Once again, the Seanchai Library will be presenting a round of stories and readings in Voice this coming week, with the continuation of a number of stories and a look back on 50 years of writing and music…
As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.
Sunday 27th January
13:30 – Tea-time at Baker Street
Boredom is a terrible thing; when it strikes, it leaves most of us listless, wanting, distracted and, well, bored. For the great Sherlock Holmes, not even a walk accompanied by Doctor Watson, in which the minutiae of every day life might otherwise be a source of distraction, can lift the gloom brought about by a dearth of cases.
However, on their return to 221B Baker Street, the Great Detective discovers he has missed a visitor – a Mr. Grant Munro, who, Holmes deduces, must be of a disturbed state of mind as he left behind his valued pipe – valued because, as Holmes points out to Watson, it has been repaired when broken, rather than replaced.
When Munro returns, Holmes and Watson hear the story of Munro’s deception by his wife Effie. She had been previously married in America, but her husband and child had died of yellow fever, whereupon she returned to England and met and married Munro. Their marriage had been blissful — “We have not had a difference, not one, in thought, or word, or deed,” says Munro — until she asked for a hundred pounds and begged him not to ask why. Two months later, Effie Munro was caught conducting secret liaisons with the occupants of a cottage near the Munro house in Norbury. And thus, Holmes and Watson are off on The Adventure of the Yellow Face.
Join Caledonia Skytower and Corwyn Allen as they continue a journey through The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
18:00 Mary Poppins (at Magicland Park)
Made famous through the hugely successful 1964 Disney film starring Julie Andrews and a wobbly accented Dick van Dyke (albeit an adaptation despised by Travers herself), and more recently the focus of a successful West End and Broadway stage production, the adventures of the famous umbrella piloting nanny need no real introduction here in terms of their story.
First published in 1934, Mary Poppins was actually the first in a series of stories about the character written by Travers between 1934 and 1988, all illustrated by Mary Shephard, the daughter of Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows illustrator, E.H. Shephard. Mary actually took the job on account of her father being too busy with other work, and later became regarded as a co-author of the tales.
Join Caladonia at Magicland Park as she continues with Part 2 of this magical tale.
Monday 28th January, 19:00 – Notwithstanding: Stories from an English Village
Famous for his more exotic locations and stories such as Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Red Dog, Louis de Bernieres used England for the setting for a series of short stories written early in his career.
Located in and around the fictional village of Notwithstanding, which is somewhat based on the village of Worley in Surry, where he grew up, the stories were various published in newspapers, etc., prior to being brought together into this single volume in 2009. Semi-autobiographical in places, the stories are rich in English rural detail and contain references to many real-world locations in Surrey, and allow de Bernieres to ruminate on a part of English life he believes to now be vanishing.
Join Caledonia Skytower as she dips further into de Bernieres’ England.
Tuesday January 29th, 19:00: Inkspell
Faerie Maven-Pralou continues Cornelia Funke’s young adult which forms the second part of her Inkworld trilogy. The books chronicle the adventures of teenager Meggie Folchart whose life changes dramatically when she realizes that she and her father, a bookbinder named Mo, have the unusual ability to bring characters from books into the real world when reading aloud. Mostly set in Northern Italy and the parallel world of the fictional Inkheart book, the central story arc concerns the magic of books, their characters and creatures, and the art of reading.
In Inkspell, a year has passed since the events related in Inkheart, the first book in the series. Not a day goes by without Meggie thinking of Inkheart, a book that has characters that come to life. Resa is back. The fire-eater, Dustfinger, wants to go back to his wife daughters-who are in the story. When he finds a crazy, self-absorbed psycho storyteller, Orpheus, who can read him back into the book, he goes into the pages. Soon Farid convinces Meggie to read him into the book so he can warn Dustfinger of Basta. But Meggie has figured out how to read herself and Farid into the book Inkheart.
Wednesday January 30th, 19:00: Quite a Year for Plums
Anyone who has read the best-selling Mama Makes Up Her Mind or listened to Bailey White’s commentaries on NPR knows that she is a storyteller of inimitable wit and charm. Now, in her stunningly accomplished first novel, she introduces us to the peculiar yet lovable people who inhabit a small town in south Georgia.
Meet serious, studious Roger, the peanut pathologist and unlikely love object of half the town’s women. Meet Roger’s ex-mother-in-law, Louise, who teams up with an ardent typographer in an attempt to attract outer-space invaders with specific combinations of letters and numbers. And meet Della, the bird artist who captivates Roger with the sensible but enigmatic notes she leaves on things she throws away at the Dumpster.
Kayden Oconnell is joined by Caledonia Skytower as they continue to read from the novel.
Thursday January 31st, 19:00: A Pirate Looks at Fifty
The music and writings of Jimmy Buffett’s are known to millions. In A Pirate Looks at 50, written as he reached his half-century, Buffett presents his ultimate philosophy on life and how to live it and he takes his readers on the remarkable journey which he took to celebrate this landmark birthday.
The book spans everything from the legendary pirate coves of the Florida Keys to the ruins of ancient Cartegena. Along the way, we hear a tale or two of how Buffett got his start in New Orleans, how he discovered his passion for flying planes, and how he almost died in a watery crash in Nantucket harbour. We follow him to jungle outposts in Costa Rica and on a meandering trip down the Amazon, through hair-raising negotiations with gun-toting customs officials and a 3-year-old aspiring co-pilot.
Join Shandon Loring as he presents the ultimate backstage pass into the wonderful, wacky life of Jimmy Buffett.
Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and additions to the week’s schedule.
Note that throughout January and February, all donations to Seanchai Library SL will go to the real-world charity, Doctors Without Borders! Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 