Blue Bicycle Books, Charleston, SC


Recent arrivals — Poe, Angelou, Salinger, Hemingway

 

Rare-ly Here

For some crazy reason folks have felt cooped up lately and are cleaning out their bookshelves like mad. Upshot is we’ve got some nice things to share…

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Little, Brown, 1951), early book club edition in good dust jacket with full b/w author photo on rear panel. $400
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Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou (Random House, 1974). First edition, first printing, VG in VG dust jacket. Second book in the author’s series of seven autobiographies. $195
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The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner, 1972). First edition. VG in VG dust jacket. Posthumously published, these autobiographical stories of a young man from rural Michigan showcase Hemingway’s genius for detail and rich knowledge of geography and natural history. $195
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The Tales and Poems, Edgar Allan Poe (London, John C. Nimmo, 1884). Limited edition, number 15 of 150 printed. 4 volumes in green half leather, green marbled boards, top edge gilt, we’re talking MUSCLE. $750

 



Virtual Book Launch with Rachel Beanland July 9

 

Join us and Spartanburg-based bookshop and publisher Hub City on Thurs., July 9, 5 pm, for a virtual event with author Rachel Beanland to celebrate her debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever (Simon & Schuster, hb., 320 pp, $26).

Over the course of one summer that begins with a shocking tragedy, three generations of the Adler family grapple with heartbreak, romance, and the weight of family secrets in this stunning debut novel that’s perfect for fans of Manhattan Beach and The Dollhouse.

Rachel Beanland writes fiction and essays. Her essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction and Broad Street, among other places.

She has an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University and holds bachelor’s degrees in art history and journalism from the University of South Carolina. Before turning to writing full-time, Rachel worked in public relations and nonprofit management.

To register for the event with or without a signed copy of the book, go here.



Writing Camp goes Virtual!

Against the odds, our writing camps are off and running this year. Session 1, for grades 3 – 6, was in the airy and spacious sanctuary of Bright City Church — thank you to Nick and Jess Connolly for generously donating use of this space.

This week’s session (and the two following) are Write of Zoom-er Virtual Camps, led by Sara Peck. Each student gets this killer care package (above) delivered to their doorstep Sunday night, with t-shirts, snacks and special secret envelopes to be opened each day.

Thanks to author Brendan Reichs — who joined Session 2 via zoom and donated copies of his and Ally Condie’s awesome middle grade series The Darkdeep. 

Margaret Stohl — video game and comic book writer / YALLFest co-founder / author of many books including the recent Jo and Laurie — will join this week!

Space available in most sessions. For more information see writeofsummer.com, and please call Jonathan any time at 843-323-2834, he’s always happy to talk about camp!



Open — with a twist

We are happy to announce we’re back open to the public, but with some health-minded caveats.

To keep both our employees and our customers safe, we’re taking all of the necessary precautions and enacting the following policies:

  • Regular hours: 10 – 7: 30 Monday – Saturday and 1 – 6 Sunday.
  • Store is capacity is 6, limited to two small groups at a time.
  • All of our employees will be wearing masks.
  • Please help us keep social distancing practices throughout the store.
  • We’re accepting contactless payments — Venmo or chip cards.
  • Our bathroom is for employee use only.

In addition to visiting us, here’s how you can support Charleston’s local bookstore since 1995:

1. Buy a gift certificate

2. Order a book. If you want it we will get it for you. Call 843-722-2666, email jonathan@bluebicyclebooks.com, or DM @bluebicyclebooks on instagram.

3. You can also order any book for direct shipment through bookshop.org/shop/bluebicyclebooks.

Bookshop is a a B-Corp that supports local bookstores. As long as you see our emblem in the top left, you can search for any book and the purchase will benefit Blue Bicycle Books

4. Find Inky Phoenix Book Club Picks and other signed books, summer camp registration, exclusive BBB merch, and select titles on our website store.



Fiber Fueled with Dr. B

We have partnered with local restaurant Verde and renowned gastroenterologist Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, better known as Dr. B, to share his new book Fiber Fueled (Avery, hb., 400 pp., $27). Dr. B’s groundbreaking book offers a plant-based gut health program for losing weight, restoring health, and optimizing your microbiome.

Including a 28-day jumpstart program with menus and more than 65 unique recipes, along with essential advice on food sensitivities, Fiber Fueled offers the blueprint to start resetting your gut for lifelong health today.

Verde has brought Dr. B’s rules to life with their new Somewhere Over the Rainbowl, a salad packed with vibrant colors, nutrients, and a diversity of plants available at all Verde locations. Plus, each bowl comes with a bookmark with a special link for an exclusive signed copy. Additionally, you can order signed copies right here.



YALLSTAYHOME: A Virtual Book Fest

YALLWEST, the Santa Monica sister to YALLFest, will not be in the flesh in 2020, but has been resurrected as YALLSTAYHOME, a zoomapalooza–make that, yallapazooma–coming up Friday, April 24 – Sunday, April 26.

