Archives - Weekly Update

This was one looooong week with way too much rain and crazy traffic with the UN General Assembly meeting in the city. There were sirens blaring all week as delegates and their motorcades moved around the city. Trust that each year this is the week when I wish the UN headquarters was anywhere except in NYC.  

When we left off last week, I was in a Paul Simon state of mind. Note that when one heads to Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the final concert on the Paul Simon Farewell Tour, there is something really fun about skipping putting a blanket on the lawn and instead heading to the front of the lawn near the stage in the “no blankets” section and hanging out with other uber-fans. It was the best, though I definitely felt the effects of five hours on my feet the next day. Above is a photo of the stage, which shows how close we were. For humor, I knew there was going to be a lot of waiting time at the show as we were getting there early to get good seats. I was thinking of bringing along my knitting. Greg said, “No, they said no weapons. In Linwood Barclay’s film, Never Saw It Coming [based on the book of the same name], he proved that knitting needles can be a weapon.” That totally made me laugh, and Linwood got a kick out of it, too. And I did not bring the knitting!

Last night, I spent a terrific evening with Greg at Madison Square Garden seeing Paul Simon in the third to last concert on his Homeward Bound tour. The first time I saw him in concert was with Art Garfunkel in 1970. I have been to dozens of shows in between. People keep asking me how I feel about his retiring from touring, and I have to say that I am fine with it and understand. Touring takes its toll (authors say the same thing!), and there comes a time when you just want to enjoy life in the cities and towns where you want to be, not the ones you are booked into for a night. He has made it clear that he will continue to create music and do occasional shows, but the days of touring are over.

While being back at work meant my “book-a-day habit” was not able to be maintained this past week, I did read --- and thoroughly enjoy --- DAISY JONES & THE SIX by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which is coming out on March 5th. It’s novel about an iconic 1970s band and their oh-so-very hot lead singer, finally telling the tale of why the band broke up. It’s fiction, but people have been speculating on what band this could be based on; a few rumblings I have heard from librarian pals is that Daisy could be based on Stevie Nicks. While many books these days are told chapter by chapter by different narrators, here we have the story told paragraph by paragraph from the points of view of the six band members and Daisy. It’s a wickedly smart way to tell a story, and Taylor completely pulls it off.

It’s so nice to be back in your mailboxes! When I left off in our last newsletter, we mentioned that to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of Bookreporter.com, we were going to do something special and ask our readers to rally to help Virginia Weber, a longtime Bookreporter reader, rebuild her book collection. Many of you will remember that Virginia lost her home in the Thomas Fire in California last year. Many of you wanted to share books with her at that time, but Virginia was waiting on a long-term rental solution so she would have room for books. She finally has that. There are two ways you can help.