Blog Posts for Lauren John

We played Bernstein...Bernstein lost. An Evening at Stanford Lively Arts

Lauren John — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:01:52 -0800

Last night, George and I went with our friends the Trautmillers to see and hear the "Portrait of Leonard Bernstein" concert at Stanford Lively Arts. As a long time musical theater/American songbook/Bernstein fan, I was the catalyst for this evening. And now I feel really bad about that.It was not good. It was expensive for us as community members not affiliated with Stanford. And ...

Halloween Night Netflix: Bride of Frankenstein Film Notes

Lauren John — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:46:18 -0700

Two weeks ago, Nick Szegda and I did a Bride of Frankenstein program at Menlo Park Library.Nick's presentation was so wonderful, that I asked him to share his notes with us--so that you can use them for your own program at home or in your library or classroom. When I started working at the reference desk at Menlo Park Public Library, filling in for Nick at busy times, long-time patrons would ...

Life Is Good! Take Out A Mortgage! Breast Cancer Is A Gift! Discuss.

Lauren John — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:14:26 -0700

"The four most dangerous words in investing are: This time it's different" So says Barbara Ehrenreich, the American feminist author, sociologist, and political activist, who has a new book out called: Bright Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (Metropolitan Books, October 2009)I haven't read the book yet, but I did hear her speak at the ...

How to Run A Frankenstein Book/Film Discussion Group

Lauren John — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:35:50 -0700

How do you run a Frankenstein book/film discussion group? It helps if you have a dark and stormy night—but in our case we met on a cloudy October afternoon in the meeting room of the Menlo Park Public Library.It also helps if you have funding for film/book discussions. That was provided by friends of the late Menlo College theatre/literature professor, Dr. Al Jacobs, who loved and studied ...

Reading Wherever There's A Fight

Lauren John — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:22:04 -0700

In the interest of full disclosure, I have long admired Elaine Elinson, co-author with Stan Yogi of Wherever There's A Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California (Heyday Books, 2009, $24.95). Elaine was the communications director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California for over twenty years and we ...

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Book Discussion Program

Lauren John — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:35:26 -0700

If you are planning a book discussion of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the Swedish noir, "closed room... or in this case, closed island" mystery by Stiegg Larsson, this blog entry is for you. It will save you hundreds of dollars in book group leader fees (the going rate now in SF for private groups is between $200 and $250) and distills years of my book group leadership ...

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo--Meets the Monday Morning Quarterback

Lauren John — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:41:43 -0700

I still can't figure out why eighteen people showed up last Tuesday night at the Menlo Park Library to discuss Stieg Larsson's Swedish noir mystery The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Add in two librarians--me and youth services librarian Jennifer Wilkins--who made a cameo appearance to talk about the Girl With the D.T.'s more wholesome Swedish forebearer, Pippi Longstocking---and you've got twenty ...

The People's Archive: A Field Trip to the Bancroft Library

Lauren John — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:25:38 -0700

Satirist Mark Twain. Pessimist Joan Didion, Activist Mario Savio, Conservationist John Muir. You can find their works at the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley--and I do mean YOU!The library and its services are available to everyone--on Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Yes EVERYONE--FREE---you don't have to be a Berkeley academic or a famous ...

Lauren and Julia

Lauren John — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:36:55 -0700

"Food, like the people who eat it, can be stimulated by wine or spirits. And, as with people, it can also be spoiled. The quality in a white or red wine, vermouth, Madeira, or brandy which heightens the character of cooking is not the alcohol content, which is usually evaporated, but the flavor. Therefore any wine or spirit used in cooking must be a good one. If it is excessively fruity, ...

Reading Twilight...Post Menopause

Lauren John — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:27:08 -0700

If I had more energy after a day of book slinging…and owned a different sort of wardrobe, I would be attending THE social/literary event of the fall season: Litquake’s (www.litquake.org) Goth Hop at The Verdi Club, located at 2424 Mariposa Street, San Francisco. The fun begins tonight, Friday August 14th at 8:30 p.m. and is slated to end at “the witching hour of Midnight.”A ...