Join the Octavia Science Fiction Books Book Club for a discussion of The Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis Borges
The Science Fiction Book Club meets on the 2nd Saturday each month and
is open to interested readers. Please feel welcome to join us!
Join us for a and signing with novelist Eugene Marten featuring his new book FIREWORK. And\, mucician Ryan Scully from Rough 7/Morning 40's will play acoustic\, local writer Michael Patrick Welch will give a short reading and will sign his recent NEW ORLEANS\: The Underground Guide\; and musician Mike IX Williams will read from his book of poetry\, CANCER AS A SOCIAL ACTIVITY.
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Firework is the story of a man who\, though ill-equipped to help
himself\, attempts to help someone else\, and the beautifully rendered\,
perhaps necessary catastrophe that results. Unequaled in intensity\, it
is also an exhilarating expression of the noble\, all-too human impulse
to become more than what we seem to be.
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Click here to read the recent review from The New York Observer.
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Eugene Marten is the author of many celebrated\, gritty
books including WASTE\, IN THE BLIND\, and his newest novel FIREWORK. He lives in New York City.
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Michael Patrick Welch has published three books\: the music and art
guidebook NEW ORLEANS\: The Underground Guide\, the cult
favorite New Orleans novel THE DONKEY SHOW and the diary COMMONPLACE. His journalist has been published in Newsweek\, Spin\, Filter\, and many Village Voice publications. In his spare time he fronts the veteran local psych-rock band\, The White Bitch.
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Mike IX Williams has fronted New Orleans' world-famous sludge/doom metal
EyeHateGod for over 20 years. In one of his first ever bookstore
appearances\, he will read from his book of poetry\, CANCER AS A SOCIAL ACTIVITY\: Affirmation of World's End.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100915T230000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100915T230000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/mark-mustian-gendarme URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/mark-mustian-gendarme SUMMARY:Mark Mustian - THE GENDARME DESCRIPTION:Mustian has written an extraordinary novel dealing with some of the most difficult issues of the twentieth century\, issues that profoundly threaten this new century as well. This is a harrowing and truly important novel by a splendid American writer.”
—Robert Olen Butler\, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A
Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Please join us for a special evening with novelist Mark Mustian as he reads from and signs his new novel\, THE GENDARME.
To those around him\, Emmet Conn is a 92 year old man on the verge of senility. A World War I veteran\, he’s been affected by memory loss since being injured in the war. Now\, at the end of his life\, he’s beset by visions—frightening and realistic\, he’s convinced they are memories of events he and others have denied or purposely forgotten.
In Emmett’s dreams he’s a gendarme\, escorting Armenian women and children from Turkey. A young woman among them\, Araxie\, captivates and enthralls him. She becomes the love of his life. But then the trek ends\, the war separates them. He is injured. Seven decades later\, as his grasp on the boundaries between past and present begin to break down\, he sets out on a final journey\, to find Araxie\, and beg her forgiveness.
Alternating between Turkey at the dawn of the 20th century and America in the 1990s\, The Gendarme shows how racism creates divisions where none truly exist\, how love can transcend nationalities and politics\, and how the human spirit fights to survive in the face of hopelessness. It is a transcendent novel.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100918T153000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100918T153000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-book-club-sept-2010 URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-book-club-sept-2010 SUMMARY:Octavia Books Book Club - Sept.. 2010 DESCRIPTION:Join the Octavia Book Club for a discussion of The Missing by Tim Gautraux.
The Octavia Books Book Club meets on the 3nd Saturday morning of each month (except December) and
is open to interested readers. Please feel welcome to join us!
One of our finest poets on memory\, loss\,
and recovery in the wake of Katrina
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Please join us for a special evening with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey when she comes to Octavia Books to read from and sign BEYOND KATRINA.
Beyond Katrina is Trethewey’s very personal profile of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and of
the people there whose lives were forever changed by hurricane Katrina.
Trethewey spent her childhood in Gulfport\, where much of her mother’s
extended family\, including her younger brother\, still lives. As she
worked to understand the devastation that followed the hurricane\,
Trethewey found inspiration in Robert Penn Warren’s book Segregation\:
The Inner Conflict in the South\, in which he spoke with
southerners about race in the wake of the Brown decision\,
capturing an event of wide impact from multiple points of view. Weaving
her own memories with the experiences of family\, friends\, and neighbors\,
Trethewey traces the erosion of local culture and the rising economic
dependence on tourism and casinos. She chronicles decades of wetland
development that exacerbated the destruction and portrays a Gulf Coast
whose citizens—particularly African Americans—were on the margins of
American life well before the storm hit. Most poignantly\, Trethewey
illustrates the destruction of the hurricane through the story of her
brother’s efforts to recover what he lost and his subsequent
incarceration.
Renowned for writing about the idea of home\, Trethewey’s attempt to
understand and document the damage to Gulfport started as a series of
lectures at the University of Virginia that were subsequently published
as essays in the Virginia Quarterly Review. For Beyond
Katrina\, Trethewey has expanded this work into a narrative that
incorporates personal letters\, poems\, and photographs\, offering a moving
meditation on the love she holds for her childhood home.
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Listen to NPR's Fresh Air interview with Natash Trethewey by Terry Gross
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Natasha Trethewey and her brother Joe stand in front of Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island\, Miss.\, circa 1999.
