MP Book Club

Lame Duck To Visit Connecticut

2012-02-01T17:07:00.003-05:00

Chapter To Host Meet & Greet, Public Invited

By Stephanie Sfiridis, National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter, Intern

ROCKY HILL, Conn. – Lemon wears diapers, lives in a house, walks with the help of a scooter and shares many symptoms typical of a person with multiple sclerosis. The only difference is, Lemon is a duck.

Lemon and her owner, Laura Backman, author of children’s book “Lemon the Duck,” will visit Connecticut to share their story of triumph in the face of adversity. Backman has been named a keynote speaker for this year’s National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Connecticut Chapter, annual meeting and awards ceremony.

Backman wrote “Lemon the Duck” to honor her father who passed away from complications associated with multiple sclerosis. The book, based on the true story of Backman’s experience raising Lemon, was written to provide a means for children to learn about disability as well as their own ability to make a difference in someone’s life.

“I wanted to make people aware of the challenges facing people and animals with disability,” said Backman, the mother of two grown daughters. “The MS cause is dear to my heart because I saw its disabling effects firsthand.”

Lemon, one of four Pekin ducklings hatched in 2006 in Backman’s Portsmouth, R.I., kindergarten classroom, has a neurological disorder affecting her coordination and balance. Backman recognized these effects to be similar to the symptoms caused by multiple sclerosis. She quickly adopted Lemon, outfitting her with a ducky diaper and equipping her with a scooter made of PVC pipes and four coaster wheels, allowing Lemon to balance better and walk.

“Because of my father’s struggle with MS, I had a better understanding of how to care for Lemon,” explained Backman, “I knew Lemon’s life was still valuable and that she deserved the best quality of life possible.”

Lemon, who has no pain despite her symptoms, lives with Backman and has become a fixture in her classroom, showing the children that being different is okay. Backman takes Lemon to the grocery store, mall and outdoor concerts. Lemon has even accompanied her on a canoe trip. By giving Lemon a great life, Backman stated, she feels she is honoring Lemon’s life, just as she and her family had done for her father.

“My father had a zest for life despite the effects of his illness,” said Backman. “I wanted to give Lemon a future and show that everyone can live life to the fullest even in the face of disability.”

Backman, who has family in Shelton, Conn., has made numerous bookstore appearances throughout New England. She has been featured on broadcast networks such as MSNBC and National Public Radio. Lemon has also been featured in print publications, such as TIME for Kids, South Coast Today, The Warwick Beacon and The Sakonnet Times. “Lemon the Duck” was awarded the 2009 Westchester Fiction Award and 2009 National Parenting Publications Award. In 2010, Lemon was awarded a Special Education Advisory Award in Backman’s school district. She and Lemon have also gone through Professional Pet Assisted Therapy Training and have visited with many children with disabilities. Backman donates all proceeds from her book to the National MS Society and the Majestic Waterfowl Sanctuary located in Lebanon, Conn.

More than 6,000 Connecticut residents, 450,000 nationwide, battle the potentially debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system. There currently is no cure. Symptoms can include among other things, numbness in the limbs, difficulties with vision and speech, stiffness, loss of mobility and, in some more severe cases, total paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot be predicted.

The 2011 Connecticut Chapter Awards Ceremony and Annual Meeting will be held Sunday, March 11, at the Hartford Marriott in Rocky Hill and coincides with the kickoff of MS Awareness Week. Mike Stacy, cohost of The Morning Show with Allan, Mike and Alison on WRCH’s Lite 100.5, will serve as the event’s emcee. The event brings chapter members, families, volunteers and staff together to celebrate achievements over the past year.

This year’s event is open to the public starting at 10:15 a.m. Families with children are encouraged to attend. Lemon and author, Laura Backman, will host a special reading for children, book signing and publicity photographs after the keynote address. Proceeds benefit the National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter. For more information on Lemon, visit her website at www.lemontheduck.com.

There is no fee to attend the awards ceremony and meeting, however, registration is required. For more information about the 2011 Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony, please contact the National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter at 860-913-2550.

For more information on MS Awareness Week and the variety of programs offered by the National MS Society, Connecticut Chapter, visit www.ctfightsMS.org.

Kids hunt to find ‘cookie thief’

2012-01-13T11:50:00.001-05:00

The Cookie Thief by Connecticut child educator Frances Gilbert is a charming, simple and engaging story about a family who is hit by a cookie thief.
Thomas is visiting Granny’s house when he hears a patter, a swoop and a rush and oh no. “Cookie thief! Cookie thief,” Grandma shrieks.
Cookies are disappearing, the whole family is in a state of shock. There are no more cookies to be had. People take precautions and start hiding them, "No cookie thief is getting my cookies!" they say. Even the animals are put to work and placed on guard. There are no more cookies to be found anywhere.
Thomas' wise grown up friend Kristina helps him make a plan to track down the cookie thief.
He looks everywhere. Who could it be? Will he find the cookie thief?
Colorful, detailed pictures lead young readers through the story. This is a wonderful read aloud book. Parents, grandparents and teachers will appreciate the simple lesson.
About the Author
Frances Gilbert was born in London and emigrated to the US where she became a special educator. Frances has worked with young children for over thirty years. Her interest in emerging reading and language led her to a writing career. Frances is a strong believer in the reading experience as a vital precursor to literacy for young children; she writes to be read aloud. She says rhythm binds language, language binds emotion and emotion binds meaning. Her stories quickly become favorites, read and enjoyed over and over again. Frances lives in Connecticut where she enjoys reading and playing word games with her six grandchildren. She loves old houses and gardens and her ambition is to own a sheep farm. She lives in Trumbull, CT.
Ben Quesnel is an artist and illustrator who is currently working as a part time elementary art teacher in the southern part of Connecticut. Ben recently graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a degree in Art Education. He lives in Stamford, CT.

Local author pens thriller: Consumed by Fire

2012-01-04T17:58:00.002-05:00

BRANFORD, Conn. – M.F. Pennington-Waseem ardently spins a thriller where skeletons come out of the closet at almost every turn in her latest work of condign merit. Set in a tiny hamlet nestled on the New England coast where pristine beauty masks a moral cancer seething beneath the surface, Consumed by Fire is blanketed with an intricate weaving of details that readers need to unravel as they sift through the pages.

Like many old towns, Eventide is steeped in secrets and hypocrisy, and into this maelstrom Ana Michaels arrives. Born out of time, rejected maternally, and adored by her father, all is lost after a car crash takes the lives of their parents, and Ana and sister Sarah are left to their paternal grandmother. The last link in a genetic chain of events, the affection-starved and withdrawn Ana becomes dominated by fate and family. Only after years of passivity does she finally rebel, and flee to forge a life of her own. Fast forward to a few years later, summoned by news of her grandmother’s imminent death, Ana Michaels, now a successful psychiatrist, returns home only to find herself on a collision course that radically alters her life and those around her. Sisters Ana and Sarah share a psychiatric practice, and despite warnings from violent patients and grisly murders paralyzing the community, Ana’s headstrong independence places her directly in the path of peril.

Darkness overtakes Ana after sexual assault by a trusted mentor leaves her pregnant and alone to face the consequences. As her family’s facade is stripped away, Ana becomes entrenched in the murky past of a town that buries its secrets. A series of devastating discoveries unearth underground genetic breeding in Eventide -- and even more staggering truths she wished had remained buried.

Disaster, self-discovery and notoriety happen all at once in Consumed by Fire. M.F. Pennington-Waseem has unquestionably come up with a compact thriller that is obviously the sum of pure brilliance and exquisite artistic chemistry.

For more information on this book, interested parties may log on to www.Xlibris.com.

About the Author

Marianne Pennington-Waseem, R.N. received her BS from Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT; attended Saint Vincent’s School of Nursing Registered Nurse Program, Bridgeport, CT; and a MS Degree in Biology and Clinical Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport. For over twenty years, her distinguished career in nursing has provided unique insight in the field of psychiatry. Currently, she lives in Connecticut and works for the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS); Whiting Forensic Division of Connecticut Valley Hospital (WFI) and Connecticut Valley Hospital (CVH).

Consumed by Fire * by M.F. Pennington-Waseem

The Chronicles of Ana Michaels

Publication Date: December 7, 2011

Trade Paperback; $19.99; 347 pages; 978-1-4691-3104-7

Trade Hardback; $29.99; 347 pages; 978-1-4691-3105-4

Night of Award-Winning Jewish Fiction

2012-01-04T17:35:00.004-05:00

The New Year starts off with a bang during a night of award-winning Jewish fiction at the Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival’s second Signature Series event on Tuesday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Herbert Gilman Theater, Mandell JCC, Zachs Campus, 335 Bloomfield Avenue, West Hartford.

The event features prize-writing authors Julie Orringer, Nadia Kalman and Austin Ratner, with moderator, Josh Lambert, author of American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide.

Julie Orringer is the 2010 winning recipient of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and a finalist in the 2011 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. Orringer is the author of The Invisible Bridge, a New York Times and L.A. Times bestseller, and she has also written the acclaimed short story collection How to Breathe Underwater, a New York Times Notable Book.

Author Nadia Kalman, a Ukrainian immigrant, moved to West Hartford, CT with her family as a child. They later moved to Stamford, which became the setting of her first novel, The Cosmopolitans. Kalman is the 2011 winner of the Emerging Writer Award from Moment Magazine, and a 2011 finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

Austin Ratner penned the novel The Jump Artist, and received the 2011 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, which is the largest monetary award given to early career writers by the Jewish Book Council. His novel is considered historic fiction at its best, as it tells the story of famous photographer, Philippe Halsam.

Tickets to all Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival Signature Series events are $20 per person, and are on sale via mail, in person, fax, or online at the Mandell JCC Box Office, 860-231-6316, 860-233-0802 (fax), tickets@mandelljcc.org and at www.mandelljcc.org.

For more information, contact Jewish Book Festival Director, Elana MacGilpin, 860-231-6327, emacgilpin@mandelljcc.org, or the Member Services Center, 860-236-4571. For updates, follow the Mandell JCC on Facebook and Twitter.

Assassins of the Turquoise Palace

2011-12-16T13:43:00.002-05:00

CLINTON - Author Roya Hakakian will be presenting her non-fiction book Assassins of the Turquoise Palace at the Henry Carter Hull Library on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 6:30 pm. Assassins of the Turquoise Palace is about Iran's extrajudicial assassination campaigns against exiles in Germany and the case which brought it to a halt.
Hakakian's book explores the assassinations and the implications of Iran, their fallout, and the subsequent court case known as the Mykonos trial that became one of the most high profile cases in Europe that ended implicating the highest level of Iranian government.
Awarded a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship in non-fiction, Hakakian’s book was a New York Times Sunday Book Review editors choice, a Daily Beast-Newsweek Not To Be Missed Book of 2011, and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Please register for this program at hchlibrary.org<http://hchlibrary.org>.

Historical fiction discussed

2011-12-14T15:33:00.001-05:00

"The Last Minyan" to be discussed at the Godfrey Memorial Library at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 18 at the library, 134 Newfield St. in Middletown. The largest Jewish community in Europe once called Spain home. Between 1391 and 1492, many converted to Catholicism, either voluntarily or coercion. David Gitlitz, a scholar at the University of Rhode Island, has researched Sephardic historical topics over the last two decades. He will discuss his latest book, The Lost Minyan, historical fiction and profiles Crypto-Jewish families coping with the trauma of living between worlds, neither wholly Catholic nor wholly Jewish. Free. For more info, call (860) 638-3819.

Holiday Storytime featuring The Polar Express

2011-12-07T13:46:00.002-05:00

Special Event, Storytime, Children's Event
For 20 years, The Polar Express has been a worldwide bestseller and holiday classic. Join us as we read this treasured tale during a very special Storytime. It's an event that's perfect for children of all ages as well as the young at heart!

Friday December 09, 2011 7:00 PM

West Hartford
Blue Back Square, 60 Isham Road, West Hartford, CT 06107, 860-236-9900

Lynn Berger to sign books in Killingworth

2011-11-15T02:58:00.000-05:00

Author Lynn Berger will read and sign books at Killingworth Library, 301 Route 81, Killingworth, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 7.
For more information, call (860) 663-2000.

Author Series features John Himmelman in Killingworth

2011-11-01T03:00:00.000-04:00

Killingworth resident and award winning author/illustrator has penned about 70 books for children and adults.
He will appear at Killingworth Library on Wednesday, Nov. 2, from 7 to 8 p.m.
His children's books range in style from the silly to heartwarming. Many ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifre on the subject of natural history, which is also the focus of his adult non-fiction books. His newest children's title, "Cows to the Rescue" (Holt) continues the sage of well-meaning farm animals coming to the aid of the hapless farmer and his family.
His newest adult title "Cricket Radio: Tuning in the Night-Singing Insects" (Harvard) is a result of his ten year journey exploring the sources of the insect sounds we hear at night. Himmelman is a naturalist, lecturer, and martial artist (co-president of the new Green Hill Martial Arts in Killingworth). He's lived in Killingworth with his artist wife, Betsy, for over 20 years.
The Author Series will also feature Lynn Berger on Wednesday, Dec. 7. Both events are free but advance sign up is encouraged. Please call the library at (860) 663-2000 for additional details.

Lecture to focus on rare book

2011-10-24T01:53:00.001-04:00

What: The Watkinson Library presents a lecture by Dr. Christoph Irmscher, Professor of English at Indiana University, on John James Audubon’s, “Birds of America.” Trinity owns an original copy of “Birds of America,” one of the rarest books in the world. (read more: http://goo.gl/bPLz5) The event is free and open to the public. www.trincoll.edu.

When: Thursday, November 3 ~ 5:00 p.m.

Where: The Joslin Family 1823 Room (Library, Level 2) on the campus of Trinity College

300 Summit Street, Hartford, Conn., 06106

Background:

Irmscher, Professor of English at Indiana University, edited the Library of America edition of Audubon's works, and writes on nineteenth-century American and Canadian literature, early American nature writing, and ecocriticism.

