Wednesday, March 11th @ 7:30 p.m.

Books Without Borders continues the discussion of

Roberto Bolano’s By Night in Chile

and starts talking about

Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor

Books Without Borders book group met on Feb. 11^th to begin their discussion of Roberto Bolaño’s By Night In Chile.  We will continue discussing this book in March as well.

Some highlights were:

1. Bolaño makes reference to other writers constantly.  A though research shows that these names are not dropped lightly.  Bolaño uses them to deepen and support his text.  Except for his Chilean peers and those of the immediately preceding generation, these are writers and other eminent men who have supported or been supported by corrupt regimes.  Their mention tends to deepen the sense of evil and foreboding in the book

2. La-Bas, the name of the estate that the young priest-writer visits in the first pages of the book, means “down there” or hell, and it is also the name of a book that Bolaño would have known that is translated as The Dammed.

The priest-writer bears the name of an actual priest-writer in Chile who was a member of Opus Dei, the conservative wing of the Catholic Church that is right wing and was known to be a supporter of many right wing governments, most notably Franco’s.

Bolaño took the position that any writer or critic that succeeds in a corrupt government cannot be any good.

At one point,  the priest-writer is sent to Europe by Opus Dei to research the deterioration of the old edifices of the church.  The cause, without any good reason, is assumed to be the common pigeon, and birds of prey, falcons, are let loose by priests to destroy the common birds.  This ominous practice (and it is a sport of the wealthy) is made more ominous by the knowledge that Operation Condor was the military name for the disappearing of people in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina in the era of the “Dirty Wars”.

The group was enthusiastic about the book, finding it tightly women and well done.  The following articles will be discussed next month as well:

On Bolaño (from Issue 7, The Intellectual Situation)  n+1 magazine

On line at www.nplusonemag.com

And

“Meeting with Enrique Lihn” by Roberto Bolaño

The New Yorker,  Dec 22, 2008

Community Forum Night

Wednesday, March 4^th @ 7:00 p.m.

Alternative Energy for your Home!

How Can we be More Green, decrease our Carbon Footprint, and Save Money?

The Community Meets to Discuss:

Green Roofs!  Rooftop Wind generators!  Easy quick and effective measures like painting over your black roof – did you know this is the fastest and most effective thing you can do to reduce energy use?  The State offers tax rebates and incentives for installing green roofs which can half the cost of installation!  A local business found a company who contracts to put a little windmill on your roof – they provide the equipment and you get the reduced bills!  There are lots of ideas being tried out there, and we can surely all benefit from pooling ideas – why reinvent the wheel, or the windmill?

We will be joined by forward thinking specialists from a variety of businesses (rumor has it, including ConEd) and are reaching out other local resources, too.  Once again, and as always, Craig Hammerman will be on hand to guide us through who to appeal to for change, and how.

As ever, the point of this Forum is to draw together all parts of our Community – residents, merchants, landlords, electeds, non-profits, activists, and . . . . you!  We aim to engage in productive discussion addressing issues of mutual concern, and to thus begin finding actual solutions.  We believe that by coming together we can help each other and our neighborhood – Which is to say, our Home.  What have you got to lose?  Please come out, and join the discussion.  Who knows?  We could even make Something happen.

If you didn’t know:

The first Wednesday of every month is declared Community Forum Night at Community Bookstore.  Each month the store will host a meeting to allow the community to come together and explore some question or issue pertinent to our shared life in the neighborhood.  The topic of each meeting will be announced ahead of time, and we will try to find someone particularly knowledgeable to moderate the meeting, beginning with a brief summary of the issue and then being available to answer questions, serve as a font of information, and generally steer the discussion.  We welcome your suggestions and requests for topics you’d like to discuss!  Email catherine@communitybookstore.net with any ideas!  Coming soon . . . Composting, Bat Houses, the Renovation of Seventh Avenue, Landmarking and more!

In a big shift away from Thoreau’s minimalist approach to living in nature, this month the Nonfiction Book Club will look at what it means to transform nature according to civilization’s needs. Please join us for our discussion of Collapse, by Jared Diamond, as we explore how humanity’s use and abuse of the environment affects our societies, past and present. This engaging, thought-provoking, and, yes, sometimes alarming book reveals the incredibly close connections between nature and human prosperity.

We’re Having An Inauguration party!

No plans for inauguration day?  Come on over to our place!  It’ll be
completely ad hoc and according to the whims and wants of those of you
who scuttle over here, but here’s what we’ve got in mind…

To begin with, who needs a TV?  Around 10am we’ll rig up ye old
digital projector (the swearing-in starts at 12), and stream video feed
from somewhere like Democracy Now, the AP, or the New York Times
(Decision to be made by those in attendance (We’ll take a vote. Ha!)).

Bring the kids, bring the dog, and maybe bring a snack to share?
We’ll load up on eatables from a few of our favorite local shops
(D’vine Taste, Blue Apron (Ooh, should we have sweets, too? From
Cousin John’s or Sweet Melissa? Oh! I’m excited already.))  And if the
weather’s right, we’ll brew up some mulled wine in the crock pot.

Which brings us to the evening.  I suspect we might just feel like
drinking a toast (or two), and would love for you to join us.  The
wearing of ball gowns is of course optional,  but strongly encouraged
for everyone, of whatever gender, race or political orientation,
whenever possible (weather permitting).

Dear Readers,
 
What a month! Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday on the 19th, the inauguration of Barack Obama on the 20th, and our Modernist Book Club meeting to discuss Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man on the fourth Wednesday, January 28th. Join us at the back of the Community Bookstore at 7:30 p.m. to engage in a lively discussion over this American classic. As always, the book is available for puchase near the cash register. Do visit the store to get your copy today.
 
We will use the Vintage International edition. Select a passage that you would like to discuss or to read to the group.
 
The best to you in this historic month,
 
Ken
 
Ken Estey
646-662-3594
 
P.S. Below is an excerpt from the Vintage website:

Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952.  A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction in 1953, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.  The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of “the Brotherhood”, and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.  The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.

Ralph Ellison was born in Okalahoma and trained as a musician at Tuskegee Institute from 1933 to 1936, at which time a visit to New York and a meeting with Richard Wright led to his first attempts at fiction. Invisible Man won the National Book Award  and the Russwurm Award. Appointed to the Academy of American Arts and Letters in 1964, Ellison taught at many colleges including Bard College, the University of Chicago, and New York University where he was Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities from 1970 through 1980. Ralph Ellison died in 1994.

Rosemarie Hester, a Park Slope Learning Specialist, will host a monthly question and answer session for parents who are interested in discussing their child’s learning.  Rosemarie began her teaching career in schools for able learners and also served as the head of a private school for students with learning differences. She has worked with students in first through twelfth grades and has many ideas about activities that can be done at home to support a young person’s confidence and learning.  The discussion group will meet on the first Monday of each month.

The Hidden Chorus
A multi-genre anthology from the New York Writers Coalition
Tuesday January 27th
7pm

What would Grandma Moses’s poetry have been like? Or a Minnie Evans
short story?  Join us for a night in recognition of “outsider authors”
whose writings appear in the NYWC  second anthology.

The NYWC introduces a varied body of voices to literary discourse by
providing free writing courses around the city for authors in
seldom-published demographics (senior citizens, the formerly
incarcerated, and the homeless, to name a few).

They tell us that fifteen of their workshop participants (six of whom
are under 18) are coming to read from the collection. Wow!  Join us
for an evening of Only In New York stories delivered in
non-traditional literary style.

www.nywriterscoalition.org