The first time Baltimore-based novelist Laura Lippman got dressed up for Twitter, she didn’t know it would turn into a regular thing.

The Twitter hashtag #DistanceButMakeItFashion was conceived by journalist (and connoisseur of all things glamorous) Rachel Syme. Fashion had been one of the first things to go by the wayside during the pandemic, so Syme thought it would be nice for people to occasionally get out of their yoga pants and into something a little fabulous. She proposed doing it every Sunday.

“And I was like, sure, I’ll do that,” Lippman says with a chuckle. “It just seemed funny and silly…I did it and it felt fantastic, like weirdly wonderful. I posted a photo of me that evening in this very fancy nightgown and robe that I literally wore on the Orient Express.”

A couple of days passed and Lippman decided to do it again.

“I reached into my closet and pulled out these over-the-knee red suede boots and paired them with a plaid dress and I put up a photo and wrote, ‘Oh Rachel what have you wrought?’”

From there, more outfits came—a coat dress with velvet applique tights and knee-high gray suede boots. A leopard-print coat with giant red sunglasses. An outfit—pink pants and a black top—styled by Georgia Ray, Lippman’s daughter with writer/producer David Simon.

“There are these really nice memories in my closet. I’ve been enjoying them,” Lippman says. (It doesn’t hurt that she’s more or less been the same dress size for 25 years.)

At one point, Lippman started telling the story behind the outfits—a dress she wore to the Emmys, another dress she wore to the premiere of The Sopranos at Radio City Music Hall—and she thinks she’ll continue with that practice.

“They’re almost like little writing prompts,” she says.

The response to the outfits has been very positive—although Lippman says she has filters set up on Twitter to minimize the appearance of bots or trolls.

“I’m sure there are some people who think it’s obnoxious,” she laughs. “There’s always someone who hates you online—that’s just a given!”

Lippman has really appreciated the ritual of creating the outfits, but she also wants to make it clear that she’s “achingly aware” how “lucky” she is.

“Knock wood, no one in my house is sick and no one close to us is sick,” she says. “For now, we don’t have to worry about our pay checks. I don’t know how to be luckier than that right now.”

So does Lippman recommend that everyone get in on the #DistanceButMakeItFashion phenomenon?

“I recommend that people do whatever makes them feel good right now,” she says.

In her latest, Laura Lippman turns back the clock to 1960s Baltimore, drawing inspiration from the city’s real-life “Lady in the Lake,” the body of a woman that was found in Druid Park Lake in 1969 and identified as Shirley Parker, an African-American barmaid.

In Lippman’s fictional retelling of the eerie story, Cleo Sherwood, a bartender at the Flamingo club on Pennsylvania Avenue, goes missing on New Year’s Eve. No one seems to care except Maddie Schwartz, who recently separated from her husband and became a reporter for the Star, determined to solve this mystery by whatever means necessary.

Scattered throughout the story are first-person perspectives of various characters who meet Maddie along the way. It’s perfect beach reading material—light and breezy and full of juicy gossip, set in historical Baltimore (think pre-gentrification Inner Harbor and a buzzing Howard Street shopping district), with fun twists throughout.

Editor’s Note: 7/19/2024
The television series based on Lippman’s novel debuts today on Apple TV. The show, which was filmed in Baltimore, stars Natalie Portman as Maddie Schwartz and Charm City native actress Moses Ingram as Cleo Johnson—the character inspired by Parker.

Fake Like Me

Barbara Bourland (Grand Central Publishing)

Baltimore-based Barbara Bourland raises a magnifying glass to the contemporary art world in this compelling satire. A cast of familiar-yet-eccentric characters plays out multiple storylines—a bizarre mystery (why did the young and famous New York artist Carey Logan drown herself in a lake?), a love story (really, a few), an artist’s coming of age—but at its core, it’s a penetrating, insightful discourse into what it means to be a practicing artist navigating the cut-throat art world. It’s a must-read for art scholars and students, who will appreciate all the practical and existential questions the narrator faces—from taking on an impossible deadline after two years’ worth of paintings are lost in a studio fire, to pondering the gray area between being an artist and being a commodity. And your jaw will drop more than a few times throughout Bourland’s story, which is painted with rich imagery, exquisite details, and sensual delight.

Lady in the Lake

Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

In her latest, Laura Lippman turns back the clock to 1960s Baltimore, drawing inspiration from the city’s real-life “Lady in the Lake,” the body of a woman that was found in Druid Park Lake in 1969 and identified as Shirley Parker, an African-American barmaid. In Lippman’s fictional retelling of the eerie story, Cleo Sherwood, a bartender at the Flamingo club on Pennsylvania Avenue, goes missing on New Year’s Eve. No one seems to care except Maddie Schwartz, who recently separated from her husband and became a reporter for the Star, determined to solve this mystery by whatever means necessary. Scattered throughout the story are first-person perspectives of various characters who meet Maddie along the way. It’s perfect beach reading material—light and breezy and full of juicy gossip, set in historical Baltimore (think pre-
gentrification Inner Harbor and a buzzing Howard Street shopping district), with fun twists throughout.

We traveled to Appalachia to sit inside the last honky-tonk bar in Winchester, Virginia, and took a ride back in time to learn about Maryland’s rich history in music. We were mesmerized by the timeless mystique of mermaids and disheartened by the dire state of the Chesapeake Bay. We got perspective into our city’s history, through stories of the 1968 riots after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the Baltimore Uprising of 2015, and the aftermath of both.

