#Rebecca Ansari
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Title: The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly | Author: Rebecca Ansari | Publisher: Walden Pond Press (2019)
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March 2023 Books
(@lady-merian I do talk about reading the first L&C book, please feel free to ignore)
The In-Between by Rebecca Ansari
A fascinating fantastical premise to account for a real-world case of missing children. A bit dark but I did enjoy reading this.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (reread)
Annual reread! You all know how I feel about this book.
The Secret Garden: The Cinematic Novel by Linda Chapman (reread)
Reread after watching the movie again, because I was curious how they compare. I originally read this before the movie came out. There were definitely parts of the novelization that are absent in the film, and the book does a more thorough job of explaining this. But on the whole they are pretty similar.
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (reread)
I remember reading an excerpt from this book in one of our elementary school readers. It's been a while since I read the whole book, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. I wish I had read it as a child.
The Secret Garden of Yanagi Inn by Amber A. Logan
The Japanese setting was this book's strength. As a retelling, however, I didn't love it. It transformed the story into a generic tale of a rather bland woman processing her grief and working through baggage from her past while on a mysterious photography job in Japan. It retained the basic beats of TSG but not so much the spirit of the story (which is not about healing from grief, why is that so hard to understand) or characters.
Messenger and Son by Lois Lowry
I don't know what the heck is going on in these stories' universe, and Messenger was rather bizarre and depressing, but Son had some interesting themes and proved a satisfying ending to the series.
The Humming Room by Ellen Potter (reread)
Reread for TSG season.
I love this retelling, but this time it struck me that I'm not especially crazy about Potter's choices in depicting her Dickon analogue. He's clearly designed to be a heartthrob (brooding nature boy! mysterious past! possibly one of the fae! ponytail!), maybe more that than a parallel to Dickon's actual role in the original. It doesn't ruin the book for me at all, but this time...I was kind of mentally rolling my eyes.
The Making of May by Gwyneth Rees
I wouldn't call this a retelling of TSG, because it isn't, but it interacts with that text and draws inspiration from it. The young heroine is particularly attached to a film version of TSG (clearly the 1975 miniseries) that she has on VHS, she identifies a lot with Mary, and like Mary she has a lot of growing to do in a mysterious old house with walled gardens. A more enjoyable book than I expected.
A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi
A retelling of TSG in a modern setting with a Pakistani heroine coming to live in Long Island. The cultural setting and many of the plot points are significantly different from the original, but very much in the same spirit. Riazi clearly loves and respects the original text while breathing her own fresh life into it. The blend of poetry interspersed with the prose that forms the majority of the narrative is a bold but effective choice. It enhances the emotion and gives insight into the heroine that we wouldn't have otherwise. I enjoyed this one more than I expected. Thank you for the recommendation, @allieinarden!
Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers (reread)
Reread in a rush for a reading group.
The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy
Seredy's books take me off guard with how powerful they can be. This one was no exception.
A Secret Princess by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz
This was not good. I knew it was not going to be good. I read it anyway. I regret that.
A retelling should honor the spirit of the original while bringing something fresh and original to the story. This book did not do that. This Sara, Mary, and Cedric bore almost no resemblance to their original counterparts, and themes from Burnett's stories are discarded, even disdained. For some reason, the story is set in the 1860s, decades before Burnett's books were published/set, but little or no historical research seems to have been done, and the result was not very believable in its portrayal of nineteenth-century England. The plot is all over the place, and the romances are painfully forced. I was not impressed.
The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
I really liked it! (...maybe not for the same reasons as everybody else, sorry, I am not swooning over anyone.) Stroud's prose is fantastic, and he turns the most effortlessly inventive similes. The characters are well-developed, and the story, even though it's not the type of plot I would normally seek out, is quite readable. I plan to finish the series.
The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir (reread)
Reread for TSG season.
A Treason of Thorns by Laura E. Weymouth
A friend has been on my case about forming a book club between the two of us, and she wanted me to pick the first book, something I hadn't read before. I arbitrarily selected this one, which was on my shelves. I regretted it. I wanted to love it, it has such a pretty cover, but I couldn't connect with the heroine and her motivations, and the pseudo-historical setting was distractingly implausible for me.
