The Book Shopper - Atlanta

Atlanta Area Book Events Calendar – February 2012

Here's are some of the Atlanta area book highlights for the month of February:

Wednesday, February 9 – McEver Poetry Reading at Georgia Tech will feature the works of poets Theresa Davis, Chris Forhan and H. Bruce McEver at 7:30 p.m. at the Kress Auditorium, Robert C. Williams Paper Museum.

Most of the month of February - In celebration of Black History Month 2012 the Auburn Avenue Research Library is hosting many events ranging from the Introduction of the Black Age of Comics: Past, Present and Future (Feb 9) to Black Stars in Orbit: NASA's African American Astronauts (Feb. 11). The Georgia Center for the Book also has many similar events scheduled throughout February.

Tuesday, February 28 - Peggielene Bartels author of King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village will be doing a reading and signing at 7:00 p.m. at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum Theatre. The Bartels book is being compared to the Alexander McCall Smith series, the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I can't say that I've read the McCall book, but I certainly enjoyed the screen adaptation of Ladies Detective Agency by Anthony Minghella who directed The English Patient.

Wednesday February 29 – Rob Walker a former columnist for The New York Times Magazine will appear with Bobbi Patterson from Emory University's Department of Religion in an informal conversation about Buddhism and Desire. Walker is the author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue of What We Buy and Who We Are. I didn't read Buying In when in was published in 2008; I studied it. It is a fascinating book and his Times column “Consumed” was insightful and is now sorely missed. The conversation between Patterson and Walker begins at 7:30 p.m. at the reception hall of the Carlos Museum on the campus Emory University.

And don't forget February is also Read Your Favorite Abraham Lincoln Biography Month.

 

A Spiritual Education Made Easy

If you desire a spiritual education from an expensive liberal arts college or seminary and cannot afford one, now you can!

For a mere $7 you can order the 170-page book catalog from Eighth Day Books in Wichita, Kansas. Then after reading the descriptions of the approximately 1300 entries you will sound knowledgeable in religion, philosophy, history and literature. Imagine the scholar you will become if you actually read some of these books. Here's a run-on list of the different categories and some sample titles from each:

Of Books, Culture and Learning – Shop Class as Soulcraft An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford; Devices of the Soul: Battling for Our Selves in an Age of Machines by Steve Talbott; Standing by Words: Essays by Wendell Berry; The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews by Flannery O'Connor. The Spiritual Life – Prayer: A History by Philip and Carol Zaleski; The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain by Scott Cairns. On Spiritual Direction – In the Fire of the Burning Bush: An Initiation to the Spiritual Life by Marko Ivan Rupnik. Athletes of Prayer – A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, edited by David Bercot. Theology and Patristics - St. Augustine: Confessions by Serge Lancel; Justinian the Great: Emperor and Saint by Asterios Gerostergios. Ecclesiography – Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity by Gary B. Fregen; Religion and the Rise of Western Culture by Christopher Dawson. Biblical Studies and Sources – The Historical Reliability of the Gospels by Craig L. Blomberg. Liturgy and Worship – In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivitity by Josef Pieper. (Are you getting a sense of what an amazing collection of books this catalog is?) Eastern Christendom – In the Image and Likeness of God by Vladimir Lossky. Luminous Lives ( or The Saint Section) – Saint Thomas Aquinas/Saint Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton; About 20 books about Thomas Merton. Ways of Seeing (or The Art Section) – Art and Scholasticism with Other Essays by Jacques Maritain; The Limits of Art: Two Essays by Tzvetan Todorov. Philosophy and Religion - The Complete Works of Aristotle:  The Revised Oxford Translation edited by Jonathan Barnes; Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith edited by Francis C. Collins. The Modern World Science and God – Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self by Marilynn Robinson (author of Gilead and Housekeeping); Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science by Ronald L. Numbers. C.S. Lewis and Friends – C.S. Lewis: A Complete Guide to His Life and Works edited by Walter Hooper; Understanding the Lord of the Rings: The Best of Tolkien Criticism edited by Rose A. Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaacs. Books of Timeless Interest – Books about and by: Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Czeslaw Milosz, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor and Murray Browne.

 

Civil War Bedtime Stories: A Review

Finding the right book to read before bedtime is always a little challenging. Knowing that I will read for only a couple minutes before dozing off, I don't want anything long or complicated. Nor do I want to read a book with much of a narrative because taking one and two page bites from a book doesn't do justice to the storytelling or storyteller. But certain books can work well that way.

