Weekly Geeks 2009-18: Home Sweet Literary Home

This week's Weekly Geeks topic, posted by the lovely softdrink, is:

"Take us on a literary tour of your home town!"

Hmmm...interesting one. I grew up in northern California, in a town called Danville, which is part of the "East Bay" area, outside of San Francisco. Danville is a commuter town, a "bedroom community" for San Francisco, and though it has its own history as a railroad stop on the Southern Pacific railroad, and is a lovely place, I wouldn't call it a literary town.

However, the San Francisco Bay Area has a rich literary history. Jack London was born in San Francisco and lived in the Bay Area and of course Mark Twain famously lived in San Francisco where he worked as a journalist, and described the weather to a T ("The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"). The literary history continues on through the beat poets and expands to a wide group of writers who make San Francisco their home, including Dave Eggers and the McSweeney's crew.

But my little home town of Danville did have its own literary star, at least for awhile, in the late playwright Eugene O'Neill.

Eugene O'Neill and his wife Carlotta built Tao House, a beautiful Spanish-style house, on a hillside in Danville, and they lived there from 1937 to 1944. He wrote his final and most famous plays there, including “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” “The Iceman Cometh,” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” O'Neill garnered four Pulitzer prizes for his plays, and is the only American playwright to have received the Nobel Prize for literature.

Now the home is a National Historic Site, and you can visit and take a tour if you wish, but you have to make a reservation first. And evidently the Eugene O'Neill Foundation hosts an International Eugene O'Neill conference in Danville--who knew?

Fabulous blogging friends at the Festival of Books

What an amazing day! Amazing is what happens when you make a date to meet a bunch of your favorite bloggers IRL at the fantastic Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Yes, that's the kind of day I had yesterday. I got up early, left my husband in charge of the kids (or was it my kids in charge of my husband?), and headed over to the UCLA campus for the fabulous Festival of Books.

And then I met Trish from Hey, Lady, Whatcha Readin'?, Lisa from Books on the Brain, Amy from My Friend Amy, Ti from Book Chatter and other stuff, Natasha from Maw Books Blog, Jill from Fizzy Thoughts, Wendy from Musings of a Bookish Kitty and her husband Anjin (note to Anjin--just checked out your blog and saw that we could have had quite a conversation about WoW and the new patch--my husband, sons and I play, and I'm a lvl 80 night elf druid...so, we'll talk another time!), and Florinda from The 3 R's: Reading, 'Riting and Randomness. Wow, such talented and lovely women! It was so great to meet them, and to share the day with them. I'm just bummed I missed dinner...but had to get home to make sure nobody burned the house down while I was away.

The panels I attended were very entertaining. A bunch of us started the day with "Status Update: Social Networking and New Media", with Otis Chandler, Wil Wheaton, and Sara Wolf. Otis Chandler, founder of Goodreads.com, was very interesting about the online book-loving community, and on making reading more of a social experience. Wil Wheaton, blogger and tweeter extraordinaire (and "Wesley Crusher", for those of you Star Trek: TNG fans) has a gazillion followers on Twitter (okay, 489,100--but wow!) and had some very interesting things to say about self-publishing, print-on-demand books, and the importance of the fact that in the new media of social networking, the users own it, and they define how it works. The other panelist, Sara Wolf, is a dance critic and e-zine creator, but I just wasn't interested in her "constellation" of stuff.

After that, we had a quick lunch together, and then I went alone to hear Marilynne Robinson in conversation with Susan Straight. I happen to love both writers, and they had a wonderful conversation about themes of Robinson's work, including race and the hidden abolitionist history of the midwest, and they also talked about the writing process for both of them, which I loved hearing about!

Next I joined back up with some of my blogging buddies again and we went to see the panel "Fiction: Window on the World", with Muriel Barbery, Vanina Marsot, Jonathan Rabb, and Lisa See.

I immediately got a girl crush on Muriel Barbery, who spoke in French and had a translator, and was completely charming. All four writers spoke about the importance of place in their novels, as all are set in foreign cities (well, foreign to us--Barbery writes about her own city of Paris, and so does Marsot, who lives both in this country and there).

