On April 17, 1957, Nick Hornby was born. Hornby is a novelist, screenwriter, and critic whose recurring themes include the emotional resonance of pop music and the lives of men who haven't quite made the transition to adulthood.
Hornby's first big success came with his 1992 memoir Fever Pitch (e-book | print), which looked at key moments in his life through his lifelong passion for London's Arsenal Football Club. (That's "football" in the English sense – what we Americans call "soccer"). He wrote the screenplay for the 1997 film adaptation of the book; a 2005 American remake moved the story to Boston and changed the sports obsession to the Boston Red Sox. The movie had the good luck to film during the 2004 baseball season, when the Red Sox won their first championship since 1918; that victory was written into the movie.
Hornby's first novel, High Fidelity (e-book | print), was published in 1995; it's the story of a record store owner who hides his fear of commitment by obsessively devoting himself to music – finding favorite obscure records, making "top five" lists to impress his friends, and so on. It was also adapted as a film, and later as a Broadway musical.
Music pops up again in Hornby's 2003 Songbook (print), a collection of essays on 31 songs and their place in his life, and in his 2009 novel Juliet, Naked (e-book | print | audio), about a reclusive pop star who makes an unexpected connection with a fan. And Hornby hasn't only written about music; in 2010, he teamed up with singer-songwriter Ben Folds, writing the lyrics for Folds' album Lonely Avenue.
In 2003, Hornby began writing "Stuff I've Been Reading," a monthly book review column for the magazine The Believer. The books he writes about aren't chosen in any systematic way, and the column is an idiosyncratic, occasionally digressive look at the books that happened to grab his attention that month. They may be bestsellers, classic novels, or offbeat obscurities. The Believer columns are collected in full in (so far) four volumes – The Polyphonic Spree (print), Housekeeping vs. the Dirt (print), Shakespeare Wrote for Money (print), and More Baths Less Talking (e-book | print) – with the highlights gathered in Ten Years in the Tub (e-book | print).
In the last decade, Hornby has also shown a skill for adapting books into screenplays. He has been nominated twice for the Academy Award, for his screenplays for An Education, based on Lynn Barber's memoir (e-audio); and Brooklyn, based on the novel by Colm Toibin (e-book | e-audio | print | audio).
Fever Pitch is still the only one of his own books that Hornby's adapted for the screen, but his books have been adapted by others. About a Boy (e-book | print), in which a man still drifting through life as he nears middle age finds stability in helping a neighbor care for her adolescent son, became a movie in 2002; and A Long Way Down (e-book | e-audio | print | audio), a dark comedy about four people who meet when they find themselves planning to jump from the same rooftop on New Year's Eve, was adapted in 2014.
Hornby's most recent novel is Funny Girl (e-book | e-audio | print | audio), a period piece about a 1960s beauty queen determined to succeed in TV comedy.
Also This Week
April 20, 1908
Lionel Hampton was born. Hampton was a jazz musician; he played the drums and piano, but was best known for his work on the vibraphone. In the late 1930s, he played for a few years with the Benny Goodman Quartet, one of the first racially integrated jazz ensembles. He led his own bands for about fifty years, until chronic arthritis forced him to cut back on performance in the last decade of his life. Much of Hampton's music is available for streaming or download at Hoopla and Freegal.
April 23, 1928
Shirley Temple was born. Temple was a child star; between the ages of 7 and 10, she was Hollywood's biggest box-office draw. Temple's singing and dancing, and her perpetual good cheer, gave audiences something to be happy about at the height of the Great Depression. America was less interested in Temple as she aged out of childhood, and she retired from the movies at the age of 22. As an adult, Temple (now Shirley Temple Black) served terms as the United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. One of her last movie successes, The Little Princess, is available for streaming.
April 22, 1943
Janet Evanovich was born. Evanovich began her career as an author of romance novels, but for the last twenty-five years, she's been writing mystery and suspense novels. Her best-known character is bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, the hero of 24 light-hearted caper novels. Evanovich chose Stephanie's occupation because she thought it would provide a wider range of story possibilities. The first Stephanie Plum novel is One for the Money (e-book | e-audio | print | audio); Katherine Heigl stars in the 2012 film adaptation (DVD).
April 22 is Earth Day
The first Earth Day was held in 1970. The event was originally designed as an environmental teach-in, targeted at college students. The date was chosen because to avoid conflict with college spring break or with religious holidays, and it would be warm enough for outdoor events. Education is still an important focus of Earth Day, but the observance has broadened to a general push for environmental awareness and activism. The theme for Earth Day 2018 is "End Plastic Pollution." Cheryl Leutjen's Love Earth Now (e-book) offers steps that can be taken in just a few minutes each day to help preserve the environment.