Wednesday, November 5th: After Election, Rock Out with Authors Brett Callwood and John Sinclair on the Stooges & MC5 at Book Beat

Please join us at Book Beat, 26010 GREENFIELD in Oak Park on Wednesday, November 5th at 7 PM for a celebration of Detroit rock 'n roll history. Brett Callwood is the author of a newly published biography: The Stooges: A Journey Through the Michigan Underworld and MC5: Sonically Speaking: A Tale of Revolution and Rock 'n' Roll. Poet John Sinclair was the manager of the MC5 and helped to sign both the Stooges and the MC5 to the Elektra label in 1968 and things have never been the same since. We are hoping to also have available Sinclair's recent release: Headpress #28: The Gospel According to Unpopular Culture. As Sinclair has noted, November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day and the hopeful afterglow of the USA elections - this is sure to be an evening of interesting discussion and Detroit style celebration. Kick out the Jams! Please call 248-968-1190 or visit thebookbeat.com for more information.

About the Books:

The Stooges: A Journey Through the Michigan Underworld :

Containing primary interviews with all the band members and Iggy himself, as well as other key characters, this biography provides a collection of exclusive and captivating eye-witness accounts of this most important of rock bands. The influence of The Stooges on the world of punk and rock 'n' roll is immeasurable. The band's three albums - "The Stooges", "Fun House" and "Raw Power" - are bona fide classics. The fact that the band only existed for a few short years at the end of the '60s and start of the '70s makes their achievements all the more impressive.Of course, lead singer Iggy Pop went on to have huge success as a solo artist, working with the likes of David Bowie and Green Day, but here, for the first time, The Stooges story is told in-depth, through original interviews with the band members. Just after the turn of the new millennium, Iggy reformed The Stooges with all of the key members present, including brothers Ron and Scott 'Rock Action' Asheton. The Stooges have gone from strength to strength since the reunion, headlining festivals around the world.Their contribution to rock music history is without question and this book is an important document of those times and their lives.

MC5: Sonically Speaking: A Tale of Revolution and Rock 'n' Roll:

Although nobody realised it at the time, the historic importance of the MC5 is vast. Often considered a ‘post-punk’ band along with fellow Detroiters The Stooges as well as Big Apple natives the New York Dolls and the Velvet Underground, the influence of the MC5 reaches far and wide, with everyone from Green Day, The White Stripes, Motorhead, Ramones, Rage Against The Machine and Bad Brains citing them.
Fuelled by the radical politics of the White Panther party, the MC5 preached revolution and were often a target for the authorities. Having released three albums between 1969 and 1971, two of the band passed away and guitarist Wayne Kramer spent time behind bars for drug-related offences. Thirty years of low-key solo projects followed, before the band reunited in the new Millennium for a one-off show that turned into a full-on reunion. The book details not only the seismic impact that they’ve had on music, but also the social climate in which they evolved.

Headpress #28: The Gospel According to Unpopular Culture

The baton of the White Panthers is now in the hands of Headpress. John Sinclair, cofounding member of the White Panthers political party in 1968, is the editor of HEADPRESS 28. Mr Sinclair, a Detroit poet and one-time manager of the band MC5, became the focus of the counterculture and international media when John Lennon named a song after him and joined Stevie Wonder for a benefit concert to free him from jail. HEADPRESS 28 marks the fortieth anniversary of the original White Panthers movement and heralds the launch of the “HEADPRESS PANTHERS” and “THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO UNPOPULAR CULTURE.”

About the Authors:

Brett Callwood is a freelance music journalist whose work has appeared in publications such as Kerrang!, Record Collector, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Bizarre, Rhythm, Total Guitar, Guitarist, The Metro Times and Metromix. Brett is originally from the UK and recently moved to Detroit (far out!) to keep up with all the high energy happenings in this city-of-the-future. More information at: Brett Callwood Myspace site.

John Sinclair is legendary as the man who guided the rock-and-revolution MC-5 to early fame, and as the political prisoner in the early days of the War on Drugs whose 1971 release from a 9-1/2-to-10-year sentence for possession of two joints was secured by high-profile supporters like John Lennon and Stevie Wonder.

