Blue Bicycle Books, Charleston, SC


Events

Tues., Jan. 16 — Will Harris, A Bold Return to Giving a Damn

Sat., Feb. 3Brad Taylor, Dead Man’s Hand

Wed., Feb. 21Danny Caine, How to Resist Amazon and Why

Sat., Mar. 2Beto O’Rourke, We’ve Got to Try

Fri. – Sun., Mar. 8 – 10 — Pop-up at Charleston Wine and Food

Tues., Apr. 2 — Phoebe Lapine, Carbivore EVENT CANCELLED

Fri., Apr. 5Maggie Stiefvater book signing

Fri., Apr. 19 — Shovels & Rope, C’mon Utah

Fri., May 17Tommy Tomlinson, Dogland

Fri. & Sat., Nov. 15 & 16YALLFest XV



Marcia Zug, You’ll Do, Thurs. May 9, 5 pm

You'll Do by Marcia A. Zug

Join us Thurs. May 9, 5 pm for an evening with Professor Marcia Zug to celebrate the release of her newest book You’ll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love, (Steerforth, 336 pp., $29.99). Zug will be joined in conversation Local attorney Greg Forman.

About the book:

Americans hold marriage in such high esteem that we push people toward it, reward them for taking part in it, and fetishize its benefits to the point that we routinely ignore or excuse bad behavior and societal ills in the name of protecting and promoting it.

The widely overlooked problem with this tradition is that individuals and society have relied on marriage to address or dismiss a range of injustices and inequities, from gender- and race-based discrimination, sexual violence, and predation to unequal financial treatment.

Through revealing storytelling, Zug builds a compelling case that when marriage is touted as “the solution” to such problems, it absolves the government, and society, of the responsibility for directly addressing them.

About the author:

Professor Zug teaches classes on Family Law, Reproductive Rights, Immigration Law, and Federal Indian Law. She has written numerous articles on these topics that have appeared in publications including The Yale Law Journal, The UC Davis Law Review, The BYU Law Review, The American Indian Law Review, and The Virginia Law and Policy Review. Professor Zug’s family law scholarship focuses on marriage law and policy. Her first book, Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail-Order Matches, was published in 2016 and reviewed in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The Times Literary Supplement. Her second book, You’ll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love, will be published in January 2024.



Tommy Tomlinson, Dogland, Fri., May 17 at 5 pm

Join us Fri., May 17 at 5 pm for an evening with Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Tomlinson to celebrate the release of his newest book Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show (Avid Reader, 256 pp., $14.99). Tomlinson will be joined in conversation by Garden and Gun editor Amanda Heckert.

About the book:

From Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Elephant in the Room comes the first inside account of the Westminster Dog Show—America’s oldest and most beloved dog show—following one dog on his quest to become a champion.

Tommy Tomlinson was watching a dog show on television a few years ago when he had a sudden thought: Are those dogs happy? This question sparked a quest to venture inside the dog-show world, in search of a deeper understanding of the bond between dogs and humans that has endured for thousands of years. Dogland shares his surprising, entertaining, and unforgettable adventures as he spends three years on the road going behind the scenes at dozens of dog shows across the country. Like a real-life version of Best in Show, Dogland follows one champion show dog—a Samoyed named Striker—and his devoted entourage of breeders, handlers, and owners as he competes in the Westminster Dog Show, the oldest and most famous dog show in America. Tomlinson brings the dog-show circuit to life as he witnesses teams scrambling from town to town in search of championship points and colorful ribbons. Along the way, he also speaks to scientists who have discovered new insights into how dogs and people formed their bond—and how that bond has changed over the centuries.

Engaging, charming, and informative, Dogland is an irresistibly appealing read for pop culture followers and animal lovers alike.

