The Lion's Eye

I just finished reading The Lion's Eye-- Seeing in the Wild, by Joanna Greenfield. For anyone who loves Africa or loves animals, this is a must-read. Greenfield spent time during college studying chimpanzees in the rainforests of Uganda, at a time when Uganda was barely out of its Idi Amin horror years. Her book offers insight about animal behavior, nature writing and philosophy about the meaning of life.

What I most appreciated about the book was the balance the author brought to her findings. Animals are depicted as beautiful and soulful-- check out her descriptions of leopards hiding in plain sight in an acacia tree on the plain in Kenya. The image of the chimp relaxing in ecstasy as he is groomed by his mother-- both up in a tree in the first ray of sunshine after days of unrelenting rain-- makes me want to get back on a plane to Africa. But Greenfield doesn't romanticize Africa-- she sees its problems clearly. Her description of the child soldiers inspecting her passport at a bus checkpoint-- and deciding if she lives or dies-- is all too real. And her lament about the endless expansion of Nairobi's population at the expense of land for wild creatures hits at misguided US foreign policy without being overtly political.

This multi-layered book has me thinking, and it will do the same for you too. Highly recommended reading.

-Melissa Cook, co-founder of Scene East
http://www.sceneeast.blogspot.com/

The Book Cove's Annual Halloween Party, 2009 Edition

Signing Series Builds Steam in September

We adjourned for the month of August; the Cove will start our signings again in September. Four authors are scheduled: Gayle Forman, Lucinda Franks, Marta Szabo, and Susan Richards.

Gayle will be coming on Thursday September 10th at 7 pm, to read and talk about If I Stay. Before Gayle's book was even published, its movie rights were purchased by Summit Entertainment, the studio behind the Twilight franchise. If I Stay quickly became a New York Times-bestselling book (debuting in the Top 10), and Eric Feig of Summit raves, "Not since Twilight have we seen as emotionally moving a book for a youth audience with this kind of crossover appeal." Gayle's book has been flying off the shelves, and has been quite a hit with the young adult crowd!

Friday September 18th at 7 pm, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Lucinda Franks will be coming to Pawling. Lucinda's event for her memoir, My Father's Secret War, will be hosted at Trinity Pawling School in their brand new theater. My Father's Secret War is being made into a movie, with Keifer and Donald Sutherland as the leads. The Chicago Tribune raves about the book, calling it "a harrowing chapter of military history is told as a suspenseful spy story." The LA Times agrees: "An illuminating, gripping narrative." This is a great event to come to if you like WWII history, geneology, spy stories, or journalism.

Saturday September 26th at 1 pm, Marta Szabo will come to the Cove for her memoir, The Guru Looked Good. A life-long writer, Marta is a founding member of the Woodstock Memoir Festival and co-directs the Authentic Writing Workshops. If you enjoy memoirs, yoga, or "group think", this is the signing for you!

Thursday September 24th, at 7 pm, New York Times-bestselling memoirist Susan Richards will join us. Susan's first memoir, Chosen By a Horse, was a huge hit with the Cove staff; we all loved it. Susan writes beautifully, and her candor is what binds the reader to her story. The Boston Globe concurs: "This is an inspirational story of what family means, and what the loss of one can do to us, and for us."


Visit Gayle's website: http://www.ifistay.com/book.php
Visit Lucinda's website: http://www.lucindafranks.com/
Visit Marta's website: http://the-guru-looked-good.blogspot.com/
Visit Susan's website: http://www.susan-richards.com/

Snow in Summer

By Eileen Gunning
I am excited about sharing some of the books I have read this summer! A word of explanation: In the summer I love reading about cold places-really cold places. So many of these books have as themes places and spaces of cold, or are in some way connected to snow, ice and all those things that we hate in winter but are attractive now!

This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland Gretel Ehrlich
This remarkable book is a celebration of a way of life and a space that few of us will even really experience in the depth portrayed here. Yes, some of us may take perhaps a trip on a ship to the glacier, a tour of Alaska, but in This Cold Heaven, Bretel takes us behind the scenes in the Arctic, actually living and working with the peoples who have made Greenland their home. In 1993, Gretel goes to Greenland for the first time to recover from an accident that affected her heart. It is not clear whether this was an emotional or a physical injury, since going above treeline seems an unusual place to heal a physical heart!

Starting with some of the old explorers (Kent, Rasmussen), and winding its way around the mythological and paleohistory of the land and its peoples, her prose is glorious. She mentions questions raised by Stephen Hawkins and answers: “All objects are created in the service of light. They are the obstructions on which the light bumps itself into a shaped existence: black headed seals pop up, then disappear; a duck dives; an iceberg topples. Dose ice exist because it there is light, or is it the other way around?” p115

Her descriptions are vivid: “ It begins with ice and ends with ice. What looks like open water is ice cleared of snow, or else ice blink caused by the shadow of a cloud making frozen water look blue, or sky’s reflection of open water turning clouds dark. Up on the ice cap, the innerssuit (beach spirits) and the inorsuit (glacier spirits) cavorted coming to play with our minds. ….The chunk of glacier ice we brought into our tent to melt for water exploded.” p303

An excellent read for the armchair traveler, the historian, the anthropologist, the adventurer, the wildlife lover and the beach bum wanting to cool off!

Eileen is our first guest blogger. If you are interested in writing a book review, we would be happy to post it on our blog.

Ann Hood Draws a Crowd

All the seats were filled. Bestselling author Ann Hood began her talk, and then read an excerpt from The Knitting Circle. As Ann read, more and more people filed through the door. By the time Q&A started, more than 2 dozen people filled the room. A fair number of knitters had come, as well as some Ann Hood fans, and those just in the mood for a good read. Everyone listened avidly as Ann shared anecdotes from her life, drawing laughs and empathy from her listeners.

