The Book Shopper

Notable Atlanta Book Events - February 2013

Instead of monthly calendar, I am providing the links (at the end of this posting) to build your own calendar for reasons I explained earlier. This is just a reminder of where I look for area book events and you can too. It's just click away. If you do right now, you'll know that Richard Ford and Colson Whitehead will be in Atlanta in the month of February.

Unfortunately by the time you read this you probably will have missed Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computer who is at Georgia State University. At his lecture, I wonder if Wozniak would sign a copy of Walter Issacson's Jobs, the lengthy biography of the other co-founder, Steve Jobs. In Issacson's fine book, which I almost finished last year, Wozniak comes off as a decent, likeable and brilliant guy (in direct contrast to Jobs), so he might be cool and sign it.

Another intriguing possibility is the book signing of Dwayne Epstein's biography of Lee Marvin entitled Point Blank. The event takes place at the Plaza Theatre, (an A Cappella Bookstore Event) which includes a showing of Marvin's Oscar-winning 1965 performance in Cat Ballou, which stars Jane Fonda as well. I checked my copy of David Thomson's The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (a fine reference book) and who writes this about Marvin:

He had such a way of looking—gazing, even—when blank hostility faded into hopeless desire...Marvin was so strong, he leaves alleged rocks like Wayne and Schwarznegger looking artificial.

The Prose on Earl Weaver

Friday's passing of Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver struck a book shopping chord with me as soon as I heard the news on sports radio. Although St. Louis Cardinal Hall-of-Famer (player and nice guy) Stan the Man Musial also died this weekend, it is a quote from the crusty Weaver, who managed the Baltimore Orioles for 17 years, that I have taped near my desk, which reads: “If you play for one run, that's all you'll get.”

No matter what is written about Weaver, it won't match the prose of Tom Boswell, a sports columnist for The Washington Post. Boswell has already written a couple of eulogy-columns about Weaver, but some of the best anecdotes about Weaver come from Boswell's two collections of pieces How Life Imitates the World Series (1982) and Why Time Begins on Opening Day (1985). I am dumbfounded that I cannot find my copy of the How Life book (did I loan it out to someone, sell it?) , but it contains many chapters about the great Oriole teams on the 70s (Brooks and Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Mike Cuellar) that Weaver managed. The Orioles were a juggernaut and Boswell devotes many chapters to Weaver strategy (one of the first managers to platoon players based on lefty-righty matchups) and managerial style, which was described as (if I can remember correctly) “primal scream therapy.”

In the chapter “Palmer vs. Palmer” in the Opening Day book, Boswell writes about the enigmatic Baltimore Hall of Fame Pitcher (and Jockey Ad spokesperson) Jim Palmer and his long contentious relationship with the Oriole skipper – even though after baseball, Weaver and Palmer briefly shared a broadcast booth. Palmer once said that all Weaver knew about pitching was “that he couldn't hit it” – a reference to Weaver's baseball playing career, which never included a stint in the majors. Weaver thought Palmer was a hypochondriac and a whiner and said that when he wanted to talk Palmer, “I'll send (Oriole pitching coach) Ray Miller to drag him back by his diaper.”

Mini-review: Claire Bidwell Smith's Decatur Reading

By Jim Simpson

Where & When: Decatur Public Library Auditorium on January 8, 2013. Sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book.

Attendance: ~100 people, many of whom were family and friends of the author.