And we did this all through books that were penned by Baltimore authors.

We pored over poetry, novels, art books, children’s books, collected essays, memoirs, and handbooks, all of which provided insight into understanding our world and ourselves. Here are our top picks for the must-read books of the 2018. (Spoiler alert: in the case of Michael Northrup’s book, it’s a must-see.)

I Wrote This Book Because I Love You
Tim Kreider (Simon & Schuster)

It’s no surprise that when he’s not writing for The New York Times, Tim Kreider is also a cartoonist (many in Baltimore may know him for his dark-humor comic strip “The Pain—When Will It End?,” which ran for 12 years in City Paper). The Baltimore native’s second collection of essays is chock full of laugh-out-loud moments, mostly at his own expense, as he puts his love life on display with stark honesty. Like the time he briefly dated a prostitute (er, fetish model), or when he followed a girl to the circus and posed as her husband, or when he tracked down the psychologist who tested him as a child for the renowned Strange Situation study that’s used to predict attachment issues into adulthood. All the while, he’s discovered a thing or two. Kreider isn’t solely a humorist—he’s also part philosopher, part psychologist, part poet. Paired with his depth of insight into the human condition and startlingly sharp observations, this intimate collection is as hilarious as it is poignant, as it explores what it means to love and be loved—even if it’s love shared with your 19-year-old cat.

Hummingbirds in the Trenches
Kondwani Fidel (self-published)

Kondwani Fidel’s raw, brutal, and unabashedly honest account of growing up in Baltimore and losing family and friends to murder, drugs, and gang violence is painful to read but also refreshing, uncompromising in its integrity to tell the truth as he sees it. There’s a sensitivity and a fire to the voice of this 25 year old, who has already traveled the country and world to give lectures and readings. His new collection of memoir-esque essays, one-liners, conversation excerpts, and rhythmic poetry—referred to as “The Tracklist” in the table of contents—encompasses the writer’s ruminations and research. Here, he reflects on the repercussions of slavery and systemic racism in America: the toxic lead paint study on black youth; kids suffering in public schools without air conditioning or heat; and general poverty, depression (including his own), suicide, drugs, and blood on the streets of East Baltimore. If you’re not aware of what growing up in a rough neighborhood is like—what it’s like to be a hummingbird in the trenches—this book will pry your eyes wide open.

Clock Dance
Anne Tyler (Knoff)

In Anne Tyler’s latest novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Baltimore author explores the passage of time and how pivotal moments come to define us. In blocks of narrative that skip ahead 10 to 20 years at a time, she tells the story of a rather ordinary character, Willa Drake, whom we meet as a daughter, wife, and mother of adult children who longs to be a grandmother. We see her through love and loss, from childhood into retirement—and we watch as she evolves (albeit slowly). It’s Tyler’s graceful prose and solid narrative, peppered with her subtle sense of humor, that makes this book a joy to read. Whether it’s Willa’s straight-and-narrow, slightly miserable second husband; her sardonic little sister; or the badass, motorcycle-riding neighbor in leather pants, these characters come to life off the page, another one of Tyler’s gifts.

Dream Away
Michael E. Northrup (Stanley/Barker)

In this limited-edition art book, Baltimore’s Michael E. Northrup presents a series of 66 photographs of his now ex-wife that revolve around femininity, revealing the girl in the woman and the woman in the girl. These portraits also serve as a love story and an intimate look into the photographer’s own life. “As for the subject matter, we met in 1976, married in 1978, and divorced 1988,” Northrup says succinctly. We see her life—and body—change as she goes from lover to mother, from casually smoking cigarettes and skinny dipping to donning a bare-bummed baby over her shoulder and modeling breast pumps. Black-and-white images are juxtaposed with color, giving a sense of reflection on past times. With Northrup’s imaginative experiments with shadow, strategically placed objects, and curated poses, the moments-in-time feel of a family album is elevated to fine art.

Liza Jane & the Dragon
Laura Lippman (Black Sheep/Akashic Books)

The New York Times best-selling author Laura Lippman’s foray into the arena of children’s literature is delightful and yet manages to maintain the author’s quirky sense of humor. In this tale, a little girl named Liza Jane fires her parents and hires a dragon to take their place . . . until she realizes the dragon has only one tactic for solving problems: breathing fire. Late to school? Set the secretary’s desk on fire. Pizza delivery man got delayed? A fiery blast to his car. The picture book is illustrated by Maryland painter Kate Samworth, who brings the characters to life and gives us visual clues for reading this story in a broader context. While this story is a fun romp through what might be the occasional daydream of many children, it also serves as a political allegory. The dragon has a familiar blond mane that swoops between his two horns.

Before and After Loss: A Neurologist’s Perspective on Loss, Grief and Our Brain
Lisa M. Shulman, MD (Johns Hopkins University Press)

This poetic and insightful, if heartbreaking, memoir from neurologist Lisa M. Schulman stems from her own bereavement of her late husband, Bill Weiner, former chair of neurology at the University of Maryland, as she chronicles his diagnosis and eventual succumbing to cancer. His journal entries, her recorded dreams, and photos of meals they shared add a personal touch to the book that illustrates their love for one another, while interspersed quotes from philosophers, mystics, poets, and psychotherapists offer wisdom on death, dying, and grieving. Combined with the latest scientific studies in traumatic brain injury and holistic approaches to healing, Schulman has created a unique book that touches on all aspects of the process of grieving—the psychological, physiological, and overlap between neurology and psychiatry. Ultimately, Shulman points out that whether brain injury is caused by physical or emotional trauma, it results in similar long-term effects—and also that post-traumatic stress can become post-traumatic growth, with the right tools. In short, it could prove to be an invaluable aid to counselors, psychotherapists, and medical doctors, as well as anyone moving through grief toward wholeness.

