Blue Bicycle Books

Join us on Zoom Thurs., May 6, 2021 at 7 pm, for an evening with Josephine Caminos Oría, author of Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses. Oría will be joining Blue Bicycle Books as part of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Reader Meet Writer author series.

The Zoom link will be emailed to registered ticketholders on the day of the event.

Click here to purchase a signed copy of Sobremesa.

Click here to register for this FREE event!

About the book: 

In her coming-of-age adventure, Josephine travels to her family’s homeland of Argentina in search of belonging—to family, to country, to a love, and ultimately, to oneself. Steeped in the lure of Latin culture, she pieces together her mom and abuela’s pasts, along with the nourishing dishes—delectably and spiritually—that formed their kitchen arsenal. But Josephine’s travels from las pampas to the prairie aren’t easy or conventional. Just as she’s ready to give up on love all together, Josephine’s own heart surprises her by surrendering to a forbidden, transcontinental tryst with the Argentine man of her dreams. To stay together, she must make a difficult choice: return to the safe life she knows in the States, or follow her heart and craft a completely different kind of future for herself—one she never saw coming.

This otherworldly, multigenerational story of a daughter’s love and familial culinary legacy serves up, in 13 courses, the timeless traditions that help Josephine navigate transformational love and loss. It’s a reminder that that home really is anywhere the heart is. Sobremesa invites you to linger at the table, reveal your own hidden truths and savor the healing embrace of time-honored food and the wisdom it espouses.

Foreword by Sofía Pescarmona, CEO and Owner, Lagarde Winery

About the author: 

Josephine Caminos Oría was born in the city of La Plata, Argentina, and raised Stateside from infancy on in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Gathering around a table large enough to sit her family of eight, food and the sobremesa that accompanied it was how Josephine learned to make sense of the world. Stories of where she came from, and the people she’d left behind, were served to Josephine during family sobremesas she savored like meals.

Today, Josephine, along with her Argentine husband, Gastón, is the founder of La Dorita Cooks, an all-natural line of dulce de leche products and Pittsburgh’s first resource-based kitchen incubator for start-up and early stage foodmakers. In addition, Josephine is the author of the cookbook as food-memoir, “Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, and Sweet Traditions” (Burgess Lea Press, February 2017).The Orías, along with their five children and golden retriever, are currently living la vida low-country in Charleston, SC.

Join the Conroy Center on Zoom, Thurs., Feb. 25, 2021, 7 – 8 pm for an evening with co-authors Sara Shepard and Lilia Buckingham,  discussing their book, Influence (Delacorte Press, hb., 368 pp., $18). Shepard and Buckingham will be joined in conversation by the Pat Conroy Literary Center‘s Holland Perryman and Jonathan Haupt.

To register for this FREE event click here.

To order a signed copy of Influence, click here. 

About the Authors:

Sara Shepard is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars series, the Perfectionists series, and many more novels for teens and adults. She lives with her family in Pittsburgh. @saracshepard on Instagram; @sarabooks on Twitter

Lilia Buckingham is a seventeen-year-old writer, actress, dancer, and student. Though she has a strong social media presence, Lilia hates the term “influencer” but loved writing Influence. She lives in Los Angeles with her mother, brother, and two dogs. @lilia on Instagram; @BuckinghamLilia on Twitter

About the book:

Influence tells the story of life under the social media limelight through the perspectives of four young women. Jasmine is a former child star, Delilah was recently catapulted into fame by a viral video, Fiona is a long established figure in social media and looking to move into Hollywood, and Scarlet’s perfect relationship and famous boyfriend have made her famous. The three women struggle together through the many anxieties and pitfalls of social media fame.

Join us on Zoom, Tues., Feb 16, 6:30 pm as Baylor University professor Robert Elder discusses his newest book, Calhoun: American Heretic (Basic Books, hb., 640 pp., $35). Elder, a Clemson Grad, will be joined in conversation by Paul Anderson, professor of history at Clemson University.

This event is free and open to the public.

To buy a signed copy of the book click here.

To register, click here.

About the book: John C. Calhoun was first elected to Congress in 1810, and went on to serve as secretary of war and vice president. But he is perhaps most known for arguing in favor of slavery as a “positive good” and for his famous doctrine of “state interposition,” which laid the groundwork for the South to secede from the Union—and arguably set the nation on course for civil war.

Calhoun has catapulted back into the public eye in recent years,  as protests over racial injustice have focused on his legacy. In this revelatory biographical study, historian Robert Elder shows that Calhoun is even more broadly significant than these events suggest, and that his story is crucial for understanding the political climate in which we find ourselves today. By excising Calhoun from the mainstream of American history, he argues, we have been left with a distorted understanding of our past and no way to explain our present.

About the Author: Robert Elder is an assistant professor of history at Baylor University, where his research focuses on the American South. His first book was The Sacred Mirror: Evangelicalism, Honor, and Identity in the American South, 1790‒1860. He has a B.A. and M.A. from Clemson University, a PhD. from Emory University and lives in Woodway, Texas.

About the Moderator: Paul Anderson is Associate Professor of History and University Historian at Clemson University, where he has taught the history of the American South and the history of South Carolina for twenty years. His most recent book, A Short History of the American Civil War, was published in 2019 by Bloomsbury.

