strange and random happenstance: American Museum of Natural History

Showing posts with label American Museum of Natural History. Show all posts

Friday, July 27, 2018

Barnes & Noble 82nd and Broadway

Bookstore: Barnes and Noble 82nd and Broadway

Location: New York, New York

Why I Love Them: What's interesting about visiting any city is that after a couple of visits there are a few places that become your "go to" places. You have your favorite restaurant, your favorite museum, your favorite movie theatre, and your favorite bookstore. In recent years the main reason I was visiting New York was to visit my friend Jess, but I was also applying to grad school, and therefore my world became her world, which for quite some time was the Upper West Side. First up around Columbia University and later near the American Museum of Natural History. The Upper West Side has one Barnes and Noble located on 82nd street, two blocks from the American Museum of Natural History and right around the corner from Jess's apartment during one of my long stays. It also happens to be located as a convenient disembarkation point if you're riding the subway to any location on the Upper West Side. Therefore if Jess and I were discussing a book and saying that we thought the other should get it, we'd just get off the subway and wander into the 82nd Street Barnes and Noble and see if they had the book we were discussing. Oddly enough they usually did. They had impeccable buyers for this location. One time I remember I got on the express versus the local on the subway, but that wasn't a problem, because it meant I could swing by Barnes and Noble and grab a drink and a book before getting back to Jess's.

Best Buy: Though my best buy just inadvertently ended up being my best buy. Back in 2005 a few of my friends and I were meeting in New York to continue on to Halifax for a thesis gallery show our mutual friend Sara was staging. The trip happened to coincide with one of my fellow travelers birthday. So Jess and I went to the 82nd Street Barnes and Noble one day after lunch because Jess wanted to buy Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus for our friend Orelia. I didn't know too much about the book other than a few years previously when I had been visiting Jess in Boston she had been raving about the book. She was still raving about it and it was going to be Orelia's present. I picked up the book and was reading the back and thought, damn, this does sound good, so I bought myself a copy hoping to read it on my vacation. In fact what with reading Anne of Green Gables, I was going to Canada AND visiting Prince Edward Island after all, and then finding a cool Elizabeth Gaskell book called Lois the Witch I just HAD to read immediately, I don't think I picked up The Birth of Venus until I got home. But when I did it was better than I could have hoped for. Art, mystery, intrigue, nuns! It made me realize that historical fiction could be awesome. In fact, I'd go so far as to say The Birth of Venus gave birth to my absolute love of historical fiction, and I thank Jess and the 82nd Street Barnes and Noble for that just as much as the book!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: American Museum of Natural History, Anne of Green Gables, Barnes and Noble, Elizabeth Gaskell, Lois the Witch, New York, Sarah Dunant, Support Your Brick and Mortar, The Birth of Venus, Upper West Side

Friday, January 20, 2012

Book Review 2011 #3 - Brian Selznick's Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Published by: Scholastic
Publication Date: September 13th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 608 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
"Ground control to major Tom, your circuits dead,
there's something wrong
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you... "

1977: Ben has always been a unique kid. Deaf in one ear, he never let anything deter him. His mother filled his head with books and stars and curiosities. But now his mother is dead and he's living with his Aunt and Uncle in Gunflint Lake Minnesota left with more questions than he can count, while his true home lies empty next door. His mother never told him about his father, but he always connected him to the David Bowie song Space Oddity. His mother never told him a lot of things. Now that she is gone it seems wrong to go poking about in her past... but it might be the key to his father. A second tragedy leads Ben to run away to New York and hide out in the American Museum of Natural History, where hopefully he will find answers.

1927: Rose is held a prisoner. Rose is held a prisoner for her own safety. She is deaf. But that doesn't mean the world should be shut away from her. She loves the movies. They're still silent... but that will sadly change soon. She often risks everything to venture into the wilds of New York City. The American Museum of Natural History offers her solace, safety and family.

1977: These two lives are intertwined in ways some suspected, and some never dared to be true.

Brian Selznick has done it again. His previous story, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, told the story of early cinema in the streets of Paris through prose and pictures which instantly captivated the publishing world. Here we have yet another little urchin in Ben hiding out in a very famous landmark. All children must have at one time or another fantasized about living in a museum, I know I did, even if Ben's experience is out of necessity, versus determination, like the children in E.L. Konigsburg's book or even the youngest Tennenbaums. The museum is just part of the whole. It's the interweaving stories of Rose and Ben that build the suspense and mystery and drive this story forward. Little clues scattered like stars through the book. Rose's obsession with a film star having real world reasons. Ben's nightmares about wolves being a key to his past, not just a haunting nightmare.

Every little thing builds like an electric charge before a storm making you read and read and immerse yourself in this wonderful world so that when you look up at the clock at 5AM you are literally shocked at how time has flown. The book struck me, just as lightning struck on July 13th, 1977 causing New York City to be plunged into darkness. I can't tell you how I connected to this book. It's something deep in me. My love of collecting, of museums, of books, of mysteries, of the time I was born, of David Bowie, of history. The book is aptly named, I was Wonderstruck.