Archive for March, 2010
PREORDER Final Book of Hunger Games!
Posted in Books, News with tags Hunger Games, Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins on 30 March, 2010 by S&Co.406 spring offerings …
Posted in News on 29 March, 2010 by S&Co.Spring classes offered by the 406 Writers’ Workshop:
| Course | Instructor | Dates |
| Poetry Writing | Chris Dombrowski | Tuesdays 7-9:15pm, starts April 27 |
| Nonfiction Writing | Bryan DiSalvatore | Mondays 7-9:15pm, starts May 3 |
| Short-Fiction Writing | Brian Buckbee | Tuesdays 7-9:15pm, starts May 18 |
| Nonfiction Writing | Andy Smetanka | Tuesdays 7-9:15pm, starts May 25 |
| Short-Fiction Writing: Imitations | Elizabeth Urschel | Wednesdays 7-9:15pm, starts May 26 |
| Outdoor/Travel Writing | Jeff Hull | Tuesdays 7-9:15pm, starts June 8 |
The Renegade Sportsman, by Zach Dundas, part 3
Posted in Books, Events with tags The Renegade Sportsman, Zach Dundas on 25 March, 2010 by S&Co.Continuing a series of videos about some of the “underground” sports covered in Missoula native Zach Dundas’s forthcoming book, The Renegade Sportsman: Drunken Runners, Bike Polo Superstars, Roller Derby Rebels, Killer Birds and Other Uncommon Thrills on the Wild Frontier of Sports (Riverhead). Zach reads here June 15th.
Recommended: Next, by James Hynes
Posted in Books, Excerpts with tags James Hynes, Next on 23 March, 2010 by S&Co.
I very much enjoyed James Hynes’s new novel Next, partly because the narrative voice reminded me of John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom novels. This is sometimes a good thing, not always, but in this case of this novel, yes, it is: [p. 211] Stella’s idea of high culture is one of those gaudy, fascistic shows in which some formerly charming folk genre — Irish step-dancing or Japanese drummers or Chinese acrobats — is blown all out of proportion into the sort of spectacle that would have fit right in at the Nuremburg rallies. Or a show that takes something vaguely “street” or mildly avant-garde — hip-hop dancers banging trash-can lids, men painted blue whacking each other with plastic tubing — and turns it into a Vegas spectacle. Don’t even get him started about Cirque du Soleil. She dragged him all the way to Chicago on his fiftieth birthday — and, to be fair, paid for the whole trip — to surprise him with a bewildering, assaultive show full of faux mysticism and pointless virtuosity. When she asked him if didn’t just love it, he stifled his gut response: that this was what entertainment would have been like if the Soviet Union had won the Cold War, fantastically fit but facelessly interchangeable performers in revealing outfits doing spectacular but meaningless stunts for a mindlessly bedazzled audience. Even the show’s title wasn’t really a word, he was convinced — vaguely Italian- or French-sounding, but signifying nothing, in the manner of some expensively concocted corporate brand name.
“It was great” is what he actually said …
In stock.
The Renegade Sportsman, by Zach Dundas, part 2
Posted in Books, Events with tags The Renegade Sportsman, Zach Dundas on 16 March, 2010 by S&Co.
Continuing a series of videos about some of the “underground” sports covered in Missoula native Zach Dundas‘s forthcoming book, The Renegade Sportsman: Drunken Runners, Biko Polo Superstars, Roller Derby Rebels, Killer Birds and Other Uncommon Thrills on the Wild Frontier of Sports (Riverhead). Zach reads here June 15th.
Too Much Happiness
Posted in Books, Excerpts with tags Alice Munro, Short Stories on 14 March, 2010 by JennaThis one’s been out a few months now, but it still amazes me how perfectly crafted the stories are. Each unfolds with precision and a rich sense of history, leading often to surprising—yet earned—conclusions. Munro’s best yet. 
[p. 76-77] I had thought that Mr. Purvis must live in one of the stodgy mansions surrounded by acres of lawns and unfarmed fields north of the city. It was probably the racehorses that had made me think so. Instead, we travelled east through prosperous but not lordly streets, past brick and mock-Tudor houses with their lights on in the early dark and their Christmas lights blinking already out of the snow-capped shrubbery. We turned in at a narrow driveway between high hedges and parked in front of a house that I recognized as modern because of its flat roof and long wall of windows and the fact that the building material appeared to be cement. No Christmas lights here, no lights of any kind.
No sign of Mr. Purvis either. The car slid into a basement cavern, we rode in an elevator up one floor and came out in a hall dimly lit and furnished like a living room with upholstered hard chairs and little polished tables, and mirrors and rugs. Mrs. Winner waved me ahead of her through one of the doors that opened off this hall, into a windowless room with a bench and hooks around the walls. It was just like a school cloakroom except for the polish on the wood and carpet on the floor.
“Here is where you leave your clothes,” Mrs. Winner said.
I removed my boots, I stuffed my mittens into my coat pockets, I hung my coat up. Mrs. Winner stayed with me. I supposed she had to, to show me which way to take next. There was a comb in my pocket and I wanted to fix my hair, but not with her watching. And I did not see a mirror.
“Now the rest.”
She looked straight at me to see if I understood, and when I appeared not to (though in a sense I did, I understood but hoped to have made a mistake) she said, “Don’t worry, you won’t be cold. The house is well heated throughout.”
I did not yet move to obey, and she spoke to me casually, as if she could not be bothered with contempt.
“I hope you’re not a baby.”
—Too Much Happiness: Stories, by Alice Munro (Knopf, $25.95)
Event added: Jill Beauchesne
Posted in Events, News with tags Jill Beauchesne on 12 March, 2010 by S&Co.
Jill Beauchesne reads poetry from her manuscript, ‘The Aquamarine Experience,’ at 7 PM on Wednesday, March 24. Jill’s poems use metaphor and lyric to explore the intersection of the seen and unseen, the known and unknown, the human and the animal, the natural and the unnatural, the conscious and the unconscious. She is interested in non-rational spaces and intuitive decision-making, but believes firmly in keeping poetry accessible to the audience. Contact: jillyjmb@hotmail.com. Visit www.jillbeauchesne.com for poetry and info.
The Renegade Sportsman, by Zach Dundas, Coming this June (part 1)
Posted in Books, Events with tags Hash House Harriers, Renegade Sportsman, Zach Dundas on 11 March, 2010 by S&Co.Beginning today, a series of videos about some of the “underground” sports covered in Missoula native Zach Dundas‘s forthcoming book, The Renegade Sportsman: Drunken Runners, Biko Polo Superstars, Roller Derby Rebels, Killer Birds and Other Uncommon Thrills on the Wild Frontier of Sports (Riverhead). Zach reads here June 15th.