Currently this has not been the problem as I read n' snooze through The Untold Civil War: Exploring the Human Side of War by James Robertson (and edited by Neil Kagen). The publisher National Geographic graciously provided me a copy in advance of Robertson's visit to the Carter Library & Museum here in Atlanta last month, but Christmas time is a busy time and I missed the event. Robertson is a well respected Civil War historian most noted for his biography of Stonewall Jackson.

This gorgeously printed book (like a National Geographic magazine) is so big and heavy that it wouldn't fit on my nightstand, but that is my only criticism. In between the almost 500 photographs and images, the book contains 132 brief stories about 800 to a 1000 words in length, covering some of the nuances of the Civil War. Even a self-proclaimed Civil War buff such as myself (type in “Civil War” in the blog's search box) has learned many things about The War Between the States that I previously knew little about such as: the mail service, the not-so pleasant aspects of camp life, and the recruitment by the Confederacy (yes, it is true). Robertson and Kagen include anecdotes about the generals (Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, George Pickett), but important noncombatants as well (Frederick Douglass, Louisa May Alcott, and Julia Ward Howe).

 The Untold Civil War is an impressive, mammoth collection of stories, photographs, maps, and quotes. It even includes the musical notation of “Taps” (written during the 1862 Pennisular Campaign) thus making it a worthy addition to any buff's library or nightstand.

Photo credits: Both photos are courtesy of and  copyrighted by the National Geographic.The mail wagon photo is an Army of the Potomac's II Corps mail wagon photographed at Brandy Station, Virginia in 1864. The troops shown at the right are the  men of Company E, Fourth U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment who fought in Petersburg, the Bermuda Hundred and Forts Fisher and Harrison.

Birmingham Book Store

Late last year I drove over to Birmingham to visit my daughter and she insisted that we check out Jim Reed Books/The Museum of Fond Thought located in the historic downtown district. She knows what I like.

In business since 1980, the store boasts a collection of about 50,000 books, magazines and posters along with another 250,000 undocumented items. It's a great place to browse down memory lane. Many of the books that fill the shelves I hadn't seen in a while, but I recall as being quite popular in their heyday. (How soon the bloom of popularity can fade.) I ended up purchasing a copy of Jim Harrison's 1984 novel Sundog. When I am in a reading rut, I always turn to Harrison to get out of it. His novels are spirited and meaningful without being pretentious (kind of like Reed Books).

It is worth stopping by Reed Books when you're in Birmingham, if for no other reason than to get on their mailing list. Since I signed up, I now get weekly, quirky, emails from the owner Jim Reed promoting the store, which includes a list of items people purchased throughout the week (Kind of like the MARTA book club). Reed, who is also a writer, edits the Birmingham Arts Journal.

Best Local Reading of 2011 (That I Attended) & January 2012 Calendar of Events

Before saying a final farewell to 2011 –- as we recycle our dead trees (they gave their all, so you could have Christmas) --- it’s time to recognize the “Best Local Reading of the Year of 2010” or more specifically, the “Best Local Reading of the Year (That I Attended), ” which does narrow the field considerably. My rating criteria are rather simple and subjective:

• Did I learn something that otherwise I would not have learned, even if I read the book?

• Did the author and the audience seem to engage with each other?

• Did I come away with a little buzz (or buy the book) after the reading?

Some of this year’s candidates include well known authors such as Sarah Vowell, Charles Mann (technically his reading was a slide show), Thomas Lynch, Brian Dettmer (art exhibit), Tayari Jones along with Lang Whitaker, Ned Stuckey-French, Barry Brown, and Gordon Elwell. I realize it it is not much of a list for a blog that “muses about book-related events,” but what can I say? It's a challenge for anyone to get out to some literary event at least once a month, so when you are rewarded with something worthy of the effort, it deserves some recognition. 

This year’s Best Local Reading of 2011 (That I Attended) goes to Andisheh Nouree's appearance at Eddie's Attic last August for his book Americapedia: Taking the Dumb Out Freedom (co-authored with Jodi Lynn Anderson, and Daniel Ehrenhaft). Basically the afternoon was a romp and it included Nouree singing a medley of “America” themed music. Moreover, who can resist having a much-needed beer (hence the buzz) when hearing about the shortcomings of the American political system during the budget gridlock. (The book's raisons de'tre is to help people get informed and then get involved.) 

Nouree joins previous winners, which includes the four poets (Kevin Young, Thomas Lux, David Bottoms, and David Kirby) from last year, who read from the University of Georgia Press Anthology Seriously Funny. Other winners were the late E. Lynn Harris (2009) and Chandler Burr (2008).

January 2012 – Atlanta Calendar of Book Events

If your New Year's resolution needs  more refinement -- more than just using fancy sounding phrases like raisons d'etre in a sentence -- then examine the following book related events for the month of January. I purposely don't put the times in the announcements, so you will have double check each website before heading out. All events are in Atlanta unless noted otherwise and the ($$) indicates their is a small admission fee required.