About the author:

Tommy Tomlinson is the author of The Elephant in the Room, a memoir about being overweight in America. He’s the host of the podcast SouthBound in partnership with WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR station. He has written for publications including Esquire, ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, Garden & Gun, and many others. He spent twenty-three years as a reporter and local columnist for the Charlotte Observer, where he was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. His stories have been chosen twice for the Best American Sports Writing series (2012 and 2015) and he also appears in the anthology America’s Best Newspaper Writing. He teaches magazine writing at Wake Forest University and has taught at colleges, workshops, and conferences across the country. He also has a Substack called The Writing Shed. Tommy and his wife, Alix Felsing, live in Charlotte with Alix’s mom and a cat.



Pop-up at Charleston Wine and Food Fest, Fri. – Sun., Mar. 8 – 10

Visit Blue Bicycle Books at our Book Nook in the Culinary Village during the upcoming Charleston Wine and Food Fest Fri. – Sun., Mar. 8 – 10. We have an exciting line-up of 16 chefs coming to sign, including Tiffani Thiessen, Fri., Mar. 8 at 2 pm at Riverfront Park

See below for the line-up!

Friday, Mar. 8

1:30 pm — Amanda Freitag, The Chef Next Door

2 pm — Tiffani Thiessen, Here We Go Again

3 pm –  Steven Satterfield, Vegetable Revelations & Root to Leaf

4 pm – Lee Anne Wong, Dumplings All Day Wong

Saturday, Mar. 9

1 pm – David Suro, Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals

1:30 pm – Aaron Goldfarb, Dusty Booze & In Search of Vintage Spirits

2 pm – Carrie Morey, Over Easy & Joy Wilson, Hot Little Suppers

2:30 pm – Vivian HowardThis Will Make It Taste Good

3:30 pm – Chris ShepherdCook Like a Local

Sunday, Mar. 10

12:30 pm – Don Drake, Magnolia’s: Classic Southern Cuisine

1 pm – Lavern & Marvette Meggett, Gullah Geechee

1:30 pm – Ben Schaffer and Garrett Richard, Tropical Standard: Cocktail Technique & Reinvented Recipes

2:30 pm – Toni Tipton-Martin, Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs & Juice

3 pm – Von Diaz, Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking

3:30 pm – Todd Richards, Roots, Heart, Soul

 



Beto O’Rourke, We’ve Got to Try, Sat., Mar. 2, 4 pm

Join us for a special event with former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Sat., Mar. 2, 4 pm as he visits Charleston to discuss We’ve Got to Try: How the Fight for Voting Rights Makes Everything Else Possible (Flatiron, pb., $19).

This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are free, with the option to pre-order a signed copy of We’ve Got To Try. Click here to reserve your tickets.

About the book:

In We’ve Got To Try, O’Rourke shines a spotlight on the heroic life and work of Dr. Lawrence Aaron Nixon and the west Texas town where he made his stand. The son of an enslaved man, Nixon grew up in the Confederate stronghold of Marshall, Texas before moving to El Paso, becoming a civil rights leader, and helping to win one of the most significant civil and voting rights victories in American history: the defeat of the all-white primary. His fight for the ballot spanned 20 years and twice took him to the U.S. Supreme Court.

About the author:

Beto O’Rourke is a fourth-generation Texan, born and raised in El Paso where he has served as a small business owner, a city council representative and a member of Congress. He founded and currently leads Powered by People, a Texas-based organization that works to expand democracy and produce Democratic victories through voter registration and direct voter engagement.

Beto is married to Amy O’Rourke and together they are raising Ulysses, Molly and Henry in El Paso’s historic Sunset Heights.



Phoebe Lapine, Carbivore, Tues., Apr. 2, EVENT CANCELLED

Join us Tues., Apr. 2 at 5:30 pm for an evening with chef and author Phoebe Lapine celebrating the release of her newest cookbook, Carbivore (Hachette Go, 352 pp., $32)

About the book:

Diet trends come and go, but over the last decade, no one food group has been vilified and misunderstood as much as carbs. A hundred years ago, our relatives got more than 50 percent of their nutrients from carbs, and yet the chronic conditions we grapple with today were rare. The good news is that carbs don’t have to be the enemy of your blood sugar or hormone health, nor are they the secret agents of inflammation.

