Signings, readings, sales and other book-related activities
Yesterday, I walked through a fabulous book fair! Rows after row of little tents full of a wide assortment of books, all sorted by subject. Books! And more books! On a lovely, if slightly rainy, Saturday afternoon. So why the sad face? I’m in Amsterdam. They were all in Dutch. Read more
There was a lot more hair in Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Wednesday, August 18th. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth (and formerly of Metallica) was on-hand to sign copies of his new autobiography, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir. Lots of black t-shirts, lots of long hair, lots of guys who have probably never been in a bookstore before. Those are some of… Read more
These days, we talk about Banned Book Week and we talk about censorship in school libraries, but in the 1500’s, they were serious about censorship. Get caught reading something on the Vatican’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) and your prize was an appointment with the local Inquisitor. Based on the true story of Giordano Bruno — an Italian… Read more
True or False: 1. The safest seats on an airplane are at the back. 2. If you fall into a frozen lake, you have only 3 minutes to escape the water. 3. In prisoner-of-war camps in Vietnam, optimists lived longer than anyone else. Who lives and who dies in a crisis? Do you have what it takes to be one… Read more
Okay, a few weeks ago I posted about the NOBS Antiquarian Book Fair. Even though I was in the early stages of the Zombie Death Flu, there was no way I was going to miss that show! My cousin, Ann, and I always have a great time — it is so much fun to walk through all the booths, take… Read more
I spent 3 hours last night listening to this guy talk about literacy: No, seriously. Henry Rollins is a punk rock icon. I wasn’t a big punk fan as a teenager, but even I knew Black Flag. He’s an author, a tv show host, an actor, and a spoken word phenom. Listening to him was amazing — he talked for… Read more
It is almost time for one of my favorite book events of the year: The NOBS Akron Book Fair! (NOBS stands for Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society.) It used to be the Antiquarian Book Fair, but it’s not just old books these days – I have made some great finds there and I love spending the day walking through the fair,… Read more
Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with a thunderous hangover, a raging headache…and a pair of horns growing from his temples. It’s a great beginning to a promising story: part thriller, part horror, part treatise on the nature of the devil. While Horns occasionally gets bogged down in reminiscence, it’s… Read more
Thanks to an announcement from Biblio.com, I found a book that I loved has been nominated for an Edgar! Back in July, I reviewed The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death by Charlie Huston. Really enjoyed the book and I am pleased to say that it has been nominated for a 2010 Edgar Award for Best Novel! I… Read more
If you have a weak stomach, this book is not for you. Wake Up Dead is probably the most violent, bloody, gore-splattered book I’ve read in ages, and that’s really saying something. A gang war in Cape Town, South Africa’s ghettos provides the setting and the gang-bangers, drug lords, junkies and an honest-to-goodness cannibal provide the action. On a steamy… Read more