A Memory of the Future
Elizabeth Spires (W.W. Norton & Company)

In this new poetry collection, Spires seems to channel Rumi or Buddha or both. The poems feel like prayers, and in some cases koans—each unique but all with a timeless, spiritual quality. To say they’re Zen-like would be both literal and figurative; references to Zen Buddhism are strewn throughout Spires’ work, and her verses unfold like meditations. The Goucher College professor of English possesses the rare gift to present lovely, solemn passages with a light touch and deft use of metaphor while simultaneously feeding her readers profound and heady truths. These little nuggets of wisdom come like offerings placed on an altar, quietly, with grace and intention.

Homeplace
John Lingan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Homeplace is an honest, bittersweet, and at times humorous look at small-town America through the lens of Winchester, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. Lingan, who grew up in Catonsville and has written for Oxford American and New York Times Magazine, examines Patsy Cline’s hometown and its longtime resident Jim McCoy, the honky-tonk owner who discovered her (and who continued to smoke, drink, and make music well into his 80s). What we ultimately see is a town in the midst of an identity crisis—from a slow-paced, Southern area known for its apple production to a burgeoning suburb of new establishments that have attracted an influx of urbanites from Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia. But the book also feels like a travelogue at times—clearly the observations of an out-of-towner with a voice of his own. His four years of researching and writing it is evident, as he reveals the town’s (and neighboring towns’) quirks while bringing into focus a broader, nostalgic story of a vanishing way of life, as factory farms, opioids, big-box stores, and even music streaming services swallow up what once was.

The Chesapeake in Focus: Transforming the Natural World
Tom Pelton (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Pelton, one the country’s leading environmental journalists, offers us a wealth of knowledge about the Chesapeake Bay, collected from his more than two decades of reporting on this ecological, cultural, and historical treasure (you may also know him from his show Environment in Focus on WYPR). His book is part history of the bay’s watershed region, part political history of its preservation, and, to a lesser extent, part personal history, as Pelton draws gorgeous imagery of scenes he’s experienced as an avid kayaker on the bay’s waters and tributaries. In total, he paints a compelling portrait of what it is he wants to preserve. Divided into four sections (The Waters, The People, The Wildlife, and The Policies), the book covers a lot of ground, from Baltimore’s sewage issues to the over-harvesting of wild oysters. The highlight, perhaps, comes toward the end, when Pelton proposes 10 realistic steps for bay restoration. We should listen to him.

On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope

DeRay Mckesson (Viking)

Fours years after a white police officer killed unarmed teen Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri, DeRay Mckesson takes readers inside the compelling, 400-days-long, in-the-streets response that inspired Black Lives Matter protests around the country. An activist in the ongoing civil rights movement and the host of the popular podcast Pod Save the People, Mckesson presents an intimate portrait of his experience growing up as the son of former addicts in West Baltimore, the context of the strained relationship between police and the black community in many cities, and optimism for the future. A former teacher, Mckesson knows his history and paints a way forward.

Liza Jane & the Dragon

Laura Lippman (Black Sheep/Akashic Books)

The New York Times best-selling author Laura Lippman’s foray into the arena of children’s literature is delightful and yet manages to maintain the author’s quirky sense of humor. In this tale, a little girl named Liza Jane fires her parents and hires a dragon to take their place . . . until she realizes the dragon has only one tactic for solving problems: breathing fire. Late to school? Set the secretary’s desk on fire. Pizza delivery man got delayed? A fiery blast to his car. The picture book is illustrated by Maryland painter Kate Samworth, who brings the characters to life and gives us visual clues for reading this story in a broader context. While this story is a fun romp through what might be the occasional daydream of many children, it also serves as a political allegory. The dragon has a familiar blond mane that swoops between his two horns.

Read our full interview with writer Laura Lippman.

You went from writing crime fiction novels to picture book Liza Jane & the Dragon. How did this project come to be?
My mom was a children’s librarian in the Baltimore City school system. I love children’s literature—I was raised on the best books. And I have a daughter now, so I’m reading kids’ books again. I always thought it was something I would do if I had the right idea. In January 2017, we had had a wearying night at the house, and we were sitting at dinner at a neighborhood restaurant, feeling very beaten down, and she just suddenly said, “Why is Donald Trump president?” This was a week after the inauguration. And I felt that she deserved the most nuanced and empathetic answer that I could give, which is that there are a lot of people in our country—I don’t necessarily agree with them—who are very angry and very frustrated, and they think that no one ever listens to them. My daughter said, “That sounds exactly like me.” [Laughs.]

So I started telling her this story about a little girl who was tired of her parents bossing her around, so she fired them and hired the first person who came to the door: a dragon. At first it was fun, but pretty soon, every time there was a problem, the dragon’s only response was to belch fire. And when the girl said things like, “That’s not very helpful,” the dragon would always say what do you expect? I’m a dragon!” My daughter thought the story was hilarious and kept asking me to expand on it. I’m not sure if the parents ever came home in the original version. I told some friends about it and they said it sounded like a book.

