When we get an email about a book from a fellow book lover, we take special notice.  Over the weekend, friend and Ivy Bookshop Owner Ann Berlin, sent the following to our inbox:

We are always on the lookout for very special books and authors.  I just completed a book entitled A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar and was so moved that I felt compelled to let the friends of the Ivy know about it.  This book is a very special memoir by Qais Akbar Omar of life in Afghanistan during the civil war and under the Taliban. Every once in a while, a book comes along that leaves you so much richer, and this is one of them.

If you loved The Kite Runner, I believe you will love this one even more.  The humanity shines through. This book is breathtaking.   Qais will be signing at The Ivy Bookshop this coming Monday, May 20, at 7:00 PM.  This book would be looked upon favorably among book clubs and anyone interested in the unfolding events in Afghanistan. I encourage you and your friends to meet him at the shop.

Qais recently wrote an amazing Op-Ed in The New York Times, entitled “Where’s My Ghost Money”. See the link here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/opinion/sunday/wheres-my-ghost-money.html?_r=0

A Fort of Nine Towers is one of the rare memoirs of Afghanistan to have been written by an Afghan, and it reveals the richness and suffering of life in a country whose history has become deeply entwined with our own.

For the young Qais Akbar Omar, Kabul was a city of gardens where he flew kites from his grandfather’s roof with his cousin Wakeel while their parents, uncles and aunts drank tea around a cloth spread in the grass. It was a time of telling stories, reciting poetry, selling carpets and arranging marriages. Read More →

credit: well.blogs.nytimes.com

Who invented sleepovers, anyway? When I can sense that one of my kids is going to beg me to invite so-and-so over for a sleepover, or a parent calls and says that her kid wants one of mine to come over to spend the night, I find myself automatically spewing out a slew of excuses about why it’s not a good time.

In my opinion, there’s never a good time for a sleepover.

Some of my most vivid memories from childhood are of sleepovers. They weren’t good memories, necessarily. But they definitely embedded themselves into the recesses of my brain, some of them as strong and clear as if they happened last night instead of thirty-some years ago.

There was the time that I stayed up at a sleepover until the wee hours of the night watching, mesmerized, as my best friend’s hamsters (or maybe they were gerbils, or mice) ate one another until there was nothing left in the cage but a few tufts of fur. I kid you not. I was captivated by their bizarre behavior, which ironically proved to be a perfect metaphor for us bigger animals occupying the same space. Only difference is that us 10-year-girls were cocooned in sleeping bags instead of a cage.

The poor girl who was foolish enough to fall asleep before the rest of us was not unlike that first poor rodent eaten by its peers. We dipped her hand in a bowl of water; according to seventies suburban lore, doing so would make her pee in her underwear. The rest of the evening’s antics have become fuzzy over time, but I have no doubt that we talked about the girl behind her back or, more precisely, while she was on her back. Likely there was some bickering, pairing off in twos and threes and, finally, mercifully, passing out just before the sun came up. Read More →

Orb may not have won the Preakness yesterday, but he did win over the crowd at Pimlico and revived local interest in horse racing (yay, Maryland economy!). Check out some of the scenes our photographer Tyler Merbler snapped at the races. It looks like a loss by the hometown favorite and threatening rain did little to dampen the mood. – The Eds.

All photos by Tyler Merbler.

Sagamore Farm. All photos by Krista Smith.

Tomorrow, the 138th Preakness Stakes, or the “Freakness” as it is sometimes affectionately known in Baltimore, will run at the Pimlico Race Course.

Whether you find yourself at the race sipping Black-Eyed Susans and wearing a pink taffeta dress that matches the flower on your hat, or funneling malt liquor and wearing black denim shorts that match the tattoo on your abdomen, you will be participating in the long Maryland tradition of thoroughbred horse racing. It’s a tradition that owes much of its rich history, and maybe even a bit of its optimistic future, to the pragmatism of Margaret Emerson Vanderbilt.

Margaret’s first son, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, was born in 1912. Mrs. Vanderbilt was hopeful that her boy would grow up to be a businessman and she had good reason to be bullish. Men on both sides of Alfred’s family had built huge companies (Bromo-Seltzer on her side and the New York Central Railroad on her husband’s side). Now widowed, Margaret was one of the wealthiest people in America…and this was “Gatsby” America, which we all now know (thanks, Baz) was the real deal.

Alfred, as it turned out, had other interests (such a thankless job, the parenting). “Since the first time I went to the races at Pimlico at the age of 9,” Mr. Vanderbilt once said, ”I have had this wonderful feeling about racing. I don’t go to the races because I just love horses. It’s like the person who goes to the circus and falls in love with the whole show, not just the elephants.”

Vanderbilt’s racing silk design on the stalls in the original stable.

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Kwame Kwei-Armah’s ambitious new play, Beneatha’s Place, premiered Wednesday night at Centerstage to a packed house awash in anticipation – the show will run through June 16 as part of “The Raisin Cycle,” which rotates performances with Bruce Norris’s 2011 Pulitzer-winning Clybourne Park. Each pays creative homage to Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 theater classic, A Raisin in the Sun. Read More →

Courtesy Citybizlist - The 138th Preakness will return to Pimlico this weekend, and along with the crowds, concerts and large flowered hats, the annual races are expected to generate millions of dollars for Maryland.

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Join the winners circle of racing luminaries as they discuss all things racing — from the Hunt Cup to the Preakness — at The Ivy Bookshop on Thursday, May 16 at 7 p.m. Enjoy refreshments and get the inside scoop on racing in Maryland and beyond.

The panel of experts includes:

Ron Turcotte, Hall of Fame jockey and rider of 1973 Triple Crown champion, Secretariat

Patrick Smithwick, Maryland jockey and author of Flying Change and Racing My Father

Steve Davidowitz, professional handicapper, reporter, editor, columnist, and author of Betting Thoroughbreds

Elizabeth Letts, bestselling author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation

No betting required!

Orb hits the track at 6:00 this morning. Photo by Sam Moore.

One of the best Preakness traditions is Sunrise at Old Hilltop. The free, 20-minute tours run from 6 a.m. – 9 a.m., Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Preakness Week.  If you want to get into the spirit of the Preakness, but don’t want to face the crowds, it is the perfect event.

The tours give spectators an insider’s perspective on racing during an escorted tour of the stable area.  One of the tour guides who always draws a crowd is former jockey Charlie Fenwick. Charlie stopped riding years ago, but his love of the sport and experience add a personal touch. His enthusiasm for racing is infectious.

A local television news reporter puts a mic in front of Charlie Fenwick and his daughter.

Trainers, owners, exercise riders, and jockeys mill about during the tour, giving a real sense of life behind the scenes.

On the wash rack.

Budweiser showcases its Clydesdales in the barn area too.  This one, named Roy, is 1,800 pounds.

Before and after the tours, spectators watch the horses during their morning workouts.

Rosie Nepravnik rides Mylute. Photo by Sam Moore.

Reservations are not taken, tours are free and on a first come, first serve basis. For more information, please contact Diana Harbaugh at dharbaugh@marylandracing.com.

The judges (and the voting public) have spoken:  Jacoby Jones, Ravens wide receiver, is an excellent dancer. If you haven’t been following along with the 16th season of Dancing With the Stars, now might be a good time to start:  The competition is down to its final four, and Jones stands a good chance of coming out a winner. Which means that Baltimore is incredibly close to winning the 2013 Triumphant Trifecta (which I just made up):  the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, and DWTS’s top spot, all in one year!
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