked out big time when I was invited to join this book club. Not only do we talk about intriguing books, but the food we eat to accompany the conversation is worthy of a five-star restaurant. So, henceforth, I will review books from this book club alongside the menu.

March 14, 2010

Perhaps most perfect is the most recent book club read: Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. I say the "most perfect" as food is central to the gained intimacy of the characters, and an amicable setting for friends to gather and discuss books.

Around our real table, Carol proudly admitted to using Volume 1 of Julia Child's original cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And it sounded like she and her husband spent many hours following the recipes to a tee, complete with all the butter. It wasn't the first time. The book looked well worn, with stains like bookmarks on favorite recipes.

On each of our plates, Carol had placed a menu:

Potage Parmentier (Leek and Potato Soup, blogged about here: http://cookinginpajamas.onsugar.com/Mastering-Art-French-Cooking-Potage-Parmentier-aka-Leek-Potato-Soup-3462687)

Salade avec Sauce Vinaigrette (Salad with French Dressing, the dressing copied here: http://bad-girls-kitchen.blogspot.com/2010/04/sauce-vinaigrette-french-dressing.html)

Quiche a la Tomate, Nicoise (Fresh Tomato Quiche with Anchovies and Olives, and I thought I didn't like anchovies. How wrong I was!)

Quiche aux Champignons (Mushroom Quiche)

The dessert, Carol added, had been too much after cooking the other dishes for most of the day. So, instead, after the meal, she pulled out frozen containers of lemon and raspberry sherbet.

Anna Gavalda

Carol had cooked French food because the book of the month, Hunting and Gathering, had been originally published in French as Ensemble, C'est tout. It was Anna Gavalda's fourth book. It's the story of a oddball group of four characters brought together despite their history, baggage, and circumstances in a timeless apartment where they are all little more than temporary squatters.

Camille Fauque, the central character, is a failed artist. Anorexic thin, we meet her when she has given up all hope and resolved to get by as a cleaning woman at night. Yet, living with Philou and Franck and eventually Franck's grandmother, Paulette, she finds herself wanting to find her way back.

Philou, the endearingly tall, awkward and stuttering fellow that Camille invited over one evening for dinner, becomes the catalyst that eventually brings Camille into the apartment after he finds her deathly ill. He comes from an aristocratic family, but has little affinity for them. His interest lies in by-gone centuries, and he opts to sell postcards on the street.

Franck is a womanizing, seemingly selfish and conceited fellow, who works six days a week as a chef. And yet, he becomes essential to the nourishment Camille needs for her transformation. She requests the food he cooks so that she will "be warmer and more appetizing," she says.

(An interesting idea--that good food can make us more lovable. All the more reason for us to talk about a book around a meal!)

The three, led largely by Camille, kidnap Franck's doddering grandmother, Paulette, from the public home to live with them in the apartment. Paulette is slowly slipping into dementia, but "with it" enough to recognize Camille needs a house as much as a home. She is by far my favorite character, especially after she comes into her own, teaching Camille how to plant and care for a garden.

(Again-food! Subsistence and life force, but thanks to birthplace and privilege, a taste-bud buffet stringed chemically to our feel-good meter.)

But why oh why was the French title translated into "hunting and gathering?" The French, "ensemble, c'est tout," translated imperfectly, is "together, that's everything," a more accurate title, if you ask me. Living together, despite squabbles and irritations, is infinitely better than living alone. And that friends, dear, dear friends, can provide a sense of belonging when family is absent or cancerous.

If my one gripe is that the ending is too predictable, I have to still admit that I kept reading with the same fascination 'til the end. Probably because a skeptic like me expects failures too often. Failed relationships. Failed love. Failed careers. And each one of these characters has failed. Failed in big ways. And still, these characters find solace in each other, making me realize that human compassion, love, and hope survive calamity. So long as there are others and that they stay together. That's everything.

Now a motion picture, starring Audrey Tautou. Trailer for the movie at: http://www.huntingandgathering.com.au/


PS Stay tuned. Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times is up next. And I'm the chef. Any suggestions for menu items?

Writing Prompt with video

An elderly couple walked into the lobby of the Mayo Clinic for a checkup and spotted a piano.  They've been married for 62 years and he'll be 90 this year.  Describe the moment right before they started playing.

Arundhati Roy at Town Hall (March 29, 2010)

Arundhati Roy, small in stature, stood tall, elegant, defiant in a red sari on Monday night before a sold out crowd at Town Hall in Seattle.  She is author of the New York Times best selling and Booker Prize winning The God of Small Things. And a prolific nonfiction writer and outspoken activist and critic of social and political issues in India. She read an essay from her new collection, Field Notes on Democracy, published by Haymarket Books, a project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change, as well as from a recent essay she published in Outlook called "Walking with the Comrades." http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?264738.