Mystery of the Black Diamonds and Mystery of the Green Cat by Phyllis A. Whitney
Black Diamonds hasn't aged well and has a bit of a far-fetched plot, but Green Cat was quite enjoyable. I appreciate how Whitney weaves her mystery plots with more interpersonally-focused plots that bring additional investment in the characters.
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Since Jan 2020, payment to Sweaty Mama Stroud and Cirencester, Every payment from New Mamas, Renewal, Monthly Mamas £1 will goes towards Rushton Dog Rescue. January 2024 donations ~ 🐾
THANK YOU 🙏🏼
Laura Webb
Emma Drury
Imogen Ford
Grace Durnan
Felicity Bladek
Hester Bullock
Alice Studd
Alice Ingledew
Miia Townsend
Nyssa Hartin
Jane Clarke
Suzanne Jones
Amanda Bedlow
Grace Hollinworth
Claire Stanley
Sarah Hathway
Rebecca Adkins
Emma Jane
Annie Cima-Mills
Catherine Bailey
Kathryn Cleland
Inshaa Ansari
Tory Smith
Sarah Glynn
Lulu Denman
Susanna Pincock
Sarah Radbourne
Pru Foley
Jane Clarke
Hannah Saunders
Alexia Thompson
Bell Phillips
Cheryl Morle
If you like make a personal donation, this is the links -
Pay pal- http://paypal.me/RushtonDogRescue
Thank you ever so much for helping me saving the dogs from meat trade. 💖
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Title: Five Feet Apart
Rating: PG-13
Director: Justin Baldoni
Cast: Haley Lu Richardson, Cole Sprouse, Moisés Arias, Kimberly Hebert Gregory, Parminder Nagra, Claire Forlani, Emily Baldoni, Gary Weeks, Rebecca Chulew, Sue-Lynn Ansari, Ariana Guerra, Cecilia Leal, Cynthia Evans, Trina LaFargue, Sophia Bernard, Brett Austin Johnson
Release year: 2019
Genres: romance, drama
Blurb: 17-year-old Stella spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries, and self-control...all of which get put to the test when she meets Will, an impossibly charming teen who has the same illness. There’s an instant flirtation, though restrictions dictate that they must maintain a safe distance between them. As their connection intensifies, so does the temptation to throw the rules out the window and embrace that attraction.
#five feet apart#pg13#justin baldoni#haley lu richardson#cole sprouse#moisés arias#kimberly hebert gregory#parminder nagra#2019#romance#drama
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Venkateshwara Institute of Medical sciences VIMS Health Icon Award 2022
The Venkateshwara Group honored over 200 renowned Doctors of western UP with the VIMS Health Icon 2022 award.
North India’s leading education group, the Venkateshwara Group, honored over 200 renowned Doctors with the VIMS Health Icon 2022 award for providing excellent medical services.
These Doctors provide effective medical care at Venkateshwara Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) under the aegis of Shri Venkateshwara University (SVU) Gajraula.
Dr Sudhir Giri Chairman Venkateshwara Group, Pro chancellor Dr Rajiv Tyagi, Dean Medical Dr Sanjiv Bhatt, and the MS Dr N K Kalia inaugurated the event by lighting a lamp to Goddess Saraswati.
Hotel M B Clarke Moradabad played host to this mega-event that attracted a huge gathering of dignitaries.
Dr Sudhir Giri Chairman Venkateshwara Group asserted the Venkateshwara Family feels proud in honoring Doctors for their lifesaving services. The Doctors are the backbone of the country’s healthcare system.
Dr Rajiv Tyagi stated that by offering world class medical services, the Venkateshwara Group has become the first choice of medical students, Doctors & the patients.
The Venkateshwara Group will organize a similar program in the last week of November in Meerut for facilitating renowned Doctors & Physicians.
The event’s attraction was the rock band Rebecca Run being played by famous Bollywood singer Rebecca Narula that performed on various Bollywood songs & Sufi hits that entertained the guests.
The Doctors being felicitated on the occasion included the IMA Moradabad President Dr J K Sharma, Secretary Dr Seema Midha, Meerut’s renowned Surgeon Dr Abhay Bhatnagar, & Dr Garima Bhatnagar.
Also honored were the IMA Amroha President Dr Shakil Ansari, Secretary Dr Devendra Sirohi, Forensic Dr Ravi Gangal, MD Medicine Dr Vijay Agarwal, & the reputed Gynecologist Dr Archana Agarwal.