Birds of America is considered one of the rarest books in the world, with less than 120 copies in existence today. Published between 1836 and 1839, it includes 435 engravings that were hand colored and bound in four volumes. It is often referred to as the “Elephant Folio,” because of its remarkable size – over three feet tall and two feet wide – due to Audubon’s preference for illustrating each specimen to scale.

'Sound Rising' talk on Monday in Cromwell

2011-10-23T14:51:00.001-04:00

The Cromwell Historical Society

Presents

Sound Rising:

The Long Island Sound at the Forefront of

America's Struggle for Independence

By Richard Radune

Richard A. Radune will be discussing the themes of his book, SOUND RISING, which explores the extraordinary maritime significance of Long Island Sound between 1750 and 1820. Its multitude of small ports, coves and navigable rivers provided a distinct advantage by thwarting British efforts to enforce trade restrictions and collect taxes. Long Island Sound played a crucial role in America’s Revolutionary War victory when its naval vessels, privateers and whaleboat raiders swarmed out of these same ports to interdict British supplies and force major changes in the enemy’s strategic war plans. This groundbreaking, true story relates the Sound’s involvement in the capture of Fort Louisbourg, rampant smuggling, the Revolutionary War, the Undeclared War with France and the War of 1812.

Monday, October 24, 2011 at 7:00

Stevens-Frisbie House 395 Main Street in Cromwell

Refreshments to follow

Free Admission—Donations welcomed

Fro details on this program or the Cromwell Historical Society in general, please visit www.cromwelhistory.org or call (860)635-0501.

Book discussion group to meet in Deep River

2011-10-17T00:56:00.000-04:00

A book discussion group will meet from 1 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 19, at the Deep River Public Library. For more information, call (860) 526-6039.

'Secret Ingredient Murders' to be discussed

2011-10-15T02:51:00.002-04:00

The Durham Public Library Mystery Book Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 18, to discuss “Secret Ingredient Murders” by Nancy Pickard.
The book follows cook/sleuth Eugenia Potter on her adventures.

Poetry event in East Hampton

2011-10-10T02:49:00.000-04:00

“Leonard Cohen: The Songwriter As Poet” will be the topic of a discussion at the East Hampton Public Library on Thursday, Oct. 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Explore Cohen’s lyrics and poems, sample sound recordings and discuss his role as a distinctive storyteller. Call (860) 267-6621 for more information or to register

New books at Levi E. Coe Library

2011-10-01T22:27:00.000-04:00

The Levi E. Coe Library, 414 Main St., Middlefield, has announced it has the following new books:
“1225 Christmas Tree Lane” by Debbie Macomber, “Angel for Christmas” by Heather Graham, “Ballad of Tom Dooley” by Sharyn McCrumb, “The Dog Who Knew Too Much: A Chet and Bernie Mystery” by Spencer Quinn, “Fodor’s 2012 Boston,” “Fodor’s 2012 New York City,” “Fodor’s 2012 Walt Disney World,” “Fodor’s See It Mexico,” “Frommer’s Canada,” “Goddess of Vengeance” by Jackie Collins, “Hand Me Down World” by Lloyd Jones, “Heat Rises” by Richard Castle, “Language of Flowers” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, “Mortal Terror: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery” by James Benn, “Naked Heat” by Richard Castle, “New York to Dallas” by J. D. Robb, “Nightwoods” by Charles Frazier, “Pirate King” by Laurie R. King, “Plugged” by Eoin Colfer, “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and Legend by Susan Orlean,” “Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues” by Michael Brandman, “Schoolmaster’s Daughter” by John Smolens, Son of Stone by Stuart Woods, “Tag Man” by Archer Mayor, “Vault” by Ruth Rendell, “Velva Jean Learns to Fly” by Jennifer Niven, “Victory and Honor” by W.E.B. Griffin, “Where the God of Love Hangs Out” by Amy Bloom and “Wonderland Creek” by Lynn Austin.

'Taking Back The Courts' by Norm Pattis

2011-09-25T15:37:00.002-04:00

By DON PESCI

Attorney Norm Pattis, the author of “Taking Back the Courts: What We Can Do to Reclaim Our Sovereignty,” is viewed by other lawyers as a cross examination impresario. If this particular talent is a gift, it is one that in Mr. Pattis’s case has been honed throughout his years practicing law as a criminal defense attorney in Connecticut. Mr. Pattis is used to thinking outside the box – very quickly. He is disputatious, capable of mastering a complex briar patch of facts and legal precedents in quick time and effortlessly applying the relevant points in his summations.

And he has a pony tail.

Pony tails, however, may be deceptive. They evoke the silly sixties, free love, pot and the slow evisceration of the antique morality of benighted backward looking parents of the Woodstock generation. But as Mr. Pattis’ ponytail swishes through the chapters of his book, it moves disturbingly right and left.

Consider chapter 14, “Too Many Lawyers: Time to Revisit the American Rule.” The premise of this chapter – a surfeit of lawyers desperate for work increases costly suits – will not likely be embraced warmly by lawyers desperate for work and hungry for big verdicts:

“What most lawyers will acknowledge, privately, when only other fellow lawyers are around, is that there are too many of us. The result is that many lawyers are desperate for work.

“And what do desperate lawyer do? They sue people. Why not? Access to the courts is inexpensive, and here is no downside. You might always hit a big verdict. And even if they lose, the so-called American Rule has transformed the American civil justice system into the equivalent of a roulette wheel. Why not spin the wheel when the costs of doing so are low?”

The obvious solution to this problem, and the one recommended by Mr. Pattis, is to attach sanctions to losing. In most human endeavors those who lose pay and those who win carry home the trophy: “I see no justice or fairness in requiring defendants, whether they be corporations or individuals, to pay unwarranted legal fees. Why shouldn’t a loser be required to cover the winner’s costs?”

Mr. Pattis proposes to require all plaintiffs to post bonds “to cover the eventual winner’s reasonable legal fees for all the cases they bring,” a common sense reform that would protect the rights of all Americans to obtain justice from the courts, while at the same time affording defendants the opportunity of “recouping their fees when the roulette wheel comes up a loser for the plaintiff.” Flexibility would be introduced into the Pattis rule by making the bond a rebuttable presumption in all civil cases, allowing judges to relax the bond for good cause.

There are 21 chapters in the book, all crafted in layman’s verbiage, some of which have been lifted from Mr. Pattis’ columns in The Connecticut Law Tribune. The last two chapters are devoted to Mr. Pattis’ ardent opposition to the death penalty, and here he is less convincing than Albert Camus, the author of “Reflections on the Guillotine,” a passionate assault on the death penalty in France.

As a defense lawyer, Mr. Pattis is concerned chiefly with the part that has been played in a particularly gruesome Connecticut case by a husband who was the lone survivor of a murderous assault on his family, Dr. William Petit. Following the murders of his wife and two daughters, Mr. Petit has not gone quietly into the good night that shrouds the victims of heinous crimes, and Mr. Pattis fears that remarks made by Mr. Petit to the media might prejudice a jury now considering the case.

On the question of the marginalization of juries, a theme that runs throughout many of the chapters, Mr. Pattis, who provides a much needed in-house view of court proceedings, is informative and convincing. In the real world of courts, judges, juries and trials, justice is sometimes a victim of process, tedious and endless, or experts who lack expertise or judges who lack judgment or infantilized juries.

Among the questions asked and answered in “taking Back The Courts” are these: What would happen if a jury were to be made aware of the prospective sentence that could be imposed on a defendant before its members rendered a verdict? If the ignorance of a jury in such matters is bliss, can we rely on blissful ignorance to achieve justice? Evidence supplied by so called “forensic scientists” can be arrived at scientifically or not, but is the evidence supplied “scientific” simply because it is furnished by a forensic scientist? What is added to the word “science” when it is combined with the word “forensic” – other than a kind of magical incantation that bewitches juries and judges? Is expert testimony true simply because the person testifying is festooned in credentials? If the expert is paid for his service in rendering testimony, does the testimony become suspect? Suppose a juror were to raise his hand during a trial and ask the judge what sentence would reasonably be attached to a finding of guilty in a specific case? What would happen? Why are juries rather than judges permitted to determine sentences in capital felony cases alone but not in other cases? Is plea bargain justice just?

In Chapter 13, “Experts for sale,” a title one likes to think may have been drawn from Lucian’s savage second century satire “Philosophers For Sale,” Mr. Pattis has some fun with expert testimony, which is often based, he says, on very questionable science.

Mr. Pattis points to a National Academy of Science (NAS) report on the forensic use of science that splashes cold water in the faces of prosecutors who use junk science to obtain convictions. The report recommends that forensic labs and investigations should be independent of “law enforcement efforts either to prosecute criminal suspects or even to determine whether a criminal act has indeed been committed… With the exception of nuclear DNA analysis … no forensic method has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source,” heady and cautionary stuff.

Mr. Pattis has more than once heard prosecutors at trial urge judges to admit contested evidence: “’The state cannot prove its case without the evidence, your honor,’ the argument goes. To which I typically respond: ‘So what?’ The rules of evidence require reliable evidence. The trial deck is not supposed to be stacked in favor of conviction. But the deck is so stacked. And few judges seem prepared to do much about it.”

Impatient with conventional nonsense and cant, Mr. Pattis, pony tail swinging like a baseball bat, here offers some necessary correctives.

Don Pesci is a writer who lives in Vernon.

The Book Bower hosting book reading Friday

2011-09-06T00:16:00.003-04:00

The Book Bower, 386 Main St., Middletown, will host a book reading on Friday, Sept. 9, at 5 p.m. with Elizabeth MacKiernan Miel.

Miel will read from "Toward the End of Ordinary Time," a book documenting one person's spiritual journey in the days immediately after Sept. 11, touching on issues that are just as relevant today.

Miel, a writer, scholar, translator and volunteer hospital and hospice chaplain, lives in Middletown. She works part time at Wesleyan University.

In her book, she honestly examines the impact of 9/11 on her own faith not only in God, but in tolerance and pacifism.

'The 100th Annual Haddam Neck Fair'

2011-09-03T16:23:00.002-04:00

This weekend, the 100th annual Haddam Neck Fair is going on.

In 1911, the fair was a one-day event that attracted over 1,500 visitors and featured a decorated wagon parade, 200 head of cattle, athletic events and band concerts.

The recently constructed grange hall hosted a home-cooked turkey dinner with all the fixin’s for 50 cents and exhibits of fancy work, garden produce and baked goods. The baby show, which is still a popular draw today, awarded $5 in gold to the prettiest and fattest baby.

Early entertainment included vaudeville shows, magic acts and a chance to catch a greased pig (which you got to take home if you caught it).

Over the next century the fair grew and modernized but remained true to its small “country fair” reputation where neighbors could visit and fairgoers could enjoy a day off from work and chores and take pleasure in “the little fair that set the others guessing.”

Fair President Dianne McHutchison and Haddam Historical Society Director Elizabeth Malloy have compiled over 200 historic photographs and images to create a pictorial history of Haddam Neck Fair, which will be available over Labor Day Weekend for $15.

Photos from both private and public collections chronicle the fair from the early 1900s to the present and reflect how the fair has continued to provide “loads of laughs, bushels of bliss and hoppers of hilarity” (1916) and is a true community event. For more information on the fair, visit www.hadddamneckfair.com.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

2011-08-30T01:26:00.004-04:00

The Hunger Games Trilogy took me about three weeks to read and now that I'm finished I'm already missing the characters - a sure sign of a great book series.

In this fast paced and hip new trilogy author Suzanne Collins takes readers on a roller-coaster journey of love, pain, murder, betrayal, insanity, and revolution. The story takes place in the future, in the former North America now called Panem, which is run by The Capitol and is constructed of 12 districts. There used to be 13, but the last district was brutally destroyed in the revolution as a warning to all citizens. (or was it?) And to further discourage future rebellion, The Capitol annually hosts its grizzly Hunger Games. Every year, each district is forced to produce two tributes – a boy and girl aged 12 to 18 – who will be forced to fight to the death in the arena. After The Reapings, (the tribute selection ceremonies) each tribute joins his/her 23 comrades for brief preparations before all but one of them are sent to their deaths. Watching these games is mandatory for all citizens, but is truly a pleasurable and highly anticipated event for citizens residing in The Capitol itself. The winner, besides getting to stay alive, earns food and luxury (relatively speaking) for life, and a year of better provisions for their entire district – hence the name Hunger Games.

Readers see Panem through the eyes of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, a fiery and angsty youth from district 12. Katniss, a hardheaded and tough specimen, spends her time bow hunting in the woods outside her district with her friend Gale in order to provide for her mother and 12-year-old sister, Prim. Katniss is seen as a calculating and commanding social outsider who has no idea how much she affects those around her. Her seclusion from social interaction is a choice – her passion is for her family – her anger is trained on injustice. Yet beneath her rough exterior dwells a scared 16-year-old girl who is only trying to do what is right, whatever that may be.

The first book in the series, The Hunger Games, kept me on the edge of my seat. Suzanne Collins truly has a gift for invention – the arena where the televised death match takes place is filled with twists and turns and fresh horrors for the young characters. She also has a great affinity for cliffhangers. I almost dreaded the end of each chapter because in this series, a chapter break is not meant as a natural pause in the story but as a signal that the tension is only going to build.

The second book, Catching Fire, continued in this pace, a little slower to gear up than the first but soon just as suspenseful.

The third book, Mockingjay, I found to be almost disappointing in its dissimilarities to the first two. It still follows the same characters, but many of them are altered significantly by the emotional traumas of the events in the previous books. Especially the character Peeta, who is Katniss's love interest and a fellow tribute from District 12. As their lives deteriorate around them, the characters become a bit less relateable and more vicious, and at times it becomes hard to distinguish whether their paths of revenge are justified by the horrors they have endured or are simply continuing the cycle. The plot also takes on a different pattern; in the first two books the events build to a climax at the conclusion but in the third the events happen sporadically, and there are several climaxes which some readers may find a bit anticlimactic. However, in my estimation, Collins made up for these minor complaints with a somewhat shocking yet satisfying ending that I'm still thinking about days after finishing the book.

On a personal note; I'm not sure what to think of Collins writing style. These books are definitely easy to read-no big words, no long sentences. Her simplistic writing style is kind of a nice contrast to the complex ideas, so I wonder if she did that on purpose.

