Come to the Lady Jane’s Holiday Salon!

On the first Monday of every month, I emcee Lady Jane’s Salon, an evening of readings by romance writers in the upstairs bar at Madame X (94 W. Houston St.), and tonight’s event is fraught with holiday significance. Our guest authors will include Lauren Willig, the bestselling author of the “Pink Carnation” series of historical romance/espionage novels, who’s just published The Mischief of the Mistletoe, a Christmas-themed romantic comedy which draws upon both Jane Austen and P.G. Wodehouse for its charms. She’ll be joined by two of the contributors to the A Harlequin Christmas Carol anthology, Jacquie D’Alessandro and Hope Tarr.

(Hope is also one of the three novelists with whom I co-founded Lady Jane’s in early 2009; Maya Rodale and Leanna Renee Hieber will also be on hand to wish you holiday cheer—and you might want to ask Leanna about her own seasonally-themed contribution to the e-only A Midwinter Fantasy.)

You don’t need to RSVP to attend, but if you are on Facebook, you can certainly check in so we have a rough idea of the audience. If you’re in the New York City area, and you like romance fiction, this is always a fun opportunity to get together with fellow fans, and I’m sure tonight’s salon will be especially festive. I’m looking forward to celebrating with several of Lady Jane’s long-time friends, and to making new acquaintances as well. See you there?

6 December 2010 | events, lady jane's salon |

Ayun Halliday’s Holiday Gift Suggestion

It’s a delight to welcome Ayun Halliday back to these pages—some years back, she wrote a delightful guest essay about her pet peeves in foodie memoirs. She’s just published The Zinester’s Guide to NYC, a compendium of tips on what to do and where to do it from nearly two dozen zine creators who make the city their home; you’re as likely to find listings for the best open mic nights as you are for fine art museums, along with sections on the city’s best 99-cent stores and the locations of a few choice photobooths. Ayun has several events planned at New York City bookstores in December 2010; be sure to visit her website for details!

The book I’m hoping to get this holiday season, possibly by putting it under the tree with my husband’s name attached is Maira Kalman’s And the Pursuit of Happiness. I have no doubt it will be transcendent, but after several misfires wherein I gave someone a book I had yet to read myself, I’m going to play it safe by recommending one of this prolific author’s earlier books, The Principles of Uncertainty. It remains one of the best presents I ever received. Articulating all the reasons I love it and its author would take me all the way to New Year’s Eve, so I’ll limit myself to but a paltry few.

Her zest for life triumphs over the most Eeyore-ish of moods: “I return to New York. Tired. Sad. The world is coming to an end. What to do? What to do? I know what to do. Spend the day on the subway. Oh wonderful life-affirming two-dollar subway ride.” She documents the smallest details of the passing parade as if that’s what matters most (“the first superlative tassel”); she rescues dead people from obscurity with just a few words: “My favorite obituary is that of Megan Boyd. She lived in a tiny village in Scotland and spent her life making exquisite flies for the local fisherman and for Kings.” She assigns fierce sentimental—and thus genuine—value to things others throw away and forget: “We could examine my collection of sponges from around the world. Or the mosses of Long Island, which is an intact collection that I bought in a bookstore. It came in a shoebox that once held a pair of 7-1/2 B pumps.” She draws comforting connections, even when the points she is connecting are terribly sad: “Gershwin died at the age of 38 of a brain tumor. He is buried in the same cemetery as my husband.”

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3 December 2010 | gift ideas |