FanFare newsday.com NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, APR L 22, 2012 C23 . Jersey cusses “ “Rachel etter dis “Dis- Gon Compiled by .m., South discusses At 7:30 p.m., The Dive From 4p .m., BookHamp- “ Mary Beth Foley uthor of ( At 5p ,a ek “The Vices” (Other At .m., .m., dnesday 7p 7p iday

Readings and book signings on Long Island Monday Ghita Schwarz her debut novel, placed Persons” (Harper- Collins). Suggested donation $5. Lido Beach Synagogue, Lido Boulevard and Fair- way Road, Lido Beach; 516-432-4271. We Ann Packer Clausen’s Pier”) is this week’s guest at a Writers Speak program. At Stony Brook University Southampton, Chancellors Hall, 239 Montauk Hwy., Southampton; 631-632-5030, stonybrook.edu/mfa Fr Vinny Guadagnino,b known as Vinny Shore,” signs his new book, “Control the Crazy” (Crown). At Book Revue, 313 New York Ave., Huntington; 631-271-1442, bookrevue.com Saturday Linda Lear Carson: Witness for Nature” (Houghton Mifflin Har- court), is guest speaker at an event to honor the 50th anniversary of Carson’s “Silent Spring.” Admission is $60, includes wine and hors d’oeuvres. Fork Natural History Museum, 377 Bridgehampton /Sag Harbor Tpke., Bridge- hampton, 631-745-0689, longpondgreenbelt.org Lawrence Douglas his novel Press). ton, 41 Main St.,Hampton; East 631-324-4939 this we

RNAC ECMPHOTO VE.COM TRUNKARCH D V RA YCE JO BY OTO PH avorite af ancy Mey- “showing,” aN uge and loyal audi- ah But for millions of readers, young athlete who comes home to heal. This story isfaith, also which about is appropriate because there’s every reason to believe God created . She’s not invoked directly in Grisham’s little book, but asall in good myths, She’s behind the scenes, pulling the strings. little less than stylishlyposed, com- you may besmall one group of of the readerslike who, me, can’t quitehow understand Quindlen’s work hassuch won ence. To me, theoften pieces not are much morestrings than of platitudes, lots“telling” of and little ers film. Her positionsliberal, are feminist and harddisagree to with. So don’tstop let you me from gettingown your slice of Quindlen’sture signa- recipe. But nofor more me, cake please. short on good stories,es, surpris- sharp writing and humor. Quindlen’s earnest observa- tions are as comfynightgown. as Her life isciously as enviable deli- as theBarn Pottery kitchen in “Cake” for all tastes? “I nvent- as idn’t “Loud rinking Ii Id Iw ou won’t ouldn’t ad ittle smug, a Ic “It’s odd —y al hort Guide to a as. Then up with as. Then “Being Perfect.” might have ended college, and she Quindlen was in “AS cancer when problem, it seems, if Iw Is Anna Quindlen’s Iw “Calico Joe” is not just as again.” egan to like what I’d hink of the arc of my It Ib Iw ittle fuzzy, isham knows baseball as eeting between the old al The next moment changes Gr As she puts it in the first line If that summary strikes you she had not had her last beer later, as he narrates this story, Paul recalls the game at Shea: wanted to stand and scream, ‘Look out, Joe!’ but move.” many people’s lives, including that of the boy, who isby tinctured guilt over the warning he never uttered. Years later, Paul becomes determined to arrange am antagonists, his despised father and his boyhood idol, and much of the story revolves around his effort to make that happen. I won’t reveal the outcome, but if you believe in redemption — and who doesn’t? be disappointed. well as he knows crime.coached He Little League and roots for the St. Louisnals. Cardi- But about baseball, of course. It’s also about relationships — between Joe and his brothers; between Warren, the father, and Paul, the son; betweensmall a town and the wounded life, from child towoman young to aging adult.was First who I know who ed someone and becameThen her. invented. And finally several decades ago. But largely she has had the biography her nonfiction titles suggest: and Clear,” Happy Life,” of this collection, when what as “A hese days, 4-year-old nd the bot- a3 —t eadstand. omer off —a ah eputation for ry resigna- ah ar aw 1-year-old rookie first “coward” for not chal- ith equal determina- a2 crapbook that records all able out of the park as —w erfect figure, but there is ick feeling. He’s obsessed with Joe, keep- Wearing the black hat is Indeed, there are What there is not, oddly journeyman pitcher for the Mets with hitting batters tle tion. His first timeJoe up, whacks Calico Tracey. When he comesagain, to an bat 11-year-old boystands, in Tracey’s the son, Paul,as has ing of his dazzling deeds. And he knows his father is about to throw at Joe’s head. Paul knows this because Tracey has called his son a lenging batters with inside pitches in Little League. Years Castle, baseman for the . Calico Joe (the nickname comes from his hometown of Calico Rock, Ark.) bashes home runs in his first three at-bats in the major leagues and is hitting above .500 six weeks later, when the Cubs play the Mets atStadium. Shea Warren Tracey, ing career, and, best of all,healthy, three happy, grown children who get along beautifully and enjoy shopping in their mom’s jam-packed attic to furnish their apart- ments. lots of candles and plenty of cake for Quindlen. There is pride and self-accep- tance and tion to the aging process. There are dear girl- friends, beloved pets and welcome times of solitude, and there is the family reading of Christmas Carol” every Decem- ber. Maybe there has never been ap great vigor and excellent health to make up for it she can even do one-armed push-ups and enough, is any conflict or ten- sion or darkness. That entire side of life, somehow, has been relegated to Quindlen’s fiction, where domestic abuse, mass murder, abandonment and untimely death abound. True, the author’s mother died of af

“Life in orality

LENTY “When I as the ew months oral: Good ,P am mall group af .w ohn Grisham. weet, simple as am nna Quindlen. yJ tory about two .. ewarding speak-

as harmed, not ,b as yA ar ong, happy mar- al able really. And like “It took me “Calico Joe,” is not like af

or most of her nearly 60 years, things have gone really well for writer Anna Quindlen.

eporter in 1978, at age 25, I ohn Grisham’s legal thrill- ers are dense andfull hefty, of twists andand turns tension. His latest

ar Wearing the white hat is Joe Writers who deal with base- That was the beginning of Doubleday, 198 pp., $24.95. CALICO JOE LOTS OF CANDLES OF CAKE,b Random House, 182 pp., $26. men whose lives are fused by one terrible instant on Aug. 24, 1973. play: stars and bums, good guys and bad guys. And so it“Calico Joe,” is with ball seem drawn to its mythic dimensions. Maybe it’s the strict geometry of the playing field that turns players into arche- types, characters in can come out oftoo evil; late it’s to never confessand your seek sins forgiveness. novel, that at all. It’s BY STEVEN V. ROBERTS Washington Post Book World Service story, all fables, it has Knocking charming, life BY MARION WINIK Special to Newsday came to as thought I’d been hired because I was aces at my job,” shein her writes new nonfiction book, “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake.” Ac to figure out that of courageous women had sued the paper and that the hiringbumper of crop a of female report- ers and editors Quindlen’s charmed life, one that led to her enormously popular Times column, result.” the Thirties”; then more than a dozen bestselling works of nonfiction, fiction and children’s literature; riage with homes in the country and the city;

J F