YALLWrite (a.k.a YALLFest 2020) is this weekend! 

Over 80 bestselling authors will share their trade secrets in a virtual, craft-themed festival Fri. Nov. 13 and Sat. Nov 14.

Writers like Marie Lu, Victoria Aveyard, Nic Stone, Neal Shusterman, Marissa Meyer, V.E. Schwab, Varian Johnson and more will teach dialogue, structure, world-building, writing as a political act, graphic novels, collaboration, romance, fantasy … all told there are SEVENTY (70) master classes, panels, scavenger hunts and giveaways!

Register here (it’s all free)

Even though we’ve gone virtual, you can still get signed books. We’ve sent out YALLWrite bookplates all over the world. 

Order here or click on a name below

Renee Ahdieh SIGNED

Melissa Albert SIGNED

Jennifer L. Armentrout SIGNED

John August SIGNED

Victoria Aveyard SIGNED

Lindsay K. Bandy SIGNED

Kalynn Bayron SIGNED

Holly Black SIGNED

Gwenda Bond SIGNED

Pseudonymous Bosch SIGNED

Alexandra Bracken SIGNED

Z Brewer SIGNED

Mahogany L. Brown. SIGNED

Roseanne A. Brown SIGNED

Lilia Buckingham SIGNED

Julie Buxbaum SIGNED

Patrice Caldwell SIGNED

Kacen Callender

Kristin Cashore

Soman Chainani SIGNED

Sona Charaipotra SIGNED

Traci Chee SIGNED

Dhonielle Clayton SIGNED

Brandy Colbert SIGNED

Ally Condie SIGNED

Zoraida Cordova SIGNED

Sayantani DasGupta SIGNED

Somaiya Daud SIGNED

Melissa de la Cruz SIGNED

Susan Dennard SIGNED

Tracy Deonn SIGNED

Corinne Duyvis

Kristina Forest SIGNED

Namina Forna SIGNED

Stephanie Garber SIGNED

Kami Garcia SIGNED

Ryan Graudin SIGNED

Jordan Ifueko SIGNED

Holly Jackson

Tiffany D. Jackson SIGNED

Leah Johnson SIGNED

Varian Johnson

Kimberly Jones

Amie Kaufman SIGNED

Erin Entrada Kelly SIGNED

Jay Kristoff 

Nina LaCour

David Levithan SIGNED

Alex London SIGNED

Marie Lu SIGNED

Kwame Mbalia

Anna-Marie McLemore SIGNED

Karen McManus SIGNED

Gretchen McNeil SIGNED

Tehlor Kay Mejia SIGNED

Marissa Meyer SIGNED

Kass Morgan SIGNED

Brandon Mull SIGNED

Marieke Nijkamp SIGNED

Jennifer Niven SIGNED

Garth Nix

Daniel Jose Older SIGNED

Tochi Onyebuchi SIGNED

Claribel A. Ortega SIGNED

Mark Oshiro SIGNED

Danielle Paige SIGNED

Brendan Reichs SIGNED

Caleb Roehrig

Margaret Rogerson SIGNED

Veronica Roth SIGNED

Yusef Salaam

Adam Sass SIGNED

Victoria / V.E. Schwab SIGNED

Gilly Segal

Samantha Shannon

Sara Shepard SIGNED

Neal Shusterman 

Adam Silvera SIGNED

Meagan Spooner SIGNED

Margaret Stohl SIGNED

Nic Stone SIGNED

Sabaa Tahir

Aiden Thomas SIGNED

Kiersten White SIGNED

C. Yee SIGNED

Nicola Yoon

Sara Zarr SIGNED

Ibi Zoboi SIGNED

Note that we can’t take orders for personal inscriptions. Signed bookplates may ship separately from books. Thank you so, so much for your support. 

Vivian Howard, star of “A Chef’s Life” on PBS will be in Charleston, Sun. Oct. 25, 3 – 6 pm for a special in-real-life drive-thru book signing at Tradesman Brewing (1647 King St. Extension), presented by Blue Bicycle Books.

All tickets include a signed copy of Vivian’s new book This Will Make It Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking, plus a snack-pack of special treats from Vivian’s team!

SIGNED Copies still available here

Note:

*Tickets are divided into 15-minute timeslots from 3 to 6 pm.*You will remain in your car but still be able to get a personalized book and photo with Vivian, following proper Covid-safety procedures. Details to follow.

*Masks required.

*Additional books and merchandise will be available for sale.

*After getting your book signed, please feel free to park and have a beer at Tradesman!

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About This Will Make It Taste Good (Voracious Books, hb., 352 pp., $35):

An Eater Best Cookbook of Fall 2020!

From caramelized onions to fruit preserves, make home cooking quick and easy with ten simple “kitchen heroes” in these 125 recipes from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Deep Run Roots.

“I wrote this book to inspire you, and I promise it will change the way you cook, the way you think about what’s in your fridge, the way you see yourself in an apron.”

Vivian Howard’s first cookbook chronicling the food of Eastern North Carolina, Deep Run Roots, was named one of the best of the year by 18 national publications, including the New York Times, USA Today, Bon Appetit, and Eater, and won an unprecedented four IACP awards, including Cookbook of the Year. Now, Vivian returns with an essential work of home-cooking genius that makes simple food exciting and accessible, no matter your skill level in the kitchen.