The Blue Bike is one of only ten stops on the tour — other events include Garrison Keillor in Minnesota, Michael Pollan in Berkeley, Calif., and Jan Karon in Charlottesville, Va.

As a store that has offered great books at low cost for 15 years, Blue Bicycle is thrilled to be included in the celebration. In 1935, Allen Lane started Penguin with the revolutionary concept of selling good literature at low prices, not just at bookstores but also at railway stations and newsstands. Famous for a simple design with broad bands of color, three million Penguin paperbacks sold in the first year.

Giving Back. To commemorate the occasion, Penguin has donated 75 of its all-time bestselling paperbacks to Burke High School. (The Charleston film premiere of The Secret Life of Bees raised more than $20,000 for Burke’s poetry workshops, funding the student compilations So-Called Whisper and Kissing a Biting Spider.)

The Schedule. After arriving in the Mini, Sue will raise a glass of champagne for a toast, talk about how she became a Penguin author, and sign copies of Traveling with Pomegranates (co-written with daughter Ann Taylor Kidd) as well as her other New York Times best-selling titles.

Free and open to the public. Questions? Call 722.2666.

Order signed copies of The Secret Life of Bees here!

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Join us Fri., June 18, 4 – 6 pm for a signing with the Margaret Baroody, narrator of The Unexpected Visitor. The book features a collection of black and white photography shot by Margaret’s late husband Dr. Naseeb Baroody,  accompanied by  inspiration passages written by Margaret.  The pictures were taken over a fifty year period while the couple traveled the world doing medical mission work. Sadly, Dr. Baroody passed away before the completion of the book; in many ways the book is a celebration of him as much as it is of his work.

ORDER HERE

Signed copies will ship after June 18.

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Louis Rubin Jr. is the co-founder of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, author of over fifty books, and editor of several southern literature and historical collections. He returns to his roots in his newest collection of short stories, Uptown/Downtown in Old Charleston, which explores his childhood in Charleston during the 1930’s and 40’s and the stark gradations among classes and neighborhoods. Experiencing first-hand both the traditions south of Broad Street and the working class mindset of uptown, Rubin brings you into, in Pat Conroy’s words, “the soul of the real Charleston, revealing its essence and depth.”

Ben Moïse’s memoir Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden follows the author’s long career as a South Carolina game warden along the coastal woods and waters of the Lowcountry. Equal parts funny and dangerous, Ramblings features cigar-chomping fishers, game-law violators, stakeouts,  shrimpers, lawyers, country judges, and poachers.

The talk and luncheon will be at Virginia’s on King, 412 King St., followed by a dessert-and-champagne book signing at the bookstore.

Fri., June 4, 12 – 2 pm, $35. Advance reservations required. For tickets please call 843.722.2666 or click here.

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The Jazz Loft Project

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Signed copies will ship after June 10.

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Self-proclaimed southerner-in-exile Katie Crouch will be coming home and giving Blue Bicycle Books a visit Fri., May 21, 5 – 7 pm. Since her first book, Girls in Trucks, we have been anticipating both her second visit and her newest book, Men and Dogs, out April 12.

Though she always knew she wanted to be a writer, Crouch didn’t commit herself to writing until her late 20’s, leaving her advertising job for the MFA program at Columbia. Now living in San Francisco, Crouch’s work has been featured in the New York Observer, Glamour, Tin House, and McSweeney’s. While growing up in Charleston, Crouch attended Cotillion training, but was never a debutante, an important distinction. Although she has taken herself out of the south, it’s still brimming in her work. Her sophomore novel deftly follows a woman whose life has fallen apart back to Charleston decades after her father’s unsolved disappearance to learn not only about her father, but about herself. Maybe it’s true (in both Crouch and her characters); you can’t take the south out of the girl.

ORDER HERE

Signed copies will ship after May 21.

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There are a lot of wonderful foodie books about this food-crazed part of the world, but this one is so fun, so all-encompassing, ranging from recipes to history to the current restaurant scene. It’s a wonderful stew just like the picture of the Lowcountry Boil on the cover. Dabney’s book celebrates the “foods, history and romance down from England, Africa, The Caribbean, France, Germany and Scotland.” It’s a tall order, but Dabney, a James Beard award-winner for cookbook of the year, is up to the challenge. Foreword by the Lee Bros.”

ORDER HERE

Signed copies will ship after May 27.

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ORDER HERE

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]]> http://bluebicyclebooks.com/2010/05/14/story-time/feed/ 1 http://bluebicyclebooks.com/2010/05/13/ian-johnson-at-ccpl/ http://bluebicyclebooks.com/2010/05/13/ian-johnson-at-ccpl/#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 21:47:21 +0000 bbb http://bluebicyclebooks.com/?p=558 Ian Johnson is the Berlin bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his reporting on the Falun Gong, a religious uprising in China. He will lecture at the downtown library, 68 Calhoun St., Mon., May 24, 6 – 8 pm, on his new book,  A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West. Johnson spent five years interviewing survivors, scouring archives, and pressuring governments to release sensitive intelligence documents. He lives in Beijing and Berlin, where he writes and teaches.

ORDER HERE

Signed copies will ship after May 24.

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Join us in welcoming Joseph Wallace Sat., May 15, 11 – 1 pm, as he signs copies of his debut novel, Diamond Ruby.

Ruby Thomas was always shy about her extra-long arms, but she never thought they would save her life. After the Spanish influenza and bootlegging in Prohibition-era New York leave Ruby and her two nieces orphans, she feeds her family by becoming a sideshow act on Coney Island. As “Diamond Ruby,” the fastest-throwing girl on the boardwalk, she attracts the dangerous attention of the Klan and various gangsters, but also the eyes of a young Babe Ruth and boxer Jack Dempsey. Better opportunities arise for Ruby, but can she handle being the only girl in baseball?

Joseph Wallace is the author of many nonfiction books—including four on baseball history—and several short stories. He lives with his family north of New York City. Joseph will also be making a stop at the Charleston Riverdogs game Fri., May 14, join him and see what the game is all about.

Order a signed copy here.

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