The Lit Set’s Day in the Sun

Several participants in the eighth annual Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday were thrown by their surroundings. Sitting near the altar of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity on Montague Street, Cristina García paused while reading a vivid description of a man’s naked body from her novel “King of Cuba”: “I just realized I’m in a church, so perhaps I should have chosen something else.”

Later in the day, all three panelists in a conversation on writing about sex expressed their surprise that the main stage on which they sat was outdoors. They gazed at the large crowd in front of Borough Hall, including some children roaming on the periphery, and decided to read less graphic sections from their books. Sam Lipsyte took in the number of anticipatory faces and said, “This really is a nightmare.”

Kathryn Kirk, Office of the Brooklyn Borough President Chuck Klosterman, left, and Rob Sheffield at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday.

Perfect weather made the main stage an even more popular place than usual for festivalgoers. The pop-culture critics and memoirists Chuck Klosterman and Rob Sheffield shared the prime spot to talk about their recent books, and the sunshine contrasted with the chummy, late-night-barstool tone of their talk. Mr. Sheffield described his theory that life can be divided into three stages that correspond to one’s opinion of Rod Stewart: “You think Rod Stewart is cool. You think Rod Stewart is not cool. And then you are Rod Stewart.” Mr. Klosterman responded: “I feel like I’m in the third camp for the rest of my life now.”

The festival prominently features international authors, and the subject matter elsewhere had a bit more gravity than the Stages of Rod. Inside Borough Hall, the Colombian author Juan Gabriel Vásquez disputed the theory that writers write about where they’re from because they understand those places well. “These are the places we thought we understood,” he said. “And then something surprises us.” On the same panel, the Argentine novelist Patricio Pron said fiction allowed for a continuing dialogue about historical events. “You can’t heal wounds just by building a memorial,” he said.

Kathryn Kirk, Office of the Brooklyn Borough President Attendees at the Brooklyn Book Festival crowded the steps of Borough Hall on Sunday.

Jamaica Kincaid had to cancel her appearance Sunday for personal reasons, but even the loss of such a notable name was just a blip on a day that featured Tom Wolfe, Claire Messud, Edwidge Danticat, Art Spiegelman and Lois Lowry, among many others.

The festival is geared toward a low-tech, indie crowd. Many display booths feature smaller publishers, literary magazines and used-book dealers, and not many gadgets or corporate brands are in sight. I strolled into a Barnes & Noble down the block between events, and one cashier, spotting the festival badge and concerned for my credibility, asked: “Are you supposed to be in here?” She described a nervous customer who had come from the festival earlier: “He didn’t want a Barnes & Noble bag. He wanted a plain black bag.”

New App to Highlight Recordings of John Lennon at Sea

Tyler Coneys Tyler Coneys, left, was a member of the crew on the Megan Jaye, the 43-foot sloop on which John Lennon sailed to Bermuda in 1980.

John Lennon’s June 1980 visit to Bermuda, where he composed some of the songs that became “Double Fantasy,” his final album, will be the subject of “John Lennon: The Bermuda Tapes,” an iPad and iPhone app scheduled to be released on Nov. 5. The app will include some the rough composing recordings that Lennon made during the trip, as well as visual materials that include his handwritten lyric sheets and photographs taken during the trip.

The app, which is directed by the filmmaker Michael Epstein and the digital artist Mark Thompson, will include two activity streams.

The first, called “Play,” lets the user follow Lennon’s trip, which began on June 6, 1980 in Newport, R.I., when he sailed to Bermuda on the 43-foot sloop Megan Jaye with his son Sean, then four years old, and a crew of three. During the trip, the crew encountered heavy weather, and Lennon said in interviews that for part of the journey, he sailed the boat on his own, singing sea-shanties all the way. Audio clips of Lennon and members of the crew describing the trip are included. The app also includes glimpses of places Lennon visited during his stay in Bermuda.

The more promising section of the app, called “Listen,” includes Lennon’s recordings of the songs he composed in Bermuda. During the trip, Lennon played these recordings over the phone to Yoko Ono, who had remained in New York. She composed responses, and played them to Lennon. Those songs became the basis of “Double Fantasy,” which the couple described as “a heart play,” as well as a proposed follow-up, which Ms. Ono completed after Lennon’s death, “Milk and Honey.”

