We don’t think we have even seen Kate Gosselin multi-task at a booksigning like this. Nice work Matt. Matt and Ted Lee are busy men but managed to squeeze in a trip to the Blue Bike during the Wine and Food fest. This peanut boil kicked off a run of great events at the store all spring long.
Matt being awesome
Matt and Ted being brotherly in front of Blue Bike
The brothers boiling peanuts outside the store
Join us for the launch of local author, Jason Deierlein’s new website on Thurs., July 1, 5 – 7 pm. Jason has written two books, Return from A Comatose Mind and How Education Can End the Cultural Problem.
Sue Monk Kidd will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Penguin Books at Blue Bicycle Books, 420 King St., downtown, Tues., June 22, 4 – 6 pm, featuring Penguin cupcakes, champagne, and, parked out front, the Penguin-mobile, a bright orange Mini Cooper.
The Blue Bike is one of only ten stops on the tour — other events include Garrison Keillor in Minnesota, Michael Pollan in Berkeley, Calif., and Jan Karon in Charlottesville, Va.
As a store that has offered great books at low cost for 15 years, Blue Bicycle is thrilled to be included in the celebration. In 1935, Allen Lane started Penguin with the revolutionary concept of selling good literature at low prices, not just at bookstores but also at railway stations and newsstands. Famous for a simple design with broad bands of color, three million Penguin paperbacks sold in the first year.
Giving Back. To commemorate the occasion, Penguin has donated 75 of its all-time bestselling paperbacks to Burke High School. (The Charleston film premiere of The Secret Life of Bees raised more than $20,000 for Burke’s poetry workshops, funding the student compilations So-Called Whisper and Kissing a Biting Spider.)
The Schedule. After arriving in the Mini, Sue will raise a glass of champagne for a toast, talk about how she became a Penguin author, and sign copies of Traveling with Pomegranates (co-written with daughter Ann Taylor Kidd) as well as her other New York Times best-selling titles.
Free and open to the public. Questions? Call 722.2666.
####
Join us Fri., June 18, 4 – 6 pm for a signing with the Margaret Baroody, narrator of The Unexpected Visitor. The book features a collection of black and white photography shot by Margaret’s late husband Dr. Naseeb Baroody, accompanied by inspiration passages written by Margaret. The pictures were taken over a fifty year period while the couple traveled the world doing medical mission work. Sadly, Dr. Baroody passed away before the completion of the book; in many ways the book is a celebration of him as much as it is of his work.
Signed copies will ship after June 18.
###
Blue Bike welcomes Arthur Allen, author of Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato on Sat., June 19, 11 – 1 pm. Allen, a journalist, follows the history of tomato cultivation and breeding from the Chinese Army’s conquest for canned tomatoes to Italian farmers’ devotion to retaining their tomato traditions. We may even have some juicy heirlooms to sample.
Join us for the 10th annual Piccolo Fiction Open June 5, 5 – 7 pm. Part of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the Fiction Open features short fiction on this year’s theme, present tense. The winning writers will read their pieces in the courtyard adjacent to the store: This Story Takes Place on a Ship by Carmen Bush, Five Finger Discount by Susanna Glattly, Presently the Tension Drains by Heather Magruder, Cedar Waxwing by Emily Wood, and Music Appreciation a Correspondence Course by Foster Osborne. Along with the readings, we will have music by Dana Downs and Mary Edna Frasier as well as food and drinks by CWG Catering. Tickets for this event are free; and to learn more, click here.
Please join us as the Blue Bicycle Books Author Luncheon Series continues Fri., June 4, noon to 2 pm, with Lowcountry legends Louis Rubin and Ben Moïse.
Louis Rubin Jr. is the co-founder of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, author of over fifty books, and editor of several southern literature and historical collections. He returns to his roots in his newest collection of short stories, Uptown/Downtown in Old Charleston, which explores his childhood in Charleston during the 1930’s and 40’s and the stark gradations among classes and neighborhoods. Experiencing first-hand both the traditions south of Broad Street and the working class mindset of uptown, Rubin brings you into, in Pat Conroy’s words, “the soul of the real Charleston, revealing its essence and depth.”
Ben Moïse’s memoir Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden follows the author’s long career as a South Carolina game warden along the coastal woods and waters of the Lowcountry. Equal parts funny and dangerous, Ramblings features cigar-chomping fishers, game-law violators, stakeouts, shrimpers, lawyers, country judges, and poachers.
The talk and luncheon will be at Virginia’s on King, 412 King St., followed by a dessert-and-champagne book signing at the bookstore.
###
The Jazz Loft Project book concerns a NYC loft building which was a legendary after-hours jazz scene in the 1950s and 60s. Photographer W. Eugene Smith made thousands of photos and tapes in the building. Sam Stephenson, director of the Jazz Loft Project at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, has spent the last thirteen years cataloging, archiving, selecting and editing Smith’s materials for this book. One of the heroes of the story is a Charleston native, drummer Ronnie Free who will visit Blue Bike on Thurs., June 10, 3 – 5 pm to discuss the Project along with Jazz Loft Research Associate Dan Partridge.
Signed copies will ship after June 10.
###
Join us for story hour with Michael Gibson and his book Luli Loves Lima Beans, Sat., June 12, 11 -1 pm. If you bring your best Indian-style, we’ll bring the juice boxes and Goldfish.
###
Contemporary Charleston 2010: Influences
###
