Back from vacation (more on that in the next few days), I find that I missed an earthquake, a hurricane and a plague of locusts. Well, maybe not the locusts, but it sure sounds like it was a hellish week. The mid-Atlantic's weather was so bad that the dedication ceremony for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington had to be postponed.

But there still is a squall buffeting the memorial.

Author Maya Angelou has criticized a decision to paraphrase one of King's quotes on the statue. The inscription, taken from a 1968 sermon, says: I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness. That makes King sound like an an "arrogant twit" because it's out of context, Angelou said in a Washington Post report.

Here's the full version, in which King eerily refers to his own eulogy: "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."

Organizers said the complete quotation did not fit as the memorial's design evolved. But that did not matter to Angleou, who told the Post that the paraphrased version "minimizes the man. It makes him seem less than the humanitarian he was. ... It makes him seem an egotist."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

By chance, our hotel room in Copenhagen overlooked the one-time home of Hans Christian Andersen (known simply as H.C. Andersen in Denmark). It's in the incredibly scenic area of Nyhaven (New Haven or new harbor in English), which once was a busy working area but now houses mainly restaurants and tour boats. Still, the colored buildings -- green, red, pumpkin, etc. -- along the small waterway make it a larger, more arresting version of Annapolis' City Dock.

Andersen's former home is an unpretentious white townhouse along the water. It's not open for tours, unfortunately, but it was interesting to see the plaque out front -- just above the H.C. Andersen Cafe.

I considered buying a books of his fairy tales, but books -- like everything else in Copenhagen -- were very expensive. Think $20 to $30 for the simplest paperbacks. I will get back to his stories, but on a website that offers them for free.

Meanwhile, I'll try to wrap up "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Petterson, and look for something else as we move from Norway to Sweden.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

We noted last week that the Ivy Bookshop is up for sale, as Darielle Linehan looks to spend more time with her family. Now, Susan Weis-Bohlen tells me that she's also looking for a partner for breathe books.

Her Hampden store is more than a bookstore -- it offers all sorts of New Age merchandise and services. But I like it for the author readings; one of the funniest I ever attended was upstairs at breathe, when Shalom Auslander entertained the crowd in a reading from "Foreskin's Lament."

Susan is holding a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, August 25 at 7:30 p.m. to talk about the future of the business. "It is my intention to find an individual, or a group of people, to partner with me so that we can grow breathe books and its programs," she says on her blog.

"Among the most popular events at breathe books are the Ayurvedic classes, consults, workshops and retreats — here — and other places around the region. I want to continue to grow this side of the business, which teaches people how to take their health and well-being into their own hands through nutrition, creating a healthy and detoxifying daily routine, meditation and yoga, among other life-style changes.

"I also love love love taking people on trips to sacred sites around the world. Our trip to India in November already has 11 people signed up! I would love to have the time to travel more and show people the world through spiritual eyes.

"But I also love love love breathe books!! So I’m trying to figure out a way to keep a presence in the shop while doing what I do best for me and hopefully beneficial to the community."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Read Street may be a bit sparse for the next week or so, while I'm vacationing in Scandinavia, which seems to be the new land of crime fiction.

We'll be stopping in Norway, home of Jo Nesbo, whose thriller "The Snowman" has started my Official Vacation Reading List. Next on the list is Nowegian Per Petterson's acclaimed "Out Stealing Horses."

We'll also stop in Sweden, home of the late Stieg Larsson, who wrote the of "The Girl Who ..." trilogy. It's also the birthplace of Henning Mankell, whose Kurt Wallander detective novels have been perennial best-sellers. (I'm tempted to may bring along Mankell's latest, "The Troubled Man," but it's a bit hefty for my bag. Kindle, Kindle, wherefore art thou?)

One more stop: Denmark. And what better way to celebrate that country's litarary heritage than by reading some fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen? Maybe "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Ugly Duckling" or "The Little Match Girl."

