Literary Happenings 3/31-4/5

Here at Godine we realize the importance of participating in a literary community. Luckily our home city of Boston is full of great book readings, lectures, poetry slams, and book groups. If you're looking for things to do this week, why not check out some of these events, free unless otherwise noted!:

Monday 3/31

• The Harvard Square Book Circle discusses Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods at Harvard Book Store, 7m

Tuesday 4/1

• Scott Helman and Jenna Russell discuss Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City's Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
• Poetry open mic with Kemi Alabi at Trident Booksellers, 8pm
• Gail Caldwell discusses New Life, No Instructions at Porter Square Books, 7pm
• Sarah Lewis discusses The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery at Harvard Book Store, 7pm

Wednesday 4/2

• Deborah Feldman discusses Exodus at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
• Martha Collins and Fail Mazur discuss Day Unto Day and Figures in a Landscape at Porter Square Books, 7pm
• Phil Klay discusses Redeployment at Harvard Book Store, 7pm
  

Thursday 4/3  

• Jared Diamond in Conversation with Toby Lester on The Third Chimpanzee at Porter Square Books, 6:30pm, 5 dollar ticket
• Lee Hager Cohen discusses No Book but the World at Porter Square Books, 7pm
• Carl Hoffman discusses Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art at Harvard Book Store, 7pm

 Friday 4/4

• An evening with poets Jan Schrelber and Paul Nemser at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
• Kristen Weld discusses Paper Cadavers: The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala at Harvard Book Store, 3pm
• Teju Cole reads from Every Day is for the Thief at Harvard Book Store, 7pm

Saturday 4/5

• Elizabeth Earley presents A Map of Everything at Harvard Square Books, 7pm

If you know of a literary event we overlooked, add it in the comments below! If you'd like to spread the word about upcoming events to be included in our weekly Literary Happenings, please e-mail us at info@godine.com.

Poetry Month: 30 books in 30 days!

To celebrate Poetry Month this April, publisher David R. Godine will be giving away copies of 30 of our poetry books to libraries and to individuals through Twitter, beginning April 1st. We'll tweet a different way to win daily, and each day’s winner will then get to submit their favorite public or school library into a drawing. At the end of the month, we’ll randomly select three winning libraries to each receive 10 books.

Some contests will be trivia based, with topics ranging from general poetry to Godine history, and others will ask for entrant participation on Twitter. Basically, if you read the tweet, you'll know what we're looking for!

We are excited to get some of our favorite Godine and Black Sparrow poetry collections into the hands of our Twitter followers! If you don't already, follow us for all contest updates, and like us on Facebook for occasional updates. Be sure to check out the rules below and get ready to flex your trivia muscles!

30 books in 30 days Giveaway Guidelines:

·  No purchase is necessary to participate.

·  Entry is limited to Twitter users aged 13 and above who are U.S. residents.

·  To enter, respond correctly to any David R. Godine, Publisher sponsored giveaway on Twitter by sending an @Reply to our Twitter account or by retweeting us. 

·  Contest will open each day at 11am EST.

·  Winners will be notified via twitter in an @Reply by 11am the following business day, and should then email us at info@godine.com with a mailing address to receive the prize. After one week with no response from winner, we have the right to randomly select a new winner from other entrants.

·  Each winner will have the opportunity to nominate a public or school library to be entered into a drawing. At the end of the month, we will randomly select three libraries to each receive 10 books.

·  Godine is not responsible for late or misdirected entries or transmission errors.

·  The prize will be shipped at no cost to the winner.

·  If the prize indicated is not available, we reserve the right to select a new prize (it’ll still be a Godine poetry book).

·  No association or business relationship is claimed with Twitter, Inc.

·  Entry information collected by Godine will not be used for any purpose other than administering Godine promotions on Twitter.

·  Multiple entries in a single day will not be accepted. Please do not create multiple accounts. Please do not retweet the same post more than once.

·  Entrants are only eligible to win once per week, but feel free to share news of our giveaways with your friends and book club! 

Sponsor: David R. Godine, Publisher. Follow us on Twitter @GodinePub and like us on Facebook for more updates!

Superior Person's Tuesday!

DAPATICAL, a. Sumptuous (as of a feast). "I hope you'll be patient with me tonight, Samantha; I find that since I got underway with my low-cholesterol diet, I can't properly enjoy a meal unless it's dapatical."

A dapatical feast

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Dapatical appears in the second.