Well, you’ve certainly answered my question of whether this could be read as a political allegory.
Yes, this is a book that grew out of my daughter’s question about Trump, and my politics are pretty clearly lefty. That said, the book is more about this rather simplistic idea that anyone can do any job, which is an idea that seems to find its fullest expression in politics in general. It’s one thing that politicians and writers have in common: We have this job that most people think, given the opportunity, they could do it pretty well, and they think it would make them rich. Both of these things are untrue.

The things that people think are important about politics and writing are the ideas, but you have to know about the process and . . . the actual execution. So it’s true the dragon has that little orangey mane on his head, and clearly I’m having some fun with current events, but to me it’s more about professionalism and who’s the right person for a job.

The first time I read it, I just enjoyed the story and didn’t read it as an allegory.
I’m kind of glad! My biggest fear is that people will think this is some kind of anti-Trump screed, and it’s really not. I mean, I will never disavow my own politics, but the message is broader. Like when people talk about The Rock running for office, I’m like, there is such a big gap between being a delightful performer and doing this job. I’m afraid that we’ve taken up the idea of “any child can be president” and we have taken it to its most awful conclusion, which is that really anybody can be president!

I just find that astonishing, especially coming after one of the most accomplished intellects of the modern age holding office. People can feel however they want to feel about Obama’s policies, but as a politician and an intellect, he was first rate. And to see that sort of rejection by a good 40 percent of the country is disturbing. But I like the idea that it’s a fun story because, again, it’s for kids. Kids sitting around at school are not gonna say, “Hey, got any good allegories about Trump?”

It makes me wonder what books I read as a child that had a broader significance that totally went over my head at the time.
I think there have been a lot of works in children’s literature where a lot of work has been projected onto them. I think that’s certainly true of [Maurice] Sendak.

What was it like to switch gears to write for a younger audience? I feel like your sense of humor still came through.
I think I had assimilated a lot about writing for children because I’d been reading books to my daughter since she was born. She was 6 at the time of writing this. Lots of people think it’s super easy to write a children’s book. They think it’s 1,000 words or less, and it’s very small words, very short sentences.

But I came out of writing for newspapers, and that has a style to it. I wrote for different newspapers that had different voices—writing for The Baltimore Sun was very different than writing for The San Antonio Light, where I’d worked before, and my own father had a column at The Sun for years, before he retired in 1995 that was only 600 words—which is really hard to do. I was really aware of all those challenges. But it’s completely different; it’s a world unto itself. I’d like to do it again. I’d like to write about Liza Jane again. She makes me laugh. She reminds me very much of another girl I know.

Why did you end up publishing with Akashic Books, and what was the process of working with the illustrator?
I wrote it up fast—relative to what it takes to write a novel—and the children’s editor at Harper Collins, where I’m under contract for my novels, said, “Oh, we think a dragon’s too scary—does it have to be a dragon?” And I’m like, “Yeah, it has to be a dragon. I don’t understand how the story works if the surrogate parent isn’t someone scary and ragey.” I just wanted it to exist, out in the world. It meant a lot to me that my daughter had inspired it. So we went to Johnny Temple at Akashic. They had published a book called Go the F— To Sleep, which was not technically a children’s book. When Akashic bought it [Liza Jane & the Dragon], they found a wonderful illustrator, Kate, who worked on it for over a year (I always felt kind of guilty about that).

The illustrations were more beautiful than I’d imagined. I thought it would be a very simply, starkly illustrated book, almost cartoonist. Better yet, she had lived in New Orleans for a time, a city very dear to my heart, and I was really pleased that some of those street scenes in the book are actually inspired by blocks in New Orleans. She also knew things about children’s books that I didn’t know. Like Liza Jane wears the same dress throughout the book because it subliminally tells children that this is happening in the blink of an eye. It’s like a dream. Stuff like that I never would’ve known.

These days, there are groups for everything imaginable online—food, pets, makeup, hair. But hordes of bibliophiles are popping up on Instagram. These book-obsessed people are known as “bookstagrammers” and they use the online platform to build communities for book lovers just like them.

It’s not your old-fashioned book club with ladies (and gents) sitting around a coffee table discussing the latest Fifty Shades novel. These groups are diverse and are perfect for anyone who wants to get in a good discussion on a great book with limited human interaction. Bookstagrammers post their favorites online and some even host discussions with their followers.

Take Baltimore native Katharine Scrivener who has her own Bookstagram account, @kathareads. She’s a member of several book clubs, including an online book blog she started with her friends, The Bookly Club. She started her book-focused account after she realized there was an entire online community that shared in her love of literature.

She created her account a little over a year ago and now has more than 12,000 followers, and she even hosts an online discussion complete with the hashtag #ReadWithKat to engage them to read along with her. Scrivener has become so popular that Sarah Jessica Parker actually re-grammed one of her posts.

“It is a little bit surreal,” she says. “I didn’t realize this community existed, or how big and wonderful it is. It’s just full of smart, caring, supportive, book-obsessed people. It’s just this little corner of the internet that is unlike any other I’ve found.”

