VINCENT CARRETTA

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We begin our observance of Black History Month with a special program featuring well-known literary scholar Vincent Carretta, author of an important new book from the University of Georgia Press, "Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage." Wheatley was the first English-speaking person of African descent to publish a book and only the second woman of any race or background to do so in America. Carretta's deep research has turned up more knowledge about Wheatley's life than we have known, explaining how she managed her freedom from slavery and how she wrote what became a remarkable, iconic work. He also has discovered the earliest poem attributable to Wheatley and included it and other previously unpublished works in this biography. Carretta is professor of English at the University of Maryland and the author or editor of ten books.

COLLIN KELLEY

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We invite you to join us in celebrating one of Atlanta's Literary Lions, Collin Kelley, as he debuts his new novel, "Remain in Light." It's the second novel for the very fine writer, poet, playwright and journalist following his acclaimed "Conquering Venus." The new book focuses on the underside of Paris in the spirit of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, something of a sequel to the first novel with its own absorbing characters and suspense-filled plot. Kelley is a former Georgia Author of the Year Award winner, the author of three collections of poetry, and the organizer of the Poetry Atlanta series at the Georgia Center for the Book and the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival. We'll have copies of his books for sale and signing at this fun event!

KIM EDWARDS

Saturday, January 28, 2012

2 P.M., Northlake-Barbara Loar Library

Kim Edwards, the bestselling author of "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" visits us with her most enjoyable second novel, "The Lake of Dreams." Hers is the story of a woman's homecoming, a family secret, and the old house that holds the key to the true legacy of a family. It's a novel with surprises at every turn and a puzzle to delight readers right up to the story's climax. Her first novel was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller which drew millions of readers across the country. She also is the author of a short story collection, "The Secrets of a Fire King." She received a Whiting Writers Award in 2002 and has taught in the MFA programs at Waren Wilson and Washington University. She currently is an assistant professor of English at the University of Kentucky.

JOSHILYN JACKSON

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We invite you to a very special event: the launch party for the wonderful Atlanta author Joshilyn Jackson's fabulous new novel, "A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty." The book will go on sale today, and we'll have the first editions all ready for signing at this reception in her honor. The new novel, which New York times bestselling author Sara Gruen calls "giddy and enthralling and a little bit dangerous," is already getting rave notices. It's a spellbinding story told in the voices of three women in one family: a grandmother, a mother and a young daughter, each given vital and stirring voices. Their lives will grip you as they struggle with hardships and face crises born of a devastating secret. Joshilyn Jackson's very popular novels include "Gods in Alabama," "Between, Georgia" "Backseat Saints" and "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming." No tickets or reservations needed for this program, and doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

POETRY ATLANTA PRESENTS...

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome two outstanding Georgia writers with new books for our latest program put together by our friends at Poetry Atlanta. ALICE FRIMAN is the poet-in-residence at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville and the author of nine acclaimed volumes of poetry. Her latest is"Vinculum," a collection whose poems vibrantly embrace the uncertainty of relationships and explore the deep connections between people. Joining her will be the wonderful Atlanta poet MEGAN VOLPERT, whose anticipated new book "Sonics in Warholia" has just been published. It is a strikingly personal work that brilliantly revives the prose poem. Volpert is a teacher and co-directs the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival.

ELLIS AVERY

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Ellis Avery's second novel, "The Last Nude," is a stunning story of love, sexual obsession, treachery and tragedy, about an artist and her most famous muse in Paris between the world wars. A young woman agrees to model for the Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka, and the two become lovers, the young woman becoming the artist's most iconic Jazz age image. But their idyll is threatened by historical forces and the strains of a passionate relationship. Drawn from real-life events, "The Last Nude" is "a dazzling work of historical imagination." Ellis Avery studied Japanese for five years in New York and Kyoto and now teaches creative writing at Columbia University. Her first novel was "The Teahouse Fire" and she also has written a nonfiction work, "The Smoke Week."

JANNY SCOTT

Monday, January 9, 2012

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are pleased to present a special appearance by Janny Scott, the New York Times bestselling author of "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother." The book is an unprecedented look into the life and character of the remarkable, fiercely independent woman who raised a president. She was a woman who helped shape the post-internationalist, post-Vietnam world view of her son while infusing him with qualities of morality and discipline. The author is a well-respected reporter for The New York Times, and her book has been acclaimed as "an ambitious, successful biography that substantially enlarges our view of President Obama's global past." Newsweek magazine writes that "if you want to understand what shaped our president, you'll find it was his unconventional mother...this is an incisive biography." We will have books for sale and signing at this free event.

CARMEN DEEDY

Monday, December 12, 2011

7:00 P.M., Dunwoody Library

We've got a terrific Christmas treat for you: a special appearance by one of our favorite authors, Carmen Deedy! The bestselling author of "The Library Dragon," "14 Cows for America" and "Martina the Beautiful Cockroach" will be talking about her wonderful, brand new book, "The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale." It's a book you'll want to get for yourself and your friends for holiday gifts, all signed by the author herself. Carmen Deedy is on the Georgia Center for the Book's debut list of "25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read," and she has become one of America's most popular storytellers over the last two decades. Her new book is co-authored with Randall Wright and features drawings by the internationally acclaimed illustrator Barry Moser. We urge you to mark this date on your calendar and plan to arrive early -- we just might run out of space!

CASSANDRA CLARE

Sunday, December 11, 2011

4:00 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome New York Times bestselling author Cassandra Clare to discuss and sign "Clockwork Prince", the follow-up to last year’s "Clockwork Angel." For fans of the Mortal Instruments series, Clare’s newest series, Infernal Devices, is a prequel to Clary and Jace’s story, set in the magical underworld of Victorian England. Seating at the library will be first come first seated. Please note that this event is free but that you must purchase a copy of either "Clockwork Prince" or "Clockwork Angel" from Little Shop of Stories to enter the signing line. Doors will open at 3 p.m. and seating is limited to the capacity of the Auditorium and over-flow Meeting Room.

CHARLES C. MANN

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

7:30 P.M., Michael Carlos Museum - Emory University

Charles C. Mann, whose book "1491," a study of the pre-Columbian Americas received a host of awards, joins us with an acclaimed sequel: "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created." In this book, Mann writes of how the discoveries of Christopher Columbus accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of new species to new homes across the oceans. It is "an eye-opening scientific exploration of our past, unequaled in its authority and fascination." Mann is a correspondent for The Atlantic and Science magazine and has written for major newspapers, HBO and NBC's Law & Order. He is the recipient of writing awards from the American Bar Association and the American Institute of Physics.
Please note the time change to the program. To better allow for drive-time and parking conflicts, the program will begin at 7:30 p.m.

PHILIP GROSE WITH JACK WEST

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Library

Phil Grose is the author of an important new book tracing the life of one of the best of South Carolina's modern-era governors, John C. West. The book, "Looking for Utopia," West was elected as the state's chief executive in 1970 at a time of intense racial strife. His progressive vision addressed issues of poverty and hunger in South Carolina and eliminated discrimination in state government. He was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia by President Jimmy Carter and served as an effective diplomat from 1977 to 1981. Grose's book draws on personal papers and letters and examines a critical part of the state's contemporary history. Grose currently is research associate at the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina. For this program he will be joined by the late governor's son, Jack.

CAROLINE PRESTON

Monday, December 5, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Caroline Preston is the author of four novels, including "Jackie by Josie" (a New York Times Notable Book) and "Gatsby's Girl." She has collected antique scrapbooks since she was in high school, and her new novel is the eagerly anticipated "The Scrapbook of Frankie Platt." It's the first-ever "scrapbook novel," transporting readers back to the vibrant, burgeoning bohemian culture of the 1920s and introducing them to an unforgettable, high-spirited and ambitious heroine, Frankie Platt. You'll love following Frankie's journey to success and love with a kaleidoscopic array of vintage postcards, magazine ads, ticket stubs, candy wrappers, fashion spreads, menus and more.

CARMEN DEEDY

Saturday, December 3, 2011

1 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Carmen Deedy, the prize-winning author of so many wonderful books including "The Library Dragon," "14 Cows for America" and "Martina the Beautiful Cockroach," will visit the library for a very special afternoon storytime for youngsters. She's an uncommonly gifted and entertaining storyteller, and we promise you'll find her presentation absolutely delightfull, charming and funny. It's free, so be sure to bring all the kids. (Please note she'll be doing a special program for adults at the Dunwoody Library on December 12th.)

HUGH ACHESON

Monday, November 21, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Hugh Acheson is the award-winning chef/partner at Athens' famous Five & Ten restaurant who has just opened a dazzling new restaurant in midtown Atlanta, Empire State South. Now he's ready to release his first cookbook, and we're delighted to welcome him to Decatur! The book is "A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen." Famed chef Mario Batali calls Acheson "a modern master" and "one of the truly great chefs working today." The Lee Brothers, Matt and Ted, add that Acheson's delightful book "brings his kitchen sorcery into everyone's home kitchen." We think you won't want to miss this special program and hear from the Canadian-born chef who opened Five & Ten in Athens over 10 years ago. His cooking combines classic French technique with a Southern sense of place and the freshest ingredients in an innovative style that has excited and satisfied thousands of diners. We'll have copies of his new book, of course, and we urge you to purchase a copies at this event and get them signed for you and your friends! .

SAVANNAH CHILDREN'S BOOK FESTIVAL

Saturday, November 19, 2011

10 A.M. - 5 P.M., Forsyth Park, Savannah

Once again the Georgia Center for the Book will be taking part in the hugely popular Savannah children's Book Festival, and we hope you and your family can make plans to join us. Dozens of writers of books for young readers as well as storytellers will be taking part in this year's festival across the grounds of lovely Forsyth Park in downtown Savannah. We'll be there with some of our own favorite authors; we'll have more details coming up for you shortly.

AMANDA KYLE WILLIAMS & NORA MCFARLAND

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome as pair of talented Georgia writers with exciting new novels. Amanda Kyle Williams is the author of "The Stranger You Seek," a compelling mystery/thriller set in the author's hometown of Atlanta. It features a flawed but likable former profiler for the FBI, Keye Street, and you'll enjoy the book's definite "southern" flavor. Nora McFarland ("A Bad Day's Work:" A Lily Hawkins Mystery") is from Macon, and her engaging new novel of crime fiction is "Hot, Shot, and Bothered." It's a taut, suspenseful and amusing story whose protagonist is both smart and strong-willed. If you're a fan of mysteries, please don't miss this evening's appearance by these two delightful authors. We'll have copies of their books for sale and signing.

WINSTON GROOM

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The popular Alabama author of "Forrest Gump" visits to discuss his exciting new book, "Kearny's March: The Epic Creation of the American West, 1846-1847." His book is about the expedition of Gen. Stephen Kearny, who led a group of 2,000 cavalrymen out of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1846 to confront the Mexican Army. By the time Kearny had completed his assignment a year later, the country has doubled in size and stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Grooms' tells this thrilling story with a seasoned novelist's eye, showing how Kearny's amazing mission got him entangled with everyone from Indians to gold miners, from Kit Carson to the Donner party. Grooms is the author of 15 books including "Vicksburg 1863," "1942: The Year That Tried Men's Souls" and "The Crimson Tide: The official Illustrated History of Alabama Football." Please mark your calendars and join us for this wonderful evening presentation.

TERRY KAY

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are delighted to welcome back one of Georgia's master storytellers, Terry Kay, with a wonderful new collection of stories, "The Greats of Cuttercane." The book offers clever, humorous tales of people in tiny Cuttercane, GA, written in Terry's wonderfully inviting style. Any new book from Terry Kay is, of course, a big event, and we are proud to be able to host Terry, thanks to his publisher, Mercer University Press. Terry is a member of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, the author of a dozen acclaimed books including the international bestseller "Dance with the White Dog." His work also has been included twice on the Georgia Center for the Book's list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." His most recent book is the novel "Bogmeadow's Wish."

BISHOP N.T. WRIGHT

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church - Decatur

We are privileged to present one of the world's most prolific and influential theologians, N.T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham, former Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey and dean of Litchfield Cathedral. He is a renowned New Testament scholar who has written more than a dozen acclaimed books including a projected six-volume series entitled "Christian Origins and the Question of God." He also is the co-author of "The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions" and the volume on the Colossians and Philemon in The Tynedale New Testament Commentary Series. Critics call his work "beautifully written, rich with insights and laced with thought-provoking materials." We invite you to share his words with us for this special occasion; doors to the First Baptist Church sanctuary will open at 6 p.m.

DAVID BOTTOMS

Monday, November 7, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome back Georgia's Poet Laureate and one of America's finest poets, David Bottoms. He joins us with an eagerly anticipated new collection, "We Almost Disappear" that affirms his status among the front rank of poets. Critics are calling the new title his "most personal and heartbreaking book" with its poems firmly rooted in southern soil and in the people of the south. Bottoms was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2009 and twice has been included on the Georgia center for the Book's list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." He has written nearly a dozen books, and his first volume of poetry won the coveted Walt Whitman Prize. If you've never attended one of his programs, you have missed a great experience; we urge you to be sure to join us for this special evening. We'll have books for sale and signing, of course.

GREGORY MAGUIRE

Saturday, November 5, 2011

2:00 P.M., Toco Hill Library

Bestselling author Gregory Maguire's astonishing series "The Wicked Years" comes full circle with his fourth and final excursion across a darker, richer, more complex landscape of the magical land of Oz. His new book, "Out of Oz," brilliantly re-imagines L. Frank Baum's world over the rainbow as wracked with social unrest (Glinda the good witch is under house arrest, and the Emerald City is preparing for war against Munchinkinland). Even Dorothy makes a triumphant return in his finale, tying up loose ends of the series that began with the now-classic "Wicked," the source for the Tony Award-winning Broadway hit musical. We will have limited space for this popular program, so be sure to mark the date and time on your calendar!

ADRIENNE MCDONNELL

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

First-time novelist Adrienne McDonnell visits to talk about her breathtaking book of romantic obsession, "The Doctor and the Diva." It's a attention-grabbing tale set in 1903 about a Boston opera singer struggling to become pregnant who becomes the patient of a new Harvard-trained obstetrician and finds their lives forever changed in unexpected ways. The novel brings the story to a passionate climax as a woman is forced to choose between the child she has always wanted and the career she cannot live without. Lovers of romantic fiction and those who simply enjoy a well-told story will find this novel much to their liking, we believe. We'll have copies of the book available for sale and signing, of course.

GRANT JERKINS

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome back popular Atlanta mystery writer Grant Jerkins with an exciting new novel, his second: "At the End of the Road." This will be the official launch party for the new novel, and we invite you to join us to celebrate this fine author's new work. It's the chilling story of a young boy coming to grips with a genuine evil, where no place is safe, and we know you'll find it a page-turner! Jerkins' first novel was the well-received mystery "A Very Simple Crime." The author has worked for more than a decade as an advocate for adults with developmental disabilities.

MARIANNE WALKER

Thursday, October 27, 2011

7:00 P.M., Gwinnett Public Library - Collins Hill

Marianne Walker, author of "Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone with the Wind," will present a special lecture on "The Historical Accuracy of Gone With the Wind." Her talk is part of the 75th anniversary observance of the publication of "Gone With the Wind." Her book is based on access to several hundreds of the personal letters of Mitchell and her husband and examines their 24-year relationship. The program is free at Gwinnett's Collins Hill Branch, 455 Camp Perrin Road in Lawrenceville.

VIRGINIA WILLIS WITH BILL ADDISON

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

If you love to cook, or maybe just eating is your thing, please don't miss tonight's guest: the famous French-trained chef, food stylist and teacher Virginia Willis, who visits us with an exciting new book: "Basic to Brilliant, Y'All: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company." It's a new look at some familiar dishes from the author of the acclaimed book "Bon Appetit, Y'All," a re-imagining of classic French food with a down-home Southern feel. She'll be here with Bill Addison, the food editor of Atlanta magazine. Virginia Willis lives in Atlanta, and her first book became the first cookbook chosen for inclusion on the Georgia Center for the Book's list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read."

AMY STEWART

Monday, October 24, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We think you'll really enjoy Amy Stewart's appearance. She'll be talking about her darkly comical new book, "Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects." Sure, it's got a pretty high "yuck" factor, but it will both entertain and enlighten you, covering from A to Z a sinister gamut of some of our worst entomological foes: bookworms that devour libraries, flies that transmit deadly diseases and eight-legged creatures that lurk in your cupboard. Amy Stewart is the author of five books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world including "Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities." Bring your bug spray and come join us for this delightful program.

TWESIGYE JACKSON KAGURI

Thursday, October 20, 2011

7:00 P.M., Oglethorpe University Museum of Art

We are pleased to present a special appearance by human rights activist Twesigye Jackson Kaguri with his acclaimed book, "A School for My Village: A Promise to the Orphans of Nyaka." Moved by the plight of more than one million AIDS orphans in a Ugandan of 30 million, Kaguri decided to build a school there for children who had lost one or both of their parents. This simple but powerfully moving book explains how his determination and ferocity managed to accomplish this in spite of meager resources, eventually adding water and nutrition programs, teacher's workshops and even a second school. You'll be inspired hearing his remarkable story, and we invite you to join the audience at Oglethorpe University (4484 Peachtree Road) for this program. The event is free without tickets or reservations..

JANISSE RAY, JOHN LANE & THOMAS RAIN CROWE

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Our "Southern Poets Reading" evening presents three remarkably gifted writers well-known throughout our region and beyond: Janisse Ray, John Lane and Thomas Rain Crowe. All three are acclaimed for their lovely, insightful writings about nature and the environment. Janisse is a native Georgian whose books include "Ecology or a Cracker Childhood" and "Drifting Into Darien," and her new poetry collection, "A House of Branches," is informed by her life-long interest in wilderness preservation. John Lane is a South Carolinian who writes powerfully about the woods and wilds in many books and whose new volume of poetry, "Abandoned Quarry," marks him as "the finest Southern landscape poet we have today." Thomas Crowe is a native North Carolinian and author of a dozen books of prose and poetry, and his just-published book of popems "Crack Light" illustrated by photographs speaks movingly to the ties between humans and the earth in his western North Carolina hill country.

CANDICE MILLARD

Monday, October 17, 2011

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Library

Candice Millard, the award-winning author of the national bestseller "River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey," joins us for a talk about her fascinating new book: "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Modern Medicine and the Murder of a President." Her book focuses on the 1880s when a deranged office seeker shot and severely wounded President James A. Garfield only four months after his inauguration. The incident set off a debate about the nation's direction and the scope of the President's shockingly bad medical treatment. It's a fascinating and little-known story about one of our most remarkable yet least-known presidents.The author is a former writer and editor for National Geographic, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Time magazine. Appropriate to the subject of her book, we're happy to be a co-sponsor of this event at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. We'll have copies of the new book for sale, of course.

GEORGIA LITERARY FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 15, 2011

10 A.M. - 4 P.M., Sautee Nacoochee Community Center

We invite you to the 13th annual Georgia Literary Festival and our first visit to lovely Sautee Nacoochee in the foothills of Northeast Georgia. The festival features some of the very finest writers from this part of the state, beginning with a keynote talk at 10 a.m. by the prize-winning author Barbara Brown Taylor ("Leaving Church," "An Altar in the World"). Also featured will be appearances by John Burrison ("Brothers in Clay: The Story of Georgia's Folk Pottery"), poets Doris Davenport and Mildred Greear and presentations on Foxfire and the late Lillian Smith. There will be music, storytelling and food during the day with authors signing books after their talks. It's all free, and it's less than 90-minutes from Atlanta! For details, go to www.georgialiteraryfestival.org.

JOHN SANDFORD

Thursday, October 13, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are pleased to welcome back the acclaimed author John Sandford with a new and exciting novel, "Shock Wave." It's set in Minnesota where superstore chain PyeMart wants to open a new location bitterly opposed by local merchantsd and environmentalists. And when deadly bombs go off causing maximum damage, law enforcement officials call in Virgil Flowers ("Bad Blood"), the ex-hippie officer with an attitude. the novel has Sandford's hallmarks: a fast-paced plot, lots of suspense and a hero already popular with thousands of readers. Sandford is the international best-selling author of several dozens thrillers, and he drew a large and enthusiastic audience on his last trip to the center for the Book. We invite you to join him for a talk about his latest!

ALISON WEIR

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Due to ill health, Ms. Weir has cancelled her event this evening.

JOHN FOWLER & DAVID PARKER

Monday, October 10, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Our programs recognizing the Civil War Sesquicentennial continue with an appearance by two authors discussing their new book about the war's impact on the state, "Breaking the Heartland: The Civil War in Georgia." The essays by these noted historians examine all aspects of life during the turbulent years 1861-1865 and demonstrate just how important a role Georgia played in the outcome of the war. John Fowler is the B.J. and Dicksie Bandy Chair of History at Dalton State College, the
Director Bandy Heritage Center and the author of several books including "The Confederate Experience." David Parker is professor of history at Kennesaw State University and teaches classes in Georgia history and the history of American religion. We will have copies of their book for sale and signing.

PATTI DIGH

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Popular author Patti Digh returns to us with a wonderful new book, "What I Wish For You: Simple Wisdom for a Happy Life." The book is filled with thoughtful advice for anyone facing a transitional period in their life. Critics hail its combination of caring, poignancy, wit and lovely writing in a series of essays focused on such themes as "Knowing what matters most," "Learning Every single Day" and "Making Peace with Time." Patti is a Southern-born storyteller and the author of the national bestsellers "Life is a Verb" and "Creative is a Verb." We'll have copies of all three of her books for sale at this event.

NELL DICKERSON & ROBERT HICKS

Thursday, September 29, 2011

7:00 P.M., Cobb County Public Library - Marietta

Photographer/architect Nell Dickerson joins acclaimed novelist Robert Hicks ("The Widow of the South") to talk about "The Role of Women in the Historic South," a lecture that is part of the 75th anniversary observance of the publication of "Gone With the Wind." Dickerson, a native of Mississippi. is the creator of the recently published book "Gone: A Photographic Plea for Preservation," which presents an eloquent case for saving some of the most important but decaying historic structures around the South. Hicks wrote a Foreword for that book and is also the author of the novel "A Separate Country." The program is free and will take place at the Cobb county Central Library. 266 Roswell Street in Marietta.

POETRY ATLANTA PRESENTS...

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditoriuim

Poetry Atlanta returns with another delightful evening of poetry featuring some of the region's most outstanding writers. This evening we'll welcome Rupert Pike from Clarkston, Ga., author of the acclaimed new collection, "Lotus Buffet." His work has appeared in many publications including Atlanta Review, FutureCycle and the Texas Review of Poetry. Also reading will be Brent Calderwood, who was the winner of the recent Atlanta Queer Literary Festival's Poetry Broadside Competition selected by the noted poet Mark Doty. As usual, this free evening will be hosted by Atlanta's popular poet and novelist Collin Kelley.

JOHN C. INSCOE

Monday, September 26, 2011

7:00 P.M., Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library

One of Georgia's finest historians, Dr. John C. Inscoe, will be with us this evening to discuss his exciting new book, "The Civil War in Georgia: A New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion." through articles drawn from the New Georgia Encyclopedia, this book chronicles the diversity of the state's Civil War experiences, from secession to emancipation, from politics to the battlefield. The book is part of the observance of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, a commemoration that has brought nearly a dozen speakers to the Center for the Book so far this year. Inscoe is the Albert Saye Professor of History at UGA, the author of many books about Appalacchia and the Civil War in the South, and currently serves as secretary-treasurer of the Southern Historical Association.

CURIOUS GEORGE DAY

Saturday, September 24, 2011

10 A.M. - Noon, Decatur Library Auditorium

Please bring your family, all ages, to help us celebrate "Curious George Day" with a couple of hours of fun featuring games, crafts and Storytime along with a special appearance by Curious George! It's all part of the celebration of the birthday of George's creator, H.A. Rey, whose wonderful imagination brought to life the antics of the world's most inquisitive and trouble-making monkey. The activities are all free, of course. Also, there will be an abbreviated Storytime with Curious George at the Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library from 2-3 p.m.

JAMIE IREDELL & MAN MARTIN

Monday, September 19, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome a very talented pair of Atlanta authors who have delightful new novels out. Jamie Iredell is the author of "The Book of Freaks," a faux encyclopedia that examines in ways serious and humorous a catalog of humanity, confirming that every one of us, in our own ways, tend to be just a mite weird. Man Martin's new novel is "Paradise Dogs," a laugh-out-loud tale about a Florida real estate agent "who wants what he can't have and pretnds to be what he isn't." Critics call it a rich satire that may remind some readers of Carl Hiaasen. Martin's first novel was the acclaimed "Days of the endless Corvette." We'll have copies of both author's books for sale and signing.

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

5:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Library

We are proud to co-sponsor a special appearance by Madeleine Albright, once named "America's most influential woman." Long a respected international diplomat, she became in the Clinton administration the first woman to be appointed U.S. Secretary of State. She also served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. She is the author of several acclaimed books, among them "Madam Secretary: A Memoir," "The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs," and "Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box." Her talk at the Carter Library is free and open to the public; there will be copies of her books available for sale. Seating is limited; we suggest early arrival please.

LISA UNGER

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The New York Times' bestselling author of "Beautiful Lies" and "Fragile" Lisa Unger visits us with an exciting new book, "Darkness, My Old Friend," a thriller that explores issues of faith, memory and sacrifice. Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for "Fragile," this is a story of a young woman, now living with her novelist mother, discovering that her wish to run away may lead her to some very dark and surprising places. Atlanta's own thriller writer Karin Slaughter calls Lisa Unger "one of my favorite authors," and adds, "She gets better and better with each book." Lisa will join us for a talk and book signing, and we'll have copies of her latest novel for sale at this event.

ANTHONY BAKER

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

7:00 P.M., Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library

NOTE: DOORS OPEN AT 6:30. We are honored to present another special lecture in observance of our outstanding Abraham Lincoln exhibit now up and running at the lovely new Toco Hill Library (1282 McConnell Drive near Decatur). Professor Anthony Baker is a scholar of American legal history on the faculty at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta. He works in the area of criminal and constitutional law research, and his focus for this talk will be on Lincoln and the constitutional issues he faced during the Civil War. This program is free to the public and will allow you the opportunity to walk through and study the exhibit before the program begins.

