Books du Jour, ep #202, "Authoress, Writeress, Nothing Less."

Episode #202                        “Authoress, Writeress, Nothing Less”

  

Location sponsor: City Winery, New York

They call themselves actors when they really are actresses. Meet the new crop of authoresses: Amy Sohn, Stacey D’Erasmo, Alice Eve Cohen.

This week panel consists of women authors.  Whether we call them Authors or Authoresses, these writers (or shall we say writeresses?), have strong feminine voices, even more so while writing fiction.  Their characters may span a wide range of lives, from the evil-eyed memoir to the floundering of a movie star, but ultimately, they face tough choices, decide where the chase of a long coveted dream too long in coming is still worth it.

In Amy Sohn’s “The Actress” a young actress discovers that every marriage is a mystery and that sometimes the greatest performances do not take place on screen. Set in a tantalizing world of glamour and scandal, “The Actress” is a romantic, sophisticated page-turner about the price of ambition, the treachery of love, and the roles we all play.

Stacey D’Erasmo, “Wonderland,” drops us into the life of an indie rock star at the moment when she’s deciding whether to go all-in or give up on her dreams.

After taking a seven-year break, Anna gets a last chance to figure out whether the life she once had is one she still wants.

Alice Eve Cohen, “The Year My Mother Came Back.” Thirty years after her death, Alice’s mother appears to her and continues to do so during the hardest year Alice has had to face: the year her youngest daughter decides to track down her birth mother, and Alice herself gets a daunting diagnosis. A story of resilience, peace, and boundless love.

Books du Jour: Ep #201, "Of Dust, Data, and Words"

Episode #201                        “Of Dust, Data, and Words”

Welcome to a new season of BDJ. Today we talk about a dusty rock, data collection, and strange bohemians with Pamela Fiori, David Shafer, Justin Martin.

Host, Frederic Colier, introduces the first episode of the second season of Books Du Jour.  Whether deciphering an old parchment in some remote library or questioning the global culling of private data, authors always start with some treasure trove of information. Our first guests do not fall too far from the tree:

Pamela Fiori, “In the Spirit of Monte Carlo,” a colorful biography of Monaco, which depicts how a sun-baked desolate piece of rock clinging between France and Italy managed to become the must-place to live for the ultra riches.  Pamela’s story focuses on Monte Carlo, a district of Monaco.

David Shafer, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.” In this darkly comic novel, three young adults grapple with the usual thirty-something problems: boredom, authenticity, and a cloaked and omnipotent online oligarchy, an international cabal of industrialists and media barons, on the verge of privatizing all information.

Justin Martin, “Rebel Souls, Walt Whitman and America’s First Bohemians” is

an extraordinary book about New York City’s Pfaff’s Saloon, a basement bar on Broadway, near Bleecker Street, where the young Whitman and his “circle of Bohemians,” such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain, among others, were able to foster their talent as poets and writers.

Episode was shot at City Winery New York

Author du Jour: Jeremy Rifkin

Author du Jour: Jeremy Rifkin "The Zero Marginal Cost Society."

The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the eclipse of Capitalism are just some the engaging thoughts Jeremy Rifkin proposes in his latest book, The Zero Marginal Society." When something dies something else must sprout from the ashes and this is the point the book makes. With the slow demise of the capitalist era emerges the new economic system of the Internet of Thing, something transforming our lives radically.

From the Publisher: "Rifkin uncovers a paradox at the heart of capitalism that has propelled it to greatness but is now taking it to its death―the inherent entrepreneurial dynamism of competitive markets that drives productivity up and marginal costs down, enabling businesses to reduce the price of their goods and services in order to win over consumers and market share. (Marginal cost is the cost of producing additional units of a good or service, if fixed costs are not counted.) While economists have always welcomed a reduction in marginal cost, they never anticipated the possibility of a technological revolution that might bring marginal costs to near zero, making goods and services priceless, nearly free, and abundant, and no longer subject to market forces."

Author du Jour: Anthony Loewenstein

Author du Jour: Anthony Loewenstein "Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing out of Catastrophe."

In this age of global conflicts, there is never a shortage for milking out tragedies. Whether he is dealing with immigrants stuck at borders or immigration centers, destructive mining practices or questionable NGOs in Papua New Guinea where locals have not recourse but to rebel, award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein gives a first account, from the front line, of the rise of Disaster Capitalism. If you want to learn how companies such as G4S, Serco and Halliburton derive a large part of their profits, this book is for you.

