The Book Shopper - Atlanta

MARTA Book Club #23: You Gotta Believe

Murray Browne — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:16:34 -0400

If you doubt that people are taking note of what you are reading, check out the Underground New York Public Library, “featuring the Reading-Riders of the New York City subways.”

Just as the Underground New York Public Library is not affiliated with New York Public Library, the MARTA Book Club which has been surveying the reading habits of Atlanta commuters since November of 2009 (see MARTA book club link on the right). Likewise, the MARTA book club has no affiliations with the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, any reputable library, or with any literacy slash transportation advocacy group. The MARTA book club is an informal, decentralized book club, whose only requirement is reading something while riding a MARTA bus or train.

Compared to previous offerings, membership is down with only a few offerings. This could be attributed to fewer people reading books, more people reading on their e-readers or most likely, my lack of record keeping diligence (read laziness). My notes show I spotted people reading a few books since my last posting two months ago. They are:

Infinte Jest by David Wallace

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

The Book of Spiders by David Wong

Castles in the Air by Christina Dodd

Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern Slave, An International Art Dealer and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together by Ron Hall, Denver More, and Lynn Vincent.

The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill

A Short History of the World by Bill Bryson

The Holy Bible

The Power of the Praying Parent by Stormie Ormartian

A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth by William Styron

I am always cognizant of what I am packing bookwise. One my recent reading selections was the 10th anniversary issue of The Believer magazine. I suspect that normally, my fellow commuters think I am reading some religious tract like The Watchtower, which I've seen distributed regularly at the Avondale Station. This is understandable since riders do read a lot from the Christian genre.

Of course, Believer is almost the opposite of religious writing unless you think articles about art, music, books, and oddball topics ranging from an interview with swimmer Diana Dyad to "The Anatomy of Melancholia." Obviously, the editors know this since the 10th Anniversary cover shown here with a group partying in a bathtub is “a play” on its name. (According to the editors was almost titled The Optimist.) I love dissonance. I keep subscribing to The Believer because in each issue there is some article that introduces me to a new writer (Rebecca Solnit, and Julie Hecht come to mind) or an idea.

Ironically, in the March/April issue I was introduce to both (via Nick Hornby's column on books) Francis Spufford's Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprisingly Emotional Sense. That's right. I am reading about a book about the forgotten strengths of Christianity. Could it rekindle my interest to become a believer? I will keep you posted.

Book Burning Iowans in Field of Dreams

Murray Browne — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:42:57 -0400

After finishing Robert Weintraub's The Victory Season, (April 21 posting), I reverted back to the other baseball book I've been reading Wilfred Sheed's series of essays, Baseball and Lesser Sports (1991) which makes a good companion book to Weintraub's history of the 1946 baseball season. In addition to think pieces about Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Jackie Robinson, Sheed scoffs at the film Field of Dreams, which is my favorite baseball movie. Here's an excerpt about the scene about the literacy of the local Iowans.

...the only other scene involving local Iowans, we find that their literacy has merely turned them into book burning fascists, whom Costner's wife Amy Madigan easily routs with a few high-spirited cliches about books and the human spirit that astoundingly haven't reached this part of the country yet (how did they find this place?). Obviously, the Costner,man subscribes to the Mark Twain ruling "Heaven for scenery. Hell for company," because the human inhabitants of this earthly paradise seem to have barely made it out of the swamp. If I was Iowa, I'd sue.

I not sure I will ever be able to watch Field of Dreams the same way again - despite all the Carl Jung overtones in the flick.