Ann and her friend Tracy came all the way from Providence, RI to join us! A sincere thank you to both ladies for making the trip, as well as to our audience members for being so great.

Visit the author's website: http://www.annhood.us/
Visit the Yarn and Craft Box's website, our local knitting haven: http://www.yarnandcraftbox.com/

Children's Celebration

We were very pleased to host five children's authors at the Cove! Helen Lester, Ed Young, Patricia Hubbell, Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, and James Warhola joined us to sign their books.
Each author is very distinguished in their field, and they were all pleased to meet each other and "talk shop." A big thank you to each author for coming!

Sephora Succeeds Scribner's

One of the oldest bookstores in the world, Charles Scribner's Sons, has gone out of business. Established in 1846, Scribner's was a fixture on New York City's upper east side for more than 150 years. In its place now stands a Sephora - which, let's be honest, we adore - but we'll miss Scribner's!

Another Signing Success!

Almost every member of our staff read it, and everyone loved it! We were especially excited to meet Joel Rose and ask him all our questions about his phenomenal novel, The Blackest Bird. Joel arrived with his lovely wife Karen and two vivacious boys, and people filed in off the streets to listen to Joel speak. Our most burning question was answered; it has to do with the end of the novel though, so we will post it below the jump. The Blackest Bird took an unbelievable 17 years to be completed, with Joel working on it even when he was very ill. Karen also worked on it as the editor. The finished product shows the amount of research and imagination that was poured into it. Definitely a labor of love, The Blackest Bird has become a bestseller at The Book Cove.

After Joel's autographing, sports writer Howard Megdal joined us with Rachel. The beautiful young couple had several avid baseball fans waiting for them. Howard discussed his first book, The Baseball Talmud, as well as Judaism and anti-Semitism.

Visit Joel's website: http://www.joelrosebooks.com/
Read an interview with Howard: http://www.metsgeek.com/articles/2008/05/02/interview-howard-megdal/

Hudson River Celebration

The Henry Hudson Celebration went off without a hitch! Five authors joined us to speak and sign their books. Hudson Talbott, Joanne Michels, Sheila Buff, Kevin Woyce, and Lucey Bowen formed our panelist of experts. The event drew quite a nice crowd, with lots of questions and animated discussion. Two of the authors had written travel books, one had written for children, and the other two were histories of the Hudson. All in all, it was a great event!

Home Run

Allen Barra joined us today! Allen just published a bestselling biography of Yogi Berra. A number of avid baseball fans turned out to listen to Allen share Yogi anecdotes and trivia. Allen has met Yogi numerous times over the years, and has written a very intimate, glowing tribute to the famous Yankees catcher. Allen is sharing "Yogisms," identifying the real ones and discrediting the invented ones.

Audience members were leaning forward in their seats, entranced by Allen's stories.

And the signing!

Palma the Painter

On Saturday, in addition to our two authors, we also hosted an art opening! Local artist Palma came with her exquisite work and a huge crowd of her friends. Palma's daughter Diana catered the event, and people filled the store to admire the Chinese watercolors, painted on rice paper.

Palma is pictured on the right, standing at the head of the table.
Examples of the artwork are featured below:

Signing in the Summer

On a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon, the Book Cove was fortunate enough to host two lovely ladies. Our first author, Jayanti Tamm, entered the store with such a graceful presence, we knew it was her right away! Jayanti journeyed from NJ with her friend Jose, who doubled as a camera man. Jayanti was incredibly beautiful and poised; she was arguably one of the most well-spoken authors we have ever had the privilege to listen to. Jayanti talked with the audience and read from her book, Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult. Jayanti was very candid about the confusing and harrowing experiences that characterize cult life, including the futile desire to blend in socially, despite the associations with the (somewhat notorious) Sri Chinmoy sect. Listening to Jayanti speak about "Guru" was very thought-provoking. The stories of the guru's ploys for power, desire for fame, and manipulations of his followers were as fascinating as they were chilling, and Jayanti's audience listened spellbound as she read from Cartwheels and shared anecdotes. Selected as the "chosen one" by the guru for the cult, Jayanti grew up as the cult grew more powerful. The guru attracted followers such as Carlos Santana and Roberta Flack, among others.

Upon the guru's death in 2007, the New York Times wrote a warm obituary of the cult leader. Jayanti paints a different, yet fair, picture of this man. That was something the audience responded to, how honest and open Jayanti was, and how tranquil she seemed. Many people would have become embittered by such a turbulent childhood and traumatic young adulthood, but this woman has learned from it and gone on to build a life of her own. In attendence were Jayanti's mother, who also lived in and then left from the cult, and Jayanti's 19-month-old daughter, who was super cute in her yellow outfit and matching patterned shoes. Jayanti was so popular with the people in attendence that her signing ran for over an hour, with everyone asking questions and sharing personal stories and feedback.

As Jayanti's signing wrapped up, Gail Graham and Beaux, her faithful dog, took the stage. Gail is a very distinguished novelist, who has received numerous international accolades for her superb writing. Sea Changes is Gail's newest offering, and quite a few fans turned out to have a copy signed. Gail amiably chatted every one of them up, and random passerby grew intrigued and approached to learn more. Gail had a great deal of passion about her writing, and that came through and charmed our clientele. Gail joined us all the way from California, and we very much appreciate that she was able to stop by.

Thanks again, as always, to our audience members for coming and asking such great questions.