In an interview posted on his LinkedIn page, Jeffrey Price, perhaps unknown to most but renowned for co-authoring the script of the animated movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” says of his latest work: “Improbable Fortunes is my Funny Valentine to the land I love and the craziness that is not so different from America at large. I should also say that women readers have told me that they found the book romantic.” Improbable Fortunes is a novel in print, Kindle and Audible formats on Amazon. Set in a small fictional town in Colorado, it’s the story of the adventures of one Butch McCaffrey. It’s a terrific satire on the New West with a main character who embodies literature’s greatest picaresque “heroes,” from Don Quixote to Ignatius J. Reilly. The Prolouge, a half-hour long excerpt, will give you…
Reflections on Reading Literature in a Foreign Language
By Simran P. Gupta The author Jhumpa Lahiri is an inspiration to me, particularly with her latest memoir, In Other Words. In this work, she chronicles her journey with learning to write exclusively (as well as read and speak) in Italian. As a South Asian learning a language that is not from that subcontinent, her thoughts resonated strongly with me, and led to some reflection of my own. I am not by any means embarking on a mission to write exclusively in French yet, but thanks to my French major I have been reading more and more French and Francophone literature. I have quickly realized that this literature is not the same beast as the film or literature I study for my English major. French literature takes me almost twice as long to read, is…
Sophie Vincent’s Winsome Ceramics
In the French village of Dourdan, the sculptor Sophie Vincent carries on a tradition of making ceramics which dates back to the first century BCE, a period when France was known as Gaul and part of the Roman Empire. It was a time when clay kitchen and tableware changed from being purely utilitarian to becoming more expressive and decorative shapes and figurines – in a word, art. And thus Sophie, working in her studio in Dourdan, just south of Paris, brings this ancient Dourdan tradition into the twenty-first century. Here is a sampling of her work, with titles in their original French. Please click on the images for a gallery view. * Sophie says, “After four years of training and nice meetings with other artists, I opened my own ceramics studio in Dourdan. Since then, I spend most of my…
Three Poems by Nina Brav
Silly or Young How silly I was then, Or maybe too young To see that the darkness on the wall Was just myself Reflected. The wooden night-light That carved the image of a withered tree Standing, still in moonlight That’s what made it bigger That’s why I was afraid. So I cowered under covers, Silly to think my blanket Could shield me from my monster Too young to know I’d never really Escape it. *** The Nights Are the Hardest “The nights are the hardest,” she’d said. She was right. Night came. So did total destruction. Dark winds howled, pushed me, dragged me off my perch, down with a thud. Clay skin cracked, pieces of me spread across cold cement floors. Then came the winged creatures. They tore at me, scratching…
Podcast: Radio Stories for Halloween
Happy? Creepy? Horrific? Halloween! Take your pick, All Hallow’s Eve is for all of us and different for all of us, especially in these days when it’s moved around to accommodate marketing promotions and convenient times to trick ‘n’ treat. But no such concerns here: You can listen to these great old-time radio Halloween stories any time you like! Here we present three for your listening – ah – pleasure. They’re really old, from the 1940s and 1950s, and yet they’re ageless as well. Our first ghoulish tale is Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat,” starring one of the greatest actors of the horror genre, Peter Lorre, who was also host of Mystery in the Air. Lorre’s German accent gave his characterizations an intense dash of the macabre. Please click the arrow below to listen. …
Little Red Riding Hood’s Halloween
The folk tale of Little Red Riding Hood has a long and varied history in its telling, which does nothing to diminish the charm of the following photographs, which have a distinctive mood and charm all their own. Thanks to our friend J. Stirling for sharing these images. Enjoy. Please click on the images to enlarge them. If you go off to the woods… Be sure you take some lunch with you… My apple was delicious! I’m so glad I brought some along. The woods are a wonderful place for memories and secrets… But now it’s growing dark. Time to go home before the Big Bad Wolf finds me. Besides, I’m getting tired and I miss mommy and daddy!
Podcast: “Homer the Hobo and Ulysses the Goat”
Submitted for your appreciation, a third children’s story written and read by Michael Larrain for his young daughter, Wilder Kathleen The Rage of Pais Larrain. While the first two were focused mostly on Wilder’s magic loom, in this podcast we meet two new characters named after the poet Homer and his character Ulysses in “The Odyssey.” Some pretty famous ancient Greeks. Will they live up to their namesakes? Will they drink the lemonade? Will Ulysses take off wandering again? All these questions will be charmingly answered in the story which follows. If you haven’t listened to the preceding stories, they are here and here. We’re really quite pleased to be extending the definition and boundaries of the podcast with these readings. The fourth and last will appear next Friday. Please click on the arrow below to…
Is “The Death of Books” Eminent? Nope!
We often hear that people aren’t reading much these days. Is the death of books eminent? New research by the Pew Center points out that people are still reading paperback and even hardcover books – in fact, often preferring them to e-books. It startled me into recalling a conference I attended while still a book editor in publishing – I seem to recall 1981 as the year – entitled “The Death of Books.” Hah. People read books and e-books. More people are listening to audiobooks. We have many more choices in how we consume the stories between book covers, even as we discover more and more sophisticated ways to acquire information. Here’s an interesting article about how reading real books is still pervasive. And here’s another about the growing interest in audiobooks, which is why we podcast for…
Podcast: Daddy Michael Reads Another Story He Wrote For Daughter Wilder
I hope you listened to last week’s podcast of Michael Larrain reading his children’s story, “The Girl with a Loom in Her Room.” Why? Because it was charming and delightful and read so eloquently by the author who is, of course, Wilder Kathleen The Rage of Paris Larrain’s father. Now comes the second of three stories, “Heaven & Earth,” in which Wilder is back at work on her magical loom in her room. Her loom skills are emerging, and with them – a giraffe? And a homeless old gentleman named Charlie. And an apple orchard. And an adventure involving all three and a bit more as well. You won’t want to miss this continuation of the first story – and find out how it got its title. Please click on the arrow below to listen to “Heaven &…
When Trouble Is Truly Worth It: Two YA Book Reviews
Note: We welcome contributor Simran P. Gupta back to the Café with reviews of two new young adult [YA] novels. She’s not only a thoughtful literary critic and skilled essayist, but she’s opening an avenue into a literary genre which we haven’t given the attention it deserves. When Trouble Is Truly Worth It: Two Essential YA Novels To Help Ring in the School Year By Simran P. Gupta The title of YA novelist Tony Wallach’s second book, Thanks for the Trouble, may have a sarcastic echo to it upon a first read. Upon reading the book, however, a wry and heartfelt tone emerges. The “trouble,” after all, is what forces the development of protagonist Parker Santé. Wallach’s story starts out as an enigma, through sullen, introverted Parker’s POV. A mute who prefers to spend…