The bottom line, I whole-heartedly recommend this series and I'm already counting down the days until The Hunger Games movie comes out in March 2012 so I can revisit these complex and fully realized characters once again.

-Walt Gogolya

East Hampton library to host book discussion

2011-08-27T08:15:00.000-04:00

East Hampton Library will feature a book discussion on “The Old Patagonia Express” from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 31.
Experience the character of the region as described by author Paul Theroux as he travels by train from Mexico to Chile. Library staff member Phil Carr moderates. No registration required.

The library is located at 105 Main St., East Hampton. For more information, call (860) 267-6621.

Book discussion at Killingworth Library

2011-08-20T00:07:00.003-04:00

“Ten Things I Hate About Me” by Randa Abdel-Fattah will be discussed at the Killingworth Library from 10 to 11 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 22.

The book is a children's novel about an Islamic girl growing up in Sydney, Australia. It's a story about lies, family difficulties and teenage tensions.

The book is appropriate for young adults, ages 12 and up.

The library is located at 301 Route 81 in Killingworth. For more information, call (860) 663-2000.

Poetry Potluck at Buttonwood

2011-08-18T19:22:00.000-04:00

Poetry Potluck will be held at The Buttonwood Tree, 605 Main St., Middletown, on Aug. 21.

Poetry Potluck is an opportunity for people who enjoy poetry to get together to share and discuss their favorite works. It isn’t an open mike. Almost like a salon, it’s a gathering for discussion and literary conversation using poetry as the focal point.

The event is held the third Sunday of each month from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Suggested donation is $5.

'Connecticut by Bicycle: Fifty Great Scenic Routes'

2011-08-16T00:05:00.000-04:00

If you’ve been looking for a guide to biking with a focus on sightseeing, this is the book for you! Frederick John Lamp gives readers 50 detailed moderate-level bike routes throughout Connecticut complete with maps and cue sheets. Plus, before hopping on your bike, you can preview each ride with practical bullet point descriptions and color photography.

This is the first full-color guide to the state of Connecticut by road bike for the moderate-level rider. It will also be useful to anyone looking for scenic routes throughout the state, although bicycle riding affords the luxury of a slower pace in the open air.

With an introduction to riding and to the resources available, the book covers six diverse geographical regions of Connecticut in fifty rides. Each ride is represented by a four-page spread with color photographs of the sights, a narrative description, a map, and a concise cue sheet with directions and mileage. The rides focus on the rich historical sites; the enterprise of Connecticut’s people; and the great natural resources of the Long Island Sound, Connecticut’s rivers, lakes, creeks, and the hills of the Berkshires. Routes also take you through farms, picturesque small villages, city streets, forests, and bogs to view the flora and fauna of the state.

Frederick John Lamp is The Frances & Benjamin Benenson Foundation Curator of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery and member of the Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club, the Southern Connecticut Cycle Club, and Yankee Peddlers.

Frederick’s book sells for $39.99 and can be purchased through the publisher at www.schifferbooks.com or your local bookseller, as well as numerous online retailers.

Wesleyan University Press publishes 'Connecticut Fire & Drum Tradition'

2011-08-14T00:19:00.000-04:00

Connecticut's Fife & Drum Tradition is the first full account of this beloved American music tradition in Connecticut, home to an extensive and active community of fife and drum groups.

Originating in small military bands maintained by standing armies in Britain and Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, the drum was especially important in training soldiers to march and as a means of communication on the battlefield.

The fife and drum provided essential music accompaniment to American history, beginning in the colonial era, for both official military use and for community entertainment. Military use of the instruments declined after the Civil War, but community fife and drum corps, along with the increasing virtuosity of some players, gave the instruments a second life.

Today, the fife and drum tradition is most popular in the New England states, and in Switzerland. Contemporary fifers and drummers gather at conventions called "musters," which often include a public parade or concert.

In his book, musician James Clark details the colorful history of this unique music. He talks about individual instruments, folk song traditions, biographies of past musicians, and note-worthy events, such as Deep River's 1976 muster, which, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was the largest muster ever held.

Connecticut's Fife & Drum Tradition has dozens of photographs and historic illustrations depicting the tradition from medieval Europe to contemporary Connecticut. The book is a resource for students of percussion instruments and military music. It is also a fascinating read for anyone interested in local history or arts and crafts in New England.

This is one of five books in The Driftless Connecticut Series, a publication award program established in 2010 and funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Jim Clark is a founding member of the Connecticut Valley Field Music, a fife and drum band based in Middletown. A true advocate of this music, Clark gives lectures and demonstrations to a wide array of audiences around the state, across the nation and in Europe.

Author signing books in Essex

2011-08-13T19:19:00.002-04:00

Local and vacationing families and children flocked to Essex Coffee and Tea Saturday afternoon to meet children’s book author and Mystic resident, Tish Rabe, who took the time to sign books and inspire kids to read and write.

Rabe has written over 100 children’s books since first writing “Bert and The Broken Teapot,” for Sesame Street twenty years ago and now currently writes for The Cat and the Hat’s Learning Library for Random House. She has written stories and songs for a variety of licensed characters including Clifford the Big Red Dog, Blues Clues, and Richard Scarry over the years as well.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY

The Connecticut Authors Trail returns to Mohegan Sun

2011-08-04T00:21:00.001-04:00

UNCASVILLE - Mohegan Sun is excited to announce that The Connecticut Authors Trail, which consists of a consortium of libraries in eastern Connecticut in addition to featuring some of the most prominent and talented authors who either live in or are associated with the Nutmeg State, will return for its third straight year to Mohegan Sun.

The event is set to take place in The Cabaret Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 22, showcasing Jane Green. Other library signing dates will feature authors like Todd Gipstein, Jan Kardys, Janice Law, Tommy Coletti, Christine Whitehead, Rosemary Harris and David Howard.

British import Jane Green is the author of twelve best-selling novels, dealing with real women, real life, and all the things life throws at them, with her trademark wisdom, wit and warmth. Her first novel was a huge success in England and it would pave the way for a remarkable career in writing.

From The Other Woman to Second Chance to the incredibly popular The Beach House, Jane has become synonymous with complex, character driven story telling that explores the concerns of real women's lives. As well as writing a regular on JaneGreen.com, she contributes to various publications, both online and print, including Huffington Post, The Sunday Times and Self.

Her latest novel, Promises to Keep, was released earlier this year to critical and public acclaim. The book follows the happily married and much adored friend and relative Callie Perry through quite the journey as her life takes a huge turn when she receives a difficult diagnoses.

The Connecticut Authors Trail takes pride in bringing together a diverse collection of writers whose styles cover everything from suspense thrillers to romantic novels and self-help to local libraries across eastern Connecticut. All programs are free and open to the public. Passports will be available at the participating libraries throughout the summer as a guide to the author events. Have your passport stamped at each author event for a chance to qualify for an exclusive pre-program Meet & Greet with Jane Green.

For more information and a schedule on the Connecticut Authors Trail, please visit http://sites.google.com/site/connecticutauthorstrail2011/

The full list of author appearances is as follows:

Tommy Coletti: Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Special Delivery
?Sprague Public Library, 76 Main Street, Baltic, CT 06330

Marc-Yves Regis: Monday, August 8, 2011 at 6:30pm
Author of: After The Shock
?Otis Library, 261 Main Street, Norwich, CT 06360

Christine Whitehead: Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Tell Me When It Hurts
?Guilford Smith Memorial Library, 17 Main Street, South Windham, CT 06266

Sarah Jo Burke: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 6:45pm
?Author of: Don't Think It Hasn't Been Fun
?Saxton B. Little Free Library, 319 Route 87, Columbia, CT 06237

Sandra Marton: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Not For Sale
?Aldrich Free Library, 299 Main Street, Moosup, CT 06374

Rosemary Harris: Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Slugfest: A Dirty Business Mystery
?Janet Carlson Calvert Library, 5A Tyler Drive, Franklin, CT 06254

Robert M. Thorson: Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 6:30pm
Author of: Beyond Walden
Willimantic Public Library, 905 Main Street, Willimantic, CT 06226

Glenn Alan Cheney: Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Thanksgiving: The Pilgrims' First Year in America
?Sprague Public Library, 76 Main Street, Baltic, CT 06330

Joan H. Dash: Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Shot in the Buff
?Canterbury Public Library, 1 Municipal Drive, Canterbury, CT 06331

Natasha Friend: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Bounce
?Otis Library, 261 Main Street, Norwich, CT 06360

Matthew Warshauer: Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 7:00pm
?Author of: Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice & Survival

David Howard: Friday, September 9, 2011 at 7:00pm
?Author of: Lost Rights
?Andover Public Library, 355 Route 6, Andover, CT 06232

Robert M. Thorson: Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Stone By Stone
?Guilford Smith Memorial Library, 17 Main Street, South Windham, CT 06266

Mark Seth Lender: Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 6:30pm
?Author of: Salt Marsh Diary
?Scotland Public Library, 21 Brook Road, Scotland, CT 06264

Jane Green: Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 7:00pm
?Author of: Promises To Keep
?Mohegan Sun's Cabaret Theatre, Uncasville, CT

Super Summer Celebration at Broad Street Books

2011-08-03T00:27:00.000-04:00

Broad Street Books will celebrate local artists and musicians and will have a sidewalk sale on Friday, Aug. 5, and Saturday, Aug. 6 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Popcorn, sno-cones, face painting, arts and crafts and music will be available.

Guitarist Gail Gardiner will be performing Friday and Saturday. Her styles include Celtic, roots, bluegrass, gospel blues, contemporary folk and folk rock. View her full discography at www.cdbaby.com/cd/galebgardiner2.

Author Doretta Wildes will be signing copies of her new novel, "Rinse Cycle," on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m.

Broad Street Books is located at 45 Broad St., Middletown.

'Cutting for Stone' book discussion in Portland

2011-08-02T01:43:00.000-04:00

The Portland Library will host a book discussion on “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese on Thursday, Aug. 4, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Van Beynum Room. Copies of the book will be available beginning July 7. No reservations necessary.

July book discussion at Deep River library

2011-07-20T00:17:00.000-04:00

A book discussion group will meet at the Deep River Public Library at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20. Group meets the third Wednesday of the month at the same time.

For more information, call (860) 526-6039.

Russell Readers to meet on July 21

2011-07-15T00:19:00.000-04:00

“Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer and “The Wall” by Jean-Paul Sartre will be discussed from 7 to 8:20 p.m. in Meeting Room 3 at Russell Library, 123 Broad St., Middletown, on Thursday, July 21.

For more information, call (860) 347-0196 or email ameyers@russell.lioninc.org.

Acton Public Library book sale

2011-07-11T13:52:00.000-04:00

OLD SAYBROOK – The Fiends of Acton Public Library will host their annual book sale at the library, 60 Old Boston Post Road, on Thursday, July 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, July 15, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and again on Saturday, July 16, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The annual bake sale will be held during the Friday hours. There will be a large assortment of all types of books, videos and audio items on the first and second floors.

Proceeds benefit activities and events at Acton Library throughout the year. Some of these programs have been the children’s Halloween and Christmas parties, musical concerts and donations toward purchasing new DVDs.

For more information, call the library at (860) 395-3184 during library hours: Monday-Thursday 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Book sale at Russell Library

2011-07-05T00:04:00.000-04:00

The Friends of the Russell Library will host a two-day book sale on July 8 and 9 at the library, 123 Broad St., Middletown.

Sale runs from 1 to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, July 8, and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, July 9. Prices range from 25 cents to $1.

The book sale helps support the library. For more information on how you can help the library, call call (860) 347-2528, ext. 141 or CLICK HERE.

Teen book discussion at Killingworth Library

2011-06-29T00:07:00.000-04:00

“The London Eye Mystery” by Siobhan Dowd will be discussed at the Killingworth Library from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 30.

Do you love a mystery? Help the library solve this one!

At the end of the summer, the group will meet at Six Flags amusement park and find out how someone could disappear from one of the rides.

Emily Brooks to speak at Henry Carter Hull Library

2011-06-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

Join Emily Brooks at the Henry Carter Hull Library and harvest the best recipes from her new cookbook “Connecticut Farmer & Feast.”

From farm markets to the top restaurants, Brooks has scoured the Nutmeg State to highlight the farmers and the local food that creates a healthy, happy community.

Learn about the agricultural bounty in our state and those who toil endlessly to bring us our food. Event starts at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 29. Register online HERE.

Book club to meet at Westbrook library

2011-06-26T00:57:00.000-04:00

The Westbrook Readers Book Discussion Group will meet on Tuesday, June 28, at 10 a.m. at Westbrook Public Library to discuss the book “Across a Hundred Mountains” by Reyna Grande.

The group meets most months on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 10 a.m. in the library and is open to everyone. For more information, call (860) 399-6422.

Summer reading groups

2011-06-25T06:52:00.000-04:00

The Levi E. Coe Library, 414 Main St., Middlefield, will host its summer reading registration from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, June 27.

The following day, on June 28, Killingworth Library's summer reading kick-off event will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Haddam-Killingworth Middle School, 451 Route 81. The theme for Killingworth's summer reading is "One World - Many Stories."

Killingworth Library to host book sale

2011-06-20T03:46:00.000-04:00

The Killingworth Library, 301 Route 81, will host a book sale on Friday, June 24, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The library is also featuring its own cookbook on sale, with recipes by local restaurants.

'The Senator from Central Casting' by David E. Koskoff

2011-06-18T00:32:00.000-04:00

By DON PESCI

“If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” E. M. Forster

Lacking such scruples, it was the other way around for the close associates of Senator Thomas Dodd, the subject of David Koskoff’s book, appropriately titled, perhaps with a wink in the direction of Mr. Dodd’s son, Chris Dodd, “The Senator from Central Casting: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Thomas J. Dodd.”

There are some important differences between father and son. When Dodd the younger retired from the US Senate, he was almost immediately scooped up by Hollywood as the chief lobbyist for Tinseltown. After Dodd the elder had been censured by the senate for having used public funds for his personal benefit, in addition to having accepted from both the government and private organizations money for the same travel expenses, he withdrew as a candidate at the Democratic nominating convention and ran for re-election as an independent. In a three way race between Mr. Dodd, anti-Vietnam war candidate Joe Duffey and pro-Vietnam War Republican convention nominee Lowell Weicker, the senator’s career came to an abrupt and, as some think, tragic end. Seven months after Mr. Weicker arose from Mr. Dodd’s ashes, the senator was dead of a heart attack at the age of 64.