STEPHEN BERRY

Thursday, August 4, 2011

7:00 P.M., Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library

NOTE: DOORS OPEN AT 6:30. Noted historian Dr. Stephen Berry will present a special lecture in conjunction with the national traveling exhibit "Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War" at the Toco Hill branch, 1282 McConnell Drive near Decatur. Berry is associate professor at the University of Georgia and the author of two acclaimed books, "House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, A Family Divided by War" and "All that Makes a Man: Love and Ambition in the Civil War South." He teaches courses in Civil War and antebellum history and is the editor of "Princes of Cotton: Four Diaries of Young Men in the South, 1848-1860." His talk will focus on the issues Lincoln faced in keeping the Union together. The exhibition will be open to those attending this free public lecture. Copies of Berry's books also will be available for sale and signing at this event.

LYNN CULLEN

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The wonderful Atlanta writer Lynn Cullen joins us to launch her fabulous new historical novel "Reign of Madness," an engrossing tale of love and madness, royal intrigue and marital betrayal, set during the Golden Age of Spain. Cullen gives us a fascinating exploration of the dramatic reign of Juana of Castile, also known as Juana the Mad, in this sweeping, entertaining work of historical fiction. Cullen is the author of several critically acclaimed books, among them "The Creation of Eve" and several notable books for young readers including "I Am Rembrandt's Daughter," which earned her a position on the Georgia Center for the Book's inaugural list of "25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read." Don't miss her appearance; we'll have books for sale and signing!

PEARL CLEAGE

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

7:00 P.M., Stonecrest Library

The fabulous Pearl Cleage returns with a new novel! This one will keep you laughing and once again admiring Pearl's wonderful imagination. The book is "Just Wanna Testify," and it's all about a group of high fashion model black women who have settled in Atlanta's West End. and oh yeah, they just happen to be vampires ("vamps"), and they've hired five Morehouse men who should have read the contracts before they accepted the offer. Author Tayari Jones calls this novel, Pearl's latest Blue Hamilton book, "laugh out loud funny," and we know you won't want to miss this special event. It's free, of course, no tickets or reservations needed, and you can buy the book at the program and get it signed. The beautiful new Stonecrest Library is at 3123 Klondike Road in Lithonia near Stonecrest Mall.

LINCOLN EXHIBIT OPENING RECEPTION

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

7:00 p.m., Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library

The DeKalb County Public Library is proud to be a host for the national tour of the traveling exhibition "Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War." The exhibit officially opens with a free 7 p.m. Wednesday public reception. The exhibit is a project of the National Constitution Center and the American Library Association and was made possible by funding support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The exhibit will be on display through August 30 at the Toco Hill branch, 1282 McConnell Drive. It examines the legal issues Abraham Lincoln faced in confronting a divided Union during the Civil War. There will be several author talks to complement the exhibit during its run; all events are free and open to the public.

ANN NAPOLITANO

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church, Decatur

For everyone who loves the work of Georgia's Flannery O'Connor, the new book by Ann Napolitano will be a treasure. It is a novel, "A Good Hard Look," set in Milledgeville in the 1960s with O'Connor serving as the principal character. It is a "dark, beautifully written story" about her life that is both powerful, inspirational and truthful. The characters in the book reveal both the mystery and the manners of heartbreak, and their lives intertwined force them and readers to face up to O'Connor's observation that "the truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it." We are pleased to welcome Napolitano to the Center for the Book to talk about this novel (she also will visit Savannah and Milledgeville) and we invite you to join us to hear about this lovely and affecting book.

75TH ANNIVERSARY, GONE WITH THE WIND

Thursday, June 30, 2011

7:00 P.M., Atlanta History Center

We are pleased to join the Atlanta History Center and the Margaret Mitchell House to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the publication of "Gone With the Wind." We invite you to attend a very special program taking place at the History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road, featuring four well-known authors discussing the impact of the novel on their work: Rebecca Burns, Amanda Gable, Shelia Moses and Patricia Sprinkle. guests also will be able to see the History Center's exhibition "Atlanta's Book" which features the last four manuscript chapters from "Gone With the Wind." Tickets for this event, sponsored by the Mitchell House and the History Center, are $5 for members and $10 for non-members; food will be served. Doors open at 6 p.m. Call 404-249-7015 or 404-814-4150 for details.

POETRY ATLANTA PRESENTS...

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome back Poetry Atlanta for another evening of lively poetry featuring two of the finest writers from Metro Atlanta, Theresa Davis and Gypsee Yo. The evening includes not only readings but opportunities to talk with these talented poets.

ATLANTA QUEER LITERARY FESTIVAL

Friday, June 24, 2011

7:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The 2011 Atlanta Queer Literary Festival will again offer programs in the Decatur Library beginning Friday night with keynote speakers poet Bryan Borland, founder of Sibling Rivalry Press, and Theresa Davis, Atlanta's Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion. Events will continue with speakers on Saturday, June 25. We'll have details on the program coming up here soon.

LISA SEE

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

7:00 P.M., Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library

New York Times bestselling author Lisa See ("Peony in Love," "Shanghai Girls," "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan") returns to us to talk about her eagerly awaited new novel, "Dreams of Joy." In this powerful, emotionally resonant novel she again illuminates the potent bonds of family love, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from "Shanghai Girls" and Pearl's strong-willed 19-year-old daughter Joy. The story is set in Shanghai in the late 1950s at a time of great danger in the Communist regime. Critics say this new novel brilliantly "renders a family challenged by tragedy and time, yet ultimately united by the resilience of love." We'll have copies of "Dreams of Joy" for sale and signing at our event. (Please note the new location at Toco Hill branch library, 1282 McConnell Drive just off Clairmont Road.)

JOHN FERLING

Monday, June 20, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

John Ferling, one of the most prominent scholars of early American history, joins us to discuss his magnificent new book, "Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free." it is a perceptive and knowledgeable chronicle of events that led to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. His lively, informative book overturns the commonly held belief that the road to independence was inevitable, showing instead that it followed a complicated course that even many of the Founding Fathers could not have anticipated. Ferling has spoken here to large crowds before with his books "The Ascent of George Washington," "A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic" and "Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence." We'll have copies of his new book for sale and signing at this event.

ERIC LITWIN & JAMES DEAN

Saturday, June 18, 2011

10 A.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Pete the Cat is back!! The lovable feline who left a delightful footprint with his first book "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes" returns for a special kids and adults program with us. Actually. it's Pete's creators who'll join us: Eric Litwin and James Dean. Eric is the author and James is the artist, and they are both Georgians whose creation has won them fans all over the country. Their first book last year was honored as one of the books on the Georgia Center for the Book's inaugural list of "25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read." We know this will be a fun event, and we urge you to join us for this special edition of "Storytime" at the Decatur Library.

ELIZABETH MUSSER

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Atlanta native Elizabeth Musser, author of the popular novels "The Swan House" and "Words Unspoken," joins us for a talk about her warm and wonderful new book, "The Sweetest Thing." It's a delightful story about friendship and faith, set in an exclusive Atlanta girl's school in the Depression era. "With endearing characters and poignant storytelling, Elizabeth Musser vividly re-creates the charm of her beloved city amid the poverty and plenty that shaped the 1930s." we'll have copies of "The Sweetest Thing" for sale and signing at our event, and we invite you to come meet this fine young author.

BROOKE GLADSTONE

Monday, June 13, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Nearly one millions listeners trust NPR's Brooke Gladstone to guide them through the distortions and complexities of the modern media. Now, in her brand new book of graphic nonfiction, "The Influencing Machine," Gladstone bursts onto the page as an illustrated character in vivid comics drawn by acclaimed artist Josh Neufeld. We're happy to host Gladstone, the co-host of NPR's award-winning "On the Media" and a former senior editor at Weekend Edition and All Things Considered. She is the winner of several journalism honors including a pair of prestigious Peabody Awards. In her new book, her cartoon figure conducts readers on a fascinating tour of media history, debunking with wit and savvy the notion that "the media" is an external force beyond our control. We know you'll enjoy this exciting, unusual program featuring one of NPR's most delightful personalities!

TAYARI JONES

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are delighted to welcome back Atlanta's own wonderful author Tayari Jones and her acclaimed and eagerly anticipated new novel, "Silver Sparrow." It is the mesmerizing story, set in an Atlanta middle class neighborhood in the 1980s, of a bigamist, his deceptions and the fate of a pair of teenage girls drawn into heartbreaking complicity. We know you won't soon forget this powerful story! Jones was born and raised in Atlanta and now teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Her previous books include "Leaving Atlanta," set in the city during a series of terrible child murders, and "The Untelling," which won the Lillian Smith Award. We will have copies of her books here for sale and signing at this event.

DARIN STRAUSS

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Darin Strauss, winner of the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Autobiography Award for his book "Half a Life," pays us a visit to talk about that acclaimed work. Issued last year, it is just now available in a new paperback edition, and we invite you to join us to hear this prize-winning author. It is a book that memorably explores the guilt, loss and accountability the author faced in the aftermath of a traffic accident in which he caused the death of a friend. Don't miss this appearance by Strauss; we'll have copies of his much-honored books here for sale and signing.

MARY DORIA RUSSELL

Thursday, June 2, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Bestselling author Mary Doria Russell joins us with a dashing, fun new novel, "Doc," all about the legendary Doc Holliday and his unforgettable female companion Kate Harony. Critics call "Doc" a "terrific bio-epic set in a revisionist version of the old West, more realistic yet more riveting than any movie or TV western." Doc Holliday, of course, was the Atlanta-born John Henry Holliday, who gave up a promising dental career when he came down with tuberculosis and headed west for his health. By 1878, he turned up in Dodge City as a professional gambler with his mistress Kate, about to run into the Earp Brothers, Wyatt and Morgan, and Bat Masterson. You'll love this enthralling story, told with a fresh, clever style by a wonderful writer. Don't miss this lively event -- we'll have copies of "Doc" for sale and signing here.

DR. R. KIRBY GODSEY

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church, Decatur

The former President of Mercer University and one of America's finest theologians visits us to talk about his important new book, "Is God a Christian?" In this book, Dr. Godsey explores the artificial boundaries religions create for all people of faith and probes the wisdoms and challenges of seven world religions. Rabbi Larry Schlesinger of Macon says the book "leads the reader on an exceptional and insightful journey through the diversities of religious faith," and Episcopal Bishop Dan Edwards calls it "a practical starting point for fostering and furthering acceptance, dialogue and understanding." Dr. Godsey was for 27 years president of Mercer. His first book, "When We Talk about God," was branded as "heretical" by the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1996 but was widely embraced by mainstream Christians. His talk will be held at First Baptist Church, 308 Clairemont Avenue. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and copies of the book will be for sale and signing.

MARY WHYTE

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

As part of Decatur Arts Festival Week, we are pleased to present the distinguished Southern water-colorist Mary Whyte and her exciting new book, "Working South: Paintings and Sketches by Mary Whyte." With this work, the artist shares incredibly moving portraits of southerners who work on the edge, in vanishing lifestyles and occupations, capturing among others an oyster shucker in Virginia, a boat builder in Louisiana, an elevator operator in Mississippi and a tobacco farmer in North Carolina. "She shows us lives with an empathy that celebrates the spirit of her subjects, their passion for their work and their resilience in facing life's hurdles," says prize-winning artist Jonathan Green. These magnificent watercolors and the artist's narratives attest to stories of grace, strength and dignity. Whyte lives in South Carolina, has illustrated dozens of books, been featured in numerous exhibitions and been honored for her work throughout the United States. We will have copies of her book for sale and signing.

MARY ALICE MONROE

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Our celebration of Decatur Arts Festival Week continues with a special appearance by the delightful Southern novelist Mary Alice Monroe. Her new book is "The Butterfly's Daughter," an entrancing story of generations and traditions, of nature and the blending of knowledge and forgiveness, all framed by an unforgettable group of women. Author Ron Rash says the novel, "like the Monarch butterfly, has a plenitude of beauty and wonder." The author of 13 popular novels ("The Beach House," "Sweetgrass," "Last Light Over Carolina"), Mary Alice Monroe is known for her intimate portrayals of women's lives and their parallels with nature and human nature. She lives in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

JUSTIN CRONIN

Monday, May 23, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We help celebrate the annual week-long Decatur Arts Festival with a special appearance by Justin Cronin, author of the prize-winning novels "The Summer Guest" and "Mary and O'Neil." He joins us to discuss his latest acclaimed novel, "The Passage," chosen by Amazon as one of the best books of the month in its hardback release. Cronin is a "remarkable storyteller" and you don't have to be a fan of vampire fiction to be enthralled by this exciting novel about a virus that nearly destroys the world and a 6-year-old girl who saves it. Cronin is a terrific writer -- he's won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the Stephen Crane prize -- and this is a breath-takingly good, fun book that will keep you mesmerized. Don't miss this event, and we'll have books for sale and signing.

DAVID ZIERLER

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Library

David Zierler, an historian for the U.S. Department of State, discusses his new book, "The Invention of Ecocide: Agent Orange, and the Scientists Who Changed the Way We Think About the Environment." His study gives readers a new perspective on Vietnam, the possibilities of determined protest and the dangers that threaten the world, tracing the movement that arose among ascientists to alert everyone to the dangers of Agent Orange and other herbicides. Copies of the book will be for sale and signijng at the event. doors at the Carter Library will open at 6:30 p.m.

TOM FRANKLIN

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of the America's finest writers, the Edgar Award-winning author Tom Franklin, visits us to talk about his most recent novel, the highly acclaimed "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter." Critics have called it "his most accomplished and resonant novel so far," and readers agree. Set in rural Mississippi in the 1970s, the story centers on two men, once boyhood pals, who must face the consequences of a long-ago incident. It's a powerful, riveting tale, brilliantly told by Franklin, the Alabama-born writer who is so very popular across the South. His prize-winning books include "Hell at the Breech," "Poachers: Stories" and "Smonk: A Novel." He is on the faculty at the University of Mississippi where he holds the John and Renee Grisham Chair in Creative Writing.

RIVER OF WORDS

Sunday, May 15, 2011

3 P.M., Chattahoochee Nature Preserve

We invite you to celebrate with us the winners of our 2010 Rivers of Words competition. Our annual awards ceremony will pay tribute to the students across the state whose poetry and visual art entries have been judged best. Once again the honors program will be held at the lovely Chattahoochee Nature Preserve. We'll have more details shortly. The ceremony is free and open to everyone, of course, and we'll host a reception for the winners with our partners, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

MELISSA FAY GREENE

Thursday, May 12, 2011

7:00 P.M. (Doors open at 6), First Baptist Church, Decatur

We're honored to host Atlanta's prize-winning author Melissa Fay Greene with her wonderful new book, "No Biking in the House without a Helmet," a joyous account of a great, loving, complicated and ever-expanding family -- her own! The story behind the book is as simple one: when Melissa and her husband Atlanta attorney Don Samuel found their four kids growing up and leaving the house, they decided to "backfill:" meaning, "whenever one leaves, we'll get another." Over eight years, five children have joined the family from orphanages in Bulgaria and Ethiopia. Melissa's account of their laughter and tears will charm and delight you, and we know you won't want to msis this special event. It's free, of course, with no tickets or reservations; just show up! We'll have copies of her book for you to buy and get signed, and a portion of the sales at this event will go to help support the Georgia Center for the Book..

EMORY THOMAS

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Emory Thomas, the distinguished prize-winning historian and biographer of Robert E. Lee, joins us to discuss his new book, "The Dogs of War: 1861." In this thoughtful and revealing book, Thomas -- professor emeritus of history at the University of Georgia -- highlights the delusions that dominated the thinking of Southerners and Northerners on the eve of the Civil War's outbreak. He weaves his explorations of these misconceptions into a tense narrative of the months leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861. His appearance is part of our commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial . His books include "The Confederate Nation" as well as acclaimed biographies of Lee and Stonewall Jackson. We will have copies of his new book for sale and signing at this event. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

HARLAN HAMBRIGHT

Monday, May 9, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

If you love Georgia history -- or you want to know more about the state and make your discoveries in a most humorous way -- please don't miss tonight's program with Harlan Hambright. He's the photographer/author of a wonderful new book both historical and hysterical titled "The Idiat and the Odd-yssey: The Adventures of Oddyferrus through International Georgia." Want to see pyramids in Cairo? Temples in Athens? A shroud in Turin? The barber of Seville? They're all in Georgia, and we can show you where. We invite you to take a most unusual trip around the Peach State and find out where some of the oddest things around got their names. We predict you'll have a blast!! And we'll have copies of this delightful book for sale and signing at this event.

LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE FEATURING JACKSON PEARCE

Saturday, May 7, 2011

2 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Please join us for our annual ceremony honoring the winners in our statewide Letters About Literature competition this afternoon. We'll have the students in all three age categories, from the fourth grade through high school, with us to read the letters they wrote to authors explaining how the authors have influenced their lives. We also will have a special treat for everyone: an appearance by young adult author Jackson Pearce, whose novel about werewolves "Sisters Red" has been a national bestseller. She is a graduate of UGA and published her first book, "As you Wish," in 2009. This is a fun program, one of the most delightful we host each year, and we'll have a reception for everyone afterwards. It's free, so please make plans to be with us.

WILLIAM J. HOLSTEIN

Thursday, May 5, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of America's finest economic journalists joins us for a program about his provocative new book, "The Next American Economy: Blueprint for a Real Recovery." Holstein writes for The New York Times, Business Week and Fortune and is the author of "Why GM Matters" and "The Japanese Power Game." In his new book, the veteran business writer argues that the best way for America to recover its economic footing is to innovate and create new industries. He uses compelling case studies to celebrate business successes in many industries all across the country and the necessary role of government in pomoting it. His book is essential reading for business leaders, politicians and economic strategists. We think you'll find it has some fascinating insights. We'll have copies of the book for sale and signing at this event.

ANDREA LEVY

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are proud to present the much-honored English author Andrea Levy with her latest book, "The Long Song: a Novel." She had been scheduled to visit us last year, but weather-related issues forced a cancellation. Levy was born in England of Jamaican parents and is the author of five novels including "Small Island" (2005), which won both the prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. "Small Island" was adapted to the screen for the BBC in an acclaimed series that also aired on PBS last year. Her latest novel is a "vivid and persuasive portrait of 19th century Jamaican slave society" that is highly readable and rarely depressing. We hope you'll join us for this memorable author appearance. We'll have copies of her books for sale and signing.

RYE BARCOTT

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

7:00P.M., First Baptist Church Decatur

Rye Barcott spent five years in the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq and Bosnia, fighting in wars while at the same time waging peace through a remarkable organization he helped create back in 2000 before he became a Marine. The organization is "Carolina for Kibera" (CFK), a pioneering group in the movement known as participatory development and based in Kenya. It was there, in a Nairobi slum called Kibera, that the then-20-year-old Barcott became friends with two special people and began working to help young men and women survive unbelievable poverty and develop leadership skills. CFK has gone on to win aclaim from Time magazine and from leaders like President Obama and Melinda Gates. His story is full of courage and sacrifice and triumph, and we know you'll want to hear all about it from this amazing young man.

JOSEPH LELYVELD

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Lelyveld, the former executive editor of The New York Times, will visit us to discuss his acclaimed new book, "Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India." This stirring book deepens our sense of Gandhi's accomplishments and disappointments while examining the man as one of history's most remarkable self-creations who oversaw a profound social and political transformation in India. It is, says one critic, "that rare book that says something new about one of the most familiar figures of modern times." Lelyveld's interest in Gandhi dates back to his tours in India and South African as a correspondent for the Times, where he worked for nearly four dexades. His book about apartheid, "Move Your Shadow: South African Black and White" won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

ANCHEE MIN

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are honored to welcome the very fine Chinese-born author Anchee Min ("Red Azalea") with a wonderful new novel, "Pearl of China," loosely based on the life of Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck. Buck, who grew up in China, wrote that Chinese women "are the strongest women in the world," and Min -- a prime example -- has made it her mission to reveal the truth about the lives of some of the most famous including Madame Mao, Empress Tzu Hsi and Pearl Buck. This "fresh and penetrating" novel that imagines a young woman's friendship with Buck is ardently detailed, drmatic and encompassing, a thrilling read. Min's book is a terrific cross-cultural story that is notable for its history and its entertainment. The author was born in Shanghai in 1957 and at the age of 17 was sent to a labor collective where an emissary for Madame Mao recruited her to work as a film actress. She came to the United States in 1984 with the help of the actress Joan Chen.

ROBERT WEINTRAUB

Monday, April 18, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We help to celebrate the 2011 major league baseball season by welcoming a Decatur-based author with a wonderful new book for all fans of the game: "The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923." It's a dazzling look back at the 1923 New York Yankees, the team that opened Yankee stadium and won the first of the Bronx Bombers' 27 world titles. The centerpiece of this true story is the mighty Babe Ruth, soon to become the game's greatest slugger, and the Yankees' World Series win over their bitter rivals, John McGraw's New York Giants. Weintraub is a lively writer, and his story is fresh and entertaining whether you're a long-time baseball fan or just intrigued by the story of the Yankes and the Babe. We'll have books for sale and signing, so come on out to the 'ol ball park with us!

DAVID GOLDFIELD

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

As part of our observance of the Civil War sesquicentennial, we are pleased to present one of America's finest historians, Dr. David Goldfield, with his eagerly anticipated and highly original new book, "America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation." The date of his appearance here is significant: the anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, an event which ignited the war. Goldfield's book offers the first major new interpretation of the Civil War era since James McPherson's celebrated "Battle Cry of Freedom." Where many scholars have hailed the war as a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest failure, the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into public life. We know you'll find this book provocative and its conclusions well researched. Goldfield is Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and the author of many books on Southern history including "Still Fighting the Civil War." We will have copies of his new book for sale and signing.

RUDOLPH P. BYRD (JEAN TOOMER)

Monday, April 11, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome you to another of our popular "University in the Library" series featuring lectures on important writers by some of America's finest literary scholars. This evening we welcome the prize-winning Emory University Professor Dr. Rudolph Byrd, distinguished scholar and a major figure in Emory's Alice Walker Collection, discussing one of America's most significant African-American authors, Jean Toomer, and his novel "Cane." Dr. Byrd, with Henry Louis Gates, is the editor of a new critical edition of "Cane." Originally published in 1923, "Cane" is part drama, part poetry and is considered a masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance. We are honored to have Dr. Byrd discuss Toomer's work, and we know you'll find his lecture one of the most rewarding in our series. Dr. Byrd is an honorary member of the Georgia Center for the Book Advisory council.

PEARL MCHANEY

Thursday, April 7, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome one of America's finest literary scholars for the next in our popular "University in the Library" series, a lively presentation on the life and work of the legendary playwright Tennessee Williams. This year we celebrate the centennial anniversary of the birth of Williams (1911-1983), whose plays include the classics "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "The Glass Menagerie," "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "The Night of the Iguana." Dr. McHaney has written and taught about Southern writers for several decades, and has written books about major Southern writers including Eudora Welty and William Faulkner. Her current projects includes "Georgia: Her History and Literature," an anthology designed for the state's eighth grade students.

TERRY KAY

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

A new book from Georgia's beloved author Terry Kay is a big event! And we're delighted to join with Eagle Eye Books of Decatur in presenting Terry in a special evening talking about his eagerly anticipated new novel, "Bogmeadow's Wish." The story is set in Ireland and centers on Cooper Coghlan, who has come from America with the remains of his grandfather to spread his ashes -- and to discover why his grandfather left Ireland as a young man. Finding the truth will involve Cooper with a down-on-his-luck Irish actor and a woman named Kathleen, and he'll make that discovery with the gift bestowed on him as a child by his grandfather: Bogmeadow's wish. We'll have copies of Terry's book for sale and signing here, and we urge you to purchase your copy at this event. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.

POETRY ATLANTA PRESENTS...M. AYODELE HEATH AND ALICE LOVELACE

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Poetry Atlanta returns with another one of its delightfully spontaneous programs featuring some of metro Atlanta's best and most engaging poets. Our guest this evening is the acclaimed performance poet M. Ayodele Heath, whose debut collection, "Otherness," has just been published by Brick Road Poetry Press. The Atlanta native earned an MFA at New England College and has had his work published in many journals including New York Quarterly and Mississippi Review. He holds the McEver Chair in Writing at Georgia Tech, is a two-time Southeastern Region Slam champion and has presented at the National Black Arts Festival.
Alice Lovelace is an award winning playwright, performance artist, internationally published and award winning poet producer, and a teacher of poetry. Since 1995, she has worked as coeditor of “Art Changes” at In Motion Magazine, a multicultural, online publication about democracy. She is the editor of the anthology CRUX: A conversation in words and images South Africa to South USA; and 100 Poems of Solidarity for Haiti.We invite you to meet these fine poets and celebrate their work.

ANNE TRUBEK

Monday, March 28, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We join with our good friends at the Wrens Nest in Atlanta and the Southern Literary Trail to present a program by Anne Trubek, the author of a wonderful new book, "A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses." The book explores special places that celebrate the lives of writers with a vivid style that is part memoir, part travelogue, part rant and part literary analysis. Whether your favorite is Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, William Faulkner or Joel Chandler Harris, you'll find some terrific insights in her book. Her appearance of part of the activities of the Southern Literary Trail, a three-state project that helps draw attention to the homes of classic Southern authors in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.

JOELLE BIELE (ELIZABETH BISHOP)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are proud to announce an important event of special interest to everyone who loves poetry. We welcome Joelle Biele, the editor of an acclaimed new book, "Elizabeth Bishop and The New Yorker: The Complete Correspondence." The editor will talk about Bishop, and we have four distinguished Atlanta poets who will read from her work: Tom Lux, Bruce Covey, Laurel Snyder and Sharan Strange. This "superbly edited collection" traces the correspondence between Bishop and her editors at the New Yorker, Katherine White (wife of E.B. White) and Howard Moss. The magazine published many of Bishop's finest poems, and the correspondence permits an in-depth look at the process of writing and editing poetry. Joelle Biele is a prize-winning author and poet. We will have copies of this book available for sale and signing at this event.

RANDALL FULLER

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Recreation Center

We welcome Dr. Randall Fuller, author of a highly acclaimed book that sheds provocative new light on how the Civil War helped re-shape American culture: "From Battlefields Rising: How the Civil War Transformed American Literature." Pulitzer Prize-winner James McPherson calls Fuller's book "original and incisive," and historian Edward Ayers says readers "will see both the Civil and America's iconic authors with new eyes." Fuller examines the lives and works of many notable authors including Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass, showing how the war's convulsions helped transform their language. We will have copies of the author's book for sale and signing at this event.
Please note that the venue for this lecture is changed. We will present this lecture at the Decatur Recreation Center next door to the Library. Please park in the Library parking deck.

