There's No Place Like Home... for Author Readings

I had no idea that I was part of a wave of cultural hipness, but last year I began hosting book parties and author events at our new house. Lo and behold, Poets and Writers published an article saying that home readings are the future. I invited friends to hear my author friends Mary Sharratt, then Masha Hamilton and Fotokids photographer, educator and organizer Nancy McGirr. There's something so cozy and personal about having a home-based party instead of a bookstore event, with indifferent strangers and the distracting brrring of the cash register in the background. But we have the best of both worlds, because our great neighborhood bookshop, A Great Good Place for Books, sends a personal bookseller to staff a tableful of the gorgeous new books. It's a win-win.

I've decided to do more of these in the future, and maybe to stock up on my own collection of Cost Plus folding chairs, rather than hauling them up the hill from the bookstore every time. First up this fall will be Madeleine Kahn, my ex-professor and current friend and walking buddy. She has written a book with a provocative, eyebrow-raising title, Why Are We Reading Ovid's Handbook On Rape?: Teaching and Learning at a Women's College.

Why Are We Reading Ovid’s Handbook on Rape? raises feminist issues in a way that reminds people why they matter. We eavesdrop on the vivid student characters in their hilarious, frustrating, and thought-provoking efforts to create strong and flexible selves against the background of representations of women in contemporary and classical Western literature. Young women working together in a group make surprising choices about what to learn, and how to go about learning it. Along the way they pose some provocative questions about how well traditional education serves women. Equally engaging is Kahn's own journey as she confronts questions that are fundamental to women, to teachers, to students and to parents: Why do we read? What can we teach? and What does gender have to do with it?

Mark your calendars for November 19th (dessert, coffee, and lively conversation!) and the kickoff to this year's home reading series. I'm throwing around different name possibilities for the series. People have suggested Home Page (cute!), and the Shepherd Canyon Authors' Series. Any other ideas?