Literary Happenings 3/24 - 3/28

Here at Godine we realize the importance of participating in a literary community. Luckily our home city of Boston is full of great book readings, lectures, poetry slams, and book groups. If you're looking for things to do this week, why not check out some of these events, free unless otherwise noted!:

Monday 3/24 

• Young Adult panel with Leaach Cypess, A.C. Gaughen, Tiffany Schmidt, Victoria Schwab. and Courtney C. Stevens at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
• Thomas J. Mickey discusses America's romance with the English garden at the Adams branch of the Boston Public Library, 6:30pm

Tuesday 3/25

• Estelle Freedman discusses Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation at Harvard Book Store, 7pm
• Jeremy Bushnell discusses The Weirdness at Porter Square Books, 7pm

Wednesday 3/26

• Helene Atwan and Danielle Ofri discuss What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine at FPC Parish House, 7pm
• Susanna Kaysen reads from Cambridge, at Harvard Book Store, 7pm

Thursday 3/27

• Anthony De Sa reads from Kicking the Sky at Harvard Book Store, 7pm 
• Walter Kirin discusses Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade at Porter Square Books, 7pm 
• Vagabond Theater Group reads from the play "There Will Be Words" at Trident Booksellers and Cafe, 7pm 

 Friday 3/28

• Susan Cheever discusses E.E. Cummings: A Life at Harvard Book Store, co-sponsored by Mass Poetry, Woodberry Poetry Room, and Grolier Poetry Bookshop, 7pm 

If you know of a literary event we overlooked, add it in the comments below! If you'd like to spread the word about upcoming events to be included in our weekly Literary Happenings, please e-mail us at info@godine.com.

On Book Recommendations and Reading for the Sake of Reading

You know all those reading lists going around? The ones that claim these are the “1000 Books You Absolutely Must Read”?  Last week, I finally stumbled upon one list that actually got the right point across. It’s called “28 Books You Should Read If You Want To,” and was posted on The Millions about a month ago. They key here is, “if you want to.”

The author, Janet Potter, points out something great about all these lists: “These lists serve a purpose if you’re Jay Gatsby furnishing a library or if you’ve, say, just arrived from Mars and have no knowledge of Earth books. What they miss is that one of the greatest rewards of a reading life is discovery.” 

This all got me thinking about book recommendations, what you really have to read, and how much it even matters. For me personally, I rely heavily on recommendations from people who I know share similar interests. Although when I was younger, I tended to wander into a bookstore and choose the longest novel I could find whose cover was also appealing (this, to me, meant that a book wouldn’t end as soon). And my favorite book? It was required reading for school, and that’s the only reason I found it. But part of the problem with these “100 Novels Everyone Should Read” is an inherent sense of importance; if you don’t read these books, then you’re not a real reader, or your choice of books isn’t as good as these. I think it’s far more important that you just find a book you enjoy, whether it’s on a list of classics or best sellers or something obscure no one’s ever heard of. You’re reading, and that’s the best part.

Ultimately, this is about reading, and encouraging more people to pick up a book. Hopefully that person finds a book they like which leads them to another one, which gets their friend to read it, and then they find another book, and on and on and on. As the list suggests, “You should just keep reading.”

-Serene Hakim, intern

Superior Person's Tuesday!

YUELING, n. Walking around fruit trees praying for a good crop. Try it if you wish, but this author can only say that he has found swearing to be more effective.

He might need to try his hand at yueling.

 


Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Yueling appears in the second.

Green books for a lucky St. Patrick's Day

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we looked around the office for any green books on our shelves. And it turns out we have quite a few! So we've decided to share some of our greenest books with you, hoping they'll bring you lots of luck as we head into spring.

1) First up is one of our favorites, and a weekly feature on the blog, The Superior Person's Third Book of Well-Bred Words by Peter Bowler:

2) Next we have a book that should give us double points because it's about gardens, and there's nothing greener than a garden! It's On the Making of Gardens by Sir George Sitwell:

3) Third we have a beautiful book of poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (whose birthday was back in February!), illustrated by Frederic Remington, The Song of Hiawatha:

4) And last but not least, we have a literary classic, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett:

So there you have a few very green books from around the Godine office. Whether you're Irish or not, we hope the luck of St. Patrick is on your side!

Literary Happenings 3/17 - 3/21

Here at Godine we realize the importance of participating in a literary community. Luckily our home city of Boston is full of great book readings, lectures, poetry slams, and book groups. If you're looking for things to do this week, why not check out some of these events, free unless otherwise noted!:

Monday 3/17

• Austin Kleon discusses Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm

Wednesday 3/19

• Alan Lightman discusses The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew at Harvard Book Store, 7pm 
• The Philosophy Cafe discusses, Can Philosophy have an American Voice? at the Harvard Book Store Used Books Department on the lower level, 7:30pm 
• Boston Poetry Slam weekly slam and open mic at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, 8 pm, featuring Scott Woods
•  Author talk with Kim Harrison on her latest novel, The Undead Pool at the Boston Public Library Central Branch, 6pm

Thursday 3/20

• Elizabeth F. Fideler discusses Men Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and On the Job at Harvard Book Store, 7pm
• Harlan Coben discusses Missing You, in conversation with John Dennis, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 6pm, $5

Friday 3/21 

• Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, and Sarah Shourd discuss A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran at Harvard Book Store, 7pm

If you know of a literary event we overlooked, add it in the comments below! If you'd like to spread the word about upcoming events to be included in our weekly Literary Happenings, please e-mail us at info@godine.com.

