Music Can Change the World

Thanks to Marlena for sharing this timely link about the ability of music to communicate more than words can.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/76389/the-viral-photo-from-ukraine-that-proves-music-really-can-change-the-world

Map of Europe: 1000 AD to Present

Last night one of the things we talked about was all the strife throughout world history and I promised to share this map which vividly shows the boundary changes since 1000 AD set to some dramatic music. It's mind boggling to remember that most of these border changes were probably caused by disputes and/or wars.

More Pictures from the Siege

Remember Sarajevo is a site of pictures of the Seige by photojournalist Roger M. Richards. Some of these images are hard to look at and it's even harder to realize that this happened just 20 years ago and less than ten years after Sarajevo hosted the winter Olympic games in 1984.

Sobering.

Sniper

In the Afterword to The Cellist of Sarajevo, Steven Galloway mentions a Radio Denmark documentary made about a female sniper named Arrow during the siege of Sarajevo.

 Here is a link to that documentary made by American Stephen Schwartz:

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundmusicword/sniper/4612710

A Brief History of the Conflict in Kosovo

Even when it was going on, I was confused by the war in Kosovo and who all the various players were. This brief article helped me understand the roots of the conflict----which go waaayy back to the 13th century. (Don't worry, this author paints the conflict in broad brushstrokes.)

So, if you're interested in learning about (or refreshing your memory about) the conflict in and around Kosovo, you might read this: http://www.historytoday.com/robert-bideleux/kosovos-conflict.

During our  discussion last week of Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin, a question was posed that I couldn't answer and I promised I'd find a way to ask the author. Last time I asked an author a question for the group, it took months to get a response, so I wasn't expecting anything soon. However, I got a response within two days of my posting my question on Goodreads.com (a great site for book lovers, by the way.)

Here's the question:

Hello!
The evening book club at Cook Memorial Public Library in Libertyville, which I facilitate, just discussed Alice I Have Been this past week. We had a lively discussion and all enjoyed learning more about Alice Liddell and her world.

We've read other historical fiction titles and this group is especially interested in what really happened vs the author's own interpretation of what happened.

In the background reading I did in preparation of our discussion, I was left puzzled about the real cause of the break between Dodgson and the Liddells. The group thought that you seemed to be leading the reader to conclude that something inappropriate had indeed happened between Alice and Charles, but that it had been initiated by her and misinterpreted by her sister and then Pricks.

I was asked a question which I couldn't answer and am hoping that you might be able/willing to shed some light for our group:

Was your intent to make the book as historically accurate as possible or did you want to draw a conclusion about what really happened between Charles and Alice?

I told the group I would see if I could find a way to ask you the question and would hopefully be able to report your answer back to them.

I truly appreciate your time in reading this and hope to hear back from you.

My email address at work is:

ejennings@cooklib.org

Thanks for writing such wonderful books!

Best,
Ellen Jennings

And here is Melanie Benjamin's answer to our question:

Melanie Benjamin
to:	Ellen Jennings
subject:	re: question from my book club
message:	My intent is always to explore the hidden closets of history. In ALICE, I explore the nature of the relationship between Alice Liddell and Charles Dodgson,and the source of the ever-mysterious "break" in their relationship, while adhering to known historical facts. We know the facts - when they met, when he photographed her, when he first told her the story of Alice, when this "break" in the relationship occurred. But since we do not, nor will we ever, know for sure what happened, I felt free to put my own fictional take on it based on my personal interpretation of the people involved. But it's just that; my personal interpretation. Although I always do hope to allow the reader to contribute his/her own thoughts on characters and their relationships. In a nutshell, it's that - the characters, their relationships and choices - that are what I explore in fiction.

Pictures from Nothing Daunted

Here is a brief slideshow from Nothing Daunted, narrated by Dorothy Wickenden. (Most of the pictures are in the book, but here they are big enough to actually see!)

Biographical Documentary about Jean Kwok, author of Girl in Translation

Thought you might enjoy this documentary about Jean, her book and her life. Subtitles in English, English and Dutch spoken. Shown on Dutch national television VPRO "Nieuwkomers" on 6 May 2012.

Ms. Kwok now lives in the Netherlands, which is where this documentary film was produced.

Zookeeper's Wife Heads to the Silver Screen

Thought you might be interested in this exciting news!

Jessica Chastain Attached to Star in 'The Zookeeper's Wife' (Exclusive)

Getty Images

jessica Chastain

Niki Caro is on board to direct the project, which Panorama is expected to sell at Cannes.

Niki Caro has come aboard to direct the World War II story, which Panorama is financing and producing. The project is expected to hit the market in Cannes, according to several sources.
Scion’s Jeff Abberley, Tollin Prods’ Mike Tollin and Kim Zubick, and Rowe/Miller’s Diane Miller-Levin and Robbie Rowe-Tollin are producing on the movie.
Wife is the true account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, who helped save hundreds during the Nazi invasion.
When the Nazi army overran Warsaw, destroying the city and its zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages. The Zabinskis also took about a dozen Jews into their home.
While danger was always present, and her husband was part of the Polish resistance, Antonina Zabinski kept a mix of humans and surviving animals (lynxes and hyena pups, among them) humming in a one-of-a-kind community that included socializing and even the occasional piano concert.
The book was published by W.W. Norton in 2007.
Angela Workman wrote the screenplay.
CAA is repping the project's North American distribution rights.
Chastain is coming off Zero Dark Thirty, for which she was nominated for an Oscar, and the surprise hit horror movie Mama. She will shoot a starring turn in Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak in the first quarter of 2014.
Caro, whose credits include Whale Rider and North Country, last helmed 2009’s A Heavenly Vintage (aka The Vintner’s Luck).
Chastain is repped by CAA, Mosaic and Hansen Jacobson. Caro is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment and Lichter Grossman. Workman is repped by Gersh and Stankevich Gochman.

