Monday, August 3, 2015

David Payne, Good Reading and August Events

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Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother's Story

Thursday evening we host a very special event as we welcome Hillsborough writer David Payne and his highly praised new book, Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother's Story.

 

In 2000, while moving his household from Vermont to North Carolina, David Payne watched from his rearview mirror as his younger brother, George A., driving behind him in a two-man barefoot convoy of rental trucks, lost control of his vehicle, fishtailed and flipped over in the road, killing him instantly. David's life hit a downward spiral. From a cocktail hour indulgence, his drinking became a full-blown addiction. His career entered a standstill. His marriage disintegrated. He found himself haunted not only by George A.'s death, but also by his brother's manic depression, a condition that overlaid a dark family history of mental illness, alcoholism and suicide, an inherited past that now threatened David's and his children's futures. The only way out, he found, was to write about his brother.

 

Though it has just been published, Barefoot to Avalon has already garnered extraordinary early reviews:

 

--"His prose has the rawness of a confessional...Writing with a mixture of clear-eyed realism and lyrical elegy, Payne shows how a family's pain, resentment, and loss get transmuted into love."-Publishers Weekly

 

--"Barefoot to Avalon is simply magnificent. The book has the feeling of nothing at all reserved, a kind of go for broke passion. In this complete commitment it steps across a normal threshold between reader and book. It has because of this a powerful healing effect of a very strange, unusual kind. Reading it has been a huge experience."-Suzannah Lessard

 

--"Barefoot to Avalon is one of the most powerful and penetrating memoirs I've ever read; it is fiercely honest, deeply engaging, and utterly heartbreaking."-Jay McInerney

 

--"A major achievement and a whole new standard for memoir-Barefoot to Avalon is brave and brilliant, deep and true. Payne has tried to get the whole universe on the head of a pin, and done a fine job of it."-Lee Smith

 

We hope you will join us in welcoming David Payne, reading from and discussing his new book, Thursday at 7:00.

Good Reading

We have, of course, been selling lots of copies of the "new" Harper Lee novel. But of course we've also been selling lots of other books as well. Beyond Harper Lee, here are are our best-selling titles for the first seven months of the year-the books that the brilliant, fascinating, wonderful, discerning folks that shop here have bought most often!

 

Fiction All the Light

--All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

--The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

--Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

--Euphoria by Lily King

 

Non Fiction

--The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

--The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph by Scott Ellsworth

Amazing Place --Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

--What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World by Cat Warren.

--Amazing Place: What North Carolina Means to Writers, edited by Marianne Gingher

--Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Upcoming Events

DAVID PAYNE

Thursday, August 6, 7:00 p.m.

In the year 2000, while moving his household from Vermont to North Carolina, author David Payne watched from his rearview mirror as his younger brother, George A., driving behind him in a two-man convoy of rental trucks, lost control of his vehicle, fishtailed and flipped over in the road. David's life hit a downward spiral. From a cocktail hour indulgence, his drinking became a full-blown addiction. His career entered a standstill. His marriage disintegrated. He found himself haunted not only by George A.'s death, but also by his brother's manic depression, a condition that overlaid a dark family history of mental illness, alcoholism and suicide, an inherited past that now threatened David's and his children's futures. The only way out, he found, was to write Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother's Story, a memoir about his brother. He will be in the store to read and sign books.

 

David Payne is the NY Times notable author of five novels. Payne has written for Libération, The Washington Post, The Oxford American and other publications and has taught at Bennington, Duke and Hollins. He is a founding faculty member in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Queens University of Charlotte. He lives in Hillsborough.

 

NONFICTION AUTHORS ASSOCIATION (NFAA)

Wednesday, August 12, 6:30 p.m.

Experienced and aspiring nonfiction authors are invited to attend the Nonfiction Authors Association of Durham/Chapel Hill's meeting on Wednesday, August 12 at 6:15pm. Kathy Pories and Chuck Adams from Algonquin Books will speak. Sign up and find out more here: http://www.meetup.com/Durham-Chapel-Hill-Chapter-Nonfiction-Authors-Association/events/223015674/.

 

YA BOOK CLUB

Friday, August, 21, 6:00 p.m.

Come one, come all to the greatest book club of all! Do you love YA? Are you interested in discussing or starting to read YA? The we'd love to have you! This is a book club for all ages, the only requirement is that you are interested in the young adult genre. (This is to discuss the book alone, not a writer's group). Hosted by Isabel of Tween 2 Teen Book Reviews. Snacks will be provided. This month we'll be reading Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan.

Books Ordered? No (1 here as of 7/21/15)

 

DIRK PHILIPSEN

Thursday, August 27, 7 p.m.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has expanded from a narrow economic tool into a universal yardstick of progress. In The Little Big Number, How GDP Came to Rule the World and What to Do About It Dirk Philipsen shows how the GDP fails to account for critical issues such as sustainability, quality of life, costs, or purpose. It only measures output. Philipsen explores the economic and historical development of the GDP and suggests new ways to measure economic health that will sustain us in the finite world in which we live.

 

Dirk Philipsen is a professor of economic history at Duke University, a senior fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and a Duke Arts and Sciences Senior Research Scholar. He is the author of We Were the People: Voices from East Germany's Revolutionary Autumn of 1989. Trained in Germany and the United States, he currently lives in Durham. He will be in the store to read and sign books.

 

Learn more on these and all of our upcoming events  

on the  Events Calendar on our web site.  

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