The Buzz...About Books

Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: Reading to Help Your Nothing Day

The Mary Tyler Moore Show almost didn't make it after all.  Jennifer Armstrong's Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted reveals that early audiences gave it a chilly reception. 36 years later, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is cited as setting the bar for television comedy and for women's roles on TV. Without Mary Richards, there would be no Liz Lemon. Throw your hat in the ring - reserve your copy today to get the scoop on the writers, the cast dynamics, Veal Prince Orloff and Chuckles the Clown. 

Armstrong speaks about her book. Read her interview. Advance reviews are glowing: Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly love it. Recall some fave characters here. According to the Huffington Post, the female cast members will reunite on an upcoming Hot in Cleveland episode - made bittersweet with Valerie Harper's recent announcement about her illness.

 

Further reading from MTM alumnae:

Oprah is a serious MTM fan. Watch this:

Mimzi, the MTM kitty......

Waiting for Dan Brown's next book? Try other books set in or about Florence.

Inferno, the next thriller in Dan Brown's series about Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is scheduled to be published in mid-May.   We have many copies on order, so place your hold now!  The book is available in audiobook, Large Print, eAudiobook and Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons) formats as well.

In this new book, Robert Langdon finds himself in the beautiful city of Florence, Italy and involved in another adventure. This time it involves the Inferno, the first book of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, where Dante and his guide Virgil travel through the layers of Hell.  If this story is similar to the previous books in the series, Langdon will face dangerous adversaries and will have to solve mysteries and riddles to save the world - once again.

Alternatively, if you've recently been to (or are planning to attend) the current exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Revealing the Early Renaissance: Stories and Secrets in Florentine Art, this too may have sparked an interest to learn more about Renaissance Florence.  If that is the case, you may want to attend the upcoming program Florentine Altarpieces in the Early Renaissance, which is being held on May 7th at North York Central Library.

So,  whether you are eagerly awaiting Dan Brown's next thriller, or looking forward to visiting the AGO exhibit (or perhaps both), have a look at this list of books about Florence and/or Dante:

Non-Fiction

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
In this classic poem, as Dante travels through Hell with his guide Virgil, he describes an underworld of nine concentric circles of increasingly agonising torture, where he encounters doomed souls including the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicide Cleopatra, and his own political enemies.  His journey continues in the next two volumes of the poem, Purgatorio and Paradiso.

April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici by Laura Martines
In 1478, assassins attacked the brothers Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici while they attended mass in Florence's Cathedral.  Giuliano was killed.  This is the story of the conspiracy behind the assassination and the resulting reprisals by Lorenzo de Medici.

Brunelleschi’s Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence by Ross King.
When it was completed, the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence was hailed as one of the wonders of the world  and it still retains a rare power to astonish six centuries later.  This is the story of the building of the dome, which was the greatest architectural puzzle of its age.  To this day, it remains the largest masonry dome ever constructed. Also available in Large Print.

Dante in Love: The World’s Greatest Poem and How It Made History by Harriet Rubin.
 Rubin reconstructs Dante's love for Beatrice and his years of travel and exile, while also examining the impact that contemporary events had on his writing of the Divine Comedy. 

Medici money : banking, metaphysics, and art in fifteenth-century Florence by Tim Parks.
While the Medici family were late entrants into the world of banking, they used their resources to rise to the height of political power in fifteenth-century republican Florence and to extend patronage not only to political supporters but also to artists and scholars.

 

Fiction

The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
In 1865 Boston, as the Dante Club, which includes poets and Harvard professors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, prepares to release the first translation of Dante's "The Divine Comedy", they are threatened by a series of murders that re-create episodes from "Inferno". Also available in audiobook.

I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis.
When Madonna Lisa’s love, Giuliano de Medici, meets a tragic end, Lisa must then gather all her courage and cunning to untangle a sinister web of illicit love, treachery, and dangerous secrets that threatens her life.  

The Mosaic Crimes by Guilio Leoni, translated from Italian by Anne Milano Appel.
In the aftermath of an artist's murder in 1300 Florence, Dante Alighieri undertakes the investigation, during which he wonders about an assembly of seven master scholars and the secret behind the victim's mosaic.

