THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED
A Theory of Love — Margaret Bradham Thornton, Wed., May 23, 5:30 pm
Monday, April 23, 2018
Join us at the bookstore, Wed., May 23, 5:30 pm as Margaret Bradham Thornton will sign her new novel A Theory of Love (Ecco, hb., 288 pp., $28).
About A Theory of Love: Helen Gibbs, a British journalist on assignment on the west coast of Mexico, meets Christopher Delavaux, an intriguing half-French, half-American lawyer-turned-financier who has come alone to surf. Living lives that never stop moving, from their first encounter in Bermeja to marriage in London and travels to such places as Saint-Tropez, Tangier, and Santa Clara, Helen and Christopher must decide how much they exist for themselves and how much they exist for each other.
About the Author: Margaret Bradham Thornton is also the author of Charleston: A Novel, which has become a Blue Bicycle Books mainstay since its debut in 2014. She is the editor of Tennessee Williams’s Notebooks, for which she received the Bronze ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in autobiography/memoir and the C. Hugh Holman Prize for the best volume of southern literary scholarship published in 2006, given by the Society for the Study of Southern Literature. She was born and raised in Charleston, is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in Florida.
An American Quilt by Rachel May, Tues., June 5, 5 pm
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Join us Tues., June 5, 5 pm as Rachel May will be here to talk about her new book An American Quilt (Pegasus Books, hb., 426 pp., $28).
Following the trail left by an unfinished quilt, this illuminating saga examines slavery from the cotton fields of the South to the textile mills of New England―and the humanity behind it. May brilliantly stitches together the often-silenced legacy of slavery by revealing the lives of these urban enslaved women and their world. Beautifully written and richly imagined, An American Quilt is a luminous historical examination and an appreciation of a craft that provides such a tactile connection to the past.
Rachel May, PhD, MFA, is the author of The Benedictines, The Experiments: A Legend in Pictures and Words, and Quilting with a Modern Slant, which was named a Best Book of 2014 by Library Journal & Amazon.com. Her embroidered illustrations accompany two novellas published by Jaded Ibis Press and have been shown in galleries in the midwest. She’s been a resident and fellow at The Vermont Studio Center, the VCCA, and The Millay Colony, and is an Assistant Professor of English at Northern Michigan University.
Author Luncheon with Dorothea Benton Frank,By Invitation Only, Tues., May 15, 12 pm
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Join us Tues., May 15, 12 pm for lunch at Halls Signature Events (5 Faber St.)., as Dottie Frank will talk about and sign her new book By Invitation Only (William Morrow, hb., 400 pp., $28). Tickets are $62 for the buffet luncheon plus a signed copy of the book.
The Lowcountry of South Carolina is where By Invitation Only begins at a party thrown by Diane English Stiftel and her parents to celebrate her son’s engagement. The bride’s father is a wealthy power broker whose unbelievably successful career in private equity made him one of Chicago’s celebrated elite, while the mother of the bride dabbles in the world of public relations and believes herself deserving of every square inch of her multimillion-dollar penthouse and imaginary carrara marble pedestal.
By Invitation Only is a tale of two families, one struggling to do well, one well to do, and one young couple—the privileged daughter of Chicago’s crème de la crème and the son of hard-working Southern peach farmers.
Dorothea Benton Frank offers a funny, sharp, and deeply empathetic novel of two very different worlds—of limousines and pickup trucks, caviars and pigs, skyscrapers and ocean spray—filled with a delightful cast of characters who all have something to hide and a lot to learn. A difference in legal opinions, a headlong dive from grace, and an abrupt twist will reveal the truth of who they are and demonstrate, when it truly counts, what kind of grit they have. Are they living the life they want, what regrets do they hold, and how would they remake their lives if they were given the invitation to do so?
Dottie is the author of 18 novels placed in and around the Lowcountry of South Carolina. She was born and raised on Sullivan’s Island, attended Bishop England High School and graduated from General William Moultrie High School in 1969. She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from The College of Charleston and a Doctorate of Fine Arts from Bloomfield College. An avid cook who also enjoys fly-fishing, reading, and travel, Dottie now divides her time between South Carolina and New Jersey.
