Monday, August 29, 2016

Review: The Couple Next Door

The Couple Next Door The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Secrets, secrets and more secrets. This book is full of them -- and twists. They all make for a book I could not put down.

Anne and Marco Conti are at a dinner party when their 6-month-old daughter Cora is kidnapped. About halfway through the book we find out who was involved in the kidnapping and why but, it also gets juicier as the culprit tries to keep the secret even though this person has a feeling people know.

The police are treating Anne and Marco as suspects and, as they are questioned numerous times, secret upon secret is revealed.

I'm not going to say any more about the story because I really don't want to spoil it. But, I will say ... This is a debut?!? Holy smokes, Shari Lapena, I wish you'd started writing sooner. Keep it up. I'm looking forward to the next one.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The Widower's Wife by Cate Holahan
Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst


These are two very different -- but very satisfying books.

You can listen to my interviews with both authors HERE.

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Review: Luckiest Girl Alive

Luckiest Girl Alive Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book after I asked a book club full of fantastic members what they were reading. It didn't take me long to see why it's a great book club read. There are so many issues to discuss -- rape, date rape, consent, bullying, peer pressure, teacher/student relationships, friendship, and so much more.

The story is told from Ani's point of view and we learn very early on that something awful happened to her when she was 14 years old and going to a small private school near Philadelphia. Now 28 and a successful magazine editor, she's been asked to participate in a documentary about an incident at the school. We're led to believe -- or, at least I was -- it's about the incident involving Ani that we already know about. Turns out that it's not and the incident it is about is simply horrific and that -- not the first incident -- has had more of an effect on Ani's life.

One thing about her adult life is that she's engaged to a guy from -- as her mother would say -- a hoity toity family. But she's questioning whether he really is everything she ever wanted. She comes to what I believe is the perfect decision for the perfect reason.

I highly recommend this book, whether you belong to a book club or not.

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Monday, August 22, 2016

Review: Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Psychological thrillers are my favorite kind of book and -- WOW! -- this one really did it for me. I do have to wonder, though, how the author came up with such a sick, twisted villain. Jack Angel is right up there with the worst of the worst of all time.

One of the things that makes him so bad -- and I'm not giving anything away but outing him as the bad guy. I got a Sleeping With the Enemy vibe very early on. -- is that he's so charming. George Clooney-esque, even. (You'll get it when you read it.)

It's hard to write much about the plot without giving a lot away, but I will say I hope everyone loves Millie -- Jack's sister-in-law with Downs Syndrome -- as much as I do. And, I hope the books gives everyone a lot of issues to discuss at book clubs or with friends -- things like spousal abuse, disabilities, mental illness, and more.

I highly recommend this book!

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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Pitt-Bradford Announces Spectrum Series Offerings

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s fall Spectrum arts series will offer area residents fine arts, funk and even horror. Spectrum is the university’s oldest art series. Artists are selected by Pitt-Bradford faculty to enhance the arts curriculum.

Events are open to the public and free unless otherwise noted. For more information or tickets, contact the Bromeley Family Theater box office at 814-362-5113 or www.upb.pitt.edu/TheArts.

 The first event of the season will be an art exhibition celebrating America’s National Parks Centennial by local artist Denise Drummond. The show will take place from Sept. 6 through Oct. 2 in the KOA Gallery in Blaisdell Hall. Gallery hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. A reception will take place at noon Sept. 9. Drummond will share a collection of drawings and paintings inspired by years of travel to the National Parks across the United States, from Acadia to the Redwoods to Florida’s Everglades. Drummond works in graphite and watercolor to create nature scenes and has a special love for national parks and wilderness areas.

 The first musical offering of the year will be a piano trio of Susan Waterbury, violin, Elizabeth Simkin, cello, and Miri Yampolsky, piano, at noon Sept. 23 in the Studio Theater in Blaisdell Hall. The program will showcase favorites from the heart of the classical repertoire.

  October will begin with a visit from unjustly imprisoned former death row exoneree Anthony Ray Hinton, who is one of the subjects of civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson’s book “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.” Hinton’s story was also featured on the television show “60 Minutes.” “Just Mercy” will be read by students in freshman seminar, writing, criminal justice and economics classes at Pitt-Bradford. The book is the Bradford Area Public Library’s One Book Bradford selection as well. Hinton will speak at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4 in the Bromeley Family Theater in Blaisdell Hall. 

