Books

Arts

A Portion of Thyself: Barbara Bonner Is Inspiring Generosity with Her First Book

By Nichole Dupont “Giving away an old coat you wouldn't be caught dead in isn’t exactly generous," says philanthropy consultant Barbara Bonner, glancing over the top of her red-framed glasses. “It doesn’t have meaning. True generosity is giving away something that has meaning to you.

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Arts

A Winter Warm-up: Berkshire Festival of Women Writers Prepares For March With A Week Of Workshops

By Amy Krzanik “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." --Alice Walker. As this quote flashes on the screen, so begins Miss Representation, the 2011 documentary that shines a harsh light on how the American media portray woman—

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Novelist Glenda Ruby Conjures Up A "Death at Olana"

By Marilyn Bethany The fictional character of Lindsey Brooks, an expert on antiques, fell into sleuthing early in her career at the behest of an acquaintance in law enforcement who understood what convenient containers antiques can be for smuggling contraband. In addition to running an international auction house, Miss Brooks

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Arts

Books: "Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley" A Vicarious Pleasure

By Dan Shaw The imaginary line that divides Connecticut's Litchfield County from New York's Columbia, Dutchess and Putnam Counties became very real to Jane Garmey as she researched and wrote her beautiful new coffee table book, Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley. "When I began

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Arts

"Love Where You Live" - Hammertown's Mantra Is Now A Book, Too

By Dan Shaw If grown-up life is really high school all over again and again, then the Rural Intelligence region finally has a yearbook thanks to Joan Osofsky of Hammertown: Love Where You Live: At Home in the Country, a coffee-table design tome published by Rizzoli that features 18 country

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Arts

All’s Welles That Ends Welles: A New Book From Chatham Film Festival's Peter Biskind

By Sam PrattOne afternoon in Los Angeles in 1983, Richard Burton cautiously approached Orson Welles’ usual table at Ma Maison, to ask if he could bring Liz Taylor over to meet him. Welles rudely shooed both away. Now, with the publication of Vanity Fair critic and Chatham Film Festival honcho

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Arts

Back In The Saddle: Laura Chester Rides Out the Storm of Transition

All photos courtesy of Trafalgar Square BooksBy Nichole DupontLaura Chester does not like to dwell in the past, especially her own. That's why the veteran author and horsewoman decided to write a book about it; to get some of that stuff out. But make no mistake, Riding Barranca,

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Arts

The Wondrous Words of Junot Diaz

Novelist Junot Diaz exudes an otherworldly level of awesomeness. The author and 2012 MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant recipient is on the phone discussing his third book, the linked short-story collection This Is How You Lose Her, which chronicles the relationship detonations in the life of Yunior, a brainy-yet-emotionally-clueless

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Arts

Brian Selznick: A Head Full of Secrets

(Photo by Jamey Mazzie) Having an imagination is hard work, especially if you're living inside 46-year-old Brian Selznick's head. The author of the Caldecott Award-winning children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret (which was adapted for the Oscar-winning 2011 Scorcese film Hugo) spends most

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Arts

Women Writers Unite! (and Chat) at Berkshire Festival

At the risk of sounding like a self-help guru, I’m going to share with you my Moment of Personal Transformation. It happened about four years when I attended my first writing workshop in Hudson, New York. The facilitator was a short, sharp New York City author and teacher who’

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Arts

Verlyn Klinkenborg Signing and Giveaway

Verlyn Klinkenborg, an award-winning American non-fiction author who lives in the RI region, has been writing literary meditations about the joys, rewards, and tribulations of farm life for years now, most notably as a columnist for The New York Times, where he serves on the editorial board, and as the

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Interview with John Kelly, author of The Graves Are Walking, on the Irish Famine

After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously remarked, “What’s the point of being Irish if the world doesn’t break your heart?” Central to that tragic view of life was the Irish potato famine of the 1840s that left more than a million people

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