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Natasha Trethewey is the author of three collections of poetry\: Domestic
Work\, Bellocq’s Ophelia\, and Native Guard\, for which
she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. She holds the Phillis Wheatley
Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100923T230000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100923T230000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/andrei-codrescu-poetry-lesson URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/andrei-codrescu-poetry-lesson SUMMARY:Andrei Codrescu - The Poetry Lesson DESCRIPTION:Please join us for a special evening with Andrei Codrescu celebrating the release of his new book\, The Poetry Lesson\, with a signing and reading.
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Intro to Poetry Writing is always like this\: a long labor\, a breech
birth\, or\, obversely\, mining in the dark. You take healthy young
Americans used to sunshine (aided sometimes by Xanax and Adderall)\, you
blindfold them and lead them by the hand into a labyrinth made from
bones. Then you tell them their assignment\: 'Find the Grail. You have a
New York minute to get it.
--The Poetry Lesson
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The
Poetry Lesson is a hilarious account of the first day of a creative
writing course taught by a "\;typical fin-de-siècle salaried beatnik"\;--one
with an antic imagination\, an outsized personality and libido\, and an
endless store of entertaining literary anecdotes\, reliable or otherwise.
Neither a novel nor a memoir but mimicking aspects of each\, The
Poetry Lesson is pure Andrei Codrescu\: irreverent\, unconventional\,
brilliant\, and always funny. Codrescu takes readers into the strange
classroom and even stranger mind of a poet and English professor on the
eve of retirement as he begins to teach his final semester of Intro to
Poetry Writing. As he introduces his students to THE TOOLS OF POETRY (a
list that includes a goatskin dream notebook\, hypnosis\, and cable TV)
and THE TEN MUSES OF POETRY (mishearing\, misunderstanding\,
mistranslating . . . )\, and assigns each of them a tutelary
"\;Ghost-Companion"\; poet\, the teacher recalls wild tales from his coming
of age as a poet in the 1960s and 1970s\, even as he speculates about the
lives and poetic and sexual potential of his twenty-first-century
students. From arguing that Allen Ginsberg wasn't actually gay to
telling about the time William Burroughs's funeral procession stopped at
McDonald's\, The Poetry Lesson is a thoroughly entertaining
portrait of an inimitable poet\, teacher\, and storyteller.
Andrei
Codrescu is an award-winning poet\, novelist\, essayist\, and NPR
commentator. He edits the online journal Exquisite Corpse and taught
literature and creative writing at Louisiana State University for
twenty-five years before retiring in 2009 as the MacCurdy Distinguished
Professor of English. His recent work includes The Posthuman Dada
Guide (Princeton) and Jealous Witness\: Poems.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100927T210000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20100927T210000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/jewell-parker-rhodes-ninth-ward URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/jewell-parker-rhodes-ninth-ward SUMMARY:Jewell Parker Rhodes - Ninth Ward DESCRIPTION:\;
Jewell Parker Rhodes has written a powerful novel about family and survival in the face of tragedy and has created in her twelve-year-old narrator Lanesha\, a true heroine. [She] shows a kind of bravery and big-heartedness that is a gift she passes along to her friend\, her community and the readers of this luminous book.
―Walter Mosley
An absolutely exquisite children's debut by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Jewell's vivid writing brings the setting to life\, in a story that is both timely and unforgettable.
―Patricia Reilly Giff
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Join us when award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes returns to Octavia Books to read and sign NINTH WARD\, a New Orleans-set novel which we highly recommend for young readers ages 10 and up.
NINTH WARD has just been become the pick for Al's Book Club by The Today Show's Al Roker (see ‘Ninth Ward’ tells tale of spirit-seer in New
Orleans\, Al’s Book Club pick is about a young girl with a
special gift.)
Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans'
Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy house like her uptown family or
lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does
have is Mama Ya-Ya\, her fiercely loving caretaker\, wise in the ways of
the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions
show a powerful hurricane--Katrina--fast approaching\, it's up to Lanesha
to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help
them both survive the storm.
Ninth Ward is a deeply
emotional story about transformation and a celebration of resilience\,
friendship\, and family--as only love can define it.
Jewell Parker Rhodes' books\, including Voodoo Dreams and Douglass' Women\, have
won awards such as the American Book Award and the Black Caucus of the
American Library Award for Literary Excellence. Jewell is the Artistic
Director for Global Engagement and the Piper Endowed Chair of the
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State
University. With NINTH WARD she makes a stunning debut int children's fiction\, demonstrating the her writing transcends ages.
What we have on our hands here is a genuine comedic talent.
–Douglas Brinkley\, from the foreword
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Please join us for a reading performance and booksigning with New Orleans Levee columnist Bud Faust in celebration of the release of GREAT MOMENTS IN NEW ORLEANS HISTORY\, VOL. 2.
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Bud Faust is a humorist and playwright from New Orleans. He is the author of Great Moments in New Orleans History (Volume 1) and has had several plays produced in and around the city\, including one (Gettin’ Dirty with Guy Camaro) performed as part of the New Orleans Improv Festival and another (To Hell and Back\, Somewhat) being a winner in Le Chat Noir’s 7th Annual New Play Festival. Beautiful Bastards\, his critically acclaimed play about the founding of New Orleans\, was likened by The Times-Picayune to “what it must have been like watching the Marx Brothers segue from vaudeville to Broadway comedies.”
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101002T183000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101002T203000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/gigantic-sweet-potato URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/gigantic-sweet-potato SUMMARY:Gigantic Sweet Potato DESCRIPTION:Children will enjoy the story and be encouraged to have delicious fun in the kitchen.