Scrivener, who enjoys literary fiction, memoirs, and thrillers, believes that the online platform has also provided an open pathway for publishers and authors to connect with readers in a way that wasn’t possible a decade ago. It also opens readers up to genres and titles that they wouldn’t otherwise check out if not for the abundance of literature sharing that takes place on these accounts.

“I love Baltimore-based authors like Laura Lippman and Anne Tyler,” she says. “It’s great to see other people from other places get excited about books that are written by Baltimore authors or that take place in Baltimore.”

Although this Bookstagram account began as just an entertaining hobby for Scrivener, she has been toying with the idea of making it something bigger than just an online account. She has grappled with the notion of local meetups, newsletters, and growing the presence of book influencers online, although she’s still looking for a way to monetize her passion.

“What’s unfortunate about book influencers is they aren’t looked at the same as other influencers,” she says. For now, I love reading so much and this account is so much fun for me that part of me is also afraid to take it to a place where it becomes work.”

Whether your preference is a physical book, audiobook, or a Kindle—Scrivener bounces among all three but prefers an actual book—these online communities are perfect for a veracious reader looking to connect with other bibliophiles.

“I decided to create this Instagram account dedicated to books because I wanted to reignite my excitement for reading,” Scrivener says. “But I also just wanted to talk about books with other people who love books. I had no idea where it would go or what would happen, but it’s just been so much more than I imagined.”

Visual Art

Devin Allen’s A Beautiful Ghetto exhibit
Baltimore street photographer Devin Allen became known across the nation for his work after one of his images of the 2015 Baltimore protests was featured as the cover of Time magazine. Three years later, and in honor of that anniversary, the Institute for Integrative Health will exhibit a series of his black-and-white photos documenting the riots in A Beautiful Ghetto. Maybe more importantly, the show will serve as a launchpad for community-wide discussions. This kicks off with an artist talk during the opening reception, where his 2017 book by the same title will be available, and it continues with various events with a focus on healing, such as the April 13 dialogue with artists, writers, and leaders about creating healing spaces for their communities. The Institute for Integrative Health, 1407 Fleet St. Opening reception: 6 to 8:30 p.m. March 15.

Adam Davies: Reroutings
Creative Alliance resident artist Adam Davies will transform the space there to bring us Reroutings, an exhibit of his large-format film photographs of outdoor structures that have served as unofficial public forums (think graffiti-strewn bridges and unexpected street art found during a stroll). The gallery space will be completely darkened and the walls painted black and replaced with his huge (56- by 70-inch) photographic images, which will be lit from behind. Alex Zhang Hungtai of Dirty Beaches will perform his lo-fi electronica soundscapes—which were an influence on the photography series—during an opening reception on March 10, and more events will follow. Opens March 10 at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Stephen Towns: Rumination and a Reckoning
Story quilts are an African-American tradition dating back at least some 200 years. Some historians believe that secret codes were sewn into quilts, providing maps for navigating the Underground Railroad. Baltimore artist Stephen Towns continues in this tradition, exploring themes of slavery and perspectives of women and people of color through his large-scale fabric and bead-work pieces, often featuring faceless black figures that appear as silhouettes. The Baltimore Museum of Art will exhibit 10 of his quilts in Rumination and a Reckoning beginning this month, seven of which depict the story of Nat Turner and his 1831 rebellion. As if that weren’t enough, the museum will host Towns in conversation with internationally renowned artist Mark Bradford. March 7 through Sept. 2 at the Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive.

Music

Baltimore Plays The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill 20th Anniversary
Hard as it may be to believe, it’s been 20 years since the release of the seminal album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. In a homage to the work, several artists—Jasmine Pope (J Pope and the HearNow), Christen B, Joy Postell, Karin Sings Evans, Marc Avon Evans, Jamaal Black Root Collier—will gather at the Creative Alliance to perform its tracks in their own style. March 18 at the Creative Alliance, 3134 Eastern Ave.

Theater

Humbug: The Great P.T. Barnum Séance
Magician David London will attempt to summon the spirit of The Great P.T. Barnum via—what else?—séance in his new show Humbug at The Peale Center. While we can’t guarantee audiences will make contact with the legendary showman, we do guarantee the exhibition of genuine Barnum artifacts (honestly, that might be a hoax, too—in the spirit of P.T. Barnum, of course). March 8 to 25 at The Peale Center, 225 N. Holliday St.

Film

Everything is Terrible!’s The Great Satan
Imagine being able to get a taste of more than more than 2,000 horror, satanic, and religious films in under two hours. You don’t have to imagine anymore. Everything is Terrible! has done the work for you, creating a narrative from scraps of material to make the kitschy, trippy new film The Great Satan. In their own words: “Since the dawn of time, man has searched for answers . . . and failed. But the fog of existence has finally cleared thanks to the eternal fruits of your favorite found footage collective.” The makers will be at the theater to present their film as part of their cross-country tour. Guests are encouraged to bring offerings of VHS tapes of Jerry Maguire. March 7 at SNF Parkway Theatre, 5 W. North Ave.

Kékszakállú

Baltimore’s Matt Porterfield, best known for his films Hamilton and Putty Hill, will host and do a Q&A at two screenings of the gorgeous Argentine film Kékszakállú, co-written and co-produced by him and directed by Gastón Solnicki. The coming-of-age film’s title and inspiration comes from the opera Bluebeard’s Castle and follows a group of upper-class girls as they enter the world outside of their privileged lives. March 2 to 8 at SNF Parkway Theatre, 5 W. North Ave.

