Category Archives: Arts & Culture

For the love of books and readers

Silent Book Club is a community where you BYOB and socialize with fellow readersBy Lydia [email protected] Getting lost in a good book is generally a solo activity, unless you join a […]

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Ask a Bookseller: ‘Tree. Table. Book.’ by Lois Lowry

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now. In honor of the start of school, Ask a Bookseller is focused on recommendations for kids and teens — although Kristin Nilsen of Big Hill Books in Minneapolis recommends this middle-grade read for everybody. “Tree. Table. Book.” by Lois Lowry.Clarion BooksIt’s the newest title from Lois Lowry, called “Tree. Table. Book.” You might know Lowry for her novels “Number the Stars” and “The Giver,” which won Newbery Medals in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Now age 87, Lowry has written a new book that Kristin says deserves to be in Newbery contention.The story follows two Sophies who live on the same street and are friends. Narrator Sophie is 11 years old. Her friend “big Sophie” is 88. Young Sophie begins to hear the grown-ups in her life expressing concerns that big Sophie is no longer able to live on her own. They want her to have a cognition test, to ascertain whether she has dementia.Young Sophie is determined to keep her friend in her home, and so sets about helping big Sophie study for the cognition test. In the test, a person must remember and repeat a series of three words. (The title “Tree. Table. Book.” comes from this test.) Over the course of their studies, big Sophie begins telling her friend stories of when she was a little girl growing up in Poland at the start of WWII when the Nazis came. These are stories she’d never told anyone before, not even members of her own family.When breaking news happens, MPR News provides the context you need. Help us meet the significant demands of these newsgathering efforts.

Inside Harare Alcatraz and Other Short Stories. A Book Review by Philip Matogo

gandan author, book critic and poet, Philip Matogo interrogates and lauds Andrew Chatora’s debut short story collection for bringing to the fore aspects of contemporary Zimbabwe that are typical of African conditions and the Diaspora, also indicating that the stories encompass the Sophoclean tragedy.
In the main story, of this debut collection by Andrew Chatora, a man with multiple identities goes to prison… (I know that you thought he would go to a mental home with such a disorder). However, his is no ordinary disorder or condition. Going to prison in order to spy on prisoners is actually his profession!
The man is a political spy, a spook as some would say. He is sent to prison for what in his line of work is called Wetwork, a euphemism for murder or assassination that alludes to spilling blood.
So, he is secreted into Harare Alcatraz Maximum Security Prison by the security police of Zimbabwe to eliminate political dissidents, Jacob and Hopewell. But then, the two men he is supposed to eliminate reveal their impeccable humanity to him and things get hazier than any shade of colourful criminality.
Jacob and Hopewell are well known fighters for democracy in Zimbabwe who have been in and out of prison and this story uses real living characters in a work of total imagination, something that Ignatius Mabasa, the other key Zimbabwean author, is known to do. When fiction and fact come together, the spark becomes huge, covering both its source and the starter.
“You see, Chipendani, we are prisoners of conscience here at Harare Alcatraz; our desire is not for us to benefit personally, but for posterity, our children, their children and future generations to come,” Jacob tells the would-be killer.
 Andrew Chatora
Instead of killing the two men, their would-be killer is gradually and convincingly converted to their cause. This, as you might imagine, does not end well for him.
Several other stories animate the pages of this well-written book whose diction and turn of phrase will amaze and amuse anyone who reads it. These stories by Andrew Chatora are in keeping with Jarrell Randall’s view of the type of stories in-which-everything-happening (in which each event is so charged that the narrative threatens to disintegrate into energy!) 
In the succeeding story, “Black Britain”, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is articulated in a storyline that will keep readers glued to each page.
As some readers might be aware, BLM activists seek to draw attention to the racism which leads to the criminal mistreatment of black people. This movement has met with support and, predictably, virulent opposition.
“Race relations opinions are always sharply polarised in contemporary Britain and framed within binary opposites of ‘us versus them’, and ‘whites versus non-whites’. Thus, it was common to be targeted with a barrage of vitriolic and disparaging insults and posts for advocating for racial equality and a fair and just society,” says the protagonist Anesu, after the police, again predictably, pull over the family car. As an essay short story, this piece necessitates a delicate balance between storytelling finesse and analytical prowess, making this book a must read in the BLM movement.
In the story A Snap Decision, a mother of easy virtue ends up with a cavalcade of men. Some of whom deflower and sexually abuse her daughter.
A gruesome murder occurs, and the hapless child is given a 12-year custodial sentence. In between the sexual trauma of her existence, she mercifully and rather fittingly finds love.
In Uganda, we have Kafundas. You know, the tumbledown drinking establishments famed for their affordability and accessibility.
In South Africa and Zimbabwe, there are shebeens. These are informal and unlicensed drinking places in the townships and mining compounds. But because these places stray away from the ambit of the law, some of the most despicable things happen in there and these spaces have been areas of interest for many writers who seek to search for hidden social truths.
Estelle, the shebeen Queen and other Dangamvura Vignettes captures the heartlessness and soullessness in these establishments, particularly in Mutare, Zimbabwe where the story is set.
The men who frequent them are left riddled with disease and debt as the opportunistic women who have the run of these drinking joints ensnare them in proverbial honey traps. They hobble back into open society laden with stories which they may not be able to narrate.
Supported and promoted by cunning members of the ruling party of Zimbabwe, these joints make the poor poorer as they fritter away their pennies to purchase the charms of Mai Kere, MaSibanda and other floozies.
These women are nothing but enchantresses. They are in the mould of the Latin succubus or female-looking demons or supernatural entities in folklore who appear in dreams to seduce men, usually through sexual activity. It is said that a succubus needs semen to survive. Repeated sexual activity with a succubus will result in a bond being formed between the succubus and the person. A succubus will drain or harm the man with whom she is having intercourse. Andrew Chatora’s stories will surely titillate Ugandan and other African readers. These stories overflow beyond Zimbabwe.
However, what you have in these stories is more than a dream. It is a veritable nightmare.
Later, in another story Smoke and Mirrors, a man living abroad has to support two families in a clandestine bigamous relationship. He is unable to do so. This leads to a number of untoward consequences.
On the whole, the 11 short stories in this book represent what looks like a typical Sophoclean Tragedy.
The characters are often portrayed as noble figures brought down by a single tragic flaw or ‘hamartia.’ This line of storytelling raises several moral questions, with few easy answers. Andrew Chatora joins a list of key short story writers from his country, the best of whom are Charles Mungoshi, Doris Lessing and Dambudzo Marechera. Their country has once been described as “a short story country” because nearly every Zimbabwean who has become prominent today started with short stories or has a short story collection somewhere along the way.
* This review first appeared in The Daily Monitor, a Ugandan independent daily newspaper. The reviewer, Philip Matogo is a newspaper columnist, book critic and poet. He has published two books, Fabric of Grey and Whispers in the Sky, and has contributed to numerous international poetry anthologies. He lives in Kampala, Uganda.
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Farmington Library to host book talk by local author Bryce Moore