Mr. Koskoff, the author of three well received books – “Joseph Kennedy: A Life and Times”, “The Mellons: The Chronicle of America’s Richest Family”, and “The Diamond World” – “became engrossed in the relationship among Dodd, Boyd and O’Hare, three extraordinarily bright, complex men whom Shakespeare would have woven into a great tragic play,” after he had read Michael O’Hare’s obituary.

The principal plot line of the tragedy also spurred him to write the book: “Dodd became a caricature of ‘The Senator’ with stirring orations, a caricature of the highly important Senator well aware of his own importance, and finally a caricature of a Senator ethically compromised on a dozen fronts. He was the Senator from Central Casting.”

The Senator from Central Casting is a straight narrative that carries Tom Dodd through his various permutations: as a young lawyer, finding a place with his mentor, Homer Cummings, Franklin Roosevelt’s first attorney general, during the golden age of American bank robbery in the mid 1930s; as chief assistant to Justice Robert Jackson during the Nuremberg Trials, a vehicle used by Mr. Dodd to enter first the House of Representatives and later the U.S. Senate; as a fervent anti-communist seeking office in the U.S. Senate; and as a senator whose principal weakness, a chronic inability to manage his own personal finances, led inevitably to his downfall. In Mr. Koskoff’s account, Mr. Dodd is a man of large imagination, not unfriendly to liquor, whose means never really were sufficient to secure the future he imagined for his wife and several children.

Much more than an anti-communist who lived, as the Chinese say, in interesting times, Mr. Dodd was a fervent anti-totalitarian who recognized much earlier than most of his contemporaries the vital connection between the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini on the one hand and the communism of Josef Stalin on the other, best described by Mussolini in his paean to the state: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

Mr. Dodd, who kept his distance from state Democratic Party entanglements, though he was able to play the game with the best of them, was not shy of striking attitudes, and his self estimation, never running on low, did not play well with the opposition. Susceptible to flattery, Mr. Dodd was most comfortable among those who aspersed him with compliments; he was combative by nature with others. Interestingly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, son Christopher was in many ways the obverse of his father - and rather more determined than most to fetch his dad’s reputation from the rubble.

The Conspiracy

Mr. Dodd was brought down by his office staff working hand in glove with two respectable muckrakers: Drew Pearson and Mr. Pearson’s junior partner Jack Anderson, both prominent journalists of the day. Mr. Anderson was proficient at rooting up and exploiting dissatisfactions between politicians and their staff. His technique was described in his New York Times obituary: “He quietly cultivated dissatisfied and idealistic lower level government workers, convincing them that the public’s right to information trumped the bosses’ personal interests. His stock in trade was secret documents he persuaded sources to leak.”

On June 11, 1965 , Anderson struck gold.

Initially, Mr. O’Hare, the keeper of accounts in Mr. Dodd’s office, was to purloin relevant documents and turn them over to Mr. Anderson, who then would fashion the data into bullets for his and Mr. Pearson’s column, the “Washington Merry-Go-Round.” But Mr. O’Hare’s morals intruded. At the last minute, Mr. O’Hare begged off, pleading that he thought it wrong to remove data from the office. Into this breach leapt James Boyd, later the author of “Above the Law: The Rise and Fall of Senator Thomas J. Dodd,” and Mrs. Marjorie Carpenter, with whom Mr. Boyd, the father of four children, was having an affair. Of the two lovebirds who later married, Mrs. Carpenter was said to be the more idealistic.

Much before Watergate, Mrs. Carpenter and Mr. Boyd, “who engineered and orchestrated the downfall of Thomas J. Dodd,” both of whom had been fired by Mr. Dodd, broke into their former workplace late at night and, over several nights, stole off with “some 7,000 pages of documents,” column fodder for Mr. Pearson and Mr. Anderson. “The odds on them completing their trespass without detection would seem to have been slim,” Mr. Koskoff writes, “but they never aroused suspicion. The account of their covert operation in Above the Law is as captivating as a thriller by Eric Ambler or Fredrick Forsyte.”

Mr. O’Hare, at first hanging back, later joined the conspiracy, his weakening “ties of loyalty” having been snapped by the firing of his girlfriend, Terry Golden. Mr. Dodd, who appears to have grown impatient with the raging hormones of his staff in the age of Woodstock , fired Ms. Golden because he perceived that Mr. O’Hare’s girl friend was too close to Mrs. Carpenter and Mr. Boyd.

It was a fire too many:

“The weekend following the dismissal of Terry Golden, O’Hare the bookkeeper snuck the full set of the Senator’s financial records for the preceding fire years out of the office. There were checkbook records, campaign finance returns, income tax filings – the works. According to Drew Pearson, there were tears in O’Hare’s eyes as he proceeded. He told Pearson: ‘I’ve been protecting this information with my life. Now I’m giving it for publication for the world to read’”

The “works” Mr. O’Hare delivered to Mr. Pearson and Mr. Anderson was the stuff of which Senate censures – and possibly prosecutions for tax fraud – are made.

The Aftermath

Every tip of the iceberg is attached to a broad bottom, treacherously expanding below the waters surface and out of sight. Mr. Koskoff, a lawyer himself, has a lawyer’s eye for the telling detail.

An incident that occurred at the time of President John Kennedy’s assassination, described in some detail in The Case Against Congress, a book written by Mr. Pearson and Mr. Anderson, is essential, Mr. Koskoff writes, “to understanding the downfall of Thomas J. Dodd, because it had a tremendous effect upon his most important aides and was important in turning them against him.”

When Mr. Kennedy was assassinated, Dodd was “having lunch at Franks, a downtown restaurant frequented by the political crowd, with Bill Curry, a local political powerhouse, who was also probably Dodd’s closest Connecticut crony other than Sullivan.” Mr. Curry is the father of the Bill Curry who was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1994 and 2002

Ed Sullivan, “a former beer-truck driver with a graduate degree in street smarts,” Mr. Koskof writes, was Mr. Dodd’s opportunity spotter, “the only person Dodd ever trusted with the full picture of his financial operations.”

In his cups at the time, Mr. Dodd commandeered a plane from United Aircraft Corporation and met his staff at the airport in Washington, where he was told that Florida Senator George Smathers had just arrived wearing a black armband.

“Smathers,” Mr. Dodd said, “was a friend of the old administration. I am a friend of the new [Johnson] administration.” Watching at his Georgetown residence on television the tributes being paid to Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Dodd offered his assessment of the Kennedy administration: “I’ll say of John Kennedy what I said of Pope John the day he died. It will take us fifty years to undo the damage he did to us in three years.”

Comments such as these were to Mr. Dodd’s staff so many trip wires that undermined affections. “Alcohol abuse,” Mr. Koskof writes, “must be at least part of the explanation for the stark and tragic contrast between the respected, highly competent and disciplined prosecutor, who had directed the most important trial in the history of the world, and the tragic figure considered in the rest of this book.”

Mr. Koskoff’s lawyerly account of Mr. Dodd’s censure in the Senate is well told. Charged with two counts – obtaining and using public campaign and testimonial funds for his personal benefit; and accepting reimbursements for travel expenses from both the senate and private organizations – Mr. Dodd was censured by a 92 to 5 tally on the lesser count of using public funds for his private purposes. He was exonerated on the more troublesome count of double billing by a vote of 51 to 45. In 1969, the Nixon Justice Department announced there would be no tax prosecution.

Mr. Dodd’s resurrection began soon after the senator’s death in 1971, culminating in an archival mausoleum, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut . The archival material at UConn, Mr. Koskoff notes “has been sanitized by removal of those materials obviously related to Dodd’s downfall.” George Washington University , however, has 13 boxes that includes the several thousand sheets taken by Boyd and his associates that has been “expurgated from the official Dodd archive at UConn.”

A freedom of Information official at the FBI has told Koskoff that his longstanding FOI request for its files on Mr. Dodd, still awaiting processing, is likely to be finalized “in a year or two.” The Ethics Committee files on Mr. Dodd will be open to the public in 2017, and Mr. Koskoff has generously offered to share with UConn the FBI’s carton of documents when they materialize.

Nicole Logan to speak in Essex on Thursday

2011-06-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

Local author Nicole Logan will speak about her new book, “Forever on the Road; A Franco-American Family’s Thirty Years in the Foreign Service,” on Thursday, June 16, at 4 p.m. at the Essex Library.

The book chronicles her adventurous life and work, spanning 10 countries and three continents, as the wife of an American diplomat. Against an exciting background of civil war, political coups, and overthrown governments, this fascinating memoir reads like a novel, and Ms. Logan’s illustrated talk will include a brief reading.

Books will be available for sale and signing, and refreshments will be served. Please call the Essex Library at (860) 767-1560 for more information or to register for this program, which is free and open to all.

Book discussion at Deep River library

2011-06-14T00:14:00.000-04:00

A book discussion group will meet at the Deep River Public Library at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15. Group meets the third Wednesday of the month at the same time.

This week's book will be "The Cookbook Collector."

For more information, call (860) 526-6039.

Rosemary Harris to speak in Clinton

2011-06-13T03:40:00.002-04:00

Author Rosemary Harris will speak about her latest mystery novel, “Slugfest,” at the Henry Carter Hull Library, 10 Killingworth Turnpike, in Clinton at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14.

Enjoy an evening with this dynamic author, and find out what’s in store for her protagonist Paula Holliday, a garden sleuth with a penchant for discovering dead bodies.

The event is free, but registration is requested. Click HERE for details.

Author Sydney Eddison to speak at Garden Club meeting

2011-05-22T18:42:00.000-04:00

The public is invited to hear author Sydney Eddison at an open meeting of the Durham Garden Club on Thursday, June 9, at 10 a.m. at the Durham Public Library, 7 Maple Ave.

Eddison will present a talk on “Change: The Passage of Time in the Garden.” She will also have on hand her latest book, “Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older.”

A nationally recognized gardener, author of seven books and a popular lecturer, Eddison will share her joy, enthusiasm and experience as a life-long gardener.

“Gardening for a Lifetime” is a memoir about having to scale back after widowhood and painful joints made it impossible to keep up with a large country garden. Intermixing personal experience with practical gardening tips, Eddison presents a road map for accepting and embracing a new and simpler way of gardening.

Refreshments will be served. The suggested donation is $5.

Author to speak in East Haddam

2011-05-16T02:22:00.000-04:00

Brad Szollose, author of "Liquid Leadership: From Woodstock to Wikipedia," discuss the laws for becoming a liquid leader and how to lead a multi-generational workforce.

Brad will be speaking and signing books at Burgundy Books, 4 Norwich Road, in East Haddam on May 21 from 3 to 5 p.m. A reception will follow the lecture.
Admission to the event is $10. For more information or to register for this event, call (860) 399-1706.

'The Watershed Year' by Susan Schoenberger

2011-05-11T11:55:00.003-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

Sometimes, I find the best books are the ones you have no idea what they're going to be about. "A Watershed Year" by Susan Schoenberger was one of those books for me.

My interested was piqued by the fact that Schoenberger is the West Hartford editor for Patch.com, and I had seen her around Twitter and other social media circles. "Let's see if she can really write," I told my co-workers.

Turns out, she can.

I was instantly drawn into the life of Lucy McVie, the main character. The book starts with McVie saying farewell to a dear friend, and possibly the love of her life, as he is dying of cancer. But after his death, she receives some emails he had arranged to send her every month, and she decides to make some changes in her life.

The most intriguing part of the book to me was Lucy's travels to Russia to adopt a 4-year-old boy - all on her own. Her struggles to make the boy love her are sincere and heart-wrenching. But with the support of her somewhat unusual family - all very strong characters in the book - Lucy perseveres.

Schoenberger will speak about her book at Essex Library on May 31. DETAILS HERE.

Biographical novel reveals Colonial Connecticut

2011-05-11T11:55:00.000-04:00

Like the celebrities of TV's hit, "Who Do You Think You Are?" and untold millions of other Americans, Joseph Cone was curious about his ancestors. But Cone is not a celebrity with a crew of assistants, so he went about digging up the past the old-fashioned way, doing painstaking research himself in libraries and archives.

Begun long before the current TV craze, Cone's labors bore fruit in a story of colonial New England that "still astonishes" him. His book, "A Man Named Daniel," tells the vivid story of Daniel Cone, a founder of Haddam and East Haddam, and the first of the Cone name in North America.

Cone, a Scottish prisoner of the final battle of the English Civil War who was deported to New
England in 1652, would most likely have been forever lost to history—like nearly all of his compatriot prisoners—if it were not that he became an indentured servant in one of the most notable and influential Puritan families, the Winthrops. As a result of about five years of service to John Winthrop Jr., governor of the Connecticut Colony, Cone is mentioned in a variety of documents associated with Winthrop, and from them, and Winthrop’s well-documented life, and other primary sources, the story of Daniel can be fleshed out.

The 169-page "Man Named Daniel" focuses on the tumultuous period in New England from 1645 to 1665, a time marked by the expansion of the first settlements of the Puritans beyond Massachusetts, the founding of and competition among nascent colonies of New Haven, New London, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and the attendant strife with native peoples.

The extraordinary challenges of uprooted individuals like Daniel of making a new life in New England comes alive against the powerful forces of the era: the English Civil Wars, the Puritan revolution, and the passions of their radical religion. Much more than an unexpected portrait of an obscure common man, Daniel reveals the culture and social structure of this seminal period in American history.

The career of Daniel from soldier, prisoner, and trusted servant, to freeman, husband and pioneer, is amply supported by 33 pages of endnotes and bibliograpy. A chronology and 23 illustrations are also provided.

Joseph Cone, a tenth generation descendant of Daniel, is a writer and documentary filmmaker, a
graduate of Yale and the University of Oregon, and a faculty member at Oregon State University.

Daniel follows publication of the non-fiction "Fire Under the Sea" (William Morrow) and "A Common Fate" (Henry Holt), and a screenplay, "Verdi’s Triumph" (Text & Context). "A Man Named Daniel" is available from Amazon.com or direct from the publisher at textandcontext.com. List price, $16.95.