From the publisher: "Award-winning journalist Antony Loewenstein travels across the US, Britain, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and Australia to witness the reality of Disaster Capitalism—the hidden world of privatized detention centers and militarized private security, formed to protect corporations as they profit from war zones. He visits Britain’s immigration detention centers, tours the prison system in the United States, and digs into the underbelly of the companies making a fortune from them. Loewenstein reveals the dark history of how large multinational corporations have become more powerful than governments, supported by media and political elites."

Author du Jour: Nick Sousanis "Unflattening"

Author du Jour: Nick Sousanis "Unflattening"

If you are looking something truly original. Something that will make you think, look no further. "Unflattening" is a graphic novel like no other. A PhD dissertation that looks at the way we learn. A meditation on education. Between the theme and depth of the concept with the captivating drawing, Mr. Sousanis is at the helm of an impressive set of skills.

Here below is from the publisher.

"Unflattening" is an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint. Weaving together diverse ways of seeing drawn from science, philosophy, art, literature, and mythology, it uses the collage-like capacity of comics to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating and reevaluating different vantage points. While its vibrant, constantly morphing images occasionally serve as illustrations of text, they more often connect in nonlinear fashion to other visual references throughout the book. They become allusions, allegories, and motifs, pitting realism against abstraction and making us aware that more meets the eye than is presented on the page. (Harvard University Press, 2015)

Books du Jour, EP#212, "The First Time They Did It" 05-20-15

 Episode #212    “The First Time They Did It”  (broadcasting May 20th, 2015)

Only tonight on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

“The first time they did it” is about first timers. Regardless how old they are and where they come from, how and when they did it is a topic they do not shy away from. As a matter of fact, they are quite loquacious discussing the topic, exposing their weaknesses and frustration and the moment of bliss round the corner waiting to greet them. But before “graduating,” they shared similar painstaking journeys of perseverance and painstaking apprenticeship.

Susan Strecker, “Night Blindness” offers a rare exploration of the singular, unparalleled love between a daughter and her cancer-riddled father, and writes with unflinching honesty about the dynamics of a family in crisis, and the fallout of a single rash act: how responsible was she in the death of her brother?

Helen Wan, “The Partner Track” took the world by storm with its new take on the office politics/law firm novel that follows a Golden Girl employee who has passed the apprentice stage and is now facing mature and relatable issues. But textbook and reality are two worlds apart, and soon our Chinese American prodigy has to wade across the deep waters of damage control as she herself drowned in a her own romantic life.

John Benditt, “The Boatmaker” tells the tale of a fierce complicated silent man who wakes from a fever dream compelled to build a boat and sail away from the small island where he was born. The boat carries him to a bigger island, where he becomes locked in a drunken and violent affair whose explosion propels him to the mainland. Hence begins a long journey of discovery, part fable and part allegory.

Thank you to CITY Winery, NY

Books du Jour, EP #211, "Jazzing Up the Tune" 05-13-15

Episode #211    “Jazzing Up the Tune”   (broadcasting May 13^th, 2015)

Tonight only on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

The ears don't lie. They know when something sounds phony. But what about authors writing about music? This week's episode takes a look at the crossroad of music and literature, in all its form: rhyme, rhythm, lyricism, repetitions, and of course the theme of music itself, not only in the lives of the characters depicted but also in the authors’.

Rick Moody, “On Celestial Music.” A dazzling selection of essays about music. Moody’s anatomy of the word cool reminds us that in the postwar 1940’s, the word was infused with the feeling of jazz music, whereas now it is merely a synonym for neat. The collection laments the loss in contemporary music, without failing to inspire us and dive into the music that enhances our lives. 

Mary Morris, “The Jazz Palace.” In the midst of boomtown Chicago, two Jewish families suffer terrible blows. They have lost their boys on the SS Eastland, which sank in 1915. But Benny Lehrman, the only son left, has no interest in saving the family business and making hats. His true passion is piano—especially jazz.

Julia Titus, “Poetry Readers for Russian Learners.” Through the poetry of 19^th and 20^th Centuries Russian authors, including Pushkin and Akhmatova, the book helps all level of Russian learners refine their language skills. Poems have their own music and rhythm, singing to the witnesses of history, clamoring human insights and the muffling of tragic biographies.

