Love Reading Books

I like to think that I’m an optimistic person. I like to feel that if I’m in a situation where my back is against the wall, instead of relenting myself to the obstacle, I would try to do my best to be positive at all costs. unfortunately, there is a big difference between being an optimist and thinking you are one.    For those of you who don’t know me, I feel it is important to say that I am an avid Albert Camus fan. while I have a hard time agreeing with his absurdist philosophies, I still find him to be one of the most thought provoking authors I have ever encountered. but it was through Camus that I began to question my optimism.    while reading “The Fall,” a novel about a man’s narration of his own epic fall from grace, I was encountered with a haunting line. in the story, the former judge-penitent turned drunkard Jean-Baptiste Clamence, while outlining his views on man, said, “A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.”    at first, this was one of the most reductive sentences I had ever read. how could an entire global population be summed up in two activities? There has to be more to life than those two things. but then I started to think more about it, and with every passing second, I found myself agreeing more and more with Camus.    Man is selfish. we live our lives based on the simple processes of self-preservation and self-gratification. in today’s world, life has become so taken care of and formulaic that for most of us, the need for self-preservation barely exists anymore. Our existence and survival is nearly all but guaranteed by the modern conveniences surrounding us. we don’t need to hunt and gather our food, or search for safe drinking water, or even shelter from an oncoming frost. we have grocery stores, water fountains and homes for those necessities. Without the need for self-preservation, man’s only biological drive left is self-gratification. Thus today’s man — free from biological necessities — relies solely on pleasure as the marker of his life, which is what we get out of Camus’ two reductive activities.    It makes sense in a way. For the entire history of man, it has been an unquestioned assumption that we have enjoyed Camus’ first activity, and as for the second, modern trends in the world seem to back that assertion up as well. Today’s culture seems to be fixated on the cult of celebrity, so much so that countless hours are wasted in the consumption of the latest piece of Hollywood drama or scoop that life around us is missed. how many people wasted four hours inside watching the Kim Kardashian/Kris Humphries wedding’s 17th replay, when they could have been outside enjoying or at least interacting with the world around them? If even one person can say yes to that question, then that’s a problem. If we aren’t fixated upon our own physical pleasures, then we’re stuck on the news and gossip about someone else’s.    I was stuck in this existentialist funk for a while. No matter where I turned, I saw the self-obsession that Camus’ Clamence had seen. but before this view could overtake me, I came to a realization. My view was not shattered by logic, but by perception. I saw the world pessimistically because I was a pessimist. despite my claims of wanting to espouse optimism, I had failed at my first road block. instead of clinging to the notion of something deeper in the world’s meaning, I attached myself to Camus’ belief without much resistance or second thought. Man isn’t like Thomas Hobbes’ caricature of it. we don’t exist in a “poor, nasty, brutish and short” way, but rather the opposite. while man may get caught up in himself every once and a while, ultimately we are drawn back to the world by those around us, be it our family, loved ones or friends. No man is an island, and therefore no person can be summed up by fornication and avid news readership.    It is impossible to sum up modern man. Not in a single sentence, not in a thousand. There is no possible way to encompass all of the ins and outs of everyone’s lives. and while a reductionist view of life would be simpler, it wouldn’t be truthful.    People are more than merely what they want.    Well, at least I like to think that…— Preston Peeden is a junior in history. he can be reached at ppeeden@utk.edu.

| Print |

Written by Elizabeth Schweitzer Friday, 14 October 2011 06:11

Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis and Chicken with Plums, now brings readers a whimsical fairy tale about a young girl who uses her wits and tenacity to save her true love and restore the Kingdom of Sighs.

56 pgs. full color; $10.95 hardcover (W / A: Marjane Satrapi)   following its debuts in France and Spain, readers of Marjane Satrapi’s internationally recognized works Persepolis and Chicken with Plums are finally getting The Sigh! Satrapi departs from her usual vignettes of the life and times of herself and her family to bring readers something of a classic fairytale. The story begins, like all good fairy tales do, with a loving father raising his three daughters: Orchid, Violet, and Rose. His wife has, of course, passed away, and Rose (being the youngest) is naturally the brightest and fairest of the three. The girls’ father is a traveler by trade, and to make up for his frequent stints away from home by bringing his daughters whatever fantastic gift they request. but, when Rose requests the seed of the blue bean plant, her father cannot deliver. Disappointed, Rose sighs—and thus summons Ah the Sigh, who presents the coveted blue bean! Rose’s father, ecstatic that his promise to his daughter has been fulfilled, like all fairytale fathers, promises Ah that he will one day return the favor, no matter what it is. little surprise, then, when a year later Ah arrives to take Rose to the Kingdom of Sighs. Perhaps predictably, it is in the Kingdom of Sighs that Rose falls in love with the Prince of Sighs. but, when she accidentally takes the breath of life from her love, Rose has to search the world to discover how to right her wrong.     Unlike Satrapi’s previous works, The Sigh is not in graphic-novel format, but more an “Easy Reader” style, with large print and “block” illustrations throughout the pages, representing some sentence or scene. although Satrapi’s art has always been of a simplistic style, perhaps in keeping with the fairytale/child’s story theme The Sigh’s artwork really does look like a child’s drawing. Satrapi utilizes large, simple arrangements like a shadowy figure standing behind a door, or standalone images such as hands holding a pot of oil. Additionally, the outlining has the texture and feel of being done with a black crayon, and all the illustrations use flat, simple colors. this, of course, is part of the fun of The Sigh; a savvy tale that really needs little embellishment.   Throughout this story, readers can tell that Satrapi is clearly having fun writing this fable. So, if you’re ready to have some fun revisiting your childhood, journey to the Kingdom of Sighs and pick up this latest creation from Marjane Satrapi. | Elizabeth Schweitzer