Notable Atlanta Book Events - May 2013

Murray Browne — Thu, 02 May 2013 07:53:20 -0400

If Atlanta wants to stay on Amazon's Top Twenty Most Well-Read Cities in America, which sounds a little like Dos Equis' The Most Interesting Man in the World (what does he read besides a menu? Garcia Marquez, Bukowski, Henry Miller?) it's important to get out to a book event once in a while. Admittedly, I have been remiss myself lately, but I can't blame ignorance and neither can you. Just click on the links below and there are some additional links on the left side of this blog

Here's few venues that are hosting events for these authors this month:

The Jimmy Carter Library & Museum

Jim Wallis, On God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned about Serving the Common Good (May 15); Saru Jayaraman, Behind the Kitchen Door (May 16); Larry Colton, Southern League: A True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South's Most Compelling Pennant Race (May 20)

The Georgia Center for the Book hosts Robert Morrell, Eden Rise (May 6); Josh Hanagame, The World's Strongest Librarian (May 9), and a series of 3 author readings celebrating the Decatur Arts Festival, May 20-22.

Margaret Mitchell House/Atlanta History Center

As well as these local bookstores:

A Cappella Books is hosting book events throughout the city including Daniel Wallace author of The Kings and Queens of Roam at Ivy Hall (May 16), and David R. Gilliam, author of City of Women at Ivy Hall (May 24).

Tall Tales Book Shop (in Toco Hills) is hosting Pam & Randy Golden, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Atlanta (May 18)

Eagle Eye Books

Claris Books and More

Peerless Books - Atlanta author Robert Finch's debut novel, Skin in the Game (May 31)

Stay thirsty for books, Atlanta-Decatur.

Mini-Review: Robert Weintraub Presents The Victory Season

Murray Browne — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:02:54 -0400

When & Where: Weintraub did a slide presentation for his new book, The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age at the Decatur Public Library on April 15, 2013, which was also Jackie Robinson Day and sadly, the day of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Attendence: ~ 75 people which included the final appearance of Director of the Georgia Center for the Book's Bill Starr who is stepping down as director.

Why I Went. I am currently finishing up Weintraub's book about the history of the game, which focuses specifically on the 1946 season. It was the year, many future Hall of Fame stars (Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and Stan Musial ) returned to the game after service in the Armed Forces. It was also the year that Jackie Robinson played for the Montreal Royals in the Triple A International League on the brink of breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947. The season ends with a thrilling seven game World Series between the Musial's St. Louis Cardinals and Williams' Boston Red Sox. (Even though I was to find out neither Musial or Williams had a particularly good Series at the plate.)

By checking the baseball link on the side of this blog, you will know that I read a lot of baseball books especially historical ones (Stengel, The Bill James Historical Abstract, essays by Wilfred Sheed) and I will admit is that there is a lot I didn't know, which speaks well of Weintraub's thorough research. (He even interviewed Jackie Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson). For example, I had no idea that after the defeat of Germany, the Nuremburg Hitler Youth Stadium was converted to the 50,000 seat Soldier's Field where a kind of Armed Forces World Series was held in September, 1945. In a five game series, the Overseas Invasion Service Expedition (OISE) Allstars led by Negro Leaguers Leon Day and Home Run Brown (yes, the team was integrated) defeated the all-white 71^st Division Red Circlers, representing General George Patton's Third Army, in a five game series.

Q & A. Weintraub's slide presentation lasted about 40 minutes and he covered a lot of territory, except in the book you get the complete back story of equally important figures like New York Yankees owner Larry MacPhail, Dodgers manager Leo Durocher and the millionaire Mexican magnate Jorge Pasquel who competed for American stars with his upstart Mexican League. During the Q & A, I asked Weintraub about Braves Hall of Famer Warren Spahn. Weintraub mentioned in his presentation and wrote his book that only two active major leaguers died in action during World War II – Elmer Gedeon and Harry O'Neill. A kind of amazing number, but many of the players were not at the front. One exception was Warren Spahn who was in an engineering battalion in Germany and barely avoided being killed during the bridge collapse at Remagen. Spahn attributes his war experiences to his success as the winning-est left-hander of all time. Spahn said, “After what I went through overseas, I never thought of anything I was told to do in baseball as hard work. You get over feeling like that when you spend days on end sleeping in frozen tire tracks in enemy threatened territory.”

Worth Mentioning. There is no doubt that Weintraub's book is solidly written and researched. At the end of the book, there is a complete index and bibliography and a chapter by chapter list of companion notes (or footnotes). These are informative and quirky (e.g. the scientific term for fear of flying is pteromerhanophobia), but they are not specifically referenced in the main text.

