Tuesday, August 11, 2015

ARE YOU LISTENING? SAINT MAZIE: A PREVIEW


WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S" 
ARE YOU LISTENING? DAY" 
I AM EXCITED TO TELL YOU ABOUT 
THIS RECENT AUDIO BOOK I READ
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SAINT MAZIE
READ BY TAVIA GILBERT
BY JAMI ATTENBERG

ABOUT THE AUDIO BOOK:
Meet Mazie Phillips: big-hearted and bawdy, she's the truth-telling proprietress of The Venice, the famed New York City movie theater. It's the Jazz Age, with romance and booze aplenty--even when Prohibition kicks in--and Mazie never turns down a night on the town. But her high spirits mask a childhood rooted in poverty, and her diary, always close at hand, holds her dearest secrets.

When the Great Depression hits, Mazie's life is on the brink of transformation. Addicts and bums roam the Bowery; homelessness is rampant. If Mazie won't help them, then who? When she opens the doors of The Venice to those in need, this ticket taking, fun-time girl becomes the beating heart of the Lower East Side, and in defining one neighborhood helps define the city.

Then, more than ninety years after Mazie began her diary, it's discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story. Who was Mazie Phillips, really? A chorus of voices from the past and present fill in some of the mysterious blanks of her adventurous life.

Inspired by the life of a woman who was profiled in Joseph Mitchell's classic Up in the Old Hotel, SAINT MAZIE is infused with Jami Attenberg's signature wit, bravery, and heart. Mazie's rise to "sainthood"--and her irrepressible spirit--is unforgettable.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jami Attenberg is the author of a story collection, Instant Love, and three novels, The Kept Man, The Melting Season, and The Middlesteins, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. It will be published in nine countries. She has contributed essays and criticism to The New York Times, Real Simple, Elle, The Washington Post, and many other publications. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

SOME OTHER BOOKS BY JAMI ATTENBERG:
                   
                
SOME OF MY THOUGHTS:
Just as she did in The Middlesteins, Jami Attenberg has given readers a character that you can hold on to forever in Mazie Phillips. Even though Mazie was a real person in history, Attenberg has molded this character to represent the times and place that she lived in. In Mazie, readers find a compelling figure that has so much to offer one's heart and imagination. From the time period of the Jazz age through to the Depression, Attenberg makes New York shine in a way that one can learn from as well as be in love with, especially those of us who are New Yorkers. Mazie has heart and it is that part of the story that grabbed me the most. I found her to be so well written that I felt I knew her. I would love to revisit this character and the time period again and again. Well done, Jami Attenberg! Thank you Mitch for sending me this very special story that has so very much to think about, laugh and cry with, and delight in.  

3 comments:

Steve Capell said...

GREAT Review Karen! I love the artist depiction of this audio book as well.

Carol N Wong said...

Thank you so much for the review, Karen. I wasn't sure about it and now I know I want to read it. I signed up for it on GoodReads, didn't win the first time but I will continue entering until the giveaways for this book stop. I am reading book about the Gilded Age in NYC right now, House of Thieves. Another one that I wasn't sure about but I am really hooked on that book!!!

holdenj said...

I just reserved this the other day at the library! Glad to see such a good review!

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