On the 33rd day of protests, the Occupy Wall Street movement has decided to call the troops to arms (so to speak) by now protesting museums, considering these cultural institutions as pandering to the elite 1% of the nation.

Protests, according to art critic Paddy Johnson’s blog, will take place today at the Museum of Modern Art, the Frick Collection, and the New Museum. The critic writes a post that is meant to explain why museums are being criticized in this crusade against capitalism.

Johnson states, “for the past decade and more, artists and art lovers have been the victims of the intense commercialization and co-optation or art.” [Spelling errors are Johnson's own.] this past decade in art has been some of the most experimental and engaging so far. With the growth of technology, artists have been influenced to create new forms of art via video installations, multi-layered fashion forward items, graphic arts and other computer-based works. The commercial world has had an impact on how every one of us lives, and artists have not escaped this. Are artists supposed to ignore the changes occurring in the world today, and museums, likewise supposed to ignore the art that has been created in response?

Advertisement

Johnson’s monologue continues: “we recognize that art is for everyone, across all classes and cultures and communities. we believe that the Occupy Wall Street Movement will awaken a consciousness that art can bring people together rather than divide them apart as the art world does in our current time…” Is it not the mission of these institutions to provide a means for art to be accessible to all? Were it not for these institutions, works like van Gogh’s Starry Night, Rembrandt’s Self Portrait, or Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon would be hung on the walls of someone’s personal home, or worse yet, stuffed away in an attic next to mothballs and curling photographs.

The MoMA aims to be the foremost collector of art that reflects modern times, and it is central to their mission to educate visitors on this art. indeed, MoMA maintains one of the most engaging and thorough education departments in the city, with classes and programs offered for visitors of all ages. The Frick and the New Museum, in addition to almost every other museum in New York and across the nation, also have similar missions to preserve art and to challenge visitors to think about the art they are experiencing. And to further assist in these missions, to allow the opportunity for visitors of all ages, backgrounds, and classes to be able to view and learn from this art, a majority of the museums here have joined in on later hours and free programming – is this dividing people, as Johnson states, or inviting them to celebrate our diversity and our art?

Johnson next critiques the exhibitions that major museums have developed, focusing on artists who are part of a large collection, who garner a lot of attention, and who bring in money for the institution. in other words, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was wrong to have curated Savage Beauty, the blockbuster exhibition on Alexander McQueen’s fashion; the Frick should not present their exhibition on Picasso’s Drawings because the show is likely to bring in visitors and money simply because of a name; and smaller museums such as the Jewish Museum or the Morgan or the Museum of the Moving Image should shy away from well-recognized and widely-collected artworks and articles from figures such as Ezra Jack Keats or Charles Dickens or Jim Henson. These are names that the public recognizes and wants to see.

Johnson ends her post by encouraging “new art, true experimentation” that battles the current art markets, that fight back against the capitalism of the art world. And yet, art has typically been the abode of the rich. The works that we sit and ogle at in the museums are typically not works made for you and me – they were made for kings and queens, maharajas, socialites, businessmen, celebrities. It has, since the beginning of time, been the wealthy who have always kept the art market afloat. should we criticize the museums for championing great art?

Is the Occupy Museums movement taking the protests too far? or are these criticisms legitimate? let us know what you think by leaving your response in the comments section below.

One of the perks of having a successful blog is that you sometimes get the opportunity to review some interesting books. I recently had the opportunity to read Beyond Broccoli by Susan Schenck. As a food and nutrition writer I am always eager to expand my knowledge in these areas, so I welcomed the opportunity to review Schenck’s book. what I didn’t expect was how much of an impact it would have on my vegetarian wife.