'Bird At the Buzzer' to be discussed in Essex

2011-05-10T19:41:00.001-04:00

The Essex Library hosts former Hartford Courant sportswriter Jeff Goldberg, who’ll be talking about his debut book, “Bird At the Buzzer” on May 17 at 7 p.m.

Goldberg covered the UConn Women’s basketball team from 2001 to 2006, and his book recreates the classic March 2001 Big East contest between UConn and Notre Dame, with in-depth interviews with key players, including Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Ruth Riley, and opposing coaches Geno Auriemma and Muffet McGraw.

Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing. The program is free and open to all. Register by calling (860) 767-1560.

Connecticut solders in the Civil War

2011-05-03T22:46:00.000-04:00

Dione Longley, a former director of the Middlesex County Historical Society, and Buck Zaidel, a dentist in Cromwell, are working on a book about Connecticut soldiers in the Civil War.

The book will feature images and words of local soldiers and their families, and is expected to be published in 2012 by Wesleyan University Press.

Longley and Zaidel will speak at Russell Memorial Library in Middletown on Wednesday, May 11, about how you can learn of your ancestors' military history to find out if one of them were part of the Civil War. The program starts at 7 p.m. and is free.

New books on Osama bin Laden coming soon

2011-05-03T02:15:00.001-04:00

NEW YORK (AP) — New books on Osama bin Laden and the Navy SEAL unit that killed him are coming soon, according to the Associated Press.

Random House says it hopes to have a collection of essays out quickly on the al-Qaida terrorist leader, who was killed in a helicopter raid and gunfight on Monday in Pakistan. The Free Press says it's planning an e-book "as fast as possible" based on material from Peter Bergen's "The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda."

Bin Laden was killed by a unit called Navy SEAL Team Six, ending a nearly 10-year hunt for the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

St. Martin's Press is moving up publication of "SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper," by Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin. The book was scheduled to come out May 24 but likely will be released within a week.

Author, Patch editor to read at Essex Library

2011-05-01T20:46:00.003-04:00

Meet author Susan Schoenberger, whose debut novel, “A Watershed Year” won the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition in 2006, on May 31 at 7 p.m. at the Essex Library in Essex.

Schoenberger’s career has included stints with the Baltimore Sun and the Hartford Courant, and her short stories have been published in Inkwell and Village Rambler. She is currently the editor of West Hartford Patch, and online news site covering West Hartford.

Schoenberger will read from and discuss her work, and books will be available for sale and signing. To register, call (860) 767-1560.

'The Peopling of New Connecticut' author to speak in Middletown on Tuesday

2011-04-25T00:16:00.005-04:00

Looking at a map of northern Ohio, you will see towns by the name of New Middletown, Middlefield, Saybrook, Hartford, Manchester, Clinton and Litchfield. There are two towns named after men from Middletown – Stow (after Joshua Stow) and Shalersville, (after Nathaniel Shaler).

This is not a coincidence. Soon after the Revolutionary War, people from Middletown and from other towns throughout Connecticut headed over the mountains to the Western Reserve of Connecticut to seek new opportunities. The Western Reserve eventually became part of the current state of Ohio.

Richard Buel, professor of history emeritus at Wesleyan University, will talk about the impetus and events that led to the settling of the Western Reserve, or New Connecticut, when he discusses his new book "The Peopling of New Connecticut" on Tuesday at the Russell Library in Middletown. He will outline the findings in his book and conclude with a sketch of what it teaches us about the western movement in the 19th century.

Buel is a graduate of Amherst College and received his PhD in history from Harvard University. He taught at Wesleyan from 1962 to 2002, during which time he published five books, the best known of which was co-authored with Joy Buel and is titled "The Way of Duty." Since retirement he has worked on five books, the last of which is the subject of his remarks.

The program will be held at 7 p.m. in the Hubbard Room of the library at 123 Broad St.

Buel's presentation will be followed by a book signing. For more information, call (860) 346-0746.

Nicaragua book to be discussed at Hartford library

2011-04-20T03:05:00.000-04:00

"After Revolution: Mapping Gender and Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Nicaragua" by Florence E. Babb will be discussed on Wednesday, April 27, from noon to 1 p.m., in the Seminar Room of the Hartford Public Library, 500 Main St.

An anthropologist, Babb focuses on life of lower-income people in Nicaragua in the 1990s, after the revolution and Contra war. The author is especially concerned with gender issues.

This program is sponsored by the Hartford Public Library and the Hartford/Ocotal Sister City Project, which fosters friendship and mutual understanding of people in the areas of Hartford and Ocotal, a city in northern Nicaragua.

The event is free and visitors are encouraged to bring a brown-bag lunch. For more information, call (860) 695-6300.

'An Evening with Walt Whitman'

2011-04-19T01:31:00.003-04:00

Commemorating both the American Civil War and National Poetry Month, Wallingford Public Library welcomes actor Stephen Collins and his one-man show “An Evening with Walt Whitman” Wednesday, April 20, at 7 p.m.

The show opens with Collins portraying Whitman on the evening of his seventieth birthday. As he begins to reminisce about his life, he transforms into a young man retelling the experiences that led to the creation of "Leaves Of Grass," his lifetime work.

In the second part of the performance, Whitman's life is changed forever by the occurrence of the Civil War. It is here that he finds "... the most important work of my life..." nursing the wounded soldiers in the hospitals. Through poetry and reading of actual letters, the audience will experience Whitman's movement from selfishness to selflessness and his growth into a mature artist who is at peace about "himself, God and death."

Please contact the library at (203) 265-6754 for more information and to reserve a seat.

Matthew Goldman reading from his books today at The Buttonwood Tree

2011-04-17T11:55:00.002-04:00

Matthew Goldman aka Constant Waterman will read from his three self-illustrated books at The Buttonwood Tree today at 2 p.m.

Goldman’s first book, "The Journals of Constant Waterman: Paddling, Poling, and Sailing for the Love of It," is a collection of introspective, lively, and often wry memoirs. His second book, "Landmarks You Must Visit in Southeast Connecticut," gives brief histories, complimented by pen and ink drawings, of better and lesser known landmarks about the mouth of the Connecticut River and along the coast to Rhode Island.

In "Vincus the Invisible Divulges His Secret Recipe for Maple Pistachio Birch Beer Raspberry Ripple," he introduces Vincus the Griffin, who cleans up The Endless Forest and also makes huge batches of a unique ice cream. A sequel, "Vincus the Invisible Visits Planet Earth," will be released this spring.

The reading is free and the author will sign books afterward. The Buttonwood is located at 605 Main St. in Middletown.

New biography brings William Gillette back to life

2011-04-11T03:25:00.000-04:00

More than 70 years after his death, a new biography tells the story of one of the American theater’s greatest stars.

William Gillette, a Hartford native, is best-remembered today as the living personification of Sherlock Holmes. He wrote the first popular play about the detective and brought Holmes to life and established for all time the image of Holmes with the deerstalker cap, the bent briar pipe and the profile, creating what may be the most instantly recognizable icon in the world. And it was from Gillette’s play that Hollywood film-makers derived four of the famous phrase, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

“Gillette established the manner in which Holmes was to be portrayed,” author Henry Zecher explained. “Mysteries in general have been staged on the template he created; and, until Jeremy Brett did his own interpretation, actors playing Holmes for the next several decades did it the way Gillette did it.”

More than bringing Holmes to life, however, Gillette was among the 19th century’s most successful actors and playwrights. In a career spanning six decades, he was one of the best-known celebrities in the Western world.

“Gillette was a towering figure in an age of towering figures,” Zecher added. “Among his friends were Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Theodore Roosevelt, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Thomas Nast and Maurice Barrymore. He built a castle on the Connecticut River and a miniature railroad to run around it. Among the guests who rode on that train were President Calvin Coolidge, physicist Albert Einstein and Tokyo Mayor Ozaki Yukio, who gave to America the cherry blossoms in 1912. James M. Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, wrote two hit plays for which he specifically asked for Gillette to star in.”

As a playwright Gillette was known for the stark realism of his sets, costuming, dialogue and actions. He developed realistic and dramatic lighting and sound effects. And he led the way in making American drama truly American.

“American arts tended to be like the British,” Zecher continued, “and the British had a very poor opinion of American drama. Then Gillette took his first Civil War play – Held by the Enemy – to London in 1887 and it was the first American play with a thoroughly American theme to be a major success on British stages.”

As an actor, he developed the philosophy of The Illusion of the First Time, in which an actor speaks his lines each night, not as if he has spoken them a hundred times before, but as if he is making them up as he goes along, as real people do. Actors were to enter the room of the set the same way, looking about as they go rather than blithely walking in as if they had done so many times before. The idea, Gillette said, was to create the illusion of life on the stage.

Among the young stars Gillette helped at the dawn of their careers were Ethel Barrymore, Charles Chaplin and Helen Hayes, and later screen stars made their film debuts in productions of his plays: William Powell in Sherlock Holmes in 1922, starring John Barrymore as Holmes; Meryl Streep in the 1976 Broadway Theater Archive filming of Gillette’s greatest play, Secret Service, co-starring John Lithgow; and Christian Slater in Sherlock Holmes in 1981 opposite Frank Langella as Holmes.

Gillette played Holmes more than 1,300 times in both America and England between 1899 and 1932. Upon his death in 1937, the New York Times declared, “His comedy bordered on farce, his drama on melodrama, but it would be hard to convince that portion of the American public that knew and followed him that any better actor had ever trod the American stage. And it might be impossible to find any other actor who at 76 could revive a role from the Nineties and make a smashing tour with it through two seasons over the length and breadth of the country. It would be conservative to say that Mr. Gillette was the most successful of all American actors."

For generations of theater-goers and Holmes enthusiasts, Gillette remained the definitive Sherlock Holmes of all time. This is the first full biography published on him. It is published by Xlibris Press in Bloomington, Ind.

Popular author Richard Buel to return to Essex Library

2011-04-10T00:01:00.000-04:00

Author and scholar Richard Buel will speak at the Essex Library on Monday, April 25, at 7 p.m. about his newest book, "Joel Barlow: American Citizen in a Revolutionary World."

Buel spoke at the library on April 8, but a second session had to be scheduled due to his popularity, library officials said.

Professor Emeritus at Wesleyan University, Buel has spent the last five years researching this fascinating but little-known figure from America’s founding: Connecticut poet turned entrepreneur, diplomat, and international revolutionary, whose circle included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Tom Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, Lafayette, and Yale classmates Noah Webster and Oliver Wolcott.

Hear about how Barlow, born in humble circumstances, made a name for himself in a revolutionary era; his experiences during America’s war of independence (1775-1783); his efforts to sell Ohio lands to the French at the beginning of their Revolution; his revolutionary writing in England that made him persona non grata there, while the French granted him citizenship and asked him to run for the National Assembly(he lost); his response to the Terror and subsequent assignment by President Washington to free American sailors from the Barbary Pirates; his eventual return to America and his purchase of an estate (at Jefferson’s suggestion) that he named Kalorama (just north of DuPont Circle in DC); and his last diplomatic appointment (by Pres. Madison) as ambassador to Napoleonic France. Also his secret marriage to Ruth Baldwin, their unusual relationship, and later their intimate friendship with Robert Fulton.

Books will be available for sale and signing. Please call the Essex Library at (860) 767-1560 to register. The program is free.

Poet and author to speak at Broad Street Books on Tuesday

2011-04-06T18:51:00.000-04:00

MIDDLETOWN — Come celebrate National Poetry Month with Broad Street Books along with poet and photojournalist Marc Regis on Tuesday, April 12, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Mark Regis’ dream of becoming a photojournalist became a reality years after a friend gave him a 110-model instamatic camera for a Christmas gift. With his camera, Regis traveled door-to-door and street-to-street photographing house parties, first communions and baptisms. He charged customers $1 each for a picture.

After more than two years, he collected enough money to buy his first 35mm camera. His love of photography led him to seek a career in that field. He enrolled in the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and graduated with an associate degree in photography.

Regis, an award-winning photojournalist, worked for the Hartford Courant for 17 years and has traveled on special assignments to St Lucia, Trinidad &Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas, England and France.

Throughout the years, Regis has worked on various photographic endeavors. He received the Greater Hartford Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship and the National Arts Program's Photography Judges Award. Regis was commissioned by the Hartford Public Library to work on a photographic project called Hartford as One under a grant from the National Endowment for Humanity. He spent a year working on it.

The library’s curator selected 100 photographs that became part of the Hartford Library’s permanent collection. In 2004, fifteen of his photographs were featured in the Smithsonian-sponsored Folk life Festival book, called "Haiti Freedom and Creativity from the Mountains to the Sea."

However, photojournalism does not sum up his entire career. Regis is the author of four books, "Haiti Through My Eyes," a selection of poetry about Haiti; "Deadly Road to Democracy," an account of Haiti’s violent struggle for democracy; "Two Good Feet," a photographic documentary of physically-challenged Haitian children and "Haiti after the Shock," a selection of poetry about the earthquake in Haiti.

Regis is the founder and director of Camp Hispaniola that provides children, who live in poverty in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and in the bateyes (sugarcane plantations) of the Dominican Republic, a week-long summer camp where they enjoy activities they would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Each year, more than 300 campers at two different venues partake in arts and crafts, music, dance and sports activities. Music, often used as therapy for children traumatized by the devastating earthquake, is an important part of the program.

'One Book, One Middletown'

2011-04-04T01:48:00.000-04:00

Several book discussions are scheduled for this week as part of "One Book, One Middletown."

The project, sponsored by the city and the local Rotary Club, is designed to promote a culture of reading by encouraging the community to read the same book at the same time and to participate in book discussions and other related events.

This year's book is "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.

The narrator is Enzo, an old mixed breed dog who is reaching the end of his long life. He is owned by Denny Swift who is pursuing a career as a race car driver, risking his life and savings to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo is frustrated by his inability to talk and is hopeful that he will be reborn as a man (something he learned from a National Graphic documentary about Mongolia). He watches Denny's old racing videos and share his thoughts on principles that apply to both driving and life. When Denny hits a rough patch in his family life, Enzo remains a steadfast, silent supporter.