Wyoming artist Rebecca G. Weed will open an art exhibition, “No Over Night Parking: A Field Guide,” with a reception at noon Oct. 7 in the KOA Art Gallery and KOA Speer Electronics Lobby in Blaisdell Hall. The exhibition will continue through Nov. 4. On Oct. 14, Family FUNKtion and the Sitar Jams, a trio of brothers on sitar, bass and drums, will bring a psychedelic musical experience to the studio theater at noon as the second installment in the Noon Tunes series. The Padmanabha brothers play a fusion of rock, funk and Indian classical and folk styles.

 During the Halloween season, Dr. Kevin Ewert, professor of theater, will direct “Apparition: An Uneasy Play of the Underknown,” a play of the horror genre by Anne Washburn. The student production will have four showings – three at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27-29, and a special late-night 10:30 p.m. performance Oct. 28, all in the Studio Theater. The cost for the public is $6. The cost for all students is $2.

Writer Crystal Wilkinson (pictured), the author of “The Birds of Opulence,” “Blackberries, Blackberries” and “Water Street” will read from her work at noon Nov. 1 in the Mukaiyama University Room of the Frame-Westerberg Commons. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including most recently in the Oxford American and the Appalachian anthology “Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean.” She currently teaches at Berea College, where she is the Appalachian Writer in Residence.

 The final event of the semester will be a Noon Tunes holiday concert by the Vocal Arts ensemble at noon Dec. 6 in the KOA Speer Electronics Lobby. For disability needs related to Pitt-Bradford Arts events, contact the Office of Disability Resources at 814-362-7609 or clh71@pitt.edu.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Tami Hoag!

I get to add another best-selling author to the list of the amazing people I've had the pleasure of chatting with over the last few years.

You can browse through Tami's books here ...

Tami Hoag books on Amazon

... and listen for my interview with Tami Hoag after September 7!

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Review: The Little Paris Bookshop

The Little Paris Bookshop The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I could give this book more than five stars I would. I couldn't put it down, and didn't want it to end.

The story centers around Monsieur Perdu, who runs a bookstore on a barge on the Seine River in Paris, and considers himself a literary apothecary. How can you not love a book when the main character believes the right book can cure your ills -- and knows exactly what book you should read?

Ironically, though, Monsieur Perdu can't cure himself. His true love left him, leaving behind a letter which, after decades, he still has not opened.

Finally opening the letter sets Monsieur Perdu and a wacky (for the most part) cast of characters on a journey that will change all of their lives.

If you love books -- I mean really love books! -- you won't be disappointed with The Little Paris Bookshop

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Thursday, August 4, 2016

Book Explores AI, Theology

A St. Bonaventure University faculty member’s research on religious and ethical questions about artificial intelligence is the subject of a new book by a Spanish priest and educator.

“Anne Foerst: The Religious Dimension of the Search for Artificial Intelligence,” by Francisco José Génova Omedes, has been published in Spain.

The intersection of theology and artificial intelligence has been a lifelong research interest of Dr. Anne Foerst, an associate professor of computer science and director of the Individualized Major program at St. Bonaventure. Foerst, who’s also a theologian and an internationally known expert on human-robot interaction, is the author of “God in the Machine: What Robots Teach Us About God and Humanity,” a book that examines what robots can teach us about being human.

During a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Foerst was a researcher at the institution’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and director of MIT’s God and Computers project, where she served as theological adviser to scientists who tried to build robots with social skills.

Génova’s analysis and book, based on Foerst’s time spent at MIT, looks at what challenges developments in artificial and robotic intelligence mean for theology.

He places technology in the center of what it means to be human from a philosophical and theological perspective and, in doing so, writes how AI and robotics were not born in the 20th century but are rooted in the origin itself of humankind. Génova also explores how many of the challenges theologians face today converge in the fields of AI and robotics.

“We are confronted with the fact that robots can have social skills,” said Foerst. “My research has focused on the question: Can robots be persons?”