Beyond Broccoli is written from Schenck’s perspective, that of a former raw food vegan. she explains how she felt compelled to write this book after her experience with following vegan principles. After years as a vegan, she saw her and other vegans’ health decline. her goal is to educate people and alert them to the dangers of vegetarian and vegan eating.

I must admit, after reading the book’s introduction and learning why she wrote it, I jumped in with both feet. You see, my wife has been a vegetarian for almost eight years and no matter how much we talked about the benefits of Paleo eating, I could not persuade her to give up vegetarianism. I hoped that the book would give me some new tools to help my wife see the light. I’m glad to say that Beyond Broccoli didn’t let me down.

Schenck begins her book by discussing the vegetarian mystique and dispelling the common myths behind vegetarianism. she discusses these issues with the intelligence of someone who has lived the life. Unlike other publications I’ve read, hers doesn’t belittle either side of the vegetarianism debate. in fact, she says that a vegan diet can work for you if you are the right body type.

The meat of this book is not to bash vegetarianism; rather it explains why vegetarianism doesn’t work for the vast majority of people in the long run. part two of her book discusses the evolution of the human diet where she embraces Paleo Diet principles and provides a good summary of the benefits of Paleo eating.

THIS IS THE TRUTH, if you must know: I’m in love with a married woman . . . and I thank God she’s married to me. (Blaine Larsen sings the song.)

This is true, too: people who publicly write or speak on social issues have to contend with an impelling force that tempts them to, at all costs, hold on like grim death to ideas they have put out there.

Depending on the positioning of your tongue and your cheek, you might even call this force a demon.

I don’t think I fell for it on the Ronald Jones/demon possession issue.

As people assailed the Minister of Education for linking youth deviance to demon possession, I wrote that in focusing primarily on him and his choice of word we were going after the wrong target when we should be concentrating on solving the problem.

That did not satisfy some people who, it seems, felt we should all attack mr Jones – with some ridicule and/or vitriol thrown in for good measure – to make him see the error of his ways.

I en in dat.

Now, in my view he was wrong, wrong, wrong! there is no way that the critical-mass, many-hued deviance among the young can be attributed largely to demonic activity.

Does that mean that I should think that attacking mr Jones would be a useful approach to getting change?

That would be to go on a wild Jones chase.

If we are serious about change, we can’t do that. but the truth is that we have critical shortcomings in our understanding of change and influence.

Nick Cooney, in his very interesting book Change of Heart – what Psychology can Teach us About Spreading Social Change, says: “What’s really at the heart of social change is an entire field of knowledge largely ignored by the activist community: the area of psychology.”

(Now, I assume that when we write and talk publicly about social matters, we are, to a lesser or greater degree, seeking social change. in addition to reading Cooney, then, you might take a look at Timothy Wilson’s Redirect: the Surprising new Science of Psychological Change; Influencer by Kerry Patterson and others; made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath; and Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher.)

One method that we put too much faith in is overt verbal persuasion. We don’t seem to recognize that a back-and-forth of ideas is often a battle of egos, a battle to protect a psychological investment.

Don’t forget that, as Meg Greenfield put it, “thin skin is the only skin human beings come with”.

Have you not realized that very few people change their viewpoints as a result of argument?

Have you not noticed that many a person who seems to have capitulated in such a situation reverts to his original position in short order? be more observant, man.

And when you spice up your dismantling of the other person’s position with sarcasm or derision or personal attack, the dog – of change – dead.

Cooney also says most activists fail to have some benchmark of success. So there is no aim or an inappropriate one.

In this demon possession issue, what would be success? Changing mr Jones’ mind? Yeah, right.

Educating the public? Why? most people don’t attribute youth deviance to demon possession.

His stepping down or removal? in this Buhbaydus? Even in more fertile countries, it takes more than writing and talking to get ministers removed.

But even if we did get mr Jones removed, isn’t there a 100 per cent chance he will be replaced by someone under whose watch there will be no reduction in youth deviance? 

We need to come to terms with our ignorance about the psychology of social change; our poor modus operandi in getting enough people to join us in genuine activism to make a difference; and our failure to understand our difficulty in affecting power holders in the midst of their term in office and the consequent need to fix that and/or work with them or around them in putting solutions to problems in place.

’cause, meanwhile, what have we done about the deviance?

Social change is too hard for us to be spending time walking fruitless paths. it requires far more than venting – at mr Jones or anybody else.

Sherwyn Walters is a writer who became a teacher, a song analyst, a broadcaster and an editor. Email .

Sixteen years ago, Christopher Blair directed a local production of The Rocky Horror Show. “and I swore I’d never do it again,” he laughs.

Ah, but there must be something sweet about 16, because Blair – who’s played Dr. Frank N. Furter at Bay Street Theatre since 2008 – is back in the director’s chair again, helming a show he lovingly calls “bizarre and raunchy,”  a.k.a., right up his alley.

