FRIDAY, April 30th 7:00 PM: Photographer ANDREW MOORE at OCC

We are pleased to present photographer Andrew Moore appearing at the Oakland Community College Theater at the Royal Oak Campus on  Friday, April 30th at 7:00 PM to autograph and talk about his latest large format photography book Detroit Disassembled. This controversial new book is one of the first to focus extensively on the ruins of Detroit. It raises important questions concerning all of us who live in the Detroit area. This event is co-sponsored by Oakland Community College and the Book Beat. Oakland Community College is located at 739, South Washington in Royal Oak. For more information please contact: Book Beat at 248-968-1190. Books are  now available for purchase at  Book Beat or at the event.

Andrew Moore is a fine arts photographer, educator, cinematographer and producer. His previous book, Russia: Beyond Utopia, was published by Chronicle Books. Moore was executive producer and cinematographer for the Award Winning documentary on artist Ray Johnson, How to Draw a Bunny. He currently lives and works in New York City.

Moore ventures well beyond the typical shoot-and-run exploiter, yet I cannot shake the disturbing feeling I get when I view these photographs. I think I understand Moore’s intent, and I even accept that he may have achieved his artistic purpose. Yet I find his photographs unremittingly bleak. – Read More: John Gallagher, The Detroit Freepress

The primary signs of life in Moore’s photographs come not from humans, but from nature: mossy grass grows in buildings, trees crawl from warehouses, and houses are swallowed whole by reaching vines. Moore’s postscript—and more quietly but importantly, his photographs—invoke Detroit’s motto, Speramus Meliora, Resurget Cineribus: “We hope for better things; it will arise from the ashes.” –Read More: The New Yorker

Is Detroit America’s Rome?… Moore’s vision is more lyrical, almost optimistic. The sight of fluorescent moss carpeting a floor or birch trees sprouting from a bed of rotting books signifies for him not — or not only — a boomtown’s tragic collapse but an occasion to devise a new urban paradigm, one that incorporates vast swaths of woods and farmland. Moore’s Detroit, though sparsely populated, is not a ghost town.    -from a recent review in: the New York Times: Ruin With a View

Beyond their jawdropping content, Moore’s photographs inevitably raise the uneasy question of the long-term future of a country in which such extreme degradation can exist unchecked. -Publisher’s website blurb for Detroit Disassembled

“Andrew Moore’s images, by contrast, transcend politics….his photographs comprise an other­worldly calculus of a profoundly troubled nation eternally uncertain of its place in the world.“ – Boris Fishman on Russia: Beyond Utopia

Andrew Moore is best known for his complex and painterly images of Cuba, Russia, and New York City. He has had nine solo shows in New York as well as numerous exhibitions in the U.S. and internationally. His photographs are represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Library of Congress, the Israel Museum, the High Museum, the Eastman House and the Canadian Centre for Architecture amongst others. Moore has been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The New York State Council on the Arts, and several private foundations.  His photographs have been published by Wired, The New York Times Magazine, Departures, Conde Nast Traveler, Art and Auction, Geo, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Harpers, Esquire, Fortune, New York Magazine, and The New Yorker.

Book Beat reading group meeting April 28th

There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales (Paperback) Masterworks of economy and acuity, these brief, trenchant tales by Russian author and playwright Petrushevskaya, selected from her wide-ranging but little translated oeuvre over the past 30 years, offer an enticement to English readers to seek out more of her writing. The tales explore the inexplicable workings of fate, the supernatural, grief and madness, and range from adroit, straightforward narratives to bleak fantasy.

The Book Beat reading group meets the last Wednesday of every month. Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 28th at 7:00 PM at the Goldfish Teahouse, 117 W. Fourth Street  in Royal Oak.  Meetings are free and open to the public. Book club books are discounted 15% at Book Beat. Please call 248-968-1190 for more information.

Find out more on Ludmilla at:  SCARY FAIRY TALES blog

Celebrate Children’s Day/Book Day April 30th:El día de los niños / El día de los libros

El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day), known as Día, is a celebration EVERY DAY of children, families, and reading that culminates every year on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

International(click here): Save the Frogs Day is April 30th!

SAVE THE FROGS! is America’s first and only public charity dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation. Our mission is to protect amphibian populations and to promote a society that respects and appreciates nature and wildlife.

Celebrate (click here): National Arbor Day on Friday, April 3oth!

Arbor Day is a nationally-celebrated observance that encourages tree planting and care. Founded by J. Sterling Morton in 1872, it’s celebrated on the last Friday in April.

Perfect book for Arbor Day April 30th: & illustrated by local Artist Cyd Moore!

Arbor Day Square (Hardcover) Katie and her papa are among a group of settlers building a town in the middle of the dusty, brown prairie. Every week the trains bring more people and more lumber to build houses, fences, and barns. New buildings are erected: a church with a steeple, a store with glass windows, even a schoolhouse with desks for seventeen children.

But one thing is missing: trees.

When the townspeople take up a collection to order trees from back east Katie adds her own pennies and Papa’s silver dollar. When the tiny saplings finally arrive, Katie helps dig holes and fetch water. Then, in a quiet corner off the public square, Katie and Papa plant a flowering dogwood in memory of Mama.

Although set in the past, Kathryn O. Galbraith’s gentle story of community building, the timelessness of love, and the power of ritual will resonate with young readers today. Cyd Moore’s full-color illustrations reflect the simplicity of the story and life in a new prairie town, while evoking the complexity of its themes.

“An attractive introduction to the celebration of Arbor Day.”

Booklist

“Moore’s gentle pencil and watercolors lend a classic “storybook” feel to the story…”

Kirkus

Sunday, May 2nd, Fantasy Author Patrick Rothfuss at Baldwin Library

New York Times Best-Selling Author Patrick Rothfuss will be at the Baldwin Public Library, (300 West Merrill Street, Birmingham) on Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 2:00 pm.

His debut fantasy novel, The Name of the Wind has received high praise in the world of fantasy fiction and his fans are eagerly waiting for his next title to be released.  Rothfuss will be there for a reading, signing and Q and A session.   Come out to meet this exciting new fantasy writer.   Books will be available for purchase at the event from Book Beat.

“The Name of the Wind marks the debut of a writer we would all do well to watch. Patrick Rothfuss has real talent, and his tale of Kvothe is deep and intricate and wondrous.”

Thank you for your continued support.

Happy Earth Day, April 22!