Literary Arts

An Evening with Laura Lippman at Federal Hill Prep School
Baltimore’s literary darling and New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman will be at Federal Hill Prep School as part of a book tour for her latest release, Sunburn. The novel tells the story of Polly, a runaway wife who’s ready to start a new life but wasn’t quite ready to fall in love in the process. March 24 at Federal Hill Preparatory School, 1040 William St.

Sunburn

Laura Lippman
(William Morrow)

A runaway wife in love with a private detective and the townsfolk of Belleville, Delaware, who don’t know what to make of either of them: These are the characters who populate the latest novel by Baltimore’s literary darling and New York Times bestselling crime fiction author Laura Lippman. To complicate matters, someone in town ends up dead, and suspicions arise. A homey tavern sets the stage for this tale of star-crossed lovers at best, murder and scandal at its darkest. The story takes place during the summer of 1995—strategic on Lippman’s part, as this was before smartphones and social media could track down Polly, an MIA wife trying to reinvent herself. Revisiting VHS, Murder, She Wrote, encyclopedias, pay phones, and other ’90s staples is simply fun, as are her references to Baltimore and the Eastern Shore. We also get to peer into the lives of secondary characters through snapshots—Bob, aka Baba, who runs the video store; Irving, the insurance broker who doesn’t normally attend synagogue—which adds color and dimension to the story, reminding us that these passersby have their own lives . . . and they are just as complicated as our own (though, admittedly, not as complicated as Polly’s). 

Laura Lippman will be at Ivy Bookshop for a reading, Q&A, and book signing at 7 p.m. Feb. 23.

I Wrote This Book Because I Love You

Tim Kreider
(Simon & Schuster)

It’s no surprise that when he’s not writing for The New York Times, Tim Kreider is also a cartoonist (many in Baltimore may know him for his dark-humor comic strip “The Pain—When Will It End?,” which ran for 12 years in City Paper). The Baltimore native’s second collection of essays is chock full of laugh-out-loud moments, mostly at his own expense, as he puts his love life on display with stark honesty. Like the time he briefly dated a prostitute (er, fetish model), or when he followed a girl to the circus and posed as her husband, or when he tracked down the psychologist who tested him as a child for the renowned Strange Situation study that’s used to predict attachment issues into adulthood. All the while, he’s discovered a thing or two along the way. But Kreider isn’t solely a humorist; he’s also part philosopher, part psychologist, part poet. Paired with his depth of insight into the human condition and startlingly sharp observations, this intimate collection is as hilarious as it is poignant, as it explores what it means to love and be loved—even if it’s love shared with your 19-year-old cat. 

Tim Kreider will talk about his book during at launch from 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 9 at Atomic Books.

The Cook Up
D. Watkins (Grand Central Publishing)

From the first pages of his memoir, Watkins plunges us into a world of heartbreak and violence, where life hangs in the balance. The day the then-teenaged D. Watkins discovers he has been accepted to Georgetown University, his older brother—his hero, the one who had pushed him to escape the streets—is shot and killed. While processing his grief and struggling to find his place in the world, a disillusioned Watkins takes over for his brother in the East Baltimore drug business after a short stint in college. That is where the book hurtles forward in riveting detail, bringing us into a world of crack cooks and turf wars, neighborhood hierarchies, Rolexes, Polo apparel, and Mercedes-Benzes, Belvedere vodka, and chicken boxes. Watkins weaves together characters and situations that are equal parts hilarious, painful, and unforgettable. And when he begins to question his involvement in the drug business, and his role in the community, he proves just how difficult it is to transcend. Watkins’s work is an important one, showcasing a gifted writer who has much to contribute to our understanding of our city.

Do Guns Make Us Free?
Firmin DeBrabander (Yale University Press)

“We thought Sandy Hook would change things,” begins DeBrabander’s book, referencing the December 2012 elementary school shooting in Connecticut where 20 children were massacred. But, he continues, the pleas for gun control that followed were met with little action, and one year later, “the country had loosened more gun regulations than it tightened.” DeBrabander, an associate professor of philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art, examines why gun control has become such an emotionally charged debate in our country. He explores the role of the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment, our founding fathers’ intentions, and how gun ownership fits into democracy. He presents startling statistics on the decreasing number of Americans who own guns and the significant drop in crime nationally—which DeBrabander says seems to contradict gun advocates’ increasing desire for self-protection. Do Guns Make Us Free? is an informative and thought-provoking work that forces us to examine our own beliefs as we search for resolution to this polarizing issue.

Wilde Lake
Laura Lippman (HarperCollins Publishers)

Families have always provided abundant material for writing, both fiction and nonfiction. There’s the exploration of long-established dynamics, hidden resentments, shared histories—and, perhaps, family secrets. Lippman—the renowned Baltimore author and wife of TV writer/producer David Simon—dives into this territory in her newest novel, providing us with a book rich in the examination of truth and memory. Lippman’s main character is Luisa “Lu” Brant, a newly elected Howard County state’s attorney who has prosecution in the blood—her father held the same post when she was a child. Her first murder case brings back pieces of the past that cause her to question what she holds as true and lawful. Lu is far from one-dimensional—she’s a feisty, independent, and competitive woman who’s not afraid of who she is, or what she represents. Her story, set in Columbia and told in a braided narrative style that alternates between her childhood and the present day, has all the elements of a great, page-turning crime novel. And as usual, Lippman delivers.

