Thursday, May 28, 2015

Dan Ariely, Harry Golden, Sarah Dessen and more!

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Our cup overflows with a week of marvelous events!

 

Saturday evening Dan "Predictably Irrational" Ariely informs and amuses with his unexpected insights into the wacky ways we think and behave. His new book, Irrationally Yours: On Missing Socks, Pickups Lines and Other Existential Puzzles is a highlight show drawn from his Wall Street Journal "Ask Ariely" advice column. With wit and wisdom Dan weighs in on everything from grandparents to complaining to giving to the poor. Here's one of my favorites: When asked why we use the word "service" with things like the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Postal Service, cable TV service, etc, Dan responds:

 

"When I was much younger I got to spend some time on a farm, where I heard farmers saying that they were going to have to hire a bull to "service" their cows. Maybe this is the answer to your question?"

 

Come with a question of your own Saturday night! We'll have some wine, beer and snacks on hand to help everyone enjoy the evening.

******

Monday we learn about a civil rights legend and a true character--Harry Golden. Golden grew up Jewish on New York's lower east side but moved to Charlotte in the 1950's where he founded the "Carolina Israelite," a one-man weekly newspaper that he used as a vehicle to lay into segregation with verve and a marvelous sense of humor. Golden was one of six white writers that Martin Luther King singled out in his 1963 "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" for having "written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms."

 

Golden usually had his tongue (and often a cigar), placed firmly in his cheek, as when he proposed "The Vertical Negro" as a solution to segregation. Noting that whites and blacks could stand together while waiting to board a bus, but had to be segregated once seated on the bus, and that this behavior occurred while waiting for seats at lunch counters, etc., Golden proposed that the answer to segregation was simple-just take away all the seats on buses, at lunch counters, in schools, etc!

 

I have immensely enjoyed Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett's fine new biography, Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care About Jews, the South and Civil Rights. Her book is every bit as wise and witty as its subject.  

 ****** 

Then next Thursday we host the best-selling YA author Sarah Dessen, with her new book Saint Anything. A new Sarah Dessen! What more do all her young adult fans need to know?

 

 ******

Quite a week! All this, plus an event about 300 years of Southern rebels, and poetry with sangria. See below for more details.

 

 

DAN ARIELY

Saturday, May 30, 7 p.m.

In  Irrationally Yours: On Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and Other Existential Puzzles, three-time New York Times bestselling author Dan Ariely teams up with legendary The Ariely New Yorker cartoonist William Haefeli to present an expanded, illustrated collection of his immensely popular Wall Street Journal advice column, "Ask Ariely". Using their trademark insight and wit, Ariely and Haefeli help us reflect on how we can reason our way through external and internal challenges. Readers will laugh, learn, and most importantly gain a new perspective on how to deal with the inevitable problems that plague our daily life.

In his books Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth about Dishonesty, behavioral economist Dan Ariely revolutionized the way we think about ourselves, our minds, and our actions. Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, and is the founder of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and elsewhere.

To help keep us from getting too rational during this Saturday evening event, we'll be serving some beer, wine and snacks.

 

KIMBERLY MARLOWE HARTNETT

Monday, June 1, 7 p.m.

Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett's Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights is the first comprehensive biography of Jewish American writer and humorist Harry Golden (1903-1981)--author of the 1958 national best-seller Only in America.  During World War II, the cigar-smoking, bourbon-loving raconteur landed in Charlotte, North Carolina, and founded the Carolina Israelite newspaper, which was published into the 1960s. Golden used his celebrity to editorialize for civil rights as the momentous story unfolded. Hartnett's spirited chronicle captures Golden's message of social inclusion for a new audience today.  

 

SARALEE STAFFORD AND NEAL SHIRLEY

Wednesday, June 3, 7 p.m.

In 1891, when coal companies in eastern Tennessee brought in cheap convict labor to take over their jobs, workers responded by storming the stockades, freeing the prisoners, and loading them onto freight trains. Over the next year, tactics escalated to include burning company property and looting company stores. This was one of the largest insurrections in US working-class history. It happened at the same time as the widely publicized northern labor war in Homestead, Pennsylvania. And it was largely ignored, then and now. Dixie Be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South, edited by North Carolina natives Neal Shirley and Saralee Stafford, engages seven similarly "hidden" insurrectionary episodes in Southern history to demonstrate the region's long arc of revolt. Countering images of the South as pacified and conservative, this adventurous retelling presents history in the rough. Not the image of the South many expect, this is the South of maroon rebellion, wildcat strikes, and Robert F. Williams's book Negroes with Guns, a South where the dispossessed refuse to quietly suffer their fate. This is people's history at its best: slave revolts, multiracial banditry, labor battles, prison uprisings, urban riots, and more.