“I figured that if there was going to be a show I could direct, it would be Rocky Horror,” says the 2011 best Actor winner in the 2011 Connect Savannah readers’ poll. “I know every song, I know the harmonies for every song. and I’ve done it so many times.

“maybe the next time I direct, I might pick something a little less ambitious. but I’m having a ball doing it.”

Bay Street’s Halloween–season tradition of the live–onstage production of Rocky Horror opens Oct. 21 and runs through the 30th at Club one.

As pretty much everybody knows, it’s a cross–sexual parody of 1950s horror films, decadent and amoral and wholly outrageous. and it’s riotously funny. and it’s a musical. and hey, there are space aliens.

Once again, Blair will appear in full drag as Frank, the “sweet transvestite” in whose creepy gothic castle the twisted action of Richard O’Brien’s story takes place.

In his capacity as the production’s big cheese, he dutifully held auditions for every role in the show, including Frank.

“it would have made my life easier, as the director, to not be Frank,” Blair explains. “but at the end of the day, there was a lot of outcry from the local community, saying they wanted me to do it. that was one factor.

“The other factor was, I had to weigh it against my performance, which is always kinda dicey and weird … ultimately, I think we made the right decision.”

Indeed, Blair’s campy, vampy Frank – and his recurring appearances as the singing, transgendered heroine of Hedwig and the angry Inch – are seasonal high–water marks of Savannah community theater.

“If I was sick of doing it after three years, I would’ve just let the chips fall and cast somebody else,” he adds. “but I really do enjoy the role. as the director it makes my life a little bit more problematic, but nothing that is insurmountable.

“There’s going to be a day when I might want to hang up the boots, or play a different character in it. but I love the show; it’s the most fun I have ever, onstage. and I’ll do it as long as the Bay Street Theatre lets me do it.”

The August Rocky Horror auditions attracted a record number of aspirants this year. The new cast, Blair says, is bigger than it’s ever been because of the level of talent that showed up.

Timothy Reynolds and Jonette “Jojo” Page play Brad and Janet, the young lovers who get a flat tire and stumble upon Frank’s castle in search of aid. Helen Valenzuela (seen recently in The Laramie Project) and Courtney Flood (she was Sally Bowles in Bay Street’s Cabaret) are Magenta and Columbia, respectively.

The 2010 Rocky director, Valerie Macaluso, plays the interactive narrator, Genie Brazzeal is Dr. Scott, Micah Thompson stars as Rocky, and Bryan West is Eddie.

As Riff Raff, the castle’s all–purpose singing and dancing hunchback, Blair has cast Jeff DeVincent, who directed him earlier this year in Cabaret (Blair cut a so–memorable figure as the Emcee).

DeVincent is himself no stranger to directing Rocky Horror. “He’s trained people to sing Riff Raff for nearly a decade, and now we finally get the guy who trains the guy to actually be the character,” says Blair.

In other words, Blair gets to the turn the tables and crack the whip on his former director. “I actually do get to beat him with a whip,” Blair laughs. “and that’s kind of fun, too.”

For the first time, the band will be on the stage with the cast, giving Rocky Horror more of a celebratory, rock concert vibe.

Christopher Stanley is the musical director; the choreography is by Travis Dodd.

Blair says having such a strong and dedicated support team has made his job as director much more enjoyable than it was 16 years ago.

Also new this year, for your pleasure: “We have a completely different configuration of the stage. They’ve built an extension, and it’ll be almost like a three–quarter thrust stage.

“Symmetry kind of plays a big role in the show this year, because we’re playing to two sides as opposed to more of a proscenium setup.”

Don’t say you weren’t warned, Savannah.

The Rocky Horror Show – Live!

Where: Club one, 1 Jefferson St.

When: At 8 p.m. Oct. 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 & 30, plus a midnight show Oct. 30

Sunday shows are 18 and over; all others are 21+

Tickets: $15

Online: bit.ly/RockyTickets

And if the fact that half his face has been burned off doesn’t make Denis O’Hare’s character creepily sympathetic enough for you, how about this: He has brain cancer too!

One of the early questions about “American Horror Story” on FX has been whether fans of the chirpy Fox musical series “Glee” would follow the producers and writers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk to a new show billed as an extreme (for television) creepfest. Based on Wednesday’s premiere, the Gleeks should feel perfectly at home with “Horror story.” The similarities are greater than the differences, and they start with the love of excess that stretches through “Glee” and back to the first Murphy-Falchuk collaboration, “Nip/Tuck.”

Other, less palatable hallmarks of their method are here as well: a certain hollow theatricality, a willingness to accept one-dimensional characters and pat story lines while concentrating on stylish set pieces and shock effects, the way every line of dialogue and situation seems to sit within invisible quotation marks.