I'll have more to report in a week.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain isn't shy about controversy -- after all, his career took off with his book "Kitchen Confidential," which told readers  about behind-the-scenes life at chic restaurants. (My wife, who loved the book, learned that head chefs almost always take Monday off, so it was years before I could get her to go to a decent restaurant on that day.) But now Bourdain  may have bitten off more than he can chew, by slamming TV chefs such as Paula Deen and Rachael Ray. In an interview with TV Guide, he said Deen was the "worst, most dangerous person to America ... . She revels in unholy connections with evil corporations and she's proud of the fact that her food is f---ing bad for you." Of Ray, he said, "Does she even cook anymore? I don't know why she bothers. To her credit, she never said she was good at it." Don't sugar-coat it, Anthony.

The victims have begun to fire back, of course, with Deen saying, "I don't know if it was a publicity thing or if someone had just peed in his bowl of cereal that morning and he was mad."

But as Bourdain well knows, cooking is beside the point on TV. My wife is a great cook, and probably has extended my life expectancy by several decades with her healthy meals. Still, there's something endearing about Deen's personality, and my wife has even suggested eating at her restaurant, The Lady & Sons, if we ever get to Savannah. If she can win health-conscious folks  over while touting dishes like country fried steak, why can't Bourdain lighten up? Hasn't the guy ever eaten a plate of fried chicken and greens?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

With a potential deal in the works for the West Memphis Three, according to the New York Times, this may be a time to revisit the gory 1993 triple-murder in greater detail through books about the case.

In May 1993, the bodies of three boys were found in the woods of West Memphis, Ark., and their mutilation sparked fears of Satanic worship and sparked a frenzy among townspeople. As a result, many believed the three men convicted of the crimes were victims, literally, of a witch-hunt -- a theory promoted in the award-winning documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills."

For more about the case, check out "Devil's Knot" by Mara Leveritt. Here's an excerpt, courtesy of Simon and Schuster:

"At 7:41 P.M. on May 5, 1993, a full moon rose behind the Memphis skyline. Its light glinted across the Mississippi River and fell onto the midsized Arkansas town aspiringly named West Memphis. Sometime between the rising of that moon and its setting the next morning, something diabolical would happen in West Memphis. Three eight-year-old boys would vanish, plucked off the streets of their neighborhood by an unseen, murderous hand. Under the glare of the next day's sun, police would discover three young bodies. They would be pulled -- naked, pale, bound, and beaten -- from a watery ditch in a patch of woods alongside two of America's busiest highways. But the investigation would unfold in shadow. Why had one of the boys been castrated? How to account for the absence of blood? Why did the banks of the stream look swept clean? The police would stumble for weeks without clues -- until the moon itself became one."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Christine O'Donnell, who's taking heat for walking out in the middle of a "Piers Morgan Tonight" interview Wednesday night, will have a better chance to tout her views in her new book, which was released this week. (And the publicity she's receiving over the walk-off, which came after a question about gay marriage, may help sales of the book.)

The title: "Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again," echoes that of Sarah Palin's first book, "Going Rogue: An American Life." And judging by the excerpts, the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware will, like Palin, use the book to soften the harsh portrait painted on the campaign trail. It's a time-tested recipe that has become a standard feature in the media package for politicians with national ambitions, including Barack Obama. She can weave her family history with political views on reducing government interference.

Here's an excerpt from O'Donnell's book, via Good Morning America: "The O'Donnell family quilt is a colorful patchwork of classes and cultures, and political affiliations, but the common thread that knit us all together is a tireless work ethic, a fierce determination to stand for something (and for each other), and an enormous sense of pride, place, and love. We have our disagreements, just like any other American family, but we work past them and set them aside because we love each other. We come together from all these different, sometimes opposing views and opinions, and we find our way to common ground, to a place of shared purpose and meaning."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Today's Google logo pays tribute to a 17th Century math genius, Pierre de Fermat, and his Last Theorem, which took centuries to solve. Though he was trained and worked as a lawyer, he ranked with Rene Descartes as a numbers theorist.