See our Q&A with writer Laura Lippman.

For two decades, Laura Lippman has won acclaim and gained fans across the country (including comedic actress Mindy Kaling) with her spine-tingling crime novels. Her latest work, Wilde Lake, will be released in May, and Lippman joined us to talk about coming up with characters, life with husband David Simon (the mind behind HBO’s The Wire and Show Me a Hero), and her favorite cheeseburger. (Spoiler alert: We get right into one of the big surprises in the book, so read at your own risk.)

How did the idea for this book come to you?
Well, it’s a little bit of a convoluted story. It began when the Woody Allen/Dylan Farrow story surfaced again. I read a lot, and I thought a lot about it. The conclusion I came to is that as an individual, I was going to believe people who said they were sexually assaulted. I just decided for my own humanity that I would start always at a place of saying, ‘Yes, the victim is telling the truth’ . . . But then I thought, if you really embrace this idea, how do you deal with the story told in To Kill A Mockingbird? Big disclaimer: I don’t think Tom Robinson is a rapist. He’s clearly innocent. But, I thought, what if you thought of it differently, but not in the pre-Civil Rights era? And where would this story be most interesting? It’s about an African-American man who is handsome and is generally seen as a good person. He is accused of raping a young woman who’s seen from being from the other side of the tracks, not as being a particularly well-thought-of member of society . . . I thought about the era in which I grew up, and the place I went to high school, and I began thinking, ‘This is a story that really fits Columbia in the 1970s.’ I took that and I ran with it.

How long did it take for you to figure all that out?
It was probably between April and May of 2014 when I started writing this book, and I can usually write a book in about 11 months. People think that’s very fast, and I struggle with the idea that I’m a fast writer because somehow that seems to discredit me. It’s like, ‘Well, how good could it be, look how fast she wrote it.’ But I am a very, very fast writer. I maintain that the one thing the Medill School of Journalism [at Northwestern University] was good at teaching was one’s maximum speed limit as a writer. I always say that one’s writing speed is a bit like your body type, your metabolism. You can adjust it, but you’re sort of born with it, and I’m fast.

But this book took me 14 months to get a draft to send to my editor. It’s the first time in my life, first time in my career as a novelist, that I’ve said, ‘I’m not going to turn my book in on time.’ I was an entire month later. By the way, people in publishing think it’s hilarious that I consider 30 days late, but I did. I took it really seriously. The other thing I did with this book that I’ve never done before is I put myself on my own writing retreat at a crucial time. We’re lucky enough to own another property in another city and I went there by myself for a week. . . So this is the longest I’ve ever worked on a book, and I think it’s one of the best books I’ve written.

By the time my editor got it, I had probably gone through three drafts, and, while she had it, I did another draft. So this is the seventh draft. I’m pretty unapologetic about how much I edit and proof. I never think of myself as a perfectionist, because I think of perfectionism as somewhat crippling. But being married to [writer and TV producer David Simon] I’ve had the chance to observe someone who has an amazing drive to get things as good as they can be and does so in a medium where there are a lot of things outside his control. There’s so much you just have to live with and accept, and yet he still pushes to get it as right as he can. That’s made me see that it’s inexcusable when I have a much easier gig not to push myself to get it as right as I can.

You think of your job as easier than his?
Oh my gosh, it’s so much easier. First of all, there are no other people. Yeah, I have an editor, but I work by myself most of the time, and that always simplifies things. It doesn’t necessarily make things better, but it makes it easier.

Obviously, you’re very comfortable in your own mind, because I’m sure some people would find working alone terrifying.
Yes. I’m a very outgoing person and a very social person, so I’ve had to make sure I tend to that energy because it’s no longer being served in a workplace. But hey, luckily there’s social media. I have a lot of good friends who are writers and we’re pretty far flung but we keep in touch through social media, and that does give a sense of that collegiality, that around the water cooler thing. It is important.

Why do you think you took more time with this book?
Part of it was that I had to figure out how to tell the story. It has an unusual structure in that about 40 percent of it is told in this first person voice that is speaking in the past tense. We are hearing [the main character] Lu tell the story and the other 60 percent of the novel, we’re seeing Lu live the story, and that’s told in third person present tense. There’s actually a line in the book about how the present is so full of regard for itself but it doesn’t know what the past knows. Lu has to live it before she can understand it. Finding that structure made it really hard, and that was a big part of the battle. And it’s a very sad, middle-aged book. It’s about that moment when parents become frail, heroes get shot down, and we have to accept the limitations of people we admired and maybe even had up on pedestals. It’s a book about coming to terms with one’s mistakes, judgments, and actions. No two books are alike, and I generally go into my books knowing the big secret. I went into Wilde Lake knowing what happened on that pivotal night that the allegation of rape is made, I knew what happened in the present-day homicide that is interwoven with the story that affects the Brandt family. And it’s a darn sad story. If you know all the facts of the story, you know it’s not going to end happily, and I wasn’t in a hurry to get there.