–Holly Clegg\, spokesperson for the Louisiana Sweet Potato
Commission and author of the Trim &\; Terrific cookbook series
A charming tale\, cooked up with Southern sass. Made to be read aloud and savored.
–Bruce Hale\, author of Snoring Beauty and the Chet Gecko series
Another winner from a talented writer and storyteller.
–Robert D. San Souci\, author of The Talking Eggs
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Join award-winning author &\; storyteller Dianne de Las Casas and illustrator Marita Gentry for the launch of The
Gigantic Sweet Potato. Live illustration will accompany interactive
storytelling. Celebrate with us and help Dianne &\; Marita unearth their newest and sweetest
book yet! Tons of fun for everyone!
When Ma Farmer gets a hankering
for some sweet potato pie\, she decides to plant a sweet potato in her
garden. But when it comes time to harvest\, the sweet potato has grown to
be so enormous that it is stuck! So Ma grabs Pa\, but the sweet potato
still won’t budge. Soon Bessie Cow\, Ralphie Dog\, and Kitty Cat join in
to help\; that sweet potato sure is stubborn. When itty-bitty Lily Mouse
offers to help\, everyone soon learns that a small and mighty effort can
yield GIGANTIC rewards.
This sweet adaptation of the Russian folktale “The Giant Turnip” features vibrant watercolor illustrations to accompany the singsong text. Ma Farmer’s secret (and kid-friendly) recipe for sweet potato pie and sweet potato fun facts complete the book.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101008T230000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101008T230000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/madison-and-jefferson-andrew-burstein-and-nancy-isenberg URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/madison-and-jefferson-andrew-burstein-and-nancy-isenberg SUMMARY:MADISON AND JEFFERSON - Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg DESCRIPTION:
A WATERSHED ACCOUNT OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
POLITICAL FRIENDSHIP IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Please join us for a presentation and book signing with esteemed historians Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg who joined forces to reveal the crucial partnership of two extraordinary founders\, creating a superb
dual biography that is a thrilling and unprecedented account of early
America.
The third and fourth presidents have
long been considered proper and noble gentlemen\, with Thomas Jefferson’s
genius overshadowing James Madison’s judgment and common sense. But\,
in this revelatory book\, both leaders are seen as men of their times\,
ruthless and hardboiled operatives in a gritty world of primal politics
where they struggled for supremacy more than fifty years.
Contrary to received wisdom\, James
Madison was not dull and empty of emotion\, and Thomas Jefferson was
even more contentious than tradition tells us. Madison lost his temper
at the Constitutional Convention\, and for most of the years leading
to his presidency\, the eloquent Jefferson was actually the less consequential
political actor in this famous partnership. Together\, “Tall Tommy
and Little Jemmy\,” as one unsympathetic contemporary dubbed the odd
couple\, fought as political pugilists\, leaving their mark first on Revolutionary
Virginia and then America.
In our histories\, the elder figure\,
Jefferson\, looms larger. Yet Madison is privileged in the title because\,
as Burstein and Isenberg reveal\, he was the senior partner at key moments
in the formation of the two-party system. It was Madison who did most
to initiate the presidency of George Washington while Jefferson was
in France in the role of diplomat. So often described as shy\, the Madison
of this book is quite assertive. Yet he regularly escapes bad press\,
while Jefferson’s daring pen gets him assailed by a nearly constant
barrage of partisan attacks.
In Madison and Jefferson we see the
two as privileged young men in a land marked by tribal identities rather
than a united national personality. They were raised to always ask first\:
“How will this play in Virginia?” Burstein and Isenberg powerfully
capture Madison’s secret canny role in Jefferson’s career\, acting
in effect as a campaign manager. In riveting detail\, the authors chart
the courses of two very different presidencies\: Jefferson’s driven
by force of personality\, Madison’s sustained by a militancy history
has been reluctant to ascribe to him.
The aggressive expansionism of the
third and fourth presidents has been underplayed. After the Louisiana
Purchase more than doubled U.S. territory\, the pair contrived to purchase
Cuba and\, for years\, looked for ways to conquer Canada. What they said
in private and wrote anonymously was often more influential than what
they signed their names to.
Supported by a wealth of original sources—newspapers\,
letters\, diaries\, pamphlets—Madison and Jefferson is a stunning new
look at a remarkable duo who arguably did more than all the others in
their generation to set the course for American political development.
It untangles a rich legacy\, explaining how history made Jefferson into
a national icon\, leaving Madison a relative unknown. It tells nasty
truths about the conduct of politics when America was young and reintroduces
us to colorful personalities\, once famous and now obscure\, who influenced
and were influenced by the two Revolutionary actors around whom the
story turns. As an intense narrative of high stakes competition\, Madison
and Jefferson exposes the beating heart of a rowdy republic in its first
fifty years\, while giving more than a few clues to why we are a politically
divided nation today.
Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg are Manship Professor of History and professor of history\, respectfully\, at Louisiana State University. Burstein is the author of six books on early America\, including The Passions of Andrew Jackson and Jefferson’s Secrets. Isenberg is the author of Fallen Founder\: The Life of Aaron Burr and Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101009T070000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101009T070000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/fairy-godmother-academy-zallys-book-jan-bozarth URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/fairy-godmother-academy-zallys-book-jan-bozarth SUMMARY: The Fairy Godmother Academy - Zally's Book - Jan Bozarth DESCRIPTION:Please join us for an afternoon of fun with children's book author Jan Bozarth who is coming to Octavia Books for an interactive presentative\, reading and booksigning sign of Zally's Book\, the latest in her Fairy Godmother Academy series -- highly recommended for girls ages 8-12.