But he is remembered for a work undone, as this Christian Science Monitor article explains:

"One day in 1637, while perusing his copy of an ancient Greek text by the 3rd century mathematician Diophantus, Fermat jotted a note in the margins that would drive mathematicians crazy for the next four centuries. Fermat's marginalia, which was written in Latin and later discovered by his son after he died, read: 'It is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes, or a fourth power into two fourth powers, or in general, any power higher than the second, into two like powers. I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which this margin is too narrow to contain.' In other words, a to the nth + b to the nth can never equal c to the nth, as long as a, b, and c are positive integers and as long as n is greater than two."

The solution was finally discovered in the 1990s by Andrew Wiles of Princeton University -- a tale recounted in "Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem" by Simon Singh.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Darielle Linehan of the charming Ivy Bookshop in north Baltimore, is putting the business up for sale, so she can spend more time with her family. Here's an excerpt from her email (the rest is below): "After much thought and consideration, I have decided to retire in early 2012 and I wanted you as a loyal and valued customer to be among the first to know of this future change. This was an exceedingly difficult decision to make and came as a result of my wanting to spend more time with my family. Beyond personal considerations, I have also become convinced that our business would benefit greatly from new leadership with the requisite new ideas, attitudes and skill sets to better position our business for the future."

We've all heard about the pressures on the bookstore business -- witness the liquidation sale going at Borders stores nationwide, or the closing of Baltimore's Daedalus store. Still, some have been able to survive, as the venerable Politics and Prose in Washington found new buyers this year. The Ivy had an active program of author readings -- pictured here, Paula Butturini signs copies of "Keeping the Feast" in February. But as Linehan hints, the Ivy may have suffered from the lack of an online presence -- something that seems unimaginable these days.

Let's wish her luck in finding a buyer for the store.

Here's the rest of her email: "If you know anyone who might be interested in this great opportunity, please have them get in touch with me by phone at the Ivy or by email. I shall welcome any inquiries.

"I also wish to thank you for your incredible support and loyalty over the past ten years. Please know that it has meant so much to me personally as it has to all the Ivy staff. We have succeeded because you have been so constant in your support, not only making purchases but by giving us suggestions on what books to bring in to expand our collection of carefully chosen titles. Indeed, certain sections have been greatly enhanced because of these recommendations. In addition, we have always been fine-tuned to your special orders, knowing that these also deserved our attention and review for possible inclusion in our inventory. We thank you for this collaboration-it has been invaluable to us. It has been a privilege to serve you."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

On the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death (he died in 1977), let's rewind to consider his favorite books. The King was an avid reader, and was especially drawn to books that offered some spiritual guidance. His favorites included the Bible and "The Impersonal Life" by Joseph Benner -- a book that he often handed out to acquaintances.

Here's an excerpt: "To you who read, I speak.

"To you, who, through long years and much running to and fro, have been eagerly seeking, in books and teachings, in philosophy and religion, for you know not what ---Truth, Happiness, Freedom, God; ...

"To you, who thought you had found it in some great teacher, who was perhaps the acknowledged head of some Society, Fraternity or Religion, and who appeared to you to be a "Master," so marvelous was the wisdom he taught and the works he performed; -- only to awaken later to the realization that that "Master" was but a human personality, with faults and weaknesses, and secret sins, the same as you, even though that personality may have been a channel through which were voiced many beautiful teachings, which seemed to you the highest "Truth;" ...

"To you, I AM come."

If Elvis were alive today, he might join Madonna and other celebrities who have explored Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism. He most certainly would devour self-help books such as "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne or "Stillness Speaks" by Eckhart Tolle. Then again, the kid in him might have been drawn to the J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Max Brooks won lots of fans with his book "World War Z," and many of them are upset by the liberties taken with the script for the movie adaptation. The book looks back at a war between humans and zombies, and is written as an oral history in the aftermath of the bloodshed.

