Book Beat Reading Club Reads Fantômas. Meeting: Wednesday, September 26th, 7:00 PM at Gayles Chocolates, Royal Oak

Join us at Gayles Chocolates in Royal Oak Sept. 26th at 7:00 PM, for a discussion about Fantômas, a novel by writing partners Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. He is a master killer, a criminal genius, capable of being in multiple places at once. He can pretend to be anyone - even female - or so the story goes. And there are many, many stories of Fantômas. He is the everyman killer. This is the infamous novel that helped define the modern crime novel and inspried the Dada and Surrealist art movements. A work of popular fiction written in 1911, it became the subject for a famous serial of French silent films and grew to over 30 book length sequels.

Leslie Helakoski at Michigan Reads Program at Detroit Library Main Branch Sept.27th

Leslie Helakoski is a Michigan children's author and illustrator who will present two programs in the Friends Auditorium in the main branch of the Detroit Public Library located at 5201 Woodward in Detroit. "Children will delight in the powerful roll reversal as the timid chickens realize that bullies aren't always what they seem and that the scariest fears can be overcome." -- Booklist review of Big Chickens

There will be two presentations for Leslie Helaski: 10:00-10:45 AM for ages 6-8 and at 11:30 AM-12:15 PM for ages 3-5. Please call 313-833-1490 to reserve seats. Teachers please note: there are still openings for classroom trips. Books will be supplied by Book Beat for the event. Visit the author's website at Leslie Helakoski.com..

The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit Science Center, and The Book Beat present: THE YAK'S CORNER BOOK FAIR!

Come to the Detroit Science Center on Sunday, Sept. 30th Noon-3:00 P.M. Admission is Free!

Authors will speak from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. and autograph books From 2:00-3:00p.m. Enjoy Animal Grossology and other Exhibits from 3:00-6:00 P.M

Christopher Paul Curtis- Newbery Medal winner for Bud, Not Buddy, Newbery Honor Award Winner for The Watsons go to Birmingham---1963, and author of Flint Future Detective series, and his newest book, Elijah of Buxton, is a new Book Beat favorite. Visit his website at Chistopher Paul Curtis.com

Gary D. Schmidt- Newbery Honor Award Winner for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, author of First Son, and his newest novel, The Wednesday Wars, another Book Beat favorite. Read a great review at: Wednesday Wars: FUSE#8 Review of the Day.

Jim Benton- Author and illustrator of the Franny K. Stein series, whose newest title is
The Fran with Four Brains and the Dear Dumb Diary series. Visit Jim's hilarious online site at Jim Benton.com

Cyd Moore- Illustrator of the Stinky Face series by Lisa Mc Court, whose newest work is Happy Halloween Stinky Face, the Alice and Greta series, and Where is the Night Train Going? by Eileen Spinelli.

Lisa Wheeler- Author of picture books such as Mammoths on the Move, Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum, Porcupining: a prickly love story, One Dark Night, and her newest, Dino-Hockey. Visit Lisa's website at: Lisa Wheeler Books.com

Sylvia Branzei- Author of the Grossology series which includes Grossology and You, Hands-On Grossology, and the book from the featured Science Center exhibit, Animal Grossology. Branzei teaches important concepts and theories in science through her Science of Really Gross Things. Check out the stinky, crusty, slimy & moldy: HOME OF GROSSOLOGY

The Detroit Science Center is located at 5020 John R. in Detroit (at the corner of John R and Warren, one block east of Woodward, across from the DIA). Book Beat will be at the fair selling books by the featured authors.

The Book Beat is an independent, locally owned bookstore serving the Metro-Detroit area that recently celebrated its 25th anniversay in business. We are located at 26010 Greenfield in Oak Park. We thank you for your support and continued patronage. For more information or to reserve or pre-purchase books, please call Book Beat at 248-968-1190.

Book Beat is helping to sponsor a monthly or bimonthly/occasional reading group for those interested in discussing Thomas Pynchon's epic novel AGAINST THE DAY. The next meeting will be at Book Beat on Thurday, September 9th at 7:00 PM. We will be covering through pages 623. If you would be interested in attending this discussion group and would like more information, please RSVP the bookstore, via phone 248-968-1190 or email. We are offering a reading group discount of 20% off on this title.

BOOK BEAT PRESENTS THREE WOMEN AUTHORS OF YOUNG ADULT FICTION AT THE OAK PARK LIBRARY

The Book Beat presents a program of three strong women writers of young adult fiction at the Oak Park Library on Sunday, October 14th from 2:00 - 3:30 P.M. The authors will be Kathe Koja, Helen Frost and Sarah Miller. All three have newly published books they will be presenting and discussing. The Oak Park library is located at 14200 Oak Park Blvd., (9 1/2 mile, just West of Coolidge). For more information, or to preview or reserve books, please call Book Beat at 248-968-1190.

About the Authors:

Kathe Koja is the author of many notable books for young adults including Going Under, Talk and The Blue Mirror, an ALA Best Book for Young adults. Her newest book is Kissing the Bee, a novel of rare depth and stark honesty that will draw readers in from the very first page. From her online blog Kathe comments:

"For me, there is nothing so satisfying to write about than a trio of characters, that push-me-pull-you tension between three people, where alliances shift, closeness ebbs or rises, a hierarchy develops (and shatters) (or not), and so on. It’s an elastic configuration where just about anything can happen, and Kissing the Bee is pure triangle." Katehe Koja lives in the Detroit area with her husband, photographer Rick Lieder and their son. Visit Kathe Koja's Blog and website to learn more.