For girls who are fans of Harry Potter and have outgrown the Disney
Fairies series and the American Girl books\, the Fairy Godmother Academy
is the perfect series—fantasy books filled with magic and adventure but
grounded by contemporary girls and issues.
The series boasts an
amazing Web site that allows girls to enter the world they visit in the
books. There they can do activities both on- and offline\, vote for
things they'd like to see in the books\, and connect with other Fairy
Godmother Academy fans.
Zally Guevara always knows where she's
going. She has a passion for maps of all kinds and can't wait to pack
her suitcase and explore the world. But Zally doesn't have to wait to
get her wish. With the help of a cup of magical cocoa from her
grandmother\, she travels to a place that only girls training to become
fairy godmothers can get to—the enchanted dreamland of Aventurine\, a
place that has no map.
In Aventurine\, Zally is given her quest\:
to save a fairy queen who has lost her will to live. Zally's companions
are a young fairy with a broken wing\, and a stallion prince. The trio's
journey proves to be even more challenging than they could have imagined
as they meet monsters and get lost in a ruined fairy city. All the
while\, Zally is making a map of Aventurine and discovering that she has a
talent\, passed down from generations of women in her family\:
understanding the thoughts of animals. But will this be enough to save
the fairy queen and ensure that Zally can continue her fairy-godmother
training?
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Jan Bozarth
writer\, producer\, musician\, mom\, girl\, friend\,
sailor\,dreamer\, tap dancer\, dog lover\, time traveler\, rock hound\,
flower essence user\, addicted to love\, ballet dancer\, poetess\, carrot
cake baker\, spirit rider
Jan Bozarth was raised in an international family in Texas in the
sixties\, the daughter of a Cuban mother and a Welsh father. She danced
in a ballet company at eleven\, started a dream journal at thirteen\,
joined a surf club at sixteen\, studied flower essences at eighteen\, and
went on to study music\, art\, and poetry in college. As a girl\, she
dreamed of a life that would weave these different interests together.
Her dream came true when she grew up and had a big family and a music
and writing career. Jan is now a grandmother and writes stories and
songs for young people. She often works with her own grown-up children\,
who are musicians and artists in Austin\, Texas. (Sometimes Jan is even
the fairy godmother who encourages them to believe in their dreams!) Jan
credits her own mother\, Dora\, with handing down her wisdom\: Dream big
and never give up.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101009T153000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101009T153000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-science-fiction-book-club-october-2010 URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-science-fiction-book-club-october-2010 SUMMARY:Octavia Books Science Fiction Book Club - October 2010 DESCRIPTION:Join the Octavia Science Fiction Books Book Club for a discussion of The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories by Gene Wolfe
The Science Fiction Book Club meets on the 2nd Saturday each month and
is open to interested readers. Please feel welcome to join us!
Join us for a talk and booksigning by Kristin Hersh\, founder of the cult rock bank Throwing Muses. as shares her outrageous tale of growing up much faster than planned\, in this intensely personal and moving account of the pivotal year of 1985.
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Kristin Hersh has released more than twenty albums over the course of her career which have sold more than one million copies worldwide. She records solo\, as well as with her bands Throwing Muses and 50 FOOT WAVE. She lives in New England and New Orleans.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101016T153000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101016T153000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-book-club-october-2010 URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-book-club-october-2010 SUMMARY:Octavia Books Book Club - October 2010 DESCRIPTION:Join the Octavia Book Club for a discussion of Joshua Ferris' THEN WE CAME TO THE END
The Octavia Books Book Club meets on the 3nd Saturday morning of each month (except December) and
is open to interested readers. Please feel welcome to join us!
Please join in celebrating our 10th Anniversary.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101018T210000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101018T210000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/scott_westerfeld-behemoth URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/scott_westerfeld-behemoth SUMMARY:Scott Westerfeld - BEHEMOTH DESCRIPTION:Join us for an afternoon signing with Scott Westerfeld who is visiting Octavia Books to read from and sign BEHEMOTH \, thes is the sequel to the wildly popular LEVIATHAN (and the 2 second book in what will ultimately be a triology).
At the end of book 1\, heroes Alek and Deryn were on the air ship Leviathan\, heading towards Constantinople to deliver a secret package. Of course\, there’s much much more to remember. Alek is the would be-heir to the Austrian throne\, only World War I has thrown him in hiding from everyone\, including Deryn. Deryn is hiding a secret of her own. She’s a girl passing as a guy in the British air service.
As their assignment heats up\, so does the growing tension in their friendship….or is it romance…..? A secret mission lands Deryn in some serious danger…and leads both of them to reevaluate their precarious situations in the world.