CLICK HERE for a full schedule of events related to "One Book, One Middletown." And even if you can't attend any of the events, you can still pick up a copy of the book at the library or a local book store and give it a try! When you are done, you can always email us your thoughts about the book at editor@middletownpress.com and we will be happy to post it on this blog.

Author to speak at Essex Library

2011-04-01T17:58:00.000-04:00

Author and scholar Richard Buel will speak at the Essex Library on April 8 at 7 p.m., about his newest book, “Joel Barlow: American Citizen in a Revolutionary World.”

Books will be available for sale and signing, and refreshments will be served. The program is free and open to all. For more information or to register, call (860) 767-1560.

Book discussion at Cromwell library

2011-03-23T18:02:00.000-04:00

Cromwell Belden Public Library will host a book discussion at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday on “The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett.

Discussion will be led by David Garnes, author, former English teacher and retired librarian. Copies of the book available at the library. Refreshments will be served.

To register or for more information, call (860) 632-3460.

Connecticut Book Festival coming to UConn campus in West Hartford in May

2011-03-19T02:52:00.000-04:00

WEST HARTFORD – Novelist Alice Mattison, gardening expert Tovah Martin, and science fiction writer Ronald L. Mallett are among more than 30 Connecticut authors scheduled to join Honorary Chair Wally Lamb at the first Connecticut Book Festival on May 21 and 22.
The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the University of Connecticut Greater Hartford campus.

The free, family-friendly festival is open to the public, to promote and celebrate books, reading, and the state’s bountiful and diverse literary community. Authors of fiction and nonfiction for adults and teens will offer presentations, panel discussions, readings, and book signings. (Pictured is the Connecticut Book Festival Committee).

Scheduled authors include:

· Essayist Sam Pickering, an English professor at the University of Connecticut and the model for the film "Dead Poets Society."

· Mystery writer Rosemary Harris, nominated for the Agatha and Anthony awards for her first book, "Pushing Up Daisies."

· Food writer Nancy Freeborn, co-author of the book "New Haven Chef’s Table: Restaurants, Recipes, and Local Food Connections" and manager of the Chester Farmers’ Market.

· Bessy Reyna, author of two bilingual books of poetry and a former winner of the Outstanding Latina Cultural Arts, Literary Arts and Publications Award; she will moderate a panel of Latino authors.

There will be performances by the dance troupe dancEnlight, and State Troubadour Chuck E. Costa, as well as roving characters from the Mystic Paper Beasts Theatre Company. Both the New Haven and the Hartford symphony orchestras are bringing their “instrument petting zoos.” The Children’s Activities Tent, sponsored by Connecticut Humanities Council and the Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, will offer a chalk drawing competition—led by Hartford Art School Professor Bill Thomson, author of Chalk—among its attractions.

The festival is a partnership of Connecticut Center for the Book at Hartford Public Library, Connecticut Commission on Culture &, Tourism, Connecticut Humanities Council, Connecticut Library Association, Connecticut State Library, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, UConn Co-op Bookstore, and the University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford Campus.

Food will be available from area restaurants and specialty food purveyors. Exhibitors and vendors will include book-based nonprofits, academic institutions, cultural organizations, and artisans of book-related items. Connecticut Poets Society, Connecticut Valley Calligraphers, and Grayson Books are among the exhibitors confirmed at this time. UConn Co-op will sell books written by festival presenters.

The UConn Greater Hartford campus is located at 85 Lawler Road in West Hartford.

'The Girl Who Played With Fire'

2011-03-04T13:23:00.000-05:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

Pardon me if I seem sleepy today, but I was up until 4:45 a.m. finishing Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Played With Fire."

The second in Larsson's Millenium trilogy, the book focuses on the odd girl Lisbeth Salander, who becomes the prime suspect in a triple-murder investigation. Salander disappears early on in the book, and much time is spent wondering whether she actually could have committed the murders.

Those who have read the first book, "The Girl Who Played With Fire," know that Salander is a bit odd, and it doesn't seem unlikely that she ended up in this situation. Yet her former friend and investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist doubts her guilt and sets out to find the truth.

The book is ten times better than the first book in the series, and I can't wait to jump into the third and final part, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest."

'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'

2011-02-26T14:46:00.000-05:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

For a year now, friends and co-workers have told me I just have to read “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson.

Since I’m fluent in Swedish, I decided to wait until I could get my hands on a copy in the original language (Original title: “Men Who Hate Women”). My brain has a hard time reading about Swedish names, places and policies in a foreign language, and I figured if I were to give this book a chance, I must pick up the Swedish version.

My dad gave it to be for Christmas, and I started reading it on the plane back to the U.S. when my vacation was over. I found it very difficult to get into, and after just half a chapter of economic controversy and company corruption, I had to put it aside.

My mother-in-law was finally the one who convinced me to push through.

“It’ll get better,” she said. “You just have to get past the first couple of chapters.”

Well, I pushed through, and once I was finally introduced to the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Lisbeth Salander – the immediately became more interesting.

It turns out you don’t have to know much about economics or politics or how companies are created to follow along in the book, you just jump onboard and come along for the ride into a tiny Swedish village where horrible things once happened.

And once Lisbeth and the book’s main character, Mikael Blomkvist, finally met, I couldn’t put the book down. I stayed up reading until 4 a.m. several nights in a row just to find out what would happen.

The end, which I won’t reveal, was a bit anti-climactic. It’s good to have the second book in the series – which seems to be less about Mikael and more about Lisbeth – to jump into immediately. “The Girl Who Played With Fire” is followed by the third and final book, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.”

'Awake Till the End,' a book of crime short stories by Alysse Aallyn

2010-12-19T18:30:00.000-05:00

By ELISABETH STRILLACCI

"Awake Till the End" came to our office about a week or so ago, and our editor handed it off to me to take a read. The book is a collection of short stories from a Bolton, Conn., author who has published several other full-length psychological thrillers and I was eager to dive in. The book comes out next month, so it was a kick to have an early issue to read, too.

But I was disappointed.

Ms. Aallyn's books are not typical thrillers, despite Agatha Christie being an old favorite from her childhood. That's always been OK, but these stories just don't give me enough to work with. With some stories, I'd turn a page and the story ended, and I didn't just want the characters to stick around, I wanted to know what the heck happened! It's one thing to leave a reader to discern, from their own experiences, what likely took place. It's another to be so cryptic at times that your reader is just left confused.

With other stories, too much is assumed on behalf of the reader and the action is too fast, with too little actual detail.

I admit, short stories can be the hardest form of story to write. To get the time frame, action and details all balanced correctly is never easy and not something many writers have actually done well. This is, I am sad to say, another example of one that didn't quite come together. I know she has another novel coming out soon; I'd save my pennies for that one.

NANCY DREW: Murder on ice

2010-12-12T13:12:00.000-05:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

There's something special about Nancy Drew. Those of you who have read the teen series know what I'm talking about.

My family wasn't much into reading, so except for a few books tucked away in the attic, we didn't keep many around the house. Perhaps that's why my first book that I got one Christmas, a Nancy Drew book, was extra special.

I remember reading "Murder on Ice" (in Swedish) as I was crawled up in bed under warm blankets on a very cold Christmas Day.

Nancy and her boyfriend Ned Nickerson, along with friends Bess and George, go on a ski weekend in the snowy mountains of Vermont. But a strange set of circumstances leads Nancy to believe someone is trying to hide something, and it could have dangerous consequences.

When I first read the book, I had never been to Vermont. But it sounded like a magical place with small, charming towns, steep mountains and lots of areas available for skiing.

Of course, many years later as I started to ski regularly at Mt. Snow, I remembered my childhood book and just had to find another copy of it (the original Christmas present ended up with a younger cousin).

Thanks to the internet and the ability so search for very specific terms (Nancy Drew + Vermont + skiing), I quickly found myself a used copy and ordered it.

I've re-read it every winter since, just out of nostalgia. Since it's written for the younger readers, it's a very quick read. But it gives me the same warm, fuzzy feeling inside every time. Almost like if I was home again for Christmas, in my childhood bedroom, with a comforting blanket on my lap.

'Smoke, Fire and Angels' by Mark Robinson

2010-12-05T23:21:00.000-05:00

By LIZ STRILLACCI

I can't say why I picked this book up again after all this time, but there it is.

This is the gripping, first-person account of one of the drivers hit by an out-of-control truck barreling down Avon Mountain on July 29, 2005. Mark Robinson's car was one of those in the front row, at the intersection of Routes 44 and 10 by Avon Old Farms Inn, facing a truck that was unable to stop, racing down the mountain during morning rush hour traffic at speeds estimated at well over 70 miles per hour.

Five people died as a result of that accident. It was one of the most horrific scenes a lot of people ever had or ever will see, including police and firefighters. The debris was strewn over a stretch of road as long as a football field.

I know a lot of people wonder why I'd read a book about such a terrible tragedy, so many years after it happened. Two reasons. One: Mark Robinson might not be a writer by profession, but he interviewed people, from survivors to emergency workers to insurance people, and he did a boatload of research, so the stories he tells about each and every person involved really come to life. Two: The proceeds from this book go to a fund to help those most seriously affected by the crash, which makes it more than just a book.

It's a frightening story, a sometimes heartbreakingly sad story, and certainly one that angers at times, given what the owner of the truck company did. But it's also an uplifting story, because of the way people came to help that day, and because of the people you get to know and care about, who were, through a quirk of fate and timing, caught in the line of fire of the truck that morning.

Maybe I also re-read it because each and every day now, my husband travels that same route to work.

This story isn't made up; it's not make believe. It's real, and it happened to people that were and are just like you and me, people that live just up the road or work in the next office. And I don't want to forget any of them. And the next time our legislature decides it would be a good idea to grant exceptions to safety requirements, whether it's for commercial or private interests, I'm going to be paying attention, and make sure my voice gets heard.

'The Broken Teaglass' by Emily Arsenault

2010-11-16T19:40:00.000-05:00

By LIZ STRILLACCI

Someone sent us this book to review before I started at The Middletown Press, but I'd plowed through all the books at home, so I picked this one up on a whim.

I'm glad I did. This was Ms. Arsenault's first book, published in October 2009, and the further into it I got, the less I wanted to put it down. It's a mystery, but done, believe it or not, in a bit of a new way.

The story comes together in bits and pieces. That's been done before, but it's the setting that makes the story different. It takes place at a company that produces dictionaries.

Characters are involved in defining words, new and old, and the mystery unravels as they search through citation files for references and updates. Each of the characters reveals a bit more about themselves as the internal story unfolds.

Even if you're not a word person, per se, it's a pleasant read. And it gives you an idea how the dictionary comes into being as well, which in itself is interesting.

I'm going to investigate whether or not Emily Arsenault has written any other books, too. I'll let you know what I find.

'Dubliners' by James Joyce

2010-10-27T20:03:00.000-04:00

By BARBARA DOUGLAS

James Joyce’s short book The Dead: The story of Gabriel and Gretta; of a strained Christmas dinner; the ghost of Michael Furey; repressive Dublin; and Gabriel’s spiritual awakening. Joyce fans will recognize all of these as part of this great novella, part of the classic collection, “The Dubliner,” published in 1914.

While attending Trinity College in Dublin, I gobbled Joyce and exalted him to the level of Shakespeare and Milton. But too many readers today don’t look upon the classics with favor. Big mistake. “The Dead” is a short and easy read, and is packed with action, even though its events are contained to one holiday party, a buggy ride, and a hotel room. It’s a great autumn book. How can you read the following, which is the last paragraph of “The Dead” narrative, and not recognize Joyce as a revolutionary writer?

“A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”

Good, good stuff.

It’s Halloween: Get your ghoul on

2010-10-06T20:33:00.000-04:00

By BARBARA DOUGLAS

You have to wonder what evil lurked in the mind of William Peter Blatty. Author of the epic horror novel "The Exorcist," Blatty managed to get under the collective goose bumped skin of millions of readers when the book was released in 1971. Literature and cinema was never the same.

The book is based on a 1949 exorcism of Robbie Mannheim that Blatty heard about while he was a student in the class of 1950 at (Jesuit and Catholic) Georgetown University.

Every year at this time, I dust off my dog eared, coffee cup stained copy of The Exorcist and get my literary ghoul on.

The demon Pazuzu. Father Merrin. Regan MacNeil. Father Damien Karras. Levitating beds. Pea soup. Readers of the book and lovers of the movie will recognize these icons of American literature (and cinema). Authors have tried to match Blatty’s achievement, but none have succeeded. The Exorcist is and will always be the penultimate horror novel. No matter how many times I read it, and it’s been many, many years, I still check under the bed before lights out.

What an excellent day for an exorcism.

'Murder at Yale' - read it or not?

2010-09-06T12:57:00.000-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

I received a review copy of "Murder at Yale" on my desk a few weeks ago. I haven't actually read it yet, so don't expect a review.

I'm hesitant to read it, because of my bad experience with "In the Middle of the Night," the book about the Cheshire slayings.

This book about the horrific Yale slaying promises to be "the true story of a beautiful grad student and a cold-blooded crime." I'm sure it will contain lots of details about how grad student Annie Le was killed and stuffed behind a wall, just days before she was to be married.

The accused killer, Raymond Clark III, is featured on the cover. I was in Middletown - the first day I ever spent here - the evening police decided to swarm his apartment to look for evidence.

I remember how he went to hide in a motel in Cromwell, and how police arrested him there after they matched his DNA.

The book will be full of theories about why Clark did what he did, even though he has not yet been convicted.

I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that. So I'm leaving it up to the readers. What do you think? Should I read it, or pass the book on to someone else?

'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'

2010-08-08T02:37:00.000-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

It was a Christmas present. I looked at it and wondered what the heck it could possibly be. The cover shows an upside-down dog, and all the text is written in lower-case letters.

"What's it about?" I asked my husband, while turning the book over trying to find some clues.
"Just read it," he replied. "You'll like it."

He was wrong, sort of. I didn't like it - I absolutely loved it.

As I keep touting on this book blog, I enjoy easy reads - something that goes by fast, gets you involved but doesn't require too much thinking, and makes me not want to put it down until I get to the last page. This was one of those books.

