Arts & Nightlife :: books
book events tHURsDAY 4
ERIC JAY DOLIN › When America First Met China reading › 7 pm › Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White St, Cambridge › Free › 617.491.2220 or portersquarebooks.com JASPER FFORDE › The Woman Who Died A Lot reading › 6 pm › Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St, Brookline › $5 › 617.734.2500 or coolidge.org NICK O’CONNELL › The Storms of Denali reading › 7 pm › Appalachian Mountain Club, 5 Joy St, Boston › 617.629.5383 or outdoors.org LAURA MARIE PRAGER AND ABIGAIL LOUISE DONOVAN › Suicide by Security Blanket, and Other Stories from the Child Psychiatry Emergency Service discussion and signing › 7 pm › Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.489.0519 or harvard.bkstore.com ADRIAN TOMINE › New York Drawings discussion › 7 pm › Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.495.9400 or harvard.com
FRIDAY 5
Hanna Rosin’s anachronistic and jumbled The End of Men: And the Rise of Women (Riverhead) is exactly what you’d expect. The Atlantic editor has made a career out of writing sensationalistic headlines and tepid conclusions about subjects that a first-year genderstudies major — or just a regular old queer person — could explore with more nuance, and without all the hand-wringing. It’s clear from Atlantic pieces such as “Boys on the Side” (which is largely excerpted in The End of Men), an examination of college hook-up culture and the rise of “a new breed” of female sexuality, that Rosin fancies herself a sort of maverick sociologist. Unfortunately, her defining style — a moralizing essentialism combined with a penchant for frequent generalizations — is inherently incompatible with her subjects, whether they be breastfeeding, transgender children, or “the end of men” (she’s referring, by the way, to how the knowledge economy is “feminizing” work and how that’s adversely affecting Jurassic notions of masculinity and the men who subscribe to them). The world’s certainly changing, and there are a lot of bigger questions barely touched here
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(are learning differences in boys being compensated for in school, and is that affecting their trend away from higher education?) in favor of a hodgepodge of anecdotes and academic studies that mostly prove that Rosin’s view of gender is both myopic and baffled. In fact, between high-powered female executives with “aggressive” sexuality, and a stay-at-home dad whom she “can’t help” but be “startled” by when she sees him making handprint T-shirts for teachers at her kids’ school, the upending of gender norms seems mostly to trouble her. Of course, as a transgender man, I’ll allow that I’m not Rosin’s ideal audience (in fact, I don’t exist in the context of this book). So who is, then? Not the powerful woman who’s happy with her stay-at-home husband, the same man who recognizes Rosin’s depiction of him and asks her exactly what about him is so “startling.” She allows he may have a point: “Why should I, after all my research, be ‘startled’? Why should I be anything but delighted?” she muses in the book’s conclusion. Sounds like a question worth writing a book about, but my guess is there wasn’t a controversialenough title for that. _T h omas Pag e m c Be e
Hanna Rosin :: Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard st, Brookline :: october 11 @ 7 pm :: 617.566.6660 or brooklinebooksmith.com
sAtURDAY 6
DENNIS LEHANE › Live By Night reading › 1 pm › Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White St, Cambridge › Free › 617.491.2220 or portersquarebooks.com
sUnDAY 7
GINA DAMICO › Scorch reading › 5 pm › Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline › Free › 617.566.6660 or brooklinebooksmith.com “LIZARD LOUNGE POETRY NIGHT: JAMAAL ST. JOHN” › With music by the Jeff Robinson Trio › 8 pm › Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $5 › 617.547.0759 or lizardloungeclub.com
tUesDAY 9
JOANNE HARRIS › Peaches for Father Francis reading › 7 pm › Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline › Free › 617.566.6660 or brooklinebooksmith.com SALMAN RUSHDIE & GISH JEN › Joseph Anton: A Memoir reading › 7 pm › First Parish Church of Cambridge, 3 Church St., Cambridge › $35; includes copy of book › 617.661.1515 HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN › The Other Woman reading › 7 pm › Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St, Newton › Free › 617.244.6619 or newtonvillebooks.com MARK SIEGEL › Sailor Twain reading › 7 pm › Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White St, Cambridge › Free › 617.491.2220 or portersquarebooks.com FRANCIS SLAKEY › To The Last Breath reading › 7 pm › BU Barnes & Noble, 660 Beacon St, Boston › Free › 617.267.8484 or bu.bkstore.com
WeDnesDAY 10
CALEB DANILOFF › Running Ransom Road: Confronting the Past, One Marathon at a Time reading › 7 pm › Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.661.1515 or harvard.com ELINOR LIPMAN & FRIENDS › Tweet Land of Liberty reading › 7 pm › Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline › Free › 617.566.6660 or brooklinebooksmith.com STEWART O’NAN › The Odds reading › 7 pm › Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White St, Cambridge › Free › 617.491.2220 or portersquarebooks.com ILIE RUBY › The Salt God’s Daughter reading › 7 pm › Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St, Newton › Free › 617.244.6619 or newtonvillebooks.com
tHURsDAY 11
SANDRA GARSON › Veggiyana: The Dharma of Cooking reading and cooking demo › 7 pm › Trident Booksellers & Café, 338 Newbury St, Boston › Free › 617.267.8688 or tridentbookscafe.com LESLEA NEWMAN › October Mourning reading › 7 pm › Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White St, Cambridge › Free › 617.491.2220 or portersquarebooks.com STEPHEN PULEO › Dark Tide reading › 7 pm › Weston Public Library, 87 School St, Weston › Free › 781.893.3312 or westonlibrary.org HANNA ROSIN › The End of Men: And the Rise of Women reading › 7 pm › Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline › Free › 617.566.5615 or brooklinebooksmith.com
sAturdAy 6
MonDAY 8
40TH YEAR OF BLACKSMITH HOUSE POETRY SERIES › With Robert Pinsky, Gail Mazur, David Ferry and a wealth of other poets › 8 pm › Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 42 Brattle St, Cambridge › $3 › 617.547.6789 or ccae.org LOUISE ERDRICH › Round House reading › 7 pm › Porter Square Books, Porter Square Shopping Center, 25 White St, Cambridge › Free › 617.491.2220 or portersquarebooks.com SARAH S. KILBORNE › American Phoenix: The Remarkable Story of William Skinner, A Man Who Turned Disaster Into Destiny reading
DENNIS LEHANE reads from Live By Night :: 1 pm at Porter Square Books. THEPHoEniX.com/aRTs :: 10.05.12 63
hanna rosin photo by nina subin
Hanna Rosin’s Men
JAN BRETT › Mossy reading › 5 pm › Wellesley Free Library, 530 Washington St, Wellesley › Free › 781.235.1610 or wellesleyfreelibrary.org DAVID FERRY › Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations reading › 3 pm › Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.661.1515 or harvard.com TORI HOGAN › Beyond Good Intentions: A Journey into the Realities of International Aid reading › 7 pm › Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.489.0519 or harvard. bkstore.com JASON KARLAWISH › Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont discussion and signing › noon › Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.489.0519 or harvard.bkstore.com STEVEN STROGATZ › The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity reading › 7 pm › Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.661.1515 or harvard.com
› 7 pm › Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.661.1515 or harvard.com