Acharmed,Not Charming,Life
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this C23 Acharmed, not week FanFare Readings and book charming, life signings on Long Island ing career, and, best of all, three Monday LOTS OF CANDLES,PLENTY healthy, happy, grown children Ghita Schwarz discusses OF CAKE,byAnna Quindlen. who get along beautifully VD her debut novel, “Dis- Random House, 182 pp., $26. and enjoy shopping RA placed Persons” (Harper- in their mom’s YCE Collins). Suggested JO BY MARION WINIK jam-packed attic to donation $5. At 7:30 p.m., Special to Newsday furnish their apart- Lido Beach Synagogue, OTO BY ments. PH Lido Boulevard and Fair- or most of her nearly 60 Indeed, there are Is Anna Quindlen’s “Cake” for all tastes? way Road, Lido Beach; years, things have gone lots of candles and 516-432-4271. really well for writer plenty of cake for cancer when little less than stylishly com- FAnna Quindlen. “When I Quindlen. There is Quindlen was in posed, you may be one of the came to The New York Times pride and self-accep- college, and she small group of readers who, Wednesday as areporter in 1978, at age 25, I tance and awry resigna- might have ended like me, can’t quite understand Ann Packer (“The Dive From thought I’d been hired because I tion to the aging process. up with adrinking how Quindlen’s work has won Clausen’s was aces at my job,” she writes There are dear girl- problem, it seems, if such ahuge and loyal audi- Pier”) is in her new nonfiction book, friends, beloved pets and she had not had her last beer ence. To me, the pieces are this week’s “Lots of Candles, Plenty of welcome times of solitude, and several decades ago. But largely often not much more than guest at a Cake.” “It took me afew months there is the family reading of “A she has had the biography her strings of platitudes, lots of Writers to figure out that asmall group Christmas Carol” every Decem- nonfiction titles suggest: “Loud “telling” and little “showing,” Speak of courageous women had sued ber. Maybe there has never been and Clear,” “AShort Guide to a short on good stories, surpris- program. the paper and that the hiring of a aperfect figure, but there is Happy Life,” “Being Perfect.” es, sharp writing and humor. At 7p.m., bumper crop of female report- great vigor and excellent health As she puts it in the first line But for millions of readers, Stony ers and editors ...was the to make up for it —these days, of this collection, “It’s odd Quindlen’s earnest observa- Brook result.” she can even do one-armed when Ithink of the arc of my tions are as comfy as afavorite University That was the beginning of push-ups and aheadstand. life, from child to young nightgown. Her life is as deli- Southampton, Chancellors Quindlen’s charmed life, one What there is not, oddly woman to aging adult. First I ciously enviable as the Pottery Hall, 239 Montauk Hwy., that led to her enormously enough, is any conflict or ten- was who Iwas. Then Ididn’t Barn kitchen in aNancy Mey- Southampton; 631-632-5030, popular Times column, “Life in sion or darkness. That entire know who Iwas. Then Iinvent- ers film. Her positions are stonybrook.edu/mfa the Thirties”; then more than a side of life, somehow, has been ed someone and became her. liberal, feminist and hard to dozen bestselling works of relegated to Quindlen’s fiction, Then Ibegan to like what I’d disagree with. So don’t let me nonfiction, fiction and children’s where domestic abuse, mass invented. And finally Iwas stop you from getting your Friday literature; along, happy mar- murder, abandonment and what Iwas again.” own slice of Quindlen’s signa- Vinny Guadagnino,better riage with homes in the country untimely death abound. True, If that summary strikes you ture recipe. But no more cake known as Vinny Gon“Jersey and the city; arewarding speak- the author’s mother died of as alittle fuzzy, alittle smug, a for me, please. Shore,” signs his new book, “Control the Crazy” Knocking afable out of the park (Crown). At 7p.m., Castle, a21-year-old rookie first later, as he narrates this story, Book CALICO JOE,byJohn Grisham. baseman for the Chicago Cubs. Paul recalls the game at Shea: “I Revue, 313 Doubleday, 198 pp., $24.95. Calico Joe (the nickname comes wanted to stand and scream, New York from his hometown of Calico ‘Look out, Joe!’ but Icouldn’t Ave., BY STEVEN V. ROBERTS Rock, Ark.) bashes home runs in move.” Huntington; 631-271-1442, Washington Post Book World Service his first three at-bats in the The next moment changes bookrevue.com major leagues and is hitting many people’s lives, including ohn Grisham’s legal thrill- above .500 six weeks later, when that of the boy, who is tinctured ers are dense and hefty, the Cubs play the Mets at Shea by guilt over the warning he Saturday Jfull of twists and turns Stadium. never uttered. Years later, Paul Linda Lear,author of “Rachel and tension. His latest Wearing the black hat is becomes determined to arrange Carson: Witness for Nature” novel, “Calico Joe,” is not like Warren Tracey, a34-year-old ameeting between the old (Houghton Mifflin Har- that at all. It’s asweet, simple journeyman pitcher for the antagonists, his despised father court), is guest speaker at an newsday.com story, afable really. And like Mets with areputation for and his boyhood idol, and much event to honor the 50th all fables, it has amoral: Good hitting batters —and the bot- of the story revolves around his anniversary of Carson’s can come out of evil; it’s never tle —with equal determina- effort to make that happen. I “Silent Spring.” Admission is too late to confess your sins tion. His first time up, Calico won’t reveal the outcome, but if $60, includes wine and hors and seek forgiveness. Joe whacks ahomer off you believe in redemption — d’oeuvres. At 4p.m., South NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, APR L 22, 2012 Writers who deal with base- Tracey. When he comes to bat and who doesn’t? —you won’t Fork Natural History ball seem drawn to its mythic again, an 11-year-old boy in the be disappointed. TRUNKARCH VE.COM PHOTO Museum, 377 Bridgehampton dimensions. Maybe it’s the strict stands, Tracey’s son, Paul, has Grisham knows baseball as John Grisham /Sag Harbor Tpke., Bridge- geometry of the playing field asick feeling. well as he knows crime. He hampton, 631-745-0689, that turns players into arche- He’s obsessed with Joe, keep- coached Little League and young athlete who comes home longpondgreenbelt.org types, characters in amorality ing ascrapbook that records all roots for the St. Louis Cardi- to heal. This story is also about play: stars and bums, good guys of his dazzling deeds. And he nals. But “Calico Joe” is not just faith, which is appropriate Lawrence Douglas discusses and bad guys. And so it is with knows his father is about to about baseball, of course. It’s because there’s every reason to his novel “The Vices” (Other “Calico Joe,” astory about two throw at Joe’s head. Paul knows also about relationships — believe God created baseball. Press). At 5p.m., BookHamp- men whose lives are fused by this because Tracey has called between Joe and his brothers; She’s not invoked directly in ton, 41 Main St., East one terrible instant on Aug. 24, his son a “coward” for not chal- between Warren, the father, Grisham’s little book, but as in Hampton; 631-324-4939. 1973. lenging batters with inside and Paul, the son; between a all good myths, She’s behind Compiled by Wearing the white hat is Joe pitches in Little League. Years small town and the wounded the scenes, pulling the strings. Mary Beth Foley.