Noticeable among the awardees were the Drug commissioner Deepak Kr Sharma, Dr Ruchi Maan, Dr Deepak Garg, Dr Pallavi Ahluwalia among 200 others.
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Alex’s 2021 Emmy Nominations - Comedy Directing
PEN15 (Episode: “Opening Night”), Directed by Sam Zvibleman
Ted Lasso (Episode: “The Hope That Kills You”), Directed by MJ Delaney
Master of None (Episode: “Moments In Love, Chapter 4”), Directed by Aziz Ansari
Ted Lasso (Episode: “Make Rebecca Great Again”), Directed by Declan Lowney
Search Party (Episode: “The Infinite Loop”), Directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss & Charles Rogers
The Flight Attendant (Episode: “In Case of Emergency”), Directed by Susanna Fogel
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Thanks for writing the post about MG/YA and categories! What books do you recommend in that 12/13/14 y old, upper MG/lower YA not-an-official-category space? I asked this recently at my local bookstore and the bookseller there that day recommended books that I ended up really liking myself, but they didn't hit the spot for the 13-y-olds in my life. Would love to hear your favorites!
I mean - what kind of books do they like? Here's a mixture of "upper MG" and "younger YA" that might appeal to a lot of kinds of readers, given that you have not provided any specific information :-)
For SF/F -
Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
Legend by Marie Lu
My Lady Jane, My Plain Jane, etc, by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows
The In-Between by RK Ansari
For contemp -
Chirp by Kate Messner
The Shape of Thunder by Jasmine Warga
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
Geekerella by Ashley Poston
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead
Basically anything by Paula Chase
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Previous Book Selections
07/12/22: More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez
06/24/22: The Rose Code by Kate McQuinn
05/19/22: The Lobotomist Wife by Samantha Greene Woodruff
04/21/22: No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
03/17/22: Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
02/10/22: Beartown by Frederik Backman
01/07/22: The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
11/28/21: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
10/24/21: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
09/19/21: Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
08/06/21: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
07/12/21: The Vanishing Half
06/17/21: The President’s Daughter by Patterson and Clinton
05/21/21: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
04/23/21: The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
03/23/21: The Authenticity Project by Clare Poole
02/19/21: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
01/22/21: City of Girls
12/18/20: The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe
11/13/20: Such a Fun Age by Leanne Treese
10/02/20: Untamed by Glennon Doyle
08/27/20: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
07/24/20: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
06/15/20: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
05/18/20: Red, White, Royal Blue by Casey McQuistion
04/20/20: Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
03/23/20: The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Hadish
02/24/20: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
01/23/20The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
12/2019: L.A.M.B: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhoold Pal
11/2019: Educated by Tara Westover
9/30/19: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
08/05/19: The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
07/10/19: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
06/12/19: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
05/16/19: Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance
04/17/19: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
3/18/19: Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
02/04/19: Good Luck with That by Kristan Higgins
12/2019: The Power by Naomi Alderman
11/2019: The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
10/08/18: The Night Circus by Erin Morgensterm
08/21/18: Turtles All The Way Down by John Green
07/10/18: Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings
06/04/18: This Is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel
05/07/18: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
03/19/18: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
01/28/18: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
12/11/17: Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
11/13/17: Rules of Civility by Armor Towles
10/09/17: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
09/06/17: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
07/16/17: The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince by Mayte Garcia
06/13/17: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
05/11/17: Shrill by Lindy West
03/30/17: Secondhand Souls by Christopher Moore
02/23/17: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
01/18/17 - The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
12/14/16 - Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
10/19/16 - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Ami Polonski
09/14/16 - Year of Yes by Shonda Rimes
07/13/16 - Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
06/15/16 - Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
05/18/16 - The 100-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
04/21/16 - So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
03/18/16 - When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge
02/17/16 - The Year of Living Biblically: by A.J. Jacobs
01/13/16 - Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
12/02/15 - I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb
11/04/15 - The Martian by Andy Weir
10/07/15 - All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
08/26/15 - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
07/22/15 - Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim