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Scott Westerfeld most recent novels are Leviathan and Behemoth\, the first two books in a new trilogy. His other novels include the Uglies series\, the Midnighters trilogy\, The Last Days\, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and the sequel to Peeps. Scott was born in Texas\, and alternates summers between Sydney\, Australia\, and New York City.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101021T000000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101021T000000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/evangeline-ben-farmer URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/evangeline-ben-farmer SUMMARY:EVANGELINE - Ben Farmer DESCRIPTION:
Meet writer Ben Farmer when he comes to Octavia Books for a reading and signing of EVANGELINE\, his brilliant debut novel of the epic love story and
harrowing journey from Nova Scotia to New Orleans in pre-Revolutionary
America inspired by Longfellow's poem.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published “Evangeline\: A Tale of Acadie” in
1847 and it remains his most popular and enduring work. While author Ben
Farmer faithfully incorporates the essential elements of the epic poem\, EVANGELINE \, the novel\, emerges as magnificent work of
narrative fiction - artfully blending history\, romance\, adventure with
an unforgettable character portraits. It is truly a singular achievement
- rich in detail and panoramic in scope.
"\;Ben Farmer brings a legend to life in EVANGELINE\, evoking grace and panache the travails of the Acadians in mid-18th century America from Nova Scotia to New Orleans. Farmer is a wonderful storyteller\, and
readers won’t soon forget this tale of love and fortitude. Simply
riveting."\;
–Keith Donohue\, New York Times bestelling author of THE STOLEN CHILD and ANGELS OF DESTRUCTION
Please join us for an evening with classical violinist and author Rosalyn Story in celebration of the publication of WADING HOME\: A Novel of New Orleans. The author give a reading and sign books and there will be food and music.
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As the shadow of Hurricane Katrina looms\, Simon Fortier knows how he plans to face the storm—in his long-time home in Treme\, just as he did through so many storms before. But when Katrina’s waters rise and the city’s failed levees cause devastating floods\, Simon disappears.
It is up to his son Julian\, a celebrated but down-on-his-luck trumpeter\, to find him. Julian ushes home to the city he left years before\, to search for a father with whom he’d been on difficult terms over preparing for the hurricane. Julian’s return to New Orleans brings him back in touch ith figures from his past\, loves and enemies both\, and as his search for Simon takes him to the
rural plot where Simon grew up\, Julian is drawn deep into its troubles. As he tries to come to grips
with his father’s likely fate and struggles to regain his trumpet chops\, Julian slowly gains a deeper\,
richer understanding of the father with whom he’d been at odds.
Lyrical\, accessible\, compelling\, and populated by a broad\,
fully realized cast of supporting characters\,
Wading Home's timeless story tells how this son strives to save his
father\: shaken to the core by the devastation of a city\, he discovers the true meaning of home\,
family and history.
ROSALYN STORY lives in Dallas. Her first book\, And So I Sing\: African American Divas Of Opera And Concert \, inspired the PBS documentary Aida’s Brothers and Sisters\: A History of
Blacks in Opera\, in which she appeared as featured narrator. Her first
novel\, More Than You Know garnered rave reviews and was an Essence bestseller. She is a violinist with the Fort Worth Symphony.
The personal account of a community and a lawyer united to battle one of the most recalcitrant bastions of resistance to civil rights
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You are invited to an evening with Gordon A. Martin\, Jr.\, a retired Massachusetts trial judge who as a young lawyer for the Justice Dept during the Kennedy administration prepared the first big voting rights case brought in Mississippi. He will discuss and sign his new book about the people
involved in the case.
In 1961\, Forrest County\, Mississippi\, became a focal point of the civil rights movement when the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit against its voting registrar Theron Lynd. While 30 percent of the county's residents were black\, only twelve black persons were on its voting rolls. United States v. Lynd was the first trial that resulted in the conviction of a southern registrar for contempt of court. The case served as a model for other challenges to voter discrimination in the South and was an important influence in shaping the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Count Them One by One is a comprehensive account of the groundbreaking case written by one of the Justice Department's trial attorneys. Gordon Martin\, then a newly minted lawyer\, traveled to Hattiesburg from Washington to help shape the federal case against Lynd. He met with and prepared the government's sixteen courageous black witnesses who had been refused registration\, found white witnesses\, and was one of the lawyers during the trial.
Decades later\, Martin returned to Mississippi to find these brave men and women he had never forgotten. He interviewed the still-living witnesses\, their children\, and friends. Martin intertwines these current reflections with vivid commentary about the case itself. The result is an impassioned\, cogent fusion of reportage\, oral history\, and memoir about a trial that fundamentally reshaped liberty and the South.
As a young lawyer Judge Gordon Martin\, Jr. was one of many quiet heroes\, Black and White\, who worked together in the South to change the world. In this compelling book he tells the story of the people behind United States v. Theron Lynd with vivid detail\, preserving a key piece of American and civil rights history.
-Marian Wright Edelman\, President\, Children’s Defense Fund\, who litigated in Mississippi in the 1960s
To know the reality of the Deep South 50 years ago is to understand that a miracle has occurred in this country. Gordon Martin dramatically shows us that reality in "\;Count Them One by One"\;\: cynical officials ruling that black college graduates were not qualified to register as voters\, Americans murdered for trying to vote. The idea that a black man would be President in our lifetime was simply unimaginable then. It changed because incredibly brave black citizens of the South risked their lives to win their rights\, and the national government eventually responded. Martin shows how difficult the change was\, what courage and determination were required.
-Anthony Lewis\, Pulitzer Prize Winner\, former Supreme Court Reporter of the New York Times
Gordon A. Martin\, Jr.\, Boston\, Massachusetts\, is a retired trial judge and an adjunct professor at New England Law Boston. His work has been published in the Boston Globe\, Commonweal\, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger\, the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History\, various law reviews\, and other periodicals. He has co-authored a civil rights casebook\, and is a graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Law.
