James J. Patterson Reads from MELANIE’S SONG on Latest LFTRR
The new mystery novel by ASP's Joanna Biggar is given the Patterson treatment in Episode 11 of Live from the Reading Room
“Melanie’s Song is an unputdownable, riveting feat of storytelling.”
Set in the era of Woodstock and Watergate, Melanie’s Song centers on a young woman’s mysterious disappearance, and on her friend’s determined search for her.
Melanie, who fled her marriage to a straight-laced classical musician in order to hitch-hike to Woodstock and San Francisco, was last seen at a commune in the California hills. Rumors abound: that she took up with a Black radical; that she had his child; that she and her lover, armed, ran a bank heist a la Patty Hearst; that she developed a mystical gift for spiritual healing; that she died in a possible accidental, possibly staged commune fire.
Trying to sift truth from invention pulls her friend, the young reporter, J.J., into the underbelly of the sexual and social revolutions of the 60s and early 70s, where she encounters corrupt cops, paranoid hippies, activists, mystics, drug-runners,and most astonishingly, Melanie’s own parents. Risking her job, her connections, her life, J.J. follows Melanie’s trail, determined to find out what happened to her once-compliant friend now turned, it seems, into a rebel angel.
Rose Reads | S1 E3 (A Tribute to Stanley Plumly)
Rose Solari’s tribute to the late poet Stanley Plumly. Rose recounts her days as an MFA candidate studying under Stanley Plumly and reads several of his poems, as well as a few of her own written under his mentorship.
James J. Patterson’s Live from the Reading Room episode 2
In this episode of James J. Patterson’s Live from the Reading Room, JJP reads from the old masters, Delacroix and Yeats, as well as from his own work.
Elizabeth Hazen, Steven Leyva, and Dora Malech Virtual Reading and Discussion
The three Baltimore poets come together to read and discuss their work. The virtual hangout is designed to help raise funds for MD Food Bank.