EVENT PREVIEW
Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta. Nov. 1-19. Most events are at the Marcus Jewish Community Center, 5342 Tilly Mill Road, Dunwoody. 678-812-4005, www.atlantajcc.org/bookfestival
During the month of November more than 40 authors will travel to the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta in Dunwoody for book signings, panel discussions and meet-and-greets at the second largest Jewish book festival in the United States. (The largest festival happens simultaneously in St. Louis.)
“It started with three authors in three days, 23 years ago,” said co-chair Marcy Bass. This year’s festival spans 19 days and is expected to draw more than 10,000 visitors.
Jewish writers and books on Jewish subjects predominate, as one might imagine, but the concept of the festival is broad and includes authors of every extraction and interest, from scientists and historians to novelists and television chefs.
“Anna Quindlen is not Jewish but is obviously a wonderful author who many of our audience are familiar with,” Bass said.
Catholic-raised Pat Conroy will also be on hand to interview his friend, former Atlantan Bernie Schein, about Schein’s fiction debut, “Famous All over Town.”
Television dad and potty-mouthed comedian Bob Saget kicks off the festival Nov. 1. Almost all events will take place at the Dunwoody community center. Here are a few writers to look for:
Anna Quindlen.
Former New York Times writer Anna Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for her column, “Public and Private,” and wrote a bi-weekly column for Newsweek for 10 years, while still finding time to crank out her own work. She has written seven novels and 10 nonfiction books.
Her newest novel, “Still Life With Bread Crumbs,” follows the shaky fortunes of Rebecca Winter, a 60-something once-famous photographer who moves from her chic New York apartment to a leaky rural cabin, not so much to enjoy the country life, but because she’s strapped for cash and can make more money subletting.
Her search for a dependable internet connection forces Winter into town life, and her desire to get rid of a raccoon in her attic brings a salt-of-the-earth roofer into her romantic life.
A book about second chances at love, “Still Life With Bread Crumbs” is a closely-observed tale of human relations with a happy ending: In other words, right in the Quindlen sweet spot.
7:45 p.m., Nov. 3, $33, includes book. There is a wine-and-cheese reception for book club members only before the event. $25. Both events, $45.
Bob Mankoff
He’s not the taster at an ice cream factory, but Bob Mankoff has the next best job in the world. He is editor of cartoons at the New Yorker, perhaps the last bastion of the single-panel humorous drawing.
Since it takes one to know one, Mankoff is also a successful cartoonist. In one of Mankoff’s more famous frames an executive chats on the phone while checking his calendar. The caption reads: “No, Thursday’s out. How about never — is never good for you?” That bit became one of the most frequently reprinted cartoons at the magazine, and also gave Mankoff a title for his new book, subtitled “A Life in Cartoons.”
In an interview with the AJC in 2006 Mankoff said, “The dynamics of most cartoons is: Something bad is happening to somebody else — not you.”
And why do we smile at that? Because, said Mankoff, “In general, people tick us off. When you look at all the problems you’ve had in life, who’s caused them? Other people.”
Mankoff’s illustrated memoir talks of his beginnings as a student of psychology, and shows how that field is actually useful to a cartoonist. He also walks us through the creation of a cartoon, and shows us how to better our chances in the Caption Contest on the magazine’s last page.
8:15 p.m., Nov. 5. $18
Walter Isaacson
As a biographer, Walter Isaacson has the knack of capturing a subject whose personal story meshes with great societal changes.
His portrait of Benjamin Franklin reveals Franklin as perhaps the most engaging and approachable of the founding fathers, and a man whose life is the story of young America.
Isaacson’s explanations of the mysteries of physics in his biography of Albert Einstein make the inexplicable plain, and demonstrate how a scientist can think his way into the heart of the universe.
In 2011, after more than 40 interviews with Steve Jobs and extensive background reporting, Isaacson’s “Steve Jobs” became one of the best-selling biographies of all time.
The book demonstrates how one individual, through power of character and creativity, can manipulate the larger forces of change. While the new technology was reshaping the world, Jobs was shaping the new technology.
Isaacson’s newest book “The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution,” spreads some of that credit around, focusing on the collaborative nature of computer culture.
He starts with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron’s daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s, and continues through Alan Turing, John von Neumann, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Tim Berners-Lee.
8 p.m., Nov. 8. $24; $50 reserved seating
Andy Cohen
Andy Cohen was head of development at the Bravo network for 10 years and helped create the “Real Housewives” phenomenon.
Last year he dropped the development title at Bravo (though he remained executive producer of “Real Housewives”) to focus on growing his talk show, “Watch What Happens Live,” and to write about his year of finding himself, “The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year.”
Inspired by the diaries of Andy Warhol, Cohen offers a guide to the heart of trash TV in the 21st century and tells how a rescue dog can do the rescuing.
8 p.m., Nov. 15. $24; $50 reserved seating
Dan Harris
Ten years ago ABC News anchor Dan Harris freaked out on live television, just as “Good Morning America” co-hosts Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson “tossed” to him for an update. “I was overtaken by a massive, irresistible blast of fear,” he writes.
It was a melt-down. But unlike the average person’s terrible, no good, really bad day, Harris had his ugly moment in front of 5 million people. In search of a way to deal with panic attacks, the newscaster found a better life, which he writes about in “10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works — A True Story.”
He learned that recreational drugs weren’t helping him, and that meditation, which was “simple, but not easy,” would open up a spiritual life that he had dismissed until then.
His publisher wasn’t happy with the title, telling him that he should promise more. But Harris’ wry message is that self-help is manageable, and successful, if we seek not perfect bliss, but a small improvement.
8:15 p.m., Nov. 16. $18
