Thurs., Oct. 18, 5 – 7pm, author David Porter will be singing copies of his first novel, In the Shade of the Mango Tree (226 pgs, pb., $20). A globe-trotting crime novel, the book follows a retired Communications professor and a former Navy Special Operations officer as they, with the help of a Lebanese ex-pat and a lively band of journalists and businessmen, uncover mysteries behind a politically shady oil company in the Congo.
Porter, himself a retired Navy pilot, Special Operations officer, and former CIA hand, sounds like a he may have some experience in the area.
Porter currently lives and writes in James Island, but fly fishes all across the Lowcountry.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Fri., Oct. 12, 7 pm, California poets David St. John and Anna Journey will speak and read selections of their work at the Poetry Society of South Carolina, 164 King St. The writers of more than ten collections of poetry, David St. John is the recipient of fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation as well as a National Book Award nomination. He currently teaches at the University of Southern California and lives on Venice Beach. He will sign copies of his most recent book, The Auroras (Harper, 96 pp., h.b., $24.99).
Anna Journey is the author of two poetry collections, Vulgar Remedies(University of Georgia Press, 2013) and If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting (UGAP, 104 pp., p.b., $16.95). She teaches Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.
Thurs., Oct. 4, 5 – 7, storyteller and Native American-style flute maker and player Hawk Hurst will be reading and signing copies of his educational children’s book The Way of the Forest. The book follows two tribe members on their search for a solution to their ecological woes.
Hawk has been crafting flutes for over two decades, and has been practicing storytelling even longer. He is the owner of Hawk Hurst Flutes, offering cultural arts education, storytelling, and flute and drum-making. He performs and teaches across the Southeast.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
South Carolina’s first on-street bike corral was installed this week in front of the store. Thanks to the City of Charleston Planning Dept., the Civic Design Center, Charleston Moves and many others who’ve worked towards this for more than two years. The corral replaces the 15-min. parking meter, which was little used, except by confused and subsequently angry visitors. If the almost fall weather isn’t enough to get you downtown and on your bike, hopefully this will.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Chef Amanda Cohen and her husband and co-author, Charleston’s own Grady Hendrix, will sign copies of their unique graphic novel cookbook, Dirty Candy: A Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, 2012, pb. 224 pp, $19.95), Sun. Oct. 14, 3 – 6 pm, Square Onion, 18 Resolute Lane in I’on, Mt. Pleasant.
Dirt Candy: A Cookbook, emerged from the kitchens of Dirt Candy, the award-winning vegetable (she doesn’t actually like to call it “vegetarian”) restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village and is the first comic book cookbook to hit America. The drawings are the work of Ryan Dunlavey, the cartoonist behind the acclaimed Action Philosophers! series. Dirt Candy features techniques that teach you to make vegetables the most exciting thing on your plate. It’s also part memoir, showing you how to open a restaurant, how to deal with a crooked contractor, what it’s like when Martha Stewart shows up for her reservation, and how being a great chef is all about balancing your inner monkey with your inner panda.
Come sample recipes from the book (prepared by Square Onion Chef Cary Zapatka), have a glass of wine (there will be a lot of wine), and get your copy of the cookbook that features giant robots, angry monkeys, the ghost of Julia Child and a truckload of tips and techniques to make sublime vegetable dishes.
Cohen and friends will also be prepping a dinner for a select group of veggie-lovers as part of Charleston’s L.I.M.E. dinner series. Find more info. here.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Join us Wed., Sept. 26, 4:30 – 6:30 for the release of Kevin Eberle’s new book A History of Charleston’s Hampton Park. Beginning more than three hundred years ago, the book chronicles the park’s growth through early plantation life, Revolutionary War battles, horse racing, the Civil War, professional baseball, a zoo, and a disco.
Eberle, a professor at the Charleston School of Law, also serves as the president of the Hampton Park Terrace Neighborhood Association.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Join us Thurs., Sept. 27, 5 – 7 pm, as Curtis Worthington signs copies of his anthology Literary Charleston and the Lowcountry (Trinity University Press, pb., 321 pp., $16.95).
Literary Charleston is a fascinating collection of fiction, nonfiction and poetry by 34 different local and internationally acclaimed authors. Local literary heavyweights like Pat Conroy and Josephine Humphreys as well as visiting authors like Edgar Allen Poe and Andy Warhol share stories and essays inspired by their unique experiences in and around the Holy City.
Dr. Curtis Worthington is a Charleston neurosurgeon, literary historian, and past recipient of the Skylark Prize from the Poetry Society of South Carolina.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Neil Gaiman, bestselling author of The Sandman comic books and the novels Coraline and American Gods, will perform at the Charleston Music Hall, 37 John St., 8 pm, Fri., Sept. 21, 2012, as part of the Unchained Tour, a group of storytelling writers.
Riding around in a 1972 Bluebird bus,the Unchained raconteurs are touring North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, on a mission to champion locally-owned businesses, especially locally-owned bookstores. The Charleston event will be a collaboration with Blue Bicycle Books.
Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at theunchainedtour.org and at Blue Bicycle Books (420 King St., 722-2666).
In addition to Neil Gaiman, the tour will feature Edgar Oliver, Savannah-born playwright and star of the Edinburgh Festival, Peter Aguero, a multi-talented artist currently hosting storytelling collective The Moth, and leading the improvised rock band, The BTK Band, as well as Charleston’s own, Mechanical River (Rachel Kate and Joel Hamilton).
Following the event, join us for a reception back at Blue Bicycle Books.
For more information check out this terrific 5-min documentary on the Tour.
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Saturday, August 25, 2012
Renowned silhouette artist Clay Rice is returning to Blue Bike to cut personal silhouettes and sign copies of his book The Lonely Shadow (Joggling Board, hb., $19.95) on Wed., Sept. 5, 3 – 6 pm.
Taught by his grandfather Carew, Clay Rice is a 21st century folk artist and a Lowcountry treasure. Watching him cut a child’s silhouette in five minutes has been called performance art in itself. You’ll be amazed when he captures a recognizable profile of your squirming two-year-old in less time than it takes to get her shoes on.
His national touring schedule keeps him on the road often, cutting more than 10,000 children’s silhouettes a year, so events back home in Charleston are rare!
Personal silhouettes start at $40 for two copies. We expect slots to fill up quickly; to book an appointment, please call us at 843.722.2666.
Pictures from past years
Chris Lamb will be at Blue Bicycle Books this Sat., Aug. 25 from 1-3 pm to sign his new book Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball and his 2011 release The Sound and Fury of Sarah Palin
Conspiracy of Silence is a history of the effort to desegregate major league baseball in the 1930s and 40s, particularly the story of how various mainstream newspapers covered, or in many cases failed to cover, black players’ fight for racial equality. The Sound and Fury of Sarah Palin features cartoons from a number of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists, words from well-known Republican commentators, and Chris Lamb’s own trademark wry humor in an analysis of Palin and what she meant for American politics.
Chris Lamb is a professor of media studies at the College of Charleston and the author of several other books, including Blackout: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Spring Training. 
