NPR and Radio as the Public's Culture Diary

I had been listening, fascinated, to an interview with author Katherine S. Newman talking about her new non-fiction book as I drove... to the library where the first thing I saw in "New Books" was her book, The Accordion Family.

Weird, or what?

I love NPR's coverage of the arts.  There are so many authors and artists that I would never hear about if it weren't for the tirelessly cultured folks in public broadcasting.  And the obscure yet fascinating facts!  How would I learn about the ecosystems in the human body if not for Fresh Air?  Did you know we each have 3-4 pounds of bacteria and viruses in our bodies - and those are the ones that keep us healthy.  You can die if too strong an antibiotic kills 'em off.  Really.  That was yesterday's talk and I'm still marveling... and washing my hands.

Public radio enriches and enlightens my life.  Without Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers how would I know how to fix my car or how to get mice out of it?  Not that I have mice, but this wildlife dilemma may be more imminent than it sounds, considering I already have ants.  (And the ants at my house are nothing to scoff at - they've already eaten part of the refrigerator, I kid you not.)

Cover of The Accordion Family from The Boston Globe's review

So I brought home The Accordion Family and will soon know much more about the changing configuration of the modern nuclear family.  I'll report back.

Oh, and I love the public library too.

Book Sale

A new sale from Lulu.com on Alice Through the Proscenium (and a few other books).  More on Alice HERE:

A Sale on Alice

Here's a chance to buy my how-to set design book, Alice Through the Proscenium, at a discount.  Read more about it HERE:

Non-Theater Catch-Up

Inspite of my recent crazy-busy theater schedule, I have been able to read and watch a few other non-theater things:

I rewatched the film Cowboys and Aliens, which stands up well to a second viewing.  (Earlier POST.)

I also watched for the first time the art film Toast, based on an autobiographical novel by food writer Nigel Slater.  A young teen boy, a budding foody, lives in a household where dinner might be - seriously! - three cans heated in a pan of boiling water.  He loves his mother, but she can't cook.  After her death, his unsympathetic and bullying father hires a cleaner (played by Helena Bonham Carter)... who eventually becomes his hated stepmother.  But boy can she cook!

Enjoyed it.  Terrific performances all round and Bonham Carter is just mesmerizing.

On the book front, I finally finished Thinking Fast and Slow (earlier POST) which was fascinating and, I think, important.  It's written in layman's language (barring a few "heuristics" etc.) with the ideas presented from an economist's view (natural, what with that Nobel Prize), but if you can tease out smaller fragments from the dense argument, the facts of how humans make decisions are vitally important to anyone who wants to be persuasive: salesmen, artists, designers of all kinds, writers of prose or poetry... everyone basically.  Read!

As lighter fare, I started rereading the Chalionese series by Lois McMaster Bujold, starting with The Curse of Chalion, which features one of my all-time favorite heroes.  Also rereading an early Georgette Heyer, The Black Moth.  I'm enjoying it (and it's the only Heyer on my NOOK), but my real favorites are her later books like Frederica, Venetia, A Civil Contract, or Friday's Child whose paperback copies I've read to rags.  I'm not usually a ROmance reader, but Heyer is witty, frothy, and seriously researched.

Heyer, Austen, Wodehouse, and Pratchett - Public domain images messed with.

When life gets difficult or harried, Heyer's books are in my short stack of refreshing breaks, along with P. G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett, and Jane Austen.  These disparate writers all share the knack of creating engrossing characters and worlds where there exists a wryly humorous (and sometimes inky-dark) view of human foibles...  Their unembittered laughter can polish up my own smudged perspective.

Alice on Sale

Here's a great chance to get a copy of my how-to set design book Alice Through the Proscenium at a discount.  Check it out at Lulu.com.  Shhhhh - use the secret code below:

Truth, Lies, Stories, and Fiction

I just finished rereading Michael Chabon's Maps & Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Border Lands.

A thoughtful book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Wonder Boys (a good movie too).  Chabon is one of those writers whose career I follow.  (And whose books I buy, even sometimes in hardback - true fan-love.)  I really do love Chabon's mix of straightforward and fabulous fiction, the layering of myth and tall-tale that is characteristic of his writing.  These essays are fascinating discussions of the tangle of truth, lies, magician's sleight of hand, and curious exploration on the unmarked areas of the map that create fiction writing.

I'd say this book is a good-read for any serious reader of fiction, especially fantasy, and a must-read for any aspiring writer of the same.

First edition cover borrowed from Wikipedia

Book and Film Catch-Up

Don't you love the pile of Christmas books and DVDs?  I'm slowly making my way through some well-chosen gifts.

Among the books: Three Men in a Boat (and its companion piece Three Men on a Brummel) by Jerome K. Jerome.  This laugh-out-loud tale of three buddies on a boating trip was first published in the 1880s: some aspects now appear rather quaint - though funny - others are as timeless as the author's riff on the way you can so carefully and neatly coil a rope, only to find it, minutes later, in a maddening snarl.

Believed public domain image messed with

I've also been dipping into The Complete McAslan by George McDonald Fraser.  Best known for his Flashman books, Fraser's stories of life in a Scottish battalion just after WWII are long-time favorites of mine.    His memoir of the British campaign in Burma, Quartered Safe Out of Here, is one of the best from WWII.

Films?  I've just finish the new PBC documentary on Woody Allen - a must-see for a fan.  Also the first season of 30 Rock which is great.  How did I miss this on TV?  I'll keep my eye on Tina Fey from now on.

I hope you're having as much fun with your holiday stockpile!

New Squidoo Page

(Don't you love the word "Squidoo"?  It just feels good to say.)

Anyway.  Here's the launch of a new Squidoo page with suggestions for architecture gift books... to go along with an earlier one on architectural gifts.  Just in case anyone needs a holiday hint, eh?

http://www.squidoo.com/best-gift-books-for-architects
http://www.squidoo.com/gifts-for-architects

Public domain image.