Monday, January 9. Janny Scott author of A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother. Georgia Center for the Book at Dekalb Public Library, Decatur.

Thursday, January 12. Heather Donaghue author of How My Life Changed After the Blair Witch Project and Went to Pot. ($$) Pizzeria Vesuvius (an A Cappella Books event)

 

Flowerpot of Life: A Book Shopper's Top Books of 2011

Unlike other “best” book lists, my criteria for excellence is somewhat different. To make the list requires a combination of value (how much I paid for the book) and good reading. Whether the book was published in 2011 is of little significance to me as I am a person who likes to think of himself as immune to book hype while preferring to shop for books at used bookstores, independent book stores, book festivals, church sales and even online (gasp!). I crave the process. Here’s my list of most notable finds/reads in 2011:

Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow by David Shields (1996). It's a “collection” of essays, anecdotes, bumper sticker compilations, advertisements and photos (sounds like a blog) that examine how celebrity culture manifests itself in our daily lives. I found a signed copy of this book at Books Again (see sponsor link on upper left) for a fiver. You can read more about Remote here.

The Conversations: Walter Murch & The Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje (2002). Nick Hornby mentioned this book in one of his Stuff I Am Reading columns in The Believer and since I have a small book allowance at work to buy books about the media, I made the transaction. This book is a fascinating conversation of the artistic and creative choices (not much gossip) that went into the editing of some of my favorite movies: Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The Godfather, The Talented Mr. Rigley and of course, a film adaptation of Ondaatje's own book, The English Patient.

The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagen (2003). Ever since I saw Kagen on Book TV drawing parallels between the war between Sparta and Athens and America's hegemony in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was interested in reading the book. I found a copy at Eighth Day Books in Wichita (see sponsor link) a couple years ago and finally got around to reading this lengthy tome. Before I read it, I didn't know squat about the war (431 BC to 404 BC) between Athens and Sparta and now I do.

Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James (1980). Any reader of this blog knows I am obsessed with James' book Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts. (I've corner the market on many discounted hardback copies. See here), but decades ago I was first introduced to James when I read his autobiography about growing up in post-war Australia. While browsing through the $1 shelves that insulate the outside of the Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, I found a severed copy of the book Unreliable Memoirs (literally split in half). Seizing the opportunity, I reread some of it before it completely disintegrated. It's amazing how this Tasmanian devil kind of kid who grew up without a father (killed when returning from Japanese POW camp) later became an insightful political and culture critic. 

Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Dana Meadows (2008). Our friend Maggie was reading this book when she visited my longtime fiance Denise and I earlier this year. Maggie is responsible for introducing me to one of the books from last year's list, The Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (2009), so anything she is scribbling notes in, I am interested. At first this book, which examines the fundamentals of how systems work or don't work, seems simplistic. However, as the book progresses you realize that the knowledge of these fundamentals can help one get a better grip personal as well as global problems. I ordered my copy from Eighth Day Books because they always have these kind of smart books in stock and they can ship them to my door immediately.

 

From the Mailbox

There aren't too many book-related email lists I don't sign up for, so it is not unusual to get information that is worth passing on. Such notables:

Paravion Press, which I wrote about earlier here is offering a special Christmas book – a limited illustrated edition of James Joyce's short story, "The Dead." The illustrator is James Bock. (a sample shown here)  For more about it, visit Paravion's website.

A blog reader sent me a note about a nationally syndicated radio show that airs on WAFS 1190 AM at 11 a.m. on Sunday mornings here in Atlanta called The Book Report. I caught a few minutes of the show the other day and I liked what I heard. Unfortunately, that's the not always the most convenient time for me to listen as I am out nourishing my inner self (i.e. buying fresh fruits and vegetable at the Dekalb Farmer's Market).

Paul Dry Books is having their holiday book sale from now through December 15th. The publisher has a range of books including my book The Book Shopper (which spawned this blog). One of my favorite books on Paul Dry's list and worth checking out is Gabriel Zaid's book of essays So Many Books. Before I went to Greece earlier this year, the publisher -- as kind of a bon voyage gift --provided me a copy of Ill By Midnight, which is the true story of the British commandos who captured a German general in 1943. It has a plucky-hip-hip-cheerio style, but it does give one a sense of the mountainous terrain and the courageous generosity of the people of Crete. Earlier this year, I reviewed Right off the Bat, a book for hardcore cricket fans who want to learn about baseball or is it vice versa? The book is kind of both.