Lisa See spoke about her new novel Shanghai Girls, which I am interested in for many reasons, not least of which is that it is set in two worlds I'd like to explore--Shanghai and Los Angeles from 1937 to 1957. During the question and answer period she recommended a novel, and I immediately scribbled down the information: The Age of Dreaming, by Nina Revoyr. It is set in Los Angeles in the 1960s, but is about a film star from the age of silent films. I'm going to be on the lookout for this one!

The book Jonathan Rabb spoke about is his newest novel, Shadow and Light, a sequel to his earlier novel Rosa, which tells the story of Rosa Luxemburg, a socialist who was murdered in 1919. His books depict the particular world of Berlin between the wars, a world that also sounds fascinating to me.

Muriel Barbery spoke through a translator about The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which has been a runaway hit in Europe, and which I just read for my book group and reviewed. She spoke about the genesis of the character of Renee Michel, the surprisingly intellectual concierge, who also made a brief appearance in Barbery's first novel. As I remember, Barbery said she struggled with the voice for the concierge, who spoke simply, until her publisher reminded her that as a novelist, she could make the character speak any way she wanted. And thus the intellectual concierge was born.

Vanina Marsot spoke about her novel, Foreign Tongue, which is set in Paris. It is about a Los Angeles native with dual citizenship who, after a bad break-up, runs away to Paris, and becomes a translator. She examines the differences between the cultures through the difficulties that come up during translating a novel from French to English.

After the panel, I wanted to buy another copy of The Elegance of the Hedgehog so that Ms. Barbery could sign it, but the book had already sold out! Annoying! But Lisa recommended Vanina Marsot's book, Foreign Tongue, so I bought that and had it signed. Ms. Marsot was very nice, and I'm looking forward to reading her book. I also got to say a quick hello to Ms. Barbery, and told her I loved her book. So that was good!

All in all, it was a magical day. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did, and I'm looking forward to having a reunion next year.

Sunday Salon--the reading I didn't do

I wish I could have participated in Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon this year, because really, what could be better than nonstop reading and lots of good snacks? I had the snacks anyway, but my kids would revolt if I left them to fend for themselves while I read all weekend. Sounds like heaven, however...and another lovely way to remember Dewey.

I was able to read some this weekend, anyway. I finished Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin: A Novel. It was a great book. I love a book that compels you forward at the end, and you race ahead, faster and faster, just to find out what happened to the characters you've become attached to. I had that experience with this book, and recently with Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog, too.

I also started Zoe Heller's The Believers: A Novel. So far, I'm engaged. I like Heller's style. I did not read What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal: A Novel, but I did enjoy the film. I have to finish The Believers, or at least get far enough in to be able to talk semi-intelligently about it, before my Thursday book group meeting.

I am looking forward to next weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. It's always an amazing event, with panels and panels of so many authors I'd like to hear that I can't possibly fit them all in. It's a festival of crowds, too--not my favorite thing, but (unlike so many other crowded events) completely worth it. And there's a big bonus for me this year--meeting fellow bloggers! That's right, a group of ten book bloggers are going to meet at the festival (thanks Lisa for your organizing fabulousness), and we're hoping to have a meal together, as well as attend some panels. I can't wait!

What have you managed to read this weekend?

Sunday picnic and reading

While the east coast is being pounded by a record-breaking snowstorm, we've had a few beautiful days out here in Southern California. Yesterday (Sunday) my family and I went to Descanso Gardens, where they are having their annual camellia show, and had a picnic with friends in 80 degree sunshine. Today it looks like showers, but temps are nice at 69. This is a picture of a flowering tree I took yesterday in the Japanese garden at Descanso.

I actually managed to do some reading on Sunday, but didn't have enough time to post for the Sunday Salon. I madly dashed through something like a third of Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves. I'm reading it for my book group, which meets this Wednesday night--so I've got to finish, or I owe $5.

This is the first book I've paid money to download to my Kindle. I'm enjoying the writing very much. It is much like earlier books of Erdrich's that I've read. The subject matter is life on and off the reservation in North Dakota, and the novel's story spans many generations of several families in the area. In some ways it's hard to follow the tangle of relationships between all the characters, but I've realized that you just have to let go and let the story wash over you instead. Erdrich is a master storyteller, and reading the book feels like listening to a spinner of tales who keeps you mesmerized with her voice. Can't wait to talk about this one in my book group!

