Literary Boston in 1860

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Bookworm
Brenda Wineapple, the author of White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, will discuss On the Brink of War – Literary Boston in 1860 on Apr. 11 at 7 p.m. in Devlin 101. White Heat was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, a winner of the Washington Arts Club National Award for arts writing, and a New York Times “Notable Book.” Wineapple is also the author of Genêt: A Biography of Janet Flanner; Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein; and Hawthorne: A Life, which received the Ambassador Award of the English-speaking Union for the Best Biography of 2003 and the Julia Ward Howe Prize from the Boston Book Club. This event is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series in conjunction with the Forgotten Chapters project.
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A book review by Kearney

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Bookworm
Author and Boston College Seeling Professor of Philosophy Richard Kearney has published a review in the Irish Times of Thinking the Twentieth Century by Tony Judt. He writes: “It is a book of conversations. Conducted during the final months of [Judt’s] life with a brilliant young historian, Timothy Snyder (author of the acclaimed Bloodlands), Judt’s valedictory verdicts on the last century are apt and arresting. The dialogue format makes for a compelling read, and the sense that time is running out brings sharp focus to what is being said. No time for beating around bushes or hedging bets. This is history straight up.”
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Too big to fail

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Bookworm
Award-winning business journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, author of the bestseller Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves, will give an address at 4 p.m. on Apr. 3 in Robsham Theater. Sorkin is a New York Times’ columnist and co-anchor of CNC’s “Squawk Box.” He is the founder and editor of DealBook, an online daily financial report and is a frequent media  commentator. Sponsored by: Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics.
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The Tiger’s Wife

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Bookworm
Téa Obreht, author of the award-winning bestseller The Tiger’s Wife, will speak on Mar. 28 at 7 p.m. in Devlin 101. The Tiger’s Wife, Obreht’s first novel, was a 2011 National Book Award finalist and winner of the 2011 Orange Prize for fiction. Obreht was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia, and spent her childhood in Cyprus and Egypt. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1997, and she attended the University of Southern California and received her M.F.A. from Cornell. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series.
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Rural Ireland

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Bookworm
Claudia Kinmonth, whose book Irish Rural Interiors in Art, was the inspiration of the current exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art, will discuss how contrary to earlier assumptions, artists working in Ireland turned to the lives of the country’s rural poor for subject matter. Her talk is on Mar. 21 at 7 p.m. in Devin 101. Sponsors: Lowell Humanities Series and McMullen Museum of Art.
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Book review from historian Tom O’Connor

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Bookworm
Author and University Historian Thomas H. O’Connor, often described as “the dean of Boston historians,” offers a review of a new book on Boston political history by Gerard O’Neill, a retired veteran political and investigative journalist. O’Connor calls O’Neill’s Rogues and Redeemers: When Politics was King in Irish Boston, “a lively and highly readable study of the political figures who shaped and then reshaped the city in the 20th century.” He goes on to write: “For older readers, Rogues and Redeemers will bring back memories of colorful personalities and exciting events during the city’s long and checkered history. For younger readers, particularly those new to the Boston scene, O’Neill’s exciting prose cannot help but arouse their interest in political figures and dramatic episodes of which they have but a vague understanding.” Read the full review in the Boston Globe.
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Memoir of an orphan boy

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Bookworm
Boston College will host a book signing and reading by alumnus Steve Pemberton ’89, whose memoir, A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home, tells the story of how a mixed-race, mistreated orphan living in foster care sought and found identity, family, and success. The book event is Mar. 15 at 6:30 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. Sponsored by Boston College Magazine with various co-sponsors. Steve’s book was highlighted by Bookmarks in September.
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Hip Hop’s hold on young black women

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Bookworm
A professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and French at Vanderbilt University, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting will deliver a lecture related to her award-winning book Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women on Mar. 15 at 7: 30 p.m. in McGuinn 121. According to the publisher, Sharpley-Whiting, a feminist writer and a member of the hip hop generation, examines the complexities of young black women’s engagement with a culture that is masculinist, misogynistic, and frequently mystifying. Sponsor: Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
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Inaugural Pope John Paul II lecture

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Bookworm
Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, a leading figure in Christian-Jewish dialogue worldwide, will present “Pope John Paul II on Christian-Jewish Relations: His Legacy, Our Challenges” on Mar. 1 at 5 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. Fr. Pawlikowski is a Servite priest and professor of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at the CTU’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Center. He is the author of more than 15 books, including The Challenge of the Holocaust for Christian Theology, Christ in the Light of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue, Jesus and the Theology of Israel, Reinterpreting Revelation and Tradition: Jews and Christians in Conversation, Good and Evil after Auschwitz, and Ethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust. Sponsor: Center for Christian-Jewish Learning.
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‘Rock star’ poet Billy Collins

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Bookworm
Called “the most popular poet in America” by the New York Times, Billy Collins has published eight collections of poetry, including his most recent, Horoscopes for the Dead. His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The American Scholar. He served as U.S. Poet Laureate for 2001-2003.  He is a winner of the Mark Twain Award from Poetry Foundation, which recognizes a poet’s contributions to humor in American poetry, among many other awards. He will speak at Gasson Hall, room 100 at 7 p.m. on Mar.1. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series.
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