SHERI HOLMAN

Monday, March 21, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome Sheri Holman, one of America's finest and most popular authors, with her latest novel, "Witches on the Road Tonight." Publishers Weekly calls it "heartbreaking" as Holman "investigates a dynasty of fear, mysticism, guilt and love, beginning in Depression-era Appalachia and continuing through contemporary Manhattan ... and maps out the devastating consequences of sin and cirsumstance." The story focuses on Eddie Alley, whose quiet life is rooted in rumors of his mother's witchcraft, and who finds his life disrupted in terrible ways when he grows up and moves to New York. Holman ("The Dress Dodger," "A Stolen Tongue") "teases out the dark compulsions and desperate longings that blue the line between love and betrayal." We'll have copies of this exciting new book here for sale and signing.

WALTER MOSLEY

Thursday, March 17, 2011

7:00 P.M., Day Chapel, Carter Center

The wonderful mystery writer Walter Mosley will be with us to talk about his exciting new novel, "When the Thrill is Gone." It's the third thriller featuring New York City PI Leonid McGill, and this one has some terrific complexities of character and plot. McGill agrees to take on a case of a woman who believes her billionaire husband is having an affair at the same time he discovers his wife of 24 years is also having an affair. Critics call it a "powerful, raw, unsentimental" novel that nonetheless revolves around the surprising bonds of love and family. Mosley is one of America's most celebrated writers; his books have won numerous awards and have been translated into more than 20 languages. Among his best-known books are "Devil in a Blue Dress," "Black Betty" and "Gone Fishin'." We'll have copies of his book for sale at the event.

J.A. JANCE

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We're proud to welcome one of America's top bestselling mystery writers, J.A. Jance, for a encore appearance with her brand new thriller, "Fatal Error," an Ali Reynolds novel. In this riveting page-turner, Ali begins the summer thinking her most difficult challenge will be surviving a course at the Arizona Police Academy and taking the 6 a.m. shift at her family's restaurant. But when an old friend shows up with an alcohol problem and an unlikely story about a missing fiance, she finds herself drawn into a world of online intrigue and danger. Jance's carefully plotted novels are field with suspense and have earned her the delight of millions of readers. Please join us for this special visit; we'll have copies of her books for sale and signing here.

FRANCES MAYES

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church, Decatur

We are delighted to host a special appearance by the prize-winning author Frances Mayes, a Georgia native who is one of America's most popular writers ("Under the Tuscan Sun," "Bella Tuscany") and whose work is represented on the Georgia Center for the Book's new list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." She'll be here to talk about her latest book, "Every Day in Tuscany," a lovely, inspiring look at her favorite place in the world. She offers a wonderful tour through the gentle, occasionally violent, undulations of the seasons, from winter to summer, from her Tuscan home. Critics say "Mayes' affectionate and warm memoir vividly celebrates the lush abundance and charm of daily life in the Italian countryside." We hope you'll join us to welcome a "native" back home for what promises to be a memorable evening. We'll have copies of her books for sale and signing here, of course.
First Baptist Church Decatur is located at 308 Clairemont Ave., Decatur, GA 30030

A MYSTERIOUS EVENING

Saturday, March 12, 2011

7 - 10:30 P.M., Decatur Library

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT! We want to invite you to a very special library event: "A Mysterious Evening" brings one of the world's most popular and best-selling mystery authors, Atlanta's own Karin Slaughter, to Decatur for a one-night fundraising event for the DeKalb Library Foundation. Her special guests will be the hugely popular author of "the Help," Atlantan Kathryn Stockett, and the author of many bestselling novels, Mary Kay Andrews!!! You'll have an opportunity to enjoy heavy southern-style hors d'oeuvres with beer and wine, buy books and get them signed, mingle with the authors, bid at silent auction items and then take part in a 45-minute mystery theater live performance, "Murder Medium Rare" in the auditorium.

JONATHAN EVISON

Thursday, March 10, 2011

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church, Decatur

The author of one of the most anticipated books of the year, Jonathan Evison, will be with us talking about his electrifying epic novel, "West of Here." Publishers Weekly has given his book a starred review, calling is "a big novel about the discovery and re-discovery of nature, starting over, and the sometimes piercing revelations of history ... this is a damn fine book." It's packed with a large cast of fascinating, cleverly drawn characters and Evison writes lustrous prose that flows so easily. It's a dazzling new work by the author of the popular novel "All About Lulu" and it has won for Evison the label of a "major new voice in American fiction." Please note this program will be held in the Rutland Chapel (not the sanctuary) of Decatur's First Baptist Church at 7 p.m. We hope you'll join us to meet this wonderful author and explore his magnificent new novel!

PATRICIA SPRINKLE

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Atlanta's popular author of many delightful novels, Patricia Sprinkle, joins us to talk about her latest: "Friday's Daughter." It's a contemporary tale of sisterhood, the South, and matters of the heart centering on the youngest of three sisters who is determined to claim a life of her own in the wake of the death of her father and an unusual bequest. Sprinkle is the author of more than a dozen books including such well-regarded mysteries as "Death on the Family Tree" and "What Are You Wearing to Die?" Her most recent book was "Hold Up the Sky," which fellow Atlanta author Patti Callahan Henry called "a beautiful and thoroughly Southern story." We'll have copies of Pat Sprinkle's new book here for sale and signing.

JOHN S. BAYNE

Thursday, March 3, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Atlantan John S. Bayne joins us for a discussion of his fascinating and unusual new book, "Gravely Concerned: Southern Writers' Graves." It's a look at the final resting places of more than 150 writers from the South, ranging from William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Thomas Wolfe and Flannery O'Connor to Gordon Coogler, Christian Reid and Virginia Frazer Boyle. The author patiently and carefully sought out their graves -- many difficult to locate -- and took photos which appear in the book along with brief biographical sketches of the deceased. It's an intriguing and offbeat look at writers who, as Bayne says, may be questionably Southern or questionably literary but who are unquestionably dead. We'll have copies of his book for sale and signing, of course.

PATRICIA BRADY

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Library

We welcome back social and cultural historian Patricia Brady ("Martha Washington: An American Life") with a wonderful new nonfiction book, "A Being So Gentle: The Frontier Love Story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson." It's a compelling story, how Jackson withstood critics who called into question his wife's virtue, and how she stood firm against her accusers. Critics call it "a brilliant tale of triumph and tragedy ... that brings the Jacksons' poignant love story to life against the backdrop of antebellum America's bustling expansion and political intrigue." The author will be happy to sign copies of her book after her talk, and we'll have copies for sale at the library.

CLARENCE B. JONES

Monday, February 28, 2011

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Library

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech is one of the most famous in American history and helped push the Civil Rights Movement to new heights. We are proud to welcome the co-writer of that speech, Clarence Jones, to discuss his new book, "Behind the Dream: The Making of a Speech That Transformed a Nation." It is a thriling, behind-the-scene account of the weeks leading up to the speech and the electrifying impact of Dr. King's remarks.Jones was a close confidant of Dr. King, and his book helps us to understand better what went into its preparation and delivery. Jones is currently scholar-in-residence and visiting professor at Stanford University's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Insdtitute. We invite you to join us for this important book event bringing to a close our observance of 2011 Black History Month.

TERRY KAY

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

7:00 P.M., Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston

Georgia's popular, award-winning author Terry Kay will talk about his 2007 novel "The Book of Marie" as part of the campus-wide GPC Reads program at Georgia Perimeter College's Clarkston campus. Kay is an inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, the author of a dozen acclaimed books and a member of the Georgia Center for the Book's advisory council. His talk is free and will take place in Cole Auditorium on the Clarkston campus. As part of his visit to GPC, Kay will speak to several student classes about writing and his work.

EDWARD GLAESER

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The renowned Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser visits us to discuss his eagerly awaited new book, "Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier." It's a book that faces up to the bad rap America's cities get: they're dirty, poor, crime-ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly. Glaeser shatters these myths and demonstrates that cities are actually the healthier, greenest and richest -- in cultural and economic terms -- places to live. Glaeser is the Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard who studies the economics of cities, segregation, crime and innovation. He also serves as director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.

SAVANNAH BOOK FESTIVAL

Saturday, February 19, 2011

10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Telfair Square, Savannah

The 4th annual Savannah Book Festival features more than 30 authors talking about their work and signing books on Saturday, Feb. 19 and Sunday, Feb. 20 at picturesque Telfair Square near downtown Savannah. Among the authors taking part in this free event are Roy Blount Jr., Sandra Brown, Lee Smith, Vince Dooley, David Bottoms, Tobias Wolff, Michael Malone, Tina McElroy Ansa, the Georgia Center for the Book's director Bill Starr, and many others. For up-to-the-minute information about the festival, please go to www.savannahbookfestival.org.

DR. IZZELDIN ABUELAISH

Thursday, February 17, 2011

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church, Decatur

Dr. Abeulaish is a Harvard-trained Palestinian physician who was born in the Gaza Strip. His new book is "I shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity." By turns inspiring and heart-breaking, his book is an account of an extraordinary life of a man who has devoted himself to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. Dr. Abuelaish has been crossing the lines in the sand that divide the two nations for most of his life, as a physician who treats both sides, as a humanitarian who seeks better health and education for all as a means of bringing everyone together. He is the recipient of many international peace awards and -- though to many he has reasons to pursue revenge -- he has called for all who live in that troubled region to begin talking to avoid further deaths. His three daughters were killed in a 2009 Israeli incursion into Gaza. Please join us for this important talk by one of our civilization's finest, peaceful warriors.

CARSON MCCULLERS CONFERENCE

Thursday, February 17, 2011

, Columbus, GA

One of Georgia's most significant writers, the late Carson McCullers, is the focus of a three-day interdisciplinary conference in Columbus, her hometown, hosted by Columbus State University's McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians. The conference is part of the tri-state Southern Literary Trail activities and is sponsored in part by the Georgia Center for the Book. The conference begins Feb. 17 and features panels and lectures on McCullers' life and work by a number of literary scholars and a live performance by musician Suzanne Vega. For more information, call 706-565-4021 or email mccullerscenter@colstate.edu.

JOHN MCMILLIAN

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Historian John McMillian joins us with a fascinating new look back at the '60s: "Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America." The book, published by Oxford University Press, is a "compact, sharply etched, tour-de-force recollection of rebellious young journalists" who stormed the barriers of the mainstream media and forever changed American journalism and publishing. It's a well researched and audacious examination of the many counterculture weeklies that popped up in the era of Vietnam, drugs and rock and which laid the foundation for today's seemingly limitless alternative journals. We'll have copies of the book for sale and signing by the author.

COLLEEN AYCOCK & MIKE GLENN

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We are pleased to join the Friends of the Decatur Library in hosting a delightful program by one of Atlanta's best-known sports authorities, Mike Glenn. Mike, the former Atlanta Hawks star and now NBA broadcaster, will be discussing a new book in which he plays a part titled "The First Black Boxing Champions: Essays on Fighters of the 1800s to the 1920s." The book is edited by Mark Scott and Colleen Aycock, and has just been published. We will have copies for sale and signing. We invite you to come learn more about these amazing boxers whose stories have been virtually unknown until recent years.

WAYNE GREENHAW

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Prize-winning veteran journalist Wayne Greenhaw joins us for a discussion of his provocative new book, "Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama." His new book examines how the Klan, empowered by Governor George Wallace's defiance of civil rights laws, grew more violent until confronted by a courageous, determined coalition of blacks and whites. Greenhaw tells the full story, from the Klan's bombings and murders in the 1950s to Wallace's run for a fourth term as governor in the early 1980s, when he asked for forgiveness and won re-election with the black vote. Greenhaw wrote about Alabama government for 17 years as a reporter in Montgomery, and in 2006 he received the Harper Lee Award as Alabama's distinguished writer.

EUDORA WELTY EXHIBIT

Saturday, February 5, 2011

, Atlanta History Center

An exhibition of photographs by one of the South's greatest literary voices, Eudora Welty, opens February 5 through May 8 at the Atlanta History Center, 130 West Paces Ferry Road. The exhibit, "Eudora Welty: Exposures and reflections," is part of the tri-state Southern Literary Trail programs, sponsored in part by the Georgia Center for the Book. Welty's photography, while not as well known as her writing -- which won the Pulitzer Prize -- came from the same artistic impulse to create dramatic narrative, and the combination of her prose and her images help show us a complete view of the themes and places in her work. This exhibit was developed by the Museum of Mobile with funding provided by the Alabama Humanities Foundation.

BILL BRIGGS

Thursday, February 3, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Bill Briggs, a veteran journalist and writer for MSNBC.com joins us to discuss his fascinating new book, "The third Miracle: An Ordinary Man, a Medical Mystery, and a Trial of Faith." Part detective story and part courtroom drama, the book exposes for the first time "the secret rituals and investigations the Catholic Church today undertakes in order to determine sainthood." Briggs gives us a rare insider's look at one of the very foundations of the church and one of its most closely held secrets. Ultimately, it is a book that examines the clash between faith and science, a story that all readers will find absorbing. We invite you to join us; we'll have books for sale and signing.

REBECCA BURNS

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The former editor in chief of "Atlanta" magazine visits us with a very special book to help launch the observance of 2011's Black History Month. It's "Burial for a King," a powerful, well-researched look at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968 and how that momentous event transformed the city of Atlanta. Drawing on archival research and interviews with participants, the author brings us a vivid portrait of a tumultuous time with a complex story that quickly moves from Memphis to Atlanta to the White House. It is a powerful, gripping book that Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch calls "a great tribute." Burns is an author and journalist and the author of "Rage in the Gate City: The Story of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot."

POETRY ATLANTA PRESENTS...

Monday, January 31, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditoriuim

We once again welcome our friends and partners at Poetry Atlanta for another delightful evenings of readings featuring some of the Atlanta area's most outstanding poets.

Call & Response: An Evening of Poetry with Karen Head and Collin Kelley
The two award-winning poets will read their poetry round-robin style selecting poems on the fly to find common themes, moods and imagery. It's a fun, experimental and unexpected evening of poetry because the audience -- and the poets -- aren't sure what's coming next. Co-sponsored by Poets & Writers Inc.

Karen Head is the author of Sassing (WordTech), My Paris Year and Shadow Boxes (both from All Nations Press). Her poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies around the world.
Collin Kelley is the author of Better To Travel, After the Poison and Slow To Burn, which is being re-issued by Seven Kitchens Press in July 2011. His debut novel, Conquering Venus, is out now.

JACKIE LEE MILES

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The popular Georgia author of such books as "Cold Rock River," "Roseflower Creek" and "Divorcing Dwayne," discusses her just-published, entertaining new novel, "All That's True." Fellow author Joshilyn Jackson calls it "a Southern-style page-turner" with a "winning and warm-hearted narrator." It's story of a precocious Southern girl who has some uneasy coming-of-age experiences, and we know fans of the author will be ready! Miles is a member of the Dixie Divas and makes a number of speaking appearances around the region. We will have copies of her new book for sale and signing at our event.

BARRY L. BROWN & GORDON R. ELWELL

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We help launch of the observance of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War with two Atlanta writers whose new book will be a most welcome addition to the Sequicentennial: "Crossroads of Conflict: A Guide to Civil War Sites in Georgia." This handy guide, which will be useful to everyone visiting the state during the observance, is a publication of the Georgia Civil War Commission. It includes color photos and period images to document the locations of hundreds of battlefields, houses, POW camps, hospitals, bridges, cemeteries and other significant structures that have survived the last 150 years. Brown is heritage tourism specialist for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and co-author Elwell is a former program coordinator for the Civil War Commission and is currently historian for the Georgia State Defense Force. We'll have copies of their book, published by the University of Georgia Press, for sale and signing.

KAREN MARIE MONING

Thursday, January 20, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The New York Times bestselling author of 13 novels ("Dreamfever," "Bloodfever") will be with us to discuss the latest in the Fever series, "Shadowfever." and we'll have some surprises for you, too! In "Dreamfever," Karen Marie Moning left readers with the most heart-stopping ciff-hanger to date. "Shadowfever" will answer all the questions fans have been so eager to know in the final chapter of MacKayla Lane's shockingly suspenseful adventure. We will be welcoming with the author the delightful singer Neil Dover, whose CD "Bloodrush" is the official "Fever" series CD. The author is a graduate of Purdue University and has won many awards for her writing including a prestigious RITA Award. We'll have copies of her books for sale and signing at this event, of course.

BETH HOFFMAN

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We invite you to join us to savor the pleasures of Hoffman's new novel "Saving CeeCee Honeycutt ", a delightful story of 12-year-old Cecilia Rose Honeycutt's recovery from a childhood with her crazy mother and cantankerous father. It's set in the 1960s, and you'll find it packed with Southern charm, amusing characters and maybe a few hints of something more serious lurking in the background. Critics call it "thoroughly pleasant reading" and priaise Hoffman's sure control of her storyline. It's definitely an upbeat tale, so put youor troubles away for an evening and come celebrate the fun of living with Cecilia. We'll have copies of the book for sale and signing here, as always.

SUSAN VREELAND

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome back the wonderful writer Susan Vreeland ("Life Studies." "Girl in Hyacinth Blue") with her eagerly anticipated new novel, "Clara and Mr. Tiffany." Critics are already calling it a "masterwork." Vreeland again explores the life behind a famous artistic creation -- in this case the Tiffany leaded-glass lamp, the brainchild not of Louis Comfort Tiffany but instead his glass studio manager, Clara Driscoll. Vreeland brilliantly captures the atmosphere of gilded age New York and its robber barons, sweatshops and colorful characters. But the focus remains on Clara, the woman behind the man, and her remarkable artistic and entrepreneurial instincts. We'll have copies of this exciting new novel for sale and signing here, of course.

JOHN S. BAYNE

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We regret that Atlanta author John Bayne's program has been canceled because of winter weather issues and road conditions. It will be re-scheduled as soon as possible.

WENDELL POTTER

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

In 2009, Wendell Potter made headlines all over the country when he testified before Congress that many in the health insurance business are corrupt and are dedicated to denying benefits to consumers while spending billions on lobbying to protect their interests. Now Potter, former executive with CIGNA, has written a powerful book about his experience, "Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans." It's a "must" program that explains how health insurers have consistently put profits ahead of patient care. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia says Potter's book and the story of his conversion from a health care executive to outspoken advocate of reform "is essential reading for anyone trying to understand how the systeam really works." We urge you to join us for this program and discussion.

RICHELLE MEAD

Monday, December 13, 2010

6:00 - 8:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We join with our friends at Decatur's Little Shop of Stories to present a special appearance by New York Times and USA Today bestselling fantasy author Richelle Mead, on tour with her new book, "Last Sacrifice: Vampire Academy #6." Her "Vampire Academy" books are a hugely popular young reader series, and the latest novel is the epic finale that fans won't want to miss! Her "Succubus Blues" series follows the loves and intrigues of succubus Georgina Kincaid, and a 2nd series introduces shamanic mercenary Eugenie Markham. The author holds an M.A. in Comparative Religion and lives in Seattle. We're delighted to welcome her for her first visit to the Center for the Book. Doors will open at 5 p.m.
Richelle will sign up to three (3) books per fan. One (1) book can be personalized.

SUSAN SPAIN & ELIZABETH DULEMBA

Saturday, December 11, 2010

1 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Susan Spain, the delightful children's book author, and Elizabeth Dulemba, the wonderful illustrator, combine for a program featuring their colorfully appealing new book, "The Twelve Days of Christmas in Georgia." The book is a cheery romp by two cousins through the Peach State based on the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas." It includes fun visits to some of Georgia's best-known sites, among them the King Center in Atlanta and a jaunt along the Appalachian Trail. The timing couldn't be more perfect: just in time for holiday gift-giving, and we invite you to come get a signed copy for your special kids.

BILL STARR

Monday, December 6, 2010

7:15 p.m. (door opens 6:30), Decatur Library Auditorium

We're going to party -- with bagpipes! -- this evening when the executive director of the Georgia Center for the Book takes the stage with his own book! We invite you to join Bill and find out about his delightfully intriguing and witty new book, "Whisky, Kilts, and the Loch Ness Monster: Traveling Through Scotland with Boswell and Johnson." It's a lively account of the author's re-tracing of the amazing 1773 journey through the Scottish Highlands by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson. Part travelogue, part literary journal, it's a "celebration of Scottish life and a spirited endorsement of the unexpected discoveries to be made through good travel and good literature." It's a book for all those who love Scotland, its legends and history, its single malts and its kilts. We invite you to come celebrate with us and buy a book; we'll have a special reception to go with this very special program honoring one of our own! Thanks to Doug Robinson at Eagle Eye Books, there will be a kilted bagpiper to escort the author to the stage, so be sure to mark this event on your calendar. Please note that the Decatur Library will be closed for a furlough day on December 6, but this event will go on as scheduled. Admission will be through the auditorium door at the rear of the lower parking level. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Eagle Eye Books has advance copies for sale now, and they'll have plenty on hand for sale and signing at this event.

PATTI DIGH

Monday, November 29, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The last time we hosted Patti Digh ("Life is a Verb"), we had a crowd that filled the auditorium to overflowing! So plan to get here early for her encore visit with an exciting, provocative new book, "Creative is a Verb: If You're Alive, You're Creative." It's a book that is challenging, warm, funny, smart and packed with sizzle. In this book she leads readers by both heart and mind to acknowledge, reinforce and utilize their own creative spirit. There also are practical exercises to help bring out and savor your artistic impulse. Patti's first book resulted from a wrenching event in 2003 when her stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer and died just 37 days later. She said she woke up on day 38 and asked a question repeated every morning since: "What would I be doing today if I only had 37 days to live?" That was the focus of first her blog and then of what became her bestselling book, "Life is a Verb."

HAZEL ROWLEY

Monday, November 22, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Historian Hazel Rowley's groundbreaking new account of the marriage of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt is a "dramatic and vivid narrative" that showcases how the couple successfully moved from a restrictive Victorian marriage to a true partnership, in spite of scandals. Her new book "Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage," is a masterful, engaging study which Pulitzer Prize-winner Jon Meacham says brings alive the President and his First Lady "in all their humanity, complexity and greatness." Rowley's book is rich with insights and new information "about a political marriage that rose above politics, and a partnership driven as much by idealism as ambition." We invite you to join us for this surprising, brilliantly researched look into the lives of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt. Rowley's earlier books include biographies of Richard Wright and and Jean-Paul Sartre.

TALKING SPORTS: A "TRIPLE PLAY" PANEL DISCUSSION

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

7:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Join Mike Glenn, Ken Hudson and Chris Dimino for a sports panel discussion moderated by Bill Starr, director of the Georgia Center for the Book. Topics include memorable moments in Atlanta's pro sports history, the impact of pro sports on race relations in the city and the question of ethics in sports journalism. Glenn is a former pro basketball star and announcer for the Atlanta Hawks and an African American sports historian; Ken Hudson was one of the NBA's pioneering African American referees; and Dimino is a respected sports commentator for 790 The Fan, Fox Sports South and WXIA-11 Alive. This program is one of the special events with the Decatur Library's "Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience" exhibit organized by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperatown, NY and the American Library Association.

SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome some of the terrific contributors from the delightful new "Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook." Our guests will be Hugh Acheson, chef at Empire State South in Atlanta and Five and Ten in Athens; Virginia Willis, author of "Bon Appetit, Y'All," one of the "25 Books all Georgians Should Read;" Mike Klank of Tanqueria de Sol; and Angie Mosier, president of the Southern Foodways Alliance. They'll be talking about this new book, which contains more than 170 time-tested recipes reflecting real Southern people and their real food, from macaroni-and-cheese to fried chicken to chess pie. It's modeled after those familiar spiral-bound cookbooks sold in communities all over the South to support a high school marching band, or a local chapter of the Junior League or a church group. The recipes and the stories come from academics, writers, catfish farmers, ham curers, attorneys, chefs, grandmothers and people who just love eating. We know you'll love this program, too, so be sure to mark the date on your calendars.

JAMES C. COBB

Monday, November 15, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Jim Cobb from UGA, the premier historian of the contemporary South, joins us for a special program launching his important new book, "The South and America Since World War II." This book, published by Oxford University Press, is the first major comprehensive history of the South, capturing an era of dramatic change within the region and in its relationship with the rest of America. Cobb perceptively and entertainingly examines the region's colorful past from the post-Roosevelt, Jim Crow era to the rise of Republicanism and its economic, political and cultural growth. Cobb is one of the country's most honored historians, currently the Spalding Distinguished Professor of History at UGA. His many books include "Georgia Odyssey," "The Most Southern Place on Earth" and "Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity."

SAVANNAH CHILDREN'S BOOK FESTIVAL

Saturday, November 13, 2010

10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Forsyth Park, Savannah

The seventh annual Savannah Children's Book Festival in Forsyth Park features authors, illustrators, storytellers, arts and crafts, food lots of fun for kids of all ages. The free public event is sponsored by the Live Oak Libraries in Savannah, and the Georgia Center for the Book will again be taking part in the event. Among the featured authors will be Elizabeth Dulemba, Anna Dewdney and Judy Schachner, author of the "Skippyjon Jones" books. For information, please go to www.liveoakpl.org/scbf/

CELEBRATING 'TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD'

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We'll mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of America's greatest works -- Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" -- with a very special "University in the Library" event this evening. Our guests will be the distinguished Southern literary historian Tom McHaney (you may recall with pleasure his notable lectures on William Faulkner); Tom Key, the prize-winning artistic director of Atlanta's Theatrical Outfit (who has appeared as Atticus Finch on stage); and Cathy Powers, who grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, Harper Lee's hometown, and who knew many members of her family, and who wrote her dissertation on the book: "13 Ways of Looking at a Mockingbird." Joining them will be Tom Key, the award-winning artistic director of Atlanta's prestigious Theatrical Outfit, who produced and starred as Atticus Finch in the dramatic version of the novel. We know you'll find this panel especially entertaining and most informative.

RICHARD JAY HUTTO

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

What "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" did for Savannah, Richard Jay Hutto's exciting new book is likely to do for Macon! That new book, "A Peculiar Tribe of People: Murder and Madness in the Heart of Georgia," is a true-life mystery-thriller about a murder and a trial of epic proportions. It centers on Chester Burge, a slumlord, liquor runner and black sheep of the wealthy Dunlap family of Macon, recovering from surgery in a hospital when he heard on the radio his wife had just been murdered. Suspicion first fell on the Ku Klux Klan, which had protested Burge's renting his homes in white Macon neighborhoods to black families. But soon Burges was charged with the murder, setting off a trial filled with characters as bizarre and grotesque as any in a Flannery O'Connor novel. Don't miss this fascinating program!