06/03/15 - The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
04/15/15 - Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon
03/18/15 - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
02/18/15 - Deep Down Dark: The untold stories of 33 men buried in a Chilean Mine and the miracle that set them free by Hector Tobar
01/14/15 - Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman
12/05/14 - The Light Between Oceans by M.L.Stedman
11/05/14 - Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
09/24/14- Horns by Joe Hill
08/28/14- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
07/23/14- The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
06/18/14- Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker
05/21/14- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
04/30/14- A Bad Idea I’m About To Do by Chris Gethard
03/27/14- Heartburn by Nora Ephron
02/19/14- Gang Leader for a Day by Sudir Venkatesh
01/08/14- David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell
12/04/13- Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
10/30/13- The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
09/18/13- A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore
08/14/13- Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
07/10/13- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
05/22/13- How to Be a Woman by Caitlan Moran
04/24/13- Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Greg Campbell
03/27/13- Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
02/13/13- The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
01/07/13- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
12/05/12 - Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
10/24/12 - Paris, I love you but you’re bringing me down by Rosecrans Baldwin
09/19/12 - Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
08/22/12 - The Book Thief by Mark Zusak
07/18/12 - Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson
06/27/12 - Starvation Lake: A Mystery by Bryan Gruley
05/30/12 - Plainsong by Ken Haruf
04/25/12 - You’re Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death, and Other Humiliations by Michael Ian Black
03/21/12 - Room by Emma Donaghue
02/22/12 - Just Kids by Patti Smith
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THE IN-BETWEEN by Rebecca K. S. Ansari
https://www.walden.com/books/the-in-between/
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Title: The In-Between | Author: Rebecca Ansari | Publisher: Walden Pond Press (2021)
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February 2022 Books
The Missing Piece of Charlie O’Reilly by Rebecca Ansari
An interesting premise with some exciting twists, but I was left with some questions how one aspect of the plot worked and had a content issue with a minor subplot.
The House with a Clock in Its Wall by John Bellairs
Should have known what I was in for with this one. Goodness knows I love atmospheric creepy old houses, and the characters were interesting. Just wasn’t crazy about the plot.
The Raven Heir by Stephanie Burgis
Had an intriguing set-up and characters with potential, but I waited in vain for them to develop more depth.
The Half Sisters by Natalie Savage Carlson
Came for the middle-grade sisterly drama. Did not expect a very tragic event to casually occur near the end. A cute book overall but a bit emotionally hard to take, and I don’t think I’ll seek out the sequel.
Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor by Ally Carter
I don’t know what I expected out of this one, but it wasn’t big on substance, even by middle-grade standards.
Lucie Babbidge’s House by Sylvia Cassedy
Somehow I’ve ended up reading a lot of doll/dollhouse-themed fiction lately, and this instance was maybe the most eerie. An orphaned girl bullied at her boarding school uses a dollhouse and dolls she has found or improvised to act out the kind of life and family she wishes she had, while the letters she receives from a pen pal start to reflect the stories she tells after the fact.
The Sisters of Straygarden Place by Hayley Chewins
I decided I wanted to read this one because I saw it in the bookstore and thought the cover was gorgeous, and amazingly that turned out to be a good call. Poetic, creepy in a good way, and ultimately beautiful and satisfying.
Al Capone Does My Shirts and Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko (partial reread)
I read the first of this series years ago and revisited it after acquiring the first sequel. Choldenko not only tells a good story but has apparently very thoroughly done her research on life on Alcatraz for the families of prison workers in the 1930s and includes long fascinating author’s notes with cited sources!
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie (reread)
Reread before seeing the film.
She and the Dubious Three by Dorothy Crayder
Although I was kind of disappointed that Jasper wasn’t in this one (for completely reasonable reasons), Maggie is always a delight, and it was great fun to join in her shenanigans in 1970s Italy.
The Children of Hermitage by Frances E. Crompton
An E. Nesbit-esque story of the large-family-and-slice-of-life genre. Crompton’s children are delightfully distinct and lifelike, and I enjoyed this one more than I expected.
The Green Garland by Frances E. Crompton
...although I was less taken with this one, which had potential in the premise but went a bit heavy-handed on the moralizing (this is, after all, a Victorian children’s book and that comes with the territory).
War and Millie McGonigle by Karen Cushman
Middle-grade historical fiction set in southern California just before the US’s entrance into WWII. Cushman has clearly done her research (not to mention has a husband who grew up in that time and place), and the setting accordingly feels very authentic. And the story is charming. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo
DiCamillo can spin some of the most beautiful, sad, bizarre tales, and this was no exception. I don’t know if I would have grasped it as a child, but my adult heart ached for Louisiana, with all the adults in her life failing her, but the ending was refreshingly hopeful.
