One Island One Book

Ever been curious about Big Read type programs, where a whole community reads the same book then gathers for discussions, etc.? We're giving it a try at the Key West Library in a program called One Island One Book -- and our choice for this inaugural year is "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway. It's not considered one of Hemingway's best works -- but it was written here, it's set here and it takes place in the 1930s, a time that has special resonance for us in these uncertain economic times. The events take place during the first two weeks of March -- you can pick up a schedule at the Key West Library, check out our blog or join the One Island One Book group on Facebook. There will be movie screenings (including the film of the same name starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall), documentaries about Hemingway and the Federal Writers Project and talks about the book and the WPA in Key West. The grand finale will be Sunday, March 14, at 2 p.m. when the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum is dedicated as a Literary Landmark. Writer Les Standiford will speak. Please join us for any and all events.

Lucky eight times

[gallery] These are images of six of the eight works of art that will be won by entrants in the Lucky Street Gallery's Lucky Eight Raffle to benefit Partners In Health -- the artists are Rebecca Bennett, Deb Goldman, Roberta Marks, John Martini, Carol Munder, AD Tinkham and Rick Worth. Tickets cost $10 and can be found at Lucky Street Gallery or with a bunch of folks including me (Nan). If you are having trouble finding them, email me at nklingener (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll find you. Thanks everyone and hope to see you Sunday -- 6 p.m. at The Studios of Key West, where we'll hear from Madison Smartt Bell and have the chance to bid on a lot more art and some great signed books.

Helping Haiti

This post has nothing to do with books or libraries or the Red Sox or any of my usual obsessions. This post is merely my personal appeal, on the chance anyone stumbles across this blog while looking for something else. If you want to help Haiti, please consider sending money to Partners in Health. You can find them, and their special earthquake relief effort, at Stand With Haiti. Partners in Health has been working on the ground in Haiti for 20 years -- and is, in effect, a Haitian organization. You can be sure your money will go directly to Haiti and will do good. I know many people who are collecting goods with the best of intentions and I pray that those goods reach people who need them in a timely manner. But I think it is faster and more effective to support those who already work in this country and who have a proven track record of making a real difference. I can't imagine how they can contend with the current situation. But I want to support them any way I can, which at the moment is with money. I lied: There is a book angle to this. If you are interested in learning more about Partners in Health, check out Tracy Kidder's excellent book about Paul Farmer, Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Kidder today wrote a blog post on the Stand With Haiti site. Here's an excerpt:

Many people have been writing to ask what they can do. Paul reports, “I just talked to some of my Haitian coworkers who are in Port-au-Prince in the general hospital, and they’ve reported to work. [But] they don't have electricity yet. They don't have the supplies that they need. But there's a lot of Haitian health professionals, doctors, nurses, aides who would like to [do their job], but to do that you need the supplies. You have to have the basics. Gauze, plaster, or other casts. You have to have the equipment that you need. Anesthesia, pain medications, antibiotics. And that's what some of my medical colleagues are asking us for, supplies."

PIH is purchasing and procuring donated supplies around the clock. To aid in these efforts, please consider making a donation to their efforts today.

- Tracy Kidder

What he said. Thanks for reading this.

Nan

A test

This is mostly a test of posting from my iPhone.

Red Sox Quote of the Day, 2009 vol. 3 (near-annual heartbreak edition)

We'll close out the year with this thought from the late Bart Giamatti, courtesy of my Collegian pal-turned-Facebook friend Pat Johnson: It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

"The Green Fields of the Mind"

from "A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti, et. al

This thought is not entirely applicable if you happen to live in the subtropics, where as I was listening to the Red Sox season coming to its heartbreaking end it was in the low 90s and sunny as all hell. But it captures the mood.

Oct. 12: OK this really is the last Sox quote of the year but I just had to add this line from today's Globe, from the great Dan Shaughnessy:

All you young New Englanders who shrugged whenever dad said, “The Sox will blow it, they always choke at the end,’’ . . . now you know.