Lennon’s demo recordings are not entirely unknown. Ms. Ono has released a few on posthumous compilations like the “John Lennon Anthology” and “Acoustic,” and dozens of them were played on a 219-episode radio series, “The Lost Lennon Tapes,” which was broadcast weekly for several years, starting in 1988. But Lennon recorded many versions of his songs-in-progress, and “The Bermuda Tapes” will include versions in which several takes are edited together to show how the songs - among them, “Woman,” “(Just Like) Starting Over,” “I’m Losing You,” “Nobody Told Me” and “Dear Yoko” - changed and developd as Lennon tweaked them.

The producers say that all proceeds from the app will go to WhyHunger, a charitable organization started by the singer Harry Chapin in 1975.

‘Venus in Fur’ to Dominate in American Theaters This Season

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda in the Broadway production of “Venus in Fur.”

What has fur, four legs and a leather collar? If you guessed a dog, you probably haven’t yet seen David Ives’s dark sex comedy “Venus in Fur.” But you should have plenty of chances, as the play is set to be the most-performed play in American theaters in the 2013-14 season, with 22 productions across the country, more than any other play, according to American Theater magazine. The rankings were compiled through surveys of over 500 member theaters of the Theater Communications Group, an umbrella organization of regional and nonprofit theaters, and the publisher of the magazine. “Venus in Fur” opened on Broadway in 2011 with Hugh Dancy and Nina Arianda in a Tony Award-winning performance.

The reason for the popularity of the sexually frank show, in addition to its mostly positive reviews on Broadway and Off (it ran at the Classic Stage Company in 2010, with Ms. Arianda and Wes Bentley), is one of economy. “Venus in Fur” features only two actors and takes place in one room, a combination that’s music to the ears of budget-conscious regional theaters.

Following “Venus in Fur” are plays that recently had critically-acclaimed Broadway runs: Bruce Norris’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Clybourne Park” (16 productions); David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Good People” (14); Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities” (13); and Katori Hall’s “Mountaintop.” Rounding out the list are Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles” (12); Nina Raine’s “Tribes” (12); Christopher Durang’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” (11); Katie Mitchell’s adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s “Cat in the Hat” (8); Lisa D’Amour’s “Detroit” (7); Yasmina Reza’s “God of Carnage” (7); John Logan’s “Red” (7); Matthew Lopez’s “Whipping Man” (7); and Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Water by the Spoonful” (7).

According to the magazine, female playwrights made up half of the list, a feat not seen since the 2005-6 season. Although Christmas shows and Shakespeare plays are not considered for the list, “A Christmas Carol” will be seen in 37 productions, while “Hamlet” and “Romeo and Juliet” are tied for the most produced Shakespeare play, with eight productions each.

Austen’s Ring to Stay in Britain

A gold and turquoise ring once owned by Jane Austen and purchased by the singer Kelly Clarkson at auction last year will be staying in Great Britain, thanks to a successful fund-raising campaign by the Jane Austen’s House Museum in Hampshire.

The museum, located in the cottage where Austen spent the last eight years of her life, announced on its Web page that it had raised enough money to match Ms. Clarkson’s purchase price of $236,000. On Aug. 1 the British minister of culture, Ed Vaizey, had issued an order temporarily banning the export of the ring.

Ms. Clarkson, who also owns a replica of the ring, said in a statement she was glad the original had found a permanent home in Great Britain. “The ring is a beautiful national treasure and I am happy to know that so many Jane Austen fans will get to see it at Jane Austen’s House Museum,” she said.

The museum had previously said that it hoped to display the ring in an exhibition celebrating the bicentennial of “Mansfield Park,” in which Fanny Price is given an amber cross by her brother, much like Austen’s own brother, who gave her an amber cross. That cross, one of three pieces of jewelry known to have been owned by Austen, is also held by the museum.

Jailed Member of Pussy Riot Announces That She’s on a Hunger Strike

One of two members of a female punk rock collective jailed for staging a protest against Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in an Orthodox church announced a hunger strike on Monday, citing brutal conditions and threats of violence from guards in a prison camp in the remote Russian region of Mordovia.

