CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

At age 85, her Mom becomes a nun

 

“’Nobody dies at the end of this book. Try not to let this fact mislead you. As far as my Mother is concerned, it is important to distinguish between what death actually is and what it isn’t. There’s a body and there’s a soul. One dies, the other doesn’t, ever. And then there’s how I feel about it, which is complicated.’”

“My name is Susan Morse and I have written a book called, “The Habit” which is the story of my Mother who at age 85 in the middle of a health crisis which I was shepherding her through the medical system, became an Orthodox Christian nun. And it’s the story of our relationship…

She was on a quest. She was spiritually hungry her whole life. In the 1940s during the wartime she met my father and married him just as many people did -married a man who was about to go off to war. It was a relationship that was never really a true, passionate romance and there was a lot of trouble there. But they stuck it out. They raised four children together and end up actually quite content with each other by the end.

After the kids moved, out she started experimenting with lots of different religions and kept changing, Episcopalian to Roman Catholic to a different kind of Roman Catholic back to Episcopalian, all these different things. And she’s an artist and at one point she began taking these workshops painting Byzantine icons. And that is something you have to pray when you’re doing it, the workshops tell you.  The whole system is really, really strict technique. And she discovered that her icons which she was feeling very satisfied with the process of doing those, were not legitimate in the Orthodox Church because she was not an Orthodox Christian.

My Mother really believes in- if you believe in something you really have to throw your whole self into it. So for her to be a Christian is not enough. She needed to go all the way.

She says now she dreamt about being a nun from when she was a little girl. She was 85 when she became a nun and she was frail. There was no question of her taking on a job. For the frail and elderly ones – she became, literally, she’s called a ‘house nun’, which means she stays in her house, and she prays. And that’s what she does!”

Susan Morse, reading from the preface to her newly published book, “The Habit.” Morse will be reading from her book on Wednesday, January 25^th in the Bombay Room at the Chestnut Hill Hotel and on January 26^th at Headhouse Books in Society Hill. Both events are from 7:00 to 8:30.

Watch video here.

 

 

 

Brings deconstructed astronomy book to science high school interview

My book is called a deconstruction book and it’s like when you get a plain old book that nobody reads, sits on the shelves at stores and stuff and getting it and exposing the information in a 3-dimensional work of art. WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT? It’s about astronomy, all about the planets, the moons, suns, stars… I can name you everything inside. Right here there’s an asteroid and it’s called Hyperion and Hyperion back in Greek mythology was one of the Titans of the East. 

Javier Peraza, of South Philly, with his project for an application interview at the Science Leadership Academy.

Watch video interview here

Casting Spells at Chestnut Hill's Harry Potter weekend

Megan Amsterdam, right, casts a spell on Katie Blumberh. They were joined by friend Danielle Knauer and had just attended Quidditch tournaments at Chestnut Hill College during the Harry Potter weekend in Chestnut Hill. They are Philadelphia University students and big Harry Potter fans. Watch video here.

Readers are leaders: Chestnut Hill Book Festival 2011

Somewhere I saw, a long time ago, a button or bumper sticker that said "Readers are Leaders" And I think that's really true- that people who read find out details about the world and have things to talk about. And it's much more effective to be in the world with other humans when you have things to talk about.

We have a rule in our household that if there's a book that's been turned into a movie, you have to read the book first- the Harry Potter movies... there's been a lot of kids books that they've taken and changed around and made them into movies and it's been pretty funny. Because they change them! But I always insist that my kids read the books first. Of course we have to do that ourselves, mind our own rules. So my husband and I had to read "The Lord of the Rings" when that coming out as a movie a while back. We had to read them again. I had read them in high school It was actually work!

Being at this book festival, people are walking by and they're talking about books which is so much fun. And there were some women here earlier at my table and they were talking about kids books that were turned into movies, "The Hunger Games" and how excited they are about that. And we started talking about the books that we love, as adults but they also might be kids books. And then we started talking about the books that are narrated, that are read on tape or CD. And one of the leader-readers, it's so obvious, is Barack Obama, You know he got a grammy award for reading his own book aloud?.. That poor guy has such a job!

Laura Richlin, Chestnut Hill Book Festival 

Watch video interview here.