Thank you to CITY WINERY, NY

The Books du Jour Team

Books du Jour, EP #210, "The Monopolies of Monarchs" 05-06-15

Episode #210   “The Monopolies of Monarchs” (broadcasting May 6^th, 2015)

Tonight only on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

The journey from the heavens to our heart can happen in the blink of an eye. But from the heart to the Heavens is a different story. Legal battles may stand in the way. Today, we look at the downfall of a king accountable only to the Gods above; the wandering Jews in search of a promised land and only facing rejection, and finally the legal battle for a board game in the wake of the financial crisis and its pernicious values.

Mary Pilon, “The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game.” The way the Parker Brothers tells it, Monopoly, the world’s most famous board game, was invented by an out-of-work salesman in the depths of the Great Depression, who sold his invention. A fabulous rags-to-riches story to say the least. But as Pilon explains it: “it’s just not quite exactly true”.

Charles Spencer, “Killers of the King” relates for the first time to the shocking stories and fascinating fates of the 59 men who signed Charles I of England’s death warrant in 1649. This act not only changed British history forever, reverberated across the ocean to the young British colonies in American, which more than 100 years later also rose up against their king, but also became their death sentence.

Roger Cohen, “The Girl From Human Street” trails the upheavals of a family saga, with none of the comfort of a happy ending. Through the decades, the Jewish sense of “otherness” is pervasive, and Cohen finds it has been significant factor in his family’s history of manic depression. A moving portrait and an elegy to his mother, June, who struggled most mightily with her illness. But also a tale of remembrance and repression, moral ambivalence, suicide, and amazing resilience.

Sponsor: City Winery

Books du Jour, EP #209, "A Sliver of Silver Pie" 04-29-15

Episode #209      “A Sliver of Silver Pie”  (broadcasting April 29^st, 2015)

Tonight only on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

If there is enough food for three, chances are there is enough for four. We are what we eat. But what about if you don't like the diet you eat? What would you become? We gather at a table every week, and yet we still have not had a panel about health and food. This week, we are discussing about health, physical and emotional, and how good and bad food impacts our general well-being.

Greg O’Brien, “On Pluto” is a first person account with Alzheimer. O’Brien speaks freely about what it is like to lose your mind and “see slices of your very identity being shaved off” on a daily basis. The story is a beacon of hope to anyone who can read and listen.

Jena La Flamme, “Pleasurable Weight Loss.” For Jena “the key to losing weight is not about enjoying less, it’s about enjoying more.” This radical insight has allowed thousands of her students to lose weight without food plans, arduous rules, or punishing exercises. Pleasure is the secret to switching off the stress triggers.

Charlotte N. Markey, in “Smart People Don’t Diet: How Psychology, Common Sense, and the Latest Science Can Help You Lose Weight Permanently,” Markey uses psychology and brain chemistry and more than 100 years of research and scientific findings to provide and accessible approach to weight loss that yields sustainable, long-term results.
Thank you City Winery, NY

Books du Jour, Ep #208, "Beyond the Torrid Fiesta" 04-22-15

Episode #208        “Beyond the Torrid Fiesta” (broadcasting April 22^th,  2015)

Tonight at 10:30 pm only on LIFE 25

In this week's episode, we look at the impact of reality on our writing.  Do the events in our life shape our stories? Or do the stories we tell ourselves affect our lives? But can these questions however always apply? This week’s authors come from diverse backgrounds, from power lawyer to cabaret actor, and one would be but surprised at the type of stories they generate.

Shari Goldhagen, “In Some Other World Maybe” explores family dynamics and relationships with a sharp eye and six-degrees-of-separation, coming-of-age tale, written from multiple POVs. An absorbing ensemble head to the movie theater in December 1992, in different parts of the globe, and mull over their friendships, sex, ambition, fame and tragedy.

Alan Hruska, “Pardon the Ravens” is a fast-paced legal thriller about a gifted young lawyer who lets his heart get in the way of his business affairs and the consequences of crossing the man who controls organized crime in New York during the Mad Men era.

Amanda Vaill, “Hotel Florida: Truth, Love and Death in the Spanish Civil War.” Beginning with the cloak-and-dagger plot that precipitated the first gunshots of the war and moving forward month by month to the end of the conflict, Vaill traces the tangled and disparate wartime destinies of three couples, Hemingway-Gellhorn, Capa-Taro, and Barea-Kulcsar, against the backdrop of a critical moment in history. 