Zombies can be endlessly entertaining -- my favorite big screen treatment is the hilarious "Shaun of the Dead" -- but Brooks loyalists are upset that the story line for the adaptation is a run up to the war, rather than a reappraisal. Paramount's synopsis sounds more like a Dan Brown thriller than a thoughtful sci-fi tale.

Their fear is understandable. I cringe with apprehension every time Hollywood gets hold of a favorite book -- a Pavlovian reaction that originated with the pitiful adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune." And handling flashbacks is an especially tricky business on screen, though it can be done well -- as we saw recently with "Sarah's Key." So we'll have to wait for the release of "World War Z" to see if director Marc Forster and star Brad Pitt can create a powerful narrative, without following Brooks' literary roadmap. Meanwhile, fans should feel free to sound a warning.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Books to Movies
        

I spent yesterday afternoon touring the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, always a very, very sobering experience. This time, I focused a bit more on the stories about those who courageously tried to rescue Jews amid the Nazi onslaught.

The most famous story, of course, is that of Anne Frank, whose family was hidden in an Amsterdam attic. They were discovered and sent to their deaths, but they live on thanks to "The Diary of a Young Girl," and the museum dedicated to their memory.

There were similar tales of heroism in Denmark, France, Hungary and other countries. Of Jews spirited away by boat, hidden in cellars, concealed on farms. "Schindler's List" popularized another rescue effort, that of industrialist Oskar Schindler, but most of these heroes are unknown to the masses.

A pity, because each of their stories makes for remarkable reading. You can get a sampling at the Yad Vashem memorial, which pays tribute to a group called The Righteous among the Nations. Or through the museum's multimedia selection.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I'm a big fan of the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Conn., and have worried about its financial troubles in recent years. It was just a few years ago that authors such as Stewart O'Nan and Tasha Alexander came together to help raise funds for the house, which was having trouble meeting its payroll and paying suppliers.

Now, we find another cause of the problem: embezzlement. According to the Hartford Courant, a former employee who stole more than $1 million from the organization between 2002 and 2010 pleaded guilty recently to wire fraud and filing a false tax return. Donna Gregor of East Hartford used the money for home improvements, restaurant tabs, theater tickets and mortgage payments, the Courant article said. Board president Gregory Boyko said about half of the losses were covered by insurance.

I leave you with this quote from Twain to the Courant in 1969: "Though it is beyond any doubt that many a bad little boy has reaped lucrative income by confiscating the pennies given him for missionary contributions. It is the proudest reflection of my life that I never did that--never did it more than once or twice, anyhow."

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

This week's featured adptation is "The Help," a staple of book clubs everywhere, and the reviews are very good. Kathryn Stockett's book was a real tear-jerker, if my household is any measure, and I bet the movie is rated at least three hankies. Here are exceprts from some reviews:

-- Tribune: [Viola] Davis is reason No. 1 the film extracted from Kathryn Stockett's 2009 best-seller improves on its source material. You can talk all you want about how a movie begins and ends with the screenwriter(s), or lives and dies on a director's ability to use the camera as more than a recording device. But some film adaptations owe their success primarily to the rightness of the casting. "The Help" is one of them."

-- New York Times: If the movie’s director, Tate Taylor, had his way, your tear ducts would be sucked dry by that big finish, emptied out by a pileup of calamities that include a painful romantic breakup, the devastations of cancer and the mighty wailing of an emotionally abandoned toddler.

-- Los Angeles Times: "The Help" is a delicious peppery stew of home-cooked, 1960s Southern-style racism that serves up a soulful dish of what ails us and what heals us. Laughter, which is ladled on thick as gravy, proves to be the secret ingredient — turning what should be a feel-bad movie about those troubled times into a heart-warming surprise.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Books to Movies
        

Newsweek says the image captured her intensity. Others said it was a cheap shot, or in NOW's words, sexist. Conservative blogger Michele Malkin asked Newsweek/Daily Beast boss Tina Brown: "You’ve resorted to recycling bottom-of-the-barrel moonbat photo cliches about conservative female public figures and their enraged 'crazy eyes?' Really?"