Carbivore is a new way to reclaim your favorite comfort foods without the consequences. Whether you’re suffering from keto-fatigue, have been told carbs are off the table because of health issues, or just want to embrace food freedom without fear, Phoebe Lapine offers a delicious solution with 130 completely fiber-forward (gluten-optional) recipes that are organized by your favorite type of carb—noodles, grains, loaves, spuds and more.

About the author:

Phoebe Lapine is a gluten-free chef, the voice behind the award-winning blog Feed Me Phoebe, and the author of four books. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

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Jeffrey Blount, Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way, Thurs., Jan. 25, 6 pm

Join us at the 20 S. Battery Hotel on Thurs., Jan. 25 at 6 pm for an evening with Jeffrey Blount, author of Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way (Beaufort Books, 350 pp., $25.95). Mr. Blount will be joined in conversation by Rebecca Dwight Bruff, author of Trouble the Water (Koehler, 348 pp, $19.95).

About the book:

After a highly publicized fall from grace, James attempts to flee from the chaos in his life. He ends up in a community he had never heard of before, one that has been neglected and ignored by everyone in rural Ham, Mississippi. A place of abject poverty, the neighborhood is commonly referred to as “Around the Way.”

Within a place forgotten by the rest of the world, politics can be a dangerous game. When a troubling discovery is made, the entire neighborhood is rocked to its core and James is forced to confront his own past in order to help the community have a future. He will have to find the strength to fight for the neighbors he once disregarded and avert a heart-breaking disaster.

A self-identified failure is forced to uncover the wisdom of his past in order to recognize that money can’t solve every problem. Full of never-ending twists and turns, no one can prepare themselves for the surprises in store. Mr. Jimmy From Around the Way is a story about failure, self-discovery, empowerment, and the possibility of redemption.

About the author:

Jeffrey is the award-winning author of three novels. He is also an Emmy award-winning television director and a 2016 inductee to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame.

During a 34-year career at NBC News, Jeffrey directed a decade of Meet The Press, the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and major special events. He is the first African- American to direct the Today Show. He is also an award winning documentary scriptwriter for films and interactives that are now on display in the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.

A Virginia native, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree inCommunications/Broadcast Journalism. He now lives in Washington, DC.

 



Kat Hastie, The Arena, Thurs., Dec. 14, 5:30 pm

Please join Blue Bicycle Books for a reception for artist Kat HastieThurs., Dec. 14, 5:30 pm as she signs copies of her monograph, The Arena (hb., 198 pp., $75). (Note date change.)

About the book:

In The Arena, Hastie tells her life story through her paintings. Hastie contemplates the transformative nature of a life in art as she takes the reader on a journey from her early works as a College of Charleston student, through her era of Italian inspiration in the 90s, to the paintings influenced by her domestic life in Charleston.

“Kat’s masterful hand and her deliberate twists away from the expected —  I find myself hanging onto every thread, every painted souvenir from her journey.” — Tim Hussey, local contemporary artist

About the author:

Kat Hastie has enjoyed a long painting career in her native Charleston, where she finds inspiration in the people she encounters and her childhood on a former plantation. Her recent work blends realism and abstraction, and employs symbols such as flowers, nature, and historical figures to evoke the rebellious force within. 



Michael Harriot, Black AF History, Mon. Sep. 25, 6:30 pm

Blue Bicycle Books welcomes Michael Harriot Mon., Sept. 25, 6:30 pm as he discusses Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America (Morrow., 432 pp., $32.50).

About the book:

In Black AF History, Harriot removes the white sugar coating from the American story, placing Black people squarely at the center. Harriot speaks hilarious truth to oppressive power, subverting conventional historical narratives with little-known stories about the experiences of Black Americans, from the African Americans who arrived before 1619 to the un-conquerable bandit who inspired America’s first police force. With chapters on “The Church Fight That Started Slavery,” “Construction,” and “The Race War III: The Conspiracy Theory That Was True,” Black AF History tells the stories of influential Black Americans with the comedic energy of Richard Pryor and the critical eye of Howard Zinn, revealing the rebellions and revolts standard American “history” doesn’t want you to know about.

