The Story Behind the Pick: The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

When looking for a book to use for the First Editions Club in March, we knew that The Swan Thieves was a must.  This was not Elizabeth Kostova’s first book but it would be the first time she had been to Lemuria. One reason Swan Thieves was an obvious selection was because “The Historian made history as the first debut novel to land at number one on The New York Times bestseller list, and as of 2005, it was the fastest-selling hardback debut novel in US history,” according to the all informative Wikipedia.

Richard Howorth of Square Books in Oxford met and encouraged Kostova to include Lemuria in her next book tour.  Thanks to that suggestion we were able to feature Swan Thieves as our March First Editions Club book.

As noted on Elizabeth Kostova’s website she is a graduate of Yale and holds a MFA from the University of Michigan where she won the Hopwood Award for the Novel-in-Progress.  She has also won the Book Sense book of the year award in 2006 for The Historian.

This is what Maggie had to say about The Swan Thieves:

“Five years ago I read The Historian and absolutely loved it.  When I heard that Kostova’s second novel was coming out in January and that she was coming to Lemuria I was thrilled to death.  I checked the mail everyday until I received my advanced reader and then set upon it like ‘flies to honey’!  While The Swan Thieves isn’t as much of a thriller as The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova showed us again how talented a writer she is.  She does an excellent job in the transition from the modern day to the past as the two stories come together throughout the book.  I hope that it will not take five more years for another story from Kostova.”

Elizabeth Kostova was here for a signing and reading on February 17 2010. The Swan Thieves had an initial print run of 750,000 copies.  It was published by Little Brown.

First Editions Club: January 2010

First Editions Club: February 2010

First Editions Club: April 2010

What You Don’t Know You Know: Our Hidden Motives in Life, Business, and Everything Else

Ken Eisold, Ph.D

Other Press (2009)

About 100 years ago, the unconscious began to be understood by Western psychology. As we were trained to understand the concept and explore it individually, we began to grasp an awareness. Our daily cultural understanding of its effects on our lives is the new unconscious.

Being aware of the group to which we belong–our workplace, our friends and families–unconsciously influence our decisions is our responsibility.

Eisold’s book is broad in its presentation. I found the section on the unconscious habits we all have at work to be particularly interesting. Eisold also points out how we are affected by micro and macro groups–religious, political and social associations– and how these groups influence us in many ways we are not necessarily aware of. Of increasing importance is the invasion of the viral unconscious, i.e. texting, tweeting, e-mailing, constant cell phone usage. This invasion can certainly be an unconscious one and can thus disable our conscious productive time.

Eisold concludes by presenting ideas on how we humans will become more and more unconscious. We will physically rely on services provided for us by computers and machines, i.e. robots, self-driving cars, etc. These machines will be designed to react to our unconscious, in some cases more effectively than we can expect from our fellow humans.

What You Don’t Know is an eye-opener to fresh ideas about understanding ourselves and the world around us.

Eisold is a great follow-up for readers who have read Malcolm Gladwell.

Alice Munro’s latest short story collection, Too Much Happiness, is not a book for the faint of heart.  The ten stories that comprise this collection seem exceptionally dark, even for a writer not known for happy endings.  Fortunately this bleak outlook is somewhat redeemed (at least for me) by Munro’s practice of giving her protagonists, however fleeting or subtle it may be, some sort of epiphany or moment of awareness at the end.  The stories, of course, are still vintage Munro—carefully observed, always surprising, complex, yet accessible, with fully imagined characters who, because of their striking singularity, emerge as very real people.  Once again Munro manages to transcend the genre in which she labors, creating stories that because of their richness and depth are often as satisfying as full-blown novels.