Journal 3 and Lost Legends by Alex Hirsch et al. (reread)
I rewatched Gravity Falls recently and had A Hankering.
The Abandoned by Paul Gallico
This was a weird book that I acquired somewhere for some reason and I have no idea what to make of it.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
Reread for jellicoelodge.
The Art of Encanto by Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones et al.
Beautiful. There’s so much possibility in this fictional world, and I enjoyed getting a glimpse of the process of creating it.
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Our English honor society had a Blind Date with a Book event--you chose a wrapped book knowing only the genre and whatever vague description the wrapper provided. The one I chose, which seemed the most doable of a not especially promising lot, had the blurb “Two girls become friends in terrible circumstances” or something like that.
It was not a very good description.
I’ll spare you the full rant, but basically the protagonists are connected but never really become friends in any meaningful sense, I found the historical setting unconvincing, and I was reminded why I don’t read a lot of recently-written fiction aimed at adults.
Her Majesty, Grace Jones by Jane Langton
The young daughter of a poor American family in the 1930s convinces herself that she is secretly the lost eldest daughter of the King of England. Both amusing and touching.
Look Through My Window by Jean Little
There’s a lot going on in this one with surprisingly complex relationships for a middle-grade novel. It even tackles the issue of navigating friendships with religious differences--something I don’t see a lot in fiction. I liked the characters and will look for the sequels.
Trina by Patricia Miles Martin (reread)
My mom had this book, leftover from a college children’s literature class (I think), when we were kids. Unfortunately we were hard on books, and I suspect it didn’t survive our numerous moves. I hadn’t read it in years, but the familiarity came flooding back. It’s about friendship and overcoming language barriers--a simple story but charming.
Valiant by Sarah McGuire (reread)
Reread on a whim.
The Cuckoo Clock by Mary Louisa Molesworth
I forget which book I read that mentioned this one (just remembered: it was Marianne Dreams), but it was apparently a pretty significant Victorian fantasy. Charming overall, with a few very Victorian tropes that haven’t aged as well.
The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty
Cute and whimsical but I’m already struggling to remember it. There were a lot of aunts.
Kingdom of Secrets by Christyne Morrell
I wanted to love this one. I’m normally very fond of friendships between the Zany Person and the Cautious Person who gets dragged into their chaos. And that more or less happened here, but the characters and world felt undeveloped to me. One-dimensionally evil villains. Melodramatic backstories. Relatively easily resolved political issues. A pity.
Here in the Real World by Sara Pennypacker
This is in the “sad children work on a secret project together and inadvertently provide themselves and each other with much-need therapy” genre. So I liked it.
The Remarkable Invention of Walter Mortinson by Quinn Sosna-Spear
I prefer my whimsical tales without a pervasive attitude of I’m Not Like Those Ordinary People, thank you.
Midnight in the Dollhouse by Marjorie Filley Stover
I remember liking it but can’t remember much else.
Noel Streatfeild’s Christmas Stories by Noel Streatfeild
My favorite was the one about the ballet-loving princess who gets a chance to dance incognito. So gloriously Streatfeildish a plot.
The House of Months and Years by Emma Trevayne
I picked this up at a bookstore with no idea about it beyond thinking it looked interesting. The calendar house is a fascinating setting, and the story itself was deliciously creepy.
The Christmas Fairy and Other Stories by John Strange Winter, Mary Louisa Molesworth, and Frances E. Crompton
Crompton’s story is devastatingly tragic, Moleworth’s is aggressively moralistic, and Winter’s is about schoolboys being rescued from having to spend Christmas at boarding school and I feel bad for thinking that my take on that theme had more interest.
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Stuff I Read/Watched in February...
Dark Waters by Katherine Arden
Aggie Morton: The Dead Man in the Garden by Marthe Jocelyn
The In-Between by Rebecca K.S. Ansari
Relic Master: The Dark City by Catherine Fisher
Relic Master: The Lost Heiress by Catherine Fisher
Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker
Behold the Bones by Natalie C. Parker
The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
Vertigo (1958)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
The First Wives Club (1996)
My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
Mama (2013)
Fear Street trilogy (2021)
Winx Club: Season 2 (2005)
Arcane: Season 1 (2021)
Nine Perfect Strangers (2021)
More details on blog...