FARMINGTON—The Farmington Public Library will be hosting local author Bryce Moore as he talks about his newest novel A Family of Killers. This event will take place on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. in the Holman Room and is free to the public. The library will provide light refreshments while you learn about Moore’s newest historical thriller. Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Devaney, Doak, and Garrett Booksellers.
Bryce Moore
Moore, known for his previous works of horror The Perfect Place to Die and Don’t Go to Sleep, now delves into the eerie tale of America’s first serial killer family. The main character is searching for his lost father and finds himself surrounded by a strange family that watches his every move…all while a new sinister voice in his head is urging him to do unspeakable things. Moore will discuss his book as well as share insights into the publishing industry and his own personal writing process. With a passion for writing and storytelling, Moore has a wealth of experience toshare.

Moore is currently the Library Director at Mantor Library and when he is not working or writing he loves to, as he puts it, “obsessively play Magic the Gathering.” He is also a father of three who loves watching movies, playing board and video games, and fixing up his 1841 farmhouse.
After the talk Bryce Moore will be available to sign copies of his book. For more information, please contact the library at 778-4312 or email [email protected].

Nostalgia overrated, books should inspire to live, says screenwriter Sanjay at Hortus prelude

Kochi: Nostalgia is overrated and childhood may not be something people want to go back to, Malayalam screenplay writer Sanjay said in Kochi on Friday. Sanjay stated his views which sound contrary to the common beliefs during an interaction with young writer Salini Nair at Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara.

The duo shared their views on writing, language and life at ‘Hortus Vayana’ – a series of talks being held across the state ahead of the Hortus International Literary and Cultural Festival, organised by Malayala Manorama.The interaction between Sanjay and Salini were based on the latter’s debut novel ‘Poochakkuru’, published by Manorama Books.