END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101026T003000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101026T020000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/rodger-kamenetz-burnt-books URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/rodger-kamenetz-burnt-books SUMMARY:Rodger Kamenetz - BURNT BOOKS\: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka DESCRIPTION:Please join us at the Uptown JCC for a lecture and booksigning by Rodger Kamenets featuring his new work\, BURNT BOOKS\: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka.
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Rodger Kamenetz's groundbreaking dual
biography of the venerated Hasidic storyteller Rabbi Nachman and the
iconic modern master Franz Kafka uncovers surprising parallels between
two tragically abbreviated lives\, both spent in search of spiritual
meaning.
Rodger Kamenetz\, acclaimed author of The Jew in the Lotus\, has
long been fascinated by the mystical tales of the Hasidic master Rabbi
Nachman of Bratslav. And for many years he has taught a course in Prague
on Franz Kafka. The more he thought about their lives and writings\, the
more aware he became of unexpected connections between them. Kafka was a
secular artist fascinated by Jewish mysticism\, and Rabbi Nachman was a
religious mystic who used storytelling to reach out to secular Jews.
Both men died close to age forty of tuberculosis. Both invented new
forms of storytelling that explore the search for meaning in an
illogical\, unjust world. Both gained prominence with the posthumous
publication of their writing. And both left strict instructions at the
end of their lives that their unpublished books be burnt.
Kamenetz
takes his ideas on the road\, traveling to Kafka’s birthplace in Prague
and participating in the pilgrimage to Uman\, the burial site of Rabbi
Nachman visited by thousands of Jews every Jewish new year. He discusses
the hallucinatory intensity of their visions and offers a rich analysis
of Nachman’s and Kafka’s major works\, revealing uncanny similarities in
the inner lives of these two troubled and beloved figures\, whose
creative and religious struggles have much to teach us about the
significant role played by the imagination in the Jewish spiritual
experience.
Rodger Kamenetz Discusses Burnt Books from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.
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Rodger Kamenetz is the author of The Jew in the Lotus and The History of Last Night’s Dream\,
and of seven other books of poetry and prose. A winner of the National
Jewish Book Award\, he recently retired as LSU Distinguished Professor at
Louisiana State University and was founding director of its Jewish
Studies Program. He lives in New Orleans with his wife\, the novelist
Moira Crone\, and works as a dream therapist.
Rascal may be the happiest beagle ever to live. He used to live on Voclain’s Farm\, with its whole jambalaya of dogs\, but now he lives with his very own boy\, Meely. Together they explore the Louisiana bayou\, bunny chasin’\, coon and squirrel huntin’\, and crawfishin’. But when Meely gets stuck on a rotting bridge deep in the bayou\, it’s up to Rascal—with a little help from his old friends at the farm—to save his boy from danger.
In the spirit of Huckleberry Finn\, Rascal is a classic coming-of-age story\, but from a dog’s perspective. With unforgettable characters\, heart-stopping action\, and charming black-and-white line drawings that capture it all\, this zesty gumbo of a book is one to savor long after it is finished.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101028T220000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101028T233000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/jennifer-donnelly-revolution URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/jennifer-donnelly-revolution SUMMARY:Jennifer Donnelly - REVOLUTION DESCRIPTION:Contemporary Brooklyn and the brutality of Revolutionary Paris converge
seamlessly in Jennifer Donnelly’s REVOLUTION — a breathtaking novel that weaves
two girls’ stories into one remarkable account of life\, loss and enduring
love.
In 2002\, a New York
Times article about the DNA identification of the heart of Louis
Charles—the young son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette—caught the
eye\, and emotions\, of Jennifer Donnelly. The back story of his death
touched her so deeply she was inspired to write REVOLUTION\, her
first young adult novel since her Printz honor-winning A Northern
Light (2004). In the story\, Donnelly turns the reigns over to two
very distinct voices—Andi Alpers who lives in modern day Brooklyn\,
and Alexandrine Paradis who lived over two centuries ago in Paris.
Andi is on the edge\, destroyed by rage and grief and about to be
expelled from Brooklyn Height’s most prestigious private school. She’s
angry at her parents\, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother\,
Truman. Alexandrine always dreamed of making her mark on the
Paris stage\, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France
cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.
Their stories come together when Andi travels to Paris and discovers
Alexandrine’s diary in an old guitar case. She is moved by her words
to the point of obsession\, and what unfolds is an exhilarating journey
where the past becomes suddenly — and terrifyingly present.
Donnelly’s passion
for history and hands on research shines brightly on the pages of
REVOLUTION. Through Andi and Alexandrine\, Donnelly explores the
importance and power of art and music\, takes on families in crisis\,
mental illness\, and racial and class inequality. Readers young and old
will relate to these issues\, and find themselves immersed—grappling
with the same questions that inspired Donnelly to write.
JENNIFER DONNELLY is the author
of two adult novels\, The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose\,
as well as the widely acclaimed\, award-winning young adult novel
A Northern Light\, winner of Britain’s prestigious Carnegie Medal\,
the L.A. Times Book Prize for Young Adult literature\, and a Michael
L. Printz Honor Award. She lives and writes full time in upstate New
York Hudson’s Valley.
In this wonderfully transporting novel\, award-winning author Karen
Essex turns a timeless classic inside out\, spinning a haunting\, erotic\,
and suspenseful story of eternal love and possession.