PRIDE & PASSION: THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN BASEBALL EXPERIENCE

Saturday, November 6, 2010

6 P.M., Decatur Library

This fascinating illustrated exhibit showcasing the era of African-American professional baseball leagues comes to us from the National Baseball Hall of Fame Cooperstown, NY and the American Library Association. We'll have some very special guests join us for the free public opening of the exhibition in the Decatur library: James "Red" Moore, former first baseman for the Atlanta Black Crackers; Former NFL linebacker Pellom McDaniels III, chairman of the board of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City; and Emory Professor Dana White. It's all free, freshments will be served, and we invite you to bring the entire family! The ceremony begins at 6 p.m. The exhibition formally opens to the public the next day and can be viewed during normal library hours. It will be on display in Decatur for about one month before moving to the Hairston Crossing Library branch in Stone Mountain for a brief time.

DANIEL WILLIAMS

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The night after the general election, we welcome historian Daniel Williams to talk about his new sweeping history of how the Republican Party has become the party of the Christian Right movement. His book -- "God's Own Party," published by Oxford University Press -- traces the Christian Right all the way back to the 1920s and argues that the movement is likely to remain a potent force in American politics for years to come. Based on groundbreaking archival research, Williams' book shows how difficult it has become for any Republican to win without its support, and examines thoughtfully the growing connections between American religion, culture and politics. Williams teaches courses on the history of American religion and politics at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton.

GRANT JERKINS

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

A murdered woman, a grieving husband and their mentally handicapped adult child, who carries a history of violence. It might sound simple, but assistant DA Leo Hewitt finds no such thing when he investigates the details of this intimate, grisly, surprising mystery thriller, "A Very Simple Crime." The author is Atlantan Grant Jerkins, and it's a prize-winning debut novel that already is headed for the big screen with director Barbet Schroeder. The novel won the Writer's Network Screenplay and Fiction competition from among 2,000 entries. The author has worked for 10 years as an advocate for adults with developmental disabilities. We know you'll find this a fascinating and unusual program!

JAN KARON

Thursday, October 28, 2010

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church, Decatur

One of America's most popular authors, Jan Karon, joins us to talk about her latest, eagerly anticipated novel, "In the Company of Others: A Father Tim Novel." Karon's novels, marvels of gentle, arresting storytelling, have sold tens of millions of copies, and there are over 30 million in print, making her one of the country's top bestselling authors. In the latest novel, Father Timothy Kavanagh and Cynthia arrive on the west coast of Ireland to research his ancestry and encounter some very unexpected, surprising activities. Karon's Mitford novels, set in a small North Carolina town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, include "A Light in the Window," "At Home in Mitford," and "Out to Canaan."This will be one of only seven stops in the author's fall tour around the country. A new edition of her "Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader" is being released at the same time. DOORS WILL OPEN AT 6 P.M. NO ADVANCE TICKETS OR RESERVATIONS, FIRST COME-FIRST SEATED. Please note: There will be signed copies of the author's new book available for purchase at this event, but the author will not sign books there; you are invited to a reception to meet her after the program.

POETRY ATLANTA NIGHT

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome back some of Atlanta's finest poets for another program of memorable readings presented with our partners at Poetry Atlanta. Featured this evening will be Colin Cheney and Ginger Murchison. Cheney's debut book, "Here Be Monsters," is winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series and has just been published by the University of Georgia Press. Critics hail its "beautiful balance" and "searching urgency." His work has appeared in many publications including Kenyon Review, Ploughshares and American Poetry Review. Murchison, twice nominated for a Pushcart Pruize, published a chapbook, "Out Here," to critical acclaim in 2008. With Tom Lux, she help found the popular Poetry @ Tech series and has had work published in the Atlanta Review and the Chattahoochee Review. Copies of both poet's books will be for sale and signing at this event.

E. STANLY GODBOLD JR.

Monday, October 25, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Dr. E. Stanly Godbold joins us to discuss one of the most important books of the fall season, the first book of his illuminating, perceptive two-volume biography, "Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter" published by Oxford University Press. This book traces the lives of the Carters from childhood through the end of his governorship, and it is notable in that it pays significant attention to the First Lady. "So deeply were their lives and aspirations intertwined, a close friend once remarked, that you can't really understand Jimmy Carter unless you know Rosalynn." Godbold draws on first-hand sources including recollections of the Carters themselves about their political and personal lives. The book "offers an even-handed, brilliantly researched and utterly absorbing account," write critics. Godbold is professor emeritus of history at Mississippi State University, the author of several books and was a consultant for the televised "American Experience" documentary on the life of Jimmy Carter.

GEORGIA LITERARY FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 23, 2010

All Day, Statesboro, GA

We invite you to attend the 12th annual Georgia Literary Festival to be held on the lovely campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. We'll feature 25 writers including special appearances by popular author Ferrol Sams, former U.S. Senator Max Cleland, Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey, Hall of Fame author Philip Lee Williams, bestselling novelist Tina Ansa, cookbook author Damon Lee Fowler, gardening expert Walter Reeve and Poet Laureate David Bottoms. Check out the entire list and get more details at www.georgialiteraryfestival2010.org. Activities begin on Friday evening October 22 with a reception, ghost tours and a play followed by a full day of author talks, panel discussions and book signings on Saturday. It's all free.

THE BIG READ - ELLIOT ENGEL

Thursday, October 21, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Atlanta History Center presents a keynote lecture on Edgar Allan Poe by one of the nation's foremost Poe scholars, Dr. Elliot Engel, as part of "The Big Read" series. This event, jointly sponsored by the Center for the Book, is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. Dr. Engel formerly taught at UCLA (where he won an outstanding teacher award), NC State University and Duke. He uses anecdotes, analysis and large doses of humor to address Poe's extraordinary and tragic life. He is the author of seven books including "A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain," "How Oscar Became Wilde," "The Victorian Novel Before Victoria" and "A Dickens of a Christmas." For more information on "The Big Read," please visit www.atlantahistorycenter.com/BigRead.

MARY HELEN STEFANIAK & JOSEPH SKIBELL

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome two authors with fascinating new novels. Mary Helen Stefaniak is a Gardner Fiction Book Award winner and author of three novels, whose latest is "The Califfs of Baghdad, Georgia," a wonderfully seductive story that ranges from 1864 Savannah to 1775 Baghdad. Loosely following "A thousand and One Nights," it is a spirited romp that connects camels fluent in Arabic with the Ku Klux Klan and babies switched at birth. Joseph Skibell's novel "A Curable Romantic" is a "fat, cheeky, sweeping saga" that begins in 1895 Austria. Critics call it " intellectual comedy of the highest order." Skibell's previous novels include "A Blessing on the Moon" and "The English Disease," and he is on the faculty at Emory University.

ATLANTA QUEER LITERARY FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 16, 2010

11 A.M. - 5 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The fourth annual AQLF celebrates diversity with a variety of literary programs. Programs will be held at a number of venues around Atlanta, among them the Auburn Avenue Research Library, Jave Monkey and Outwrite Books. The schedule includes open mic, panel discussions, readings and book signings October 13-16. On the 16th at the library, the festival presents noted poets Steven Reigns, Amy King, Montgomery Maxton, Lara Zielinsky and others. For more information about the event, please go to the web site, www.atlqueerlitfest.com

HODA KOTB

Friday, October 15, 2010

7:30 P.M., First Baptist Church Decatur

The popular anchor for NBC's "Today" Show, Hoda Kotb, shares her life story in a revealing, fascinating, behind-the-scenes new book, "Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee." With humor and grace, she shows how we all have the capacity to turn a crisis into a blessing, and the lessons she has learned, from growing up with immigrant Egyptian parents to reporting from dangerous war zones all over the world, from surviving breast cancer to getting along with her "Today" show colleagues. Hoda Kotb has been co-anchor of the fourth hour of "Today" since 2007. She has been a "Dateline NBC" correspondent since 1998 and hosts the weekly series "Your Total Health." She is a winner of the prestigious Peabody Award and a four-time Emmy nominee and also received the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award for her reporting. Copies of her book will be available for sale at signing at this event. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

JEFF DECK & BENJAMIN HERSON

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

If you care about grammar -- or you remember a teacher who did -- you'll love the laughs from the new book by our guests this evening: "The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time." It's the story of a grammarian's gonzo trip across a national landscape pockmarked with poor punctuation, a hilarious and heartfelt call to action (or correction). The authors have gotten a lot of deserved attention on NPR and Weekend Today and run into a few legal problems with the federal government. You'll also enjoy their work with TEAL (Typo Eradication Advancement League). We invite you to join us for a wild and wacky evening of grammar chat!

BO CALDWELL

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Bo Caldwell's new novel is a special treat, but especially for anyone with an interest in China. "The City of Tranquil Light" is the lovely, compelling story of two American missionaries who fall in love with each other when their paths cross while working in early 20th century China. Prize-winning author Ron Rash says the novel "is a remarkable evocation of another time and place as well as a deeply moving love story." And Gail Godwin says Caldwell "has honored her missionary grandparents with her storytelling gifts." Caldwell's memoir-like first novel, "The Distant Land of My Father," appeared to critical acclaim in 2002. We welcome her for her first visit to the Center for the Book.

PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY

Monday, October 11, 2010

7:00 P.M., Georgian Terrace Hotel

We're happy to join the delightful Atlanta author Patti Callahan Henry as she celebrates the release of her new novel, "The Perfect Love Song: A Holiday Story." It's a delightful story about some Christmas miracles needed to help a trio of characters find love. Author Pat Conroy calls it "a lyrical and heartwarming tale of love and forgiveness." This fabulous book launch party takes place in the Livingston Bar & Grill in the Georgian Terrace Hotel, 659 Peachtree Street. There will be hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar with door prizes and even free parking. Patti is also generously offering her guests an opportunity to contribute, from a menu of needed books, to the DeKalb County Public Library. Don't miss this party; please join us, and please RSVP by October 8 to rsvp@mrpratl.com (Inviting friends and family is encouraged!)

MO WILLEMS

Thursday, October 7, 2010

7 P.M.., Decatur Library Auditorium

We join with our partners at Decatur's Little Shop of Stories in presenting one of America's most honored writers for young readers, Mo Willems, with his much-anticipated new book, "Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion." Willems is the three-time Caldecott Honor winner, a perennial bestselling author, former writer and animator for "Sesame Street" and a six-time Emmy Award winner. His dozens of acclaimed books for young readers include "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale," "There is a Bird on Your Head" and "Are You Ready to Play Outside?" Mo will be accompanied by a surprise traveling companion (just the right size for little ones to hug!). To get a ticket, call Little Shop (404-373-6300). Tickets are free with the purchase of one copy of Willems' new book, and each ticket admits one adult and one child. Willems will be reading from his books and signing them after his talk. Questions? Call Little Shop, please.

PAT CONROY & CASSANDRA KING

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

7:15 P.M., Cole Auditorium, Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston Campus

We're pleased to join with our friends at Georgia Perimeter College's Writers Institute to present an evening with two of America's most popular authors, Pat Conroy and his wife Cassandra King! Doors open at 6:15; no tickets or reservations required, first-come, first-seated. Books will be for sale, and both authors will be signing after their talk. Please note that Pat will sign only ONE book (any book) purchased at this event and ONE other book per person. Pat is a native of Atlanta whose books including "Beach Music," "South of Broad," The Great Santini" and "Lords of Discipline" have sold millions of copies. Cassandra has written a number of national bestselling novels, among them "The Same Sweet Girls," "Making Waves," and "The Sunday Wife." You won't want to miss this very special unusual appearance by both of them. Again, the doors for this event will open at 6:15 p.m.

POETRY ATLANTA NIGHT

Thursday, September 30, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome the wonderful poets from Poetry Atlanta for another evening of fun. Coordinated by the very fine Atlanta poet Collin Kelley, this evening's event will feature readings by several poets including JC Reilly, Eve Hoffman, Bob Wood, Ann Lynn and Jenny Sadre-Orafai. It's free, so mark your calendars.

KOREN ZAILCKAS

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

In the years following the publication of her landmark best-selling memoir, "Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood," Koren Zailckas stayed sober and made binge drinking a matter of her past. But a legacy of repression led to rage, and in her powerful new book, "Fury: A Memoir," she writes about the emotional and physical devastation she suffers. Her book "is a life-altering exploration of anger's origins" and her struggle to find love and stability. "Combining sophisticated sociological research with a dramatic and deeply personal story that grapples boldly with identity and family, Fury is a dazzling work by a young writer at the height of her powers that is sure to touch a cultural nerve."

DANIELLE L. MCGUIRE

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Historian Danielle McGuire will discuss her groundbreaking new book that reinterprets the civil rights movement in terms of the sexualized violence and rape that marked race relations in America for centuries. Her book, "At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power.," may be among the most important explorations of race and violence ever published. It begins with a little known fact: Rosa Parks, famous for her role in the Montgomery bus boycott, was a seasoned anti-rape activist and investigator for the NAACP long before she gave up her seat on that bus. The personal stories in this remarkable book and the thorough research done by the author will likely change the way you think about the civil rights movement. Please don't miss this powerful program.

CURIOUS GEORGE DAY

Saturday, September 25, 2010

10 A.M., Decatur Library

The Decatur Library has once again been chosen as one of the few libraries in America to participate in the fun of another "Curious George Day." It's a celebration of the trouble-making monkey and his very popular books that's planned for the entire family. We'll have games, crafts, screenings of the Curious George television show, and a visit from Curious George himself! From 10-10:30, kids can make Curious George masks and enjoy coloring and activity sheets. At 10:30, there will be a screening of the Curious George TV show, and from 11 to noon, we'll have storytime and an opportunity to meet the fabulous Curious George in person!

NANCY BRINKER APPEARANCE CANCELED

Thursday, September 23, 2010

7:00 P.M., Agnes Scott College

Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker's appearance has been canceled because of her schedule difficulties. We hope to be able to re-schedule her for some time in the future.

CARMEN DEEDY & JOHN MCCUTCHEON

Monday, September 20, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Please mark this very special event on your calendar now! Carmen Deedy, the prize-winning author of books for young readers, and her husband, Grammy Award musician John McCutcheon, will be here for a unique and wonderful evening of storytelling and music to benefit the DeKalb Library Foundation's literacy fund in honor of the library's retiring director, Darro Willey. You won't want to miss Deedy, the lively, vivacious author of "The Library Dragon" and "14 Cows for America" teaming with McCutcheon, one of the country's most respected and popular folk singers as well as the author of "Christmas in the Trenches." A $20 per person minimum donation is suggested for this event, with all money going to the literacy fund.

JAMIE LEE CURTIS

Saturday, September 18, 2010

2 P.M. (Doors open at 1), Decatur Library Auditoriuim

We join with Decatur's Little Shop of Stories to host a program by actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis. She has written a new children's book, "My Mommy Hung the Moon," which she'll be discussing on her brief two-hour visit here. Because of her publisher's insistence, tickets are required. They will be distributed free on a first come-first served basis beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at Little Shop (404-373-6300). You must purchase a copy of the author's new book to receive a ticket, and one ticket will admit two people. Ms. Curtis will sign two books per ticket. We regret the inconvenience and limitations of this arrangement, but these are requested by the publisher in behalf of the author. Seating at the library is first come-first served to capacity (and some guests may be seated in an overflow room with closed circuit). DOORS OPEN AT 1 P.M.

NATASHA TRETHEWEY

Thursday, September 16, 2010

7:00, 7 Stages Theater, Little Five Points

Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Poet Natasha Trethewey discusses her new book Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, her very personal profile of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and of the people there whose lives were forever changed by hurricane Katrina.

Trethewey spent her childhood in Gulfport, where much of her mother’s extended family, including her younger brother, still lives. As she worked to understand the devastation that followed the hurricane, Trethewey found inspiration in Robert Penn Warren’s book Segregation: The Inner Conflict in the South, in which he spoke with southerners about race in the wake of the Brown decision, capturing an event of wide impact from multiple points of view. Weaving her own memories with the experiences of family, friends, and neighbors, Trethewey traces the erosion of local culture and the rising economic dependence on tourism and casinos. She chronicles decades of wetland development that exacerbated the destruction and portrays a Gulf Coast whose citizens – particularly African Americans – were on the margins of American life well before the storm hit. Most poignantly, Trethewey illustrates the destruction of the hurricane through the story of her brother’s efforts to recover what he lost and his subsequent incarceration.

Renowned for writing about the idea of home, Trethewey’s attempt to understand and document the damage to Gulfport started as a series of lectures at the University of Virginia that were subsequently published as essays in the Virginia Quarterly Review. For Beyond Katrina..., Trethewey has expanded this work into a narrative that incorporates personal letters, poems, and photographs, offering a moving meditation on the love she holds for her childhood home.

This event is FREE and open to the public.

A Cappella Books will have copies of Beyond Katrina for sale in the lobby. A book signing will follow.

TERRY MCMILLAN

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

7:00 P.M., Presser Hall, Agnes Scott College

We are delighted to host Terry McMillan, one of this country's finest authors, who will visit us with an exuberant new novel that brings back the four unforgettable heroines of "Waiting to Exhale," the novel that forever changed African American fiction. Her new book is "Getting to Happy," more about the sassy, vibrant women who made "Waiting to Exhale" a watershed moment in literary history. Her new book looks at Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine and Robin 15 years later as they arrive at a midlife crossroads. they're all learning to heal past hurts and reclaim their joys and dreams. It's a novel full of spirit, faith, fun and passion, and you won't want to miss meeting the author. Her previous bestsellers include "Mama," "Disappearing Acts," and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back." This is a free event. DOORS OPEN AT 6 P.M. NO ADVANCE TICKETS OR RESERVATIONS, FIRST COME-FIRST SEATED TO AUDITORIUM CAPACITY. (Please note: To get copies of the new book or the author's earlier books signed, you will need to purchase her new book from the bookseller at this event.)

PATTI LUPONE

Monday, September 13, 2010

1:00 P.M., Presser Hall, Agnes Scott College

We are honored to welcome the legendary, beloved, Tony Award-winning actress and singer Patti LuPone for a very special one time-only free event in recognition of her new book, "Patti LuPone: A Memoir." This is one of only four national appearances by Miss LuPone and the only one in which she will be speaking. The star who created memorable Broadway stage roles in "Evita," "Sweeney Todd," "Les Miserables" and "Sunset Boulevard" talks about her amazing life in this unforgettable memoir, which is being officially published on the day of her appearance with the Center for the Book. In a book with more than 100 photographs, she describes with candor, passion and wit the highs and lows of her life, both professional and personal. Critics call it "the quintessential tale of an exceptional life well lived." Noted Atlanta poet/author Collin Kelley will interview Miss LuPone on stage. DOORS WILL OPEN AT NOON. NO ADVANCE TICKETS OR RESERVATIONS, FIRST COME-FIRST SEATED TO AUDITORIUM CAPACITY. Only books purchased at this event will be signed.

DONALD STURROCK

Monday, September 13, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Roald Dahl led a remarkable life, as an author for children and adults and as a celebrity, perhaps best known for writing the classics "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "James and the Giant Peach." Now we have an imposing, perhaps definitive account of Dahl's life and work written by Donald Sturrock, "Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl." Sturrock joins us for one of our fabulous "University in the Library" series to discuss his fascinating subject. He drew his research from cooperation with Dahl's grown children and his two wives including Academy Award-winning actress Patricia Neal. Critics call the book "irresistible," and we know you'll be richly entertained learning about the author and the books he wrote that have made him a popular name all over the world.

AJC DECATUR BOOK FESTIVAL

Friday, September 3, 2010

All Weekend, Locations Around Decatur

The fabulous AJC Decatur Book Festival celebrates its fifth year in 2010 with another great lineup of authors from all over the country. The annual Labor Day Weekend observance -- co-founded and co-sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book, by the way -- begins Friday night Sept. 3 with a keynote address by National Book Award winner Jonathan Franzen, who'll be talking about his eagerly awaited new novel, "Freedom." More than 150 writers will be taking part including Pulitzer Prize winners David Finkle and Natasha Trethewey, Diana Gabaldon, Pearl Cleage, Ridley Pearson and many more. There also will be lots of special activities for the entire family. For details, we invite you to go to the web site, www.decaturbookfestival.com

25 BOOKS ALL YOUNG GEORGIANS SHOULD READ

Saturday, August 28, 2010

10 A.M., City of Decatur Square

Please join us for the public unveiling of our very first list of "25 Books All Young Georgians Should Read." It's an exciting list of books for readers from tots to teens, and we'll have many of the authors represented on hand to sign copies of their books for you. It promises to be a wonderful morning, so head for Decatur's lovely Square behind the Courthouse for the event! Little Shop of Stories will join us with copies of the author's books for sale and signing. And we'll have the full listing of authors available on our web site late Thursday evening.

JENNIFER ARNOLD

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Jennifer Arnold's new book is a "must read" for all dog owners and for everyone who loves man's best friend. "Through a Dog's Eyes" is a knowledgeable, compassionate exploration of the intelligence, strength and capabilities of our four-legged friends based on her proven training methods. Her work with dogs is centered on inspiring a dog's trust and teaching dogs to make choices, as opposed to simply following commands. We know you'll find yourself appreciating her ideas and her methods, described vividly from a lifetime of experiences with her own unforgettable dogs. Jennifer Arnold is the founder and director of "Canine Assistants," an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization that trains and provides service dogs for people with special needs. She was the subject of a PBS documentary, "Through a Dog's Eyes."

JOSH RUSSELL

Monday, August 23, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Josh Russell, the bestselling author of Yellow Jack, will be at the Center for the Book with his exciting second novel, My Bright Midnight. It's a wonderfully engrossing story about a German immigrant named Walt, haunted by his past and trying to find a place for himself in the decadent, steamy city of New Orleans. Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey calls the novel "a compelling invocation of the way people build, from the ntruth of their lives, something they can live with, the endless possibilities of beginnings." Russell teaches creative writing at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Join us for a special reception and book signing to welcome this gifted author's eagerly awaited second novel.

JUNE HALL MCCASH

Monday, August 16, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The author of three very popular and informative coastal histories The Jekyll Island Club, The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony and Jekyll Island's Early Years, comes to us with an exciting new historical novel, Almost to Eden. You won't be surprised to know the setting is Jekyll Island and nearby Brunswick, and it is a story about an Irish immigrant, Maggie O'Brien, who comes to the Georgia coast hoping for freedom and a new life and who finds herself caught up in the lives of coastal residents. McCash has taught at Emory University and is the 1996 Outstanding Alumna Award winner from Agnes Scott College in Decatur.

A BASEBALL TRIPLE PLAY: AN EVENING WITH PETE VAN WIEREN, HAL JACOBS & DAVE COHEN

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

If you love baseball, you'll hit a home run with our program this evening! We welcome three authors of exciting new books about the sport including long-time Braves announcer Pete Van Wieren; the radio voice of Georgia State University, Dave Cohen; and wonderful Decatur author and dad-coach Hal Jacobs. Van Wieren's book, written with veteran journalist Jack Wilkinson (who will also join us) is "Of Mikes and Men," a wonderful reminiscence of three decades of calling Braves' games over the air. Cohen's book is the delightfully informative "Matzoh Balls and Baseballs: Conversations with 17 Former Jewish Major League Baseball Players;" and Jacobs has written "Ball Crazy: Confessions of a Dad-Coach," a thoughtful reflection on his and his 12-year-old son's experiences on the diamond. Please don't miss this memorable evening of baseball chat!

RAFE ESQUITH

Monday, August 2, 2010

7:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Schools are starting their new year, and if you care about the quality of children's education, you won't want to miss our guest, the only teacher to have been awarded the President's Medal of the Arts and the author of the bestseller, Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire. Rafe Esquith teaches in Los Angeles, and his super-successful, inspirational teaching methods have helped thousands of children maximize their potential. His new book is Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children, a book that enlarges on his themes and shows us how to make our kids not just great students but thoughtful and honorable citizens. Don't miss this special event, and let your child's teachers know about it as well, please.!

PEARL CLEAGE

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of our favorite writers, Atlanta's own Pearl Cleage, returns with an exciting new novel, Till You Hear from Me. It's a scathing look at the new "post-Obama" politics and black culture centered around an outspoken civil rights legend named the Rev. Horace Dunbar, whose unexpected and politically incorrect comments may have damaged his daughter's hopes for a place in the new administration. Cleage writes with authority and power and pulls no punches as she tells this story, filled with the heroes and villains of today's political scene. Her many bestselling books include Seen It All and Done the Rest, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day and Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do. She's won many awards, and her books have been included on the Center for the Book's list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read."

JACKSON PEARCE

Monday, July 26, 2010

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

Atlanta author Jackson Pearce is the highly praised author of several books for young readers including "As You Wish" and her latest, "Sisters Red." She joins us for the first time to discuss "Sisters Red," written for 8th graders and up, a fable-inspired thriller featuring some dangerous werewolves and a mystery to be solved. School Library Journal gives it a starred review and calls it "an adventure that grabs the reader and never lets go." The novel's heroines are a pair of sisters who must deal with werewolves called Ferris, who live among them in the form of good-looking young men who prey on pretty young girls. It's a modern-day re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood that will leave you breathless! This would be a great program for teenage readers, by the way.

DAVID BOTTOMS

Thursday, July 22, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

David Bottoms, the distinguished Poet Laureate of Georgia and one of America's finest poets, has a new book, and he'll be here to talk about it! The book is The Onion's Dark Core, and it's mostly a collection of essays composed by the poet. Poet Edward Hirsch calls it a book that is "personal, keenly thoughtful" and "that treats poetry with the seriousness it deserves, as 'the most natural vehicle of the spirit'." An appearance by Bottoms is indeed a special event, and we're honored to welcome him for this evening. Bottoms has written six other books of poetry and two novels, and he holds the Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

HELENA ANDREWS

Thursday, July 15, 2010

7:00 p.m., Wesley Chapel Library

Helena Andrews is young, smart, successful and black. an Ivy League graduate with great jobs who finds herself asking, "Can a strong, successful and single black woman ever find love?" The answer comes in her hilarious, tell-it-like-it-is new book, "Bitch is the New Black," whose title comes from a now-famous Saturday Night Live sketch and writer-comedienne Tina Fey. Already optioned as a feature film, the book deftly captures the author's lively spirit as she describes growing up with her pot-smoking mother, navigating a mostly white workplace and getting a date with one of President Obama's body guards, Reggie Love. You definitely won't want to miss this memorable, fun evening! Please note the program is being held at the Wesley Chapel-William C. Brown Library, 2861 Wesley Chapel Road.