Monsoon Mansion Book Launch Party with Cinelle Barnes, Tues., May 1, 6 pm
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Join us at the Charleston Library Society (164 King Street) on Tues., May 1, 6 pm as local author Cinelle Barnes will be joined in conversation with Jeanette Guinn, the Host of S.C. Public Radio Arts Daily, to discuss her incredible memoir, Monsoon Mansion (Little A, hb., 252 pp., $25).
To RSVP, please call 843-723-9912 or email dreutter@charlestonlibrarysociety.org.
Cinelle Barnes was barely three years old when her family moved into Mansion Royale, a stately ten-bedroom home in the Philippines. Filled with her mother’s opulent social aspirations and the gloriously excessive evidence of her father’s self-made success, it was a girl’s storybook playland. But when a monsoon hits, her father leaves, and her mother’s terrible lover takes the reins, Cinelle’s fantastical childhood turns toward tyranny she could never have imagined. Formerly a home worthy of magazines and lavish parties, Mansion Royale becomes a dangerous shell of the splendid palace it had once been.
Told with a lyrical, almost-dreamlike voice as intoxicating as the moonflowers and orchids that inhabit this world, Monsoon Mansion is a harrowing yet triumphant coming-of-age memoir exploring the dark, troubled waters of a family’s rise and fall from grace in the Philippines. It would take a young warrior to survive it.
Cinelle Barnes is an essayist, memoirist, and educator with a BA in media studies in journalism from Hunter College and a master of fine arts in creative writing from Converse College. She is a fellow of the Kundiman Creative Nonfiction Intensive at Fordham University and the Voices of the Nations Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, a founding member of the C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference, and a presenter-member for the Creative Writing Studies Organization. Her writing has appeared in Literary Hub, Skirt, Hub City Press’s online anthology, and TAYO Literary Magazine, among others.
What Matters Most at Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Park, Sun., Apr. 15, 1-4 pm
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Sun., Apr. 15, 1 pm, at Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Park, Kerry Egan will share what she’s learned about “what matters most” from her time at the bedside as a hospice chaplain.
There will also be:
- Interactive crafts, games & activities for all ages
- Musical Guests (to be announced)
- Share Your Story Station via Life Chronicles
- Photo Booth courtesy of Little White Box
- MUSC Pet Therapy Dogs
- Food Trucks
- Free Ice Cream for the kids (& a playground beside the festival)
- Abundant parking, ample seating, indoor facility, & outdoor tent for comfort & convenience whatever the weather
Bring kids, bring parents, bring your friends! This event is appropriate for all ages and is free and open to the public.
The Surprising Place by Malinda McCollum, Wed., Apr. 4, 5 pm
Friday, March 23, 2018
Join us Wed., Apr. 4, 5 pm as Malinda McCollum will be here to talk about her new short story collection The Surprising Place (UMass Press, pb., 224 pp., $20).
In The Surprising Place, people adrift in the American Midwest struggle to find their way with few signposts for guidance. A synchronized swimming coach pops pills during practice, a bagpiper cold-cocks a hawk, and an orphan puts her fist through a window, discovering in the engine noise of a jet passing overhead, the perfect witness to her inner pain. In prose as lean and unflinching as an Iowa winter, these stories offer confrontation and consolation in equal measure.
Malinda McCollum’s stories have appeared in The Paris Review–which awarded her the Plimpton Prize–McSweeney’s, ZYZZYVA, Epoch, and elsewhere. She has been the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has taught at the University of Iowa, Johns Hopkins University, and Stanford University. She grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and now lives with her family in Charleston, where she teaches writing at the College of Charleston.
Author Luncheon with Holly Herrick, The New Charleston Chef’s Table, Fri., May 4, 12 pm
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Join us Fri., May 4, 12 pm for lunch with Holly Herrick at Halls Signature Events (5 Faber St.). Holly will talk and sign copies of The New Charleston Chef’s Table (Three Forks, hb., 208 pp., $28).
Tickets are $31 for the three-course lunch and talk or $59 for lunch and book. Click here for tickets.