The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland.
After Artemisia Gentileschi finds herself humiliated in the papal court, her new husband takes her to Florence, where her talent for painting blossoms and she begins a lifelong search to reconcile painting and motherhood, passion and genius. Also available in audiobook.

Midnight Angels by Lorenzo Carcaterra.
While exploring Florence, art students Kate Westcott and Marco Scudarti uncover a secret chamber which holds lost scuptures by Michelangelo. When word of the discovery gets out, Kate and Marco are pursued by criminals and fall under suspicion from the elite Rome Art Squad. Kate and Marco race to preserve and protect not only Michelangelo’s work but also their lives. A thrilling page-turner.

Calling All Angels: Heavenly Creatures in Recent Fiction

Angel fiction is all the rage. Fans of Danielle Trussoni's best-selling Angelology, a tale of secret societies, ancient libraries, and fallen angels, eagerly await the upcoming release of Angelopolis. If you like books by Dan Brown, you must check this series out. Even more exciting, Will Smith has signed on to produce the film adaptation. Paul Bettany in Legion (above) is one of the many heavenly bodies to grace the big screen. The super-hot Mortal Instruments series is due to hit theatres in August.

Recent titles featuring angels (and a few hot demons) range from steamy romance (J.R. Ward), to mystery (Linda Poitven), to dark urban fantasy (Tad Williams, Nalini Singh). This sub-genre is a celestial mash-up of religious sources, literary traditions, and pure invention. Fallen angels make for less than angelic behaviour - which is part of the attraction. Angel fiction by Laini Taylor, Lauren Kate, Michelle Rowan, and Becca Fitzpatrick appeal to both teen and adult readers. In fact, Lauren Kate's fallen angel, Daniel Grigori, is arguably even more sparkly than Edward Cullen. Some angels are just working stiffs: Stephanie Chong's guardian angel, Serena St. Clair, has a day job as a yoga instructor. Simon Rich's What in God's Name? takes this to the next level: God is a cranky CEO who wants to liquidate his assets  - but not before he challenges two underpaid angels to save the Earth.

Read on:

Check out these seraphic graphics - fallen angels have long been a fixture in graphic fiction:           

Ben Foster's role as the mutant, Angel, in X-Men 3: The Last Stand is oft cited as a positive LGBT symbol.  

Putting on the Fitz: Books about F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald ruled the Jazz Age. Rich, talented, beautiful, and outrageous - Scott and Zelda partied like it was 1925.  Both continue to fascinate the public and inspire novelists, filmmakers and artists. Director Baz Luhrmann's upcoming The Great Gatsby and the recently published Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Fowler will renew interest in this beautiful but damned couple.

Fun fact: video game designer Shigeru Miyamo named his pixel princess "Zelda" after Zelda Fitzgerald.

Scott, one of the greatest modern writers, wrote The Great Gatsby.  Zelda was a glamorous southern belle who smoked, drank, played with boys - and got away with it. 

Together they ruled as the celebrity couple of the 1920s, the king and queen of the Lost Generation with Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Josephine Baker, Jon Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and Isadora Duncan.

But it wasn't all golden. Zelda was Scott's muse - but she was also a rival and struggled with her artistic ambitions. Hemingway viewed her as Scott's Yoko Ono; Zelda thought Hemingway was a jerk. Alcoholism and mental illness were the dark passengers that dogged their so-called charmed life. Scott died at 44 from a heart attack; Zelda died in a fire at a mental institution.

 Rare glimpes of the Fitzgeralds:

Fictionalized works with the Fitzgeralds:

  The Beautiful and the Damned

Andrew Solomon's New Book: Winner Selected!

The winner of the Andrew Solomon book contest is Jean T.

Thank you everyone for entering!

Andrew Solomon, winner of the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon: an Atlas of Depression, will be appearing at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon on November 20. Tickets for the event are available today.

Mr. Solomon's new book Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity is an exploration of the relationship between parents and children.

Publisher's Description:

From the National Book Award–winning author of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression comes a monumental new work, a decade in the writing, about family. In Far from the Tree, Andrew Solomon tells the stories of parents who not only learn to deal with their exceptional children but also find profound meaning in doing so.

Solomon’s startling proposition is that diversity is what unites us all. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, multiple severe disabilities, with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, as are the triumphs of love Solomon documents in every chapter.

