salon discussion

Mark your calendars! 

Friday, January 12 – Yoga with Marie Blair, 10am-noon

Tuesday, January 16 – Documentaries After Dark presents “Art and Craft,” 6:30pm
Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. And while the copies could fetch impressive sums on the open market, Landis isn't in it for money. Posing as a philanthropic donor, a grieving executor of a family member's will, and most recently as a Jesuit priest, Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering list of institutions across the United States. But after duping Matthew Leininger, a tenacious registrar who ultimately discovers the decades-long ruse and sets out to expose his philanthropic escapades to the art world, Landis must confront his own legacy and a chorus of museum professionals clamoring for him to stop. ART AND CRAFT starts out as a cat-and-mouse art caper, rooted in questions of authorship and authenticity -- but what emerges is an intimate story of obsession and the universal need for community, appreciation, and purpose. 89 minutes

Beginning Thursday, January 18 – The Holocaust in Film series presents “Remember,” 6:30pm
“Never forget” acquires a double meaning in Atom Egoyan’s revenge thriller. Guided by written instructions from a fellow vengeful survivor, elderly Auschwitz survivor Zev seeks to find and murder the Nazi commander who liquidated his family, but encroaching dementia often causes him to forget his mission. 94 minutes.  

Additional Holocaust in Film series dates: Monday, January 22 6:30pm “Linie 41,” Thursday, January 25 6:30pm “The Last Laugh,” and Sunday, February 4 2pm “Amnon’s Journey.”

Tuesday, January 30 – GRG will reconvene in the Library’s conference room for a discussion of YA fiction, 6:30pm

GRG met last night to for one of our biannual Salon Discussion, where anything you’ve read goes! We talked about wine, bitcoin, the Cold War, the 1972 presidential election, geisha culture, and more!

Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste by Bianca Bosker

Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn’t know much about wine—until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns supreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork.”

With boundless curiosity, humor, and a healthy dose of skepticism, Bosker takes the reader inside underground tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, California mass-market wine factories, and even a neuroscientist’s fMRI machine as she attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what’s the big deal about wine? What she learns will change the way you drink wine—and, perhaps, the way you live—forever.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. Richard Howard's translation of the beloved classic beautifully reflects Saint-Exupéry's unique and gifted style. Howard, an acclaimed poet and one of the preeminent translators of our time, has excelled in bringing the English text as close as possible to the French, in language, style, and most important, spirit. The artwork in this edition has been restored to match in detail and in color Saint-Exupéry's original artwork. Combining Richard Howard's translation with restored original art, this definitive English-language edition of The Little Prince will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.

The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford

Just before Christmas in 1843, a debt-ridden and dispirited Charles Dickens wrote a small book he hoped would keep his creditors at bay. His publisher turned it down, so Dickens used what little money he had to put out A Christmas Carol himself. He worried it might be the end of his career as a novelist.

The book immediately caused a sensation. And it breathed new life into a holiday that had fallen into disfavor, undermined by lingering Puritanism and the cold modernity of the Industrial Revolution. It was a harsh and dreary age, in desperate need of spiritual renewal, ready to embrace a book that ended with blessings for one and all.

With warmth, wit, and an infusion of Christmas cheer, Les Standiford whisks us back to Victorian England, its most beloved storyteller, and the birth of the Christmas we know best. The Man Who Invented Christmas is a rich and satisfying read for Scrooges and sentimentalists alike.

Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos

Join the technological revolution that's taking the world of finance by storm. Mastering Bitcoin is your guide through the seemingly complex world of bitcoin, providing the knowledge you need to participate in the internet of money. Whether you're building the next killer app, investing in a startup, or simply curious about the technology, this revised and expanded second edition provides essential detail to get you started. Bitcoin, the first successful decentralized digital currency, is still in its early stages and yet it's already spawned a multi-billion dollar global economy. This economy is open to anyone with the knowledge and passion to participate. Mastering Bitcoin provides the knowledge. You simply supply the passion.

The second edition includes:

--A broad introduction to bitcoin--ideal for non-technical users, investors, and business executives

--An explanation of the technical foundations of bitcoin and cryptographic currencies for developers, engineers, and software and systems architects

--Details of the bitcoin decentralized network, peer-to-peer architecture, transaction lifecycle, and security principles

--New developments such as Segregated Witness, Payment Channels, and Lightning Network

--Improved explanations of keys, addresses and wallets

--User stories, analogies, examples, and code snippets illustrating key technical concepts

Pollinator by Blondie

(Pitchfork Magazine) Featuring collaborations with Sia, Dev Hynes, Charli XCX and more, Blondie’s 11th album is a bit uneven but remains a showcase for Debbie Harry’s versatile, supremely grounded voice and style.