Special Thank you to CITY WINERY

As always, we look forward to your feedback

The Books du Jour Team

Books du Jour, Ep #207, "Queens and Spiritus Mundi" 04-15-15

Episode #207         “Queens and Spiritus Mundi”  (broadcasting April 15^th, 2015)

Only on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

Textbooks only outline the key players of our socio-historical conflicts to better elevate their status and mythologize them within our ideological assumptions. This is what we called the “Grand Narratives.”  But what about the “little narratives”? The lives of those millions of people whose contributions have made the “Grand Narratives” possible? This week books look into personal accounts:

John Oller, “American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague” depicts the story of the charismatic and beautiful daughter of Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary who used her social graces and political acumen to make a name for herself in Washington and ran the show from behind the scenes, only to lose everything at the end and be forgotten.

M J Rose, “The Witch Of Painted Sorrows” moves to the backdrop of the Belle Époque in Paris.  When Sandrine Salome escapes an abusive husband for her grandmother’s Paris mansion, what she finds there is even more menacing. The house is closed and under renovation for mysterious reason. But Sandrine insists on visiting the dangerous mansion, where her “wild night of the soul” is forced to find expression and flight.

Alyson Richman, “The Garden of Letters,” follows Elodie, a young cello prodigy.  When Mussolini’s fascist regime strikes her family, Elodie is drawn into the burgeoning resistance movement by a young and impassioned bookseller. “The Garden of Letters” is a story of love, courage, and the power of the human spirit to find hope against the backdrop of war.

Thank you to CITY WINERY, NY

The Books du Jour and Book Case TV Teams

Books du Jour, Ep #206, "The Other Side of Others" 04-08-15

Episode #206     “The Other Side of Others”    (broadcasting April 8^th, 2015)

Only on LIFE 25 at 10:30 PM

Whether through scapegoats or martyrs, the dustbins of history are filled with conflicts born out of blaming others for one’s misfortune. The history of Others is also the history of acceptance  and differences. Why are we so determined to exclude those who do not resemble us? Punish moral dissents? Or turn a blind eye on those who fall prey to society’s ever increasingly disregard?

David Margolick, “Dreadful: The Short life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns” portrays the once-celebrated largely forgotten author of what’s arguably the first great gay novel in American literature. “Dreadful” retraces the breathtaking rise of a writer hailed as a worthy successor of Hemingway, John Dos Passos, only to vanish as quickly as he appeared, in just six years.

Jane Green, “Saving Grace” is about Grace Chapman who lives comfortably with her husband, bestselling author Ted, in picture-perfect farmhouse, until Ted hires the young Beth, who quickly threatened Beth’s marriage. Losing her center, Grace falls into a whirlpool of paranoia and psychotic drugs, as she is misdiagnosed with mental illness.

Jon Ronson, “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed,” investigates the world of public shaming, where social media has made everyone a vigilante and where a poorly phrased tweet or comment can catapult a person to Public Enemy No 1 overnight. Ronson follows up with those whose lives have been left in tatters and questions those being most cruel in the anonymous internet playground.

Thank you to CITY WINERY, NY

The Books du Jour Team

Books du Jour, Ep #205, "Super Fortuna Believer" 04-01-15

Episode #205     “Super Fortuna Believer”    (broadcasting April 1^st, 2015)

Tonight on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

From time immemorial, mankind has feared the power of a boundless universe, sky falling, earth freezing, floods, and of course its wheel of fortune. But mankind’s main pursuit consists in making meaning, finding explanations and creating stories, which both sooth its fears and serve as moral compasses.

Caleb Scharf, “The Copernicus Complex” asks the big questions: What is our significance in the vast, ever-expanding universe of which we occupy such a small part? What at the chances we will one day detect life elsewhere in the cosmos? According to Scharf, there is compelling evidence that the Copernican Principle—the idea that the Earth is an insignificant, unremarkable speck in a boundless sea—is in need of an update.

Barb Schmidt "The Practice,” looks at how the mind has a way of interfering with personal happiness, often causing stress and doubt. Getting in touch with one’s inner source of peace and following its guidance over the mind often-unfounded concerns requires training and discipline. This guide is for people who are looking for confidence, less stress, and deeper meaning along life’s path.

Paul Strohm, “The Chaucer’s Tale” takes on the theme of rebirth. At the start of 1386, Chaucer was a middle-aged Londoner with a distasteful customs job and husband to a higher-ranking wife. By 1387, he was forced to leave London jobless, a widower, and without political allies. Strohm unravels how this calamitous year led to Chaucer’s rebirth as a literary celebrity.

Thank you to City Winery

As always, we look forward to your feedback.

Books du Jours, Ep #204, "Of Crime and Roots" 03-25-15

Episode #204     “Of Crime and Roots”  broadcasting March 25^th, 2015 

Only on LIFE 25 at 10: 30 pm

Logline: Whether based on real events or on the spur of the moment, crime stories never cease to fascinate readers: Bradford Morrow, Nina Darnton, Okey Ndibe.