All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent parents should accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on forty thousand pages of interview transcripts with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges. Whether considering prenatal screening for genetic disorders, cochlear implants for the deaf, or gender reassignment surgery for transgender people, Solomon narrates a universal struggle toward compassion. Many families grow closer through caring for a challenging child; most discover supportive communities of others similarly affected; some are inspired to become advocates and activists, celebrating the very conditions they once feared. Woven into their courageous and affirming stories is Solomon’s journey to accepting his own identity, which culminated in his midlife decision, influenced by this research, to become a parent.

Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original thinker, Far from the Tree explores themes of generosity, acceptance, and tolerance—all rooted in the insight that love can transcend every prejudice. This crucial and revelatory book expands our definition of what it is to be human.

Gutsy Women of the Future

Have you read all of the Hunger Games books and are looking for something new to read? Try Moira Young's debut novel, Blood Red Road. 

Saba is an 18 year old girl, living a secluded life with her father, twin brother Lugh and younger sister Emmi. Life is hard for this family, as the lake that they depend on for survival is drying up and their father refuses to move. Saba's mother died giving birth to Emmi and Saba continues to hold a grudge against her sister. Lugh is the only thing that Saba adores; although they are twins, he is everything that she is not, light haired, blue-eyed, kind and loving.

One day armed men on horseback arrive at the family shack, killing their father and kidnapping Lugh. As the men tie Lugh to a horse, Saba promises: "Wherever they take you, I swear I'll find you." This event will lead Saba and Emmi on an epic quest to find Lugh.

Without Lugh, Saba believes she is lost; she had always just been his shadow. Suddenly thrown into a vicious new world Saba realizes she is a fighter and most importantly a survivor. What began as a journey to free her brother may in fact change the world.

Ridley Scott already has plans to make this into a movie. The sequel, Rebel Heart will be published in October and is on order with the library. Place you holds now!

Also available: eBook

Who's *That* Woman? Madonna and Mrs. Simpson

   

The Duchess of Windsor, previously Wallis Simpson, is 'that woman,' the American divorcée for whom King Edward VIII abdicated his throne to marry (leaving baby brother Bertie to stutter his way to the top job).  Sex, power, and glamour: Wallis was reviled by a scandalized (yet fascinated) public. No surprise that Wallis' brunette ambition captured the imagination of Madonna.  W.E., her film structured around the Wallis and Edward romance, is now at the TIFF.  For critics, reviewing Madonna's directing (and acting) is a bloodsport. After its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the Guardian describes W.E. as "a primped and simpering folly, preening and fatally mishandled." 

Upcoming books revisiting Wallis are in the works, including That Woman by Anne Sebba due out next year.

Ms. Ciccone identifies with Ms. Simpson: "I think she felt an existential loneliness."  Read more about her interest in Wallis here.  Read Gus van Sant's piece on Madonna for Interview.

Madonna has another bizarre mission: to prove that the Duchess was not a Nazi sympathizer. In the Globe and Mail, Madonna states ..."after years of research, I could find no empirical evidence proving she was a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer." 

Madonna could have visited her local library to get help with her research.

Interested in Simpson and the royal abdication that rocked a nation?  Further reading:

• The Darkness of Wallis Simpson and other Stories by Rose Tremain
• The War Memoir of (HRH) Wallis, Duchess of Windsor by Katherine Ausptiz
• Duchess: the Story of Wallis Warfield by Steven Birmingham
• The Duchess a.ka. Wallis Simpson by Linda Griffiths
• Wallis: the Novel by Anne Edwards
• The Duchess of Windsor: the Secret Life by Charles Higham
• The Duchess of Windsor by Michael Bloch
• Wallis & Edward, Letters 1931-1937: the Intimate Correspondence of the Duke and the Duchess of Windsor ed. by Michael Bloch
• The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor by Nicholas Rayner
• Famous Last Words by Timothy Findley

If you happen to get tickets to catch W.E. at the Toronto International Film Festival, let Madge know what you think.

Just don't give her any hydrangeas.

Bono: He Was Born This Way

In Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man, Chaz Bono tells the story of his gender transition from female to male. Born Chastity Sun Bono in 1969, Chaz is the child of Cher and the late Sonny Bono. In 1995, Chaz came out publicly as a lesbian - and in 2008 realized his true dream when he began the process of gender reassignment.

