Reading and All That JazzThe Hamilton Lane Library presents the 23rd annual Reading & All That Jazz summer program. This series of alternating weekly Jazz performances and book reviews will entertain you all summer long on Tuesdays at noon, June through August. Special thanks to the Friends of the Lane Libraries for their support of this series.
Brown Bag Book Reviews
Bring your lunch or enjoy light refreshments provided by the Friends of the Lane Libraries.
Tuesday, June 4, Noon
Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America
By: James Fallows & Deborah Fallows
Reviewer: Joan Witt
For 5 years the Fallowses crisscrossed the country, chronicling the efforts of mid-sized towns to survive and thrive in creative ways on the local level, away from the toxicity of national politics. This travelogue records community success, challenge, and failure unearthed by this husband and wife team, but the vignettes also offer up hope.
Tuesday, June 18, Noon
Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love
By: Dani Shapiro
Reviewer: Nikki Motley
Imagine having your DNA tested on a whim only to discover that your father is not your biological father after all. This revelation shook Dani Shapiro to the core and launched her on an exploration of discovery and the consequences, science vs medical ethics, identity and family secrets as catalogued here in her latest memoir.
Tuesday, July 2, Noon
Milkman
By: Anna Burns
Reviewer: Mary Kay Fischer
This Man Booker Prize winner is presumed to take place in late ’70s Belfast during the Troubles. One reviewer described it as a masterclass in building an ever-deepening mood of paranoia, suspicion, and dread. Another described the protagonist, “Middle Sister”, as navigating the violent political conflict of her world by shutting herself off emotionally and intellectually from her surroundings. The presence of a mysterious paramilitary leader, “The Milkman”, rattles the boundaries of her world.
Tuesday, July 16, Noon
Before The Fall
By: Noah Hawley
Reviewer: Sara Pinkerton
Award winner Hawley, creator of the TV show Fargo, offers up a multi-layered tale built around a tragic plane crash that leaves nine people dead and two survivors. Who were the passengers? Why were they there? What caused the crash? What happened to the survivors? Mystery? Character study? Screenplay? Pop culture truth teller? You decide.
Tuesday, July 30, Noon
The Underground Railroad
By: Colson Whitehead
Reviewer: Kelli Lyon Johnson
This prize-winning tale retells an age-old story: the efforts of a runaway slave to escape. However, as one reviewer comments, the author “…turns this flight for freedom into a modern day Odyssey, letting each stop along the way become an entirely different narrative in the life of slavery, America’s race relations, prejudice, and fear.”
Tuesday, August 13, Noon
The Library Book
By: Susan Orlean
Reviewer: Marion Thoms
It burned for over 7 hours, destroyed 400,000 books and damaged more than 700,000 additional materials. Who set fire to the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986? The author reports on this unsolved crime but digs deeper to showcase the remarkable, often unsung role libraries play in our lives.
Tuesday, August 27, Noon
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
By: David McCullough
Reviewer: Henry Cepluch
Award-winning author McCullough uses rare diaries and letters to illuminate this quintessentially American story of pioneers whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments as they opened up and settled the great Northwest Territory following the Revolution.
Jazz Performances
Tuesday, June 11, Noon
Buffalo Ridge Jazz Band
Trumpet, clarinet, trombone, banjo, drums, tuba, piano
The truly awesome Buffalo Ridge Jazz Band is back again to share more traditional Dixieland Jazz from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.
Tuesday, July 9, Noon
Frenchaxe
Guitar, drums, accordion, bass and vocals
Frenchaxe is a melange of original French compositions combined with world rhythms, which in the hands of four accomplished musicians results in a new and exciting multicultural experience. Listen and enjoy!
Tuesday, July 23, Noon
Chris Comer Trio
Piano, drums and bass
Chris Comer, jazz pianist and former radio talk show host, leads the Chris Comer Trio in some funky and swinging directions. Join us for a performance that will be truly one-of-a-kind.
Tuesday, August 6, Noon
Ricky Nye
Jazz piano
Delivering boogie, blues and classic New Orleans jazz, pianist and vocalist Ricky Nye is the organizer of the annual Blues & Boogie Piano Summit. He’s an inductee into the International Boogie Woogie Hall of Fame and has been the recipient of numerous CityBeat Magazine’s CEA Awards.
Tuesday, August 20, Noon
Faux Frenchmen
Guitar, bass and violin
The Faux Frenchmen adapt the Hot Club’s instrumentation and style in forging their own Americanized take on gypsy jazz and bending the relationship between American and European jazz, utilizing elements of both to create a distinctive stylistic voice.
