There is a fun article in dailybeast.com (in the media gallery) about the best-read American presidents. It is a fun way to refresh your presidential knowledge. I didn’t know Theodore Roosevelt enjoyed an occasional detective novel!     Just go to dailybeast.com

Best-Read Presidents
19. James Buchanan
18. Richard Nixon
17. James Garfield
16. Bill Clinton
15. Jimmy Carter
14. John F. Kennedy
13. Herbert Hoover
12. Millard Fillmore
11. James Madison
10. James Monroe
9. George Washington
8. John Adams
7. Woodrow Wilson
6. John Quincy Adams
5. Rutherford Hayes
4. Abraham Lincoln
3. Thomas Jefferson
2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1. Theodore ...

Dick Francis, the best-selling British author and former champion jockey, died in his home in the Cayman Islands at the age of 89. When Francis retired from his racing career in 1957, he began writing. He wrote 42 novels that revolved around horse racing. In 2000, Queen Elizabeth ll honored his by making him a Commander of the British Empire.

Francis won three Edgar Allen Poe awards given by The Mystery Writers of America for his novels Forfeit (1968), Whip Hand (1979) and Come to Grief (1995).

Recently Francis wrote with his son, Felix, including Silks (2008) and Even Money ...

We had a very nice group of people for the Monday morning discussion of Kathryn Stockett’s, The Help. This optimistic, uplifting debut novel set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver.

The story is told through the eyes of Skeeter, a 22-year-old recent graduate from Ole Miss. We had 16 people in attendance, and one woman shared personal experience of going to college in the South during 1960’s. Another woman talked about her close relationship with her family's housekeeper-the book resonated ...

J. D. Salinger died yesterday, January 27, 2010, he was best known for his 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye. He was also known as the hermit crab of American literature. His last original published work was in 1965, he gave his last interview in 1980. Salinger died of natural causes at age 91, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. The Catcher in the Rye has sold 65 million copies world wide.

 

Last week we lost another author last week with the death of Robert B. Parker, author of the Spenser crime novels about a hard-boiled Boston private ...

I hope everyone had a wonderful and festive New Years! We had a good showing at the Monday morning book discussion on January 4th. Despite terrible road conditions we had eight people show up. We had a lively discussion about the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. Suffice it to say people enjoyed different aspects of the book.

Hopefully everyone is finished with their Christmas shopping!

 

The two main author series, Cleveland Public Library and Cuyahoga County Public Library take a break for the holidays. There are several upcoming author events that will fill in the gap!

 

Terry Pluto and Brian Windhurst will discuss their book, LeBron James: The Making of an MVP at Borders at the Shops at Fairlawn, 3737 West Market Street, Fairlawn, OH 44333 at 7 pm.

 

Author Steve Hockensmith will discuss his latest mystery, Holmes on the Range at the Chagrin Falls Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, 100 East ...

The Euclid Public Library Morning Group meets the first Monday of the month at 10:30am and the Evening Goup meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 7pm.

JAN

AM Jan 5 The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison.

PM Jan 13 The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Set in postwar Germany, The Reader is a provocative, morally challenging and deeply moving novel about a young boy’s ...

Garry Trudeau will be appearing in Cleveland tonight, October 6th at the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square, Cleveland at 7:30 pm. This is part of Cuyahoga County Public Library Writers Center Stage. The creator of “Doonesbury” which appears in almost 1,400 newspapers won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975. This was the first time that the award was given the writer of a comic strip. He was also a Pulitzer finalist in 1990.

 

Trudeau keeps a low profile and rarely gives interviews. An internet search revealed an interview with Charlie Rose in 2004. Tickets are available at a cost ...

The 74th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Award ceremony was held on September 10th was held at Cleveland Playhouse Square. A packed crowd came to hear moderator, Henry Louis Gates Jr. , and they weren’t disappointed! Gates aka “Skip” shared a few quips with the crowd about his infamous arrest by the Cambridge MA police.

 
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recognizes recent books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the diversity of human culture.

 

Established in 1935, the Anisfield-Wolf prize is the only American book award designated specifically to recognize workds addressing issues of ...

The Thurber Award was named after the author-humorist James Thurber. The nominees for this award were announced recently and they include: Sloan Crosley, best known for her 20-something musings with her best selling, I Was Told There Would be Cake.

 

 Another nominee is Ian Frazier, the New Yorker contributor, who also won in 1997 for Coyote vs. Acme. This time Frazier is nominated for his Lamentations of the Father, his book about parenting. Don Lee’s novel, Wrack and Ruin and Laurie Notaro’s nonfiction, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death are the ...