Sanjay, who has co-authored several hit films with his brother Bobby, said he was impressed by ‘Poochakkuru’ for the way it deals with the theme of childhood. He said the work of fiction highlights the need to treat children with kindness and compassion.

“Have you ever felt kids are duly minded. We need to be a bit more kind towards kids. The biggest of crimes is hurting a child’s soul,” he said. Salini agreed, saying all children want to grow fast as they feel trapped in childhood. However, she said once grown up people feel like going back to childhood. Sanjay said he never felt so.

Sanjay said a book becomes great when it offers something new in a second reading. He cited ‘Poochakkuru’ as an example.

On her process of writing, Salini said she usually visualises the situations and characters. “I get emotional while writing emotional situations and laugh at my characters sometimes,” she said.

Sanjay said books should inspire a reader to live. “When you are reading a book you are reading yourself,” he said. The ‘Hortus’ festival is scheduled to be held on Kozhikode beach from November 1 to 3.

Florida book ban Book Publishers File Lawsuit, Say Florida Book Ban Law is Unconstitutional The publishers were joined by authors including John Green, Angie Thomas, and Julia Alvarez. Jay Waagmeester, Iowa Capital Dispatch

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter A cohort of book publishers and award-winning authors have filed a legal challenge to the 2023 Florida law that enables challenges to books in school libraries. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando, alleges that the process of…

Looking Forward An Orthodox rabbi and a Reform journalist dance with the Torah Rabbi Dov Linzer’s and Abigail Pogrebin’s new book is a lesson on embracing diversity of thought, on both Torah and life By Jodi Rudoren 5 min read

Rabbi Dov Linzer (left) and Abigail Pogrebin (right) speaking about their new book, “It Takes Two To Torah” at a launch event on Sept. 5. Photo by Michael Nagle

By Jodi Rudoren
September 6, 2024

A passage in this week’s Torah portion says that when a king ascends the throne, he must write his own version of the scroll, keep it with him, and “read it all the days of his life so he may learn to revere God.”
Rabbi Dov Linzer, who has spent decades studying Torah daily, always saw this as a lesson in humility. Even the king must constantly be reminded that the real ruler — writer of the scroll, maker of the laws — is divine.
Then Linzer parsed the text with Abigail Pogrebin, a journalist and author who grew up secular but became a bat mitzvah at age 40 and later president of Central Synagogue, one of the largest in the country. She focused on the “read it all the days” part and declared the passage to be about “lifelong learning.”

Which is, of course, exactly what both of them were doing, and what they hope we will all do, with their new book, It Takes Two to Torah.

“Many people say, ‘Why are we reading these same exact words every year?’ This parsha is the answer to me,” Pogrebin told me, using the Hebrew word for portion., and referring to Shoftim, Judges, the portion Jews worldwide will read this Shabbat.
“Shoftim really shouted out this idea of needing Torah with you all the time,” she explained. “There’s a sense of having to keep learning it. This isn’t something that is finished. It is ongoing, and you owe something to it.”
The authors with Rabbi David Wolpe, left, at their book launch event Thursday at Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center on the Upper East Side. Photo by Michael Nagle
It’s cliché but also true that they’re an unlikely pair. He, nerdy and Orthodox, always in a suit and tie, a bit pale perhaps from spending so many hours in the beit midrash, study hall, dissecting text with other Orthodox men (and a few women). She, Manhattan-cool and Reform, often in a sleeveless top and tailored pants, daughter of the feminist legend Letty Cotton Pogrebin and professional poser of good questions.
They both really love being Jewish. And, like many couples, they make each other laugh.
They are not married — well, not to each other. They are chevruta: study partners.
The root of the Hebrew word is chaver, which means friend, but the idea is really that any two people can come together over text and unpack it. Linzer, 57, and Pogrebin, 59, shared the fruit of their partnership first on a podcast called Parsha in Progress, with 10-minute episodes on each of the Torah’s 54 chapters. They decided to turn those conversations into a book so people could find them all in one place and, perhaps, continue the conversation in chevruta of their own.
“To bring Torah to a much broader range of people, make people realize that Torah has a lot to say for their lives,” was how Linzer summed up the goal of the project.
“There’s a lot of great insight and content, but what’s really unique is what it’s modeling,” he added. “There’s all this white space on the page. That’s what invites people in.”
The duo first met 15 years ago at a conference hosted by the New York Jewish Week called, appropriately, The Conversation. They kept in touch — Pogrebin helped Linzer write an op-ed for The New York Times on religion and modesty; when she was working on a series of articles for the Forward that became her 2017 book My Jewish Year, he often got late-night texts fact-checking some point of Jewish law.
“There was something unexpectedly meaningful about calling each other to talk something through,” Pogrebin, who is a friend and a supporter of the Forward, said when the three of us spoke yesterday.

