Between the Covers

Whose festival this is I think I know

My love for poetry has been well-documented on this blog. I love it so!

And so I am pleased to remind you that the works of Robert Frost will be celebrated April 9-13 at the Key West Robert Frost Poetry Festival, which includes films; readings; workshops; a poetry on the water event (sonnets on the high seas, or at least on a catamaran, WITH drinks); and poetry contests (deadine is March 24, so get writing and mailing). Also probably more drinks after that.

Also the former editor of Modern Haiku, Dr. Lee Gurga, will be there, so you are NOT going to want to miss this. For more information on the cost of various events and rules for the contests, click here.

"Playa scribin tropes like Keats"

Gimmicky reviews work once in a blue moon, but oh my, how great is this review of Richard Price's Lush Life, written by Sam Anderson for New York mag? READ IT NOW. It's written in Price's style, and it's funny and smart. I wish to hell I'd written it.

I completely agree with the commenter who wrote "If I could make out with this review, I would."

Save me

Is there anything more damaging to the continued good health of forests than using paper to print books? OK, carbon emissions maybe, but besides that?  An Associated Press story suggests that some publishers are actually paying attention to the fact that printing millions of pages each year is not exactly environmentally conscious. Not all, but some.

The AP reports that 60 percent of publishers have some sort of formal policy regarding the environment. Recycled paper seems like a no-brainer, but it's more expensive, so some  publishing houses (like Regnery) won't switch to it. On the other end of the spectrum are houses like Random (vowed in 2006 to increase use of recycled paper to save 500,000 trees a year); Penguin (making use of wind power); Hyperion (switching to soy ink!); and Scholastic (printed fancy schmancy version of the last Harry Potter book on "100 percent post consumer waste fiber.")

And of course, there are e-books. And Kindle. And if I were truly an environmentalist like I think I am, I suppose I would make use of new technology instead of letting all these trees go down so I can feed my reading habit. But I just can't do it. So viva the recycled paper!

Mma Ramotswe comes alive

Looks like HBO and the BBC are joining forces to make Alexander McCall Smith's delightful No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency into a series. Recently a two-hour pilot was filmed, directed by Anthony "The English Patient" Minghella and starring singer Jill Scott as Precious Ramotswe, the "traditionally built" lady who opens a detective agency in Botswana and solves problems for her neighbors and others as she drives around in her tiny white van.

In addition to the pilot, HBO has ordered 13 episodes that will begin filming this summer. Anika Noni Rose of Dreamgirls plays Mma Makutsi, Mma Ramotswe's loyal secretary (who got a 97 percent on her exam at the Botswana Secretarial College) and Lucian Msamati as Mr. JLB Matekoni, Mma Ramotswe's love interest. Also notable on the cast list: Idris Elba (Stringer Bell from The Wire)!

Gorge on this feast

Jennifer Valoppi is just one of the 20 authors appearing at this year's LitLIVE!, part of Broward's Literary Feast, which benefits the Broward Public Library Foundation and is held Saturday at Nova Southeastern in Davie.

LitLIVE, which stars at 10 a.m. features panel discussions and author signings. Among those on the schedule: Jeffrey Archer, Chip Kidd, Lauren Groff (the debut novelist who wrote The Monsters of Templeton that I liked so much), James Hall, Stephen Hunter and others. Visit bplfoundation.org for a full schedule and directions to the campus.

You'll be safe from Satan when the thunder rolls

No spoilers here but my GOD, what a great ending to The Wire.

Yeah, I know. I've loved Buffy and The Sopranos and Six Feet Under and The Office and The X-Files and The West Wing but folks? Nothing compares. NOTHING.

I refuse to blather in ways that might spoil. But boy, it was good. Do yourself a favor. If your attention span is that of an adult, watch this show. Though if you own that first Steve Earle album, and you don't know what he looks like now? It's gonna be a shock. I'm just saying. Drugs are BAD.

Also, is it just me? Or is Lester sexy? I've always thought so. he's clearly the smartest character on the show, if not the hottest (um, that would be Stringer Bell). Women mostly like McNulty's skinny white Irish self, but that guy to me looks like Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with B and that stands for Baltimore.

Man, there are not enough books to make up for the hole this show leaves.

Read! It's not a waste of money...like other things

Proof that people, at least those who still go to the movies, need to read more: the ridiculous prehistoric man epic 10,000 B.C. led the weekend box office, making $35.7 million since its opening on Friday.

Why do I mention this? Because I had to sit through it. You can read my cranky review here (though I suppose I should also be directing you to my Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day review, since it's actually adapted from a novel).

But the fact that so many people bothered to spend money on 10,000 B.C. confounds me. I spent a big chunk of the weekend reading Scott Spencer's funny new novel and believe me, it was a lot more entertaining than watching fake-ass sabre tooth tigers growl at male models. Though I must say, if I were 9, I might've preferred the caveman movie, and it would've been more appropriate, since the Spencer book is about a kind of hapless loser on a worldwide sex tour).

I realize there's not much new and good out, and this could be pretty fun for kids like my nephew, who did say he thought this would be "awesome." He also said that about The Transformers and, well, it sort of WAS awesome in the way that only a story about cars that morph into robots can be. But if you're a grownup? Surely you've got better things to do.

Local hero makes good - again

The National Book Critics Circle, of which I am still not a member, named Edwidge Danticat's Brother I'm Dying 2007's Book of the Year in the Autobiography category. The memoir, about Miami resident Danticat's father and uncle, was a National Book Award finalist.

During her acceptance speech, the Haitian-born Danticat thanked the other writers in the Autobiography category for allowing her to "visit" there. Looks like she's headed back to the world of fiction to add to her already impressiv collection: The Dew Breaker; Krik? Krak!; Breath, Eyes, Memory; and The Farming of Bones.

The NBCC named Junot Diaz's The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao as its 2007 winner for fiction. For a list of all the winners and nominees, click here.

Now this will come in handy

Am perusing my copy of the third edition of Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills. This book, which is edited by Abigail R. Gehring, is awesome. It can teach you to do practically anything. It's going to be just what I need when rogue agents detonate nuclear bombs in select cities across the U.S. (D.C, Atlanta, San Diego, Denver and of course Philadelphia), and I have to start growing my own food and raising livestock and welding stuff. I'm already prepared to watch out for fake FBI badges and fake Marines and nuclear winter.

Hmmm. The book has no chapter on welding. This seems like an oversight. But it does teach you how to harness the wind to generate power and how to make patchwork quilts, which I'm sure will come in handy in Miami. There's even a chapter on butchering rabbits. Thank God I'm a fake vegetarian.

Real consequences

NPR's News and Notes show last night spent the first 20 minutes discussing the  fake memoir (Love and Consequences) white-girl-claims-she-ran-with-the-Bloods debacle; it's worth a listen. Click here to listen to host Farai Chideya's interview with Motoko Rich, who broke the story.

Even better is a related intervew with writer and Hunter College prof Eisa Ulen, who is like, um, Margaret or whatever your name is, don't do us any favors by acting like this was all for the downtrodden black people.