About the book: When the original Charleston Chef’s Table was published in December, 2009, Charleston’s food scene was hot. Since then Charleston has become an even hotter food town, indeed, one of the hottest, ranked the #1 most popular tourist destination in the United States, according to Conde Nast Traveler Magazine. Charleston, which hosts more than four million visitors annually, has matured into a world-class culinary destination. Now, this book allows locals and visitors alike to take a bit of the city’s incomparable flavor home, with profiles of the city’s best restaurants and a signature recipe from each.
About the author: Holly Herrick is a bona fide lover of delicious food and life in general. Born in Alabama and raised in New England, Herrick’s roots hail back to rural life. She then attended Boston College as a journalism major, and began her food-writing career with a Grande Diplome in pastry and cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She has written features and columns for many magazines, including Southern Living, Lowcountry Living, Bon Appetit, and more.
19th Annual Bridge Run Reading — Thurs., Apr. 5, 6 pm
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Please join us next Thurs., Apr. 5, 6 pm for the 19th Annual Bridge Run Reading, featuring original works by Charleston writers (and BBB staffers) Jonathan Sanchez, Sara Peck and Ben Adams. Beer and wine will flow, readings are short and fun, the event will feature music by Mitchell Davis, and there is no running involved.
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Jonathan Sanchez is a writer and book dealer in Charleston, SC The author of the short-story collection Bandit (2005), Jonathan is a two-time winner in the S.C. Fiction project and a former writer-in-residence at the Kerouac House in Orlando. He lives in uptown Charleston with his wife Lauren and two children.
Sara Peck is the author of a chapbook, Yr Lad, Bob (Persistent Editions 2013), a book with poet Jared Joseph, Here You Are (Horse Less Press 2015), and the forthcoming chapbook, Summer is Too Warm to Share a Bed (Dancing Girl Press 2018). She manages Blue Bicycle Books and teaches middle and High School in Mount Pleasant.
Ben Adams lives in Charleston, SC, where he currently works at Blue Bicycle Books. Recent stories can be found at Hobart, Literary Orphans, and Monkeybicycle.
Recommendation: Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles
Monday, March 19, 2018
Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles, Hogarth, 2018, 368 pp, $27
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In the opening scene of Anatomy of a Miracle, Cameron Harris, a young Afghan vet, sits outside a Biloxi, Miss., convenience store, paralyzed from the waist down. His older sister and caretaker is inside, buying his daily beer and cigarettes.
Then he stands up.
It’s a life-changing moment, as much of an explosion as the one that buried shrapnel in Cameron’s spinal cord four years earlier.
The store becomes a tourist shrine, with financial and spiritual ramifications for the Vietnamese owners. The Vatican sends an emissary, angling to confirm the miracle as part of an unrelated campaign for sainthood. A Hollywood crew makes Cameron and his sister Tanya the stars of a reality show called “Miracle Man.”
And Cameron’s doctor, an ultra-marathon-runner and the daughter of a one-hit-wonder Southern author (something of a mix between Truman Capote and John Kennedy Toole, had he lived) struggles to fit the regrowth of spinal tissue into her rigidly logical worldview.
Jonny Miles is the author of Want Not and Dear American Airlines, and was for a time the cocktail columnist for the New York Times. He’s a bold mixologist on the page — serving up a mix of fully-realized, realistic Southern characters. And he’s done his research, the medical and military material is thorough and fascinating. Miles lived in Mississippi for a time and he writes his hero Cameron, a poor kid who quit the football team and enlisted, with equal parts familiarity and compassion.
Miles’ “Miracle Man” reality TV producer is himself a product of the New South, the kind rarely depicted in books or movies. He’s a northern transplant who grew up in Memphis, and he fetishizes his adopted homeland, decorating his LA office with all manner of Southern artifacts. (Miles, a regular Garden and Gun contributor, doesn’t say it but you can pretty much guess what lifestyle magazine the guy subscribes to.)
At my bookstore, whenever a non-Southern customer asks me “Where’s your accent?” I always tell them the South is a big place. It’s true, it’s a lot to get your arms around. But by slicing off a sliver and holding it up to the light, Jonny Miles has given us a lively and wide-ranging picture of a very real place, one that, like many real places, refuses to sit inert.
— Jonathan Sanchez, owner, Blue Bicycle Books
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