It’s too bad, because “American Horror Story” has the potential to be a lot of fun, if that style and cleverness can be eventually coupled with characters we care about and a narrative that feels less like a haunted house sampler, stitched with threads of Stephen King, Hammer Films and Lars von Trier’s TV series “The Kingdom.”

Disaffected daughter who befriends disturbed boy? Check. Thematic connection of blood, violence, female sexuality and violation of the body? Check. Strobe-lighted scenes of small, murderous people in “Little House on the Prairie” nightclothes? Check.

for now, the cast alone makes the show worth checking out. Connie Britton, lately of “Friday Night Lights,” is the star, and once again she’s excellent — taut, exposed, completely credible — as a strong but wounded wife and mother. Her Vivien Harmon has a big dose of horror show back story: six months after a bloody miscarriage she walked in on her husband, Ben, having sex with a student, which precipitated the family’s cross-country move to the Los Angeles Victorian spook house they arrive at as the show opens.

Ms. Britton is particularly good in the scene that has drawn the most advance comment, in which Vivien has sex with a silent, bondage-suited man she mistakenly thinks is Ben. It’s a situation that doesn’t make sense even in TV-fantasy terms: earlier in the day, after a screaming match, Vivien and Ben have made love for the first time in a year, and her nonchalance when the rubber man suddenly appears — oh, you’re ready for another round? — rings false. But Ms. Britton sells Vivien’s abandon and vulnerability, and she conjures a hauntedness that isn’t necessarily in the script.

Dylan McDermott, as the often naked and very buff Ben, and Taissa Farmiga (Vera’s sister) as the standard-issue defensive daughter, are also good, though the family members’ performances all seem to be on slightly different frequencies. (Mr. Murphy directed the pilot.) Jessica Lange, in the diva role of the aging Southern belle next door, appears to have wandered in from a completely different show, or more likely a Tennessee Williams play, but it doesn’t prevent her from being entertaining. Mr. O’Hare appears briefly at the end of the episode, giving us something to look forward to.

Also in the cast is Frances Conroy, sharing with Alexandra Breckenridge the role of a mysterious housemaid; in a nifty twist, Vivien sees the older maid at the same time that Ben sees (and sees a lot of) the younger one. Ms. Conroy is reprising her gargoyle turn from “Six Feet Under,” and her presence is a reminder of how Mr. Murphy’s style here echoes that of the “Six Feet Under” creator, Alan Ball.

FX certainly had in mind the success of Mr. Ball’s current show on HBO, “true Blood,” and of “The Walking Dead” on AMC when it picked up “American Horror story.” The new show is a more classically minded chiller, but it has some of the lurid expansiveness of “true Blood,” filling the basement of the Harmons’ house with more rusty medical instruments and jars of baby parts than you can count.

Before the hourlong premiere is over, we’ve been made aware of at least eight ghosts that may be haunting the premises and providing material for future story arcs. It hasn’t occurred to the Harmons yet that they might want to follow Eddie Murphy’s advice about haunted houses (in “Delirious”) and tip out the door. But one thing “American Horror Story” doesn’t have an excess of is diversity, and as that Mr. Murphy said, white people in haunted houses never get the hint.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY

FX, Wednesday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Produced by 20th Century Fox. created and written by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk; directed by Mr. Murphy; Mr. Murphy, Mr. Falchuk, Dante Di Loreto, executive producers; Jennifer Salt and James Wong, co-executive producers; Tim Minear, consulting producer; Chip Vucelich, line producer; Alexis Martin Woodall, producer; Jessica Sharzer and Brad Buecker, supervising producers.

WITH: Connie Britton (Vivien Harmon), Dylan McDermott (Ben Harmon), Jessica Lange (Constance), Denis O’Hare (Larry Harvey), Taissa Farmiga (Violet Harmon), Evan Peters (Tate), Frances Conroy (Moira), Alexandra Breckenridge (Moira Junior) and Jamie Brewer (Adelaide).

On August 11th, a vehicle hit one of Norfolk’s newly installed light rail trains at second Street and Brambleton Avenue.  this crash was captured on camera as the train headed towards Eastern Virginia Medical School.

“It shows the LRV going down the tracks. the video shows that we had the proper signal to go across this intersection at second Street,” says Ron Edwards of HRT Safety and Security.

It also shows the car sailing right through and the crash. one specific camera angle shows the driver turning around and driving away. no passengers were on the train since light rail was still being tested.  the driver of the car was found, but it’s still not clear that person is or whether any charges were filed.

“If the operator of automobile had followed the traffic laws there, this incident would have been prevented,” says Edwards.  

Two months later, the intersection now has a functioning traffic light.  An illuminated sign says no turns on red.  on the day of the crash, the traffic lights flashed red but drivers could still turn unless a train was coming. the driver of the Toyota Camry clearly didn’t pay attention to that. 

