Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Reading in the Snow and Upcoming Events

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Got Books?
We hope no one got snowed in these last few days without some good books to read! As the old saying goes, "(wo)man does not live by bread and milk alone." As for myself, I took a small stack of books home with me Thursday night, just in case. Then I found I was all set to spend the next three days ice-bound at home. What an unusual pleasure it was to have little to do but spend long blocks of time reading!
 
The clear winner of my snow bound read-a-thon was an advance copy of Lee Smith's forthcoming Dimestore: A Writer's Life, which goes on sale in late March. WOW. I can't say enough good things about this wonderful book. Lee Smith is a born storyteller, and her life has sure enough given her some stories to tell. She has a great eye and ear for the humorous absurdities of life-including her own-and then she can turn around and bring tears to your eyes with tales of hard-won wisdom. I can't wait to start putting this book in people's hands. Make plans now to be at The Regulator the evening of Thursday April 14th, when Lee will read from her remarkable new book.
Jay Williams
Please note that the Jay Williams event has been postponed until Wednesday, February 10th. See below for all the details.
Upcoming Events
If you're looking for something new to read, take a good look at the books in our events calendar below. Check, for example, the great reviews that are already coming in for Lindsay Starck's novel Noah's Wife, for Elizabeth McKenzie's The Portable Veblen, and for Travis Mulhauser's Sweetgirl. There's a noir mystery and some great non-fiction as well. Click on the links to see more information about each book. Then come spend some quality time with some quality authors!

Sunday, January 31, 2016, 4:30 pm (note the time)
In his new book, Body by Darwin: How Evolution: Shapes our Health and Transforms Medicine, Jeremy Taylor uses evolutionary history to explore the roots of many medical conditions through time.  His investigation reveals what has made humans susceptible to certain illnesses and ailments and how we can use that knowledge to help us treat or prevent problems in the future. Our development into bipeds affects knees and backs and our current obsession with antibacterial products affects immune systems. Taylor shows how the work of evolutionary medicine gives us a new perspective on the body and its adaptations.

Jeremy Taylor has been a senior producer and director for BBC Television, and made numerous science films for the Discovery Channel and Learning Channel, among others. He also wrote Not a Chimp: The Hunt to Find the Genes that Make Us Human. He lives in London.

FRANK LENTRICCHIA
Monday, February 1, 2016, 7:00 pm
In The Morelli Thing, Frank Lentricchia begins with a new murder that leads to a true life notorious cold case. How will a mysterious dead man connect to Fred Morelli's unsolved murder of 1947? Angel Conte, a young hacker, uncovers the older murder as he seeks to clear her adopted father of the recent one. He is helped by the Golden Boys--a group of older Italian neighbors obsessed with Morelli's murder. The Morelli Thing is the third book in the Eliot Conte series of mysteries, following The Accidental Pallbearer and The Dog Killer of Utica.
 
Frank Lentricchia, scholar and literary critic, began working on his own fiction in the 1990s. He is the author of a number of complex novels, mostly set in Utica, NY where Lentricchia was born. He is a literature and film studies professor at Duke University.
 
LINDSAY STARCK
Tuesday, February 2, 2016, 7:00 pm
Lindsay Starck's first novel, Noah's Wife, follows the titular character and her minister husband into a coastal town on the cusp of flooding. The town residents are becoming angrier, the congregation is in disarray and the rains wash in wild animals, formerly held in a local zoo. Noah the minister is not much help, as he is undergoing his own personal crisis. Noah's Wife is not about religious faith, rather it is about having faith in other people, ourselves and the world.
 
"Noah's Wife may be a contemporary allegory, but Lindsay Starck is a classic storyteller dealing with human folly in the face of nature's ungovernable force. Her novel is an engrossing fusion of wisdom and beautiful writing." --Mary McGarry Morris, internationally bestselling author of Light From a Distant Star.
 
