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Events: singles; author talk; meet artist; Ugandan Jews; musical; Maccabi Film Festival

NY Jewish cultural events in the coming weeks include singles events; an author talk;... more

davidfcooper
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6 days ago
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Interview with Author Ryan Dawson on his new book for children, “Journey of Oktavius”

Ryan Dawson is the author of a new children’s book titled, “Journey of... more

LeahMcNeirArt
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15 days ago
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Jessica Bendinger: Blonde Ambition

Jessica Bendinger made a serious dent in the teen comedy genre with her film "Bring it... more

chapinyoung
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19 days ago
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Updates to my recent events, learning opportunities, and anti-semitic protest stories

Updates to previous articles including film, author talks, classes, and videos.

davidfcooper
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1 month ago
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"Astronaut Goes From Migrant Fields To Outer Space"

Once a child laborer who trekked with his family each year from Mexico to the fields... more

DavidMoolten
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1 month ago
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T.D. Jakes - The Black List Vol 2

Pastor, entrepreneur and author T.D. Jakes on The Black List Vol 2. For more head to... more

blacklistvid
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1 month ago
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Creating & Delivery of smoke breathing Blaze the " Dragon "

Reinforced Concrete Sculpture of smoke breathing Blaze the Dragon, 9 ft tall 7 ft wide... more

tjneil
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1 month ago
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William Safire: 1929-2009

Pulitzer Prize winning American author, columnist, journalist and presidential... more

VSiskos
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1 month ago
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15 comments

Video Up Date " Three Headed Dragon "

Reinforced Concrete Sculpture Three Headed Dragon 9 ft tall 14 ft long 7 ft wide 3... more

tjneil
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1 month ago
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" Freedom's Flight "

Reinforced Concrete Sculpture of Freedom's Flight 9 ft tall 14 ft wide 2 tons.... more

tjneil
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1 month ago
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" Dolphins Protecting Manatees "

Reinforced Concrete Sculpture " Dolphins Protecting Manatees " 9 ft tall 7 ft wide 2... more

tjneil
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1 month ago
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How to Overcome Writer's Block

Anyone who writes often will occasionally be hit with writer's block. It doesn't... more

lockergnome
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3 months ago
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Loving Music as Opposed to Stalking It

A unique view on the "Sell Out!" cries from music fans - === I never used to... more

LarzNero
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3 months ago
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1 comment

Mitzi TV (promo video)

Hello, and welcome to Mitzi TV. I'm Mitzi Szereto, author, blogger, expat, and overall... more

MitziTV
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3 months ago
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3 comments

Author Joy Ibsen at Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, IA; To play piano of comedian Victor Borge

Author Joy Ibsen of Trout Creek, MI will sign her latest book "Unafraid" and host a... more

Yoopernewsman
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3 months ago
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Guns are anti-Freedom and Blasphemy is Fun!

So while there's all this discussion about Healthcare lately, I keep thinking about... more

LarzNero
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3 months ago
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Get Booked: Is Dan Brown an evil Book Killer?

Thom Geier says it best, so I'll just let him begin:

"There’s been much fulminating in the books world lately that The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, is bad for publishing. This week, former Publisher’s Weekly editor Sara Nelson even dubbed Brown a “Book Killer.” The theory is that Brown’s readers will only troop into stores (or go online) starting Sept. 15 to buy Symbol, probably at a deep discount, and they won’t buy anything else. Worse, the critics argue, the hubbub surrounding Symbol will drown out media coverage of other books — and eat into sales of those books too. So publishers have supposedly been shuffling the release dates of various titles so they don’t have to go head-to-head with the Dan Brown juggernaut."

Thom Geier's analysis:

"It doesn’t take a Harvard symbologist to see that this is mostly sour grapes and a whole lot of hooey."

You hear that? A whole lot of hooey. I like this guy.

"It reminds me of the stink that publishers raised over the Harry Potter series, successfully persuading The New York Times and other outlets to demote the titles from their adult best-seller lists so that J.K. Rowling titles wouldn’t hog up so many slots. Why do we have to compete with a book that appeals to a youth-skewing mass audience, beyond the usual Starbucks-sipping B&N crowd?, the publishers asked. That just isn’t fair! (Imagine if the movie studios tried something similar so they wouldn’t have to compete with the box office returns of G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra.)"