“When it was blinking, I knew I could creep up, listen, and look and go.  Now I got a green light,” says Edwina Gorman of Norfolk.

Both HRT and the city are hoping the new traffic light at this intersection will keep people more aware, and keep crash like this from happening again. 

30.09.11 | Graeme Neill

Greene & Heaton is selling rights in the new P D James novel. Death comes to Pemberley, her sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, will be published by Faber in November 2011. Faber will also publish Skios by Michael Frayn, a farce which Henry Holt has bought in the US and Carl Hanser has bought in Germany. what the Family Needed is the second novel from Steven Amsterdam and Harvill Secker has UK rights. Codename: Haro by Jeremy Duns brings a new perspective to the West’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and will be published by Simon & Schuster in September 2012 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the crisis. Viking has bought it for the US. DI Nick Belsey is back in Deep Shelter by Oliver Harris, to be published by Jonathan Cape in May 2012, and the title will also be submitted to foreign publishers. Nicola Barr sold world rights in début The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne to Emma Beswetherick at little, Brown in a six-figure pre-empt.

Janklow & Nesbit is selling rights to Charles Cumming's A Foreign Country in which a disgraced spy seeks redemption in his search for the incumbent head of MI6, who has gone missing. HarperCollins has UK rights, St Martin's Press US and Goldmann German. It is also selling The tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones by Jack Wolf, dubbed "American Psycho meets Perfume". Chatto has UK rights, Belfond French and Destino Spanish. in Next, Paul Broks examines recent scientific findings that there is no such thing as an "inner self". Rights have been sold in the UK (Penguin Press), US (Crown), Germany (C. H. Beck Verlag), and the Netherlands (De Bezige Bij). Dylan Evans' Risk Intelligence gives a guide to "the twilight zone of probabilities and speculation". Rights have been sold in the UK (Atlantic), US (The Free Press), Germany (Droemer) and Italy (Garzanti). in Extremes, Kevin Fong looks at how modern medicine is pushing the envelope of human survival. Hodder has UK rights and Penguin will publish in the US. Adam Rutherford will explore how humans are on the verge of creating synthetic life in Creation. Rights have been sold in the UK (Viking), US (Penguin Portfolio), Brazil (Zahar), Japan (Discover21), Netherlands (Spectrum), Portugal (Texto).

Rachel Clements, head of rights at The Christopher little Literary Agency, will be selling foreign rights in two memoirs. Navel Gazing by Anne H Putnam is billed as “an unflinchingly honest, funny and poignant account” of the author’s battle following drastic weight-loss surgery, and is currently under offer in the UK. The Blue Door, Lise Kristensen’s account of her childhood in the Japanese POW camps of Java, has just been delivered and will be published by Macmillan in early 2012. Rights have already been sold to Juritzen in Norway. in fiction, foreign rights are on offer in Babies in Waiting by Rosie Fiore, which Clements said was a “heartwarming novel about motherhood, friendship and finding love at the most surprising time in your life”. Quercus will publish in the UK in summer 2012. these titles are all agented by Caroline Hardman.

PFD is selling rights in Emylia Hall’s début The Book of Summers, which was sold in the UK (Headline), US, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal in two weeks over the summer. Actor John Gordon Sinclair’s début Seventy Times seven, which Faber will publish in the UK, is a noir hitman thriller. something you Are by Hanna Jameson is the first in a London-based crime series by a strong new young talent. in Maria Eitel’s The Girl Effect, the president of the Nike Foundation explains her mission to eradicate poverty through harnessing the potential of teenage girls. Edwin Moses, Olympic hurdler and campaigner against drug use in sports, tells his story for the first time in Unbeatable, and historian Max Hastings is turning his attention to the first World War in time for its 100th anniversary in 2014, in his forthcoming 1914, published by HarperCollins in the UK and US (sold in Spain and Israel).

Man Booker winner Peter Carey writes about the grief of a mistress after her long-term lover dies in The Chemistry of Tears, one of Rogers, Coleridge & White’s Frankfurt titles. Rights have already been sold to Faber (UK), Knopf (US), Penguin (Australia) and Random House (Canada). The other Hand author Chris Cleave returns with Gold, about friends and world-class cyclists whose friendships are tested in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics. Rights have been sold to Sceptre (UK), Simon & Schuster (US), Doubleday (Canada), Intrinseca (Brazil), DTV (Germany), Prometheus (Holland) and Aschehoug (Norway). Malcolm Fox and his team of internal affairs investigators are back in Ian Rankin’s The Impossible Dead, examining whether police corruption has been covered up in Fife and how it links to political turmoil in the mid-80s. Rights have gone to Orion (UK), BBC Art (Czech Republic), Le Masque (France), Goldmann (Germany), Metaihmio (Greece), Luitingh-Sijthoff (Holland) and Corpus (Russia). Mantle has UK rights to The necessary Death of Lewis Winter, about a hitman drawn into a vicious turf war. in The Thread, Victoria Hislop writes about the decision facing a young Greek: should he become the custodian of memories and treasures of people from his grandparents’ generation, all of whom had to flee their original homes? in April 2012, Orion publishes The Incident by Ken McCleod, which is about how fate affects the lives of a three men; a teenage lifeguard, a second World War survivor and a refugee of the cold War.