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Alex’s 2021 Emmy Nominations - Comedy Writing
PEN15 (Episode: “Play”), Written by Maya Erskine
Ted Lasso (Episode: “Make Rebecca Great Again”), Story by Joe Kelly & Brendan Hunt, Teleplay by Jason Sudeikis
Girls5Eva (Episode: “Pilot”), Written by Meredith Scardino
Hacks (Episode: “There Is No Line”), Written by Lucia Aniello & Paul W. Downs & Jen Statsky
Master of None (Episode: “Moments in Love, Chapter 4”), Written by Aziz Ansari & Lena Waithe
PEN15 (Episode: “Vendy Wiccany”), Written by Anna Konkle
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In 2002, a Chicago comedy duo, Dana Min Goodman and Julia Wolov, landed their big break: a chance to perform at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. When Louis C.K. invited them to hang out in his hotel room for a nightcap after their late-night show, they did not think twice. The bars were closed and they wanted to celebrate. He was a comedian they admired. The women would be together. His intentions seemed collegial.
As soon as they sat down in his room, still wrapped in their winter jackets and hats, Louis C.K. asked if he could take out his penis, the women said.
They thought it was a joke and laughed it off. “And then he really did it,” Ms. Goodman said in an interview with The New York Times. “He proceeded to take all of his clothes off, and get completely naked, and started masturbating.”
In 2003, Abby Schachner called Louis C.K. to invite him to one of her shows, and during the phone conversation, she said, she could hear him masturbating as they spoke. Another comedian, Rebecca Corry, said that while she was appearing with Louis C.K. on a television pilot in 2005, he asked if he could masturbate in front of her. She declined.
Now, after years of unsubstantiated rumors about Louis C.K. masturbating in front of associates, women are coming forward to describe what they experienced. Even amid the current burst of sexual misconduct accusations against powerful men, the stories about Louis C.K. stand out because he has so few equals in comedy. In the years since the incidents the women describe, he has sold out Madison Square Garden eight times, created an Emmy-winning TV series, and accumulated the clout of a tastemaker and auteur, with the help of a manager who represents some of the biggest names in comedy. And Louis C.K. built a reputation as the unlikely conscience of the comedy scene, by making audiences laugh about hypocrisy — especially male hypocrisy.
After being contacted for an interview this week about the on-the-record accusations of sexual misconduct — encounters that took place over a decade ago — Louis C.K.’s publicist, Lewis Kay, said the comedian would not respond. “Louis is not going to answer any questions,” Mr. Kay wrote in an email Tuesday night.
Neither Louis C.K. nor Mr. Kay replied to follow-up emails in which the accusations were laid out in detail, or to voice messages or texts. On Thursday, the premiere of Louis C.K.’s new movie “I Love You, Daddy,” was abruptly canceled, and he also canceled an appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
The stories told by the women raise sharp questions about the anecdotes that Louis C.K. tells in his own comedy. He rose to fame in part by appearing to be candid about his flaws and sexual hang-ups, discussing and miming masturbation extensively in his act — an exaggerated riff that some of the women feel may have served as a cover for real misconduct. He has all but invited comparison between his private life and his onscreen work, too: In “I Love You, Daddy,” which is scheduled to be released next week, a character pretends to masturbate at length in front of other people, and other characters appear to dismiss rumors of sexual predation.
At the same time, Louis C.K. has also boosted the careers of women, and is sometimes viewed as a feminist by fans and critics. But Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov said that when they told others about the incident in the Colorado hotel room, they heard that Louis C.K.’s manager was upset that they were talking about it openly. The women feared career repercussions. Louis C.K.’s manager, Dave Becky, was adamant in an email that he “never threatened anyone.”
For comedians, the professional environment is informal: profanity and raunch that would be far out of line in most workplaces are common, and personal foibles — the weirder the better — are routinely mined for material. But Louis C.K.’s behavior was abusive, the women said.
“I think the line gets crossed when you take all your clothes off and start masturbating,” Ms. Wolov said.
‘You Want to Believe It’s Not Happening’
Ms. Corry, a comedian, writer and actress, has long felt haunted by her run-in with Louis C.K. In 2005, she was working as a performer and producer on a television pilot — a big step in her career — when Louis C.K., a guest star, approached her as she was walking to the set. “He leaned close to my face and said, ‘Can I ask you something?’ I said, ‘Yes,’” Ms. Corry said in a written statement to The New York Times. “He asked if we could go to my dressing room so he could masturbate in front of me.” Stunned and angry, Ms. Corry said she declined, and pointed out that he had a daughter and a pregnant wife. “His face got red,” she recalled, “and he told me he had issues.”
