A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, published in 1992, is based on Shakespeare's King Lear, but the plot unfolds in a way that is so brilliant that you will think this contemporary version is even better than its predecessor! The story centers around the Cook Family, with patriarch Larry as the owner of the most successful farm in Iowa. He is close to retirement, but wants to expand the size of his farm before he hands it down to his three daughters, not all of whom agree with his decisions. Knowing the story of King Lear foreshadows a bit of the ending of Smiley's novel - but how we reach that point is very different - and involves much darker, more twisted consequences - and some incredible surprises. 

It's quite a challenging, but rewarding, examination of family dynamics. Smiley begs of the reader to ask the tough questions that seemed so cut and dry in King Lear, such as - should we sympathize with these characters, or should we despise them?  What is the bigger tragedy - to live a life of ignorance or to be fully aware of the hideous truth behind a seemingly heroic figure in your life?

Smiley took a risk by writing this book and dared herself to improve a masterful Shakespearean tragedy - not just a comedy about love and silly misunderstandings - but a tragedy that contains difficult themes like the breakdown of family relationships, loyalty, greed, betrayal, abuse of power, the list goes on and on....and in doing so, she created a story with characters that are more intense and faceted than the original while still remaining true to King Lear's core. The risk paid off with a Pulitzer Prize and worldwide acclaim.

Definitely instant classic material!

One of the basic facts of life here in lower Fairfield County is traffic. It's just something we always have to take into account when trying to get from here to there, even more so than the weather. And admit it, we all have opinions about other drivers, short cuts, and when the best time is to sneak onto I-95!

So it makes sense that someone has finally written a book about traffic and how we drive. Author Tom Vanderbilt talks about the psychology of merging and whether the "late merger" is gaining an advantage or not, traffic calming devices, why it's often impossible to find a parking spot, the concept that driving is actually the most complex skill-oriented task we do, and unique traffic control devices such as "Sabbath timing" in Los Angeles. He also continues the discussion on his blog  (don't miss the piece about "bollards" -- traffic-stopping barriers -- in England that are designed to look like children!).

Whether you agree with his theories or not, you'll never approach an intersection, red light, or roundabout the same way after reading this book. Buckle up and enjoy the ride -- um, read!

Usually, our "green" news has to do with our fabulous new green building, but this time it's with a capital G, as in Green, as in George Dawes Green, who was our featured speaker at our Adult Summer Reading Grand Finale last week. In case you don't know already... his newest novel, the fabulously-reviewed Ravens is my favorite book of the summer. When the author agreed to come to Darien Library to speak, I was expecting something really good...possibly GREAT...what we got was AMAZING.!

There's something about a Southerner being in the room that slows the whole pace down just a bit. When you factor in the remarkable writing and storytelling ability and his skill at provoking thriller-worthy tension for the reader/listener, George Dawes Green was the perfect tonic for the lull of August. Just as he does in Ravens, he drew everyone in instantly. Thrills. Laughter. Pin-dropping tension. His genre is the thriller. His writing is poetic. His storytelling, masterful. This was goosebumps in August.

We can't mention George Dawes Green's incredible storytelling ability without mentioning that he is the founder of The Moth, a not-for-profit storytelling organization. That's the very basic description...if you saw this past Sunday's New York Times, then you know it's much bigger than that. The Sunday Styles section led with a (huge!) fabulous article about The Moth. We are so pleased that George agreed to spend some time with us and share his great talent.

This special author event was the highlight of our Grand Finale for our Adult Summer Reading Program but that night, we also had the drawing for the Grand Prize winners. Considering the hundreds of entries that we had, it was such fun that all three winners were in the audience that night! Here are just a few more shots from this extraordinary event.

 Thank you to everyone (members...staff....George) for making this our most successful Adult Summer Reading Program ever!

Back in April, as part of our Grand Opening Author Series, we hosted a "Girls Night Out" that featured authors Ilene Beckerman (Love, Loss, and What I Wore) and Giulia Melucci (I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti). It was a fun and memorable event and since both of these authors have had exciting book-related news lately, it's time for an update!

Ilene Beckerman's Love, Loss, and What I Wore is coming to the New York stage! Tickets go on sale this week for its limited fall run at off- Broadway's Westside Theatre. Based on Ilene's book, the show, a collection of vignettes and monologues, is written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron. Three different (five-member) casts will perform the play in four-week cycles. Cast members include Samantha Bee, Kristin Chenoweth, Tyne Daly, Katie Finneran, Rosie O'Donnell, Mary Louise Wilson, and Rita Wilson. The show will be in previews beginning September 21st, with opening night set for October 1st (the show will run for 12 weeks). This is a MUST for me. Also a must is congratulating Ilene!

Giulia Melucci, too, has been busy, with her fabulous book, I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti making the global rounds. Though the cover has gone through some (um) interesting changes, what hasn't changed are the resoundingly great reviews for her story and her recipes! This is one of my favorite all-around books. Comfort. Comfort. Comfort. (And smiles.) Congratulazioni, Giulia!

(Covers: United States., Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands...and, to be continued...)

What do Alanis Morissette, Montgomery Clift, and Theo Epstein have in common with Tiki Barber, Minnesota's professional baseball team, Fred and George Weasley, and two of the Bee Gees?

They're all twins! And for over 30 years now, twins of all ages have been flocking to  -- where else? - Twinsburg, Ohio every August, to celebrate a weekend of this special sibling bond. The town of Millsville was settled in 1819 by Connecticut twins Moses and Aaron Wilcox, who renamed it Twinsburg, spent the rest of their lives together, and are buried there. Over 3,000 sets of twins will increase Twinsburg's population by nearly 50% this weekend!