JON CLINCH

Monday, July 12, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Jon Clinch, author of the prize-winning debut novel Finn, an original work drawn from Mark Twain that focused on Huckleberry Finn's brutal father, returns with another imaginative work, Kings of the Earth. It's a gripping and haunting story of life, death and family in rural America. Centered on three brothers, one of whom dies in his sleep, the surviving brothers are suspected of murder. Told in a chorus of distinctive voices that span a generation, the novel examines the bonds of family and blood, faith and suspicion that link not just the brothers but their community as well. Critics call it "blunt and brutal yet beautifully told, a classic tale of family kinship twisted askew." Clinch is a native of New York now living in Pennsylvania whose work has appeared in a number of literary magazines.

TOM HARBIN

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Dr. Tom Harbin has been practicing opthalmology with a specialty in glaucoma in Atlanta for more than 30 years and is a Clinical Professor Emeritus at Emory University. His new book, Waking Up Blind: Lawsuits Over Eye Surgery, is an eye-opening (pun intended) look at a highly respected surgeon's terrible mistake and how it was covered up by the leadership of a major academic medical center: Emory University. Through the use of court documents, transcripts of tape-recorded conversations, interviews and personal observations, Dr. Harbin examines the case in detail, uncovering all levels of wrongdoing and secrecy that will surprise you. We know you will not want to miss this startling program with its revelations about an Atlanta institution.

MELANIE SUMNER

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

7:00P.M., Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library

One of Georgia's finest writers makes her first appearance at the Center for the Book. Melanie Sumner -- whose acclaimed books include the novel The School of Beauty and Charm and a story collection Polite Society -- has written a wonderful new novel called The ghost of Milagro Creek. It's the powerful story of star-crossed lovers in the Native American lands of the Southwest, "an electrifying portrait of a troubled community" that is wrapped around murder and vulnerability. Sumner teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University and was one of the honored writers at last year's Georgia Literary Festival in Rome. She is a Whiting Literary Award winner and has published stories and essays in many publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times.

KARIN SLAUGHTER

Thursday, July 1, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Atlanta's own Karin Slaughter The New York Times' and #1 international bestselling author of ten thrillers, will be here talking about her latest spellbinding book, Broken. It's not just the page-turning plotting and unexpected twists that make Karin's books so popular, but also the vivid portraits of real lives in stress, people shadowed by loss and heartbreak that keep readers by the tens of thousands coming back for more. In Broken, a Grant County novel, Special Agent Will Trent arrives to look into a prisoner's death and encounters a police department beset with murder. Karin's bestselling books, which have sold millions of copies here and abroad, include Blindsighted, A Faint Cold Fear and Beyond Reach, which was on an earlier list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read."

JOSHILYN JACKSON

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

7:00 P.M., Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library

This is a good year for Joshilyn Jackson. She was a finalist for the Townsend Award for Fiction, and her wonderful novel The Girl Who Stopped Swimming was just announced as one of the Center for the Book's 2010 "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." Here's your opportunity to meet and hear this delightful author talk about her brand new novel, Backseat Saints. It's a can't-put-it-down story about love, survival and shedding the past that features a memorable new voice: the tough, passionate and funny Rose Mae Lolly. She's arguably the best character Jackson's has ever come up and is perfect for a book that is both high spirited and darker than her previous novels Gods in Alabama and Between Georgia. This new novel is already getting rave reviews, so don't miss Joshilyn's appearance at the Tucker Library!

TONY BARNHART

Monday, June 28, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Football fans, it's never too early to talk about SEC football, is it? We've got a special evening just for you with Atlanta's own Tony Barnhart, the nation's top expert on college football. He'll be with us to give you the insider's view of Mark Richt's UGA Dawgs and the rest of the SEC and ACC teams as we look to the 2010 season. Tony is the AJC's knowledgeable and outspoken writer who is also the author of a new book, From Herschel to a Hob-nailed Boot: The Life and Times of Larry Munson, written with the long-time voice of the Bulldogs. Barnhart's other books include Southern Fried Football: The History, Passion, and Glory of the Great Southern Game and What It Means To Be a Bulldog: Vince Dooley, Mark Richt, and Georgia's Greatest Players.

JANE GREEN

Friday, June 25, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Jane Green, the bestselling author of 11 popular novels makes her first visit to the Center for the Book with a compelling new novel just right for summer reading, Promises to Keep. It's the story of one remarkable summer in Maine when the lives of several families intersect, and what happens when you have to be your parent's child long after you've grown up. The novel focuses on enduring love, building relationships and making touch decisions, the challenges we all have to face. Green has won acclaim for her novels which include such favorites as The Beach House, Babyville, Dune Road and Second Chance

JANE MENDELSOHN

Monday, June 21, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Jane Mendelsohn, author of The New York Times' bestselling novel I Was Amelia Earhart, visits us with a memorable, original new book, American Music. It's a luminous love story centering on Milo, a severely wounded Iraq war veteran, and Honor, a former dancer who is now his physical therapist. Whenever she touches his damaged back, mysterious images from the past appear to both Milo and Honor, ultimately revealing the source of their growing love. Critics say it's a "beautiful mystery and a meditation on love, its power and its limitations." It is a book of almost hypnotic power by one of America's finest novelists, and we know you'll find it an unforgettable evening.

BRUCE WATSON

Thursday, June 17, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

In the summer of 1964, hundreds of college students descended on Mississippi to register black voters, teach in Freedom Schools and live in sharecropper's shacks. Within days, three volunteers had been murdered, black churches had been burned and a nation's anger had been aroused. This remarkable chapter in American history is the subject of Bruce Watson's riveting new historical narrative, Freedom Summer: The Savage Summer That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy. Prize-winning journalist and author Watson (Sacco and Vanzetti) uses in-depth interviews and thorough research to brilliantly capture that period when Jim Crow laws began to succumb to the continuing struggle for racial justice. It happened 46 years ago; in Watson's book, it is vividly brought back to memory.

DAVID ZIMMERMAN

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Georgia native David Zimmerman has a debut novel being called "one of the most exciting publishing events of the year." It's already claimed great reviews ("Remarkable ... a talent to watch," writes Publishers Weekly) and an early readership who call it a "powerful, realistic thriller." It's called The Sandbox, and it's set in the Iraqi desert where Army Pvt. Toby Durant is stationed. He's worried about his pregnant fiancee back home and is facing some serious questions about a bombing that has killed two of his military colleagues. Zimmerman builds a suspenseful, page-turning narrative as Toby struggles to survive amid deadly insurgents and a mission gone awry; it's a classic story of a decent man trying to get by under impossible circumstances and a blistering look at Army life in Iraq. Zimmerman currently teaches at Iowa State University.

HOLLY LECRAW & JEFFREY STEPAKOFF

Monday, June 14, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We're very happy to welcome two terrific new Georgia authors with their acclaimed debut novels. Holly LeCraw's novel The Swimming Pool is a powerful, painful family drama about a woman experiencing guilt and loss in the aftermath of an affair that is already drawing rave reviews. Publishers Weekly says "it's a story of deep and searing love between siblings and lovers, but most powerfully between parents and their children." Jeffrey Stepakoff's novel Fireworks Over Toccoa, a sweet, nostalgic tale set at the end of World War II in a vividly described Northeast Georgia. The author is a former television writer who now mskes his home in metro Atlanta. Please join us to meet and hear from these two wonderful new writers.

RAY CHARLES ROBINSON, JR.

Friday, June 11, 2010

7:00 P.M., Municipal Auditorium, 200 N. Jackson St., Albany, GA

The son of the late, legendary Georgia-born singer Ray Charles has written a marvelous and affectionate memoir of his famous father titled, You Don't Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles. We invite you to join us for a special presentation by the author on how he came to terms with his father's overwhelming legacy. It's a wonderful tribute to the great Ray Charles and to the courage of his son. This appearance will be in his father's hometown of Albany in Southwest Georgia. This event is part of our "We the People" project funded with the assistance of the Georgia Humanities Council.

RAY CHARLES ROBINSON, JR.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

7:00 P.M., Central Library-Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

The son of the late, legendary Georgia-born singer Ray Charles has written a marvelous, affectionate memoir of his father titled, You Don't Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles. We invite you to join us for a special presentation by the author on how he came to terms with his father's overwhelming legacy. It's a wonderful tribute to the great Ray Charles and to the courage of his son. His appearance in Atlanta is part of our "We the People" project funded with assistance from the Georgia Humanities Council, and will be followed by an event in Albany, where Ray Charles was born in 1930.

CAROLYN JESSOP

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Two years ago we presented the young author of the best-selling true story Escape, who vividly recounted her dangerous, courageous and successful escape with her eight children from a forced polygamous Mormon marriage. Now Carolyn Jessop returns with a new book written with Laura Palmer, Triumph: Life After the Cult: A Survivor''s Lesson. In this book, she talks about her life in recent years and what she has learned since re-joining a non-fundamentalist society. Jessop's voice is a distinctive one as she relates her growth as a woman re-gaining her self-confidence in spite of the heart-wrenching events that have befallen her.

LEE HARRIS

Monday, June 7, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Political analyst Lee Harris believes today's so-called populist revolt, symbolized for many by the Tea Party movement, is just the latest battle in an on-going cultural war. And in his new book, The Next American Civil War: The Populist Revolt Against the Liberal Elite, the Georgia author examines what he finds to be a widespread public response to an "intellectual elite" who are attempting to control the destinies of everyone. Rather than discourage debate about the issue, Harris argues that discussion is good and necessary and will help to define the choices Americans make for their future. Thomas lives in Stone Mountain and is also the author of The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the West, which The New York Times says is an "engaging" book that "raises serious questions."

CRAIG JOHNSON

Thursday, June 3, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Craig Johnson, the author of the award-winning mystery series featuring Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire, visits us with a terrific new book, Junkyard Dogs (and no, it's not about UGA). This sixth in the popular series is filled with Johnson's signature blend of wisecracks, Western justice and page-turning plot twists. It all begins when a severed thumb is discovered in a small-town junkyard, placing the sheriff and his companions deep in the darker aspects of human nature. It's a story of love, death, laughs and derelict automobiles that we know you'll like a lot! If you're a mystery fan, please mark the date on your calendar.

THOMAS CHATTERTON WILLIAMS

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Here's an absolutely fascinating new book all about how hip-hop culture drew the author in, and how his father drew him out: with lots of love, perseverance and about 15,000 books! The book is titled Losing My Cool, and the author is a writer and former journalist for The Washington Post. As a teenager, Williams wore huge sunglasses, a hefty gold medallion and managed to dumb-down and thug-up his speech. His pursuits, he says, "were money, ho's and clothes." His father -- who grew up in the segregated South -- saw it differently, and he ultimately prevailed. How he accomplished thatt and the pivotal role played by books in the author's life will keep you mesmerized when you hear Williams talk about his experiences. Don't miss this powerful program!

MARY RICHARDSON

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Author Mary Richardson and a group of very skilled photographers have put together a most remarkable look at the lives of long-haul truckers. The book, titled simply Truckers, alternates between lyrical vignettes and stunning photos, all overseen by Richardson, who was inspired by her experiences as the editor of a national trucker magazine. This attractive book shows the intimate lives of the men and women who ride the highways night and day year-round, and it offer some surprising insights that moves them well beyond the range of stereotyped characters. Her presentation will be amply illustrated with photographs taken from the book. Presented as part of the celebration of the Decatur Arts Festival.

JOE DABNEY

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Fond of shrimp and grits? Like your Beaufort Stew? Eager to try some collards au gratin? Head on down to the library for this exciting, fun evening all about the cooking and stories of coastal Georgia and South Carolina kitchens. We'll be hosting an appearance by the prize-winning writer Joe Dabney, author of the wonderful new book, The Food, Folklore, and Art of Lowcountry Cooking. Dabney treats readers to a tour of Charleston, Beaufort and Savannah to examine food experiences, recipes and the stories of the people who prepare these dishes. The terrific cookbook author Nathalie Dupree says Dabney's book "goes to the heart of Lowcountry culture and cuisine," and the Lee Brothers call it simply "mouthwatering." The book is filled with colorful photographs, authentic voices and yummy recipes. Dabney won the James Beard Cookbook of the Year Award for his earlier book, Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, and Scuppernong Wine: the Folklore and Art of Appalachian Cooking. This event is part of the Decatur Arts Festival observance.

JOHN SANDFORD

Monday, May 24, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome best-selling author John Sandford for his first appearance at the Georgia Center for the Book. Sandford's hugely popular "Prey" series has sold millions of copies and made him one of America's most highly read authors. He'll be visiting us to talk about Storm Prey, the 20th book in this prize-winning series. Sandford is really John Camp, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former newspaper journalist whose many successful books include Phantom Prey and Dark of the Moon. Sandford is also the author of two nonfiction books on plastic surgery and art and is the financial backer for a major archaeological project now underway in the Jordan Valley of Israel. His appearance is part of the Decatur Arts Festival week celebration. Please note the library is closed on this day, so access to this event will be only through the lower level door at the rear of the library. The door will open at 6:30 p.m.

ROBIN OLIVEIRA

Friday, May 21, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

If you found yourself caught up in the atmosphere and power of Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain and Robert Hicks' The Widow of the South, we think you'll want to hear Robin Oliveira talk about her new Civil War-era novel, My Name is Mary Sutter. It's about a headstrong young woman on the eve of the bloody clash who has become a midwife and is now seeking to enter medical school. Rejected because of her sex, she finds a surgeon and mentor who will become even more in Mary's life, leaving her caught between the obligations to her family and the overwhelming needs of her soldier-patients. It's an exceptionally moving story of love and war and a young woman's determination and vulnerability at a time of great stress.

STEPHANIE MCCURRY

Thursday, May 20, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

If you have an interest in the Civil War, you will want to mark this event on your calendar. University of Pennsylvania historian Stephanie McCurry visits us to present an important new book that critics say "permanently rewrites the history of the Southern confederacy." Her book, published by Harvard University Press, is Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South, which gives us a radical new interpretation, arguing that the Confederacy -- a republic that systematically excluded women and slaves from citizenship -- was brought down by the very people it sought to disenfranchise. Author Tony Horowitz says her book "strips the Confederacy of myth and romance to reveal its doomed essence." We invite you to come learn more about this challenging thesis about a war that remains central to Georgia's history. The author's books include Masters of Small Worlds: Yeomen Households, Gender Relations, and the Political Culture of the Antebellum South Carolina Low Country.

KEITH GILYARD

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome one of America's most highly respected scholars of African American writers for the latest in our popular series, "University in the Library." Dr. Keith Gilyard from Penn State University joins us to discuss the life and work of an important and often neglected Georgia figure, John Oliver Killens. Gilyard's new book, John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism, is the first major biography of Killens, a native of Macon and an influential novelist, essayist, screenwriter, teacher and union activist. Killens was the founding chair of the noted Harlem Arts Movement and was a writer for over four decades (his best known book is the novel Youngblood). Gilyard's biography examines not only Killens' life but his interaction with many famous historical figures including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Dubois and Malcolm X.

DAVID C. TUCKER

Monday, May 17, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The expert on the early days of television joins us to talk about his delightful new book, Lost Laughs of '50s and '60s Television: Thirty Sitcoms That Faded Off Screen. These shows were originally broadcast between 1952 and 1969 and include the likes of "The Governor and J.J.," "Angel" and "It's a Great Life." The stories of the talented people who made and appeared on those shows would have been lost forever without David Tucker's research, which has also located some rare publicity photos for the book. Tucker is the Collection Management Coordinator for the DeKalb County Public Library and the author of several popular books about television including The Women Who Made Television Funny: Ten Stars of 1950s' Sitcoms and Shirley booth: A Biography and Career Record.

LARRY TYE

Friday, May 14, 2010

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

Join us for a discussion of one of baseball's true iconic figures: pitcher Satchel Paige. Boston Globe sportswriter Larry Tye is the author of a definitive new book about the great black hurler titled Satchel: the Life and Times of an American Legend. Tye interviewed more than 200 players in the Negro Leagues and Major Leagues who knew Satchel for this engrossing, revealing, and sometimes surprising biography. Tye makes a strong case that Satchel, whose career began in Jim Crow Alabama, was among the game's top pitchers (and who was inducted belatedly into the Hall of fame in 1971). With impeccable scholarship and a journalist's flair for writing, this book will be a treat for all fans of baseball and a real "Paige turner." .

RONALD C. WHITE

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

In his prize-winning biography of the nation's 16th President, A. Lincoln, noted historian Ronald White stresses how Lincoln's ties to the common man and his vast experience as politician and legislator helped him survive the nation's greatest crisis, the Civil War. White paints a vivid, strong portrait of Lincoln that critics call "the finest one-volume account of the life of Abraham Lincoln we have." And his book offers us a reminder of why Lincoln remains among the pantheon of America's greatest Presidents. White's books include Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural and The Eloquent President.

MELISSA ANDERSON

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

1:00 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

Fans of the hugely popular and long-running television series "Little House on the Prairie" will remember Melissa Anderson as the older daughter Mary. She grew up in front of millions of viewers from the show's start in 1974 until she left the series in 1981, and she was the only actor on the show to be nominated for an Emmy. In her delightful new book, The Way I See It: A Look Back At My Life on Little House, she shares stories about her co-stars and anecdotes about the series. Her book is a wonderful portrait if a child star who grew up to be a successful adult actress and a successful adult. Don't miss her special lunchtime appearance!

ANDREW YOUNG

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church, Decatur

We are privileged to present the former United Nations Ambassador, Congressman, Mayor of Atlanta and Civil Rights icon Andrew Young with a very special presentation about his new book, Walk in My shoes. The book, to be published officially on this date, is subtitled, "Conversations Between a Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on the Journey Ahead." It has been written with Young's godson Kabir Sehgal and memorably explores the opportunities and challenges we all face in an effort to make the world a better place. Tom Brokaw calls the book "a great gift to America's children," and Maya Angelou calls it a "fiercely inspiring cross-generational memoir." We urge you to bring your family to this inspirational program and meet the author, the man who marched with Dr. King, and the author of several notable books including A Way Out of No Way and An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America. Doors at the church will open at 6 p.m. Parking is available in the church lots.

MELVIN KONNER

Monday, May 10, 2010

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

Emory University anthropology professor and acclaimed author Konner will talk about his much-anticipated new book from Harvard University Press, The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind. Critics say it's an "intellectual tour de force: a comprehensive Darwinian interpretation of human development, the compelling and complex story of how cross-cultural and universal characteristics of our growth from infancy to adolescence became rooted in genetically inherited characteristics of the human brain. In other words, it's about why we need to know our biological past to better understand our psychological present.

PAUL GUEST

Thursday, May 6, 2010

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

Over the years, Paul Guest has proved to be one of the most popular poets who has visited us. Confined to a wheelchair and unable to move his arms or legs since he broke his neck at the age of 12, Paul has written several outstanding collections of poetry (My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge, Notes for My Body Double), and he comes to us with an eagerly anticipated, powerful memoir, One More Theory About Happiness. It is not a book of self pity, rather an unvarnished, often funny and always breathtakingly honest story of his growth from a boy into a man under circumstances almost unthinkable for most of us. This will be a most memorable evening, and we hope you'll join us to meet and hear from Paul.

KIM SEVERSON

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

Enjoy food? Enjoy cooking? We know you won't want to miss Kim Severson, the acclaimed food writer for The New York Times since 2004 and winner of four James Beard Foundation Awards. She has a wonderful new book, something that may surprise you a bit. It's called Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life. It's a revelatory memoir of how encounters with eight female cooks helped her re-learn some important lessons about her life, from why it is never too late to start over to the importance of accepting what comes your way. This is a rich, funny, multilayered memoir and inspirational story that will stay with you a long time, a testament to the wisdom to be found in the kitchen.

JEAN KWOK

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

7:15, Decatur Library Auditorium

The publication of Kwok's debut novel, Girl in Translation, is an important literary event with a remarkable story about it. The author is a young Chinese-American who is telling the powerfully affecting story of a girl who goes from a sweatshop to the Ivy League. Mirroring this novel's tale is the real story of the author, who was born in Hong Kong, emigrated to Brooklyn with her family, worked in a Chinatown factory and managed to put herself through Harvard. She has been a teacher and translator in The Netherlands, a reader for the blind, a housekeeper, a ballroom dancer and a computer graphics specialist. We know you'll find this program appealing and memorable.

RIVER OF WORDS

Sunday, May 2, 2010

3:00 p.m., Chattahoochee Nature Center

Please join us for the annual awards ceremony for our popular "River of Words" program. We'll have the state (and national) winners from Georgia showing off their prize-winning poery and visual arts. The lovely Chattahoochee Nature Center grounds are open for exploration and the awards will begin at 3:30 p.m. followed by a reception. It's free, of course, and it's a wonderful way to celebrate some very talented students. The "River of Words" program is co-sponsored with Project WET of the Department of Natural Resources.

GEORGIA AUTHORS NIGHT

Thursday, April 29, 2010

7:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We invite you to this very special event, a major activity on our busy calendar. We'll be publicly announcing our new list of 25 Books All Georgians Should Read, and we'll have as many as 18 of the authors on the list on hand to chat with you and sign their books. It' should be quite an amazing evening with 18 of Georgia's finest authors! We'd love to tell you who'll be here, but the list is a secret until then, so please plan to join us to find out who made the 2010 edition and to congratulate the authors who'll be here to meet you. Note this program begins at 7 p.m., NOT 7:15.

MARYN MCKENNA

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The prize-winning former science writer for the AJC who won awards for her coverage of the CDC returns with a frightening but true new book, Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA. MRSA is a terrifying pathogen that is evolving faster than the medical community can develop antibiotics to stop it, and McKenna reports it is now beginning to threaten not just hospitals and clinics but individuals young and old, healthy and sick. McKenna is the author of Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, and a former Fellow at the University of Michigan and Harvard Medical School.

LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE AWARD CEREMONY

Saturday, April 24, 2010

2:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Please join us as we celebrate the creativity and talent of several dozen students from across the state of Georgia at our annual Letters About Literature awards ceremony. These students have written letters to literary figures whose works have dramatically influenced the lives of the students. The winners have been chosen from among thousands of entrants in the state and national competitions. We invite you to come meet these gifted young people, hear their winning letters and a special talk by the acclaimed author Terra McVoy, author of the novel Pure and the soon-to-be-published novel After the Kiss, and enjoy a reception afterward. It's one of our favorite programs of the each year!

TOWNSEND PRIZE FOR FICTION

Thursday, April 22, 2010

6-9 P.M., Margaret Mitchell House and Museum

The Townsend Prize, given biennially for the best work of fiction written by a Georgia author over the last two years, will be presented this evening at a free public ceremony. We can't tell you the winner, but the shortlist of finalists includes James Braziel, Philip DePoy, Tom Edwards, Amanda Gable, Joshilyn Jackson, Sang Pak, Kathryn Stockett, Bailey White, Susan Rebecca White and Philip Lee Williams. The announcement will be made at a reception featuring remarks by the distinguished author/poet Fred Chappell, former poet laureate of North Carolina. The Townsend is co-sponsored by the Writers Institute at Georgia Perimeter College, The Atlanta Writers Club, the Margaret Mitchell House and the Georgia Center for the Book.

ACE ATKINS

Friday, April 16, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The bestselling Mississippi novelist makes his debut appearance at the Georgia Center for the Book to talk about his lively new novel, Infamous. Set in 1933, it focuses on Depression-era gangsters including one George Kelly, known as "Machine Gun Kelly" and his wife, who is even more murder-minded than her hubby. It's definitely a page-turner from the author of such popular mysteries-thrillers as White Shadow, Dirty South and Wicked City. Atkins is a former prize-winning newspaper crime reporter and a star on the Auburn football team, who helped lead the Tigers to an undefeated season in 1993. (He even got his picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated!) This promises to be an entertaining evening, and we hope you'll be with us.

A Reminder: Because the library closes at 6 p.m. on Friday, only the rear parking level door to the auditorium will be open this evening.

SUSAN REBECCA WHITE

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Center-Day Chapel

The Atlanta author of the popular novel Bound South now has her second novel ready: A Soft Place to Land, the story about a special relationship between two sisters. Spanning nearly two decades, their story moves from Atlanta to the West Coast as they struggle with issues of jealousy, anger and ultimately, love. The author will be appearing with two other writers who have strongly endorsed her new novel, Kathryn Stockett (author of The Help), and Todd Johnson (author of The Sweet By and By).

JOHN BURRISON

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The expert on Georgia folk pottery, Burrison joins us to talk about his inviting new book, From Mug to Jug: the Folk Potters and Pottery of Northeast Georgia. This title "celebrates the living traditions of the renowned northeast Georgia folk pottery clans, undertaking a sensitivity, a finesse, and a flair for description and analysis that entitle the book to a place among the classics of this type." This book is both a companion and sequel to Brothers in Clay, and focuses on an area that has maintained a continuous tradition of pottery-making since the early 19th century. It includes more than 100 color photographs of pots, potters, and their work spaces, Burrison also captures the living tradition of one of the last areas of the United States where Euro-American folk pottery is still being made. Burrison will present a slide presentation to accompany his talk.

PATRICIA SPRINKLE

Monday, April 12, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of Atlanta's favorite mystery writers, shows us a different side of her artistry with her eagerly anticipated new novel, Hold Up the Sky. It's a moving story of four women facing difficult challenges who come together on a drought-stricken Georgia farm to find strength and insights with each other. Sprinkle's delightful, popular mysteries include Death of a Dunwoody Matron, A Mystery Bred in Buckhead, Death on the Family Tree and Who Let the Killer in the House?

Because there is an event at the adjacent Decatur Recreation Center at 7.p.m., parking spaces in the library lot will be difficult to find this evening. We urge you to arrive by 6:30 if possible or plan to park at other locations around Decatur in order to hear and enjoy Pat Sprinkle.

ANNE LAMOTT

Friday, April 9, 2010

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church Decatur

the renowned author of many bestselling books including Traveling Mercies and Grace: Thoughts on Faith, visits us with a tough and touching new novel, Imperfect Birds. "Heartbreaking and delightful, moving and hopeful, the novel reminds us how our children are connected to and independent of us, and that no matter how difficult our struggle is with them, love underlies it all and saves us. This novel captures the deepest, purest, most terrifying experience of parents fearing for their children. With great insight and humor, Anne Lamott shows us what it means these dangerous days to be a parent, what it means to be a child, and what it means to be a family."

We expect a capacity crowd for this event, so please plan to arrive early to secure the best seating. Doors open at 6 P.M. No tickets or reservations required.
First Baptist Church Decatur is located at 308 Clairemont Avenue
Decatur, Georgia 30030

LISA TRACY

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Why do Americans have so much "stuff," and why we we hang on to it forever and ever? Author Lisa Tracy reveals the delightful answers in her fascinating and surprisingly tender new book, Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family's Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time. It's all about those things we keep, the heirlooms, and how we form stories about our things and what that means for generations of our family yet to come. You'll thoroughly enjoy this presentation about a subject close to all of us. This is the fifth book for Tracy, a former prize-winning journalist.