Word quickly reached the show’s executive producers, Courteney Cox and David Arquette, who both confirmed the incident. “What happened to Rebecca on that set was awful,” Ms. Cox said in an email, adding that she felt “outrage and shock.”
“My concern was to create an environment where Rebecca felt safe, protected and heard,” she said. They discussed curtailing the production. Ms. Corry decided to continue with the show.
“Things were going well for me,” Ms. Corry said in the statement, “and I had no interest in being the person who shut down a production.”
A fifth woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her family’s privacy because she has not been publicly linked to the incident with Louis C.K., also has disturbing memories about an incident with the comedian. In the late ’90s, she was working in production at “The Chris Rock Show” when Louis C.K., a writer and producer there, repeatedly asked her to watch him masturbate, she said. She was in her early 20s and went along with his request, but later questioned his behavior.
“It was something that I knew was wrong,” said the woman, who described sitting in Louis C.K.’s office while he masturbated in his desk chair during a workday, other colleagues just outside the door. “I think the big piece of why I said yes was because of the culture,” she continued. “He abused his power.” A co-worker at “The Chris Rock Show,” who also wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that the woman told him about the experience soon after it happened.
Ms. Schachner, a writer, illustrator and performer, admired Louis C.K.’s work. They had met in the comedy scene; Ms. Schachner’s former boyfriend was a comedy writer who had worked with Louis C.K. In 2003, when she called Louis C.K. with an invitation to her show, he said he was at work in an office as a writer on the series “Cedric the Entertainer Presents,” she recalled.
Their conversation quickly moved from the personal — Louis C.K. had seen photos of her on her boyfriend’s desk, he said, and told her he thought she was cute — to “unprofessional and inappropriate,” Ms. Schachner said.
She said she heard the blinds coming down. Then he slowly started telling her his sexual fantasies, breathing heavily and talking softly. She realized he was masturbating, and was dumbfounded. The call went on for several minutes, even though, Ms. Schachner said, “I definitely wasn’t encouraging it.” But she didn’t know how to end it, either. “You want to believe it’s not happening,” she said. A friend, Stuart Harris, confirmed that Ms. Schachner had described the call to him in 2003.
For years afterward, Ms. Schachner said, she felt angry and betrayed by an artist she looked up to. And she wondered what she could have done differently. “I felt very ashamed,” she said.
A Run-In, Then Fears About Speaking Out
During Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov’s surreal visit to Louis C.K.’s Aspen hotel room, they said they were holding onto each other, screaming and laughing in shock, as Louis C.K. masturbated in a chair. “We were paralyzed,” Ms. Goodman said. After he ejaculated on his stomach, they said, they fled. He called after them: “He was like, ‘Which one is Dana and which one is Julia?’” Ms. Goodman recalled.
Afterward, they ran into Charna Halpern, the owner of influential improv theaters in Los Angeles and Chicago, where Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov performed, and relayed what had happened. “I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to tell them to do,” said Ms. Halpern. Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov decided against going to the police, unsure whether what happened was criminal, but felt they had to respond in some way “because something crazy happened to us,” Ms. Goodman said.
Hoping that outrage would build against Louis C.K., and also to shame him, they began telling others about the incident the next day. But many people seemed to recoil, they said. “Guys were backing away from us,” Ms. Wolov said. Barely 24 hours after they left Louis C.K.’s hotel, “we could already feel the backlash.”
Soon after, they said they understood from their managers that Mr. Becky, Louis C.K’s manager, wanted them to stop telling people about their encounter with Louis C.K. Lee Kernis, one of the women’s managers at the time, confirmed on Thursday that he had a conversation in which he told Mr. Becky that Louis C.K.’s behavior toward the women had been offensive. Mr. Kernis also said that Mr. Becky was upset that the women were talking openly about the incident.
Mr. Becky denied making any threats toward the women. “I don’t recall the exact specifics of the conversation, but know I never threatened anyone,” he wrote by email on Thursday. Ms. Halpern and Robert Schroeder — Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov’s agent at the time — said that the pair told them that they felt they had been warned to stop talking.
