March 26th, 2009 — Author Events
The Scavengers’ Manifesto is about the philosophy, spirituality and practice of “scavenging” — e.g., any legal means of acquiring stuff that doesn’t involve paying full price, from thrift-shopping to yard-saling to Dumpster-diving to curb-surfing to coupon-clipping to Freecycling. After two thousand years of prejudice (hey, it’s reviled in Leviticus!), scavenging is finally beginning to gain respect as a socially conscious, green and ultimately clean way of life. We see ourselves as nature’s cleanup crew.
Anneli Rufus is the award-winning author of several previous books, including Party of One: The Loners’ Manifesto. Kristan Lawson is also the award-winning author of several previous books, including Darwin & Evolution for Kids.
Both authors will be here to give tips on how to get the best for less without breaking the law or the limits of “your own ick factor.” Here are some excerpts from Rufus and Lawson’s peerless guide to living on the cheap:
–Live comfortably and don’t deny yourself necessities just to prove your scavenging moxie. At the other extreme, don’t let a fun hobby turn you into a creepy eccentric or compulsive hoarder.
March 25th, 2009 — Club Nights
“The usual remark made about Barbara Pym is that she is Jane Austen recreated, but…she is funnier and she works more on the fringes of society. Her heroines are characterized by an irrepressible honesty.” – Anatole Broyard
Please join us as we discuss Barbara Pym’s first published novel. A senstation when it was originally published, it is a story of two middle aged women, written by a young Barbara while at Oxford. Her sense of irony and absurdity are here. She said later the novel proved therapeutic releasing some feelings she had difficulty with at the time. Her brilliance comes in viewing these fragile emotions in comic relief.
March 24th, 2009 — Author Events
This third novel by one of today’s coolest writers takes place almost entirely underground—specifically, in the tunnels and trains of the Manhattan subway system—as William Heller, a sixteen year-old schizophrenic, attempts to save the world from global warming.
Lowboy is uncompromising, often gripping, and generally excellent.” Charles Bock, New York Times Sunday Book Review
John Wray was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in 2007 and his first novel, The Right Hand of Sleep, won a Whiting award. To promote his Civil War-era historical fiction novel, Caanan’s Tongue, Wray traveled between readings on a home-made Mississippi river raft. Lowboy was written while riding the New York City subway.
To find out more about Wray and Lowboy:
http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/54938/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/books/review/Bock-t.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWtpfyEAbGU
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/books/05raft.html?pagewanted=2
March 5th, 2009 — Community Events