At United Agents, Simon Trewin is selling Silver, former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion’s sequel to Treasure Island. Jonathan Cape will publish in the UK with rights sold in the US (Random House), Canada (Doubleday) and Italy (Rizzoli). The son of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver’s daughter return to claim the treasure left on the island. On behalf of the Fleming family, Trewin is also touting Frank Cottrell Boyce’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies again, a 21st-century update of the children’s classic by Zoe Waldie’s client at RCW, Frank Cottrell Boyce. Macmillan publishes in October 2011. Rights have been sold to Germany (Carlsen), France (Gallimard) and The Netherlands (Gottmer). Rights to début literary thriller Every Contact Leaves a Trace by Elanor Dymott will be offered. The novel is about a successful lawyer’s investigation into his wife’s death. Jonathan Cape publishes in spring 2012. Caroline Dawnay is selling Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, to be published by Granta in the UK in 2013 and little, Brown in the US. It’s a New Zealand-set murder mystery during a gold rush in 1866. The Man Booker-shortlisted Simon Mawer returns with The Girl who Fell from the Sky. It is about a young woman’s growth into adulthood after she was parachuted behind enemy lines in the second World War. Charles Walker is selling rights with little, Brown publishing in the UK in May 2012 and other Press in the US. Sarah Ballard is selling rights to A Vicious Indulgence by Annie Hauxwell, the first in a series of crime novels featuring a financial investigator addicted to heroin, dubbed Rebus meets Salander. Heinemann has UK rights, Penguin Australia has Australia/New Zealand, and Blanvalet pre-empted in Germany.

Rights to Man Booker winner John Banville’s latest novel Ancient Light will be sold by Ed Victor. Penguin is the UK publisher with Knopf scheduling US publication for autumn 2012. The who guitarist and infamous stage wrecker Pete Townshend’s memoir who he? will be published in the US and the UK by HarperCollins in October 2012. Translation rights have been sold in Germany (Kiepenheuer & Witsch), Brazil (Editora Globo), Norway (Bazar Forlag) and Finland (Like). Evening Standard editor Geordie Greig has written a memoir about his friend, the painter Lucien Freud, who died earlier this year. Breakfast with Lucien will be published by Jonathan Cape in the UK in autumn 2012. Zombie Survival Guide author Max Brooks has written a new collection of zombie short stories called The Extinction Parade and other Stories. Rights have been sold in the UK (Duckworth), Brazil (Rocco), France (Calmann-Levy), Germany (Goldmann), Italy (Cooper), Russia (AST) and Spain (Mondadori). Historian Juliet Nicolson makes her fiction début with a novel set in 1936 about secrecy, love and a king and his subjects. Bloomsbury will publish Abdication in the UK and Atria in the US in May 2012. Writer and explorer Tristan Gooley will uncover how people can unlock the landscape around us by appreciating the connections between land, sea, sky, plants, animals and people. Sceptre will publish The Natural Explorer in the UK in March 2012.