What Claire Bidwell Smith Read: Nearly a dozen pages from her debut book, The Rules of Inheritance, a “grief memoir” as she calls it, about her life from the time she was 14 when both of her parents were diagnosed with cancer, until 2011. (The book was published in February 2012; this reading coincided with the paperback release.) The author, an Atlanta native who grew up in Sandy Springs, would be parentless by the time she was 25 years old. The book jumps around in time covering a period of roughly 18 years and is divided into five parts, following Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief. The excerpt she read takes place in 2003 when she is 25 years old and on assignment in the Philippines for Student Traveler magazine in Los Angeles. She is on her way to the remote island of Malapascua to dive with thresher sharks. This episode is one of many describing semi-dangerous and questionable decisions on Claire’s part (destructive relationships and alcohol abuse, to name but two) that she will later discover are subconscious attempts to bring her dead parents back in order to save her. This diving trip is a climactic event because, as she and her guide are descending into 80 feet of dark, shark-filled water, she suddenly cancels the dive and surfaces. With tears streaming down her face, she sits slumped in the front of the boat heading back to shore. “This is the very place -- with my tear-soaked face, at the front of this little boat in the middle of the great Pacific Ocean -- where I ind a truth that I will test over and over in my life. Nothing is ever going to bring either of them back.” Some parts of the book are almost too much to bear, but you find yourself forging ahead, cheering her on, hoping she will be okay in the end.

Why I Went: Claire and I have both written for the literary collective The Nervous Breakdown for six years, and I have always admired her writing.

Q & A: Questions ranged from those regarding grief (she is a licensed therapist), writing routines, the book title’s origin, to compliments about Claire’s delivery and voice during the reading. I thought she seemed a bit stiff and nervous, but that could be attributed to the hometown crowd and sheer number of family and close childhood friends in the audience; she seemed to be trying to keep her emotions in check, which makes perfect sense.

 
Question I Didn’t Get To Ask Because Time Ran Out But Asked Her When She Signed My Book: “I’ve never been to L.A., but I imagine there are a bunch of motorcycles around. Do you and your husband, (Greg Boose, a freelance/ghost writer) still go around touching motorcycles that don’t belong to you?” Claire responded, “Danger Touch? Not lately, but we were disappointed that it never caught on.” We were referring to a game she and Greg played during a cross-country correspondence (Claire in L.A., Greg in Chicago, the two meeting as writers for The Nervous Breakdown). He invented a game that involved taking cell phone pictures of his hand reaching out and touching strangers’ motorcycles on the street and sending them to Claire; she in turn would do the same and send them to him, and the person with the most “danger touches” would win the game.

The Do-It-Yourself Atlanta Area Book Event Calendar

2013 marks another change to the scope of the blog as I have decided to punt on doing a monthly calendar of book events. It wasn't doing the calendar research so much, as that I had to process all the events and then avoiding cutting and pasting links with blurby descriptions, which is not my style. It was time consuming and I am now devoting energies to other writing projects besides the blog. Besides I also discovered that even after making contact with bookstores, libraries, universities, book publishers etc. over the years that those in charge of “spreading the word” either didn't think the blog was worth the bother (understandly our readers are small in numbers, but mighty in influence) or more likely, they just lacked the wherewithal to follow through.

Besides, I can be biased about my promotional preferences and admittedly, I have missed paying attention to some writers and local venues that deserved a shout out. Also, these times and venues can change at the last minute so I usually just provided links of information anyway.

Instead of monthly calendar, I have provided the links I checked to build the calendar. From now on, I will remind you from time to time where I look for Atlanta area book events and you can just click away. If you do that right now, you'll know that Richard Ford and Colson Whitehead are coming soon as well as Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, and former Vice President Al Gore. Here are the links.  Happy hunting.

• A Cappella Bookstore Event Page - I consider Frank Reiss, the owner of A Cappella, as the Ed Sullivan of book event promoters (Remember Ed got us The Beatles, man). Check his store's events page for major literary acts in the area.
• The Jimmy Carter Library & Museum
• The Georgia Center for the Book
• The Auburn Avenue Library
• SCAD Ivy Hall Writers Series
• Margaret Mitchell House/Atlanta History Center
• Emory University Creative Writing Program and The Carlos Musuem
• Georgia State University Creative Writing Events

Local Bookstores

• Eagle Eye Books
• Claris Books and More
• Peerless Books - Alpharetta

P.S. And finally, hats off to those who attend events. It takes a lot of effort to attend an event at night or on the weekend. I am tired at the end of the work day/week (can you hear the sound of my ass dragging on the ground?), so I understand. (Banner artwork designed by Caitlin Salmon.)