Newspapers and magazines must be careful about cover images, because they can carry even more weight than a 1,000-word story. Here at The Baltimore Sun, we often discuss the impact of photographs, especially those featured on the front page. Is that sheet-covered body at a crime scene too graphic? Does that spread-eagled black suspect spark stereotypes? Is one candidate in a group shot highlighted over others? Does someone have an unflattering look?

Newsweek editors know all this, of course. They're in the business of selling issues based on cover images. And they surely could forecast the debate that the Bachmann image would kick up. But spoarking debate is the point, isn't it? Remember, just a few weeks ago, the magazine portrayed Princess Diana next to Kate Middleton in a fantasy cover designed to get folks worked up -- which it did.

Can't wait to see the 9-11 anniversary cover. A sky raining bodies? Osama's ghost in a remake of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

The sentencing of Warren Jeffs, leader of a fundamentalist, break-away sect of the Mormon church, reminded me of great book on such groups: "Under the Banner of Heaven,"by Jon Krakauer. It's a chilling look at a crime cloaked in religion, though it does not involve Jeffs. Still, the books written about Jeffs and his polygamist group could fill a bookshelf. Among them:

"Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints" by Sam Brower.

"Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs" by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer.

"Escape" by Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer .

"When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back" by Stephen Singular.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Here's an intriguing offer for Laura Lippman fans awaiting the release of her new novel, The Most Dangerous Thing: Be one of the first 40 people to pre-order a hardcover edition and you get an invitation to a pizza party with the author.

The deal comes courtesy of BookPerk, a marketing arm of HarperCollins that "pairs new and bestselling books with exclusive merchandise and author experiences." If you ask me, there's no better experience than eating pizza -- especially with a well-known and entertaining author.

The party will be held in Baltimore on August 22, the day before the book is released. No word on whether the 'za will be from one of my favorite haunts: Pasta Mista in Towson or Matthews in East Baltimore.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

As we noted earlier on Read Street, the Enoch Pratt library is starting a pilot program to lend out Nook e-readers that are loaded with novels and non-fiction books. The Baltimore Sun's Mary McCauley looks at the program at branches in Reisterstown and Waverly.

She writes: Starting Wednesday, a total of 28 Barnes & Noble Nooks that have been preloaded with 22 fiction and nonfiction best-sellers, classics and children's favorites will be available for loan at the libraries at 6310 Reisterstown Road. and at 400 E. 33rd St.

And this fall, the 68 middle-school boys attending St. Ignatius, an independent Jesuit school at 740 N. Calvert St., will receive special versions of the e-readers that contain the required reading for the entire academic year.

"People are changing the way they're reading, and the Pratt is embracing that transformation," says Carla Hayden, the library system's chief executive officer.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

This week's hot movie is likely to be "The Change Up," in which a burnt-out lawyer (Jason Bateman) and narcissistic swinger (Ryan Reynolds) trade places because they're envious of each other. But if you want a deeper treatment of the same middle-aged male angst, try "The Trip." It's not a pure book-to-movie adaptation of the sort I usually note here on Fridays; the movie actually followed a British TV series. But it's loaded with literary references. Actors Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon traipse across the north of England, in preparation for an article about the region's great restaurants. (Make sure you have reservations to eat after the show, because you're guaranteed to be hungry.) There are plenty of references to Wordsworth and Coleridge, including bits of their work and shots of the leaden-clouded landscape that inspired them.