We all know at least one or two sets, so best wishes -- times two -- to all twins and multiples on this Twins Day weekend!

They are not flashy or showy, they don’t crank out a book every 3 months whether we want to hear from them or not, they will probably never be a Lifetime Made For TV Movie and they never get the splashy, expensive 2 page spread in the New York Times Book Review.
But they consistently deliver great writing and stories well told.Two such writers have new books out and they are deserving of word of mouth praise. 

The first is Good Things I Wish You, by A. Manette Ansay.

Ansay tells the story of middle aged Jeanette a woman struggling to write the story of the famous pianist Clara Schumann and her relationships with her composer husband Robert and his protégé Johannes Brahms.  When she meets the mysterious German Hart on a blind date she finds herself on a journey very similar to that of her subject Clara.  Hart insists that “there are things about men and women that do not change” no matter what the century or place.  This is a rich and lovely story about love and friendship. 

Joyce Maynard’s new novel is entitled Labor Day.  Henry is a 13 year old boy living with his divorced mother who seems to be teetering on the edge of agoraphobia.  When they encounter a mysterious stranger while buying school supplies their lives change forever.  I began this book yesterday morning on my day off.  I truly had all good intentions of finishing the cleaning of the basement.   But this book kept haunting me. I would find myself bargaining internally so that I could slip back out to the porch and read some more with a minimum of guilt.  This wonderful coming of age story about love and redemption has to be one of my favorite reads of the year so far.

Today marks the date in 1935 when modern paperbacks were first published...and trivia buffs all know that the very first paperback was Lost Horizon by James Hilton (it says so right on the cover!).

Or was it?

Penguin, based in England, printed a set of 10 classic titles in paperback back in 1935, and number one on that list was Ariel by Andre Maurois. It took four more years for production of the first paperbacks in the United States, from Pocket Books. Their first title was indeed Lost Horizon. However...as Pocket Books prepared to roll out this new format, they tested a very small paperback print run of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, which was sold only in New York City. (Those prized copies now change hands for approximately $15,000 apiece!)

So what really was the very first paperback published in modern times? It all depends on your definition of the word "first," but for convenience, affordability, and variety, we can all agree that paperbacks are still the way to go!

I am so excited that Ravens is here! I was fortunate enough to have received an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book by George Dawes Green, and I've been dying to talk with someone about this intense thriller.

Here's the mind-grabbing teaser: "The Boatwrights just won 318 million dollars in the Georgia State Lottery. It's going to be the worst day of their lives." Trust me...this is going to be one of the most intense-reads of...well...maybe not your life, but definitely your summer!

Two friends, low-level techie guys on their way to Florida, stop at a convenience store to fix a leaky tire. They learn that a local family has won the 318 million dollar lottery jackpot and they intend to squeeze the family for half the prize. Shaw McBride takes the family hostage while his pal Romeo Zderko patrols the nearby streets, prepared to murder the family's loved ones at any sign of resistance. With rapid switches of points of view, we get inside the heads of some of the most interesting and intriguing characters in fiction.

Shaw and Romeo may hold the Boatwrights hostage, but Dawes Green keeps the reader in his grasp and does not let go until the thrilling conclusion of this wild page-turner. In Ravens, the author, creates a cast of living-breathing-and flawed individuals. He also brilliantly breathes life into another main character - southern Georgia...we feel it...we smell it...we live it. (Please hurry up and read Ravens so that I can talk with someone about it!)

George Dawes Green is a brilliant novelist...a poet...a storyteller. He'll also be the featured speaker for the Grand Finale of our Adult Summer Reading Program on Thursday, August 13th at 7 p.m.!

The All-Stars of baseball gather tonight under the bright lights in St. Louis, and with all the hoopla over home run derbies and home field advantage, we're looking back at one of the most outrageous baseball personalities ever: Bill Veeck.

His autobiography is Veek as in Wreck and it starts with the episode that's perhaps Veeck's most famous: bringing 3'7" Eddie Gaedel into a game as a pinch hitter. Naturally, Gaedel walked on four straight pitches (his strike zone was approximately one and a half inches!), was replaced by a pinch runner, and left the game to a standing ovation.

From here, we read about how Veeck planted the ivy on Wrigley Field's walls, signed Larry Doby as the first black player in the American League, put players' names on the back of their jerseys, dressed the White Sox in shorts, invented the exploding scoreboard in Chicago, and much, much more.

Veeck was a one-of-a-kind character who simply couldn't exist in today's more corporate sports atmosphere. Even better for us, he was a master storyteller. This autobiography transcends sports literature; local writer Mike Lupica calls it "...the best sports book of them all" and it may well be. They just don't make 'em like Veeck any more!

The freckled, earnest young face on the cover of this book appears to depict the All-American boy. In reality, nothing could be further than the truth.

Brent Jeffs grew up in a Fundamentalist Mormon family, with one father, three mothers, and countless siblings, cousins, uncles, and aunts. One of his uncles was Warren Jeffs, a self-styled "prophet" who assigned marriages as a badge of honor and used his charismatic personality to manipulate his faithful followers and inflict abuse at every conceivable level. (He eventually ended up on the FBI's Most Wanted list and is now serving a 10 years-to-life prison sentence.)

Not many people can write a memoir of substance before they've even reached 30, but Brent Jeffs has endured loss, betrayal, sorrow, and redemption beyond his short years. This book tells the shocking, often tragic story of his life with complete honesty and reminds us of the courage it takes to save yourself against all odds.