EVELYN MONAHAN & ROSEMARY NEIDEL-GREENLEE

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The two Georgia writers have combined to tell the remarkable, never-before-told story of the U.S. women's military corps in their fascinating new book, A Few Good Women: America's Military Women from World War I to the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Utilizing interviews and a variety of written sources, they trace the history of women in the military in a first-hand narrative as illuminating as it is inspiring. Monahan served in the Women's Army Corps and has worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Neidel-Greenlee was a member of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps and worked at the U.S. Veterans Medical Center in Atlanta. They previously authored And If I Perish: Frontline U.S. Army Nurses in World War II , winner of the Georgia Writers 40th Annual Georgia Author of the Year Award.

POETRY ATLANTA PRESENTS...

Thursday, April 1, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

It's no April Fool's joke: we're honored to host another wonderful, provocative evening of poetry featuring writers from the metro Atlanta area. It's our monthly program presented by our partners at Poetry Atlanta, and this month we'll feature a couple of terrific young poets: January Gill O'Neil, a Cave Canem Fellow, senior writer/editor at Babson College and author of the collection Underlife; and James May, the editor-in-chief of "New South" whose work has appeared in The New Republic and The New Ohio Review. He's also soon to be married to noted Atlanta poet Chelsea Rathburn.

DEBORAH BLUM

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer discusses her new book, a "wonderfully compelling hybrid of history and science," The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. Blum's true story, which reads like a first-rate novelist's tale, features a memorable cast of movie stars, gangsters, aristocrats, relentless medical examiners and even homicidal grandmothers. Her chronicle of Jazz Age chemical crimes will leave you breathless and transform the way you think about the power of science. Blum is the author of the bestselling book Ghost Hunters and is professor of science journalism at the University of Wisconsin. Deborah will be introduced by Mary Kay Andrews.

DAVID ANTHONY DURHAM

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The award-winning author of five novels, will discuss his latest, Acacia: Other Lands, the second book in the popular Acacia Trilogy. He is a winner of the Zora Neale Hurston /Richard Wright Fiction Award for his stories, and he received the prestigious John C. Campell Book Award in 2009. His novels include Gabriel's Story, about a runaway slave and the Scottish immigrant hired to track him, and Acacia, set in an alternative world and a book hailed by sci-fi and fantasy enthusiasts.
This program is jointly sponsored by Kennesaw State University.

LYNN CULLEN

Monday, March 29, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Atlanta-based author of many popular books for young readers, comes to us with her first adult novel, a riveting tale set in the Golden Age of Spain, The Creation of Eve. It's based on the true but little-known story of the first female painter of the Renaissance who encounters formidable challenges when she comes to Rome to study in the great Michelangelo's studio. It combines art, drama and history centered around the question: can you really know anyone's heart? Cullen's previous books include Godiva, I Am Rembrandt's Daughter, Moi and Marie Antoinette and the Backyard Ghost.

ANNE PERRY

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome "the queen of Victorian mysteries," one of the world's most popular and prolific writers of mystery and suspense, Anne Perry, for a delightful evening discussing her forthcoming mystery, The Sheen on the Silk. It's her first major non-series book, a memorably epic historical novel set in 13th century Constantinople where a women struggles to uncover the truth about an accused murderer. Anne Perry is the author of dozens of books, bestsellers everywhere, including Death by Horoscope, Sherman's Creek, A Breach of Promise, Paragon Walk and Brunswick Square.

SARAH ADDISON ALLEN

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The prize-winning author of Garden Spells and The The Sugar Queen, returns with a wonderful, enchanting new novel, The Girl Who Chased the Moon. The bestselling author, who makes her home in Asheville, NC, has created an embracing story "set in a quirky small Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon." It's a charming tale all about the unexpected in a town peopled by some of most appealing misfits you'll ever meet. We think it just may be this delightful author's best book yet!

PETER HEDGES

Monday, March 22, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We invite you to a special evening with Peter Hedges, the Academy Award-nominated author/director of the films What Eating Gilbert Grape?, Pieces of April, Dan in Real Life and About a Boy. He has written a wonderful new novel, The Heights, the story of a private school history teacher and his relationships, a book about love and challenge, at once light of touch and yet packed with emotion and depth of character. Hedges wrote both the novel and the screenplay for What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

KEVIN YOUNG & NATASHA TRETHEWEY

Thursday, March 18, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Young,one of America's most acclaimed poets and the Atticus Haygood Professor at Emory University, will discuss his eagerly anticipated new volume of poetry, The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. Young, a popular reader, is the author of several notable books of poetry including For the Confederate Dead, Jelly Roll, To Repel Ghosts, Dear Darkness and Black Maria. He'll be signing copies of his new book as well as his earlier releases. Joining Kevin will be Natasha Trethewey. She is the Pulitzer Prize winning Poet for Native Guard. Her honors include the Bunting Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She is Professor of English at Emory University where she holds the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry.

CAROL GOODMAN

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The best-selling author of The Ninth Villa, The Ghost Orchid and The Sonnet Lover, visits us with a thrilling new novel, Arcadia Falls .Set in a small town in New York, Meg moves herself and her teenage daughter into a small cottage, hoping to reconnect and start new lives. During Arcadia’s First Night bonfire, one of Meg’s folklore students, Isabel Cheney, plunges to her death in a campus gorge. Sheriff Callum Reade finds Isabel’s death suspicious, but then, he is a man with secrets and a dark past himself.
Meg is unnerved by Reade’s interest in the girl’s death, and as long-buried secrets emerge, she must face down her own demons and the danger threatening to envelop Sally. As the past clings tight to the present, the shadows, as if in a terrifying fairy tale, grow longer and deadlier.Her mystery/suspense novels have made her among the most popular writers in America, and we welcome her for her first visit to the Georgia Center for the Book.

THOMAS CAHILL

Monday, March 15, 2010

7:00 P.M., First Baptist Church Decatur

The New York Times' bestselling author of How the Irish Saved Civilization and Mysteries of the Middle Ages, discusses his powerful new book, A Saint on Death Row: The Story of Dominique Green. It's a deeply moving and true narrative about a man transformed as he faced an unjust execution. Archbishop Desmond Tutu says of the book, “Dominique Green was a wonderful man whose life demonstrated the power of God to heal and transfigure even the most unlikely people and places. Who could have expected that Texas Death Row would be made into an avenue of divine grace?—which is exactly what happened through Dominique’s instrumentation. Though this is a book that ends in death, it does not end in despair. Read it and discover how even the obscenity of capital punishment can be transformed into an occasion of light and peace.” Parking is available at the Church. First Baptist Church Decatur is located at 308 Clairemont Avenue, Decatur, Georgia 30030

KAREN SPEARS ZACHARIAS

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Zacharias, who grew up in Georgia, visits us with an unforgettable new book of sad, funny, poignant stories about some unforgettable characters, Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide? 'Cause I Need More Room for my Plasma TV. Zacharias' book is "a spirit-infused meditation on gratuitous wealth and barely gettin' by," and Jeff Foxworthy says the author is a writer "not afraid to talk with real people and speak the truth." Her books include After the Flag Has Been Folded, a heartwarming look back at her experiences growing up after the death of her father in Vietnam, and Where's Your Jesus Now? Examining How Fear Erodes Our Faith.

LEE SMITH

Monday, March 8, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of America's most popular authors, makes a special encore visit to the Georgia Center for the Book with a fabulous new collection of short stories -- her first collection in 13 years -- Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger. Lee Smith is one of the American masters of short fiction, and this new book will delight and dazzle her many fans. Her characters range from an 8-year-old boy obsessed with vocabulary words to a young bride who has married "way up" to the title character, an older woman making her way through widowhood her own way. Lee Smith is the author of 15 books including Fair and Tender Ladies, Oral History, Black Mountain Breakdown and The Last Girls.

DON TEAGUE & RAFRAF BARRAK

Thursday, March 4, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

You won't want to miss this unique program with Emmy Award-winning CBS News Correspondent Don Teague and his Iraqi-born translator Rafraf Barrak discussing their book, Saved by Her Enemy: An Iraqi Woman's Journey from the Heart of War to the Heartland of America. The two met early in the Iraq War and were nearly killed by a terrorist bomb. their friendship transcended cultural and religious differences but ultimately forced her to leave her family and seek protection in America. Her story about finding her place in American society is mesmerizing. We'll have books for sale and signing by both authors.

ATLANTA'S BIG READ FEATURING DR. DEBORAH PLANT

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We invite you to join us for the important concluding event in Atlanta's 2009 "Big Read" program sponsored by the Atlanta History Center and its Margaret Mitchell House. This evening will feature the keynote address by acclaimed literary historian Deborah Plant, the author of Zora Neale Hurston: A Biography of the Spirit. She'll be discussing Hurston's best-known work, Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was the book featured in Atlanta's "Big Read" last year.

POETRY ATLANTA PRESENTS...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We once again join our good friends at Poetry Atlanta for a special Black History Month program featuring the work of several noted poets from throughout metro Atlanta. Award-winning poet and poetry slam champion Theresa Davis hosts this program, which features some of Atlanta's up-and-coming spoken word poets and local celebrities. Among them will be Darnell Fine and the members of the Java Monkey and Art Smok Slam Teams. It will be a lively evening!

GEORGIA ASSOCIATION OF HISTORIANS

Thursday, February 18, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome the GAH holding their 2010 annual meeting in Decatur. As part of their sessions, we are happy to host a free public program on two new books, Georgia Women: Their Lives and Their Times,Vols.1 & 2 published by UGA Press and featuring the editors Ann Short Chirhart, and Betty Wood, editors of Vol.1 and Kathleen Clark from the University of Georgia, editor of Vol. 2. Michele Gillespie from Wake Forest University will discuss Decatur's Mary Gay, and Steve Goodson from the University of West Georgia will talk about the legendary blues singer Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. We'll have books for sale and signing.

THOMAS RICKS

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The prize-winning journalist for The Washington Post and author of the bestselling account of the Iraq war through 2005, Fiasco, discusses his timely new book, The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008. General Petraeus led what became known as "the surge," a dramatic change of strategy, in spite of opposition within and without the military establishment and the Bush administration. Ricks' conclusion is that the military still has an important role to play in Iraq for some years to come. Join us for this provocative new book discussion.

ALEX BERENSON

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Berenson joins us with a cutting-edge novel that brings a riveting new suspense tale featuring his maverick CIA agent John Wells. The novel is The Midnight House, a story of "heart-stopping adventure" as Wells investigates who is killing the members of a secret overseas interrogation team. A reporter for The New York Times who has covered the war in Iraq and the flooding in New Orleans, Berenson won a coveted 2007 Edgar Award for his first novel, The Faithful Spy, and also the author of another bestselling spy story, The Ghost War.

HANNAH & KEVIN SALWEN

Monday, February 8, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The new book by the Salwens is a triumph of generosity and justice that will have a special meaning for Atlantans especially. Kevin is a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal now on the board of Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta. Inspired by his daughter Hannah, his family decided to downsize their large home in the city and donate half of the profits to a worthy charity, their effort to do something positive about the widening gap between haves and have-nots. Their decision galvanized thousands of people, and you'll read about the amazing results in their new book, The Power of Half: One family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start giving Back.

JIM WALLIS

Friday, February 5, 2010

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum

The widely respected NPR commentator and founder and editor of Sojourner magazine, discusses his best-selling examination of America's "new" religion and politics, The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America. Hailed by critics, Wallis' book argues that a "groundswell of progressive believers may accomplish a social transformation that politics and politicians cannot deliver." He is also the author of God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It.

THOMAS MULLEN

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Author of the acclaimed novel The Last Town on Earth, and a resident of Decatur, joins us to help launch his eagerly anticipated new novel, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers. It's a rollicking, imaginative Depression-era tale complete with kidnappings, gangsters, heiresses and speakeasies, focused on bank-robbing duo Jason and Whit, known as the Firefly Brothers. The novel is all about what happens when you get gunned down in a police shoot-out and go on to find out the truth about your mythical lives. We think it's headed for the top of best-seller lists! Join us for a reception to honor the author.

FRANCES SMITH FOSTER

Monday, February 1, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The distinguished Emory University scholar, discusses her acclaimed new book, 'Til Death or Distance Do Us Part: Love and Marriage in African America. The book is a compelling study of slave marriages that uncovers a rich legacy of love, struggle and commitment in the antebellum era. Critics call it "challenging and important" as it demolishes stereotypes of African Americans during an era when they were treated as chattel. Dr. Foster is the editor of The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature and The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, and the author of a dozen books. She is the Charles Howard Chandler Professor of English and Women's Studies at Emory and the former teacher of the year there.

MICHAEL SHELDEN

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Author of acclaimed biographies of Graham Greene and George Orwell, Shelden turns his attention to Mark Twain with an eagerly anticipated new book, Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years. It's a deeply researched book utilizing some unpublished sources that brings to vivid life Twain's last years, a period that found the humorist full of charm, vigor and charisma. Critics call it "a breakthrough in Twain biography" and praise the scholarship and writing ("eloquent and moving").

WILLIAM J. MORTON

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Morton visits us to discuss his fascinating new historical study, The Story of Georgia's Boundaries: A Meeting of History and Geography. Morton, who teaches at Emory University, writes about how history, geography and human error have all contributed to shaping our state's borders, and how these circumstances helped create a recent drought-inspired dispute over the correct boundary between Georgia and Tennessee. Critics call the book "informative and enjoyable" and packed with interesting, little-known facts and anecdotes.

JANISSE RAY

Monday, January 25, 2010

7:00 P.M., Fellowship Baptist Church, Fitzgerald, Georgia

The prize-winning and very popular Georgia author, will present a talk based on her acclaimed books Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Wild Card Quilt and Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land. Her work is included on the Georgia Center for the Book's list of "25 Books all Georgians Should Read," and her appearances are part of the "We the People" program funded through the Georgia Humanities Council. 7 p.m., Monday, January 25, Fellowship Baptist Church (126 Lincoln Avenue), Fitzgerald; 7 p.m., Tuesday, January 26, Moultrie/Colquitt Library, Moultrie. (All Georgia Reads/"We the People" program)

AMY GREENE

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We invite you to join us for the debut of a brilliant young writer's novel. Amy Greene comes from the East Tennessee Smoky Mountains, and her first novel Bloodroot is already being hailed by critics as "the work of a born storyteller ... with a deftly conjured atmosphere ... and a literary page-turner." The story follows one remarkable East Tennessee family from the Depression to the present with characters that will cling to your mind and prose so graceful it seems to soar. Don't miss meeting this wonderful new writer!

JAMIE IREDELL

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

The California-born writer now living in Atlanta visits to talk about his remarkable, highly acclaimed new book, Prose. Poems. A Novel. These prose poems "are among the most unique I've read: quirky, irreverent, surprising, funny," says Atlanta poet Thomas Lux. With haunting illustrations by artist Christy Call, these pieces create a powerful, loosely woven narrative of a journey from the West Coast to the east,a journey -- among other things -- out of self-destruction.

RITA DOVE

Friday, January 15, 2010

10:00 A.M., Cole Auditorium, Georgia Perimeter College-Clarkston Campus

The former Poet Laureate of the United States and Virginia and an award-winning poet, makes a special visit to Georgia Perimeter College. The author of many notable volumes of poetry including American Smooth, a short story collection and a novel, Rita Dove will be interviewed by Valerie Jackson during a taping of the program "Between the Lines." Her appearance is free and sponsored by our partner the Writers Institute at GPC as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Chattahoochee Review.

POETRY NIGHT WITH POETRY ATLANTA

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Join us for an evening of the spoken word as we host three of Atlanta's finest poets for a reading from their work as we continue our popular series co-sponsored with Poetry Atlanta and Poets & Writers.
Tara Betts is the author of the book Arc and Hue. Tara is a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. She is also a Cave Canem fellow. Her poetry has appeared in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and performed her work at venues around the world.
Tania Rochelle is the author of the critically acclaimed collection Karaoke Funeral and the newly released The World’s Last Bone. Rochelle is the poetry editor for Chattahoochee Review and her work has appeared in numerous journals around the country.
Travis Wayne Denton is the Associate Director of Poetry at Tech as well as a McEver Chair in Poetry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the founding editor of Terminus literary magazine and his poems have appeared in journals, magazines and publications around the country. The Burden of Speech is his debut collection of poetry.

JAYNE ANN PHILLIPS

Monday, January 11, 2010

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The acclaimed author of bestsellers Motherkind, Machine Dreams and Shelter, and 2009 National Book Award Finalist, visits us to begin the new year of author lectures with a long-awaited and and wonderful coming-of-age tale of grief and survival, Lark and Termite. It's a novel The New Yorker is calling "a moving exploration of familial love." The story focuses on a week in 1959 when 17-year-old Lark and her mute brother Termite, all struggling with despair and hopelessness, confront some painful truths about their past. It's a "wrenching and suspenseful" portrait of devotion you won't soon forget.

RUSSELL S. BONDS

Thursday, December 17, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Author of Stealing the General, Bonds re-tells the epic story of what one observer call 'The greatest event of the Civil War' - the struggle for the city of Atlanta. It was the conflict that secured the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, sealed the fate of the Confederacy, and set a precedent for military campaigns across the world.War Like the Thunderbolt is based on new research into diaries, previously unpublished letters, newspapers, and other archival sources, this superb volume takes readers across the smoky battlefield and into the lives of fascinating characters, both the famous and the forgotten.
Bonds is an in-house lawyer at The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta and a lifelong resident of north Georgia.

RICK BRAGG & SONNY BREWER

Friday, December 11, 2009

7:00 P.M., Georgia Perimeter College, Clarkston Campus

Join us for a special evening with two of the finest Southern writers around. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Bragg (All Over But the Shoutin', Ava's Man) has a wonderful new book, The Most They Ever Had, a powerfully affecting story of a mill community in Alabama and the hardscrabble lives of the people who worked there. Brewer (The Widow of Tolstoy Park) has a terrific new novel, The Widow and the Tree, an Alabama tale of dark deeds based on a true story. Books will be for sale and signing by A Cappella Books; buying your books at this event will benefit the Georgia Center for the Book.

DEIRDRE O'CONNELL

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Prize-winning documentary filmmaker, O'Connell visits us with a remarkable new book: The Ballad of Blind Tom, Slave Pianist. Blind Tom, born in 1848 in Columbus, GA, was a piano prodigy and national curiosity in the 19th century who performed for thousands of people including Mark Twain. He also suffered at the hands of greedy promoters and managers, and this biography is a brilliant accounting of his life. Critics say its well researched narrative "reflects the tenor of the times, the culture of the Old South, the chaos of emancipation and Blind Tom's devotion to his performances."
O'Connell will also appear at the Columbus Library in Columbus, Georgia as part of the Georgia Humanities Council's "We the People" program and is co-sponsored by the Chattahoochee Valley Library on Wednesday, December 9 at 7:00 P.M.

SUE GRAFTON

Friday, December 4, 2009

7:00 P.M., Decatur Presbyterian Church

The "master of mystery" and one of America's most popular authors, makes her first visit to the Georgia Center for the Book with an exciting new Kinsey Millhone mystery: U is for Undertow. It's the 21st in her amazing alphabet mystery series, all featuring the heroine "with foibles you can laugh at and whose faults you can forgive." It's the follow-up novel to her bestseller T is for Trespass. We know you won't want to miss this special pre-Christmas appearance! PLEASE NOTE: in order to participate in the book signing that follows her talk, you must purchase at least one copy of the author's new book at this event.
PARKING INFORMATION
Please be advised that parking at or near the Library and Presbyterian Church is limited. Please click on the link below for parking information for the City of Decatur. We encourage you to park in the County parking Deck on the corner of Trinity and Commerce Streets.
parking
information
Book Drive Sue is collecting book donations on behalf of the Wish You Well Foundation during her book tour. We are one of the venues selected as a collection venue during her tour.Look for the large white box donation box, and simply place your new or gently used books in it.

DOUG CRANDELL

Thursday, December 3, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Crandell's new book is a stunner: Fear Came to Town: The Santa Claus, Georgia, Murders. And it's sadly all true. Santa Claus is a real town in Toombs County, GA, near Vidalia. It's a small town where the streets are named for Christmas treats and the holiday spirit lives year-round. At least it did until Jerry Scott Heidler, who was raised in the town, brutally slaughtered his foster family in a grisly crime that shattered the community. It's an unforgettable story told by the author who carefully investigated the murders. Crandell is also the author of the novels The Flawless Skin of Ugly People and Hairdos of the Mildly Depressed.

SHERRI SHEPHERD

Saturday, November 21, 2009

2:00 P.M., Decatur Recreation Center

You've seen her co-hosting TV's hugely popular show "The View," and now she's visiting us with a delightful, exciting new book, Permission Slips: Every Woman's Guide to Giving Herself a Break. She is a dynamic, energetic personality whose book exudes the same qualities, and we know you won't want to miss her special appearance with the Georgia Center for the Book. We'll have copies of her new book for sale at this event, and we urge you to purchase yours here, though you may bring one you have already purchased. She'll be signing books after her talk. The Decatur Recreation Center is located at 231 Sycamore St., next door to the Decatur Library. Doors open at 1 p.m.
Because we anticipate a large crowd, we urge you to use the County Parking Deck located on the corner of Commerce and Trinity Streets. For parking information and a map of downtown Decatur, please visit :http://decaturga.com/cgs_citysvcs_ced_parking.aspx

DEBBIE MACOMBER

Friday, November 20, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The bestselling author visits us with a new and unusual book: One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity. It's a book you won't soon forget with "a master storyteller's true stories showing how simple acts of generosity had lasting, life-changing impacts on givers and recipients." It's a heart-sharing book that all Macomber fans will want to celebrate with her here. Her books, which have sold millions of copies, include The Manning Brides, Right Next Door, Moon Over Water and Back on Blossom Street.

MARY KAY ANDREWS

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The delightful Atlanta writer and New York Times bestselling author (Hissy Fit, Savannah Breeze, Deep Dish) Kathy Trocheck returns as Mary Kay Andrews with a laugh-out-loud, wonderful new novel, The Fixer Upper. It's the drop-dead funny story of one woman's quest to re-do an old home. It was written at the same time the author was fixing up an old home at Tybee Beach, and we'll have some before-and-after photos to help illustrate how art imitates life.

RAYMOND ATKINS & PHILIP DEPOY

Monday, November 16, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Two fine Georgia writers visit us to talk about their exciting new books. Ray Atkins, the Rome-based author of The Front Porch Prophet, has a novel about a murder investigation in a small Southern town that leads to secrets of the human soul. It's a page-turner called Sorrow Wood. Philip DePoy's new historical thriller is The King James Conspiracy, centered on a series of gory slayings among the team of scholars preparing a new English translation of the Bible. DePoy's popular novels include Dead Easy and The Drifter's Wheel.

SAVANNAH CHILDREN'S BOOK FESTIVAL

Saturday, November 14, 2009

10 A.M. - 4 P.M., Forsyth Park, Savannah, Georgia

We invite you to the sixth annual festival celebrating authors and illustrators of books for young readers that brings thousands of families to Savannah. The Center for the Book is again one of the participants, and we hope you'll drop by to visit our tent and meet the award-winning writers we'll have with us: Laurel Snyder and Ted Dunagan. Among the dozens of authors who'll be taking part in the festival are Laura Numeroff, Michael P. White and David Biedrzyski. For details, go to www.liveoakpl.org/scbf.

JAMIE FORD

Thursday, November 12, 2009

7:00 P.M., Toco Hill-Avis G. Williams Library

The acclaimed young novelist discusses his first book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Its a powerful story that spans several generations, set on the West Coast during the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. It focuses on a young Chinese boy who falls in love with a Japanese girl and the difficulties and challenges their relationship must endure. Critics call it "engaging," and "an old fashioned historical novel."

JILL MCCORKLE

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of America's favorite writers, joins us at the Center for the Book with a delightful new story collection, her first in eight years, Going Away Shoes. It's a wonderfully embracing book that offers 11 new stories focusing on women looking love in the face without flinching, and it's written with McCorkle's customary wit and depth. We urge you not to miss this exceptional author's appearance here. McCorkle is a native North Carolinian whose many popular novels and collections include The Cheerleader, July 7, Tending to Virginia, Carolina Moon and Ferris Beach.

GORDON WOOD

Monday, November 9, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and one of America's most distinguished historians of early America, discusses his "superb" new book, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. It's the latest in the acclaimed "Oxford History of the United States" series, a definitive look at what we know about the first quarter-century of our nation's history under the Constitution. Critics are calling it "a triumph of the historian's art."

ATLANTA QUEER LITERARY FESTIVAL

Saturday, November 7, 2009

9 A.M. -6 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Georgia Center for the Book is co-sponsor of this year's event which runs November 4-7, and we'll host a day-long series of programs and workshops on poetry and prose featuring two dozen metro writers including Megan Volpert, James Caroline, Ami Mattison, Franklin Abbott,Sara Amis and others. The complete schedule of events around the Metro-Area may be found at www.atlantaqueerlitfest.blogspot.com.
A Day of Readings & Workshops,
Decatur Library
Meeting Room
9 AM - Wesley Chenault (presentation)
10AM - Regie Cabico (workshop)
11AM - James Caroline (workshop)
NOON - Bob Strain, Dustin Brookshire, Charles Jensen, Joanna Hoffman (poets reading)
1PM - Kit Yan (workshop)
2PM - Marty McConnell (workshop)
3PM - Ami Mattison (workshop)
4PM - Joanna Hoffman (workshop)
5PM - A reading/discussion by contributors to Femmethology (panel and reading)

Library Auditorium
9AM - Franklin Abbott, Reginald Jackson, Regie Cabico, James Caroline (poetry)
10AM - Cleo Creech, Scott Wiggerman, Yolo Akili, Michael Montlack (poetry)
11AM - Elliott Mackle, Roger Bailey, Jameson Currier, John Mifsud (prose)
NOON - Sara Amis, Catherine Lundoff, Lara Zielinsky (prose)
1PM - Karen G, Jessica Hand, Lakara Foster, Marty McConnell (poetry)
2PM - JT bullock, Megan Volpert, Jim Elledge, Joanna Hoffman (poetry)
3PM - Andrew Beierle, G. Winston James, Collin Kelley (prose)
4PM - Terry Galloway (prose)
5PM - Ami Mattison, Theresa Davis, Charles Jensen, Kit Yan (poetry)

MARTHA ACKMANN

Thursday, November 5, 2009

7:30 P.M., Gaines Chapel-Presser Hall, Agnes Scott College

A member of the Gender Studies Department at Mount Holyoke College and a scholar on the life and work of the poet Emily Dickinson, Ackmann presents a lecture on her book, The Mercury 13: The True Story of 13 Women and the Dream of Space Flight. It's the amazing and forgotten story of the women astronauts who trained to go into space in the 1960s. This program is sponsored by Agnes Scott College and the Georgia Humanities Council.

