READING SERIES
READING SERIES
YSU Poetry Center
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown authors Philip Brady and Christopher Barzak will read from their latest books during the Poetry Center Reading Series to be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Kilcawley Center Art Gallery at Youngstown State University. The event is free and open to the public.
Brady is the award-winning author of three books on poetry and the memoir, “To Prove My Blood: A Tale of Emigrations & the Afterlife.” He teaches at YSU and is director of the Poetry Center. He will read selections from his latest book of poetry.
Barzak, a YSU alumnus, will read from his book, “One For Sorrow,” which was recently published by Bantam Books. “Sorrow” is his first novel, but he has had other stories published in several journals including “The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.”
BOOK SIGNINGS
Marsha Karzmer
POLAND — Boardman author Marsha Karzmer will discuss and sign copies of her new book, “How Old is Beautiful,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at Poland Library, 311 S. Main St.
For “Beautiful,” Karzmer combed women’s magazines, newspapers and books for uplifting messages and mottos on which women could reflect and recollect then compiled them in collage-form for a “clip note’ work. Published by Conari Press, which specializes in women’s publications, the hardcover work lists for $14.95
Before trying her hand at writing, Karzmer lived in Hollywood and worked on “The Hollywood Squares.” An independent signing agent and videographer as well, she is married to her college sweetheart, David, and the mother of four.
Marc Brown
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. — Marc Brown, author and illustrator of the “Arthur” children’s book series, will give a presentation at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 in Orr Auditorium at Westminster College, state Route 18.
“Arthur Tricks the Tooth Fairy,” which is part of the Westminster’s Celebrity Series, is being sponsored by the college’s Department of Education. It is free and open to the public. The presentation is geared toward adults, but children also are welcome. A book signing will follow. Attendees may bring their own books or purchase them at the event.
A native of Millcreek, near Erie, Brown and his three sisters grew up with a grandmother who told stories. Brown recalls, “Back then I never dreamed I would grow up to tell stories of my own. But when my first son was born, I started telling him stories every night before he went to sleep. Most of the stories were about animals. One night our story was about an aardvark who hated his nose. The aardvark, of course, was named Arthur, and that story became “Arthur’s Nose,” the first book in the Arthur Adventure series.”
Out of the Arthur series grew a series based on Arthur’s little sister, D.W., and today there are more than 117 Arthur and D.W. books. Most of the characters are modeled after a person or combination of people from Brown’s life, including Grandma Thora, who is based on his grandmother, “the best storyteller ever.”
Contact Dr. Amy Camardese, Westminster College assistant professor of education, at (724) 946-7183 or e-mail camardah@westminster.edu for additional information. Details also are available at www.westminster.edu/Celebrity.
BOOK DEALS
Cherie Blair
LONDON — Cherie Blair has signed a book deal to write about her life as a leading British human rights lawyer and the wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, her publisher said. Cherie Blair’s autobiography will be published in October 2008, Little, Brown Book Group said in a statement. The publisher would not discuss the terms of the deal for the book’s international publishing rights.
Her memoirs will likely come out before her husband’s much-anticipated memoir, which a Blair representative said last month was years away from publication with no book deal yet.
Cherie Blair’s publisher said her book would be a “warm, intimate and often very funny portrait of a family living in extraordinary circumstances.” But British political observers will likely be watching for anything she says about the Blairs’ reputedly stormy relationship with Tony Blair’s successor, Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Cherie Blair, 52, is known for being gaffe-prone; her unguarded comments on both international and internal politics have caused trouble. But she is also a respected lawyer. As a Queen’s Counsel, she is recognized as one of Britain’s leading human rights lawyers. She has taken on landmark cases that sometimes brought her into conflict with her husband’s government.
The book will begin with her childhood as the daughter of actor Tony Booth, who walked out on his family when she was a child, and will describe life with a young family in 10 Downing Street.
She previously co-authored a book in 2004 with Cate Haste, “The Goldfish Bowl: Married to the Prime Minister, 1955-1997,” about how the spouses of previous prime ministers coped with public life.
NATIONAL
Banned Book Week
Sept. 29 through Oct. 6 is Banned Book Week. And, Yahoo! reports that searches for the forbidden have spiked 552 percent in the last seven days. Of the most challenged, “Gossip Girl” leads the searches, thanks to its recent television premiere on the CW. Toni Morrison proves herself twice as popular by having two sought after books. Yahoo!’s Top 2007 Challenged Books, in order, are: “Gossip Girl” (Cecily von Ziegesar); “Beloved” (Toni Morrison); “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (Stephen Chbosky); “The Bluest Eye” (Toni Morrison), and “The Chocolate War” (Robert Cormier)
As for the most challenged book in 2006? That would be “And Tango Makes Three,” in which a pair of male penguins raise an abandoned egg in the Central Park Zoo. (Penguin lovers, fear not: The waddling mammal itself fondly remains in the top 3,500 Yahoo! searches.)
Of all the authors who have been challenged for their writings in the 21st century, poet and novelist Maya Angelou leads the searches on Yahoo!. Other names might look a little familiar – Mark Twain for his take on race relations in “Huckleberry Finn,” J.K. Rowling for encouraging wizardry, and John Steinbeck’s “offensive” language for “Of Mice and Men.” Incidentally, old school scand J.D. Salinger may be happy to know that their names and respected writings found a brief breather from the banned list this year. “Of Mice and Men,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Catcher in the Rye” all slipped off the top 10 list of challenged book this year. Still, their pen names live on for works that rile people up year after year.
The top 20 literary rabble-rousers making a name on Yahoo! this week are, in order: Angelou, Twain, Rowling, Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, Kate Chopin, Dan Brown, Freedom Writers, Ray Bradbury, Gary Paulsen , Toni Morrison, Walter Dean Myers, Noam Chomsky, Richard Wright, Lois Lowry, Margaret Atwood, Augusten Burroughs, Julia Alvarez, Barbara Park and Alice Sebold.
Staff/wi