Author Spotlight: Stephen L. Carter

     Stephen L. Carter is a professor of law at Yale University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His novels include The Emperor of Ocean Park and Back Channel,  and they would probably be classified as political thrillers, but they are full of historical research and insight. His nonfiction includes Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy, Integrity, and Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster. 

    I first discovered Carter when I was in my car and heard this interview on NPR ( https://www.npr.org/2018/10/10/656079710/stephen-carters-book-tells-how-his-grandmother-helped-convict-a-mob-boss ) about his book Invisible.  I  was immediately hooked. It was the story of his grandmother, Eunice Carter. I had never heard of her, and I bet few, if any, of you have.  But it's one of the most compelling stories ever. Eunice Carter was a black woman, the granddaughter of slaves, who became, who became the only female member of a twenty-member task force of government prosecutors tasked with bringing down the most powerful mob figure of the day, Lucky Luciano. She is an incredible figure, facing struggles against racism and sexism throughout her career, and her work was essential to toppling Luciano. She was a black Republican feminist in the 1930s and 1940s. A contemporary said of her, :If she were a man, she would be President." Her story, and life, were complicated even more by the fact that her brother was an active Communist Party member and organizer. It's one of the most interesting stories that I've read in a while.

    I then picked up Carter's The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln: alternate history, political thriller, historical fiction, courtroom drama, all wrapped in one novel. Imagine that Lincoln survived the assassination attempt, and, two years later, he is impeached by Congress. Today, many of us have forgotten that Lincoln was a very divisive President, even in the Union states. He was never universally popular; he faced vociferous opposition and criticism from many. He came close to losing re-election in 1864.  Carter's book is a great historical suspense novel.

    I just picked up Back Channel and Palace Council and added to my long To Be Read List.  Back Channel is set during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Palace Council,  set in 1952, is about a conspiracy to manipulate the Presidency. I'm looking forward to both.

Virtually Festive

     One of the things my wife and I have missed most in 2020 is going to book festivals. We really discovered them only a few years ago, but we quickly fell in love and decided to attend as many as we could. We went to a few in Savannah and Decatur Georgia, and we were looking forward to the Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading after we moved into the area. Book festivals allow readers to sit in on book talks and interviews with authors of all genres, and readers also get the chance to meet and interact with authors whom they admire. Festivals allow readers to feel a real connection to authors and works they enjoy, and they discover many more things to read. There is also a camaraderie that develops when you find yourself in a group of people with the same tastes in reading that you have. 

    Then, of course, COVID 2020 destroyed all that. Or did it? Most book festivals and authors adroitly pivoted to offering virtual book festivals, recording interviews with authors and hosting live virtual events that readers can log in to. In fact, going virtual allows festival planners to stretch their events from 1 or 2 day events to weeks, months, or forever. Readers can watch recorded interviews from anywhere at any time.

    Check out these festivals virtually and make plans to attend one in person as soon as your able.

Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading: Originally scheduled for November 12-14, you can go here for recorded interviews, which will be uploaded throughout the weekend. 

https://www.tampabay.com/expos/festival-of-reading/ 

The Savannah Book Festival is usually held on the second weekend of February. Savannah Georgia is always a great place to visit, but the weather is usually pretty nice at this time.  The 2020 event happened live, but planners have already  cancelled the 2021 event. Instead, they will be hosting events and posting videos over several months. See this page for information:

https://www.savannahbookfestival.org/ 

The Decatur Book Festival is usually held on Labor Day weekend, at venues throughout the city. It's a little different from many other festivals because they often put together panels of authors in the same genre or to talk about a particular theme, but they also have single author events.  Here's the link to their recorded talks:  https://decaturbookfestival.com/festival/past-sessions/

The Library of Congress has hosted the National Book Festival for 20 years now, and they have lots of recorded talks and interviews on their Youtube Channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/c/loc/playlists?view=1&sort=dd&shelf_id=2 

Time For a Good Laugh, part 2

     Here are three more great books about the world of comedy.

    Craig Ferguson is my favorite comedian. He was my favorite late night talk show host for years as host of The Late Late Show, and I've seen him 3 or 4 times live. Riding the Elephant is his third book, following his novel Between the Bridge and the River, and his first memoir American On Purpose.  Riding is very funny, very revealing, and very candid. Ferguson is one of my all time favorite celebrities because of his humor and his down to earth personality. IF you are not familiar with his work, check him out.

    The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is based on over two hundred original interviews extensive research; it is a thorough narrative of the way comedians have reflected, shaped, and changed American culture over the past hundred years. The book is full of great stories about all the greats of comedy and about people you've never heard of, but should have. I learned about the strict caste distinctions between Vaudeville and burlesque comedians, and I learned the mafia controlled comedy clubs and careers in the 1940s and 1950s. 

    Mixed Nuts by Lawrence J. Epstein focuses on the great comedy teams. Each chapter focuses on a team like Burns and Allen, the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance, and others. The reader learns about each team's formation, career and contributions, and ultimately, maybe inevitably in some cases, their breakups.

    Both books are well-researched and tell great stories about American culture.

    

Time for a Good Laugh, part 1

     If ever we needed a laugh, it's now. 2020 has been rough for all of us. Over the last year, I've read several books by and about comedians.  They are a lot of laughs, of course, but they are also great entertaining stories, with some good life lessons imparted as well. 

    I actually listened to all of these, narrated by the authors themselves, and I highly recommend this route. It was great to hear the subjects tell their own stories. 

    

    Eddie Izzard's Believe Me definitely falls into that arena. As he narrates the book, Izzard often goes off text, on tangents that he didn't include in the book. It's a really entertaining look into how his mind works. Izzard is a British comedian and actor who is known for several things like performing in women's clothing, performing his stand-up in multiple languages around the world, and running 27 marathons in 27 days for charity. In his book, he writes frankly about his childhood, his career, and his alternative sexuality. Izzard has a fan base that crosses all demographic lines because he has the ability to reach practically any audience.

    Are you one of the people who discovered actor Leslie Jordan from his quarantine videos on Instagram and other social media?  Probably not. Like me, you've probably seen him in his fantastic scene-stealing roles on sitcoms in the last 2-3 decades. It seems he's been on every sitcom there is, and he even made an appearance on an episode of  Star Trek: Voyager.  During the COVID quarantine, he started posting hilarious videos of random thoughts, and he became a viral social media phenomenon. If you haven't seen one (language warning):

My Trip Down the Pink Carpet  is the hilarious story of his career.

    Name Drop is a collection of stories of comedian Ross Mathews' encounters with celebrities during his career. It is really a fun, fast read.

    One of the greatest storytellers or raconteurs alive today in my opinion is movie director John Waters. He's published several books, and he does an annual speaking tour around Christmas. We've seen his show in Atlanta a couple of times. He's always entertaining, even if you don't particularly like his movies. Mr. Know It All is his latest memoir.