"\;Reader\, you are about to enter a world that exists simultaneous
with your own. But be warned\: in its realm\, there are no rules\, and
there is certainly no neat formula to become—or to destroy—one who has
risen above the human condition…The truth is\, we must fear monsters less
and be warier of our own kind."\;
London\, 1890. Mina Murray\, the rosy-cheeked\,
quintessentially pure Victorian heroine\, becomes Count Dracula’s object
of desire. To preserve her chastity\, five male “defenders” rush in to
rescue her from the vampire’s evil clutches. This is the version of the
story we've been told. But now\, from Mina’s own pen\, we discover that
the story is vastly different when told from the female point of view.
In this captivating\, bold act of storytelling\, award-winning author
Karen Essex breathes startling new life into the characters of Bram
Stoker's Dracula\, transporting the reader into the erotic and
bizarre underbelly of the original story. While loosely following the
events of its classic predecessor\, Dracula in Love deviates from the path at every turn.
The result is a darkly haunting\, propulsive\, and rapturous tale of immortal love and possession.
From the shadowy banks of the river Thames to the wild and windswept
Yorkshire coast\, Dracula’s eternal muse\, Mina Murray\, vividly recounts
the intimate details of what really transpired between her and the
Count—the joys and terrors of a passionate affair that has linked them
through the centuries\, and her rebellion against her own frightening
preternatural powers.
Mina’s version of this gothic vampire tale is a visceral journey into Victorian England’s dimly lit bedrooms\, mist-filled cemeteries\, and asylum chambers\, revealing the dark secrets and mysteries locked within. Time falls away as she is swept into a mythical journey far beyond mortal comprehension\, where she must finally make the decision she has been avoiding for almost a millennium.
Bram
Stoker’s classic novel offered one side of the story\, in which Mina had
no past and bore no responsibility for the unfolding events. Now\, for
the first time\, the truth of Mina’s personal voyage\, and of vampirism
itself\, is revealed. What this flesh and blood woman has to say is more
sensual\, more devious\, and more enthralling than the Victorians could
have expressed or perhaps even have imagined.
Dark\, gothic\, and utterly sensual\, Dracula in Love is the novel for Twilight's
grownup fans. The character of Mina Murray leaps from the pages in an
extraordinary confession of what truly happened between her and Count
Dracula. In this novel of forbidden desires and secrecy\, purity is an
overrated virtue.
—Michelle Moran\, bestselling author of Nefertiti\: A Novel
The
King of the Undead in all his manifestations confronts Victorian
society\, reclaiming his throne as the ultimate vampire\, before whom all
other paltry vampires in literature wither away. Dracula in Love is a sensual fantasy feast\, a flight of the imagination\, a darkly rich pleasure. Like The French Lieutenant's Woman\,
the novel explores and exposes the stifling confines of Victorian
society\, especially upon women. But the means of deliverance is
altogether different.
—Margaret George\, bestselling author of The Memoirs of Cleopatra
KAREN ESSEX is the author of Stealing Athena\, Kleopatra\, and the international bestseller Leonardo’s Swans\, which won Italy’s prestigious 2007 Premio Roma for foreign fiction. An award-winning journalist and a screenwriter\, she is a native New Orleanian living in Los Angeles.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101109T110000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101109T110000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/bob-carr-raising-our-children-bourbon URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/bob-carr-raising-our-children-bourbon SUMMARY:Bob Carr - RAISING OUR CHILDREN ON BOURBON\: A French Quarter Love Affair DESCRIPTION:Please join us for a reading and book signing with Bob Carr celebrating the release of his book\, RAINSING OUR CHILDREN ON BOURBON\: A French Quarter Love Affair (with illustrations by Rolland Golden).
New Orleans sparks an emotion in everyone who hears the name. It’s an enchanted city! Raising Our Children On Bourbon is the story of Bob and Jan Carr\, who escaped the mundane life of mid-America and moved to the heart of the infamous French Quarter to raise their children among the “Quarter eccentrics” while accomplishing spectacular careers in radio and television. Join them as they renovate and restore a Bourbon Street mansion\, passing through one crisis after another. This story depicts the bright side of the city’s indomitable spirit as it forges ahead and continues to dazzle visitors.
Every now and then a book comes along and lifts the curtain on the hidden sweetness of life in New Orleans. Raising Our Children on Bourbon is just such a charmer\, giving readers a glimpse of the surprising joys of family life in the French Quarter during an extraordinary time and the pleasures — and laughs — of working in television here. This is also an enchanting and sexy New Orleans love story\: Bob and Jan Carr fell in love with a city\, and — not surprisingly to any reader lucky enough to pick up this book — New Orleans loved them right back.
- Susan Larson\, Literary Critic
A young Midwestern family drives down the rabbit hole into New
Orleans’ French Quarter and not only survives\, but thrives in the most
raunchy\, raffish\, notorious neighborhood in America. Quite a read!
- David Cuthbert\, WYES-TV’s ‘Theater Guy’
Raising Our Children On Bourbon is a hilarious and heartfelt love
letter to our wonderful and enigmatic New Orleans\, from one of her most
beloved couples\, Bob and Jan Carr. Bob has crafted such lively and
fascinating stories\, I am truly grateful that he decided to share them
with us!
