We’re having our first Open Book Night or book social at Mid-Manhattan and you’re invited! This month’s theme is love. We hope you’ll join us on Friday, February 13 to share a book you loved reading!

What is Open Book Night? Is it like a book discussion?

It’s not exactly a book discussion since we won’t all be talking about the same book.  Here’s the plan: we really love to talk about books, and we meet people at the library every day who love to talk about books, so we thought it would be fun to get a group of us in a room together at the same time to share book recommendations. Everyone will have two minutes to introduce their book and tell the group why they loved it, so we’ll have a chance to hear about many different titles and authors that might spark our interest. We’ve planned five Open Book Nights for this year. The programs will be held on Friday evenings from 6-7 pm in the Corner Room on the first floor.

[If you're looking for a more traditional book discussion, our new Contemporary Classics Book Discussion program begins on Monday, March 2 with a discussion of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. And you can find book discussions for children, teens, and adults in many NYPL branches.]  

I don’t really read love stories. Can I still come to this Open Book Night?

Yes, you can! We want to hear about any book you love. Our theme for February is love, but we mean that in the broadest possible way, including romantic love, artistic passion, brotherly love, love thy neighbor, love of the game, love of a place, an idea, or any other form of love you can think of. And of course, one of our favorites here at the library is bibliophilia, love of books. The themes for Open Book Nights later in the year are listed at the end of this post.

To give an idea of what we mean by books related to love, we have a few “love” picks for you from Mid-Manhattan staff:

One of my favorite love stories is My Life in France. Julia Child’s memoir, written with her nephew Alex Prud'Homme, shares her love of France, French cooking, and most of all, her love for her husband Paul. The 2009 film Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child, was partly based on this lovely memoir.

Jessica is a sucker for love poetry, especially Pablo Neruda; she would take his Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair to be alone with on a desert island.

"Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again..."  Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier is one of the best-known novels of the 20th century and one of Lois's absolute favorite love stories.  Told by the second Mrs. de Winter, whose name we never learn, this is the story of her love for her husband and memories of their beautiful English country estate, Manderley, haunted by his deceased wife, Rebecca. Lois first read this mixture of romance, mystery, ghost story, and psychological thriller at age twelve, and although some readers may focus on the suspense and mystery aspects of the book, she says, "To me it will always be a love story." 

Daniel suggests some graphic novels that include diverse tales of romance:

And Sandra recommmends an unusual love story told through a series of dictionary entries, The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan.

For a look at the darker side of love, Dana suggests Unrequited: Women and Romantic Obsession by Lisa A. Phillips, a cross-displinary exploration of obsessive love. The author will be speakng about her book at Mid-Manhattan on Monday, March 16.  And for Jessica the unrequited love theme called to mind Goethe's classic Romantic tale The Sorrows of Young Werther.

Marianna recommends The Ultimate Intimacy by contemporary Czech writer and activist Ivan Klima. In a typical Eastern European fashion a protagonist comes to question not only the foundations of his own conventional morality, but the basis of all morality in general. A chance encounter with an unhappy parishioner causes Pastor Daniel Vedra to finally acknowledge his lack of faith. Occasional  excerpts from his diary reveal  deep inner turmoil  and in letters to his lover he openly confesses his despair over a lack of meaningful connection with his wife. Ultimately, Dan must choose between his desire for intimacy and his commitment to the way of life he no longer believes in.

Primatologist Dian Fossey was passionate about studying and protecting mountain gorillas in the African rain forest. She devoted her life to this endangered species and described the work she loved in the classic book, Gorillas in the Mist, which also inspired an award-winning film in 1988.

Jessica also suggested some titles on the love of objects, which can really have no bounds. The Way We Live With the Things We Love is a book of home interiors full of eclectic collections from porcelain figurines to religious keepsakes that people hold dear. And, possibly one of the dearest objects of all, the stuffed animal, is given full consideration in a book of photography by Mark Nixon called Much Loved.

A character I love and am always eager to return to is six-year-old Bertie Pollack from Alexander McCall Smith’s Scotland Street series. Bertie, a very bright and kind child, is shuttled from yoga classes to Italian and saxaphone lessons, and psychotherapy sessions by his overbearing and humorless mother Irene when all he wants is a chance to play with other boys his age. Bertie’s inner life and daily struggles are rendered with charm and affection, and with each Scotland Street installment, I fervently hope that Bertie will get a chance to have a little fun, that he’ll be allowed to join the Cub Scouts, or go fishing with his father, or eat something sugary.  

I also love reading books that take place in Weimar Berlin, fiction or nonfiction. I have to thank or blame the evocative portrait of the city and memorable characters that Christopher Isherwood created in Goodbye to Berlin for inspiring this mild obsession. Lois loves to read anything set in Paris in any time period. "If Paris is in the title or the Eiffel Tower is on the cover, I'm there." She really enjoyed how Brian Selznick recreated the Paris of the early 1930s in The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Sometimes readers adore a book or an author so much that the only thing to do is to write fanfiction inspired by the beloved writer’s work. I don't write fanfiction, but I love reading  Stephanie Barron’s Being a Jane Austen Mystery series. It turns out that her powerful intellect and novelist’s imagination make Jane Austen a great sleuth. The books are well researched and really capture Jane Austen’s voice. I'll never stop rereading Austen’s novels, but these clever and witty adventures are an added treat. 

So you see, you can tell us about pretty much any book at  Open Book Night. We're eager to hear about the books you love and why you love them! Here’s what to expect when you come:

1. Introduce your book with its title, author, publication date and genre (mystery, memoir, play, etc.). One book per person.
2. Tell us what it’s about and why you loved it in two minutes or less.
3. We want to have fun, so no negative criticism please.
4. Learn about titles of books that you may enjoy and want to share with your friends.

And if you can’t make it to Open Book Night in person,  please feel free to share a book you love in the comments section below.

UPDATED SCHEDULE: Book lovers, plan ahead! We have more Open Book Nights coming up on these Friday evenings from 6-7 pm.

• April 10, 2015 - New Beginnings
• May 8, 2015 - Nature
• June 12, 2015 - Sports
• July  10, 2015 - Music                
• August 14, 2015 - Travel       
• September 11, 2015 - New York
• October 9, 2015 - The Occult
• November 13, 2015  - Thanksgiving
• December 11, 2015 - Food and Cooking