Author Frank McCourt died on July 19, 2009 at the age of 78. I saw him when he came to Cleveland a few years back as part of the Cuyahoga County Library author series. Even then he looked frail and was tiny. He was delightful and had a twinkle in his eye. McCourt is of course best known for his, Pulitzer Prize winning (1997), Angela’s Ashes. This memoir details his impoverished childhood in Limerick, Ireland. He wrote Angela’s Ashes after he retired from 30 years of teaching when he was 66. McCourt died of melanoma.

And within a week ...

Cleveland Public Library (CPL) and Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) have unveiled their 2009-1010 author series, starting this fall! Typically the CPL events are held on Sunday at 2pm at 525 Superior Avenue Cleveland, OH 44115 and the CCPL events are held at the State Theatre Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114 on Tuesday at 7pm.

 

Jamaica Kincaid (CPL) Tuesday, Sept. 22
This program is a special event and jointly sponsored by the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards and the Baker-Nord Foundation at Case Western Reserve University. The program will be held at CWRU. Her works include: Annie John, A Small Place, ...

Shaker Alum Andy Borowitz (of the Borowitz Report) and his wife, Olivia Gentile, author of Life List will appear today at 2pm at Joseph-Beth Books at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst. Olivia will discuss her new book, Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds. This is the story of bird enthusiast, Phoebe Snetsinger, who was told that she only had a year left to live. She continued to travel the world for the next 18 years trying to break the record and see over 8,000 different types of  birds.

 Political humorist, Andy Borowitz is know ...

Master gardener and mystery author, Rosemary Harris is appearing on Around Noon with Dee Perry on WCPN today. She will appear at the Chagrin Falls Public Library at 2 pm today.  He latest mystery is Pushing Up Daisies, which has been nominated for the Agatha Award for the Best First Novel (Traditional Mystery) for 2008! I am looking forward to seeing her in person!

Saturday April 18, 3-5:00 Loganberry Books, near Shaker Square, 13015 Larchmere Blvd., Cleveland

 

Loganberry Books, is featuring a weeklong celebration called Writing Week, Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Writing and the Department of English at Case. Case alumni decided to hold a meet-and-greet-and-read event. Featured authors will read from their works, including Thrity Umrigar, Shelley Costa, Sean Santa, Gina Ventre and Mary Grimm. Case Professor Umrigar was featured last year in a book discussion. You don’t need to be a Case alum to join in on the fun!

 

Sunday April 19, 2 pm Cleveland ...

Next week the Euclid Public Library will host the morning book discussion on Monday April 6th at 10:30 am featuring, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. This is the story of Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer who befriends a boy in striped pajamas. This holocaust novel reads like a cautionary tale. This will be accompanied by a showing of the film by the same name.

 

 On Wednesday the 8th at 7 pm the evening group will feature The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Born as a ...

 

 

The Morning Book Group meets on the first Monday of the Month at 10:30 am. The Evening Group meets on the second Wednesday of the Month at 7pm.

 

May


May 4th 10:30 am
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
A proper young Englishwoman must choose between a shallow boor from her own class and an impulsive young man she meets in Italy. E. M. Forster's brilliant comedy of manners shines a gently ironic light on the attitudes and customs of the British middle class at the beginning of the 20th century. One of Forster's ...

Last Tuesday night marked the last visit in Cleveland by Nancy Pearl for the Cuyahoga County Library's Writers Series. Pearl acted as moderator for the Young Literary Icons and featured Colson Whitehead, Myla Goldberg and Jonathan Lethem. I am looking forward to the final installment of the series on Tuesday May 12,with Joan Didion, who replaced John Updike, who recently died.

Didion's 2005 book, The Year of Magical Thinking, is a book-length essay that followed the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne.

 

What follows is a selection of promising first-timers coming in early 2009.

 
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital, with a talent for medicine and a shady past. Pietro “Bearclaw” Brnwa is a former mob hit man in the witness protection program. When Dr. Brown's new patient realizes he looks a lot like “Bearclaw,” the mob, the government and death itself start to descend upon the hospital—and Peter has 24 hours to beat the reaper.

Loser’s Town by Daniel Depp
A darkly comic debut thriller introducing David Spandau, a PI ...

That’s right two of the greatest figures of the 19th century were born on the same day, February 12, 1809. These two great men, one a scientist and the other a politician set off revolutions that changed the history of the world.

 Lincoln will be forever connected to the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation. And, Darwin will be considered the father of “survival of the fittest” and natural selection. There are several good books that delve into the lives of both men.

 Lincoln by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Herbert Donald is an important biography, that presents a moving, ...