Robert Gray News

When Simon and Garfunkel were considering old friends sitting on their park bench like bookends in 1968, I was 18 and devouring Graham Greene's The Quiet American for the first of many times.

If I were still a bookseller, I'd happily place the six books on my 'reading now' shelf in your hands and say, 'You've got to read these!' All are from relatively small publishers, adding to that intoxicating sense of discovery we know so well as readers:

Which came first--the novel or its genre? Bookstores generally have sections labeled mystery, science fiction, romance and fiction. Any number of theories and controversies exist regarding what gets shelved where. I was a bookseller and had many such 'discussions.'

Like many people, I was both 'appalled and wryly amused' by Amazon's recent misunderstanding, misquote and mis-invocation of George Orwell in its ongoing battle with Hachette. While it may just be coincidence that Orwell was name-dropped in the middle of a confrontation between an online retail giant and a publisher, it is also appropriate, given that he often wrote about his relationship to books and the book business.

More summer reading memories (see part one andtwo) from our staff: we'll begin with contributing editor Robert Gray, and J.L. Carr's A Month in the Country: 'A smart, sweet and bittersweet novel. 'Summertime! And summertime in my early twenties! And in love!' Tom Birkin--who is not an exclaimer by nature--exclaims. 'No, better than that--secretly in love, coddling it up in myself. It's an odd feeling, coming rarely more than once in most of our lifetimes. In books, as often as not, they represent it as a sort of anguish but it wasn't so for me. Later, perhaps, but not then.' '

Wes Anderson has made no secret regarding author Stefan Zweig's influence on his film The Grand Budapest Hotel, noting The World of Yesterday could have been the film's working titleand that 'elements... were sort of stolen' from bothBeware of Pity and The Post-Office Girl. Since I love the movie, reading more Zweig seems to be the logical next step.

'It's cold here,' John Berryman wrote in one of hisDream Songs. 'The cold is ultimating. The cold is cold.' As our winter of frigid discontent winds down, I'm pulling spring toward me like a quilt by starting Poetry Month early.

Today, December 7 marks the cultural high point of Rhode Island's holiday season, when the RHODE ISLAND PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA joins forces with THE PROVIDENCE SINGERS, CHRISTINE NOEL, artistic director, in their seventh annual performance of George Frideric Handel's MESSIAH. Soloists include soprano MARTHA GUTH, mezzo-soprano ABIGAIL FISCHER, tenor CHRISTOPHER HUTCHINSON, and bass-baritone MATTHEW BURNS . The Philharmonic's Resident Conductor FRANCISCO NOYAconducts. The perennial favorite holiday concert features a family-friendly start time of 7:00pm today December 7 at The Vets in Providence. WPRO News Talk 630 is the media sponsor. Tickets (starting at $15) are available at www.riphil.org/tickets and the RIPO box office at 401.248.7000.

Certain moments are so deeply ingrained in our memories we can forget they are not just personal; they belong to history. If you're old enough to remember the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, you probably know where you were on November 22, 1963.

Read more short stories. There, I said it. In our 24/7 plugged-in world, you might think short stories would be more popular than ever, but I'm not so sure they are. Will Alice Munro's well-deserved Nobel Prize change all that? I hope so. I'm no evangelist. Just a reader of stories.

Photos from the Twenty8Twelve Spring/Summer catwalk show at Fashion Week in London on September 18, 2010.

Portland Actors Conservatory has announced this year's instructors, program offerings and scholarships for its Summer on Stage programs. A new series of weeklong intensives for upper level acting students will be taught by Michelle Kopper Seymour of Vanport Square Studio in addition to the traditional camps taught by Andrea White and Melissa Whitney.

TNT and TBS today unveiled a broad array of plans for new programming, including several comedy projects that are being considered for TBS and a host of projects in development for TNT. The two cable giants staged a joint Upfront presentation in New York, with appearances by a legion of stars, including TBS's Conan O'Brien, George Lopez and Ice Cube; and TNT's Kyra Sedgwick, Ray Romano, Andre Braugher, Scott Bakula, Jada Pinkett Smith, Dylan McDermott, Timothy Hutton, Noah Wyle, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Ben McKenzie, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Breckin Meyer and Angie Harmon.

Portland Actors Conservatory has announced this year's instructors, program offerings and scholarships for its Summer on Stage programs. A new series of weeklong intensives for upper level acting students will be taught by Michelle Kopper Seymour of Vanport Square Studio in addition to the traditional camps taught by Andrea White and Melissa Whitney.