Celebrate Pi Day with Pizza in Pienza!

Happy Pi Day! Today is March 14, or 3.14. We think Pi Day is the best day of the year because it's the perfect excuse to eat pie.

This year, we’re celebrating by reading Susan Fillion’s Pizza in Pienza and dreaming of a cheesy, buttery slice. Pizza in Pienza’s narrator is dreaming of pizza, too; she proudly says, “Even when I’m eating spaghetti, I’m dreaming about the next pizza pie.” Or in Italian—“Anche mentre mangio gli spaghetti sogno la mia prossima pizza.”

Pizza in Pienza is a gorgeous children’s book about the history of pizza pie. Did you know that the Pizza Margherita was invented to resemble the Italian flag?

Here is a pizza recipe by Susan Fillion. Celebrate Pi Day by reading Pizza in Pienza and make a wonderful, delicious treat! 

Ingredients for the dough (to make two 12-inch pizzas or one large one):

3 cups flour (regular, unbleached)

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

approximately 1 1/4 cup barely warm water with 1 teaspoon olive oil added

Ingredients for the topping:

8 ounces whole San Marzano tomatoes. Drain and crush the tomatoes by hand. You can use fresh ones, but they can be watery.

8 ounces mozzarella. Use either fresh cow’s milk mozzarella or mozzarella di bufala. Cut into slices or chunks.

a handful of fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt to season

Note: In Naples, the pizzas have a sparse amount of tomato and mozzarella. You can, of course, use an infinite variety of other toppings instead of this classic Neapolitan Margherita.

If you are kneading by hand, put all dry ingredients in a large bowl, add the liquid gradually, stirring as best you can with a large spoon until it begins sticking together into a ball. Then dump it out onto a floured surface, and knead, constantly folding the dough over onto itself, until smooth and soft. This may take about 10 minutes.

If you are using a food processor, put all dry ingredients in the bowl. With the motor running, add about a cup of the water/oil mixture in a slow, steady stream, then stop the machine and check the dough. If it still feels dry, turn it back on and add more liquid. Keep doing this until it feels soft and forms a ball. Process for about 30 seconds, total. Cover your hands with flour before removing the dough from the processor in case the dough is too sticky to handle.

Put the dough in a greased bowl, turn it to oil it all over, then cover the top of the bowl loosely with a plastic bag or plastic wrap. Place a towel over the plastic. If the room is cool, place the bowl with dough over a smaller bowl of warm water. Let rise about an hour, then divide in two, and let each ball rise again, in separate oiled bowls.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Form each ball of dough into a large, flat disk, place it on a metal sheet with a rim, and spread it out until thin but not too thin. This will take some time, since the dough wants to keep shrinking. Brush the edge with olive oil. Add the toppings and bake for 10 minutes or until the edges and the cheese are nicely browned. Let cool a few minutes before cutting.

Author Susan Fillion is a master pizza chef!

If you would like more information about Pizza in Pienza, click here. We hope you have a happy Pi Day!

Sleet by Stig Dagerman longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award!

We're excited to announce that Sleet by Stig Dagerman, translated from the Swedish by Steven Hartman, is on the longlist for the 2014 Best Translated Book Award! We love this book, a collection of short stories, and are happy to see it getting recognition, especially among the translation community.

In honor of this recognition, here's an excerpt from his story, "The Games of Night," which can be found in Sleet:

"Sometimes at night as his mother cries in her room, and only a clattering of unfamiliar footsteps echoes in the stairwell, Håkan plays a little game to keep from crying himself. He pretends he's invisible and that he can wish himself wherever he wants merely by thinking about it. On these nights there's really only one place to wish himself to, and so suddenly he's there. He's not sure how it all happens. He knows only that he's standing in a room. Just what the room looks like, it's hard to say, because he doesn't have eyes for those things. But the air is filled with cigarette and pipe smoke, and men laugh out abruptly, horribly, for no reason at all. Women also sit there at the table, speaking words that make no sense. Sometimes they lean forward and break into fits of laughter which are every bit as terrifying. These things cut through Håkan like knives, but he's glad to be here just the same. All of these people are sitting around a table with too many bottles spread out in front of them, and as soon as a glass is emptied, a hand unscrews the cap of another bottle and fills that glass again."

