Authors and actors

Tonight we hosted a new author, Judith Lindbergh, with her book The Thrall's Tale.  I had asked to have her speak at Just Books because I thought that the book looked interesting, should be a book that people pick up and want to read, and has a mix of feminism, historical fiction and literary appeal that I like. 

I didn't expect a huge crowd -- new author, book just came out, it's cold out -- but I have chosen this book as the fiction pick for our book-of-the-month club and it is our March pick for the Just Books book club so I thought hearing from the author would be great and giving a new book that should go places exposure is important.

Judith is a lovely person.  She's smart and funny and has humility and is appropriately pleased with her publication and final product.  This is a well-written, well-researched book.  Not all are ...

I introduced Judith and let her have the floor.  She explained the broad themes of the book, the three female characters in the book and their genesis and then proceeded to read a section about each of the three women and ... I've never had an author bring a book to life the way that Judith did.

Some authors read their books beautifully.  Many are shy about reading and don't do a terrific job.  Some are just downright bad and shouldn't be allowed to read aloud from their work no matter how wonderful it may be.  But Judith is multitalented -- not only is she a gifted writer but she has a career that includes photography (and not the amateur type), ballet, acting and writing.  It was the acting -- the years of studying lines and parts and language that allowed her to light an internal fire on her book like noone else could.

And for the people in the room, she brought a third dimension to the book solely through her words and expression and the ultimate love and intimacy that only she could have with this book.

It's nights like these that I am able to say "this is why I do this" ...