Foerst hopes that readers of Génova's book will be “encouraged to think more profoundly about the relationship between us and the beings that share our life — especially the artificial ones.” She believes there is a need for theology that explains the realities that unfold in the boundary between faith and science.

When Génova began studying theology he had an engineering degree and was teaching electronics and electricity in a technical institute in Spain. As his theological studies progressed, he began connecting the fields of technology and theology. He was working on his master’s thesis about the relationship between theology and technology when he found references about Foerst and her theological approach to robotics and AI.

Later, when he was considering subjects for his doctoral thesis, he recalled Foerst’s work.

“Gradually I was forming the thought that … the fields of AI and robotics were a very important challenge to the future of humankind, and I was perceiving, too, the profound religious grounds that were present in all that… I could see the challenge to the idea of what means to be human,” Génova said.

He has since completed his doctorate at Facultat de Teologia de Catalunya (Catalunya Divinity School), and his thesis was published in July. Génova is now a Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Zaragoza and chaplain of San Valero Foundation, a vocational institute and high school. In addition to his pastoral activities, he teaches electronics at San Valero Vocational Institute and religion at San Valero High School. He is also a professor of ecumenical theology at the Catholic Seminary of Zaragoza.

Thanks to Foerst, Génova said he “dared to introduce myself to the study of the challenges of AI and robotics so I could study their theological implications. Now I continue working on that, and I try to transmit the importance of all this for the future of humankind and religion, especially for the future of Christianity.”

“What I do appreciate about Francisco’s work is that he criticized me – in particular that my understanding of ‘personhood’ is too vague.’ There is nothing better than for a researcher to be challenged, that’s what we live for,” Foerst said.

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Good 'Til the Last Sentence

How often do you read a book that keeps you rapt until the very last sentence? I can't give an exact amount of time but I'm going to guess that happens every now and then, which isn't to say I don't enjoy the ends of books. It's just rare that I'm on the last page and there's actually more story to read.

With that said, how rare is it to read two books in less than a week that don't end until the very last sentence? (I know that sounds weird, but book nerds know what I mean.)

Linda Fairstein's "Killer Look" and Camilla Way's "Watching Edie" couldn't be more different, the stories held my attention during the entire length of each book. You can go to the previous two blog posts to read my review of the books. You can also go to http://wesb.com/on-demand to hear my interviews with both writers.

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Review: Watching Edie

Watching Edie Watching Edie by Camilla Way
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What girl friends will do for -- and to -- each other is amazing. Camilla Way explores many aspects of female friendship as Edie and Heather tell their story from high school through their mid- to late thirties.

Edie tells the current story -- of her pregnancy by a married man; post partum depression; Heather showing up to help her; and more. Heather tells the story of their past and the circumstances leading up horrific event that kept them from speaking to each other and their family members for years.

Throughout Edie's telling of the story she references the horrific event, but never actually tells us what it is, or event gives a clue. I wondered what could be so awful to cause the damage and rifts it did. Once the secret was revealed, I got it, and understood why Way wrote it the way she did.

This is a gripping book that holds on 'til the very last sentence, which is surprising but very satisfying.

You can hear my conversation with Camilla Way at WESB.com/on-demand.



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Review: Killer Look

Killer Look Killer Look by Linda Fairstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Linda Fairstein starts this book about three weeks after the last Alexandra Cooper books ends, which means Coop is still reeling from being kidnapped and ... Well, in case you didn't read the last one, I'll stop there. Anyway, she is suffering from PTSD and is also drinking more than her police detective/friend/boyfriend thinks is good for her. She's also on leave from the DA's office, which gives her too much time inside her own head.

But, thanks to an old high school friend who asks for a favor, she finds herself helping in the investigation of a high profile murder case involving a fashion industry icon.

One of the things I like about this book -- and all of Linda's books -- is the tour of New York City given by someone who's lived and worked there. She provides so much detail it's as close to being there as you're going to get.

This book will keep you guessing 'til the end -- And, oh, what an ending! I had 80 pages to go and still had no idea who the killer was. When I'm reading I like to guess, but I like it even more when I don't have a clue.

In a word, Killer Look is brilliant.

You can listen to my interview with Linda at WESB.com/on-demand.

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Monday, August 1, 2016