Silver Eye by Goldfrapp

(Pitchfork Magazine) On their first album in four years, Goldfrapp synthesize all their many sounds and modes to get at the core of their musical identity. They find a beautiful, poppy, platonic ideal.

All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell by Pvris

(NME Magazine) Dark, sexy, grown-up – not adjectives you would previously have associated with Massachusetts trio PVRIS, who were until recently poised to clamber their way to the position of electropop-punk heroes. After 2014’s debut album ‘White Noise’ and its killer singles ‘Fire’ and ‘St Patrick’ rose up the charts, PVRIS could have followed the tried and tested route to fame by dialling back the heavy and upping the pop. Hey, it’s worked for Paramore (they’re still epic) and even Avenged Sevenfold (they’re just as heavy, less screamy). What PVRIS have somehow managed to do is keep everything they put into the first record, but add a darkness that’s taken their game to a whole new level.

Legacy of Spies by John le Carre

Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.

Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a story resonating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.

The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Revolution, and featuring a cast of legendary characters, The Hamilton Affair tells the sweeping, tumultuous, true story of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler, from passionate and tender beginnings of their romance to his fateful duel on the banks of the Hudson River.

Hamilton was a bastard and orphan, raised in the Caribbean and desperate for legitimacy, who became one of the American Revolution's most dashing--and improbable--heroes. Admired by George Washington, scorned by Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton was a lightning rod: the most controversial leader of the new nation. Elizabeth was the wealthy, beautiful, adventurous daughter of the respectable Schuyler clan--and a pioneering advocate for women. Together, the unlikely couple braved the dangers of war, the perils of seduction, the anguish of infidelity, and the scourge of partisanship that menaced their family and the country itself. With flawless writing, brilliantly drawn characters, and epic scope, The Hamilton Affair tells a story of love forged in revolution and tested by the bitter strife of young America, and will take its place among the greatest novels of American history ever written.

The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers

This captivating collection, which features bestselling and award-winning authors, contains laughs aplenty, the most hardboiled of holiday noir, and heartwarming  reminders of the spirit of the season. Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Niccolò Machiavelli sets out to save an Italian city. Sherlock Holmes’s one-time nemesis Irene Adler finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this delectable volume will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe, from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72 by Hunter S. Thompson

Forty years after its original publication, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 remains a cornerstone of American political journalism and one of the bestselling campaign books of all time. Hunter S. Thompson’s searing account of the battle for the 1972 presidency—from the Democratic primaries to the eventual showdown between George McGovern and Richard Nixon—is infused with the characteristic wit, intensity, and emotional engagement that made Thompson “the flamboyant apostle and avatar of gonzo journalism” (The New York Times). Hilarious, terrifying, insightful, and compulsively readable, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 is an epic political adventure that captures the feel of the American democratic process better than any other book ever written.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction—at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful—and completely unforgettable.

Geisha: A Life by Mineko Iwasaki

No woman in the three-hundred-year history of the karyukai has ever come forward in public to tell her story—until now. "Many say I was the best geisha of my generation," writes Mineko Iwasaki. "And yet, it was a life that I found too constricting to continue. And one that I ultimately had to leave." Trained to become a geisha from the age of five, Iwasaki would live among the other "women of art" in Kyoto's Gion Kobu district and practice the ancient customs of Japanese entertainment. She was loved by kings, princes, military heroes, and wealthy statesmen alike. But even though she became one of the most prized geishas in Japan's history, Iwasaki wanted more: her own life. And by the time she retired at age twenty-nine, Iwasaki was finally on her way toward a new beginning. Geisha, a Life is her story -- at times heartbreaking, always awe-inspiring, and totally true.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his intuitive feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can't seem to heal through literature is himself; he's still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, which he has never opened.

After Perdu is finally tempted to read the letter, he hauls anchor and departs on a mission to the south of France, hoping to make peace with his loss and discover the end of the story. Joined by a bestselling but blocked author and a lovelorn Italian chef, Perdu travels along the country’s rivers, dispensing his wisdom and his books, showing that the literary world can take the human soul on a journey to heal itself.

Internationally bestselling and filled with warmth and adventure, The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people's lives.

