Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Author Visit with Emily Sweeney

 by Laura Sullivan

Last Wednesday, Westwinds and the Duxbury Free Library had the pleasure of hosting Emily Sweeney to talk about her new book, Boston Organized Crime. While showing photographs unearthed from years of research in the many police departments in and around Boston, Emily interspersed tales of Boston's mob scene from years gone by. She had a very engaged and informed audience who asked many discussion provoking questions, and who, on occasion, had information about, or a connection to some of the most infamous characters in Boston's past. There was talk of crime, arrests, murder, cases solved, and of cases never solved. Boston mob crime is a subject that will always interest us because if its secretive nature and gritty glamor. Emily is an engaging young reporter, as interested in listening to her audience and making connections with them, as she is talking to them. She is currently working on a book about prohibition in Boston. Read more of Emily's work in the Globe South section of the Boston Globe, and if you have any tips, call her!

Next up for Westwinds Bookshop is a visit from the author Amor Towles, author of Rules of Civility on October 4th at 7pm at the Duxbury Free Library. Tickets are going fast- get yours at Westwinds today.



Friday, September 7, 2012

Author visit with Taylor Polites

Brooke McDonough, Taylor Polites and Carol Jankowski
by Laura Sullivan

Last night, we had the treat of spending the evening with the delightful Taylor Polites (pronounced like "politest", without the t on the end) author of The Rebel Wife. His visit was a part of Westwinds' and the Duxbury Free Library's very popular series, Book Breeze, which was favorably featured in The Boston Globe yesterday.

You can tell not by his accent, but by Taylor's charming manner that he grew up in the South, in Huntsville Alabama, near where his story takes place. As a child, Taylor was fascinated by the tales of the Civil War, and of the South's reconstruction efforts in the late 19th century. He worked in a southern mansion in Huntsville as a tour guide as a teenager, and it was then that his story began to take shape. In college he studied the Reconstruction Era, and is still as fascinated by the subject as when he first began learning about it. His passion for this time in our nation's history and it's complicated characters are evident as he speaks. He clearly so enjoys passing on his knowledge and creating characters that bring Alabama in 1875 to life. I haven't read the book yet, but after Taylor's reading and our subsequent discussion, I can't wait to see what happens to Augusta (the title character) next.

Thanks for a very enjoyable evening, and not giving away any spoilers, Taylor!



Read The Rebel Wife, available at Westwinds.

Come to Westwinds' next Book Breeze event with Emily Sweeney at The Duxbury Free Library on September 19th.



Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Girls Book Club on a Field Trip!


Maggie, Caroline, Tess, Aby, Anna, Courtney, Kathryn and Shea       
by Laura Sullivan

If you remember, our new ninth graders had just graduated middle school, and we embarked upon Little Women, by none other than Louisa May Alcott for the girls' ninth grade Summer read. After reading the book, we had a great time at a big screen movie night at Westwinds, with pizza and lots of candy. (I love that movie so much- it's the one with Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder.) Lydia joined us for the evening, too. No need to be a teenager to enjoy that movie- it's timeless.

After seeing the movie and reading Little Women, we went out to Concord, MA to the Alcott house for the full Louisa May experience. We has a wonderful engaging tour guide who took us through the Alcott house for an hour. We all felt very immersed and connected to the book, and to the March girls. We saw Beth's piano, Amy's (May's) paintings, and Jo's (Louisa's) desk. It made me want to go back in time... but we went to lunch instead, at the Colonial Inn. Very historical, just fancy enough, and great food. It was a great end to our day.

So now, our little women are young ladies, and are off to high school. We will begin to read books for the older crowd, with more mature themes. We're going to start off with another book that is going to be made into a movie- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. I haven't read it myself yet- we'll let you know how it goes, and how we like the movie. (With Emma Watson- I bet it's good.)

 If anyone has some good high school recommendations for our girls, send them our way!
Lunch at The Colonial Inn