Becoming Chaz, a documentary about his sex change, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and will be released May 10. Watch the trailer.

Chaz's relationship with his celebrity mom has been stormy.  Cher, an iconic figure to the gay community, has made public her earlier struggles with accepting her child's sexuality. Read Cher's interview in Vanity Fair and watch Letterman's befuddled interview with her (she really, really scares him).

But this isn't all about Cher. 

Visit Chaz's website and learn about his ongoing work as a LGBT activist. Read his earlier book, Family Outing, a guide for young people coming out, and The End of Innocence, which he wrote in 2002 as Chastity.

See his first public interview with Mary Hart after his transition. Watch these clips from Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project: including words of hope from Chaz, Adam Lambert, Woody (from Toy Story 3), and Lady Gaga. And speaking of, put your paws up and dance to Gaga's Born this Way.

Further reading:

What Becomes You by Aaron Raz Link and Hilda Raz	Becoming a Woman by Richard F. Docter	The First Man-Made Man by Pagan Kennedy	The Testosterone Files by Max Valerio

"It's Hammer Time!"

On May 6, Kenneth Branagh's Thor opens in theatres - and the Toronto Public Library doth have mighty reads featuring the Son of Odin.    

Branagh with his Shakespearean gravitas seems an unlikely fit with a superhero film. Watch his interview at the Comics Con in San Diego. It may surprise you.

Oscar-winner Natalie Portman plays Thor's earthly love, Jane Foster. Read how filming Thor kept her sane after The Black Swan. Chris Hemsworth, a relative newcomer, has the role of Thor.

Branagh's casting of British actor, Idris Elba (The Wire, Luther) as Heimdall, the Norse guardian of Asgard, was truly inspired. Read Elba's take in the UK Guardian.

Thor, a prominent figure in Norse mythology and immortalized in the Eddas, reached the height of popularity during the Viking Era. Thor's legacy continues - not only did he inspire "Thursday" - but some wicked cool comic books.

 

One of the most interesting (and weirder) creations of Marvel, Thor first appeared in Journey Into Mystery #83 in 1962, created by the immortal Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. Thor and the tales of Asgard have endured for over 40 years. Thor's Marvel-ous charm includes his hyperbolic mash-up of pseudo-medieval  diction:

"The power within Mjolnir doth rage like the winter storms bursting upon the shore in furious assault!"

 

 

 

 

 The cast of Thor (from left to right) Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth, Idris Elba

And the merchandising: last weekend, I stood puzzling at a display of Easter Thors (because nothing suggests Easter more than Norse gods made of chocolate).

Further reading:

• Norse Mythology: The Myths and Legends of the Nordic Gods by Arthur Cotterell
• Marvel Adventures:  Avengers / Thor by Paul Toibin
• Visionaries: Thor by Walter Simonson
• Avengers Disassembled: The Mighty Thor by Michael Avon Oeming
• Ragnarok: Eve of Apocalypse by Myŏng-lang Yi  (Korean graphic fiction series based on Norse mythology)

  
  

 

 

 

 

Leader of the (Brat) Pack

Rob Lowe's autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography, will be released April 28. And I can't wait. The May issue of Vanity Fair has an excerpt  in which Lowe recalls his gruelling audition for Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 The Outsiders where he competes with Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Tom Cruise, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, and Val Kilmer.

Watch these audition tapes for The Outsiders. Part 1 and Part 2.

Lowe, a member of the so-called Brat Pack, a wild group of young actors in the 80s which included Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Jon Cryer, Robert Downy Jr., and Charlie Sheen, is no stranger to scandal.  However, Lowe stayed ahead of the pack, survived the 80s, and has a fairly solid career in television (The West Wing, Brothers and Sisters, Parks and Recreation). 

Listen to the podcast of Lowe reading from his excerpt in the May issue of Vanity Fair.

Further reading:

• You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, and Their Impact on a Generation by Susannah Gora (2010)
• "The Birth of Hollywood's Brat Pack" by David Blum, New York Magazine 1985.  These actors loathed the term "Brat Pack" - and some even blame this article for the declines in their careers.