Groovy Groups

TGIF I always say! I hope everyone had a great week. Why is it that the week after a holiday week seems like the longest week on the planet? And the weather here in NY has been freaky, it's either cool or it's scorching hot, and Wednesday, all of a sudden there was a torrential rainstorm. Well, at least we're not having a typhoon like they're having in Japan. Just want to give a quick shout-out to KMJ who is recovering from surgery, and I'm happy to say that my friend's little boy came through having his tonsils shaved yesterday.

Last night, I actually went out to a reading series downtown at this groovy dive bar on the LES (Lower East Side). KGB bar is housed in an old Polish union hall and it consists not only of the bar but also a theater complex and art gallery, multi-tasking at it's finest. KGB actually stands for the Kraine Gallery and not the KGB, Russian equivalent of our FBI/CIA.

The reading series is sponsored by an organization called Behind the Book whose mission is to excite children and young adults about reading. They work with low-income students in the NYC public schoools. What they do is they bring authors and their books into individual classrooms to build literary skills and to nurture a new generation of readers. Sounds cool huh? They made about 90 schools and they have a waiting list of schools.

They not only bring authors in but they also work with the kids to help them craft stories of their own, getting them excited about the process as well as reading. Of course the minute I heard about it, I had to donate. It was only $25, but I felt good about helping the next generation of readers. Reading meant alot to me growing up, and it still is such a big part of my life.

So, I went down to KGB, and the reading got started around 7:30. I was only familiar with one of the authors, Arthur Phillips, who has a new book out called Angelica which is in my TBR pile as I write. The other two authors, Helen Schulman and Will Allison, I wasn't familiar with, although after hearing them read, I will seek out their books at the bookstore. I did know that Helen Schulman's book, P.S. had been made into a movie with Laura Linney where she played an admissions counselor at Columbia who falls for an 18 year old who may be the reincarnation of her old boyfriend, which was a lot less creepy than it sounds.

It was a good evening, and it was neat to hear Arthur Phillips read us an excerpt for what may be his next book, and to hear that after doing a book tour, he was sick of reading from his latest novel. He was wickedly funny as you would expect a former child actor, and 5 time Jeopardy champ to be.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

P.S. Skip the new dark chocolate mint 3 Muskateer bar, it tastes like cold medicine.