Sending Books to Prisoners

Brenda Cook of Wynnefield Heights and other women from the Sharon Baptist Church ministry package books destined for prisoners at Books Through Bars in West Philadelphia. The 20 year-old all volunteer organization responds to inmates' requests for all kinds of books- detective novels, history, home improvement, computer science."We send quality reading material to prisoners and encourage creative dialogue on the criminal justice system, thereby educating those living inside and outside of prison walls." from http://www.booksthroughbars.org

Watch video here

Student cuts school to hear author

Tim Wood and Kate Stover picked up their daughter Lydia during school to come and see a talk by author Sherman Alexie, whose works Lydia has been reading in school.Lydia likes how Alexie makes the narrator sound like a teenage boy in the "Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian." Mom likes how Alexie gives a window onto the experience of Indians on a reservation. Dad was entertained by hearing Alexie on the radio and thought it would be fun to see him.Chestnut Hill Library, Philadelphia, PA.

Video interview here

Richard Morais' Hundred Foot Journey

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT READING YOUR BOOK ALOUD? “As you can see I’m a bit of a ham and authors love talking about themselves. Nothing gives them more pleasure. I actually always wanted to be an actor so I realized early enough on that I wasn’t a stable enough person to be an actor because it’s a very unstable life and the ragged edges of my personality would be magnified in that situation so I decided to be a writer… The next time I went down to Bombay, there was an actor who introduced me and I was sort of inspired by his presence to put on an Indian accent and so I went home and I called my wife up and I said, “Yeah I think it went pretty well. I read in an Indian accent” And she said, “Tell me you didn’t.” [Audience laughter] And the reason I say this is that the way I’m reading it now is the way I hear it. One of the great things about fiction writing is for a little while you can pretend you’re not who you are. You can pretend you’re someone else in the world. And that is the great joy and liberation of fiction writing.” Richard Morais, author, The Hundred Foot Journey. Watch video and Morais reading aloud from book in Indian accent here.

Alan and Nathan lament Borders Bookstore closing

YOU GUYS GOING TO MISS BORDERS? Alan: “Hugely, big-time.” Nathan: “Yeah.” Alan: “It’s going to be hard to live without Borders.” Nathan: “I’ve been coming here, since I was- five?” Alan: “For us, because we live at the bottom of the Hill, it’s a great destination so it gives us a place to go when we want to come somewhere. It’s a great place to walk to. We come here to do homework sometimes. I come to do some schoolwork And we see our neighbors. I mean, it’s really nice. It’s going to be tough. We don’t know where to go after this, especially to get all the good free samples. It’s going to really be missed. ”MAYBE ENOUGH OF US WEREN’T BUYING ENOUGH BOOKS? Alan: “I think that was it although I bought a lot of books here. Half of them I haven’t read yet but you start reading a book and get interested in it, then you buy it.” Alan Siegel and son, Nathan, Borders Bookstore café. Click here to watch video interview.

Borders Bookstore Closing Gives Signholder Work

WHAT KIND OF JOB IS IT? “I guess it’s advertising or whatever, just holding the sign.” HOW LONG DO YOU DO IT? “From 11 to 4.” YOUR LEGS GET TIRED? “Aw, a little bit.” Tom Fithian, laid off landscaper. Watch video here.

Geography Teacher Luigi Borda Gets Around

The book is called “Andiamo- Let’s Go!” and the series is called “Luigi Gets Around dot com” And the first book is called “Luigi discovers Philadelphia” I’m Luigi and this is the Philly “Phiat” and it’s the true story of me coming over in my car from Calabria Italy in 1969 on a boat like a lot of immigrants came to this country. We came to New York. We didn’t like New York because of its too fast-paced style and the truth of the matter is my cousin’s family lived in Philadelphia so we followed him to Philadelphia and there goes the skyline, our beautiful Philadelphia skyline. We settled here but it was real rough at first so we wanted to go home because people made fun of my name, Luigi. But then we started to run into people in Philadelphia. We ran into Danny and his Dodge. He told us to go the Art Museum Then we ran into Tracy my wife and her Triumph She said you got to check out Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and learn about Philadelphia before we go back to Italy. And then we fell in love, me and Tracy. We started a family. Our first daughter is Angie and her Audi and she told us about the Mummers Museum which is a German tradition and my daughter’s half German. And then we ran into Veronica and her Volvo and she brought us to the American-Swedish museum. Show’em your blue eyes, Ronnie. Look at Ronnie, now look at her in the book! That’s Veronica and she gave me tickets to a Phillies game because Luigi loves baseball.” Masterman geography teacher and author, Luigi Borda.

Click here to see video