Here’s one critic’s assessment that captures beautifully the magic of her magnificent talent:

One Alice Munro short story has the power of many novels.  Nothing is wasted.  Nothing is irrelevant.  Every word glows.  Munro is able to capture the shape and mood, the flavor of a life in 30 pages.  She tells us what it is to be a human being.  She is wholly without cliche.  At the end of one of her stories you have to pause, catch your breath, come up for air. (Garan Holcombe writing for The British Council, 2008; read full article here)

Perhaps the only person who could have put it better than that is Munro herself—who is quoted as saying about her work—“I want the reader to feel something is astonishing.  Not the ‘what happens’ but the way everything happens”

Be prepared to be astonished.

-Billie

I thought it would be fun to see how all this hoop-la about Valentine’s Day started! Here’s what I found:

According to some historians, Valentine’s Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honor Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage.

Some other experts state that it originated with St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D. At that time, the lives of young Roman boys and girls were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing on the eve of the festival of Lupercalia (14th). The names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose.

But this legend is my favorite! Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that Roman men did not want to leave their loves or families. As a result, Claudius CANCELLED all marriages and engagements in Rome. The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II. He secretly married couples, and for this kind deed he was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine”.

Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.

Down through the ensuing ages, various peoples and countries devised their own unique ways of celebrating Valentines Day.

In Wales, wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favorite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, “You unlock my heart!”

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800’s.

Some people used to believe that if a woman saw a robin flying overhead on Valentine’s Day; it meant she would marry a sailor. If she saw a sparrow, she would marry a poor man and be very happy. If she saw a goldfinch, she would marry a millionaire.

Where’s the nearest goldfinch???

Has anybody read Amy Bloom’s new book? I know that Away was and still is widely read. Today I was reading The New York Times Book Review and I am still curious to read Where the God of Love Hangs Out.

They travel to St. Kitts for winter breaks and to Florence for their 20th wedding anniversaries. They play CDs of Joan Sutherland in their car radios. When crises arise they take to bourbon in the midafternoon and snack on olive tapenade. Rome’s air pollution is a likely subject of conversation over their dinners, which might feature gnocchi in basil cream sauce and radicchio and orange salad, washed down with a St.-Amour Beaujolais. They read The Economist and go to psychiatrists who subscribe to Paris-Match. Readily dropping foreign phrases, they flatter a woman by saying that she looks like a Balthus or that she has a lot of chien.”

Which is to say that most of the characters in Amy Bloom’s fictions are exceedingly cosmopolitan and worldly-wise. In her latest, erotically charged, highly explicit collection of short stories, “Where the God of Love Hangs Out,” they also think and speak in a cheeky if not impudent manner. “You come to my house and I’ll shoot you myself,” a daughter says to her difficult mother. An aging man, recalling the loves of his early youth, describes one as “a big, bushy-haired girl with thighs like Smithfield hams,” another as “an Egyptian ballerina whose kohl ran onto his linen sport coat.” “Your prostate alone’s enough to scare her off,” a fellow advises a friend whose marriage has grown precarious. “You gotta get a guest room just to keep it somewhere.”

This upbeat sassiness of tone is one of the many treasures of Bloom’s new collection, which differs markedly from her previous ones (“Come to Me,” “A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You”). It includes two sets of linked narratives, each consisting of four stories, as well as several free-standing stories . . .

. . . Bloom, who is also a psychotherapist, vividly chronicles the inner lives of people caught in emotional and physical constraints — illnesses they are striving to survive, regrets they are trying to allay, desires they often dare not fulfill. She writes in beautifully wrought prose, with spunky humor and a flair for delectably eccentric details. Her narrative talents include a fine touch with flashbacks, which she handles as suavely as any writer I can think of. Her gift for dialogue is equally terrific. Here is Lionel instructing 15-year-old Buster about the facts of life:

“You want to be the kind of man women beg for sex. . . . Don’t slobber. You’re not a washcloth. You. Are. A. Lover.”

Brava, Ms. Bloom. Send us an equally sly, dashing book very soon, please.

Click here for the full review written by Francine du Plessix Gray, February 7, 2010.

Illustration of Amy Bloom by Tina Berning.