In "Democracy's Failing Light" she talked of the failings and shortsightedness of governments bent on spreading democracy, blind to the other kind of evil democracy perpetuates. She writes, "what happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatory organism with a thin, constricted imagination that revolves almost entirely around the idea of maximizing profits."

In reading her recent article from Outlook, she spoke at length about her experience going into the forest of Chhattisgarh in West Bengal to meet the people that the corporations and government officials in India are calling "terrorists."

An incendiary categorization that Roy cuts down to size.  She explains succinctly by telling this story:

"I arrived at the Ma Danteshwari mandir well in time for my appointment (first day, first show). I had my camera, my small coconut and a powdery red tika on my forehead. I wondered if someone was watching me and having a laugh. Within minutes a young boy approached me. He had a cap and a backpack schoolbag. Chipped red nail-polish on his fingernails. No Hindi Outlook, no bananas. “Are you the one who’s going in?” he asked me. No Namashkar Guruji. I did not know what to say. He took out a soggy note from his pocket and handed it to me. It said, 'Outlook nahin mila (couldn’t find Outlook).'

'And the bananas?'

“'I ate them,' he said, 'I got hungry.'

"He really was a security threat.

"His backpack said Charlie Brown—Not your ordinary blockhead. He said his name was Mangtu. I soon learned that Dandakaranya, the forest I was about to enter, was full of people who had many names and fluid identities. It was like balm to me, that idea. How lovely not to be stuck with yourself, to become someone else for a while."

In the article she describes the real issue as the enormous resources that are at stake in the conflict. To control them, corporations can make enormous profits, at the terrible, fatal expense of the poor they take them from. Stop water far up the stream by a dam, turn it into energy to be sold by the rupee to those who can afford it. Divert the water from the fields of sustenance farmers downstream, and irrigate the large company agricultural holdings or toward multinational companies like Coca Cola. http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100401/FOREIGN/703319884/1103 The corporations say they are bringing the tribal peoples "into the mainstream." Yet, they turn language into an insidious form of power to benefit those who can wield power and influence, leaving the poor isolated and alone. Add government buy-in and media influence, and Roy says the "wall of propaganda" hides the "well of silence" as the voices of those marginalized are not heard.

In the question and answer session that followed her reading, one woman asked her about the fiction Roy writes.  And Roy talked about the merging of fiction and non-fiction in the experience in the forest, about how the people she met took on and shed names and identities to protect themselves and others but also to honor the dead, who have died perhaps in the struggle for liberty and to protect their livelihood.

I see Roy unmasking what one side of the fight calls "fact" as a fictional tale they want to feed the rest of the country and the world.  And by entering the forest and recording the marginalized tribal people's history and their experience, she brings light to the truth of their struggle to survive on their own terms.

A.Word.A.Day's Thought for Today

Bangkok, Thailand 2002

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg © 2010 Wordsmith.org

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
To write that essential book, a great writer does not need to invent it but merely to translate it, since it already exists in each one of us. The duty and task of a writer are those of translator. -Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)

Where to write

Where do you like to write? My preference changes.  Sometimes I like to write at home. Make myself a cup of tea, prepare a hot toddy like buttered rum, or pour myself a glass of something red, then close the door of the spare room, and  leave it to whatever is up there in my brain and the energy of my fingers to fill up the screen.

Other times, I cannot sit still. Rather, my attention cannot be still.  I need the background noise of a cafe to draw me into myself and the story.  It feels a little like hiding.  You know, alone at a table.  No one to talk to.  It's much easier to drown the dialogue and thoughts in a story, focus attention there.

Today I find myself at the Pig & Whistle in Greenwood.  A hefeweizen with a lemon. Mmmm. I love hefeweizen.  It's noisy and I'm early to meet a friend for dinner.  There's free wi-fi. My laptop computer.  And positive energy yet from a writing session I just left. Perfect.  Just the kind of situation to spin off a paragraph or two.

826 Seattle: How To Use A Tomato To Tell Your Life Story (3.9.2010)

Local food writers  Molly Wizenberg and Matthew Amster-Burton laid out five principals to writing well.
1. Develop your own Voice
2. Tell a Story
3. Do your Homework
4. Avoid Cliches and Catch-all Adjectives
5. Revise

Inventive car and house metaphors to explain each of the above principles, notwithstanding, the two writers provided palatable morsels of how-to's for a packed room of would-be and practicing writers.  For example, Wizenberg used Ira Glass, host and producer of This American Life, to illustrate "voice" in a literal way--how easily we can recognize his voice and rhythm when we hear him and that affects the way we hear the stories he tells. In essence, no one else could tell the same story like he does.