I am hesitant to say that this book is written for the casual fan, because most casual fans I see at Turner Field are more interested in jamming nachos down their pie hole or betting on the Home Depot tool race than watching the game. But reading Weintraub's book, I just shrug all that off knowing no matter how clubowners have been trying new ways of getting fans interested in the game there is no subsitute for a good' ol' baseball history.

Bookstore Sales in Atlanta/Decatur - This Weekend

Murray Browne — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:51:05 -0400

This is a gentle reminder to check the Sponsor Links in the left corner of the blog. Books Again, A Cappella, and Eighth Day Books (located in Wichita KS), all provide gift certificates to the blog, which allows us to provide a small "honorarium" (makes us sound so literary), to our contributors.

Both Books Again and A Cappella have books sales coming up. Books Again is having a deal with sewer construction on MacDonough Street, which makes getting there a challenge, but they are making it worth the effort with 25% off every book in the store. (Sale Dates: Wed. 4/17/13 - Wed. 4/24/13.)

A Cappella is having a used book sale on Saturday, April 20th from 11 to 4 p.m. to support Literacy Alliance of Metro Atlanta. Weather permitting, they will be setting up on the patio behind their store. An author event is also scheduled as Randy Cohen, co-author of 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Atlanta will be at the store at 1 p.m, Saturday.

Mini-review: Jamie Quatro's Decatur Reading

Murray Browne — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:11:36 -0400

Reviewed by Jim Simpson

Book & Author: I Want to Show You More by Jamie Quatro (2013, Grove/Atlantic)

Where & When: Decatur Public Library Auditorium, April 8, 2013. Sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book.

Attendance: ~50 people ranging in age from early 20s to mid-70s.

Her Work: On the surface Jamie Quatro’s fiction focuses on things most people would rather not talk about: sex, religion, death, infidelity, phone sex. But Quatro almost immediately pulls you in, writing with such intense clarity, intelligence, deep wit and beauty about characters who give themselves over entirely to the physical as well as the spiritual in their unfulfilled lives.

Throughout the connected stories, we follow a woman in her late 30s as she begins and ends a long-distance phone-sex relationship with a friend of her husband. The stories range from traditional to fabulist, casting an unflinching and brutally honest eye on the nature of judgment, guilt, faith, family and death, while seeking their reflections in forgiveness, redemption, doubt, and perseverance. This dualism is strikingly evident in the location -- all of the stories take place in and around Lookout Mountain, Georgia, a town straddling the Georgia/Tennessee border (almost a fairytale land with whimsical street names), where Quatro lives with her husband and four children.

In “Decomposition: A Primer for Promiscuous Housewives”, a husband and wife are faced with the corpse of the woman’s would-be lover rotting in their bed after the long-distance affair has been broken off. Quatro compares the sense of loss and grief at the relationship’s end to the stages of decomposition: “III. Active Decay: in which the greatest loss of mass occurs. Purged fluids accumulate around the body, creating a cadaver decomposition island (CDI).” Reading this, I found it equally repulsive and hilarious, but I couldn’t turn away. In a nod to Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, Quatro describes the dead lover with black goo oozing from its crumbling jaws. It’s a story that sticks with you.

“Ladies and Gentlemen of the Pavement” is one of the more fabulist in the collection, about a near-future marathon race where entrants -- depending on their running prowess -- are given (mostly phallic, mostly heavy) statues that they must carry in backpacks throughout the entire race. This was one of the more surprising in the book, and one I can imagine being studied and dissected and discussed at length in any graduate writing program workshop.

Two of the stories pay homage to Eudora Welty and Steven Millhauser in style (she couldn’t have chosen two finer writers to emulate), but with Quatro’s own unique twists.

What She Read: She remarked that this was her first public reading in Georgia, seemed understandably a bit nervous, but read well, pausing at just the right places. She read “Caught Up” and “Relatives of God” the first and last pieces in the book, and two of the shortest. Both reveal God in the produce aisle with the apples, as well as some heady sexual references, hence the dramatic pauses.