About the author:

Michael Harriot is a columnist at theGrio.com where he covers the intersection of race, politics, and culture. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, NBC, BET, and on his mother’s refrigerator. He is a political commentator on MSNBC and CNN and has been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists for commentary, digital commentary, and TV news writing. His college course “Race: An Economic Construct” was adapted by university economics departments across the country as a model for teaching the combination of history, economics, politics, and class structures. 

 



Dan “Grossy” Pelosi, Let’s Eat, Wed. Oct. 4, 6 pm

Join cookbook author and food personality Dan “Grossy” Pelosi on Wed., Oct. 4 at 6 pm for an event celebrating the release of his first cookbook, Let’s Eat: 101 Recipes to Fill Your Heart and Home (Union Square, 288 pp.,  hb., $30).

This event is free and open to the public.

About the book:

In his debut cookbook, larger-than-life personality Dan Pelosi offers up a warm hug of home cooking, sharing both comfort food and connection with 101 of his nearest and dearest Italian American recipes. Some have been passed down through his family, and others have been cooked up from scratch—but all are made with love and accompanied by fun, meaningful stories to warm your heart while filling your belly.

About the author:

Dan Pelosi is the Italian-American meatball behind GrossyPelosi, the popular Instagram favorite for all things comfort and food. He hosts The Secret Sauce for Food52 and appears regularly on Good Morning America. He lives in Brooklyn, but you can find him online at @grossypelosi.

 



Michelle Wildgen, Wine People, Thurs. Oct. 19, 6 pm

Come have a glass of wine with Michelle WildgenThurs., Oct. 19, 6 pm as she talks about her newest novel, Wine People (Zibby Books, hb., $28). She’ll be joined in conversation by Charleston novelist Victoria Benton Frank (My Magnolia Summer).

Can’t make it? Order a copy here.

About the book:

What happens when two ambitious young women, opposite in every way, join forces in a competitive male-dominated industry?

Wren and Thessaly collide when they land coveted jobs at a glamorous New York City boutique wine importer. Hardworking, by-the-book Wren comes from a modest background and has everything to prove while Thessaly hails from a family of prestigious California growers—but she is plagued by self-doubt. Thrown together at work, where they’re expected to have exquisite palates, endless tolerance for alcohol and socializing, and the ability to sell, sell, sell, they regard each other with suspicion.

It’s only on an important European business trip—with everything on the line for both of them—that they unexpectedly forge an alliance that will change the course of their careers and personal lives.

With mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine, Wine People takes readers from France, Germany, and Italy to the Midwest and California Wine Country. An utterly entertaining page-turner that explores how close friends can both misjudge and uplift each other.

About the author:

Michelle Wildgen is the author of the novels You’re Not You, adapted into a feature film starring Hilary Swank and Emmy Rossum, But Not For Long, and Bread and Butter. She is editor of the anthology Food & Booze. Wildgen’s award-winning reviews, essays, and stories have appeared in publications including the New York Times Book Review, the “Modern Love” column, O, the Oprah Magazine, RealSimple.com, Salon.com, Best Food Writing, Best New American Voices, Triquarterly, Storyquarterly, and elsewhere. Formerly executive editor of Tin House, Wildgen is now a freelance editor and cofounder with novelist Susanna Daniel, of the Madison Writers’ Studio.

About Victoria Benton Frank:

Victoria Benton Frank was born in New York City, raised in Montclair, New Jersey, but considers herself to have dual residency in the Lowcountry. She is a graduate of the College of Charleston and the French Culinary Institute. Victoria worked in restaurants in New York before returning to Charleston, which she considers home, with her husband, two kids, and a giant mutt. When she isn’t writing, she is reading, cooking, or chasing her children.