 

Neal Shirley grew up in Winston-Salem and now lives in Durham, where he is involved in several anti-prison initiatives and runs a small publishing project called the North Carolina Piece Corps.

Saralee Stafford was born in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Her recent political work has focused on connecting the struggles of street organizations with those of anarchists in the area. She teaches gender-related health in Durham.

 

 

SARAH DESSEN

Thursday, June 4, 7 p.m.

In Saint Anything, the uber-popular Sarah Dessen explores her signature themes of family, self-discovery, and change. Peyton, Sydney's charismatic older brother, has always been the star of the family, receiving the lion's share of their parents' attention and-lately-concern. When Peyton's increasingly reckless behavior culminates in an accident, a drunk driving conviction, and a jail sentence, Sydney is cast adrift, searching for her place in the family and the world.

 

Sarah Dessen is one of the most popular writers for young adults. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many novels, which have received numerous awards and rave reviews, and have sold more than seven million copies. She lives in Chapel Hill.

 

AN AFTERNOON OF POETRY AND SANGRIA

Saturday, June 6, 7 p.m.

Celebrate Summer by sipping Sangria and listening to the poetry of four fine North Carolina poets:

  • Debra Kaufman, Delicate Thefts (Jacar Press) who NC Literary Hall of Fame member Kathryn Stripling Byer calls " One of our best contemporary American poets."  Fred Chappel says Delicate Thefts is "Passionate in its angers as well as in its affections and as closely tuned as a clavier."
  • Kevin Boyle, Astir (Jacar Press), whose poems, according to Dorianne Laux, "In language both fluent and metrical... explore what it's like to be alive and awake..." Full of, as Joseph Millar says "...generosity and humor...shining through the lines"
  • Richard Krawiec's, Women who Loved me Despite (Press 53) is a book Lola Haskins describes as "a dog song on the edge of the abyss...honest and (containing) eloquent tenderness, especially about love."
  • Ralph Earle won the 2015 Sable Books poetry chapbook competition for, The Way the Rain Works, a book where  "...despite broken branches, clumsy home repairs, a despairing wife, and unanswered prayers, the poet finds solace in nature and solitude, showing us glimpses of fragile beauty." -- Debra Kaufman
 

 

Shop Independent Durham
Tom Campbell
Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth St.
Durham, NC 27705
(919) 286-2700
http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/
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Regulator Bookshop | 720 Ninth Street | Durham | NC | 27705

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Good Books and Marvelous May Events

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Around the Shelves

I started reading Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See while on vacation a All the Light couple of weeks back, and finished it at home last week. I'm not sure I can find the words to express just how good this book is. Let's just say its the best novel I've read in many years. It has everything-plot, characters, writing, and depth. Its hard to put down, and when you've finished its hard to move on to another book. We've sold well over a hundred copies of this Pulitzer Prize winning novel already, so I came to it late. But if you have yet to read it, and are looking for a book to really get lost in, I can't recommend it too highly.  

 

 

Another book that I think is really special is Raymond Barfield's new novel, The Book of Colors. Here I'll let my friend and colleague Gayle Shanks tell you about the book. (Gayle is co-owner of the marvelous Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe Arizona):

  

Book of Colors "This book took my breath away.  The writing is extraordinary and the characters, depraved and impoverished in so many ways, manage to not only care for one another but also find moments of grace and insight in their daily lives.  A rack full of magazines becomes the link to other worlds and those moments of understanding are profound.  Death, birth, porn, crack, a troll under a bridge, slightly rancid pork chops, Cadillacs, and a donkey named Jesus all play a role in this remarkable novel by a poet doctor. It should win every literary award in the universe."

  

Raymond Barfield is a pediatric oncologist at Duke, where he directs the Pediatric Quality of Life and Palliative Care Program for the Duke Children's Hospital. He was the founding director of the Duke Divinity School's initiatives in Theology, Medicine, and Culture. Barfield will read from and discuss The Book of Colors at The Regulator on Wednesday evening, May 27, at 7:00 p.m.

 

Just out in paperback:

--The 40's: The Story of a Decade a collection from The New Yorker magazine

--Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America by....John Waters, of course.

--Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932, a novel by Francine Prose that was one of the New York Times 100 notable books of 2014.

 

Quirky Book of the Week:

--Asap Science: Answers to the World's Weirdest Questions, Most Persistent Rumors & Unexplained Phenomena by Mitchell Moffit and Greg Brown. A book you didn't know you needed-until you pick it up. Then you get completely sucked in to the (scientific) answers to life's most important questions. Such as: "Is cracking your joints bad for you?" "Why does time feel faster as we age?" "Where does all the light go when you turn off the lights?" and "Should you use the snooze button?" Lots more...

  

And speaking of quirky...