For Directions and parking information, please visit:http://www.agnesscott.edu

KATE JACOBS

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The wonderful "Queen of Knitting Novels" makes a much-anticipated return visit to the Center for the Book to talk about her new book, Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel. It's a sequel to her popular novel Knit Two, and critics are calling it "a moving, laugh-out-loud celebration of special times with friends and family." Jacobs drew a large and enthusiastic crowd for her appearance here last year, and we welcome her back! She is also the author of the bestselling novel Comfort Food.
During the tour for Knit the Season: A Friday Night Knitting Club Novel. , Kate will be helping families stay warm this winter by having host venues participate in the "Warming Families" Campaign. Please consider bringing a hand knit, or new cap to the event to be donated to local shelters. There will also be Door Prizes and a special gifts for attendees. Don't forget to bring your knitting!

PHILIP LEE WILLIAMS WITH SPECIAL GUEST TERRY KAY

Monday, November 2, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of Georgia's finest authors and winner of the Michael Shaara Award for his Civil War novel A Distant Flame, returns with an exciting and brilliantly written new Civil War story, The Campfire Boys. Don't miss this special appearance by Williams in an on-stage conversation with his friend and admiring fellow author, Terry Kay. Williams is a novelist, poet and essayist whose books include The Heart of a Distant Forest and Crossing Wildcat Ridge, and he also is represented on the Georgia Center for the Book's list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read."

PADGETT POWELL

Thursday, October 29, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of America's finest and most original authors, visits us with an electrifying new book, The Interrogative Mood: A Novel? The prize-winning author of four novels including his debut bestseller, Edisto, Powell offers in his latest work, a stunning stylistic feast: a brilliant capture of the swing and snap of American talk, an absorbing "bebop symphony" that pulses with life. Powell currently teaches at the University of Florida.

ERSKINE CLARKE

Thursday, October 29, 2009

4:30 P.M., Southwest Georgia Regional Library

The prize-winning religious historian, will discuss his acclaimed study of slaves and slaveowners in coastal Georgia, Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic. The book, which won the prestigious Bancroft Prize, offers the compelling story of four generations of a Georgia plantation's inhabitants, white and black. His book appears on the Center for the Book's current list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read," and his lecture is part of the "We the People" program funded by the Georgia Humanities Council. 4:30 p.m., Thursday, October 29, Southwest Georgia Regional Library (Bainbridge).. Clarke will also discuss his book on Friday, October 30 at 7:00 P.M. in the Thomas County Public Library in Thomasville, Georgia. (All Georgia Reads/"We the People" program)

WIL HAYGOOD

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Haygood is the author of a riveting new biography, Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson, perhaps the greatest boxer in history. Haygood's book is "a biography worthy of a great athlete and an important social force," vividly detailing the often controversial life in and out of the ring of the legendary Sugar Ray, who was born in rural Ailey, Georgia, in Montgomery County near Vidalia.. His story weaves in some of the major figures in 20th century American history including Langston Hughes, Miles Davis and Lena Horne. Haygood previously has written acclaimed biographies of Adam Clayton Powell and Sammy Davis Jr. Haygood will also present a lecture about his book in Vidalia as part of the "We the People" program funded by the Georgia Humanities Council. 7 p.m., Thursday, October 29, Ohoopee Regional Library (Vidalia). (All Georgia Reads/"We the People" program)

DAVID PLOTZ

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

7:00 P.M., Recepetion Hall, Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

Plotz visits to talk about his delightful, revelatory and entertaining book, Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Discovered When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible. Plotz has raised a few eyebrows with his new book, which offers an unconventional examination of the world's best-known work. Plotz is also the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank. Don't miss this unusual program co-sponsored with Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum.

ROBERT HICKS

Monday, October 26, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Author of the popular best-selling novel The Widow of the South, returns with a heart-rending new work, A Separate Country. It's a deeply affecting book based on the life of John Bell Hood, one of the most controversial Confederate Civil War generals. He lost two limbs in action and was relieved of his command just before the Battle of Atlanta. After the war, he married and tried to build a new life but remained damaged by defeat and pain; his story is that of a good and decent man beset by tragedy, and you won't soon forget it when you read Hicks' book.

HANK KLIBANOFF

Sunday, October 25, 2009

3:00 P.M., Athens-Clarke County Library, Athens Regional Library System

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Race Beat, a book that explores with insightful depth the way the news media covered the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement in America. He is the former managing editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His book appears on the Center for the Book's current list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read," and his appearance is part of the "We the People" program funded by the Georgia Humanities Council.

JEANNETTE WALLS

Thursday, October 22, 2009

7:00 P.M., Central Library, One Margaret Mitchell Square, Atlanta

The acclaimed author of the bestseller The Glass Castle, visits to talk about her latest, memorable book, Half Broke Horses: a True-Life Novel. It's the story of her remarkable grandmother, a no-nonsense, hard-working woman who grew up on rough farms in Texas and Arizona and who raised two children, one of whom was Jeanette's mother, so unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle. We know you'll love the book and want to meet this popular, gifted author. Co-sponsored by Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Free parking is now available in the Lanier Parking Deck located directly behind the library building. Simply bring your parking ticket to the reading, and the Library staff will happily validate it for you. Books will be available for sale at the event courtesy of Blue Elephant Bookstore on Decatur.

TERRY KAY

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

7:00 P.M., Young Harris College

The beloved, award-winning Georgia author of books including To Dance with the White Dog, The Story of Marie, The Valley of Light and The Year the Lights Came On, appears in a special program to talk about his life and work. His books appear on the Center for the Book's list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." His appearance is part of the "We the People" program funded by the Georgia Humanities Council. . Presented with the Mountain Regional Library and Young Harris College. (All Georgia Reads/"We the People" program)

R.A.SALVATORE

Monday, October 19, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

One of the giants of fantasy fiction for young adults and adults visits us for the first time. The author of more than 40 books, a dozen of them New York Times' bestsellers, Salvatore has a terrific, exciting new book: The Ghost King: Transitions, Book III, the gripping conclusion to the Transitions trilogy. When the Spellplague ravages Faerun, Drizzt and his companions are caught in the chaos. Seeking help from the priest Cadderly, the hero of the recently reissued series, The Cleric Quintet, Drizzt finds himself facing his most powerful and elusive foe: the twisted Crenshinibon, the demonic crystal shard believed destroyed many years before.
Doors open at 6:30 P.M. Books will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of Eagle Eye Bookshop in Decatur, and a portion of the proceeds directly benefit the Georgia Center for the Book. Mr. Salvatore will be happy to sign backlist titles.

GEORGIA LITERARY FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 17, 2009

9 A.M. - 5 P.M., Broad St. , Rome, Georgia

The 11th annual festival, a "moveable feast" that celebrates Georgia's rich literary heritage in a different city each year, will be held in Rome. It marks the festival's first appearance in Northwest Georgia. More than 30 authors will be lecturing, appearing on panels and signing books including Terry Kay, Hollis Gillespie, Virginia Willis, Robert J. Norrell, Lauretta Hannon, Patricia Sprinkle, Eric Haney, Joshilyn Jackson, Raymond Atkins and Kim Siegelson. The festival also will pay a special tribute to four Georgia writers: Anthony Grooms, Melanie Sumner and the late Calder Willingham and Jeanne Braselton. All events are free; no tickets required. For details, go to www.georgialiteraryfestival.org.

Cobb is the B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Georgia and one of the nation's finest historians of the South. He is the prize-winning author and editor of a dozen books including Georgia Odyssey, which is on the Center for the Book's current list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." His appearance is part of the All Georgia Reads/"We the People" program funded by the Georgia Humanities Council

JUDSON MITCHAM

Thursday, August 6, 2009

6:30 P.M., Cherokee Regional Library, LaFayette, Georgia

An All Georgia Reads/"We the People" program featuring the two time winner winner of the prestigious Townsend Award, is an acclaimed poet and novelist from Macon whose books include Sabbath Creek and The Sweet Everlasting. His new book of poetry, A Little Salvation, is on the Center for the Book's current list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." His appearance of part of the "We the People" program funded by the Georgia Humanities Council.

JAMES BRAZIEL

Monday, August 3, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We don't want to scare you, but author James Braziel has written a book with a pretty scary premise, and he's coming to talk about on Monday evening. The novel is Snakeskin Road, and it's a powerful story, a cautionary, futuristic tale of a woman's harrowing journey of survival through a familiar landscape devastated by catastrophic climactic change. In other words, it's a scenario for what could happen -- and it's set in the Southeastern United States. Braziel is the author of two acclaimed novels, Birmingham, 35 Miles. This one is the newest and his best, we think. We think you'll also enjoy hearing from him and discussing all of the possibilities his story envisions. We'll have copies of his book for sale and signing, provided by our Friends at Eagle Eye Bookshop in Decatur.

STEPHEN L. CARTER

Friday, July 31, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Carter, whose brilliant debut novel The Emperor of Ocean Park was a New York Times bestselling novel, returns with something different: a new book, Jericho's Fall, centered on the shadowy world of spies, government secrecy and financial fraud. It's a riveting thriller for Carter, professor of Law at Yale University since 1982. His other books, all featured on many bestseller lists, include Palace Council and New England White. Doors for this event open at 6:30 p.m. Please use the library's lower rear entrance to enter the Auditorium.

COLEMAN BARKS

Thursday, July 30, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The distinguished, prize-winning poet and translator, visits us with an important new book, Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems, 1968-2008. Critics are calling it "masterful," rich in vitalilty and originality, "funny, brave and honest." Barks has taught creative writing and American poetry in the English department at the University of Georgia for 30 years, and has written and translated dozens of books. He is the foremost translator of the 13th century mystic poet Jalal Al-Din, and his bestsellers include The Essential Rumi, The Soul of Rumi and Rumi: The Book of Love.

RICHARD DOSTER

Monday, July 27, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The fine, award-winning Atlanta author, returns with an exciting, throught-provoking new novel: Crossing the Lines. The story focuses on events of the mid-1950s when Jack Hall, a reporter for the AJC, encounters stories of white violence against black Americans. He sets out to counter those stories with those of the South he knows well and loves, only to find there are important, hidden connections between the best and worst in the region. Doster is editor of byFaith magazine, the official publication of the Presbyterian Church in America and a native of Mississippi.

JOSHUA CORIN & ZACHARY STEELE

Thursday, July 23, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

A pair of absolutely delightful debut fantasy novelists join us for what promises to be a wild and crazy evening! Steele, until recently the owner of Wordsmiths Bookstore in Decatur, has a hilarious "biting satire" called Anointed: The Passion of Timmy Christ. It's an entertaining spin on religion, big business and the apocalypse that should have a special appeal for fans of fantasy fiction. Corin's novel is Nuclear Winter Wonderland: A Tale of Nuclear Terror, Kidnapping, Gangsters and Family Values. Critics call it a "surreal comedy thriller" and Booklist gives it a starred review. Don't miss the fun with these two authors reading on our stage.

MATTHEW H. BERNSTEIN

Monday, July 13, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Bernstein,professor, chair and director of graduate studies in the Film Studies Department at Emory University, visits with a unique program on one of the worst crimes in Atlanta's history: The murder of Leo Frank in 1913. In his revelatory new book, Screening a Lynching, Bernstein is the first scholar to examine feature films and television programs that followed in the wake of the sensational case. For this evening's presentation, he will show clips from some of these programs and offer insights into the cultural aspects of the productions to illuminate issues of race, ethnicity, religion and law. It will be a dramatic, important evening.

CHARLES MARTIN

Monday, June 29, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Martin is the author of five acclaimed novels including Chasing Fireflies, Maggie and When Crickets Cry, returns with his latest, Where the River Ends. It's a heartbreaking tale, filled with "unabashed romanticism" that will remind readers of Nicholas Sparks with its story of a man carrying out his wife's last wish on a wild river in Georgia. Martin lives in Jacksonville.

DON O'BRIANT WITH JIM COBB

Monday, June 22, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Whether you're a newcomer to this state or a native, you'll find yourself learning something new and being entertained in the process at this program featuring author and former AJC book editor Don O'Briant and prize-winning UGA historian Dr. James Cobb. O'Briant will talk about his new book, Newcomer's Guide to Georgia, a delightfully comprehensive look at the whos, whys and wheres of the Peach State, while Cobb will reflect on his acclaimed book about the state's wild and crazy history, Georgia Odyssey.

POETRY ATLANTA:TROUBLE & HOPE

Thursday, June 18, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Center for the Book welcomes the continuing new partnership with Poetry Atlanta for another special evening of poetry and film. Trouble & Hope is DVD anthology of poets in performance and conversation more than two years in the making. The film features some of Atlanta's finest poets and spoken word artists. Featured on the DVD are: Travis Denton, Kodac Harrison, Karen Head, Collin Kelley, Alice Lovelace, Opal Moore, Natasha Trethewey, Dan Veach, Megan Volpert and a special tribute to the late Shannon Leigh. Filmed at locations around Atlanta, including Java Monkey Coffee House, Composition Gallery and the Decatur Book Festival, this special DVD will be available for purchase for $15 at the event ( CASH AND CHECKS ONLY,PLEASE), and several of the featured poets will be on hand to answer questions.

JOHN FERLING

Monday, June 8, 2009

7:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Ferling, the award-winning historian, returns with his perceptive new look at a familiar figure, The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon. Hailed as a man who put country above politics and who served only for the best interest of his country, Washington is shown by Ferling to be a great man in spite of his deep personal ambition and the decisions he made based on political considerations. This is Ferling's seventh book about our Founding Fathers including A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic and Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800.
We will also raffle a selection history books prior to the program, so come early and get your ticket at the door!
Please note the early start time for this program.

PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY

Monday, June 1, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The wonderful Atlanta author whose best-selling books include Where the River Runs and Between the Tides, joins us for a celebration of her new, delightful novel, Driftwood Summer. She'll read from the book and talk about her work and then sign copies at the library. Then near 9 p.m., we'll adjourn to her official "Book Launch Party" at the Roof-top patio at the Artisan, 201 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.Please note the new location.The party is co-sponsored with the Decatur Book Festival, so plan to be with us for both parts of this delightful free event!

ROBYN O'BRIEN

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

O'Brien, a national expert on children's health and food allergies, will discuss her important new book, The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food is Making Us Sick -- and What We Can Do About It. The book describes her transformation into a one-woman crusader seeking to identify food allergies that affect children, and her discovery of shocking truths about toxicity in American food systems. Parents won't want to miss this program. O'Brien is the founder of AllergyKids, an organization devoting to raising awareness about food toxins. She has been featured in The New York Times and CNN.

DOUGLAS PRESTON & LINCOLN CHILD

Saturday, May 23, 2009

1:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, the celebrated authors of such national bestsellers as Relic, Reliquary and The Book of the Dead pay us a visit to talk about their latest Pendergast novel, Cemetery Dance. It's a thriller featuring the world's most enigmatic special agent, this time investigating a murderous cult in New York City after a Manhattan couple is brutally attacked -- by a man who died and was buried 10 days earlier. Please note the special time for this event. A Literary Arts Festival program presented in conjunction with the Decatur Arts Festival

BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR

Thursday, May 21, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Author of the acclaimed memoir, Leaving Church, about her departure from the full-time ministry to become an educator, has a wonderful new book, Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith. In her 12 chapters, she mines the potentially sacred meaning of simple daily activities and offers a guide to finding the holy in everyday life. Don't miss this memorable program! A Literary Arts Festival program presented as part of the Decatur Arts Festival

LEONARD TODD

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Leonard Todd tells a scarcely believable but true story in his new book, Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend ot the Slave Potter Dave. Todd moved to South Carolina to learn more about the slave known only as Dave, who was owned by Todd's ancestors. Dave was one of the most singular artists of the 19th century, creating remarkable storage jars and pots and signing them with poems, unheard of for a slave to admit such literacy. His work today, only rarely available, draws hundreds of thousands of dollars. A Literary Arts Festival program presented as part of the Decatur Arts Festival

ALEKSANDAR HEMON

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Hemon, who was recently awarded a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, visits to discuss his new book, Love and Obstacles, a powerful, disquieting collection of eight stories whose settings range from Chicago to the author's native Sarajevo. Hemon's acclaimed books include The Lazarus Project, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, Nowhere Man and The Question of Bruno. He is also a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. A Literary Arts Festival program presented as part of the Decatur Arts Festival

MINDY FRIDDLE

Monday, May 18, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Author of the fine debut novel The Garden Angel, returns with a delightful new novel that will remind many of Lee Smith, Secret Keepers. Its the story of a divided family in a small Southern town drawn together by a mysterious and potent botanical influence. Friddle is a prize-winning author who lives in Greenville, SC. A Literary Arts Festival program presented as part of the Decatur Arts Festival

MICHAEL MALONE

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Michael Malone, a "master of storytelling" and winner of an Edgar Award, the O. Henry Prize and an Emmy for television writing, makes his first visit to us with a terrific new novel, The Four Corners of the Sky. Malone, who has written 10 bestselling novels including Dingley Falls, Handling Sin, Time's Witness and Foolscap, is better than ever with his latest book, "a novel of love, secrets, and the mysterious bonds that help hold families together."

ARTHUR PHILLIPS

Monday, May 11, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The best-selling author of Prague and The Egyptologist, and hailed by The Washington Post as "one of the best writers in America," will talk about his acclaimed new novel, The Song is You. It's a powerful, original and lyrical gem, a "closely observed tale of an unusual love in the digital age."

RIVER OF WORDS AWARDS CEREMONY

Saturday, May 9, 2009

3:00 P.M., Chattahoochee Nature Center, Roswell

Our popular statewide student competition in poetry and visual arts, will end by honoring this year's winners at a special ceremony. You're invited to meet and celebrate with us as we display the student's award-winning entries for the first time. A reception follows the event.

JIM LEHRER

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Jim Lehrer, the respected host of PBS NewsHour, makes a special visit with his 19th novel, the new and delilghtful Oh, Johnny, a story "brimming with memorable characters" that cleverly and humorously blends baseball, World War II and romance. You won't want to miss this this talk by Lehrer, whose many popular novels include Mack to the Rescue, Flying Crows, Kick the Can and The Phony Marine. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Seating is limited, no advance reservations or tickets, first-come, first-seated. Additional parking may be located at the County Parking Deck next to the DeKalb County Courthouse on the corner of Commerce Dr. and W. Trinity place. Additional Parking information can be obtained at: www.decaturga.com, then click on "visitors".

LAURETTA HANNON

Monday, May 4, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Hannon, who grew up in Warner Robins and now lives in Atlanta, has written a wonderful first book that is getting lots of attention: The Cracker Queen. It's an unflinching, poignant, warmly humorous memoir that takes readers on a wild ride from central Georgia to Savannah with a cast of dysfunctional families and a lively crew of hell-raisers and renegades.Hannon is best known for her engaging commentaries on NPR.

DECATUR GREEN FESTIVAL FEATURING LYNN COULTER AND PATRICIA KRYSTI HOWELL

Saturday, May 2, 2009

2:00 P.M. and 4 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Author events for the Green festival have been CANCELLED

DARA TORRES

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

7:00 P.M., Day Chapel, Jimmy Carter Center

Dara Torres, the Olympic gold medal swimmer, will be our guest for a very special evening talking about her new book, Age is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage of Your Life. It's a motivational, inspirational memoir by the amazing 41-year-old mother who won America's hearts when she made a successful Olympic comeback in the 2008 Beijing Games. Doors open at 6. No tickets or reservations, first-come, first-seated.

GEORGIA DEBUT AUTHOR NIGHT FEATURING MARK FITTEN AND LALEH KHADIVI

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome two more talented Georgia authors with their wonderful new first novels. Marc Fitten is the very gifted editor of Chattahoochee Review whose novel Valeria's Last Stand is a comic feast set in 1990s Hungary. Laleh Khadivi is the author of The Age of Orphans, a novel acclaimed already as a "stunning" work of great originality framed in graphic, poetic language.

GEORGIA DEBUT AUTHOR NIGHT FEATURING SANDRA NOVACK AND SUSAN REBECCA WHITE

Monday, April 27, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

We welcome two wonderfully talented Georgia authors who are celebrating the publication of their first novels. Susan Rebecca White is the Atlanta-born author of Bound South, a delicious, compelling story of the clash of women caught between old-fashioned Atlanta traditions and 21st century reality. Sandra Novack's new novel Precious is a novel you won't soon forget, a lyrical, finely crafted story about family love, its costs and its consequences.

LETTERS ABOUT LITERATURE AWARD CEREMONY

Saturday, April 25, 2009

2:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

You are cordially invited to join us for the 8th annual awards ceremony honoring statewide winners in our student literary competition. Students in grades 4-12 around Georgia have written letters to their favorite authors, and the winning entries as judged nationally and locally will be celebrated this afternoon. The short program is open to everyone; a reception follows.

CHRISTOPHER MANGANIELLO

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

7:00 P.M., Cebtral Library-Atlanta Fulton Public Library

Christopher J. Manganiello along with Paul Sutter, are the editors of an important new book, Environmental History and the American South. The book, which ranges from the Texas plains to the Carolina lowcountry, examines social and racial histories of environmental thought and shows "what has made the South a unique and complicated place...in its culture and economy as in its climate and terrain." Sutter teaches at UGA and is the author of Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement. This event will be held at the Central Library, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, 1 Margaret Mitchell Square, Atlanta.

KEVIN WILSON

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Kevin Wilson visits to discuss his highly praised new book, a dazzling collection of stories, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories . Critics are calling this collection "a superb, often audacious" grouping of stories "that rework the ordinary into surreal yet hauntingly plausible worlds, from which we emerge seeing ourselves with fresh, if somewhat nervous, clarity."

GWEN IFILL

Monday, April 20, 2009

7:00 P.M., Presser Hall, Agnes Scott College

Senior Correspondent for NPR and "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" and moderator of last fall's Vice-presidential debates, will discuss her critically acclaimed new book, The Breakthrough: Race and Politics in the Age of Obama. This is a re-scheduled appearance due to a cancellation here in February . Doors open at 6 p.m. No advance reservations or tickets, first-come, first-seated. Parking available in the Agnes Scott parking garage. For directions, please visit www.agnesscott.edu. Books will be available for purchase at the event.

LEONARD PITTS

Friday, April 17, 2009

7:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Leonard Pitts, Jr., who won the Pulitzer Prize for political commentary in his nationally syndicated newspaper column, makes a special visit here to talk about a new venture: his first novel, Before I Forget. It's a story of passion and courage exploring the difficult relationships between fathers and sons. Critics say "it's a must for male readers that women need to hear, too." Please note the special start time for this program.

PHILIP LEE WILLIAMS & KODAC HARRISON

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Two of Georgia's finest and best-known poets join us for a special evening that poetry lovers won't want to miss. Williams, who has won a number of awards for his novels and essays including Georgia Author of the Year, will read from his new collection, Elegies for the Water. Harrison has published in numerous magazines and books and directs the very popular Java Monkey Speaks Poetry Series in Decatur.

CELEBRATING EUDORA WELTY

Monday, April 13, 2009

4:30-8:00 P.M., Georgia State University & Rialto Center for the Arts

The "Eudora Welty Centennial Lecture" features Dr. Daniele Pitavy-Souques, internationally recognized Welty scholar from Dijon, France. Her talk begins at 4:30 p.m. in the Speakers Auditorium in the Student Center Building at at Georgia State University. A Welty party follows from 6-8 p.m. at the Rialto Center for the Arts featuring jazz and refreshments and readings from Welty's works by noted Atlanta actors Brenda Bynum and Tom Key. All activities are free.

POETRY ATLANTA FEATURING PAUL GUEST & MEGAN VOLPERT

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The Georgia Center for the Book is pleased to begin a new partnership with Poetry Atlanta. Poetry Atlanta will present readings at the Decatur Library, bringing the finest poets in Metro-Atlanta to our stage. The first program features Guest, a poet paralyzed since the age of 12 and the author of the acclaimed My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge. Volpert, from Atlanta, is the author of two sharply written, amusing books, The Desense of Nonfense and Face Blindness.

Kathryn Stockett, Mississippi-born author now living in Atlanta, unveils her first novel, The Help, already being hailed by critics as a "contemporary classic." It's an unforgettable novel of three women and the crossing of racial barriers in 1960s Mississippi, a "timeless and universal story." Joining Stockett will be Octavia Spencer, an Atlanta actor, who will take part in the program.

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY

Monday, February 9, 2009

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

Correspondent for Newsweek and son of the late poet James Dickey, will discuss his new book, Securing the City: Inside America's Counterror Best: The NYPD. It's a tribute to the New York City police department and an examination of why it has been successful in protecting America's largest city.

SAVANNAH BOOK FESTIVAL

Friday, February 6, 2009

, Savannah, Georgia

The lovely coastal city welcomes Roy Blount Jr., Paula Deen, Ferrol Sams, J.A. Jance, Mary Kay Andrews, Judith Ortiz Cofer, David Bottoms, Jabari Asim, Natasha Trethewey, Douglas Blackmon, Julia Reed, Damon Lee Fowler and more than 15 other authors for the second annual event. Most programs free. Details at www.savannahbookfestival.org. February 6-8, locations around Savannah.

WOMEN POETS NIGHT

Thursday, February 5, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Women Poets Night, features a pair of extremely gifted women poets who will talk about and read from their work. Andrea Cohen grew up in Atlanta and is the author of an acclaimed new book of poems, Long Division. She is director of the Blacksmith House Poetry Series and writes about marine research at MIT. Beth Gylys is an Associate Professor at Georgia State University. Her book, Spot in the Dark won the Ohio State University Press Journal Prize.Joining them will be Atlantan Lynn Pedersen, whose new book is Theories of Rain. Her poems, essays and reviews have appeared in many publications including Southern Poetry Review and New England Review.

WOMEN POETS NIGHT

Thursday, February 5, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Women Poets Night, features a pair of extremely gifted women poets who will talk about and read from their work. Andrea Cohen grew up in Atlanta and is the author of an acclaimed new book of poems, Long Division. She is director of the Blacksmith House Poetry Series and writes about marine research at MIT. Beth Gylys is an Associate Professor at Georgia State University. Her book, Spot in the Dark won the Ohio State University Press Journal Prize.Joining them will be Atlantan Lynn Pedersen, whose new book is Theories of Rain. Her poems, essays and reviews have appeared in many publications including Southern Poetry Review and New England Review.