Mr. Geier goes on to point out that, although Dan Brown's new novel will almost undoubtedly jump to the #1 slot, it's effect on the book purchasing trends of other books will be minimal and, if anything, will draw in and audience that may include many "non-habitual book shoppers."

"The crossover with Jon Krakauer or Jonathan Lethem or Pat Conroy, some of the authors alleged to be “hurt” by Brown, seems infinitesimally small. (I’d love to see the Venn diagram of the overlap in readership, actually.)"

Brownie points if you can supply Master Thom with his Venn diagram.

--

Sooo...
Booked Wants to Know:

Do you think Dan Brown is a Book Killer? Will you be reading his newest book, Lost Symbol? And which would be worse to meet in a dark alley: the Dan Brown Juggernaut or the J.K. Rowling Youth-Skewer?Thom Geier says it best, so I'll just let him begin: "There’s been much... more

Lrn_Willis
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3 months ago
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Mitzi Szereto Reads at Shakespeare & Company in Vienna, Austria

Mitzi Szereto reads an excerpt from her short story "Odalisque" (from her anthology... more

MitziTV
added this
4 months ago
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4 comments

Get Booked: Yann Martel's new novel is breaking boundaries in Holocaust literature

Yann Martel, author of the bestselling book, Life of Pi, and winner of the Man Booker prize in 2002, has recently sold the rights to his third book. It was bought up at auction last month by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, the world’s largest publisher of consumer books.

So what's got people talking? In a nutshell,

"Like 'Life of Pi,' the new book is an allegory — this time, about the Holocaust — involving animals. It relates the story of an encounter between a famous writer and a taxidermist who is writing a play that features dialog between a donkey and a monkey imprinted on a shirt."

Hmm.

This complicated structure, combined with the high sticker price, is said to be the reason only three publishers bid on the novel. Yet even with its unorthodox structure, the currently untitled book (to be released sometime next year) is not without precedent.

"'I’ve noticed over the years of reading books on the Holocaust and seeing movies that it’s always represented in the same way, which is historical or social realism,' Mr. Martel, 46, said in a telephone interview from his home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. 'I was thinking that it was interesting that you don’t have many imaginative takes on it, like George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ and its take on Stalinism.' Mr. Martel said that although there had been a few works like “Life is Beautiful” in film or the “Maus” books by Art Spiegelman that had been more metaphorical, artists were generally “fearful of letting the imagination loose on the Holocaust.”

continued at link.
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Sooo...
Booked Wants to Know:

Many believe that the domain of the artist, or the writer, is without boundaries. Nothing can escape art, and nothing is off-limits to the one who creates it, even the most painful or controversial components of human existence and human history. Books have the power to change the way people think, and can consequently be used as positive tools or weapons with deadly consequences.

That said, are the real world outcomes of a book the responsibility of the author? If an author writes a book that inspires world peace, do we praise her/him? If an author writes a book that inspires World War III, do we condemn her/him? At what juncture, if there is one, does a book cease to be the offspring of one author and become instead the offspring of humanity?

Book it, and tell us what You think.Yann Martel, author of the bestselling book, Life of Pi, and winner of the Man Booker... more

Lrn_Willis
added this
3 months ago
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0 comments

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? becomes first “graphic translation.”

In the hands of Boom! Studios, Philip K. Dick’s classic novel is undergoing a... more

Lrn_Willis
added this
3 months ago
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tagged w/ author

Events: singles; author talk; meet artist; Ugandan Jews; musical; Maccabi Film Festival

Interview with Author Ryan Dawson on his new book for children, “Journey of Oktavius”

Jessica Bendinger: Blonde Ambition

Updates to my recent events, learning opportunities, and anti-semitic protest stories

"Astronaut Goes From Migrant Fields To Outer Space"

T.D. Jakes - The Black List Vol 2

Creating & Delivery of smoke breathing Blaze the " Dragon "

William Safire: 1929-2009

Video Up Date " Three Headed Dragon "

" Freedom's Flight "

" Dolphins Protecting Manatees "

How to Overcome Writer's Block

Loving Music as Opposed to Stalking It

Mitzi TV (promo video)

Author Joy Ibsen at Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, IA; To play piano of comedian Victor Borge

Guns are anti-Freedom and Blasphemy is Fun!

Get Booked: Is Dan Brown an evil Book Killer?

Mitzi Szereto Reads at Shakespeare & Company in Vienna, Austria

Get Booked: Yann Martel's new novel is breaking boundaries in Holocaust literature

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? becomes first “graphic translation.”

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