Q & A: Questions ranged from those about Quatro’s religious upbringing and how that affected certain stories (she didn’t provide much personal detail, but noted that there is something in the scriptures that is inherently erotic about the way we’re supposed to think of God); the influence of Flannery O’Connor on her fiction (both wrestle with religious faith, Quatro even more so it seems, but with a Protestant perspective); her relationship with Jill McCorkle, who was her MFA mentor at Bennington College; the process of publishing after the completed manuscript (vague question, valiant answer); how her work changed after completing her MFA (no longer insulated, had to learn to “kill my darlings”); what do the statues in “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Pavement” represent? Quatro quoted T.S. Eliot, in short, why ask why?

Question I asked: The Jill McCorkle question was mine, and Quatro gushed about what a great writer, teacher and human being she is, and I couldn’t agree more. McCorkle is a favorite writer of mine and wonderful in person (I met her at the Conference of Southern Literature in Chattanooga a few years ago).

Other Questions I Wanted to Ask But Didn’t Get To Ask Because Time Ran Out: What surprised you the most in writing these stories? Were there connected themes that you hadn’t planned but noticed later or were pointed out by other writers, readers?

Did I Buy Something?: I brought my review copy, which she signed. Thanks to Grove/Atlantic for providing me a reveiwer's copy.

Worth Mentioning: She’s a runner, but will not be running the Peachtree this year due to an injury.

Editor's Note: Jim Simpson is an award-winning fiction writer and freelance music critic. A native of the wilds of Florida's Gulf Coast, he now resides on the scruffy fringes of Atlanta. He has been at work on his first novel for longer than he originally planned, and if all goes well the book should be in stores sometime before his death.

Notable Atlanta Book Events - April 2013

Murray Browne — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:33:26 -0400

Even though Atlanta is now inundated with Final Four March Madness and I can proudly wear my vintage Wichita State sweatshirt (I remember “classmates” Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston, but my favorite whizz u player was “X”), my attentions always turn to baseball in April. Since the baseball season is plenty long, I ignor Spring training, except I usually start the season with a baseball book. Currently, I am reading Wilfrid Sheed's collection of essays Baseball and Lesser Sports (1990). Last year, I read his fine memoir, My Life as a Fan, (1993), which I wrote about in a posting called "The Joys of Losing."

Coincidently, checking through my calendar of links (see below), I noticed that another baseball writer Robert Weintraub is at the Decatur Public Library on April 15th to talk about his new book The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball's Golden Age. I hope Weintraub wrote that the Golden Age actually began in 1945, the last year that my Chicago Cubs were in the World Series. Little did I know in 1968 (shown here), that the Cubs -- a consensus pick for Central Division cellar-dwellers in 2013 -- would cause such a lifetime of misplaced loyalty. As Steve Goodman sang in "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request," my hopes have been "crushed like so many paper beer cups."

For those of you not interested in baseball, but prefer lesser blood sports like politics, check out the events at the Carter Library or on the A Cappella bookstore events page. Holy Cow!

Here's a few other book event venues.

The Jimmy Carter Library & Museum

The Georgia Center for the Book

The Auburn Avenue Library

Margaret Mitchell House/Atlanta History Center

Emory University Creative Writing Program and the Carlos Musuem

Georgia State University Creative Writing Events

Also note: GSU is having a special night on April 11th celebrating Five Points Magazine

Local Bookstores

A Cappella Books

Eagle Eye Books

Claris Books and More

Peerless Books - Alpharetta

MARTA Book Club #22: Where Pope Francis Meets Zadie Smith

Murray Browne — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 07:35:32 -0400

There's been no shortage of praise for Pope Francis as a passionate preacher and pragmatic man who prefers public transportation to private cars. - CNN, March 15, 2013

Optimistic that someone will finally do something about “mass” transportation, I was motivated to pull together another installment of the MARTA Book Club, a list of what people are reading on Atlanta area buses and trains. His Holiness knows that waiting and waiting for transportation in the grimy underbelly of a city affords the perfect opportunity for reading, self-reflection and practicing patience. It's great that one of our own has gone on to bigger and better things so I am not taking offense that public transportation continues to sound like something for (working) poor, simple-minded, and humble folk. This is in comparison to the majority of commuters in Atlanta who ride their version of the Popemobile every day to work.