Congratulations again to Stig Dagerman and Steven Hartman! We're looking forward to seeing how far this great book will go!

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Lapping, n. The act of privily dropping an object into your lap while seated at a table performing close-up magic. The author not infrequently performs lapping, quite unintentionally, with scrambled eggs - an entirely different effect.

Keep the napkins handy.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Lapping  appears in the third.

Literary Happenings 3/10 - 3/14

Here at Godine we realize the importance of participating in a literary community. Luckily our home city of Boston is full of great book readings, lectures, poetry slams, and book groups. If you're looking for things to do this week, why not check out some of these events, free unless otherwise noted!:


Monday 3/10

• Kevin Young reads from Book of Hours: Poems at Harvard Book Store, 7pm 
• Shakespearean Open Mic upstairs at Trident Booksellers and Cafe, 7-10pm (signup starts at 6:45pm)

Tuesday 3/11

•  Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld discuss The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America at Harvard Book Store, 7pm
• Dory Codington reads from Cardinal Points at Trident Booksellers and Cafe, 7pm
• Jeremy P. Bushnell reads from The Weirdness at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
• Rebecca Goldstein talks about Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away at the Boston Public Library, 7pm
• Our own Linda Bamber reads from Taking What I Like at Newtonville Books, 7pm

Wednesday 3/12

• Rebecca Newberger Goldstein discusses Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away at Harvard Book Store, 7pm
• Stephanie Pearl-McPhee reads from The Amazing Thing About the Way It Goes at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
• Boston Poetry Slam weekly slam and open mic at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, 8 pm, featuring Jeanann Verlee from NYC. 

Thursday 3/13

• Dan Chiasson reads from Bicentennial: Poems, at Harvard Book Store, 7pm, co-sponsored by Mass Poetry and Woodberry Poetry Room
• Steve Almond and Christopher Castellani host a Literary Jeopardy night at Porter Square Books, benefitting 826 Boston, 7pm
• Nathalia Holt reads from Cured at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm

Friday 3/14

• Bash Reading Series curated by Black Ocean Press featuring Christina Davis, Dorothea Lasky, and Jasmine Dreame Wagner at Brookline Booksmith, 7pm
• David Sibley discusses The Sibley Guide to Birds, Second Edition, in conversation with Christopher Leahy at Brattle Theatre, 6pm, $5

If you know of a literary event we overlooked, add it in the comments below! If you'd like to spread the word about upcoming events to be included in our weekly Literary Happenings, please e-mail us at info@godine.com.

Peter Korn at the Boston Athenaeum

Watch Godine author Peter Korn discuss "Why We Make Things and Why it Matters" at the Boston Athenaeum on February 5th. We love this lecture because it's a great opportunity to hear a master craftsman explain not only what he does, but how history has shaped the idea of "craft" - and why it's important.  

To understand even more of what Peter Korn does, take a look at his book by the same name, "Why We Make Things and Why it Matters." Korn strives to get at the heart of craft's essential nature in particular, and the creative sense in general, while also exploring how the making of things shapes our identities and societies. He uses his hands-on and personal experience to essentially answer the question, "what does the process of making things reveal to us about ourselves?" The result is an educational, introspective and revealing book. 

Literary Happenings 3/4 - 3/7

Here at Godine we realize the importance of participating in a literary community. Luckily our home city of Boston is full of great book readings, lectures, poetry slams, and book groups. If you're looking for things to do this week, why not check out some of these events, free unless otherwise noted!:


Tuesday 3/4

• Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen discuss Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well at Brattle Theatre, 6pm - $5
  
• Emily Parker discusses Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices from the Internet Underground at Harvard Book Store, 7pm

Wednesday 3/5

• Adam Wilson and Paul Rome read from What's Important is Feeling: Stories and We All Sleep in the Same Room at Harvard Book Store, 7pm
• Boston Poetry Slam weekly slam & open mic at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, 8 pm

Thursday 3/6

• Peniel Joseph discusses Stokely: A Life, at Harvard Book Store, 7pm, co-sponsored by the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University

Friday 3/7

• Chelsea Handler signs her new book, Uganda Be Kidding Me at Porter Square Books, 2pm
• Vivien Shotwell reads from Vienna Nocturne: A Novel, in conversation with Margot Livesey at Harvard Book Store, 7pm

 If you know of a literary event we overlooked, add it in the comments below! If you'd like to spread the word about upcoming events to be included in our weekly Literary Happenings, please e-mail us at info@godine.com.

Superior Person's Tuesday!

Clinomania, n. Excessive desire to stay in bed. Not a bad mania, as manias go; and a reasonably plausible excuse for taking Monday off.

How could anyone possibly leave a bed this cozy?

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Clinomania  appears in the second.