Whether based on a real event or on the spur of the moment, crime stories never cease to fascinate audiences around the world. All of them boil down to a handful of simple premises: how is the criminal going to get caught? Who did it? And we, the readers, cruise through the pages to find out. The three books this week do not escape these cardinal rules.

Okey Ndibe, “Foreign Gods, Inc.” tells the story of Ike, a New York Nigerian cab driver who sets out to steal the statue of an ancient Wa deity from his home village to sell it to a New York art gallery. Ike’s plan is fueled by desperation.  Despite a degree in economics from a major American college, Ike has a strong accent, which bars him from the corporate world.

Nina Darnton, “The Perfect Mother” explores the painful relationship between a beloved daughter who acts against her privileged upbringing and her devoted mother who experiences unimaginable fears. Inspired by the infamous Amanda Knox case, the novel examines the complex questions of how well do we know our children, and how far we would go to protect them.

Bradford Morrow, “The Forgers” starts with the death of a reclusive rare book collector, whose hands have been severed, then shifts to Meghan and her lover, who specializes in forging the handwriting of Sir Conan Doyle.  But when they receive threatening handwritten letters penned by long dead authors, a gripping tale of love and an exploration of the tenuous nature of authenticity follow.

Thank you CITY WINERY, NY for all their help.

Books du Jour, Ep # 203, "Mysterious Fluid Poetry" 03-18-15

Episode #203      “Mysterious Fluid Poetry”  broadcasting March 18^th, 2015

Only on LIFE 25, NY at 10:30 pm

Ever since Adorno claimed that writing poetry after Auschwitz was impossible, poetry has persisted and flourished. The vitality of our three guests proves that writing more than ever is an integral part of life to share our experiences. Writing in different style and tone, their books convey the compelling energy of creativity and the much needed momentum for endless discoveries and growth.

Marc Levy, “Replay” takes place on July 9, 2012, when NYT investigative reporter Andrew Stillman while jogging alongside the Hudson collapses in a pool of blood. When he regains consciousness, it is May 7, two months earlier. Stillman has now 60 days to find out who wants him dead. If only the past mistake could be fixed to alter the present.

Paul Muldoon, “One Thousand Things Worth Knowing.” Smuggling diesel, a real trip to Havana, an Imaginary trip to the Chateau d’If, are just some topics of Paul Muldoons’ newest collection, which is exceptionally wide-ranging in its subject matter often within the same poem. If there is a theme to this collection, it is watchfulness.

Chris Pavone, “The Accident.” Following the sensation with the “Expat,” which was influenced by his experience in Luxemburg, Chris Pavone has penned “The Accident” a masterful thriller that has all the hallmarks of suspense and high-end elegance in an international story of a dangerous manuscript resurfacing and creating havoc in the lives of the characters coming into contact with it.

Books du Jour, Ep #202, "Authoress, Writeress, Nothing Less" 03-11-15

Episode #202     “Authoress, Writeress, Nothing Less”  broadcasting March 11^th, 2015

Tonight on LIFE 25 at 10:30 pm

This week panel consists of women authors. Whether we call them Authors or Authoresses, these writers (or shall we say writeresses?), have strong feminine voices, even more so when writing fiction. Their characters may span a wide range of lives, from the evil-eyed memoir to the floundering of a movie star, but ultimately, they face tough choices, and must decide whether the long-coveted dream too long in coming is still worth chasing.

In Amy Sohn’s “The Actress,” a young actress discovers that every marriage is a mystery and that sometimes the greatest performances do not take place on screen. Set in a tantalizing world of glamour and scandal, “The Actress” is a romantic, sophisticated page-turner about the price of ambition, the treachery of love, and the roles we all play.

Stacey D’Erasmo, “Wonderland,” drops us into the life of an indie rock star at the moment when she’s deciding whether to go all-in or give up on her dreams. After taking a seven-year break, Anna gets a last chance to figure out whether the life she once had is one she still wants.

Alice Eve Cohen, “The Year My Mother Came Back.” Thirty years after her death, Alice’s mother appears to her and continues to do so during the hardest year Alice has had to face: the year her youngest daughter decides to track down her birth mother, a, NYnd Alice herself gets a daunting diagnosis. A story of resilience, peace, and boundless love.

Thank you to City Winery

Looking forward to your feedback, The Books du Jour Team