Tag: Boston

Books

Book 40: Boston Noir – Dennis Lehane (ed.)

Geoff W

I assumed this was a random small collection of short stories as I picked it up for very cheap at the 2010 Boston Book Festival, but this past week I was in a Barnes and Noble (resisting going off on a ridiculous rant about BN) this past week and it was on display with other ‘New Fiction.’

Overall I enjoyed the various short stories, but a lot of them didn’t really connect me to Boston, the feeling of Boston. Quite a few of them took the typical route – through the Irish connection or the crime, but a lot of them were just sort of stories that could have been anywhere else in the world with the change of a few signifying characteristics (and some couldn’t be). With subjects ranging from turn of the (18th) century dockside stories to Catholic priests and child abuse and WWII survivor stories to a financial district murder, they are broad and cover most of the city.

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Books

Book 30: The Cider House Rules – John Irving

Geoff W

It took me entirely way to long to read this book. I would go so far as saying that this is a fascinating fictional case study of an orphan and the doctor who raised him in New England. We spend the entire novel following the orphan Homer Wells and Doctor Wilbur Larch. It’s a rather plain and simple story, but the details and the little twists and turns throughout the novel create the oxymoron of an intricately simple love story. From the love of a ‘father’ to a non-nuclear family’s love for each other and the unrequited love of a childhood friend overall this is a love story and a story about the various types of love you experience through life.

Although Homer and Larch are the clear protagonists, it’s clearly a story of relationships and interactions and the various relationships love has to and within each interaction. If you ever wanted to catalogue the types of love this would be a great novel to read because I’m fairly certain they are all here, from convenience and unrequited to lust and familial. It’s hard to pinpoint which type of love Irving wants the reader to focus on, gut instinct would be either the fatherly love of Larch for Homer, or the love between Wally, Candy and Homer or even Melony’s strange interpretation of love for Homer, but I would say it was the smaller loves that truly made the novel. The unwavering love of Nurse Edna and Nurse Angela for their charges, especially Homer, and for Larch, or even Olive and Ray Kendall’s love for Wally, Homer and Candy even though they know the confusion they’re facing.

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Random

Boston Book Festival

Geoff W

Yesterday was the second annual Boston Book Festival. I was very excited for it as it has been on my calendar since they announced the save the date in the beginning of 2010. I’m not sure if it was all of this time building up to it or if it was because last year’s festival seemed to be the perfect size, but I was definitely a bit disappointed.* As I said I attended in 2009 and it was the perfect size. The workshops were housed in rooms where there were just enough seats with no need for overflow and there was enough time for there to be plenty of audience and panel interaction. On the other hand the exhibitors were brilliant! They increased the number of booksellers and I loved seeing nonprofits from around the (Eastern? part of) the state. A lot of the exhibitors were more interested in talking to and approaching the older attendees (40ish+), but if I asked a question they were helpful to answer. I found quite a few new used bookstores to either check out online or to visit at some point including:

  • Symposium Books – AMAZING. They had a deal where you could fill a small plastic bag for $20, a large plastic bag for $40 or a canvas tote for $50. I wasn’t going to do this, but then I found quite a few books on my big list of books to read so I did the small bag. If I would’ve paid for these books new I would’ve spent $112.80, if I paid the discount price I would’ve paid $33.00, so either way you look at it I saved a good amount of money! Two are Pulitzer Prize winning books (Robinson and Toole) and three were on my list (Robinson, both Miller) and I had to buy Boston Noir, how could I not?
  • Raven Used Books – Although I didn’t buy anything from them, I’d already spent $20 which was more than I’d planned on spending, they had a very good selection (including some Foucault!) and I will definitely check them out! They are a ‘scholarly’ used book store, so more textbook/research type books which are always nice!

And of course Brattle Book Shop and Brookline Booksmith were there, both of which I regularly visit!

Now on to the three workshops I attended. I was worried that this year the workshops and the festival overall would be geared more towards writers rather than bibliophiles. But the three I attended seemed to be a good mix between the two.

Workshops attended, books purchased and books added to my list!: