Talking Pictures by Ann Hornaday

TALKING PICTURES by Ann Hornaday, the film critic for The Washington Post, is a new book that I am excited to share with our Lit and Film teachers and their students. Subtitled “How to Watch Movies” and based on her earlier series of articles, Hornaday says she structured this non-fiction work roughly according to a film’s production, with chapters on The Screenplay, Acting, Editing, Directing and more.  Hornaday offers multiple examples throughout and she argues that “all films have an essential grammar in common: a lexicon of visual, aural, and performance conventions that link them to each other, or, when those conventions are cleverly subverted, constitute an invigorating break.” I particularly appreciated her efforts to reach out to the reader, increasingly perhaps an informal reviewer on social media, and to include some leading questions that “viewers can ask themselves after they’ve seen a movie to ascertain whether it succeeded in particular craft areas.”  For example, she suggests reflecting on: Were the people in the movie complex, unpredictable, believable? Did I care about them? Did they change or stay the same? TALKING PICTURES will be an extremely valuable resource for our students and a copy is available in the library now.

The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller

THE LATE BLOOMERS' CLUB by Louise Miller is a light, gentle read and focuses on two adult sisters, Nora and Kit, who grew up in a small town called Guthrie in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. As background, the sisters lost their mother to cancer when they were just 13 and 5 years old so Nora had to shoulder much of the responsibility of raising Kit and helping her Dad run the family diner. Now 42 and recently divorced from a high school sweetheart, Nora still lives in town and runs the family diner, but she feels a bit trapped by both the town’s and her younger sister’s expectations.  Kit is much more of a free spirit and makes a surprising visit home with her latest romantic interest, Max, who also works on her current creative project to be a filmmaker and director.  Both sisters face financial difficulties which they may be able to solve due to an unexpected inheritance of property from Peggy Johnson, the local “cake lady.” Yes, there is an attractive developer who wants to buy the land and build a big box store.  And, of course, some of the small town residents welcome the progress while others (including Nora) worry about its impact on a quaint and comforting way of life.

The sisters’ relationship ebbs and flows in this story as they both struggle to balance their needs for a creative outlet with economic reality. Hidden talents from cake bakers, artists, and an orchardist appear which reinforce the novel’s multiple messages about how little we sometimes know those close to us and about the importance of living in the moment and following one’s passion. Miller does an excellent job of evoking warmth through a sense of community and place in THE LATE BLOOMERS' CLUB with passages like this one: “Bring your family on a hayride through the sugar bush between the McCracken farm and the Sugar Maple Inn. Hop on at either location. Pumpkin cookies and sweet rolls, along with hot cider, tea and coffee will be served at the inn. Pick your own pumpkin at the McCracken farm. Saturdays and Sundays, 10-3, until the leaves have passed.” Guthrie sounds like a wonderful, welcoming place, doesn’t it?   

Song of a Captive Bird by Jasmin Darznik

SONG OF A CAPTIVE BIRD by Jasmin Darznik received starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. This debut novel definitely deserves attention and it will entertain, shock, and inform readers about the history of Iran and about the life of controversial poet Forugh Farrokhzad. Darznik herself was born in Tehran and uses Farrokhzad’s writings, films and interviews to illustrate her feminist spirit in this fictionalized account.  Farrokhzad’s loneliness and rebellious nature in the face of an oppressive society are evident throughout the book:  “‘Besooz o bezaaz’ went the timeworn injunction to brides.  Burn inwardly and accommodate.  If I told anyone my troubles, I would have been met with exactly this phrase.” Ultimately, Farrokhzad’s story is both sad and hopeful:

A day will come when your eyes

will smart at this painful song.

You’ll search for me in my words

And tell yourself: my mother,

That’s who she was.

                -from “A Poem for You”

     (Dedicated to my son, Kamyar, with hopes for the future)

Although Farrokhzad died young (just 32) in a car accident in 1967, her writing lives on and was banned in Iran for at least 10 years after the 1979 Revolution. SONG OF A CAPTIVE BIRD could be a very interesting book group title (publisher’s reading guide), especially given its feminist theme and many connections to other cultures and works like the poetry of Sylvia Plath and the current day Landays of Afghanistan.