Mr. Becky arguably wields even more power in comedy than Louis C.K. He represents Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler and other top performers, and his company, 3 Arts, puts together programming deals for nearly every platform.
Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov moved to Los Angeles shortly after the Aspen festival, but “we were coming here with a bunch of enemies,” Ms. Goodman said. Gren Wells, a filmmaker who befriended the comedy duo in 2002, said the incident and the warning, which they told her about soon after Aspen, hung heavily over them both. “This is something that they were freaked out about,” Ms. Wells said.
In the years since, Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov have found some success, but they remained concerned about Mr. Becky and took themselves out of the running for the many projects he was involved in. Though their humor is in line with what he produces, “we know immediately that we can never even submit our material,” Ms. Wolov said.
Private Acts, Public Jokes
Jokes about masturbation have been a regular part of Louis C.K.’s stage shows. In one bit, he complains about not being able to find a private place in his house to do it. “I’m on the streets now,” he says, “I’ve got nowhere to go.” In another bit he laments being a prisoner of his perversions. “Just the constant perverted sexual thoughts,” he says, then mimes masturbating. “It makes me into a moron.”
Tig Notaro, the comedian whose Amazon series, “One Mississippi,” lists Louis C.K. as an executive producer, is one of the few in the fiercely insular comedy world to speak out against him. Her career received a huge boost when he released her 2012 comedy album, about her cancer diagnosis. But their relationship has crumbled and she now feels “trapped” by her association with him, she wrote in an email.
Her fear is that “he released my album to cover his tracks,” she said. “He knew it was going to make him look like a good guy, supporting a woman.” Ms. Notaro said she learned of his reputation after they sold the series to Amazon, and a recent story line is a fictional treatment of the alleged masturbation episodes.
“Sadly, I’ve come to learn that Louis C.K.’s victims are not only real,” she said by email, “but many are actual friends of mine within the comedy community,” like Ms. Corry, who confided in her, she said.
In his forthcoming film, about a television writer whose teenage daughter is wooed by a Woody Allen type, one character aggressively mimics masturbating in front of others. The content has raised eyebrows. Given the rumors surrounding Louis C.K., the movie “plays like an ambiguous moral inventory of and excuse for everything that allows sexual predators to thrive: open secrets, toxic masculinity, and powerful people getting the benefit of the doubt,” Joe Berkowitz wrote in Fast Company.
Yet in an interview with The Times in September at the Toronto film festival, where “I Love You, Daddy,” was shown, Louis C.K. dismissed stories of his alleged sexual misconduct as “rumors,” and said the notion that the masturbation scenes referred to them never occurred to him. “It’s funny, I didn’t think of that, ” he said.
Apologies With Troubling Implications
In private, though, he appears to have acknowledged his behavior.
In 2009, six years after their phone call, Ms. Schachner received a Facebook message from Louis C.K., apologizing. “Last time I talked to you ended in a sordid fashion,” he wrote in the message, which was reviewed by The Times. “That was a bad time in my life and I’m sorry.” He added that he had seen some of Ms. Schachner’s comedy and thought she was funny. “I remember thinking what a repulsive person I was being by responding the way that I did,” he wrote.
Ms. Schachner accepted his apology and told him she forgave him. But the original interaction left her deeply dispirited, she said, and discouraged her from pursuing comedy.
In 2015, a few months before the now-defunct website Defamer circulated rumors of Louis C.K.’s alleged sexual misconduct, Ms. Corry also received an email from Louis C.K., which was obtained by The Times, saying he owed her a “very very very late apology.” When he phoned her, he said he was sorry for shoving her in a bathroom. Ms. Corry replied that he had never done that, but had instead asked to masturbate in front of her. Responding in a shaky voice, he acknowledged it and said, “I used to misread people back then,” she recalled.
The call confounded her, Ms. Corry said: not only had he misremembered the incident, which made her think there were other moments of misconduct, he also implied she had done something to invite his behavior. “It is unfair he’s put me or anyone else in this position,” Ms. Corry said.
Ms. Goodman and Ms. Wolov said that with other allegations swirling around the entertainment world, they could no longer stay silent. “Because of this moment, as gross as it is, we feel compelled to speak,” Ms. Goodman said.
Ms. Notaro said she was standing in support of those with the courage “to speak up against such a powerful figure,” she said, “as well as the multitude of women still out there, not quite ready to share their nightmares.”
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