Camino Island by John Grisham

A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Their loot is priceless, but Princeton has insured it for twenty-five million dollars. Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts. Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block who has recently been laid off from her teaching position. She is approached by an elegant, mysterious woman working for an even more mysterious company. A generous offer of money convinces Mercer to go undercover and infiltrate Bruce Cable’s circle of literary friends, ideally getting close enough to him to learn his secrets. But eventually Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise as only John Grisham can deliver it.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

Anna Kerrigan, nearly twelve years old, accompanies her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she gleans, is crucial to the survival of her father and her family. She is mesmerized by the sea beyond the house and by some charged mystery between the two men.

‎Years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where women are allowed to hold jobs that once belonged to men, now soldiers abroad. She becomes the first female diver, the most dangerous and exclusive of occupations, repairing the ships that will help America win the war. One evening at a nightclub, she meets Dexter Styles again, and begins to understand the complexity of her father’s life, the reasons he might have vanished.

With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, Egan’s first historical novel follows Anna and Styles into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men. Manhattan Beach is a deft, dazzling, propulsive exploration of a transformative moment in the lives and identities of women and men, of America and the world. It is a magnificent novel by the author of A Visit from the Goon Squad, one of the great writers of our time.

GRG Recap - Music & Musicians

The Genre Reading Group rocked it out last night with a discussion of books about music and musicians.  From the science of music & the brain to urban legends to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, we talked about it all.  There are so many facets to the impact of music on our lives that it would've been impossible to have comprehensive discussion, but the group enjoyed ranging far and wide on the books we read.

We'll be reading fiction next month and the topic is magical realism.  There is a large display of these books at the second floor Reference Desk so please do stop by and check one (or more!!) out, even if you can't make it to the March 27 GRG meeting to join in the discussion.

On to the list!

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
With the same trademark compassion and erudition he brought to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition. In Musicophilia, he shows us a variety of what he calls “musical misalignments.” Among them: a man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two; an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; people with “amusia,” to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans; and a man whose memory spans only seven seconds-for everything but music. Illuminating, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable, Musicophilia is Oliver Sacks' latest masterpiece.


Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller

Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. Their stories trace the arc of the now mythic sixties generation -- female version -- but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written -- until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs.

Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women's intimates, who are speaking in these pages for the first time, this alternating biography reads like a novel -- except it's all true, and the heroines are famous and beloved. Sheila Weller captures the character of each woman and gives a balanced portrayal enriched by a wealth of new information.

Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of midcentury women who dared to break tradition and become what none had been before them -- confessors in song, rock superstars, and adventurers of heart and soul.

GENERAL DISCUSSION:  I thought there was a film made from this book, but I don't see any evidence of that.  The book was optioned in 2008 however.  The movie I was thinking about was actually The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart, released in 2010 and adapted from the book Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by Cherie Currie.  PBS Arts has a special called Women Who Rock, exploring the phenomenon of the women who are the 21st century's top-grossing recording artists.

Music Fell on Alabama by Christopher Fuqua
Music Fell on Alabama is the story of the Muscle Shoals, Alabama, music industry, which began with Rick Hall's single Fame Studios and exploded to turn the Shoals into a thriving music hot spot. Competition and jealousy threatened to end the Shoals' story before it began, as the area quickly began attracting the attention of a who's who of stars, including Bob Seger, Cher, the Osmonds, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, and Lynard Skynard.


Who Were the Beatles? by Geoff Edgers
Almost everyone can sing along with the Beatles, but how many young readers know their whole story?  Geoff Edgers, a Boston Globe reporter and hard-core Beatles fan, brings the Fab Four to life in this Who Was...? book.  Readers will learn about their Liverpudlian childhoods, their first forays into rock music, what Beatlemania was like, and why they broke up.  It's all here in an easy-to-read narrative with plenty of black-and-white illustrations!


The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock and Roll by Eric Segalstad
When Delta bluesman Robert Johnson died poisoned by whiskey in 1938, he started a mysterious pattern of premature deaths among rock & roll musicians at age 27.

The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll tells the fascinating and complete story about music's most eclectic phenomenon. In addition to stories & anecdotes about the lives and legacies of thirty-four 27s, the book delves into numerical and astrological meanings behind the number 27.
Adding tension to a gripping narrative, The 27s is beautifully illustrated throughout and the art complements or create visual tangents intended to draw the reader further in to The 27s' universe.

Inventive use of maps, timelines, and sidebars aid the reader with a sense of place, additional information, pop cultural placeholders, and more.