As for reading on the Kindle, I'm getting used to it. Stefanie at So Many Books just got a Kindle 2, and wrote a good post on how she's finding it. I'm liking the actual reading experience, but I haven't figured out all the features yet. I've bookmarked several things I want to go back to in the novel's text, but haven't revisited my bookmarks yet, so I don't know how useful they will be. However, I foresee the Kindle being great for when I'm traveling--I think that is where it will shine.

Blumesday

I grew up reading Judy Blume's books, especially those written with girls in mind. I started with Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret, and I worked my way through them up to Forever . . ., which was titillating and much talked about, mostly because the teenage protagonist had sex. I didn't read her novels for adults, and I didn't read the Fudge books until I had kids of my own to read them to. But now I love Fudge, too.

But Judy Blume had a profound effect on me as a tween girl, because her books talked frankly about all the things we girls thought about, but were sometimes too embarrassed or afraid to talk about openly. Of course, this is probably why her books were sometimes banned--how crazy is that?

When I was in the fifth grade, my soon-to-be sixth grade teacher (an amazing teacher, I still remember how great sixth grade was) handed me a copy of a book by Judy Blume called Deenie. It was about a girl with scoliosis who has to wear a brace on her back. I, too, had scoliosis and had just gotten my back brace, so it was amazing for me to receive a book written about my very situation--especially since I knew exactly zero people who wore back braces at that point, and had no idea what I was in for.

So when I opened my email the other day, I was excited to see this flyer telling me that Jill Soloway, a hilarious writer and comedienne, is participating in this tribute to Judy Blume (full disclosure--I know Jill and she's fabulous). Looks like it's a night of "readings, performances and reflections" about Judy Blume's books. What a great idea, wish I'd thought of it myself. Anyone in the L.A. area--should be a great event.

Judy Blume has a great website, by the way. It has resources for kids who are doing reports, her thoughts about censorship, her advice about writing, and a blog. Definitely worth visiting!

Booking Through Thursday, and L.A. Book News

Los Angeles has a wonderful selection of independent bookstores, but some of the really good ones have closed over the last few years. Here's a bit of good news about one of my favorites, Skylight Books, which is located in one of the great L.A. neighborhoods, Los Feliz.




And here is this week's Booking Through Thursday question:

What are your favourite final sentences from books? Is there a book that you liked specially because of its last sentence? Or a book, perhaps that you didn’t like but still remember simply because of the last line?

I'm cheating a little here, because this is something my husband knows by heart, as does my best friend. It's the last line of The Great Gatsby, which, it turns out, it comes in handy to know every once in awhile, as it is appropriate to many situations:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Ahh, the man could write.

Los Angeles Library Funding Crisis

I got a flurry of emails today about the crisis in funding for Los Angeles public libraries. Evidently cuts in the city's budget are going to means big cuts in the libraries' budgets, and now the city's librarians are fighting mad.

A friend who is a children's librarian at one of the nearby branches says she no longer has a budget for books. And the librarian at my nearest branch says that, except for a small stipend they were were given in February, they have not been able to purchase any materials since December of last year.

Los Angeles has a huge library system, housed in some architecturally amazing buildings. It would be a shame not to protect, nurture, and grow the system.

The city's librarians and the Library Foundation of Los Angeles have created Save the L.A. Public Library, an advocacy group for libraries. According to the Library Foundation and Save the L.A. Public Library's websites, here's the background:

Faced with a citywide budget shortfall, elected officials are proposing deep cuts to the Library department budget that will result in:

1. Reducing the book budget by $2 million This is a 22% cut from last year’s book budget, and a 33% cut from two years ago.

2. Closing the eight regional branch libraries on Sundays, due to a reduction of staff positions.

3. “Short-term layoffs” of Library staff, which may further reduce library service.

And they've also put together what I think is a convincing list of reasons to fight the cuts:

The proposed cuts to the Library budget come at a time when:

People want more books, not less. The Library was unable to fill more than 300,000 requests for books last year, because the book budget has been cut 33% over the last two years to $7.7 million for the Central Library and 71 branches. The Library serves the largest population in the U.S., yet for per capita book spending, the Library now ranks 23rd among the 25 public libraries serving populations of over 1 million. The Library has only 1.6 books for each resident of Los Angeles.

