Linda Chalmer Zemel

Movie: "Elles" uncovers life in Paris

Been to Paris lately? Apparently the apartments that college students want to rent can be way beyond their reach. When a European co-ed can’t find help with her troubles and makes a less than satisfactory...

Movie: No such thing as a wrong number

Oy. The improbable sameness of theme in two current movies, one of them moving and deep and the other not so much.Woody Allen with his loosest ad-libs, maybe, or a project for a film class, is what...

Movie: Not hooked on 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'

I mean, I get it. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen means the improbable, what is desired but seems impossible--except for a sheikh who can make it happen. This film provides even that in a visionary who has the ability...

Talking Leaves partners with World Book Night in one-day event

Talking Leaves…Books is a partner in the first-ever World Book Night in the United States. Last year, the event was initiated in the UK and Ireland, according to Jonothan Welch, owner of Talking Leaves. This year, in...

Review: 'Mirror Mirror' is charming

No use complaining that Mirror Mirror, the movie, is different from Snow White, the book. Right after it was over, I stopped at the Audubon Branch of the library to check on that, and it is delightfully different. But...

The Hunger Games: Tasty, yes. Satisfying? The jury's out.

Remember when you were sixteen?Not only did Suzanne Collins remember it in 2008, when The Hunger Games introduced sixteen-year-old Catniss Everdeen, but in 1951 and 1971, J.D. Salinger and John Knowles did, too. In The Catcher...

Buffalo Books: Bill Cowell on The Buffalo Niagara Film Festival's autism project

Buffalo Books interviewed Bill Cowell, president of the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival on Wednesday, February 22, 2012. He works in spacious surroundings filled with props and memorabilia on Payne Avenue in North Tonawanda. We sat down to talk...

Open mic at the Woodlawn Diner and Elaine Chamberlain, too

The Woodlawn Diner, 3200 Lakeshore Road in Blasdell, will host poet Elaine Chamberlain February 26 at its next Poetry & Dinner event. Following her 4 PM reading, guests will enjoy either Stuffed Chicken with Mashed Potatoes or Broccoli and Cheddar...

Commentary: What Mma Precious Romatswe knows about justice

Alexander McCall Smith, the author behind Mma Precious Romatswe, will speak at Kleinhans Music Hall on April 12 at 8 PM, part of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s lecture series. A professor of medical law at Edinburgh...

Buffalo Books: Ellis Avery on Paris and painting in The Last Nude

Novelist Ellis Avery will return to Buffalo to read from her new novel, The Last Nude, at Talking Leaves Main Street store on Wednesday, February 22, at 7 PM. In 2007, New York Press named her in Best of...

Currently in Los Angeles