The Robert C. Williams Paper Museum on the campus of Georgia Tech is offering two five-hour Book Art Workshops: Book Arts l, The Wonderful World of Marbling: Marbling Techniques, will be held on Saturday, February 4, 2012 from 10:00AM-3:30PM and Book Arts II Workshop, Bookbinding: Small Book Structures, will be held on Saturday, March 10, 2012 from 10:00AM- 3:30PM. Workshops cost $85 each. For details, email Fran Rottenberg (franrottenberg.ipst.gatech.edu) or call 404-894- 5726.

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Ha-ha Tom Friedman: The Charles Mann Lecture at Emory

Here's the gist of author Charles C. Mann's recent lecture at Emory University in Atlanta. Mann was in town promoting his latest book, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, which is a followup from his much-acclaimed 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.

Where & When: Held at the Reception Hall, William Carlos Museum on Emory's campus on December 7, 2011.

Attendance: I'd estimate ~125 people with only about 20 Emory Students.

Why I Went: I've been a real slacker lately when it comes to attending local book events (guilt). Moreover, last summer Mark Burell, the manager at the Carlos Musuem Book Shop, gave me the heads up about Mann and he highly recommended 1491.

What He Read Aloud: Nothing. Instead Mann lectured for  about 45 minutes touching on, what I assume, are the highlights of his new book. Accompanying the lecture were gorgeous slides with illuminating infographics about how plants, diseases, and foods (especially the sweet potato) were exchanged back and forth from the New World to Europe, Africa and China. This explains the significance of Mann's quip about the alternative title for his book: “Ha-ha, Tom Friedman. The World Has Been Flat for 400 Years.”

His Q & A: Most people had their questions answered in the fifteen minute Q & A  period. Mann knows what he knows, but he isn't afraid to admit that he is not an expert in everything. Mann also gives complete answers, but doesn't get bogged down with long explanations ( more time for more questions). The audience asked intelligent questions as well.

Did I Buy Something? Yes, a trade paperback of 1491, but I had no interest in waiting in the long line to have the book signed.

Worth Mentioning. In a short period of time I learned a lot of things:  How the Chinese grow three-quarters of the world's sweet potatoes and how it contributes to their constant flooding in China. I learned about the silver mines of Potosi, that the Mason-Dixon line really should be named the Malaria-Dixon line and the days for invasive kudzu are numbered. I can't explain all this, but if you attended Mann's fine lecture you would know.

You can re-create the Charles Mann experience by purchasing one of the several signed copies of 1493 that the Carlos Museum Book Shop has available. You can check ahead for book availability by calling 404-727-0529.

MARTA Book Club #17: Welcome Clean Air Commuters

If you're visiting because of the newsletter article from the Midtown Alliance you have come to the right place. I appreciate the shout-out for the MARTA Book Club even though I am kicking myself for not trimming my beard for the photo opportunity. I guess I fit the stereotype of the scruffy reader. (Photo credit: John Cann)

If you're a commuter and you read on the bus or train, I hope you'll let add to the list via comment and sign up for blog updates at facebook.com/thebookshopper. If you want to see all the MARTA book club postings (and fully comphrehend the madness ) just click on the link in the right column.

 Here's a list of book spottings since the last posting.

 Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S. Thompson

Thinking in Systems by Donna Meadows

Choices: Discover Your 100 Most Important Life Choices by Shad Helmsetter

Big Girls Do Cry by Carl Weber

The 5 Lessons Millionaires Taught Me About Life and Wealth by Richard Paul Williams

The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefield's: Discovering Hallowed Ground by Jeff Shaara

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

The Purpose Driven Life by Rich Warren

Atlanta Book Event Calendar - December

Here's a sampler of book related events for the month of December. As you can because of the holidays, it's a light month. I purposely don't put the times so you will have double check each website before heading out. All events are in Atlanta unless noted.

Tuesday, December 6. Lt. Col. Steve Russell (Retired), author of We Got Him! A Memoir of the Hunt and Capture of Saddam Hussein. Peerless Books, Alpharetta.

Tuesday, December 6. Jennie Knight, author of Feminist Mysticism and Images of God. Charis Books & More.

Wednesday, December 7. Charles Mann, author of 1493: Uncovering the New World That Columbus Created. William Carlos Museum, (shown above) Emory University. For details on this event and others visit here.

Wednesday, December 7. Scott Wallace, author of The Unconquered. Eagle Eye Books, Decatur.

Saturday, December 9. Annual Friends of the Auburn Avenue Research Library Book Sale. Details here.

Tuesday, December 13. James Robertson, author of The Untold Civil War: Exploring the Human Side of War. Carter Presidential Library & Museum. For details on this event and others at the library, visit here.