An Evening with  . . . Katherine Center
Thursday, June 11, 7 PM, Central Library

Reading & Signing: Andre Dubus III
Thursday, June 18, 7 PM, Brazos Bookstore

Reading & Signing: Garth Stein
Thursday, June 18, 7 PM, Blue Willow Bookshop

Pages & Stages
Tuesday, June 16, 6:30 PM, Alley Theatre

To accompany The Farnsworth Invention, we'll discuss The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television by Daniel Stashower, the story of television's "real" inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth, a 14-year-old Idaho farm boy, and his lifelong struggle against corporate power embodied by NBC founder David Sarnoff.

Pages & Stages is the perfect evening for the book worm in every theatre buff.  Just read the book below and join us for a lively discussion and refreshments before the performance.  After the show, stay for Talk Back, led by Alley cast members and artistic staff. Pages & Stages is free with a ticket for the evening's performance.  For tickets, please call 713-220-5700 or visit www.alleytheatre.org (discount code PAGESANDSTAGES). 

Also of interest:
• The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television by Evan I. Schwartz (2002).
• Distant Vision: Romance and Discovery on an Invisible Frontier by Elma G. "Prem" Farnsworth (1990).
• Time Magazine photo essay "A Fond Farewell to Analog Television" (includes one of Farnsworth's early receivers and other photos of early television technology).

Two murders and a treasure of jewels lead to a blood oath and an uncanny mystery that the master detective must solve before more fall victim. This exotic and thrilling mystery, originally titled The Crucifer of Blood, premiered on Broadway in 1978 and was first presented in Houston by Main Street Theatre in 1998.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes contains the four novels and fifty-six short stories, including "The Sign of Four," which comprise the entire Sherlock Holmes saga.

Also of interest:
•  The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Biography by Russell Miller (2008).

By Daniel Stashower, the author of the The Boy Genius and The Mogul (above):
•  Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle (1999).
•  Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (2007).

The editor's fourth volume of original short works by popular American writers pits the eminent detective and his faithful sidekick against nefarious criminals in the States.  From the bustling neighborhoods of New York City and Washington, D.C., to sunny yet sinister cities like San Francisco on the West Coast, the world's best-loved British sleuth faces some of the most cunning criminals America has to offer and meets some of America's most famous figures.

Also of interest:
•  Murder in Baker Street: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes (2001).
•  Murder, My Dear Watson: New Tales of Sherlock Holmes (2002).
•  Ghosts in Baker Street (2006).

There are too many books that give advice about writing poetry, which is a bit like reading how-to books about sex; so if it were up to me, I would recommend simply reading the work of as many poets as possible (including poetry in translation), and not just contemporary poets. But it is true that a poet must love at least some of the voices of his or her time.

So at the risk of excluding anyone living (and a friend), let me recommend one great book as the perfect starting point, filled with poems that still sound fresh today, more than 40 years after many of them were written: Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara, edited by Mark Ford. O’Hara passed away in 1966, at the age of 40, in an automobile accident. He worked for most of his adult life at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he curated exhibitions, wrote catalog copy, etc. What’s lovely and instructive about O’Hara’s work is the clarity, vividness, and immediacy of his voice. His poems sound like no one else’s. They exude his humanity. The enormity of this accomplishment—to write in a voice that is wholly your own—cannot be understated. Working poets should also read his “essay,” “Personism: A Manifesto,” which is quite a delight and chock full of O’Hara’s unique advice for writers. “You just go on your nerve,” he tells us. “If someone’s chasing you down the street with a knife you just run, you don’t turn around and shout, ‘Give it up! I was a track star for Mineola Prep.'"  ~Rich Levy

Rich Levy has served as the executive director of Inprint, Houston's leading literary arts organization, since 1995.  An accomplished poet and native Chicagoan, he earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. His first full-length collection, Why Me?, will be published this fall. He thinks a wonderful place for up and coming poets is at your local public library.

On August 21, 1911, the unfathomable happened—Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre. More than twenty-four hours passed before museum officials realized she was gone. As French detectives, using new methods such as fingerprinting, tried to trace the thieves, a burgeoning international media hyped news of the heist. Combining her skills as a historian and a novelist, R. A. Scotti turns the tantalizing clues into a story of the painting’s transformation into the most familiar and lasting icon of all time. "Scotti's avid, exciting true-life mystery yields intriguing disclosures and reaffirms Mona Lisa's unique powers" (Booklist).

Hugh Howard traces the origins of art in the American republic as reflected in the portraits of George Washington and the lives of the artists who defined him.  His account reveals the virtual absence of fine painters in early America and includes profiles of such artists as Charles Wilson Peale, John Trumbull, and Benjamin West. “Hugh Howard's highly original work offers a completely new perspective on the Father of our Country. . . showing how his increasing fame accelerated the development of American painting, and offering insight into how history and myth are made by images" (Dallas Morning News).

Tim Blanning, professor of modern European history at Cambridge University, chronicles the rise of music and musicians in the West, from balladeers, masters retained by fickle patrons, great composers to the rock stars of today.  He asks, how did music progress from a subordinate status to its present positions of supremacy among the creative arts?  "The book is not about music itself, but about its creators and consumers. . . . penetrating and richly documented" (Times Literary Supplement).