STEPHANIE KALLOS

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

A nationally known actress, teacher and author of the award-winning novel Broken for You, visits with a powerful new novel, Sing them Home. Set in a small Nebraska town "where the living get more attention than the dead," it tells of the three Jones children searching for answers in the decades following their mother's disappearance in a tornado.

GWEN IFILL

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

CANCELLED, Presser Hall, Agnes Scott College

Due to unexpected family circumstances, Ms. Ifill has unfortunately cancelled this event. We are working to reschedule this lecture, and will have information about a future date soon.

WRITERS ON WRITING

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Writers on Writing is an evening discussion featuring three outstanding Georgia authors talking about "The Sophomore Slump: Writing the Second Book." The panel includes Jack Riggs, whose second novel The Fireman's Wife was just published; Renee Dodd, winner of the Townsend Prize for her first novel A Cabinet of Wonders; and Tom Mullen, whose acclaimed first novel was The Last Town on Earth.

E. LYNN HARRIS

Thursday, January 29, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

E. Lynn Harris, one of America's most popular writers and author of 10 previous novels and a memoir, talks about his latest, Basketball Jones. Early reviewers call it "a rip-roaring tale of sex, secrets, betrayal and blackmail," set in and around the world of NBA basketball stars. Harris explores the consequences of loving someone forced to conform to the rules society decrees for its public heroes.

DR. PEARL MCHANEY PRESENTS EUDORA WELTY SERIES

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Pearl McHaney, professor at Georgia State University and one of America's top literary authorities on the late Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty, delivers the first of three lectures on Welty's life and work in a new "University in the Library" series. Her topic for this first program is "Eudora Welty's Cosmos: One Writer's Beginnings and Photographs." You'll learn much about this beloved author from one of the experts who knows her best.

ROBERT J. NORRELL

Monday, January 26, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Robert Norrell will discuss his compelling new biography of Booker T. Washington, Up from History, the first full-length study of Washington in a generation. Norrell recreates the circumstances in which Washington worked: in a deeply segregated South under a legal system controlled by white bigots. Norrell points to Washington's accomplishments and argues for his crucial role in pursuing justice for his race. The author is professor of history at the University of Tennessee.

CAROLYN JESSOP

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Carolyn Jessop, is the author of Escape, a gripping and almost unbelievable book about her 2003 escape from a radical polygamist cult. She writes, "At 18, I became the fourth wife of a 50-yerar-old man. I had eight children in 15 years. When our leader began to preach the apocalypse, I knew I had to get them out." How she managed that and what her life has been like since will leave audiences stunned. Don't miss this special lecture.

JACK RIGGS

Thursday, January 15, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Jack Riggs, prize-winning Atlanta author and writer-in-residence at Georgia Perimeter College, returns with his eagerly anticipated second novel, The Fireman's Wife. His first novel, When the Finch Rises, won him the Georgia Author of the Year award for 2003, and his new book is a powerful and unflinching look at motherhood, heroism, love and loss, set in South Carolina in the 1970s.

DR. RUDOLPH BYRD

Monday, January 12, 2009

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Rudolph P. Byrd, professor of American Studies at Emory University, visits for a special "University in the Library" program for his new book, The Essential Writings of James Weldon Johnson. Byrd is the founding director of the James Weldon Johnson Institute at Emory and a nationally recognized authority on Johnson (1871-1938) a novelist, poet, ethno-musicologist and one of the pioneering figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Byrd's book includes all his major writings and two never-before-published plays

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

,

The Georgia Center for the Book wishes all of our friends and families a very happy new year. We look forward to seeing you often in 2009.

Bill Starr & Joe Davich

TED TURNER

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

7:00 P.M., Jimmy Carter Center- Day Chapel

One of America's best-known figures, Ted Turner, has written an exciting memoir reflecting on his 70 years as media mogol, philanthropist, owner of the Atlanta Braves, husband to Jane Fonda and one of the richest men in the world. Call Me Ted chronicles his fascinating rise and offers glimpses into his advernturous, eccentric and sometimes lonely empire. Doors open at 6 P.M. Mr. Turner WILL NOT sign books at this event, however a limited number of signed copies of his book will be for sale.

TOM CHAFFIN

Monday, December 8, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Chaffin, professor of history and director of the James Polk Correspondence Project at the University of Tennessee, returns to the Center for the Book to discuss his new book, The H.L. Hunley: The Secret Hope of the Confederacy. The Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in the Civil War, but it mysteriously vanished for over a century before it was located under Charleston harbor. Don't miss Chaffin's fascinating account of the sub's remarkable history.

A VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS

Sunday, December 7, 2008

12-4 P.M., Wren' Nest, 1050 Ralph D. Abernathy Blvd. SW

We invite you to celebrate a Victorian Christmas and the birthday of Georgia's own Joel Chandler Harris, creator of B'rer Rabbit, at the historic Wren's Nest in Atlanta. The free events including storytelling, tours of the Harris home, activities for children and hot chocolate and birthday cake! The Wren's Nest is one of the partners of the Georgia Center for the Book and is located at 1050 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard SW. For information on this special event, call 404-753-7735.

TOM LUX AND PAUL GUEST

Monday, December 1, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Two of Georgia's finest poets read from their new collections on this special evening. Prize-winning poet Guest is a visiting professor at the University of West Georgia, and his new book is My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge. Lux, who holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry and directs the Visiting Writers Program at Georgia Tech, will read from his acclaimed book, God Particles: Poems.

CARY BYNUM WITH BRENDA BYNUM

Monday, November 24, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Cary, an award-winning, and Emmy Nominated playwright, is the author of four published volumes: Cabbagetown: 3 Women, Six Short Plays, The Chinaberry Tree & Other Poems, and Sea Vigil: Poems. Brenda, acted, directed, and produced theatre programs and plays that have received acclaim in many different venues. She recently did a highly praised interpretation of Flannery O'Connor at Emory University. The evening's event will feature a poetry reading by Cary with dramatic interpretations by Brenda. Also, we'll celebrate the holidays with a huge book giveaway this evening!

VIRGINIA WILLIS WITH GENA BERRY

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

In her newest book, Bon Appetit, Ya'll!, trained French Chef, Willis blends the artistry of French cuisine, with the down-home flavor of Southern Cookin'. Virginia will share her recipes and culinary tricks just in time for the holidays!
Virginia will be joined on stage be fellow Les Dames D'Escoffier member Gena Berry of Culinary Works for this lively discussion.

ERIC JEROME DICKEY

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

7:00 P.M., Wesley Chapel-William C. Brown Library

Dickey will debut his new novel, Dying for Revenge with his reading for the Georgia Center for the Book. A nominee for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Dickey is the author of seventeen sexy, savvy, African American-themed bestselleing novels, including the bestsellers Sleeping With Strangers, Waking With Enemies, and his latest, Pleasure. He was named Author of the Year by the African American Literary Award Show in 2004.

CATHERINE OGLESBY

Monday, November 17, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Our popular "University at the Library" series returns with a reading from a fascinating new biography of a beloved, but nearly forgotten Georgia author, Corra Harris, one of the most widely published and nationally popular women writers in the United States. Harris' A Circuit Rider's Wife was Georgia's most celebrated novel for nearly three decades. Now little read and almost forgotten, Harris's life offers a fascinating glimpse into a world nearly unimaginable to us today. Oglesby, a Professor of history at Valdosta State University, tackles the complexities of race, class, and gender in a gracefully written biography, Corra Harris and the Divided Mindof the New South.

DAVID S. WILLIAMS

Thursday, November 13, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

From Mounds to Megachurches is a sweeping overview of the role religion has played in Georgia's history, from the diverse religious population in Colonial Georgia to the dominance of evangelicalism in the modern era.Williams presents a representative and balanced account of Georgia's religious heritage, and sheds new light on what it means to be a Georgian by exploring an issue that remains central to life in the Sunbelt South.

RENEE DODD

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Dodd, awarded the 2008 Townsend Prize for Fiction for her highly praised debt novel, A Cabinet of Wonders, returns to the Georgia Center for the Book to give a lecture as the recipient of that award. Awarded biennially, the Townsend Prize for Fiction is given to a Georgia Writer judged to have published the best work of Fiction in the two previous years. Dodd"s book is also on the current "List of 25 Books All Georgians Should Read".

JOSHILYN JACKSON

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The best selling author and Atlanta resident returns to the Georgia Center for the Book to give a lecture as the Writer-in-Residence at Georgia Perimeter College. Jackson, the Author of Gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, and her latest, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, will discuss her writing, and share her views, techniques and opinions about the craft.

RON RASH

Thursday, October 30, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The quiet, Appalachian storyteller returns with his fourth novel,Serena, a masterful tale of of violence and beauty, love and honor. Rash captures the very soul of the Appalachian landscape and its people in yet another astounding novel.
The story unfolds in 1929 when George Pemberton seeks to expand his logging in western North Carolina bringing with him his beautiful and ruthless wife, Serena.

GEORGE C. HERRING

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

The distinguished, award-winning historian, gives us an engrossing overview of American diplomacy in his new book, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776. Herring uses foreign relations as the lens through which to tell the story of America's dramatic rise from thirteen disparate colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast to the world's greatest superpower.
It's the latest volume in the Oxford History of the United States series, "the most respected multi-volume history of our nation", a series that includes three Pulitzer Prize-winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of prestigious Bancroft and Parkman Prizes.

PAUL A. LOMBARDO

Monday, October 27, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

PAUL LOMBARDO, professor of law at Georgia State University, writes about a shameful moment in American history in his new book, Three Generations: No Imbeciles. It's a powerful chronicle of the 1927 Supreme Court case that approved laws allowing states to perform surgery to prevent "feebleminded and socially inadequate" people from having children. The law has never been overturned.

GEORGIA LITERARY FESTIVAL

Saturday, October 25, 2008

10 A.M. - 4 P.M., Bainbridge, Georgia

GEORGIA LITERARY FESTIVAL, moves to Bainbridge in Southwest Georgia for a fun day packed with author readings, signings and workshops featuring Mary Kay Andrews, NBC space correspondent Jay Barbree, children's book illustrator Michael P. White, mystery author Claire Matturo and 15 others. It's our free, all-day event. Click on the link on the homepage for details and to download a schedule of readings and events!

STEVEN T. WAX

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

In his twenty-nine years as a public defender, Wax had never had to warn a client that he or she might be taken away to a military brig, or worse, a "black site," one of our country's dreaded secret prisons. How had our country come to this? The disappearance of people happens in places ruled by tyrants, military juntas, fascist strongmen:governments with such contempt for the rule of law that they strip their citizens of all rights. But in America?

Wax interweaves the stories of two men that he and his team represented: Brandon Mayfield, an American-born small town lawyer and family man, arrested as a suspected terrorist in the Madrid train station bombings after a fingerprint was incorrectly traced back to him by the FBI; and Adel Hamad, a Sudanese hospital administrator taken from his apartment to a Pakistani prison and then flown in chains to the United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ,Kafka Comes to Americareveals where and how our civil liberties have been eroded for a false security, and how each of us can make a difference. If these events could happen to Brandon Mayfield and Adel Hamad, they can happen to anyone. It could happen to us. It could happen to you.

RUSSELL SHORTO

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Public Library

The author of the terrific popular history The Island at the Center of the World, discusses his engaging new intellectual detective story, Decartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason. It's an amazing story that examines how the skull of the 17th Century French thinker became separated from the rest of his remains and where it is today.

MICHAEL LARGO

Monday, October 20, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Atlanta resident Largo, whose book The Portable Obituary chronicled how the rich and famous died, returns with an entertaining new book, Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through the Ages. It's about how the famously talented mixed their genius with an urge for self-destructiveness.

Friday, October 17, 2008

7:00-10:30 P.M., Callanwolde Arts Center

A special fund-raising event for the DeKalb Library Foundation. Come enjoy a lovely evening at the
Callanwolde Fine Arts Center featuring dining, dancing and best-selling authors. Meet authors: Carmen Deedy, Joshilyn Jackson, Terry Kay and J. Tom Morgan, and hear about their works, their lives and passions. Enjoy heavy hors d'oeuvres, an open bar, silent auction and the band.
This event is hosted by the DeKalb Library Foundation to support DeKalb County Public Library programs and literacy services.
Tickets are $150 per person and $200 per person (with VIP reception 6-7 P.M.). For information, call 404-370-8450, ext. 2238.
Or register on the website:
http://ANovelAffair.kintera.org

JAY ALLISON

Monday, October 13, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Due to circumstances beyond our control, this event has been cancelled.

OMAR TYREE

Thursday, October 9, 2008

7:00 P.M., Wesley Chapel-William C. Brown Library

New York Times' bestselling author, returns with a hot new novel, Pecking Order. The popular author of Single Mom and The Last Street Novel, writes about an ambitious young accountant who jumps into the high-stakes racket of celebrity parties in Southern California.

DEXTER FILKINS

Thursday, October 2, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

"The preeminent war correspondent of this generation," discusses his powerful new book, The Forever War. It is a collection of the author's work for The New York Times covering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 1998, and it is is an eye-opener in its vast scope and revealing, intimate detail.

ANNETTE GORDON-REED

Monday, September 29, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Professor of law at New York Law School and a professor of history at Rutgers University,Annette Gordon-Reed joins us to talk about her new book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. She is also the author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy.
In her new, epic work, Gordon-Reed tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826. It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha. The Hemingses of Monticello sets the family's compelling saga against the backdrop of Revolutionary America, Paris on the eve of its own revolution, 1790s Philadelphia, and plantation life at Monticello. Much anticipated, this book promises to be the most important history of an American slave family ever written.

BILL MURPHY, JR.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

4:00 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

In A Time of War chronicles the lives of two members of West Point's class of 2002 in the five years following their graduation. Transformed by the attacks of September 11th, the class of 2002 was the first in a generation to graduate in wartime. When President Bush addressed them at their commencement ceremony, they understood that they would be fighting on the front lines. From Iraq to Afghanistan, this is a story of soldiers, families, courage and honor.
Murphy worked as a research assistant for Bob Woodward's State of Denial. He is a lawyer and former Army Reserve officer. He reported from Iraq for The Washington Post in 2007.

STUART WOODS

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

International best-selling author, Woods, is back with an entertaining new Stone Barrington novel, Hot Mahogany, Woods' 30th novel cleverly mixes spying and Army intelligence with an unusual hobby -- antique furniture -- to give readers another fast-paced adventure.

RICK ATKINSON

Monday, September 22, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

In the Pulitzer Prize winning An Army at Dawn, Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the strengthening American and British armies as they invade Sicily in July 1943 and then, mile by bloody mile, fight their way north toward Rome.
Rick Atkinson was a staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post for more than twenty years. He is the bestselling author of An Army at Dawn, The Long Gray Line, In the Company of Soldiers, and Crusade. His many awards include Pulitzer Prizes for journalism and history.

BRAD MELTZER

Friday, September 19, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Meltzer is the author of The New York Times' #1 bestseller, The Book of Fate and five other best-selling chillers. His new novel is The Book of Lies, his most thrilling and emotionally powerful book to date. Meltzer's mystery poses questions about the link between murders separated by thousands of years going back to Cain and Abel. It's filled with secret societies, conspiracies and a pulse-pounding pace that readers will find irresistible. Don't miss this special appearance by Meltzer!

THOMAS FRANK

Thursday, September 18, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Frank, the New York Times' bestselling author of What's the Matter with Kansas?, visits to discuss his powerful new book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule. Reviewers call it "a no-holds-barred exegesis on the naked cynicism of conservatism in America." It's a serious, critical examination of corruption in Washington as the author argues that the same politicians who laughed at the mere idea of effective government have themselves created a government in which incompetence is the rule. We'll have opportunities for audience members to question the speaker.
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT SEATING IS LIMITED, AND YOU SHOULD PLAN TO ARRIVE EARLY TO ENSURE SEATING.

HELENE COOPER

Monday, September 15, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library

Don't miss this special presentation by award-winning journalist Cooper, whose new book, The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood, is getting rave reviews. It's a tragic, funny, poignant memoir of her youth in Liberia and what occurred after she and her family were exiled to America. Her book is the new monthly selection for readers at Starbucks!

REV. RUN--CANCELLED

Thursday, August 21, 2008

7:00 P.M., Cole Fine Arts Auditorium

Cancelled due to Scheduling conflict

NOAH ANDRE TRUDEAU

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

7:15 P.M., Decatur Library Auditorium

Trudeau, the award-winning Civil war historian and author of Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage, discusses his revealing new book, Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea. It's a vivid, detailed account of the destruction Sherman's army spread across Georgia following the burning of Atlanta in 1864. Told through the intimate letters and diaries of Sherman's soldiers and the civilians who suffered in his path, it's a memorable account of an event that changed the course of the nation. (Free; doors open 6:30 p.m.; no tickets or reservations required)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA

Saturday, August 9, 2008

2 p.m., Decatur Library

Gupta, the popular, award-winning senior medical correspondent for CNN and an Emory University neurosurgeon, offers an inside view of the latest research into good health and longevity in his new book, Chasing Life: New Discoveries in the Search for Immortality to Help You Age Less Today.

MARK BAUERLEIN

Thursday, August 7, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University and former Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, discusses his "uncompromisingly realistic" and highly critical portrait of the under-30 generation, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.

DELIA CHAMPION

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Champion, the adventuresome, acclaimed chef for Atlanta's fabulous Flying Biscuit Cafe, talks about eating and preparing delicious food in her new book, The Flying Biscuit Café Cookbook. You’ll hear about some wonderful recipes and even get a chance to sample some of the chef's work.

TINA MCELROY ANSA

Monday, August 4, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Ansa's eagerly-awaited sequel to Ugly Ways, the wonderful comic novel Taking After Mudear, is just out and already one of the new list of "25 Books All Georgians Should Read." Ansa, who lives on St. Simons Island, is one of Georgia's most popular authors and winner of the Lindberg Award; her books includes the bestsellers Baby of the Family and The Hand I Fan With.

CARMEN DEEDY/JOHN MCCUTCHEON

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Children's author and storyteller Deedy (The Library Dragon, Martina the Beautiful Cockroach) and acclaimed folksinger McCutcheon join for a one-night special performance to benefit the building of a library in a small Mexican community. Co-sponsored by Mingei World Arts of Decatur and featuring food and special for-sale items from Mexico. Free, but donations accepted. (Doors open 6:30)

EOIN COLFER

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

4 p.m., Decatur Library

Colfer, the delightful superstar creator of the bestselling Artemis Fowl adventure series for young adults, delivers a hilarious one-man show, "Fairies, Fiends, and Flatulence." He'll follow that with a signing for the latest Artemis Fowl book, The Time Paradox. (Sponsored by Decatur's Little Shop of Stories; books will be for sale at the signing.)

RICHARD DOSTER

Monday, July 28, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Doster's new book, Safe at Home, is a lively, engaging blend of baseball, history and Southern fiction. The Mississippi-born author, now living in Atlanta, writes a touching, amusing story about minor league baseball in the slowly desegregating South of the 1950s. It's all about learning to get along, and Doster's graceful style makes it an enjoyable lesson.

STEPHEN L. CARTER

Monday, July 21, 2008

7 p.m., Jimmy Carter Library

The New York Times' bestselling author (The Emperor of Ocean Park, New England White) returns with an electrifying new political thriller, Palace Council. It's about murder, suicide and the disappearance of a rising young writer, all set in the turbulent era of the 1950s and 60s. Carter is professor law at Yale University and author of several nonfiction books including The Culture of Disbelief

BRET LOTT

Thursday, July 17, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Lott, whose novel Jewel was an Oprah Book Club selection, discusses his inspiring new novel, Ancient Highway. It's a powerful multi-generational story of a single family and the home, relationships and dreams that keep them together. He is the author of more than a dozen books and a former editor of Southern Review.

MIGNON FOGARTY (AKA GRAMMAR GIRL)

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Fogarty is determined to wipe out bad grammar as painlessly and cleverly as possible. Her new book, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing, is a practical but fun and simple resource guide intended for everyday use by everyone. Don’t miss her talk; audiences say she's "like the sixth grade teacher you wish you had."

JAMES C. COBB

Monday, July 14, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Cobb, the prize-winning Spaulding Distinguished Professor of History at UGA, and former president of the Southern Historical Association, talks about his new book, Georgia Odyssey. It's a lively, candid, provocative and thoroughly entertaining look at the surprising history of the Peach State by its best-known historian.

THOMAS LAIRD & ROBERT THURMAN

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

7 p.m., Jimmy Carter Library

Two noted authors and journalists discuss the Dalai Lama and the perilous state of Tibet in this special program co-sponsored with the Carter Library. Laird is author of The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama, and Thurman has written Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR'S GEORGIA

Monday, June 23, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

Author Sarah Gordon, photographer Marcelina Martin and Craig Amason, director of O'Connor's Andalusia Farm, join us to discuss their gorgeous new book, A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia. The book is a sumptuous treat for the mind and the eyes, using beautiful photos and authoritative text to place and her work with the sites most associated with the author in her home state.

J.L. MILES

Thursday, June 19, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

The popular Georgia author (Roseflower Creek, Cold Rock River) returns with a delightful and funny new novel, Divorcing Dwayne. It's the first of a planned trilogy of books set in rural Georgia and focusing on the not-so-smooth marriage of Francine Harper and her troublesome hubby Dwayne.

KASEY PIPES

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

7 p.m., Jimmy Carter Library

The author, a former speechwriter for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, writes about one of the most controversial decisions in the Eisenhower administration: sending troops to Little Rock to enforce desegregation orders. His new book, Ike's Last Battle: The Road to Little Rock and the Challenge of Equality, will be an eye-opener for all who care about the nation's troubled racial history.

LISE FUNDERBURG

Monday, June 16, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

The author's new book, Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home, is a powerful story of race, family and reconciliation. Funderburg is a white-appearing, mixed-race woman whose memoir recounts a poignant reunion with a dying father in the South about whom she knows little.

JEFFERY DEAVER

Thursday, June 12, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

One of the masters of the modern suspense novel visits to talk about his latest Lincoln Rhyme thriller, The Broken Window. Deavers's books have sold millions of copies and been turned into successful movies including The Bone Collector and A Maiden's Grave.

MIKE GLENN

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

The former NBA star for the Hawks and Knicks presents a special evening focusing on the life and work of Frederick Douglass based on his extensive collection and his new book, Frederick Douglass: The Founding Father of Slavery Free America. Participating in the program will be educator and storyteller Sister Yomi with a live dramatization of a letter from Douglass to Harriet Tubman.

MARLENA DE BLASI

Monday, June 9, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

The author of the bestselling books A Thousand Days in Tuscany and The Lady in the Palazzo: At Home in Umbria, writes another lovely adventure book, That Summer in Sicily. It's the engaging story of a castle the author discovered while traveling in Sicily and the remarkable people whose lives have been intertwined with its history.

RICHARD ENGEL

Thursday, June 5, 2008

7 p.m., Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

NBC News' prize-winning Baghdad correspondent makes a special visit to discuss his important new book, War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq. Don't miss this unvarnished, behind-the-scenes look at the war-torn Iraqi nation and the impact of the U.S. intervention and occupation.

CHUCK PALAHNIUK

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

7 p.m., Cole Fine Arts Auditorium

The hard-hitting of Fight Club, discusses his outrageous new novel, Snuff. Doors open at 6 p.m. First-come, first-seated, no tickets or reservations. All books for sale at the event will be pre-signed. The first 150 people to purchase a copy of Snuff at the event will be given a ticket to have their book personalized by the author. He also will personalize two backlist titles for those 150 ticketholders. No memorabilia or additional backlist titles will be signed.

LEIF ENGER

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

The author of the New York Times' bestseller Peace Like a River returns with his second novel, So Brave, So Young and Handsome. It's a gritty early 20th century western about an outlaw's efforts to right his past, told with the easy style of a folk ballad by a master storyteller. Doors open 6:15 p.m.

ELISABETH PAYNE ROSEN

Monday, June 2, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library

In her acclaimed debut novel Hallam's War, Rosen tells a powerful, profound story about the home front during the Civil War. Early readers say the book's lively story and Deep South setting "ought to draw Miss Scarlett’s fans like flies to honey."

ELIZABETH BERG

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

The acclaimed author of more than a dozen novels including Range of Motion and Joy School talks about her exciting new story collection, The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and Other Small Acts of Liberation. These are exhilarating short stories of women breaking free from convention as they navigate through the emotional landmines of relationships. Free. No tickets. Books will be for sale and signing. Doors open at 6:15 p.m.

ALISON WEIR

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

The distinguished English historical biographer makes a rare appearance to discuss her fascinating new novel about a remarkable queen, The Lady Elizabeth. It's an unforgettable, sweeping exploration of the bloody conflicts between family, religion and conscience by the author of such bestsellers as The Six Wives of Henry VIII and The Wars of the Roses. Free. No tickets. Books will be for sale and signing. Doors open at 6:15 p.m.

ELISE BLACKWELL

Thursday, May 22, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

The acclaimed young author beguiles us with a powerful, moving new novel, Hunger, a story set during Hitler's siege of Leningrad as a brilliant scientist confronts his own mortality. The author of The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish and Grub, Blackwell writes with eloquence about the possibilities of the human spirit. Don't miss the free book giveaway this evening, too!

MIKE FARRELL

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

7:15 p.m., Decatur Library Auditorium

The delightful actor who played the role of B.J. Hunnicutt on TV's popular series M*A*S*H visits to talk about his new book, Just Call Me Mike. The book traces his path from a struggling Hollywood actor to a growing and serious commitment to social and political activism. Doors for this event open at 6 p.m., first-come, first-seated, no reservations

BARBARA WALTERS

Monday, May 19, 2008

7 p.m., Presser Hall, Agnes Scott College

Don't miss this special event with the First Lady of American television journalism. She will appear on-stage for a discussion about her life and work with Jovita Moore, co-anchor for WSB-TV News. You'll have an opportunity to ask questions of Ms. Walters and to purchase a signed copy of her just-released memoir, Audition. Please note: doors open at 6 p.m., seating is first-come, first-seated, no reservations

AJC DECATUR BOOK FESTIVAL

Wednesday, December 31, 1969

All Weekend, Locations Around Decatur

The fabulous AJC Decatur Book Festival

SAVANNAH BOOK FESTIVAL

Wednesday, December 31, 1969

All Day, Telfair Square, Savannah

GEORGE MCGOVERN

Wednesday, December 31, 1969

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We regret to announce that former U.S. Senator George McGovern has bween hospitalized and will not be able to appear as scheduled November 14. the Medal of Freedom. The doors at Agnes