You may have missed it back in March, but the 4th Annual Great Durham Pun Championship has been immortalized in an (11 minute) video!   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdY6k5BewBQ  

 

 

Upcoming Events:
 Jim Grimsley, Veterans for Peace,
Raymond Barfield & Dan Ariely
highlight our events through the end of the month.

READ LOCAL BOOK FESTIVAL

Lots of things will be happening downtown with this festival this weekend. The Regulator will be selling local books at an exhibitor fair at Durham Central Park Sunday afternoon, and co-owner Tom Campbell be a judge at the "Writers in the Ring" live speed-writing contest at Motorco Music Hall  Sunday evening at 8:00. See readlocalnc.org for more info.  

 

MICHAEL FOURNIER

Monday, May 18, 7:00 p.m.

Michael Fournier's first novel, Hidden Wheel-a philosophical literary work about artistic self-promotion and the corporate infiltration of hipsterdom-earned him comparisons to such literary luminaries as Richard Russo, Jennifer Egan, André Dubus III, and Michael Chabon. Now, in Swing State, Fournier unveils the generally overlooked decades-long economic downturn in the rural Northeast. With an unflinching eye, Fournier lays bare the dim dreams and raw existence of the lives of three seemingly disparate residents of a small town in New Hampshire, who share the same goal: get out. Roy Eggleton, an Afghanistan vet, deals with emotional issues that hamper his ability to find work. Zachariah Tietz, an overweight friendless teenager, develops a reality game show he deludes himself into believing will be his ticket out. Fireworks freak, bully, and petty thief Dixon Dove works at a fast food restaurant managed by a known pervert to save enough extra money to leave.

Michael T. Fournier is a writer/critic/musician, and the author of two novels as well as Double Nickels on the Dime (33 1/3/Continuum), a book-length discussion of the 1984 Minutemen album of the same name. He is founder and co-editor of Calbido Quarterly, a broadsheet literary journal. His writing has appeared in the the Oxford American, Vice, Pitchfork, and the Boston Globe. He has taught literature and punk rock history at Emerson College, Tufts University, University of Maine, and beyond.

 

C. NICOLE SWINER

Wednesday, May 20, 7:00 p.m.

How To Avoid the Superwoman Complex: 12 Ways to Balance Mind, Body and Spirit Superwoman provides an insightful, sometimes humorous guide to help abolish the notion that you have to be "Superwoman" in order for your life to matter. The idea of being "all things to all people" could be at least part of the reason why you are not truly happy and healthy. The goal of this book is to help you truly examine the elements in your life that serve as stressors disguised as "necessary evils." Let's face it-many of the "evils" we manage on a day-to-day basis are not necessary. Once you have identified the challenges, the next step is to determine how to work around, get over, go through, or simply ignore them-all for the greater good; a healthier, happier you.

Dr. Swiner is a wife, mother of two and family doctor in Durham.  

 

FRANCES FULLER

Thursday, May 21, 7:00 p.m.

Told in short episodes, Frances Fuller'sIn Borrowed Houses: A True Story of Love and Faith Amidst War in Lebanon reveals the alienation, confusion and courage of civilians in civil war, introducing to the reader a variety of real people with whom the author interacts: editors, salesmen, neighbors, refugees, soldiers, missionaries, lawyers, shepherds, artists, students. With these people she works, studies, plays games, prays, laughs and cries, all to the accompaniment of gunfire. Together these small stories tell what war is like for civilians caught on a battlefield, and they create the impression of the Lebanese as a fun-loving, witty, patient and resilient people. They also compose, not a political history, but a historical document of a time and a place.

Frances Fuller spent thirty years in the Middle East and for twenty-four of those years was the director of a Christian publishing program with offices in Lebanon. While leading the development of spiritual books in the Arabic language, she survived long years of civil war and invasions.  

 

JIM GRIMSLEY

Thursday, May 21 7:00

The Center for Documentary Studies, 1317 W Pettigrew St, 27705

The novelist and eastern North Carolina native Jim Grimsley will read from and discuss his highly praised new book, How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood. Grimsley was 11 years old in 19666 when federally mandated integration of schools went into effect in North Carolina and the school in his small town was first integrated. In How I Shed My Skin Grimsley tells the story of that year and the subsequent years of his public school career in Jones County. "White people declared that the South would rise again. Black people raised one fist and shouted for black power. Somehow we negotiated a space between those poles and learned to sit in classrooms together...Lawyers, judges, adults declared that the days of separate schools were over, but we were the ones who took the next step. History gave us a piece of itself. We made of it what we could."

 

DURHAM MIGHTY PEN YOUNG WRITERS

Friday, May 22, 7 p.m.

Middle schoolers read from their original stories (about castaways, Halloween disasters, and sibling oversight) created in Durham Mighty Pen's Inaugural Writing Workshop at the Emily K. Center.

