The Book Shopper

Notable Atlanta Book Events - April 2013

Even though Atlanta is now inundated with Final Four March Madness and I can proudly wear my vintage Wichita State sweatshirt (I remember “classmates” Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston, but my favorite whizz u player was “X”), my attentions always turn to baseball in April. Since the baseball season is plenty long, I ignor Spring training, except I usually start the season with a baseball book. Currently, I am reading Wilfrid Sheed's collection of essays Baseball and Lesser Sports (1990). Last year, I read his fine memoir, My Life as a Fan, (1993), which I wrote about in a posting called "The Joys of Losing."

Coincidently, checking through my calendar of links (see below), I noticed that another baseball writer Robert Weintraub is at the Decatur Public Library on April 15th to talk about his new book The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age. I hope Weintraub wrote that the Golden Age actually began in 1945, the last year that my Chicago Cubs were in the World Series. Little did I know in 1968 (shown here), that the Cubs -- a consensus pick for Central Division cellar-dwellers in 2013 -- would cause such a lifetime of misplaced loyalty. As Steve Goodman sang in "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request," my hopes have been "crushed like so many paper beer cups."

MARTA Book Club #22: Where Pope Francis Meets Zadie Smith

There's been no shortage of praise for Pope Francis as a passionate preacher and pragmatic man who prefers public transportation to private cars. - CNN, March 15, 2013

Optimistic that someone will finally do something about “mass” transportation, I was motivated to pull together another installment of the MARTA Book Club, a list of what people are reading on Atlanta area buses and trains. His Holiness knows that waiting and waiting for transportation in the grimy underbelly of a city affords the perfect opportunity for reading, self-reflection and practicing patience. It's great that one of our own has gone on to bigger and better things so I am not taking offense that public transportation continues to sound like something for (working) poor, simple-minded, and humble folk. This is in comparison to the majority of commuters in Atlanta who ride their version of the Popemobile every day to work.

Thus inspired, here's a list of what people have been reading since our last installment of the MARTA Book Club:

Cold Hit by Linda Fairstein

Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories by Linda Russell

Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods

The Centurion's Wife (Acts of Faith, Book 1) by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn

The Bible (a perennial favorite of the MARTA faithful)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Her Sky Cowboy: The Glorious, Victorious Darcys by Beth Ciotta

Beautiful Chaos (Beautiful Creatures) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillion

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (my contribution)

Books by H.P Lovecraft, Farley Mowat, and David Baldacci.

Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) is partially to blame for the lack of titles in MARTA Book Club #22. I have almost finished reading her novel about two “non-traditional” British families living in North London headed by the middle-aged Archie Jones who marries a Jamacian woman half his age and his Muslim Bengali friend, Samad Iqbal who has twin sons -- one of which Samad sends back to Pakistan to fortify his Muslim heritage. It is a book that I have found absorbing and her witty prose is rich without being oppressive. The book is  full of interwoven short sidebars that add to the completeness of narrative. It's a style and scope that I find similar to Jonathan Franzen, but I certainly think this is a much more enjoyable novel than Freedom, which I did not finish. (I did like Corrections though). Smith's White Teeth takes us into the multicultural world of our own backyard (kind of like riding MARTA) with intellect, grace and humor. And I picked it up for $8 at Books Again in Decatur.

For a complete history of the MARTA Book Club, visit the category link on the right and check out our Sponsor's link on the left for info about Books Again. 

 

From the Mailbox: March 2013

Sometimes personal responsibilities encroach to the point where even blogging has to take a back seat. Without going into details, I just wanted to say I appreciate Jim Simpson filling in last month with his series Stories Within the Story, which I hope will become a regular feature on the blog. Be sure and check the comments that his work inspired.

Despite my attentions being elsewhere, a few other stories have trickled in through the past few weeks. One is that Decatur Arts Alliances is calling for entries for The Book as Art exhibition being held July 19th to September 20th and in conjunction with the 2013 Decatur Book Festival. Regular readers of this blog know it is a subject of interest for me. (See Books as Art As Books link on the right) This will be an opportunity for book fiends and artists to "get their Brian Dettmer on." And if you're having trouble coming up with a fresh idea, I have just come into possession a complete set of the 1966 World Book Encyclopedias. Think of the stuff you can build with those volumes. And if you need a large wall unit book case to store them on interim,  I have one of those for sale.

If you're looking for more inspiration, check out this link courtesy of one of our readers (SM Wallace) about the work of Frank Halmans or last year's Wallbound exhibit hosted the the Atlanta-Decatur Art Institute.