The "tell a story" principle in food was a tall order, I thought. That is, until they served us each a chunk of kimchi and a block of chocolate and asked us to freewrite. One woman wrote about a period of her childhood in Korea and still another described her love-hate relationship with five-star-spicy food. And I remembered I used kimchi to spice up salmon soup I used to make in Japan.  Then it didn't seem so far off that writing about food were stories, too.

As a science writer, there is no article I write that doesn't involve copious research.  It comes with the territory.  But Amster-Burton's challenge to use the telephone hit home with me. He said, "When you bring someone else into your story, it gives the story a ring of truth that it would never have with only you and your paper." "Great writing sounds like truth," he added, and explained that someone said it but he couldn't remember their name.

Writers they recommended: Jonathan Gold, Francis Lam, Tad Friend, MFK Fisher, David Chang and Peter Meehan, Jeffrey Steingarten, and Frank Bruni

The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery)

I knew that Elegance of the Hedgehog was a best-seller sensation, and like most folks, I'm drawn to books with such a reputation. And don't return the book to the library until I'm finished either, even if it is two weeks overdue. All to savor the sensation itself.

Apparently, the first printing was only 4000 books, and the demand in France soon skyrocketed. But what exactly is the appeal, I ask myself now, having finished every page.

Curious characters, perhaps? Two characters balance the narrative. A French concierge, Madame Renee Michel, who lives in a posh Parisian neighborhood, inconspicuous to the other tenants because she feigns the kind of personality an old, crotchety, not-well-off concierge would have. Her secret, however, is that she is a voracious reader of philosophy, literature, an art, music, and film affectionato, especially Japanese cinema. The other character is as much of an oddball. Paloma Josse is a 12-year old, unhappily living in the same building with her family, whom she regards as shallow. Resigned to this fate, she believes, Josse decides that on her 13th birthday, she will burn the apartment and commit suicide with the sleeping pills she has been sneaking from her mother. What upsets the isolation of these two is the moving in of a wealthy Japanese businessman, Monsieur Kakuro Ozo. He sees right through their disguises.

Or is the allure the drip-dropping of famous Japanese directors, philosophic musings, allusions to Tolstoy--both Michel and Ozo's cats are named after Tolstoy characters? Perhaps not surprising is that the author trained in and then taught philosophy. And that she currently lives in Japan with her husband. Take a look at her own blog: http://muriel.barbery.net/. I adore the pictures and the reflections--short and deep. So perhaps now I am merely in awe of the author, hoping some of her talent rubs off on me.

But why oh why end the book in the way it does? Take away the quills of Michel's porcupine self, which in more ways than one, are the weapons to protect her. For me, the wrap up is too tidy, too neat. And just plain disappointing. That's all I can say, as I cannot be a spoiler, and thus I trust you will read the novel and come to your own conclusions.

A Word A Day

I am subscribed to A Word A Day's listserv, which delivers a single word and its meaning and etymology to my inbox everyday. Check it out for yourself:
http://wordsmith.org/awad/index.html

Writing Prompts

Tonight at my writing group, Leah gave me this prompt: "why here is an apple in my bag." Ay ya yay, is what I thought. That's a tough one. But as my pen started scribbling, I started to write about two teenage girls, their relationship threatened by the loss of a treasured item. How I got that from that prompt is beyond me. But somehow the act of letting words run like a cascade of running water through the cogs of imagination pull out the most unusual narrative routes.

I have this book called "The Writer's Block: 786 Ideas to Jump-Start Your Imagination," which is chock-full of writing prompts.

Here is one I recently used: Pillowtalk.

Try it out for yourself.

The Beggar Maid (Alice Munroe)

A series of short stories follows Rose and her not-quite-ever-broken ties to her stepmother Flo in Hanratty, Ontario, an economically impoverished town. It is these ties that bind, entwine, and squeeze too tight that become a running theme through each story. The ties that become a tug-of-war between the real self she tries to leave behind in Hanratty and the imagined self she presents to others, such as to Patrick Blanford, heir to a chain of department store. And yet he does the same; he falls in love with the idea of Rose as a beggar maid, the innocent, ragged imp he hopes to fashion into someone refined and glamorous. And Rose, liking the attention and possession he feels, lets herself be taken in. Neither in marriage nor in the go-nowhere affairs does she find satisfaction or fulfillment, the latter marked by endless "watchpot thinking," waiting for hours and days, strangled by hope; "the waiting would be interspersed with such green and springlike reveries." So characteristic, perhaps, of Rose who has in fact escaped the fate of others from her hometown, and yet never escaped. She becomes an actress and then a teacher of drama, play-acting for others and continually doubting herself. Perhaps not surprising is that she finds her closest connection with a classmate whom she briefly sat next to in class. It is with Ralph Gillespie--famous for the imitations of others he does--that she feels kinship. Munroe's book is not a quick read for the beach or for the plane, as the language she uses must be savored and swallowed slowly to be fully appreciated.