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon follows a 15-year-old autistic boy named Christopher John Francis Boone and his life in England.

Christopher knows all the countries in the world and their capitals, but he has some trouble with reading people's emotions. He also cannot stand the color yellow.

When a neighborhood dog dies, a dog Christopher wasn't allowed to touch or play with but was still very fond of, the boy decides to investigate the suspicious circumstances.

The book is honest and funny, and it shows you the world from an autistic boy's perspective. Definitely a must-read for the late summer.

'Postcard Killers'

2010-07-21T23:13:00.000-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

'Postcard Killers' is an interesting collaboration between Swedish author Liza Marklund and American best-seller James Patterson.

It follows a Swedish journalist and an American cop on a European chase for a mystery couple who trick other couples to private hotel rooms, where they get killed and are posed like famous pieces of art. The killers then send postcards to local newspaper reporters with pictures of their artwork.

While Marklund's previous books are far better, (this is the first I've read by Patterson), it's definitely an easy read. Short, snappy sentences and quick chapters make the book easy to complete in just a few nights.

The book will be released in the U.S. on Aug. 16.

'Angels & Demons' by Dan Brown

2010-06-30T01:59:00.000-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

Most of the time, I have this strange habit of doing everything in order. I must read books in the order they were published, and I prefer to read a book before I see the movie.

With Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons" I made an exception.

I devoured "The DaVinci Code" back in the winter of 2006 and loved it. I saw the movie the following summer. Unfortunately, I never got around to reading "Angels & Demons" before the movie came out on DVD, so my husband made me watch it despite not having read the book.

Finally, I decided to give the book a try anyway a few weeks ago, and I couldn't put it back down. I had intended to just read a little, but I ended up staying up late at night just to read "a few more pages."

You see, it's one of those books with dangerously short chapters, and you keep on just reading and reading.

The downside was that I kept picturing Tom Hanks as the main character, symbologist Robert Langdon, as he ran through Rome on his quest to find the path of illumination and help thwart an attempt of destroying Vatican City. And I kept thinking "was this in the movie?" every time I got a step closer to the truth, thinking too many details from the book had been left out.

Despite having seen the movie, I feel the book gave me a better idea of what the inside of the Vatican looks like and the workings of the Swiss Guard, sworn to protect the pope. And despite protests from religious fanatics, I believe the book can make a believer out of anyone.

'Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion'

2010-05-11T20:38:00.000-04:00

By JUSTIN KLOCZKO

Recently, a 16-year-old boy was suspended from Middletown High for bringing a knife to school to protect himself from getting beat up by bullies. It reminded me of how school can be such a tough place to be in when your own peers give you hell day in and day out. It also reminded me of a book I once read, “Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan’s Workplaces to Clinton’s Columbine and Beyond.”

The book, written by Mark Ames and published in 2005, is an important read because it digs deep into the almost uniquely American phenomenon of workplace and school shootings that began in the 1980s, continuing into today, most recently and notably with the Virginia Tech massacre.

When such shootings occur, the common narrative carved out by the media has been to skip right over the “Why?” part and blame everything on the shooters. There is talk of profiling the perpetrators, blaming lax gun laws, leading a Godless lifestyle and violent video games. In this book, Ames essentially says that the scene of the crime is the cause of the crime.

Throughout the book, Ames argues that the shooters who commit these massacres are rebelling against the system, much like when slaves first rebelled against their masters. In both instances, people were stumped as to why they would rebel so violently. In “Going Postal,” it was how they raged against a system that completely failed them.

The term “going postal” was first coined after a rash of incidents involving USPS employees in 1983 came in to work and gunned down workers and managers. From there, the number of massacres have grown, moving in to private workplaces, high schools and universities.

Ames says the shooters in these incidents are rallying against the institution, not specific people.

Attempts to profile these shooters turns out to be impossible, like to trying to make a list of each and everything. The only common theme in these schoolyard shootings is that they occur in predominantly white, middle-class areas.

He goes on to present a working definition of today’s schoolyard massacres: “Attacker(s) attacks their own school in order to fight things like bullying, difficult-to-define-evil and pressure. Just as victims of terrorists tend not to have been specifically targeted but rather happen to be in the symbol that terrorists attack, many victims of schoolyard rage attacks are not specifically chosen but are part of an institution that is attacked, and therefore they are misidentified as having been shot ‘at random.’”

Ames also parallels the beginning of workplace and schoolyard massacres with the rise of President Ronald Reagan and Reaganomics. Until the Reagan era, these shootings were simply not occurring in America. He argues that the rise of corporate culture has eroded the middle class and created economic disparities, making life for an ordinary American much harder. Workers make virtually the same amount of money today than they did 30 years ago, and they have far fewer benefits.

The author dissects these incidents, including Columbine and the 1998 shooting at the Connecticut Lotto building in Newington, where a disgruntled accountant shot and killed four workers before turning the gun on himself.

Ames, an American expatriate who lived in Russia for over 10 years, offers a fresh perspective on these rampage shootings. His theory on the surface may come off as trying to defend killers - but he simply tells the big picture. Ames examines a question America has been asking without any conclusion. And he just might have the answer.

'Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat who Touched the World'

2010-05-03T00:11:00.001-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

If you like cats, books and libraries, then you need to read about “Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat who Touched the World.”

Dewey is a very special cat, because he loves people. It’s lucky his life is at a library in Spencer, Iowa, because he gets to meet dozens of people every day. Vicki Myron, the library director who found Dewey in the book drop one cold January morning, tells the story of how the little orange kitten changed her life.

It is wonderful to follow Vicki and Dewey on their day-to-day activities in and around the library. From the book cart (Dewey’s favorite) to board meetings where the cat is the center of attention, and Dewey’s diet of rubber bands is a constant topic of conversation, the reader gets a clear look at what life is like when a charming and outgoing cat is a part of your life.

You also get to know Vicki – where she came from, how she grew up and how she came to be a librarian – and the town where they live. Perhaps that’s the only minus for me with this book – there’s a little too much background and history of this small Iowa town.

I just wanted to read more about Dewey, and found the other chapters a bit overwhelming. A crazy orange cat who carries around his own red ball of yarn and loves to sleep under the Christmas tree – that, I could read about for hours.

Hiking with Bill Bryson

2010-04-29T17:16:00.000-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

Stretching from Maine to northern Georgia, the Appalachian Trail runs about 2,100 miles along the East Coast of the United States. It takes you through 350 mountain tops and beautiful valleys; it features deep woods and glittering streams.

Hiking the entire trail takes about five months.

No, I am not planning on going for a hike - Bill Bryson is. Or rather, he was. He already took the hike, back in 1996, and then he wrote a book about it.

In his usual fashion, Bryson intrigues me immediately. I can totally picture this slightly goofy, middle-aged man sitting on his New Hampshire couch thinking one day, "I'm gonna hike 2,000 miles!" His wife, of course, thought it a bad idea from the start.

From the adventure of buying expensive equipment that may or may not be neccessary to finding a friend and partner in crime to share the experience with, Bryson's story brings me along for the ride (For me, it is actually very comfortable. I don't have to lift more than my arms to hold the book up, and most of the time it is resting against the bed anyway).

The story feels like it could be my own. Not that I would ever go for such a long walk. But if I did, similar things would happen (is it really such a good idea to leave food on the ground when camping in bear territory?). I just wish I could write about them like Bryson does.

Bryson uses humor in ways other writers can only dream of - maybe it's his honesty that's so appealing.

I've often pondered dropping by Hanover, New Hampshire, to see Bill Bryson. It's a small college town. If I ask people where Bill Bryson lives, they might just tell me.

I'm not quite sure how well my visit would go over, though. Although I feel like I know Bryson from reading (most of) his books, I am quite certain he would stare blankly at me and say "who did you say you are again?" and "you are writing an article about me for WHAT paper?"

Hope is still alive and well that I will get to meet him one day. For now, though, I still have his books. And we've got lots of miles left to hike together on the Appalachian Trail.

A mental trip to Britain through books

2010-04-08T01:27:00.000-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

Last year when I had to have surgery, I brought Enid Blyton’s “The Island of Adventure” with me to the hospital. I figured the easy-to-read children’s book would help pass the time without making me completely exhausted.

I had read it many times before - when I was a lot younger, of course, and have always enjoyed reading anything she has written.

I was discharged from the hospital before I made it to Chapter 4, but at least the book brought me to the rocky hillside of north Britain for a few hours. With sentences like “It was pleasant at tea time that day” and “It was really most extraordinary,” I almost started reading it with a British accent.

During my first few days home from the surgery, a friend dropped by with a stack of books. “P.S. I Love You” by Cecelia Ahern immediately caught my attention, and it took me to Ireland for about a week, where people go to pubs and wear trainers and knickers and jumpers and sometimes have to go to hospital (without the “the,” which has always fascinated me – how can British English and American English be so different in some regards?).

Ahern's book was delightful, although a bit sad since it centers around coping with the loss of a loved one and how to move on.

Another book dropped into the mail a few days later from a friend in Sweden – “500 Reasons Why I Hate The Office.” It seemed like the perfect book at first, but after skimming through the first 65 pages or so, I realized it was just a bit too British for me. Perhaps I just didn't get it because I don’t work in a regular office, where “client entertainment” or “office creeps” or “dress codes” are discussed on a regular basis. It was funny, though, to read about organisations (spelled with an “s” instead of a “z”) and “socialising (same thing) with colleagues.”

But it wasn’t until I picked up Bill Bryson’s “Notes from a Small Island,” – where he tours England one last time before moving back to the United States – that I realized all my recent books had centered around the British isles. Bryson took me on a delightful trip via motorways and Marks & Spencer to zebra crossings and Towcester (pronounced “toaster,” allegedly). And again, I am reminded how much I like his humor and self-loathing voice.

'A Fair Maiden,' by Joyce Carol Oates

2010-04-01T12:49:00.000-04:00

By LESLIE PARSONS

It saddens me, maybe more than it should, that my inaugural post on the book blog be such a lukewarm review, especially consider that the book in question was written by one of my favorite authors.

Joyce Carol Oates - a woman who has appeared on my "Top 5 Public Figures I'd Have to a Dinner Party" list and countless other celebrity worship lists I've constructed in times of no better occupation - has failed to inspire me as she usually does.

In her latest work - at least I believe it to be her latest work, it is very possible in the few days it took me to read this book that she has published again - she tells the story of a 15-year-old nanny, a wrong-side-of-the-tracks summer transplant in an affluent harbor town, who becomes the object of affection, attention, and art for a 68-year-old man of note in the town whom she fears? loves? hates? admires? envies? understands? Katya struggles to process her hardly post-pubescent feelings for Mr. Kidder as the darkness of his desires become clear.

For me, the story fails in its telling - which is unfortunate considering that the tale itself is poignant, mysterious, and captivating. In what seems an effort to develop an underlying theme of the perversion of fairy tale, the author uses base, repetitive prose, forced allegory and trite language delivered from her characters to evoke the Cinderellas and Sleeping Beauties of our past, but some ideas are just better on paper.

But we trudge through the narrative, driven by the plot and our desire to know what will become of Katya when public encounters with Mr. Kidder turn to private, late-night rendezvous in his art studio in progressing stages of undress. And as the tale of an attractive, trim, blond girl from a notorious family - an alcoholic mother, an absent father, and a recently un-jailed kissing cousin - is juxtaposed against the wealth and privilege of the affluent Bayhead Harbor, striking moments develop that, quite honestly took this humble reader's breath away.

But you wait. You wait for those moments, flipping through pages of the stale development of the leading characters' interactions.

I found myself wishing against the safety of young Katya simply so that something would happen during the slow escalation of their relationship. It wasn't deliciously slow, as some moments spent waiting for the rise of action in a novel can be. I didn't find myself savoring the early progress of their encounters. It was just slow.

I should admit, though, that I'm spoiled by Oates' short fiction. I was first introduced to the author when one of her short stories came across my Little Tykes desk many years ago. OK, maybe it wasn't that long ago, but I have been with her for a long time. Her short stories are like Lindor truffles - small, perfectly wrapped, easily savored, complex, just this side of overwhelming, and available at any Barnes and Noble. I would have preferred this 165-page novel as a short story, I imagine.

But this leaves unanswered, due in no small part to the amblings of my own prose, the question that any book review seeks to address. Do you read this book? To which I say, yes, of course, because the worst of Joyce Carol Oates is better than the best of most authors, and I wouldn't even consider this the worst.

I look forward to reading "Dear Husband," a collection featuring the latest of Oates' short fiction, where I can once again return to one of my favorite authors in one of my favorite forms.

'The Rum Diary'

2010-03-29T15:31:00.000-04:00

By JUSTIN KLOCZKO

I’ve probably read “The Rum Diary,” a novel written by then 22-year-old Hunter Thompson about a washed-up writer pushing his luck in pre-tourist infested San Juan, Puerto Rico, about 3,000 times now. Each read gives me sudden urges to close my eyes, spin a globe and move to wherever my finger lands without even thinking.

The book takes place in the late 1950s, where a traveling journalist in his early 30s named Paul Kemp takes a job at a decadent english-language newspaper called the Daily News. Kemp pretty much comes to San Juan as a suit-and-tie city boy, and before leaving, develops a vicious affinity for rum on rice and a series of un-healthy relationships with the people he encounters on the tropical island.

The book has shades of romanticism and deals with the fear of feeling over the hill and never having any meaningful direction in life. Although Thompson pitched this fictional book while trying to break through as an author in the early 60’s, much of the events are really based on Thompson’s experiences when he was actually living in San Juan and writing for various sporting publications.

Ironically, it bounced several times and was never published until toward the end of Thompson’s career, some forty years later. In between, Thompson went on to being the first to chronicle the Hell’s Angels, where he survived an infamous beat down by the gang before breaking ties. Those unfamiliar with his writing may have seen “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a Terry Gilliam film with Johnny Depp based on the book of the same name. Depp is reprising his role for a film adaption of “The Rum Diary” set to be released later this year.

This book is a quick and fun read, written in more of a Hemingway-esque prose than the aggressive and off-the-wall gonzo style Thompson is known for. In this book, everyone on staff has a chip on their shoulder.

