John Kasson, author of “The Little Girl Who Fought The Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America,” will be at the Spencer Doll and Toy Museum Saturday, Sept. 13, from 2-3 p.m.
Kasson, author and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor, will discuss his new book. The museum’s collection of Shirley Temple dolls and collectibles is one of the largest on the East Coast and will be the back drop for this event. Admission to the book talk is free. Light refreshments served. Donations appreciated.
Literary Bookpost will be on site with copies of the books for sale, or they can be pre-ordered by calling 704-630-9788.
Kirkus Reviews calls Kasson’s book “informative and well-researched.”
Elizabeth Spencer talks about “Starting Over” on “North Carolina Bookwatch” today at noon and Thursday at 5 p.m.
Spencer is best known, perhaps, for her novella, “The Light in the Piazza,” written more than 50 years ago. That book still has legs. After being adapted into a popular movie in 1962, it was more recently the basis of a Broadway musical.
She published her first book, “Fire in the Morning,” in 1948, more than 65 years ago. Her latest book of stories, published earlier this year, “Starting Over,” shows a spirit that is totally in touch with modern times and the challenges and ironies of those who live in them.
Perhaps the title refers to the characters in several of the book’s stories in which changed circumstances require them to look at their lives in different ways. It could also be an assertion by Spencer of her willingness to keep on “starting over” for the rest of her life.
Writing about “Starting Over,” Los Angeles Time Book Critic, David Ulin, noting how productive Spencer continues to be even in her 90s, wrote, “As with the imagination, there is no limit to a writer’s longevity, that — in some cases at least — insight remains, or grows sharper, with age. For Spencer, that’s a key consideration, since so many of the stories here are timeless, or more accurately ageless, domestic dramas that unfold in a recognizable but subtle world. The setting is North Carolina, generally (Spencer lives in Chapel Hill), and the time the present, but it is a present largely stripped of noise and flash (consumerism, the Internet), where the most compelling dynamics unfold between parents and children, husbands and wives.”
On UNC MX (Time Warner 1276) Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 11 a.m.