Style Guides

MLA (Modern Language Association): There are many MLA style guides available; the most comprehensive is the book published by the Modern Language Association. For basic help, a number of electronic guides are also available, such as this one at Purdue.

APA (American Psychological Association) may be a style required, and again the American Psychological Association published a book on the subject. A more condensed guide online is also available through Purdue's OWL lab.

Chicago (University of Chicago Press) is often used in newsletters and marketing-related publications: annual reports, and brochures. The Chicago Manual of Style is available as a book as well as online.

AP (Associate Press) is used by journalists and media representatives. The Associated Press Stylebook is available as a searchable online tool or in book form. A simple introduction is discussed at the OWL at Purdue.

Grammar Help

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University has extensive resources for grammar, mechanics, and citations.

It's fun and it's helpful. Check out Grammar Girl, Quick & Dirty Tricks for Better Writing

Arthur & George (Julian Barnes)

Funny how two people's lives can be so interesting to a reader, even before the twists and turns of the plot ensnare you in their stories. Such is the case with Julian Barnes' 2006 novel, Arthur & George. These characters as you might guess from the title are Arthur and George, seemingly ordinary blokes, until their fictionalized characters become recognizable in history as Sir Aurthur Doyle and George Edalji, a solicitor who gained notoriety in England for being unjustly accused of a crime he didn't commit. Arthur, already a world acclaimed crime writer, inventor of the one and only Sherlock Holmes, feels compelled to help George who has written to Arthur of his case. A case of two men, whose philosophies propel them forward into what become at length undesirable and barely enduring. For Arthur, whose grows up in a family of women, honor is a missive he holds upright, almost as if he lays it upon this pedestal. While George is blighted by his own adherence to the law he believes to the bitter end will save him. Barnes is a gifted writer, whose shifts back and forth between these two men's lives lived simultaneously feels natural. Albeit the tangent of their meeting begins late in the book, when the intrigue of a crime fighter against the prejudices of a small village unfolds, there is much before and after to keep a reader up late nights reading.

It's About Time Writers' Reading Series' at the Ballard Library

'It's About Time Writers' Reading Series' at the Ballard Branch Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009, 6 – 7:45 p.m.

The Ballard Branch welcomes the 244th meeting of the "It's About Time Writers Reading Series," featuring author readings and open mikes.
Full Description Celebrate the second anniversary of the Ballard Branch's collaboration with the "It's About Time Writers Reading Series!"

This month's presentation features Lyn Coffin, Oliver De La Paz and Matt Briggs, with a short lecture on The Writer's Craft. Between author readings, open mike time is available for three minutes per person.
Event Notes Library events and programs are free and everyone is welcome. Registration is not required.
Contact Info Ballard Branch 206-684-4089 or Ask a Librarian

Greg Mortenson at Seattle Pacific University

The Seattle Public Library presents Greg Mortenson at Seattle Pacific University Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009, 7 – 9 p.m.

Seattle Pacific University
Royal Brougham Pavilion
3414 Third Ave. W.
Seattle, WA 98119

Greg Mortenson discusses “Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Join us for a special evening with Greg Mortenson, author of the international bestseller, “Three Cups of Tea.” Mortenson will show images and discuss his new book, “Stones into Schools.”

Since the 2006 publication of “Three Cups of Tea,” Mortenson has traveled across the U.S. and the world to share his vision with hundreds of thousands of people. He has met with heads of state, top military officials, and leading politicians who all seek his advice and insight.

“Stones into Schools” picks up where “Three Cups of Tea” left off in 2003. Mortenson recounts his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders even as he was dodging shootouts with feuding Afghan warlords and surviving an eight-day armed abduction by the Taliban.

Mortenson will discuss his vision to promote peace through education and literacy, as well as touching on military matters, Islam, and women -- all woven together with the many rich personal stories of the people who have been involved in this humanitarian effort.

This program is presented in partnership with The Elliott Bay Book Company. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Library events and programs are free and open to the public. Tickets and reservations are not required. Seating is limited to the first 2,000. First come, first served. Free parking is available on campus. Doors will open at 6:15 PM.

Contact for more info: *Central Library 206-386-4636 or Ask a Librarian

Other books I'm using

Telling True Stories. Eds. Mark Kramer and Wendy Call. New York: Plume, 2007.

Robert Ray. The Weekend Novelist.

Bob Mayer. The Novel Writer’s Toolkit.
Description

Twyla Tharp to speak in December

Thursday • December 10 • 7:30pm
Twyla Tharp
The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together (SIMON & SCHUSTER)
Reading & Book Signing
UW Kane Hall, Room 120, Seattle Campus

I just starting reading THE CREATIVE HABIT: LEARN IT AND USE IT FOR LIFE (http://www.twylatharp.org/store.shtml#) which is WONDERFUL.