There is the blatantly arrogant Yeamon, a nut-job who people avoid, a guy named Moberg who is always fanatically drunk, and a paranoid publisher who thinks everyone working for him is out to sink the paper. Throw in a beautiful blonde named Cheanult, and you’ve got a cast of characters that lay the work for a rampant, stream-of-conscious narrative that does things hard to do: It makes the reader laugh out loud.

Part of the fun in reading the book and being familiar with Thompson’s background is trying to figure out the parts that actually happened. There is a scene toward the end where Kemp and the other Americans get into a brawl with cops and end up in jail. In some of Thompson’s later recordings, he confirms the scene in passing conversation as having actually happened.

Although a work of fiction, Thompson was still writing his novel based on some sort of “truth.”
If you’ve got a few hours and a bottle of rum to kill, go read this book.

'Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express'

2010-03-24T12:53:00.000-04:00

By LAUREN FLAUM

I have a thing for cookbooks. I own shelves and shelves of them: Some glossy with beautiful full-page colors photos; some large hardcover tomes of recipe after recipe; some from famous chefs like Julia Child and some from unknowns.

Even with my vast collection, I find myself renewing the same book from the library over and over -- or as many times as they'll let me. "Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express" is like none other. Toss out any notion you may have of a traditional cookbook. Bittman scraps the ingredients list, throws format to the wind and doesn't even think about measurements.

Bittman is something of a celebrity in the food world. His face might not be as synonymous as say, Rachael Ray, but he's certainly on the scene. Bittman writes a weekly column for the New York Times, called "The Minimalist," with an accompanying blog and he brings that same realistic and simplistic approach in the kitchen to the recipes in this, his latest book.

The book is filled with 404 recipes -- broken down into 101 dishes for each season. Each recipe is just one paragraph and provides a quick sketch of what to do, with a short blurb before each explaining, describing, offering a variation or giving suggestions of what to serve alongside. Also, each recipe can be made in under 20 minutes -- some in as little as five.

First off, I love that Bittman has broken the book down by seasons. This is the proper way to cook. Good ingredients are the backbone of excellent home cooking, and you're more likely to find quality ingredients in season. "As it happens," Bittman says, "asparagus is best in spring, broccoli in fall, corn in summer, and so on." Bottom line: Mother Nature knows best.

The recipes themselves are fresh and innovative. They range from classics, like Caesar salad, to new takes on the common, like Gruyere apple grilled cheese, to full-on fusion, like an Italian tostada. And some are so eccentric (and wonderful!), they defy categorization altogether, like Nutella fondue. Are you drooling yet?

Each seasonal chapter begins with breakfast, goes on to soup and salad, then on to sandwiches and vegetarian cuisine before segueing into fish, chicken, pork, beef and lamb; next up it's pasta, and finally, dessert. As you can see, this is a very comprehensive approach to cooking and makes planning a whole meal -- from appetizer to ending -- a snap.

Lately, I've been delving into the Spring section, and recently made Bittman's chicken tandoori. Broiled on wooden skewers, I served it with roasted asparagus (yum!) and will soon be providing the recipe on my own blog, Live to Eat. It was incredibly easy and tasty, just like everything else I've whipped up from the book thus far. I'm also jazzed to try a few more of his springtime selections, including udon noodles with green tea broth, BLT salad, Middle Eastern pizza and bittersweet chocolate crepes with smashed fruit.

Looking into my culinary crystal ball, I can clearly see that the grill will get a lot of use this summer, and Bittman will be right there with me. From jerk chicken to Korean barbecued beef and the author's take on "a very good burger," I can't wait to get my food over an open flame. And for days when it's simply to hot to fuss, I definitely planning on trying out some of his cool summer stuff, such as a feta and watermelon salad or zucchini and dill soup.

The blurb on the back of "Kitchen Express" notes that "this style of cooking is about three things: speed, flexibility and relaxation." I dig it. In fact, the idea of cooking foods in a fast, flexible and relaxing way is so appealing, I think I'll make it my own new culinary mantra.

'Up for Renewal'

2010-03-24T00:37:00.000-04:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

“Up for Renewal” follows writer Cathy Alter as she takes on the task of letting magazines guide her life.

Alter, a divorced Jewish woman living in Washington, D.C., sets out on the task of letting "O," "Cosmopolitan" and "Glamour" teach her about love, sex and starting her life over. And in 12 months, she manages to do just that.

First, she learns how to wrap a sandwich to bring to work using a clingy plastic wrap. Then, she learns how to make a whole meal. She even learns to get rid of her "upper-arm jiggle," to be comfortable with going camping, how to live without washing her hair every day and how to paint her apartment.

One of the reviewers on the back cover of the book said it feels like you’ve made a new friend when you read it, and that’s really how I felt. While I chuckled slightly and felt significantly more domestic than Alter as she stumbled through her sandwich stage, I found her voice open and honest and it was very easy to feel sympathetic for her many failures.

Of course, the book isn’t for everyone. For one thing, there are several references to Alter and her co-worker having sex at work, which may be too much to handle for some. Others might just not understand Alter’s personality.

I lent “Up for Renewal” to a co-worker who was going through a renewal face, and she hated it.
“This woman can’t even make a sandwich,” was the first thing she said.
“But didn’t you think it was funny?” I asked.
“Not really. She gives all Jewish women from Connecticut a bad name.”

She quickly handed the book back, as if not wanting to be seen with it near her desk. But that’s OK. We can’t all like the same thing. I am currently having my “Monster of Florence” co-worker read it just to see if I’m crazy, or if she likes it too.

I’ll get back to you on how that goes.

'Behind the Bell'

2010-03-23T00:22:00.000-04:00

By WALT GOGOLYA

"Saved By The Bell" was one of the cheesiest shows in the history of television, but I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here when I say it was also one of the most beloved.

Don’t roll your eyes! You all watched it. All the boys had crushes on Kelly Kapowski and the girls argued over who was hotter Zack or Slater. We all thought Lisa was cute but maybe a bit asexual, and Jessie’s feminism was too “in your face” but she had legs that went all the way up to Ya Ya.

As for Samuel Screeh Powers, well, let's just say he may have been the most annoying TV character ever, right up there with Urkel. But, I must admit, I do remember laughing at some of his lame jokes. And I know you did, too.

"Saved By The Bell" was never “appointment viewing” or “Must See TV” but over the course of my lifetime, like many of you, I think I’ve seen EVERY episode.

I know most of the words to “Friends Forever.” I thought it was really strange when Jessie was addicted to caffeine pills and freaked out. I recall waaaay too many dance numbers that made you squirm in your seat yet smile at the same time. Remember Lisa’s sprained-ankle dance or Slater’s ballet number in the black unitard? Yeah, of course you do!

So, while I’m not embarrassed to call myself a fan of the show, I suppose I’m a little embarrassed to admit I just finished reading the book “Behind The Bell” by Dustin Diamond, aka Screech Powers (it was a fast read, took 2 hours).

It was marketed as a “tell all” – a behind-the-scenes look at what really went on when the cameras weren’t rolling.

Screech alleges in the book that everyone was sleeping together and that all the cast members (except Screech) were pot heads who smoked up during rehearsals and drank themselves silly on the weekends.

Years after the show ended, Lark Vorhies (Lisa) seemed distant toward men and flinched whenever she heard loud noises. While he never came out and said it, Screech alleges that she was possibly a battered woman.

Who knows what to believe and what not to? I, for one, am inclined to believe most of this. After all, when the show was filmed in the late 80s/early 90s, the cast was all teenagers. Of course they partied. Didn’t we all?

What bugged me most is that Dustin Diamond came off as the tattle-tale in school that nobody liked. But I am a little biased since I’ve always hated the character.

As some of you may know, late night talker Jimmy Fallon is trying to organize an on-air "Saved By The Bell" reunion. Pretty much everyone has signed on except for Screech who says he’s “too busy.” Perhaps Fallon should just read the book instead.

'In the Woods'

2010-03-16T23:02:00.000-04:00

By WALT GOGOLYA

I recently finished the novel “In the Woods” by first-time author Tana French. I had never heard a thing about it before I picked it up at Borders about two weeks ago. I read the back cover, then the first chapter. Twenty minutes later I was in the check-out line – book in hand.

"In the Woods" is the first book since "In Cold Blood" (which I read junior year of high school) to give me nightmares.

Set in the suburbs of Dublin, "In the Woods" is a multilayered story that combines the gritty worldliness of a police procedural with the eerie chills of a psychological thriller. Think "Law and Order: SVU" meets "The X-Files."

Detective Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, must find a child-killer who has done his dirty work in the same woods where Ryan, 20 years before, was the sole survivor of a bloody incident that left him with a blanked-out memory. Looming on the horizon: the obliteration of the crime scene by a new highway.

Is the new murder related to the earlier disappearances? Are the anti-highway protesters involved? Will pursuing the case unlock Ryan’s memory – and does he really want it unlocked?

When the killer was finally revealed I must admit, I was not SUPER shocked at who it turned out to be, though I was shocked of the motive behind it. However, it’s the story of what ( may or may not have ) happened to Rob Ryan and his two childhood pals 20 years earlier that had me spooked and re -reading chapters trying to piece together the mystery myself.

I recommend this book to the casual reader and I can’t recommend it enough to those of you out there who like a good crime novel with a “whodunnit” storyline.

And while a few mysteries in the book may leave some scratching your heads, the answers are all there for you, it’s just a matter of whether or not you let yourself believe them.

'The Monster of Florence'

2010-03-13T01:40:00.000-05:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

A co-worker first recommended the book “The Monster of Florence” in November. I got it for Christmas, and I finished reading it a couple of weeks later.

The book by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi takes you through 14 brutal murders in and around Florence, Italy, dating back 20 years, and the Italian law enforcement’s search for the killer. But this is also a story of how a local newspaper journalist becomes a monster expert through his own investigations and great reporting, and later a suspect in the murders.

It is a story of how the Italian legal system lacks oversight, how prosecutors tell investigators what to look for (and what to find), and how innocent people can be convicted of heinous crimes with almost no physical evidence to back up the charges.

The story is extremely timely and relevant as 22-year-old American Amanda Knox was just convicted in the killing of a British exchange student in Perugia, Italy, in December.

At the center of both cases is prosecutor Guiliano Mignini. Mignini was indicted and charged with abuse of office in 2006 and "abetting" in the Monster of Florence case after he ordered wiretaps on several journalists – especially those who wrote about him critically – and area judges, but he was still allowed to keep working as a prosecutor despite the charges against him. He was convicted of abuse of office in January.

There seems to be a bias in prosecution in both the Knox case and the Monster case. Once the prosecutor made up his mind about who he thought was behind the Monster of Florence crimes, Mignini disregarded not only physical evidence, but also common sense. It seems he has done the same in the Knox case.

According to CBS blog Crimesider, Mignini quietly appeared in court on and off for his own trial since April 2008, while waging a highly publicized prosecution against Knox.

Did Amanda Knox really kill her roommate? I don’t know. But she should at least be allowed a fair trial, and not a trial overseen by a man who did not let people have fair trials.

After reading this book, I hope Knox gets a chance to appeal her conviction and that a separate set of eyes – people who are not on Magnini’s payroll – will re-examine the evidence against her.

'In the Middle of the Night'

2010-03-09T21:53:00.000-05:00

By VIKTORIA SUNDQVIST

When I first picked up the controversial book about the July 2007 murders in Cheshire, I was hoping to learn more details of the actual case. I wanted to read about what had happened that morning as Dr. William Petit became the only survivor in his family of a brutal home invasion that ended with a beautiful New England home going up in flames.

As I started reading “In the Middle of the Night,” however, I quickly realized that Brian McDonald’s book is more a disguised love store with one of the suspects arrested in the case, Joshua Komisarjevsky; it is the story about a homeschooled child raised in a Christian home, who had overcome so much, but still turned to crime at an early age.

I really didn’t want to read about Komisarjevsky’s grandfather renovating his barn in the 1980s, nor did I want to read about his family and what they have accomplished – it is simply irrelevant to this case and I quickly skipped over several pages when his family history came up.

Two men committed this crime and are currently awaiting trial for it, and it is clear that one person is featured in a favorable light (as if the author is saying "I understand why you did this, it's OK") and the other is blamed for most of what happened ("he was a fat, clumsy, not so bright guy from Winsted" - my interpretation of what the author wrote, not actual quotes from the book).

This deadly home invasion happened on a quiet street not more than 15 minutes from where I’ve spent most of my years in Connecticut. It was in a safe neighborhood, where nobody locked their doors, and it happened to an average family, who had no connection to the brutal criminals who broke into their house as they lay safely in their beds.

I want to read THEIR story – the story that Dr. Petit will one day tell, and may has already shared with some of his close friends. I want to know what gave him the courage to keep going after everyone he loved was gone.

What I definitely do not want to read is a glorified version of events from the viewpoint of one of the two criminals currently on trial for the tree deaths, a man who was not supposed to have any contact with anyone on the outside except his lawyer, but somehow managed to write pages worth of letters to a mediocre author who wanted to make some money. And, it should be said, the author also managed to lie his way into prison to visit Komisarjevsky, by pretending to be an attorney.

In Cheshire, many protested as the library was set to buy copies of the book. The library said it is part of the town’s history; residents said nobody should support this book because of the horrible events it portrays and how McDonald went about writing it.

I say, let the library have it – that way, nobody needs to waste any of their money on buying it, and McDonald won’t sell anymore books.

In December, only a little over 21,000 copies of the book had sold on Amazon.com, something a local judge pointed out as he denied an attorney's request to have the triple-murder trial moved to a different court. The defense attorney for Stephen Hayes claims the book blames his client for setting fire to the house and says this is taining the jury pool so it will be impossible for Hayes to get a fair trial. The judge did not agree, and the trial is set to start any day now in New Haven (last I heard jury selection was under way).

I'm glad a review copy of the book landed on my desk - I certainly would have never paid to read it.

Read about books here!

2010-03-09T14:38:00.000-05:00

The Middletown Press has gotten some requests for a book-related blog, so here it is!

On this blog, anyone on our staff who has read a book recently will post book reviews and comments about what they've read. We welcome you to use the comment fields to tell us about the books you've read, intend to read, or never want to read.