This week, I also got a chance to see "Up in the Air," the George Clooney movie that was based on the novel by Walter Kirn. Like "The Trip," it's focused on a middle-aged man who is questioning his life's work. Less hilarious than "The Trip," but very entertaining, and well worth the two hours if you're stuck at home.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Comics purists are upset that a new, half-black, half-Hispanic Spider-Man will soon be crawling up buildings and slinging his web. Miles Morales will pick up the mantle from Peter Parker, who was killed off in Marvel's Ultimate Comics editions, an updated, parallel universe to the regular line of super-heroes.

“When the opportunity arose to create a new Spider-Man, we knew it had to be a character that represents the diversity — in background and experience — of the twenty-first century,” Axel Alonso, Marvel Editor in Chief, said in a new release. “Miles is a character who not only follows in the tradition of relatable characters like Peter Parker, but also shows why he’s a new, unique kind of Spider-Man — and worthy of that name.” Writer Brian Michael Bendis told Fox News Latino that his decision was made before actor Donald Glover's efforts to be considered for next year's Spider-Man film went viral.

But change comes slowly in the comics world, and sometimes triggers controversy. Last year, Archie comics got the first openly gay character. That same year, purists were upset when DC Comics gave Wonder Woman an updated costume that featured a leathery look.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Congratulations to "The New Yorker," for proving, in a sense, that 1,000 words is worth a picture. The magazine has 100,000 iPad readers, including about 20,000 people who bought subscriptions at $59.99 a year. And those sales came even though the venerable magazine lacked the frills that other publications have crammed onto their iPad apps, a New York Times article noted. "Instead of loading its iPad app with interactive features, the magazine focused on presenting its articles in a clean, readable format," it said.

If you can remember way, way back to the introduction of Apple's iPad, publications rushed to take advantage of its sharp display, touch screen technology and video capability. Rupert Murdoch's "The Daily" was created expressly for the device, and when it launched in February, it was visually arresting. But some folks were put off by the early editions' mile-wide-and-inch-deep approach to the news.

In many ways, The New Yorker offers the antithesis of that approach. It's really too early to determine which publications will be winners and losers in the iPad era, but it will be interesting to see how the different approaches work out. Will readers want the sizzle or the steak?

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is offering patrons a chance to get their hands on a Nook e-reader, without having to shell out any cash. Beginning August 10, the pre-loaded e-readers can be checked out from the Reisterstown Road and Waverly branches.

Baltimore Sun reporter Mary McCauley is working on a story for Sunday’s paper on the Pratt's pilot program She's trying to find people who would be interested in the service, who would rather go to the library and check out an e-reader than a physical book, and who can explain why. We all know that e-readers are ideal for a vacation. But, are there those of you who prefer Kindles and Nooks while reading in the privacy of your own homes? If so, and if you are willing to be quoted by name in the Sun, please email mary.mccauley@baltsun.com by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The two Pratt branches will have 14 Nooks apiece, and they'll be preloaded with 22 titles, including best-sellers, books for children and teens, and several classics, the library said. The Reisterstown Road Branch is located at 6310 Reisterstown Road, and the Waverly Branch is at 400 East 33rd Street.

"The Pratt Library is embracing this rapid development in how people read. It’s very rare to be part of a significant change in our industry. The Pratt Library has always tried to help people navigate through technological advancements.” said Carla D. Hayden, the library's CEO.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I saw "Sarah's Key" over the weekend -- the movie adapted from Tatiana de Rosnay's popular novel -- and came away moved and exhausted.

The intersecting story lines flip between a modern-day journalist's research into the deportation of Jews from Paris during World War II, and the actual round-up and imprisonment. The scenes are gripping without being bloody, and startling in the way lives were suddenly turned upside down by the French government's collaboration with the Nazis. It's a well-told story about personal and mass tragedy.

I hadn't read the book, but my wife and her friend, Debbie, who also watched the movie, vouched for the adaptation. I'm amazed that all of the action could be crammed into a 300-page book. And the on-screen movement back and forth between the 1940's and the present (with a couple of stops in between) was not too jarring.

This isn't typical summertime fun. But if you don't mind a wrenching emotional experience, check it out.

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Books to Movies