WME has The Adult by Joe Stretch on submission. The novel is about a young man seeking fame, whose mother is the only non-famous sibling among her four sisters. Jonathan Cape has UK rights. UK Vogue magazine editor Alex Shulman has written her début novel, Can We Still be Friends?, about three women finding their way through 1980s London. Fig Tree has world English rights. in until the Darkness comes by Kevin Brooks, a detective on holiday in Essex discovers a murdered girl but then the body disappears when the local police arrive. Random House UK has UK rights and DTV has German. in Redeployment, former US marine Phil Klay writes short stories about officers in Iraq. Penguin Press has US rights and Canongate will publish in the UK. A woman dumped on the steps of a YMCA is the narrator of Y by Marjorie Celona. Rights have been sold in the US (Free Press), UK (Faber), Canada (Hamish Hamilton), France (Gallimard), Germany (Suhrkamp) and Holland (De Bezige Bij). Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz, the writing team behind the movies “X-Men: first Class” and “Agent Cody Banks”, have teamed up to write Colin Fischer. The book is about a boy with severe Asperger’s trying to solve a crime at his school with the unlikely help of the school bully. under auction in the US, under offer in the UK and Italy, Mondadori has Spanish rights and Droemer has German.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Small Redemption of Lagos is among the Wylie Agency’s Frankfurt titles. It follows two childhood friends from Nigeria, who are separated when they move to England and the United States, but are later reunited in Lagos. Rights have been sold in Canada (Knopf), Germany (Fischer), Italy (Einaudi), The Netherlands (De Bezige Bij), Portugal (Dom Quixote), Spain (Random House Mondadori), the UK (Fourth Estate) and the US (Knopf). described an a “epic Odyssean voyage”, Nadeem Aslam’s The Blind Man’s Garden is a post-9/11 novel about two foster brothers who leave Pakistan to go to war in Afghanistan. in Knocking on Heaven’s Door, Lisa Randall writes about how humans decide about which scientific questions to answer and how they answer them, discussing the latest theories in physics and cosmology along the way. Fischer has German rights, Il Saggiatore Italian, NHK Publishing Japanese, Proszynski Polish, Acantilado Spanish, Bodley Head UK and Ecco US. Art Spielgelman revisits his graphic novel masterpiece Maus in his companion Metamaus, revealing why he decided to examine the Holocaust using mice as his main characters. Rights have been sold to France (Flammarion), Germany (Fischer), Italy (Einaudi), Korea (Arumderi), Oog & Blik (The Netherlands), Spain (Mondadori), the UK (Viking) and the US (Pantheon). The agency is also selling rights to John Updike’s Higher Gossip, the seventh posthumous collection of miscellaneous prose. Knopf will publish in the US.

Why you might need to get over YourselfFormer Self-Confessed Crybaby Reveals How to Stop Complaining About Life and Start Living It

Do you know someone who complains all the time, blames everyone else for her problems and will tell even the clerk in the checkout line just how lousy her life is?Well, what if that person was you? Paula Renaye knows exactly how that feels.”I didn’t realize it at the time, of course, and honestly, no one does,” she said. “But I was that whiner. I complained incessantly about how horrible things were for me, how none of it was my fault and that there was absolutely nothing I could do change it. And I was convinced I was right.”Then one day, after she’d sung her same old song of ‘poor me’ to her best friend, the friend paused and said, “Isn’t it great that for the rest of your life, no matter who you tell that story to, they’ll say ‘you poor thing.’ And you, my friend, can be a victim forever.”"It stopped me in my tracks,” Renaye said. “It was definitely a defining moment, and I couldn’t get mad about it because I knew it was true.”And that was when life began to change for Renaye, author of the Hardline self Help Handbook—what Are you willing to do to get what you Really Want? (hardlineselfhelp.com).”Choosing the hard-line approach to self improvement takes courage,” Renaye said. “It’s hard to take that first look in the mirror and not blink. but it’s absolutely essential. It’s also critical to remember that while this is about facing hard truths, it’s not about beating ourselves up over where we are in this moment. We’ve all made plenty of mistakes, and if we had time machines we’d probably go back for some do-overs. but we can’t, and keeping our shame and guilt fresh just keeps us stuck, feeling guilty and ashamed, which serves no one.”Renaye calls part of her method the “Stick and Carrot” formula.

• The Stick

– Denial + Delusion = Long-Term Increasing Pain. If you keep ignoring reality and continue to create delusions so you can live in denial, your pain will get worse. Even though it may give you the illusion of relief in the short term, reality always pops up and things go bad. at some point, one of two things will happen: you’ll either reach your personal threshold tolerance for pain and snap like a twig; or you’ll give up and become sad and bitter, blaming others and perpetually complaining to anyone who’ll listen.

• The Carrot –

Self Respect + Action = Joy. Freeing yourself from an unhappy situation will not only relieve you of that internal turmoil, but will also clear a space for joy that you can’t have now because your energy is focused on avoiding pain. Once you make friends with reality, reclaim your self-respect and do what you need to do, you’ll be amazed at how good you feel and wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. You’ll also be amazed at how much time there is for fun and happiness, since your world no longer revolves around how you can fix or spin your unhappy situation. In your new reality, you don’t need a spin doctor to make things “seem” okay, because you’ll be living in and enjoying every moment.

“Unfortunately, until we’re forced, most of us stay right where we are, tolerating what we know we need to change and making excuses for why we can’t,” she added. “The bottom line is whatever you find yourself continually complaining about, either make changes or admit you don’t want to and shut up about it. It’s the only way to get what you really want, which is to be happy.”

Former eggshell-walker, emotionally-bankrupt wreck and utter failure at keeping her world from falling apart, Paula Renaye uses her journey out of despair into joy as a breadcrumb trail for others. She has been a consultant for 18 years, holds a degree in financial planning with a background in journalism and psychology, and is a member of the International Association of Coaches. Paula is the multi-award-winning author of the Hardline self Help Handbook. Visit hardlineselfhelp.com.