- Bryan Batt\, Actor\, stage\, screen and TV
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101111T230000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101111T230000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/lee-sandlin-wicked-river URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/lee-sandlin-wicked-river SUMMARY:Lee Sandlin - WICKED RIVER\: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild DESCRIPTION:A riveting look at one of the most colorful\, dangerous\, and peculiar
places in America’s historical landscape\: the strange\, wonderful\, and
mysterious Mississippi River of the nineteenth century.
Beginning in the early 1800s and climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg in 1863\, Wicked River takes
us back to a time before the Mississippi was dredged into a shipping
channel\, and before Mark Twain romanticized it into myth. Drawing on an
array of suspenseful and bizarre firsthand accounts\, Lee Sandlin brings
to life a place where river pirates brushed elbows with future
presidents and religious visionaries shared passage with thieves—a world
unto itself where\, every night\, near the levees of the big river towns\,
hundreds of boats gathered to form dusk-todawn cities dedicated to
music\, drinking\, and gambling. Here is a minute-by-minute account of
Natchez being flattened by a tornado\; the St. Louis harbor being crushed
by a massive ice floe\; hidden\, nefarious celebrations of Mardi Gras\;
and the sinking of the Sultana\, the worst naval disaster in
American history. And here is the Mississippi itself\: gorgeous\,
perilous\, and unpredictable\, lifeblood to the communities that rose and
fell along its banks.
An exuberant work of Americana—at once history\, culture\, and geography—Wicked River is a grand epic that portrays a forgotten society on the edge of revolutionary change.
A gripping book that plunges you into a rich dark stretch of visceral history. I read it in two sittings and got up shaken.
—Garrison Keillor
Wicked River almost
makes you feel guilty for enjoying an education so much. I learned
things at every S-curve\, neck deep in a fine\, fine story. I lived a
stone's throw from that river\, and though I knew it flowed through eons
of meanness and sadness and ribaldry\, I didn't know it was this twisted.
—Rick Bragg\, author of The Prince of Frogtown
Great stuff\, essential stuff\, and yeah\, wicked.
—Roy Blount Jr\, author of Alphabet Juice and Long Time Leaving Dispatches From Up South
One
of the best book’s ever written about the Mississippi River. Each page
rounds a new bend full of delirious missionaries\, hell-bent-for-speed
steamboat captains\, and gaudy traders in ‘fancy girl’ slave prostitutes.
You won’t put it down till you’ve read every steamy\, malarial\,
fascinating page.
—Mike Tidwell\, author of Bayou Farewell
LEE SANDLIN’s essays\, most of which were published in the Chicago Reader\,
received the Peter Lisagor Award for Exemplary Journalism and an award
for Best Arts Criticism from the Association of Alternative
Newsweeklies. His essay “Losing the War” was included in the anthology The New Kings of Nonfiction. He lives in Chicago.
Join the Octavia Science Fiction Books Book Club for a discussion of
Stories of Your Life\: And Others by Ted Chiang
The Science Fiction Book Club meets on the 2nd Saturday each month and
is open to interested readers. Please feel welcome to join us!
Please join us for a special evening with acclaimed author Julia Glass\, winner of the National Book Award\, for a reading and booksigning featuring her new novel\, THE WIDOWER'S TALE
In a historic farmhouse outside Boston\, seventy-year-old Percy Darling
is settling happily into retirement\: reading novels\, watching old
movies\, and swimming naked in his pond. His routines are disrupted\,
however\, when he is persuaded to let a locally beloved preschool take
over his barn. As Percy sees his rural refuge overrun by children\,
parents\, and teachers\, he must reexamine the solitary life he has made
in the three decades since the sudden death of his wife. No longer can
he remain aloof from his community\, his two grown daughters\, or\, to his
shock\, the precarious joy of falling in love.
One relationship
Percy treasures is the bond with his oldest grandchild\, Robert\, a premed
student at Harvard. Robert has long assumed he will follow in the
footsteps of his mother\, a prominent physician\, but he begins to
question his ambitions when confronted by a charismatic roommate who
preaches—and begins to practice—an extreme form of ecological activism\,
targeting Boston’s most affluent suburbs.
Meanwhile\, two other
men become fatefully involved with Percy and Robert\: Ira\, a gay teacher
at the preschool\, and Celestino\, a Guatemalan gardener who works for
Percy’s neighbor\, each one striving to overcome a sense of personal
exile. Choices made by all four men\, as well as by the women around
them\, collide forcefully on one lovely spring evening\, upending
everyone’s lives\, but none more radically than Percy’s.
With
equal parts affection and satire\, Julia Glass spins a captivating tale
about the loyalties\, rivalries\, and secrets of a very particular family.
Yet again\, she plumbs the human heart brilliantly\, dramatically\, and
movingly.
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Julia Glass is the author of Three Junes\, winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction\; The Whole World Over\; and I See You Everywhere\,
winner of the 2009 Binghamton University John Gardner Book Award. She
has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts\, the
New York Foundation for the Arts\, and the Radcliffe Institute for
Advanced Study. Her short fiction has won several prizes\, and her
personal essays have been widely anthologized. She lives in
Massachusetts with her family.
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END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE:20100909T180051Z DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101120T153000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20101120T153000Z UID:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-book-club-november-2010 URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/octavia-books-book-club-november-2010 SUMMARY:Octavia Books Book Club - November 2010 DESCRIPTION:
Join the Octavia Book Club for a discussion of
Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara
The Octavia Books Book Club meets on the 3nd Saturday morning of each month (except December) and is open to interested readers. Please feel welcome to join us!
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