It sounds like you knew how sad it was going to be while you were writing it.
I did. [Laughs] I don’t even know why I write such sad books. I have such a nice life and I’m actually really optimistic by nature. I don’t even like that much pessimism around me. I read a lot of crime fiction, but I don’t think I’m necessarily drawn towards dark material . . . Part of it is that I was really aware that I was only going to write about Lu once. She’s not a character that can ever come back, and this was my only chance to be in her company. I’ve learned from writing my stand-alone books that I’m going to miss the characters when they’re gone. Maybe I’m beginning to slow down because maybe this is the only time I’m going to be in the company of these women, and I enjoy their company.

How do you come up with your characters?
No one believes this, but they’re pretty much figments of my imagination. People who know me want to say, ‘Well, that’s so and so,’ and certainly people are aware that real stories have inspired my books, and they have. But I don’t know those people . . . and the things that are true are so small and inconsequential—the pizza place that the Brandt family goes to is the pizza place my family liked. I’m not going to worry about what people think is true or untrue because then I wouldn’t write anything at all.

I don’t have any fear of writing unlikeable characters, and I have found so far that this is the general response to Lu. That’s how I intended it. She’s a tough cookie. At first, I was working off the template of To Kill A Mockingbird—there’s a widower father and two kids, a brother and a sister. Then Lu just becomes herself. She’s scrappy, she’s super smart, she’s incredibly competitive—I definitely tapped myself for the competitive part. She just kind of took over . . . her voice was there the minute I wrote the first chapter. I just got her.

You mentioned that you knew the book was going to be sad. But what was the most fun part of writing this book?
I love food as a marker in people’s worlds, and I love that my mom said when she was done with the book, ‘Should I be going to Five Guys now?’ I think very highly of the Five Guys’ cheeseburger. I have argued that it’s better than In-N-Out. I’m pretty firm in that opinion, but that’s because I like to get jalapeños on my cheeseburgers, and you can do that at Five Guys. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when Lu has to make a luncheon appearance where she describes what she is always served at every luncheon, and how she never gets to eat the dessert. I might have been to a luncheon or two like that, though I’ve been to many luncheons with lovely food. But I’ve known that sad little salad.

What was it like to have your book Every Secret Thing become a film?
It was fantastic. I had one of the greatest experiences anyone could have watching their work go from book to film. My book was optioned by the actress Frances McDormand. My agent lives in the same building as Fran and Joel [Coen, of the Coen brothers, and McDormand’s husband] and she handed her Every Secret Thing on the elevator one day. It was optioned in 2006, so it took almost a decade to be released. And no, it wasn’t a big deal, it was a small release. The reviews for the film were probably somewhat mixed, but I thought it was terrific. I thought they honored the material and any flaw that I spotted in the film was from the source material, and I’m not being self deprecating. I didn’t really work with them, I let it go. They would consult with me, and they would show me versions of the script. I was kept in the loop, I visited the set once. I was just so honored that Fran cared enough to have it made. I loved the director Amy Berg, and the fact that there were people in it like Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, Dakota Fanning—so many terrific performances. It was great, everything you’d want it to be, and I even got a nice check.

I don’t have anything optioned right now. The [Tess Monaghan] books have been optioned twice, and I now believe I’m the person who should adapt the Tess books for television, but I don’t have the time to get it done. I have talked to my film agent, and I have a very specific vision for what would be the Tess Monaghan television series. But it’s a little bit daunting – mainly it’s the time.

I’m sure, because you probably have other books in the works, right?
I have started my next book. It’s set in a fictional town in Delaware in 1995, and the choice of year is very deliberate. I get up every day and write 1,000 to 1,500 words, and I have no idea what’s going on. But the characters just talk to each other, and things are happening, and there are lies and double crosses. And as far as the reader knows, no one’s dead—yet.

But maybe you’re moving in that direction? And how do you juggle all of this?
People tend to say to us, ‘Your life is so insane.’ To us, our life is normal. It’s a busy life, there’s a lot of travel, but that’s not as bad as it sounds. There’s a rhythm to it, and there’s a lot of work to be done. There’s a lot of fun to be had, too, and we’re trying to find the best balance. It’s an interesting time. [David’s] going to be working in New York through the summer, but we’re kind of used to that. I swear I felt like Show Me A Hero went on for 18 years, but I’m sure the calendar shows it only filmed for four months. That was our first time living in different cities, necessitated by the fact that our daughter had to be in school somewhere and I’m not going to homeschool her. We had to pick a place, and Baltimore is the place. I actually feel like we’ve got it figured out now.

The Kizuna Coast
Sujata Massey (Ikat Press)

The eleventh installment in Massey’s Rei Shimura series finds the investigator/antiques dealer traveling to Japan to aid her mentor, Ishida, who has been injured in a devastating tsunami. Framed by the 2011 disaster that wreaked havoc on Japan’s northeast coast, the story unfolds briskly as Rei cunningly locates Ishida, only to learn that his current assistant has gone missing. A few improbable plot-twists ensue, but Massey, a former Evening Sun reporter, infuses the narrative with enough journalistic detail to make it compelling.

Hush Hush
Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

Lippman’s twelfth Tess Monaghan novel adds a twist to the Baltimore private eye’s life—motherhood. Tess, like Lippman, is a new mother, and the realities of raising a child inject welcome doses of self-deprecating wit and sentient warmth into the proceedings, which revolve around a sensational case of infanticide and a mother’s claim of post-partum psychosis. Lippman smartly eschews a good mom vs. bad mom plot in favor of a more nuanced puzzle that doesn’t shy from the mysteries of parenthood.