Lindsay Starck was born in Wisconsin and grew up largely in the Milwaukee Public Library where her mother was a librarian. She studied at Yale and at Notre Dame. Her novel began as a series of character sketches at Notre Dame. Lindsay is now the editor-in-chief of Carolina Quarterly and teaches writing in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband and their dog.

ELIZABETH MCKENZIE
Wednesday, February 3, 2016, 7:00 pm
In Elizabeth McKenzie's new novel a young woman named Veblen works Portable veblen to make sense of her relationship with her fiance, her strange upbringing, his strange upbringing, her namesake the philosopher Veblen, and the fact that she keeps seeing/hearing anthropomorphic squirrels. The Portable Veblen ranges from absurd to existential with some great twists along the way.
 
"No matter how many novels you've read, it's safe to say you've never read a novel like The Portable Veblen. The Portable Veblen brings together its disparate themes and worlds with confidence and dexterity, making the standard well-made novel seem as timid as-well, as a squirrel."- Slate
 
Elizabeth McKenzie wrote the collection, Stop That Girl, and the novel MacGregor Tells the World. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and the Pushcart Prize anthology, and has been recorded for NPR's Selected Shorts.
 
MARY & JIM ANGELO
Thursday, February 4, 2016, 7:00 pm
In I Found Someone to Play With, Mary Angelo tells the story of Larry LeGrande, an outfield star in the American Negro League. LeGrande played for several teams throughout the 1950s. In 1960 he played with the Satchel Paige All-Stars. LeGrande's heroic story epitomizes the challenges of being a Negro ball player during the era of the civil rights struggle.

Mary Angelo's educational background is in business and marketing. Born in Canada, she received her master's degree from Lesley University in Massachusetts. She grew up hearing stories from her father about the American Negro League, which did not have a counterpoint in Canada where baseball was integrated. Angelo relocated to NC in 1999. She married in 2003 and lives with her husband in Durham.
 
TRAVIS MULHAUSER
Friday, February 5, 2016, 7:00 pm
Travis Mulhauser Travis Mulhauser's debut novel, Sweetgirl takes readers deep into the heart and mind of an unforgettable young girl, Percy James. She is a fearless and headstrong teenager navigating the hard luck terrain of northern Michigan as she looks for her mother, an addict who has gone missing. She braves a blizzard, crosses a dangerous ex-con and maneuvers through a community devastated by meth addiction.
 
"To try to nail down what Mulhauser is doing in Sweetgirl to say it's a comedy or a tragedy is to do the book a grave disservice. It's far too large of heart and full of ambition to call it any one thing....And it's one hell of a great story." Drew Perry, author of Kids These Days
 
Travis Mulhauser was born and raised in Northern Michigan, the setting of the fictional Cutler County of the novel. Currently, Mulhauser lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife and two children, where he teaches at North Carolina State University. He earned his MFA from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
 
SATURDAY STORYTIME with COURTNEY SAFFIE
Saturday, February 6, 2016, 10:30 am
Courtney Saffie is a former preschool teacher and current dance educator in the Triangle. Her love of reading stemmed from reading as a child and it continued to blossom and grow as she got older. Some of her favorite authors include Dr. Seuss, Todd Parr, Jan Brett, Eric Carle, Leo Lionni, J.K Rowling, Jeannette Walls, Harper Lee and more. She reads whenever she has the chance and is looking forward to sharing all of her favorite children's books with your children, ages 3 to 8. Note the time.
 
PHILIP WARBURG
Monday, February 8, 2016, 7:00 pm
Solar power was once the domain of futurists and hippies. In Harness the Sun: America's Quest for a Solar Powered Future, Philip Warburg explores how solar power has reached its current mainstream status. Beginning with his solar-powered home in New England, he introduces readers to the pioneers who are spearheading our move toward a clean energy economy: CEOs who are promoting solar power to prominence; construction workers who install panels; engineers who are building giant utility-scale projects; and the biologists who make sure wildlife is protected at those sites.
Warburg shows how solar energy has won support across the political spectrum. Yet solar energy has its downsides and detractors too, those who worry about the impact on wildlife, on open spaces and farmland.
 