“When Abby would ask me a question, sometimes I would have to research it a little bit,” added Linzer. “She was asking me a question, but we wound up learning from each other, because her questions were so probing. Normally, the questions that get asked to me are all within these very narrowly defined parameters.”
There is a fundamental difference in how they approach the text. She sees Torah as a book of collected wisdom that has bound the Jewish people over generations, which offers insights into how to live but also contains many problematic passages. He sees it as a divine outline of his religious obligations.
“I’m pre-committed to finding a resolution, to it being God-given and a good text and a binding text,” Linzer explained when asked about this by Rabbi David Wolpe at last night’s launch event for the book, whose publication date is Tuesday.
“He has to find a positive lens on a thing that I find very difficult,” Pogrebin said. “Sometimes, I feel like you’re pretzeling.”
Take, for example, the “Sotah ritual,” a test the Torah outlines for women accused of adultery. They are supposed to drink an inky liquid, and if their stomach distends, they are found guilty and punished. Pogrebin read and re-read the passages describing this and declared it “horrific.” Linzer, who sees the Torah “as a book for all time but also of its time,” argued that Sotah was actually a progressive response to patriarchal societies where women accused of cheating could be summarily executed.
“I thought that I’d really dealt with it and come up with a very gratifying answer,” Linzer said in our interview. “And then to realize, it’s gratifying for you that’s already in Orthodoxy, and committed and needs it all to work. But for anybody from the outside, you still have this text that is just so harsh and against our morés and values.”
Two guests at the event hand each other a copy of the book. Photo by Michael Nagle
They struggled a bit with guardrails for their own conversations, because Linzer insisted on critiquing the text with reverence. If Pogrebin asked, “Is this text sexist?” he would ask her to reframe that as, “Do I experience the text as sexist?” When she said, “Are these the right Ten Commandments?” He would respond, “Are these the right Ten Commandments for you?”
Now that they’re heading out on book tour, there are other such issues to navigate. Linzer, president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, an Orthodox rabbinical school in the Bronx, decided he would speak in non-Orthodox synagogues on Shabbat, so long as he himself is not on a microphone. At last night’s book party, Pogrebin was apologetic that the little tins of mints she ordered with the image of the book cover — they jokingly called them the Ten Commandmints — were not certified kosher.
“We don’t have to believe the same things about the divinity of the text,” Linzer said. “But I don’t want to feel my buttons being pushed.”
“Many people say, ‘Why are we reading these same exact words every year?’ This isn’t something that is finished. It is ongoing, and you owe something to it.”
– Abigail Pogrebin, co-author, It Takes Two to Torah

This felt to me like the heart of the matter, and not just for studying Torah in chevruta with someone from a different religious background. It applies equally to journalism and politics in our polarized world.
The key is to help people to engage with ideas that are unfamiliar without pushing their buttons in a way that makes them shut down.
This summer, my daughter, Shayna, was lucky to be part of the Bronfman Fellowship, a leadership program focused on Jewish pluralism. Bronfman brings together rising high school seniors from different backgrounds — Reform, secular and frum; Jewish day school and not — for five weeks of study and travel. Shayna called home the first weekend to say a few of them had stayed up till 3:45 a.m., “solving pluralism.”
The essence, she explained later, is to remove the barriers to entry for everyone — to try not to push anybody’s buttons — and then for everyone to accept that they will be somewhat uncomfortable once they get inside.
It’s a delicate dance. Which is why it takes at least two to Torah.

Jodi Rudoren has been editor-in-chief of the Forward since 2019. She previously spent 21 years at The New York Times, including a stint as Jerusalem bureau chief. Twitter: @rudoren. Email: [email protected].
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

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Crack a book: Local library, barber shop partner to promote literacy

Crack a book: Local library, barber shop partner to promote literacy

Published 8:43 am Saturday, September 7, 2024

Easter Ross book and arts fair scene is set

Jenny Coulgan. FEELGOOD fiction, crime, cookery and wildlife are amongst the themes running through an north book and arts festival starting next week. And organisers reckon the event has a positive impact on the wellbeing of the local community as well as providing a welcome economic boost to the area. St Duthac Book and Arts…