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Helen Frost writes books for children, teens and adults. Helen will present her newest book The Braid, an amazing and award winning novel about the destiny of two Scottish sisters told in poetic verse. Set in the 1850s, it deals with serious topics and themes that will resonate with todays teens. The Braid has recieved starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, Reviews, Booklist and School Library Journal. She is the author of Keesha's House, a Michael L. Printz honor Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and Spinning Through the Universe, as well as numerous works of non-fiction and poetry. Visit her website at Helen Frost: Poet, Playwright and Children's Writer. Helen lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Read a School Library Journal interview with the author at: Gentle Frost.

"The braid not only symbolizes the bond between the sisters ... but also nods to Frost's form here, the Celtic knot, which she employs seamlessly. This brief, memorable book spans two years, several deaths, first love and the stigma attached to unwed mothers, while also conveying the resolve of one family to survive and to preserve hope." Ages 12-up. -- Publishers Weekly, starred review.
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Sarah Miller is a young author from Romeo, Michigan. She will present her novel, Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller. Her novel tells the gripping and fascinating story of Annie Sullivan, the famous teacher of Helen Keller. Newbery Medal winner Richard Peck noted, "Miss Spitfire is high drama about how language unlocks theworld."

"To read Sarah Miller's Miss Spitfire with your daughter or your son is to discover in a fresh, new way the miracle that brought together two of history's most brilliant and stubborn women. What an amazing, revealing book. It's definitely not for kids only!"
~ Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

"In this debut novel, Miller departs from the known Keller story, imagining instead the emotional terrain of Keller's teacher, Annie Sullivan. . . . Miller goes well beyond history. She delves into the hearts and minds of her subjects, creating realistic, believable characters. The Kellers' love mingled with despair, Annie's loneliness and her terror of failure, and Helen's frustration and the overwhelming joy of her breakthrough are palpable. Miller brings history to life." --VOYA

Sarah Miller works at an independent children's bookstore and her website is at: SarahMillerBooks.com. Miss Spitfire is her first published novel.

The Book Beat will be hosting a special evening signing for authors Scott Martelle and Colleen J. McElroy on Thursday, October 18th at 7:00 pm at the Book Beat, located at 26010 Greenfield, in Oak Park. Los Angeles Times reporter Scott Martelle, will present his book Blood Passion, a history about this nation's deadliest labor struggle. Colleen McElroy is a distinguished African-American poet, Editor-in-Chief of the Seattle Review and a professor emeritus of English at the University of Washington, Seattle. For more information, please call 248-968-1190.

Scott Martelle is a Los Angeles area author of the recently published Blood Passion, a book that chronicles coal miner labor relations in 1914, that escalated in an all-out war between the Colorado National Guard and armed strikers. The violence and arson finally ended when President Woodrow Wilson sent in the United States Army. Overall at least seventy-five men, women, and children were killed in seven months, likely the nation's deadliest labor struggle.

In Blood Passion, journalist Scott Martelle explores this little-noted tale of political corruption and repression and immigrants' struggles against dominant social codes of race, ethnicity, and class. More than a simple labor dispute, the events surrounding Ludlow embraced some of the most volatile social movements of the early twentieth century, pitting labor activists, socialists, and anarchists against the era's powerful business class, including John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and helped give rise to the modern twins of corporate public relations and political "spin." But at its heart, Blood Passion is the dramatic story of small lives merging into a movement for change and of the human struggle for freedom and dignity.

"Blood Passion is the definitive account of a major landmark in the American struggle for social justice. And the way Scott Martelle tells the story is splendid proof that history can both be written as vividly as a novel and also be documented with scrupulous care."
- Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves

"We must welcome this carefully-researched study of one of the most dramatic, violent, and important episodes in the history of labor struggles in this country."
- Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"From this country's earliest days, we have wrestled with the conflicting concepts of respecting our government and rebelling against it. Blood Passion is an attempt to knock some of the dust off this long-forgotten yet hugely emblematic moment in American history."
-- Scott Martelle

Scott Martelle is a writer for the Los Angeles Times. A native of Maine who grew up in rural western New York, he lives with his wife and their two sons in Irvine, California. Visit the author's website at http://www.scottmartelle.com/

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Colleen J. McElroy is a professor emeritus of English and creative writing at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the author of several poetry collections, including Traveling Music.

Read an interview with the author at: African- American Lit Suite 101

Colleen J. McElroy's poetry shoots for the moon, and takes it in, too, in one way after another. The collection’s award-winning poems animate women’s experiences of sex, shopping, and dancing, while offering telling insight into the struggles and silver lining of lust, love, illness, and aging. Rich with vivid imagery and candid storytelling, Sleeping with the Moon takes readers on moonlit adventures under the night sky, through the barroom’s smoky haze, and under the covers.

"...Beware: such delicate
sights have driven more than one woman to despair
instead she watched him breathe-- relishing
for a moment that secret space where night
grows soft and the moon’s detumescence forgives--
and where if this jeweled light holds they might
strip themselves of years if only for one night."

Colleen J. McElroy lives in Seattle Washington, and is on the Creative Writing faculty of the Department of English at the University of Washington where she has taught for the past thirty-five years. Author of 14 books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, McElroy also is a folklorist, and as a Fulbright Scholar and a Dupont Distinguished Scholar has researched the oral tradition in a number of countries, including Madagascar, Vietnam, Sardinia, Cuba, Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, and the Cook Islands. Her text, OVER THE LIP OF THE WORLD: AMONG THE STORYTELLERS OF MADAGASCAR was a 2001 finalist in the PEN-USA-West awards. She has also received an American Book Award for her collection of poems, QUEEN OF THE EBONY ISLES. In addition to receiving two Fulbright Fellowships, she has also received two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Rockefeller Fellowship. She is currently editor-in-chief of the literary magazine, Seattle Review.