There will be virtual panels: “teanotes,” “PJ cosplay,” and “Creativity in the Time of Corona,” plus special events like Doodling with Marie Lu, TikTok Time with Soman Chainani, and Basement Woodshop Adventures with Veronica Roth.

And there will be signed books signed by BBB!

Here’s the deal:

  1. Order them here.
  2. Be super patient.
  3. Your books arrive directly from our distributor!
  4. For any SIGNED orders — your signed, limited edition YALLSTAYHOME bookplate (see above) will arrive in a separate envelope.

What could go wrong, amirite? (Again, see step 2.)

 



Jane Kleeb Harvest the Vote, Tues., Feb. 25, 5 pm

Join us Tues., Feb 25, 5 pm for Jane Kleeb, chair of the Democratic Party of Nebraska, as she talks about her new book Harvest the Vote (Ecco, hb, 224 pp., $26.99) before the SC Democratic debate.

The Democratic Party has lost an entire generation of rural voters. By focusing the majority of their message and resources on urban and coastal voters, Democrats have sacrificed entire regions of the country where there is more common ground and shared values than what appears on the surface.

In Harvest the Vote, Jane Kleeb brings us a lively and sweeping argument for why the Democrats shouldn’t turn away from rural America. As a party leader and longtime activist, Kleeb speaks from experience. She’s been fighting the national party for more resources and building a grassroots movement to flex the power of a voting bloc that has long been ignored and forgotten.

Jane Kleeb is an American political activist. She is the founder and president of Bold Alliance, Chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party and a board member of Our Revolution and Matriarch PAC. She lives in Hastings, Nebraska with her husband Scott Kleeb and their three daughters.



Jenna Bush Hager at the Gaillard Center Sat., May 2

Saturday, May 2, 7 pm, Today show co-host Jenna Bush Hager will be at the Gaillard Center with her new book, Everything Beautiful in its Time.

Jenna will take fans behind the scenes of her life – from growing up in a political family to dating in the public eye to life on the Today show set. Through it all, she’s relied on advice from her beloved grandparents who taught her about respect, humility, kindness, and living a life of passion and meaning—timeless lessons that continue to guide her as she tackles motherhood, marriage, and (very) early wake-up calls.

Each ticket includes a copy of Jenna’s book, Everything Beautiful In Its Time (William Morrow, hb., 240 pp., $27). VIP ticket holders will meet Jenna and walk away with an autographed copy.

Jenna Bush Hager is the co-host of the fourth hour of the Today show with Hoda Kotb and the founder of the Today book club Read with Jenna. She is the coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestselling Ana’s Story and two children’s books that she wrote with her mother, Laura—Our Great Big Backyard and Read All About It—as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Sisters First, written with her sister, Barbara, in both adult and children’s editions. She lives with her husband and three children in New York City.

Find tickets here.



Dr. Adam H. Domby The False Cause, Thurs., Mar. 5

Join us Thurs., Mar. 5, 5:30 pm as College of Charleston professor Dr. Adam H. Domby will be here to discuss his book The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory (UVA Press, hb., 272 pp., $30).

The Lost Cause ideology that emerged after the Civil War and flourished in the early twentieth century in essence sought to recast a struggle to perpetuate slavery as a heroic defense of the South. As Adam Domby reveals here, this was not only an insidious goal; it was founded on falsehoods. The False Cause focuses on North Carolina to examine the role of lies and exaggeration in the creation of the Lost Cause narrative. In the process the book shows how these lies have long obscured the past and been used to buttress white supremacy in ways that resonate to this day.

Domby explores how fabricated narratives about the war’s cause, Reconstruction, and slavery―as expounded at monument dedications and political rallies―were crucial to Jim Crow. He questions the persistent myth of the Confederate army as one of history’s greatest, revealing a convenient disregard of deserters, dissent, and Unionism, and exposes how pension fraud facilitated a myth of unwavering support of the Confederacy among nearly all white Southerners. Domby shows how the dubious concept of “black Confederates” was spun from a small number of elderly and indigent African American North Carolinians who got pensions by presenting themselves as “loyal slaves.” The book concludes with a penetrating examination of how the Lost Cause narrative and the lies on which it is based continue to haunt the country today and still work to maintain racial inequality.

Adam H. Domby is Assistant Professor of History at the College of Charleston.

 

 



Author Luncheon with Lori Gottlieb, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, March 27

Join us for lunch with renowned psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author Lori Gottlieb, Fri., March 27, 12 pm, at Halls Signature Events. Gottlieb will discuss her most recent book, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hb., 432 pp., $28).

Tickets are $64 and include a three-course meal and a signed hardback copy of the book. You can find them here.

About the book: As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives — a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys — she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to her own therapist.With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.

About the author: Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author. In addition to her clinical practice, she writes The Atlantic’s weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column and is the co-host of iHeart’s upcoming “Dear Therapists” podcast, produced by Katie Couric. She is also a TED speaker, a ​member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change to Mind, and advisor to the Aspen Institute. She is a sought-after expert in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, CNN, and NPR’s “Fresh Air.”