People want the library to be open more hours, not less. The Library experienced record use in three key areas: more than 16 million visited the Library; more than 15 million books were checked out; and the electronic resources were used more than 110 million times. In a 2005 survey, keeping libraries open longer hours was among the top three requests from library users. Libraries must be open on Sundays, not closed as proposed in the budget, to meet the record demand for library books, computers and programs.

The Library gives kids a real alternative to gangs. At a time when gang intervention is among the city’s top priorities, the Library provides anti-gang education programs, workshops that help kids explore educational and career opportunities, peer groups that build self-esteem, and more.

Supporting education means supporting the Library. The schools can’t do it alone, that’s why the Library provides children with books, computers, homework help and libraries that are open when schools are closed. The Library also provides the largest after-school program in the city designed to build literacy skills in children and keep them reading outside the classroom. With more than 70% of LAUSD third- and seventh- grade students scoring below the national average in reading, and nearly 90% of eighth- grade students scoring at or below the basic level in writing, the Library’s resources are more critical than ever.

A strong Library is good for business. An educated workforce is essential to successful business. Yet more than 50% of the Los Angeles area’s working age population suffer from low literacy skills. To battle the devastating personal and social effects of illiteracy, the Library operates free Adult Literacy Centers in 19 libraries citywide and provides self-tutorials on its Web site. The Library’s free collection of books, databases, education-support programs and other resources provide all people with the tools they need to succeed.

They've convinced me! I'm going to write the mayor's office now!

I'd love to hear what you--and especially you librarians or library studies students--think about this library crisis...

Grammar Power!

There's a little car I sometimes see parked in my neighborhood with a great personalized license plate. It reads GRMR PWR. Now, I could be misinterpreting it, but I call it the "grammar power" car. It's an unassuming little vehicle, but I like to imagine it's the transportation for a grammar-correcting superhero. Maybe his name is "Captain Apostrophe". Maybe he's riding around town, correcting the grammar, spelling and punctuation on all the billboards and signs, keeping the public safe from split infinitives. Wouldn't that be great?

Another one bites the dust...

I was saddened to hear that Dutton's, one of L.A.'s great independent bookstores, is closing its doors after 23 years.  Dutton's once had a North Hollywood location that my husband and I used to visit occasionally, but that closed a few years back.  Now the Brentwood store is closing, partly due to the fact that the property has changed ownership, and surprise, surprise, the new owner wants to redevelop the property (a familiar story in Los Angeles).  Here is a letter from the store's owner, Doug Dutton, about the closing, and here is a piece about it in the Los Angeles Times. 

I don't know what it takes to make it as an independent bookstore, but it always sounds like a business that constantly lives on the edge.  I have always had a dream of owning a small bookstore, but I don't know if I'm brave enough to follow that particular dream...

Spring fever

Life got in the way of blogging for me, for about a week and a half. First it was a fever, followed by a cold, and then it was the rest of the family's fever, followed by their colds. Then, when we recovered, we got spring fever, and had to start planting our vegetable garden for this year. After working in the garden I was too sore to blog!

Then the weather got even better, so we drove out to Pacific Palisades and had a picnic at Will Rogers State Historic Park, on an absolutely gorgeous Sunday, 75 degrees and blue skies. I didn't read, so I didn't really qualify for the Sunday Salon, but I did go on a tour of American humorist and movie star Will Rogers' house, which has been preserved by the park service as it was on the day he died in a plane crash in 1935. The house is chock full of western paraphernalia and quite beautiful in a rustic, ranch-y sort of way. The western paintings, drawings, and sculpture by Charles M. Russell, and the Indian blankets and baskets, and the Monterrey-style furniture were worth the price of parking. I can't believe I've lived here all these years, been to the park and polo fields many times, but had never gone inside the house until now.

On the reading front, I finished May Sarton's Kinds of Love: A Novel for the Outmoded Authors' Challenge, and I really enjoyed it, but I just haven't had time to write about it yet.