In an open letter, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of Pussy Riot, the group known for staging “punk protests” in brightly colored balaclavas, described beatings among inmates sanctioned by the prison administration, “slavery-like conditions” in a sewing workshop, and punitive bans on prisoners taking showers for days at a time.

“I refuse to participate in slave labor at the camp until the penal colony authorities begin to work under the law and treat women inmates as people rather than cattle,” Ms.Tolokonnikova wrote in the letter, which was published on the Lenta.ru news service.

Ms. Tolokonnikova, along with band members Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were sentenced to two years in prison each for calling on the Virgin Mary to “Get Rid of Putin” in a punk prayer in Moscow’s main cathedral in 2011. Ms. Tolokonnikova and Ms. Alyokhina were moved to penal colonies in October. Ms. Samutsevich was released with a suspended sentence, on appeal.

Ms. Tolokonnikova’s letter has refocused attention on the prosecution of the band for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” a charge that provoked international criticism against Russia by popular musicians and prompted Amnesty International to declare the women prisoners of conscience.

In the letter, Ms. Tolokonnikova said that prisoners were intimidated from making complaints by prison officials. When she lobbied against 16-hour work days sewing police uniforms, one official told her that if the other inmates “find out you are behind this, then you won’t be in pain, because there’s nothing to be in pain about in the afterlife,” she wrote.

Investigative officials for the region where the prison is located said that Ms. Tolokonnikova’s complaints would be reviewed, the Interfax news service reported.

Irina Khrunova, a lawyer for Ms. Tolokonnikova, said in a telephone interview that she had read the letter while at the prison last week, and that she had submitted a formal complaint to law enforcement over conditions in the penal colony. The prison camp in Mordovia is “one of the cruelest” in Russia, she added.

In a statement, the prison service in Mordovia accused Ms. Khrunova and Ms. Tolokonnikova’s husband of coercion, saying that both approached the deputy head of the prison and demanded that Ms. Tolokonnikova be transferred, or the official would be accused of threatening Ms. Tolokonnikova’s life.

Ms. Khurnova said she had requested a transfer for Ms. Tolokonnikova but denied that she issued any threats.

“I’m not going to try to read the tea leaves on this,” she said when asked what response the letter will provoke. “I don’t trust the authorities at the prison, Nadezhda has taken a very serious step, and now anything may happen to her.”

Follow Andrew Roth on Twitter @ARothmsk.

Remembering Sister Nora, a Nun Fiercely Devoted to Children of the Bronx

David Gonzalez/The New York Times Sister Nora McArt

Septembers have been cruel to the people of Crotona ever since St. Martin of Tours grammar school closed in 2011. Last year, it brought the death of the Rev. John C. Flynn, the longtime pastor and “people’s priest,” who fought to save the doomed Bronx school. This year it brings the passing of Sister Nora McArt, the silver-haired nun who spent four decades teaching the children of that parish.

She died on Friday. She was 68 years old - 50 of them devoted to her vocation - and had been ill for some time.

The redbrick school was shuttered by the Archdiocese of New York for lack of money. Sister Nora staved off a previous attempt to close the school in 2006, though her victory came with concessions to her downtown bosses, who appointed her principal but took control of the finances.

For the next five years, she and Father Flynn waged a fierce battle to keep the school open. Their efforts failed and the parish school was closed, only to be rented out a few months later to a public school. She planned to go work with an immigrant services group, but fell ill soon after the school closed.

Sister Nora moved to the Bronx’s Crotona neighborhood in 1969, the same year my family fled the fires that had hit our building on East 181st Street. I got to know her in the 1990s, as I watched her join forces with Father Flynn, the school custodian Astin Jacobo and then-principal Sister Cecilia McCarthy to help each other and their neighbors fight for respect, safety and dignity in a neighborhood laid low by poverty and violence and almost written off by city officials.

Sister Nora had a voice and laugh that betrayed her blue-collar roots in Yorktown, where she grew up as the daughter of Irish immigrants. She went to Cathedral High School and joined the Dominican order soon after graduation - one of 56 women who entered the Sparkill motherhouse. The Mother General called them her “Joyful Mysteries.”

Almost all of that class have since left the order or died. Few are following in their footsteps.