 

VETERANS FOR PEACE

Monday, May 25, 7 p.m.

As an alternative to the usual "glorification and glamorization" of war often accompanying parades and other Memorial Day celebrations, the Eisenhower Chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP) will offer an evening of reflection in poetry, prose, and song. Local U.S. veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other conflicts will be among the presenters. Founded in 1985 by U.S. military veterans, VFP is a national non-profit organization that works to "heal the wounds of war, expose the true costs of war, and build a culture of peace."

 

NANCIE MCDERMOTT

Tuesday, May 26 7 p.m.

Simply Vegetarian Thai Cooking: 125 Real Thai Recipes combines true Thai culinary spirit with delicious and magical dishes. Everyone loves Thai food, but truly meatless dishes are often difficult to find. Nancie McDermott has developed authentic yet innovative variations on traditional Thai recipes, providing health-conscious cooks with a repertoire of vegetarian dishes that capture the vibrant tastes and scents of Thailand. From appetizing salads and savory soups to flavorful and spicy mains to the wonderfully refreshing Thai Iced Tea, this definitive cookbook offers 125 delectable recipes for every meal and occasion.Vegans can also easily enjoy this food, since dairy products are virtually unused in the recipes.

Nancie McDermott is an expert on the food and culture of Thailand. She has written several cookbooks and contributes recipes and features on food and travel to national magazines and newspapers. She lives in Chapel Hill. 

 

RAYMOND BARFIELD

Wednesday, May 27, 7:00 p.m.

In The Book of Colors, Yslea, is a 19-year-old, mixed-race girl who grew up in a crack house and is now pregnant. She is full of contradictions, seeming both young and old, innocent and wise. Her spirit is surprising, given all the pain she has endured, and that's Barfield the counterpoint this story offers-while she sees pain and suffering all around her, Yslea overcomes in her own quiet way. What Yslea struggles with is expressing her thoughts. And she wonders if she will have something of substance to say to her baby. It's the baby growing inside her that begins to wake her up, that causes her to start thinking about things in a different way.

Author Dr. Raymond Barfield is a pediatric oncologist at Duke University School of Medicine and an associate professor of philosophy at Duke Divinity School. He also works with the Institute on Care at the End of Life at Duke Divinity School. Ray has a book out from Cambridge University Press, The Ancient Quarrel between Poetry and Philosophy, and he's working on a nonfiction trade book that explores the intersection of spirituality, philosophy and science.

 

DONALD NONINI

Thursday, May 28, 7:00 p.m.

How do class, ethnicity, gender, and politics interact? In what ways do they constitute everyday life among ethnic minorities? In "Getting By": Class and State Formation Among Chinese in Malaysia, UNC-Chapel Hill Professor of Anthropology Donald M. Nonini draws on three decades of research in the region of Penang state in northern West Malaysia, mainly in the city of Bukit Mertajam, to provide an ethnographic and historical account of the cultural politics of class conflict and state formation among Malaysians of Chinese descent.

   Countering triumphalist accounts of the capitalist Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia, Nonini shows that the Chinese of Penang (as elsewhere) are riven by deep class divisions and that class issues and identities are omnipresent in everyday life. Nor are the common features of "Chinese culture" in Malaysia manifestations of some unchanging cultural essence. Rather, his long immersion in the city shows, they are the results of an interaction between Chinese-Malaysian practices in daily life and the processes of state formation-in particular, the ways in which Kuala Lumpur has defined different categories of citizens.

 

DAN ARIELY

Saturday, May 30, 7 p.m.

In Irrationally Yours: On Missing Socks, Pickup Lines, and Other Existential Puzzles, three-time New York Times bestselling author Dan Ariely teams up with legendary The Ariely New Yorker cartoonist William Haefeli to present an expanded, illustrated collection of his immensely popular Wall Street Journal advice column, "Ask Ariely". Using their trademark insight and wit, Ariely and Haefeli help us reflect on how we can reason our way through external and internal challenges. Readers will laugh, learn, and most importantly gain a new perspective on how to deal with the inevitable problems that plague our daily life.

In his books Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth about Dishonesty, behavioral economist Dan Ariely revolutionized the way we think about ourselves, our minds, and our actions. Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, and is the founder of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and elsewhere.

To help keep us from getting too rational during this Saturday evening event, we'll be serving some beer, wine and snacks.

 

Shop Independent Durham
Tom Campbell
Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth St.
Durham, NC 27705
(919) 286-2700
http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/
Forward email



This email was sent to regulatorbookshop.constantcontact720@blogger.com by regulatorbookshop@gmail.com |  


Regulator Bookshop | 720 Ninth Street | Durham | NC | 27705