The 27s include crooner Jesse Belvin ("Earth Angel," "Goodnight My Love"), Rudy Lewis of the Drifters, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Malcolm Hale of Spanky And Our Gang, Alan Wilson from Canned Heat, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Arlester Christian of Dyke And the Blazers, Jim Morrison, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan of the Grateful Dead, Pete Ham of Badfinger, Gary Thain of Uriah Heep, Roger Lee Durham of Bloodstone, Helmut Koellen of Triumvirat, Chris Bell of Big Star, D. Boon of Minutemen, Pete de Freitas of Echo & the Bunnymen, Mia Zapata of the Gits, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Kristin Pfaff of Hole, Raymond "Freaky Tah" Rogers of Lost Boyz, Sean McCabe of Ink & Dagger, Jeremy Michael Ward of De Facto and The Mars Volta, Bryan Ottoson of American Head Charge, Valentin Elizalde.

Groove Interrupted: Loss, Renewal, and the Music of New Orleans by Keith Spera

The recent history of New Orleans is fraught with tragedy and triumph. Both are reflected in the city’s vibrant, idiosyncratic music community. In Keith Spera’s intimately reported Groove Interrupted, Aaron Neville returns to New Orleans for the first time after Hurricane Katrina to bury his wife. Fats Domino improbably rambles around Manhattan to promote a post-Katrina tribute CD. Alex Chilton lives anonymously in a battered cottage in the Treme neighborhood. Platinum-selling rapper Mystikal rekindles his career after six years in prison. Jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard struggles to translate Katrina into music. The spotlight also shines on Allen Toussaint, Pete Fountain, Gatemouth Brown, the Rebirth Brass Band, Phil Anselmo, Juvenile, Jeremy Davenport and the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. With heartache, hope, humor and resolve, each of these contemporary narratives stands on its own. Together, they convey that the funky, syncopated spirit of New Orleans music is unbreakable, in spite of Katrina’s interruption.

GENERAL DISCUSSION: One member mentioned a recent Stevie Nicks song celebrating New Orleans.

Take Me Home: An Autobiography by John Denver
The internationally acclaimed singer, songwriter, and environmental activist describes his youth in a conservative military home, striking out on his own, early success, uneasy dealings with fame, and concern for the environment.  


Between Rock and a Home Place by Chuck Leavell
For more than half of the Rolling Stones’s incredible career, Chuck Leavell has been their keyboard player and an integral part of their acclaimed live performances. But fans also recognize him from the landmark Eric Clapton Unplugged session and tours, the late George Harrison’s final performances and of course Leavell’s time with the Allman Brothers at the height of their creative success. That’s only half the story of the Alabama-born musician, however, who reveals in this candid, photo-filled memoir how he became not only one of the world’s most highly regarded rock and roll piano players, but also one of the most respected and hon-ored environmentalists and forestry experts in the United States.

Chuck Leavell is one of the most respected keyboardists in the world of rock-n-roll, and at the same time, his work at Charlane Plantation--the award-winning tree farm he and his wife Rose Lane have created near Macon, Georgia--has earned Leavell a fast-growing reputation as one of our country’s foremost conservationists. His first book, Forever Green: The History and Hope of the American Forest, 2nd Edition was released in 2004.


Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening—until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds, and people from different continents become compatriots. Friendship, compassion, and the chance for great love lead the characters to forget the real danger that has been set in motion . . . and cannot be stopped.


Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael by Richard M. Sudhalter
Georgia on My Mind, Rockin' Chair, Skylark, Lazybones, and of course the incomparable Star Dust--who else could have composed these classic American songs but Hoagy Carmichael? He remains, for millions, the voice of heartland America, eternal counterpoint to the urban sensibility of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Now, trumpeter and historian Richard M. Sudhalter has penned the first book-length biography of the man Alec Wilder hailed as "the most talented, inventive, sophisticated and jazz-oriented of all the great songwriters--the greatest of the great craftsmen."

Stardust Melody follows Carmichael from his roaring-twenties Indiana youth to bandstands and recording studios across the nation, playing piano and singing alongside jazz greats Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, and close friends Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong. It illuminates his peak Hollywood years, starring in such films as To Have and Have Notand The Best Years of Our Lives, and on radio, records and TV. With compassionate insight Sudhalter depicts Hoagy's triumphs and tragedies, and his mounting despair as rock-and-roll drowns out and lays waste to the last days of a brilliant career.

With an insider's clarity Sudhalter explores the songs themselves, still fresh and appealing while reminding us of our innocent American yesterdays. Drawing on Carmichael's private papers and on interviews with family, friends and colleagues, he reveals that "The Old Music Master" was almost as gifted a wordsmith as a shaper of melodies. In all, Stardust Melody offers a richly textured portrait of one of our greatest musical figures, an inspiring American icon.


What have we missed on this topic?
Holley