As Valerie Frankel’s new novel, set in and around a private school in Brooklyn Heights opens, Bess, mother of four and president of the school’s Parent Association, has invited Robin, a single mother, Carol, an African-American physician, and Alicia, who is Caucasian and lives above Fairway in Red Hook, to her beautifully decorated Clinton Street… FULL STORY
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Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “The Brooklyn Heights Promenade” by Henrik Krogius
Brooklyn Heights residents are justly proud of our Promenade overlooking New York Harbor. Cantilevered over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, it offers stunning views of the harbor, the Statue of Liberty, and Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, the Manhattan skyline, and Brooklyn Bridge Park. But the origins of the Promenade are somewhat murky, and Henrik Krogius has devoted… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “The Discovery of Slowness” by Sten Nadolny
Constant connection and instant communication have embedded speed in our lives. Sten Nadolny’s wonderful novel, “The Discovery of Slowness,” translated by Ralph Freedman, celebrates the opposite: the value of taking one’s time, of stopping to think before you act or speak. “The Discovery of Slowness,” a historical novel, tells the story of John Franklin, a… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” by Nathan Englander
For many Jews, the world is and remains a fragile place. Israel is surrounded by enemies, many of whom have vowed her destruction. Intermarriage and secular life have diminished traditional Jewish culture. The Holocaust survivors are dying of old age, and the sense of righteousness their story conveys is in danger of dying with them.… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “The Stranger’s Child” by Alan Hollinghurst
Every once in a while I read a book that is so good I cannot bear to put it down, but at the same time I cannot bear to finish it because then it will be done and I will never be in suspense again. “The Stranger’s Child,” a new book by Alan Hollinghurst, is… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson
Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933. In that same year, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated as President of the United States, and in due course he appointed a new United States Ambassador to Germany. After several false starts—it was clearly going to be a difficult post, given the world financial turmoil and German… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “The Thorn and the Blossom” by Theodora Goss
Brendan and Evelyn meet as young students. Evelyn, an American studying at Oxford, is taking a week’s vacation in Cornwall before she heads home. Brendan is also at Oxford, but lets Evelyn think he is merely a local. The two, both misfits in their own families, start to fall in love after spending the better… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke” by Timothy Snyder
Before they became independent countries in the 20th century, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and parts of Poland and Ukraine were territories, or provinces, or sometimes principalities, of the Habsburg empire. The Habsburg family was large and connected, all the more so because cousins often married. (A Habsburg sits on the throne of… FULL STORY
Downton Abbey and Books
As someone who grew up reading classics after watching the Masterpiece Theatre versions (“Cousin Bette,” in particular, got me started on Balzac) I was very taken by today’s article in the New York Times about publishers efforts to tie new releases into the series. Naturally, I was looking for my own favorite World War I… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “This Beautiful Life” by Helen Schulman
In “This Beautiful Life” Helen Schulman takes on a story of youthful illusion and treachery. The Bergamots, mother, father, teenaged son and kindergarten daughter, move to New York City from Ithaca, New York. Richard, the father, has taken on a high-profile job overseeing the development of an area of Harlem by a near-by world-class university.… FULL STORY
Community Building and Book Sharing with Little Free Libraries
Have you ever stayed in a hotel where travellers and guests swapped and shared novels and guides? I have, and been grateful for a great book left behind by an earlier visitor. Now some people in Madison, Wisconsin have extended the idea. Little Free Libraries are free-standing outdoor bookcases where neighbors can share and exchange… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines a Life” by Ann Beattie
What to make of this curious book, Ann Beattie’s beautifully written new release? There’s clearly a lot of imagination at work here, and the work is based on significant research. But, Beattie points out, “[B]ooks are always about the author, however well or badly hidden, as well as being about the books’ subject.” Beattie uses… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club, “A Meaningful Life,” by L.J. Davis
Lowell Lake, just graduated from Stanford University in the early 1960s, gets married right after college graduation. On a whim, he turns down a graduate scholarship to Berkeley, and moves with his new wife to New York City. He tries writing a novel; when that doesn’t work out, he becomes the managing editor of a… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson
Charismatic, volatile, mercurial. Genius. These are just some of the adjectives Walter Isaacson applies to Steve Jobs in his lively and entertaining biography. In Isaacson’s description, Jobs was driven to seek perfection in his company’s products through simplicity, and ease of use through elegant design both inside and out. Jobs managed to project an aura… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: Books for Kids
If you are not out shopping today, and are looking for something to do, why not spend a little time clearing out your bookcases? Books for Kids, a project of the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice is looking for books for teen-aged and young adult clients. Books for Kids is an innovative project designed… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: “A Visit from the Goon Squad” and “The Invisible Circus” by Jennifer Egan
I admit to letting “A Visit from the Goon Squad” sit on my night table for several months after I bought it. “Look at Me” is a terrific book, but “The Keep” is less successful, though I admired Egan’s experiments with form. What I’d heard about “Goon Squad” was that some people loved it and… FULL STORY
Brooklyn Bugle Book Club: Courtney E. Smith Discusses Record Collecting for Girls
Author, music maven and former MTV programmer Courtney E. Smith discusses her book Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Timein the premiere edition PacMan Sessions. Smith has enraged some feminists with her book while also garnering praise for encouraging young women to enjoy and embrace music beyond their… FULL STORY
Creativity has spilled forth from the classrooms of P.S. 8 and found its way onto the walls of the Urban Folk Art Gallery, thanks to the “How’s the Weather?” exhibition that features dozens of landscape paintings and drawings by first-grade students from the Brooklyn Heights elementary school. The group show marks the end of a… FULL STORY
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