But Sister Nora stayed true to her vows and her students, even as she became the sole resident of the run-down convent attached to the school. In recent days, former students have taken to social media to share their memories: they called her tough, inspiring, caring and awesome. They credited her with changing lives, scaring them straight and making them feel loved. That she was a disciplinarian who could break up a fight single-handedly was never in dispute. Less known was her sense of humor, though she could crack you up with a choice quip.

She could be feisty, but in the weeks before the school was closed she was just furious. She felt betrayed and hurt, especially by the archdiocesan hierarchy whose officials stayed away as she went about the dismal rituals of closing down the building. There were no strains of “To Sir, With Love” in those days, just the sound of ancient books tossed into huge garbage piles and filing cabinets dragged downstairs with a bang - and the occasional sarcastic crack about those who saw the school’s closing as inevitable, even as they spent money refurbishing cathedrals or residences for a retired cardinal.

But she always made sure to shield her children.

On the school’s final day - June 22, 2011 - Sister Nora sat among her young charges at a prayer service inside the cavernous church. At one point, she spotted a third grader crying. Sister Nora got up, crossed the aisle - genuflected before the altar - and settled in next to the girl. She put her arm around the child.

Together, they knelt and prayed.

Remembering Sister Nora, a Nun Fiercely Devoted to Children of the Bronx

David Gonzalez/The New York Times Sister Nora McArt

Septembers have been cruel to the people of Crotona ever since St. Martin of Tours grammar school closed in 2011. Last year, it brought the death of the Rev. John C. Flynn, the longtime pastor and “people’s priest,” who fought to save the doomed Bronx school. This year it brings the passing of Sister Nora McArt, the silver-haired nun who spent four decades teaching the children of that parish.

She died on Friday. She was 68 years old - 50 of them devoted to her vocation - and had been ill for some time.

The redbrick school was shuttered by the Archdiocese of New York for lack of money. Sister Nora staved off a previous attempt to close the school in 2006, though her victory came with concessions to her downtown bosses, who appointed her principal but took control of the finances.

For the next five years, she and Father Flynn waged a fierce battle to keep the school open. Their efforts failed and the parish school was closed, only to be rented out a few months later to a public school. She planned to go work with an immigrant services group, but fell ill soon after the school closed.

Sister Nora moved to the Bronx’s Crotona neighborhood in 1969, the same year my family fled the fires that had hit our building on East 181st Street. I got to know her in the 1990s, as I watched her join forces with Father Flynn, the school custodian Astin Jacobo and then-principal Sister Cecilia McCarthy to help each other and their neighbors fight for respect, safety and dignity in a neighborhood laid low by poverty and violence and almost written off by city officials.

Sister Nora had a voice and laugh that betrayed her blue-collar roots in Yorktown, where she grew up as the daughter of Irish immigrants. She went to Cathedral High School and joined the Dominican order soon after graduation - one of 56 women who entered the Sparkill motherhouse. The Mother General called them her “Joyful Mysteries.”

Almost all of that class have since left the order or died. Few are following in their footsteps.

But Sister Nora stayed true to her vows and her students, even as she became the sole resident of the run-down convent attached to the school. In recent days, former students have taken to social media to share their memories: they called her tough, inspiring, caring and awesome. They credited her with changing lives, scaring them straight and making them feel loved. That she was a disciplinarian who could break up a fight single-handedly was never in dispute. Less known was her sense of humor, though she could crack you up with a choice quip.

She could be feisty, but in the weeks before the school was closed she was just furious. She felt betrayed and hurt, especially by the archdiocesan hierarchy whose officials stayed away as she went about the dismal rituals of closing down the building. There were no strains of “To Sir, With Love” in those days, just the sound of ancient books tossed into huge garbage piles and filing cabinets dragged downstairs with a bang - and the occasional sarcastic crack about those who saw the school’s closing as inevitable, even as they spent money refurbishing cathedrals or residences for a retired cardinal.

But she always made sure to shield her children.

On the school’s final day - June 22, 2011 - Sister Nora sat among her young charges at a prayer service inside the cavernous church. At one point, she spotted a third grader crying. Sister Nora got up, crossed the aisle - genuflected before the altar - and settled in next to the girl. She put her arm around the child.

Together, they knelt and prayed.