A Reading Map for Before I Go to Sleep

If you're interested in reading more books like Before I Go to Sleep or watching movies that explore similar topics, Berwyn Public Library has created a 'reading map' to guide your explorations. This is quite well done, I think!

How Memory Works---Nova PBS (10 minutes)

This is a brief video from Nova showing how the brain creates memories and includes scientists studying HM. Very helpful for us non-scientists!

H. M.'s Brain and the History of Memory

One of the things that informed S. J. Watson's first novel, Before I Go to Sleep, was reading the obituary of a man named Henry Molaison, known until his death only as H. M. Due to a surgical procedure to relieve his severe epiletic seizures when he was 27, Mr. Molaison also lost his ability to form new memories, much like the main character Christine in Watson's novel. After his surgery and until his death at age 82, Mr. Molaison became a case study participant at MIT and radically changed scientists' understanding of how our memory works.

This is a brief interview with Mr. Molaison and one of his researchers done by NPR. I found it quite fascinating and thought you might also enjoy reading it or listening to it.

Nicole Kidman in film version of Before I Go to Sleep

I ran across this brief blurb about our next book, Before I Go to Sleep. It is being made into a film right now in England and is starring Nicole Kidman.

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/10333645.Nicole_Kidman_films_Greenwich_Park_Before_I_Go_To_Sleep_scenes/?ref=nt

So as you're reading this book, you can try to guess which character Nicole Kidman will be playing.

One more note---we had such an excellent discussion last week of State of Wonder by Ann Patchett! I often can't believe that I'm paid for the "work" I do because most of it is so much fun! Thanks for being such a great group of readers and talkers! I truly look forward to our meetings! :-)

How Patchett Did Research for State of Wonder

In addition to visiting the Amazon for ten days ("five days too long"), Ann Patchett watched Fitzcarraldo,  a classic Werner Herzog film made in 1981 in the Peruvian jungle to get a sense for the setting for State of Wonder. The movie is about an opera fanatic whose dream it is to build an opera house in the jungle and it was filmed in Peru. Although the library doesn't own the DVD of this movie, I was able to find a clip of the preview on YouTube and thought you might find it of interest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F53yUsgVuL0

It's short---just about three minutes, but I found it helped me visualize the book's setting a little better.

The library does own a copy of another DVD Patchett watched repeatedly as she wrote this book, called Burden of Dreams. It is a documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo, which was apparently quite a harrowing experience for Herzog and his entire crew.

 

Happy 111th Birthday, John Steinbeck!

 

 

National Steinbeck Center

Did you realize that there is a National Steinbeck Center---a museum dedicated to John Steinbeck and which celebrates "community and creativity"?

Here's a link---it looks like a pretty cool place to visit if you're ever in Oldtown Salinas, California!

http://www.steinbeck.org/


Oh, and by the way, Sunday, Feb. 24 is Mr. Steinbeck's 111th birthday! How appropriate that we read one of his books and discuss it this week! (I wish I could tell you that I had planned it this way, but alas, 'twould be a lie.)

Hope to see you this Wednesday at 7:30 to discuss Travels with Charley.

The Truth About Travels with Charley

In 2010, Bill Stiegerwald took a 11, 726 mile trip across America, using Travels with Charley as a guide and took pictures along the way. He also blogged about his trip for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and here is a link to that blog including his pictures.

I wonder what Oprah would say about his book and Steinbeck's stretching of the truth that has been pointed out by others, including this blogger:

http://truthaboutcharley.com/travels-with-charley-timeline/

But, I wonder, how much does the truth really matter in a book like this? Does it rise to the level of literary fraud, as this blogger contends?

Steinbeck's 'Travels with Charley' in NY Times

In 2011,  New York Times reporter tried to retrace the route John Steinbeck took in 1960 in Travels with Charley and here is what he wrote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/books/steinbecks-travels-with-charley-gets-a-fact-checking.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Dr. Henryk Goldszmit (Panusz Korczak)

Source: jewishvirtuallibrary.org via Daša on Pinterest

This is the picture taken on August 6, 1942 of Dr. Godszmit escorting 200 children on the train to Treblinka, knowing his presence would calm them.
"You do not leave a sick child in the night, and you do not leave children at this time."

An observer later described the scene: "A miracle occurred, two hundred pure souls, condemned to death, did not weep. Not one of them ran away. None tried to hide. Like stricken swallows they clung to their teacher and mentor, to their father and brother, Janusz Korscak."

Warsaw Zoo: Righteous Among Nations

On September 21, 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Jan Zabinski and his wife, Antonina Zabinska, as Righteous Among the Nations. On October 30, 1968 Dr. Jan Zabinski planted a tree on the Mount of Remembrance. Yad Vashem is a living memorial to the Holocaust and this is the link to their page about the Zabinski family and their work on behalf of the Jews in Warsaw during the Nazi persecution of WWII.

The Zabinski zoo in Warsaw is featured in this month's book for discussion. Hope to see you Wednesday, Jan 23 at 7:30 p. m.!

Ellen Jennings