Thus inspired, here's a list of what people have been reading since our last installment of the MARTA Book Club:

Cold Hit by Linda Fairstein

Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories by Linda Russell

Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods

The Centurion's Wife (Acts of Faith, Book 1) by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn

The Bible (a perennial favorite of the MARTA faithful)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Her Sky Cowboy: The Glorious, Victorious Darcys by Beth Ciotta

Beautiful Chaos (Beautiful Creatures) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Miracle at Midway by Gordon W. Prange, Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillion

White Teeth by Zadie Smith (my contribution)

Books by H.P Lovecraft, Farley Mowat, and David Baldacci.

Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) is partially to blame for the lack of titles in MARTA Book Club #22. I have almost finished reading her novel about two “non-traditional” British families living in North London headed by the middle-aged Archie Jones who marries a Jamacian woman half his age and his Muslim Bengali friend, Samad Iqbal who has twin sons -- one of which Samad sends back to Pakistan to fortify his Muslim heritage. It is a book that I have found absorbing and her witty prose is rich without being oppressive. The book is full of interwoven short sidebars that add to the completeness of narrative. It's a style and scope that I find similar to Jonathan Franzen, but I certainly think this is a much more enjoyable novel than Freedom, which I did not finish. (I did like Corrections though). Smith's White Teeth takes us into the multicultural world of our own backyard (kind of like riding MARTA) with intellect, grace and humor. And I picked it up for $8 at Books Again in Decatur.

For a complete history of the MARTA Book Club, visit the category link on the right and check out our Sponsor's link on the left for info about Books Again.

From the Mailbox: March 2013

Murray Browne — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:10:42 -0500

Sometimes personal responsibilities encroach to the point where even blogging has to take a back seat. Without going into details, I just wanted to say I appreciate Jim Simpson filling in last month with his series Stories Within the Story, which I hope will become a regular feature on the blog. Be sure and check the comments that his work inspired.

Despite my attentions being elsewhere, a few other stories have trickled in through the past few weeks. One is that Decatur Arts Alliances is calling for entries for The Book as Art exhibition being held July 19th to September 20th and in conjunction with the 2013 Decatur Book Festival. Regular readers of this blog know it is a subject of interest for me. (See Books as Art As Books link on the right) This will be an opportunity for book fiends and artists to "get their Brian Dettmer on." And if you're having trouble coming up with a fresh idea, I have just come into possession a complete set of the 1966 World Book Encyclopedias. Think of the stuff you can build with those volumes. And if you need a large wall unit book case to store them on interim, I have one of those for sale.

If you're looking for more inspiration, check out this link courtesy of one of our readers (SM Wallace) about the work of Frank Halmans or last year's Wallbound exhibit hosted the the Atlanta-Decatur Art Institute.

Stories Within the Story #4: Monastery

Murray Browne — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 08:58:26 -0500

by Jim Simpson

Occasionally, I attend the Sunday teaching and meditation sessions at The Drepung Loseling Buddhist Monastery in Chamblee with my wife and daughter. Near the lobby there is a table loaded with used books, hardcovers and paperbacks covering all topics: contemporary and classic fiction, non-fiction, self-help guides, poetry, Buddhist writings and Christian Bibles. All books are available for purchase with a one- to three-dollar donation. I picked up a 1954 Scribners trade paperback copy of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite novels and one I’ve read many times. What struck me most about the book was the sheer number of post-it notes stuck onto nearly every page -- the book appears to be exploding! Most of the notes refer to the symbolism of the drinking, the impotence, the fights, the bulls, the irony, the pity, and more drinking. But it was the final notation shown here that made me laugh.

Well?” indeed.