Erin Morgenstern on The Night Circus

Eve in Hollywood by Amor Towles

The good news is that I found Eve in Hollywood by Amor Towles.

The bad news is that it's only available as an ebook via Amazon (but it's only $2.99).

Even if you're not interested in buying it, you might be interested in reading what people say about it:

http://www.amazon.com/Eve-Hollywood-Penguin-Special-Kindle-ebook/dp/B00CN04J5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398307382&sr=8-1&keywords=eve+in+hollywood

Great discussion tonight!

George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation

In Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, Tinker aspires to Washington's rules and just in case you're unfamiliar with them, here is a description of them and this link will take you to the complete list.


"By age sixteen, Washington had copied out by hand, 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. They are based on a set of rules composed by French Jesuits in 1595. Presumably they were copied out as part of an exercise in penmanship assigned by young Washington's schoolmaster. The first English translation of the French rules appeared in 1640, and are ascribed to Francis Hawkins the twelve-year-old son of a doctor.

Today many, if not all of these rules, sound a little fussy if not downright silly. It would be easy to dismiss them as outdated and appropriate to a time of powdered wigs and quills, but they reflect a focus that is increasingly difficult to find. The rules have in common a focus on other people rather than the narrow focus of our own self-interests that we find so prevalent today. Fussy or not, they represent more than just manners. They are the small sacrifices that we should all be willing to make for the good of all and the sake of living together.

These rules proclaim our respect for others and in turn give us the gift of self-respect and heightened self-esteem.

Richard Brookhiser, in his book on Washington wrote that "all modern manners in the western world were originally aristocratic. Courtesy meant behavior appropriate to a court; chivalry comes from chevalier – a knight. Yet Washington was to dedicate himself to freeing America from a court's control. Could manners survive the operation? Without realizing it, the Jesuits who wrote them, and the young man who copied them, were outlining and absorbing a system of courtesy appropriate to equals and near-equals. When the company for whom the decent behavior was to be performed expanded to the nation, Washington was ready. Parson Weems got this right, when he wrote that it was 'no wonder every body honoured him who honoured every body.'" "

Two things

First, a reminder that we're meeting tonight at 7 p.m.---we decided last week to move up our meeting 1/2 hour from now on.

Second, if you're interested, the 48 Hours show from last Saturday was fascinating and can be seen here.

See you tonight at 7!

NPR Interview with Walter Kirn

This month, a new book about "Clark Rockefeller" was released entitled Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade and was written by Walter Kirn, a journalist who knew Rockefeller before he was caught.

Here is the site which includes the entire 43 minute interview you can listen to or you can read its transcription.

Enjoy!

48 Hours, Saturday, March 22, "AKA Rockefeller"

Sarah G. alerted me to this Saturday evening's episode of 48 Hours which will air a segment called "AKA Rockefeller" which will cover Clark Rockfeller's relationship with writer Walter Kirn, who has a brand new book, Blood Will Out : The True Story of A Murder, A Mystery, and A Masquerade.

48 Hours is on CBS on Saturday at 9 p.m.

Previous episodes of 48 Hours featuring "Clark Rockefeller" can be seen here: http://www.tv.com/shows/48-hours/watch/ 

Thanks, Sarah!