Video: Watching the Finale of ‘Dexter’

Mike Hale, a television critic for The Times, breaks down Sunday’s series-ending episode of “Dexter,” the Showtime serial killer drama starring Michael C. Hall. There are spoilers.

New York Today: Global Summit, Local Gridlock

Vincent Laforet/The New York Times An unusual degree of diplomacy will be called for on the city’s roadways this week.

As the United Nations General Assembly convenes here this week, tempers will flare. Progress will be slow. As the hours drag on, hopelessness may set in.

We speak here of the traffic.

The cursing will start this morning, when the F.D.R. Drive is closed for President Obama’s arrival and motorcade.

Things will probably get worse from there.

In fact, escalating international tensions this year mean more meetings involving world leaders attending the General Assembly.

Which means more traffic.

“Almost every day is going to be a traffic adventure,” said Samuel I. Schwartz, the former city traffic commissioner better known as Gridlock Sam.

Security will be extra heavy around Middle Eastern heads of state, he said.

Demonstrations will pop up near not just near the United Nations, but at consulates and maybe Times Square.

Mr. Obama will keep the street-closers busy, as he shuttles from the Waldorf-Astoria to the Hilton to the United Nations.

Everywhere the president goes until his departure Tuesday night, streets will be frozen â€" not just for motor vehicles, but for pedestrians.

The spillover could tie up the West Side Highway, Lower Manhattan, and even western Queens, all week long.

Here’s what else you need to know for Monday.

WEATHER

Again with the sunshine. Breezy, with a high of 68 and a skip in your step. Skies should stay clear for most of the week.

TRANSIT & TRAFFIC

- Mass Transit: O.K. so far. Click for latest M.T.A. status.

- Roads: No major delays. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Joseph J. Lhota, the Republican mayoral candidate, meets with the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Midtown and attends the Brownstone Republican Club meeting in Brooklyn.

- Bill de Blasio is on Curtis Sliwa’s radio show on AM 970 The Answer at 8:15 a.m.

- The teenaged Pakistani advocate for girls’ education who was shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai, speaks at a United Nations news conference on the effort to educate Syrian refugee children.

- Officials break ground on two flood-resistant train tunnels under the Hudson River. The project could cost $14.5 billion.

- A 4 p.m. rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside the U.N. against labor trafficking and slavery.

- Five Americans who received Nobel Prizes last year will have their names unveiled on the nation’s only Nobel monument, at Theodore Roosevelt Park on the Upper West Side. [Free, 5:30 p.m.]

- Advertising Week is here! Lots of panel talks with titles like “Absolut Vodka Transforms to Re-Engage With Millennials.”

- Cher sings in Rockefeller Plaza on the “Today” show. [Free, 8 a.m.]

- Richard Dawkins, the biologist and crusading atheist, discusses his new memoir at Brooklyn Academy of Music. [$40 includes price of book, 7:30 p.m.]

- For more events, see The New York Times’s Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- The bike lane up Avenue of the Americas ends abruptly at 42nd Street, so vigilante cycling advocates painted their own extension of it Saturday night. [New York Times]

- A quarter of Democrats who voted for Christine C. Quinn plan to vote for Mr. Lhota in November. [Crain's Insider]

- A young Mr. de Blasio’s 1988 humanitarian trip to Nicaragua sparked visions of an unfettered leftist government. [New York Times]

- Cardinal Dolan of New York praised the pope’s recent comments chastising church guardians for being “obsessed” with sexual morality. [New York Times]

- A Sikh professor at Columbia University who has called for greater bias-crime protection for Sikhs was attacked and beaten by a mob on 110th Street who appeared to believe he was Muslim. [New York Post]

- A dance-music concert at an amusement park in Connecticut was shut down after several people collapsed from overdoses of a drug called 2CP. [Hartford Courant]

- Brooklyn Botanic Garden is on the defensive after an outcry over its decision to suspend its scientific research program. [New York Times]

- The Yankees did not win. They fell to the Giants, 2-1. The Mets beat the Phillies, 4-3.

- The football Giants were shut out by the Panthers, 38-0. The Jets beat the Bills, 27-20.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

What would you like to see here to start your day? Post a comment, e-mail us at nytoday@nytimes.com or reach us via Twitter using #NYToday.

Find us on weekdays at nytimes.com/nytoday.