Philip Warburg is the author of "Harvest the Wind: America's Journey to Jobs, Energy Independence, and Climate Stability." He was president of the Conservation Law Foundation from 2003 to 2009. He ran the Israel Union for Environmental Defense in Tel Aviv and was an attorney at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C.
 
JAY WILLIAMS
Wednesday, February 10, 2016, 7:00 pm
The Regulator Bookshop welcomes former Duke basketball great and current ESPN analyst Jay Williams for remarks and and a signing of his new book, Life is Not an Accident: A Memoir of Reinvention.
 
As a point guard at Duke in 2001, Williams started all 39 games and led the Devils to the NCAA National Championship, earning NABC Player of the Jay Williams2 Year honors. By the 2002 season Williams was widely considered the best player in college basketball, earning both the Naismith and Wooden Awards as College Basketball's Player of the Year in 2002.
 
After one season with the Chicago Bulls, Williams's rise to NBA stardom was cut short when he was gravely injured in a motorcycle crash. He spent a decade recovering from his injuries, attempting a comeback, and seeking other professional work in sports. Williams reflects on his younger self-an invincible kid who had -- then lost -- everything . . . only to gain new wisdom. Williams reviews his decision to return to Duke and Coach K's encouragement to finish his degree. Life is Not an Accident details corruption within college basketball, scandalous recruiting practices in the pros, as well as the NBA's underground culture of gambling, drugs, and sex. Jay Williams is currently a college basketball analyst for ESPN.
 
Photography will be permitted, but not posed pictures. Williams will not be signing sports equipment. All books for the signing must be purchased at The Regulator.
 
KAREN BRANAN
Thursday, February 11, 2016, 7:00 pm
The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia. Harris County, Georgia, 1912. A white man, the beloved nephew of the county sheriff, is shot dead on the porch of a black woman. Days later, the sheriff sanctions the lynching of a black woman and three black men, all of them innocent. For Karen Branan, the great-granddaughter of that sheriff, this isn't just history; this is family history. Branan spent nearly twenty years combing through diaries and letters, hunting for clues in libraries and archives throughout the United States to piece together events and motives. Her research revealed surprising insights into the day-to-day reality of race relations in the Jim Crow-era South, but what she ultimately discovered was far more personal--a gripping story of privilege and power, anger, and atonement.
 
Karen Branan is a veteran journalist who has written for newspapers, magazines, stage, and television for almost fifty years. Her work has appeared in "Life", "Mother Jones", "Ms.", "Ladies Home Journal", " Good Housekeeping", "Today s Health", " Learning", "Parents", " Star Tribune "(Minneapolis), " The "Atlanta Journal-Constitution", and on PBS, CBS, ABC, CBC, BBC, and CNN.
 
VALENTINE'S CABARET WITH ELLEN CIOMPI & GLENN MEHRBACH
Friday February 12, 2016, 7PM
"C-Ya!": A Celebration of "C" Composers & Lyricists
It's a grand Durham tradition: the 8th Annual "Cabaret for Valentine's Day" with Ellen Ciompi (vocals), Glenn Mehrbach (keyboard) and Robbie Link (bass). This year's program is called "C-Ya!" and will highlight composers and lyricists whose names begin with "C". Think Cy Coleman, Noel Coward, Hoagy Carmichael, Harry Chapin, Sammy Cahn, and others. It will be creative--colossal--comedic--cathartic--and of course captivating!  Bring your special someone and kick off Valentine's weekend with Cabaret!
 
This event sells out every year so be sure to stop by The Regulator Bookshop and get your advance ticket ($15) at the bookshop or on our website.  Stay afterwards and enjoy wine, munchies, and a chat with the artists.
 
 
Shop Independent Durham
Tom Campbell
Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth St.
Durham, NC 27705
(919) 286-2700
http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/
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