But in subsequent years John Sinclair forged a whole new legend as a New Orleans-based preacher of the power of blues and jazz, "his love and knowledge of which form the basis of his wonderful spoken-word performances" (John Strausbaugh, New York Press) and popular award-winning music programs for WWOZ Radio.

Relentlessly criss-crossing the USA and western Europe to deliver his verses in front of a variety of high-energy musical ensembles, Sinclair is sort of a 21st-century American griot who's been called "The Last of the Beatnik Warrior Poets" (Mick Farren, Los Angeles Weekly) and "The Hardest-Working Poet in Show Business" (Ben Edmonds, San Francisco Chronicle). Source: John Sinclair biography by PT Dante

The Book Beat is an independent bookstore serving the Detroit metro area for over 25 years.

Turtle's Penguin Day (Hardcover) This delightful picture book from Valeri Gorbachev celebrates both the power of books, and the joys of imaginative play in all its dress-up-box glory. And, with the extra penguin facts at the end of the book, this is a perfect blueprint for teachers planning penguin days of their own.

"This adorable story about the little turtle's adventures shows the reader how exciting it is to use your imagination to make your own fun. The reader learns some facts about penguins while reading this fictional story. The hilarious pictures add to the excitement of the story and give the characters in the story personality. The author gives penguin facts at the end of the story, which would add to any science curriculum about habitats. This story is a must-read for young children, and it may spark ideas in children on ways to be creative." -- Booklist

Dancing to Freedom: The True Story of Mao's Last Dancer (Hardcover) » A poignant memoir of a boy caught in the difficulties of life in Maoist China, this is the author's own story of how he was given a chance to break the bonds of his bleak life and become an international star. First told for adults in the bestseller Mao's Last Dancer (Berkley, 2005) and now available in a Young Readers' Edition of the same name (Walker, 2008), this picture-book version is an inspiring tale of the willingness to make the most of one's opportunities, even when it entails tremendous personal sacrifice. Grades 3-5

Wanda Gág: The Girl Who Loved to Draw (Hardcover) » Wanda Gág (pronounced "Gog") is well known as the author and illustrator of Millions of Cats, one of the best-loved children's books ever published. But not many people know how interesting and inspiring her life was.

Following in the footsteps of her beloved artist father, Wanda led an idyllic childhood, drawing and listening to old-world fairy tales. But when her father died, it was teenage Wanda who worked hard to keep her seven younger siblings fed, clothed, and laughing. She never lost sight of her love of art, however, and her tremendous willpower won her a coveted scholarship to the Art Students League in New York City and then led to a gallery show of her artwork-where an editor of children's books got an idea for a book. The rest, as they say, is history!

Sandy's Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder (Hardcover) » As a boy, Alexander "Sandy" Calder was always fiddling with odds and ends, making objects for friends. When he got older and became an artist, his fiddling led him to create wire sculptures. One day, Sandy made a lion. Next came a lion cage. Before he knew it, he had an entire circus and was traveling between Paris and New York performing a brand-new kind of art for amazed audiences.

"This is the story of Sandy's Circus, as told by Tanya Lee Stone with Boris Kulikov's spectacular and innovative illustrations. Calder's original circus is on permanent display at the Whitney Museum in New York City." -- The Washington Post

Ghosts in the House! (Hardcover) "This picture book gets back to basics with three-color illustrations, a simple text, and old-fashioned charm that isn't at all dated. Kohara's child-friendly pictures help set the tone. Attention-holding, uncomplicated compositions feature clean jack-o'-lantern-like shapes in warm black, pumpkin orange, and translucent white (for the ghosts, natch). The story is just as straightforward. A girl and her cat move into an old house and discover it's haunted. Luckily, "the girl wasn't just a girl. She was a witch!" -- Horn Book

"The uncluttered illustrations evoke woodblock prints, and the higgledy-piggledy pointed house and sharply angled witch hat form a perfect counterpoint to the translucent flow of the otherworldly inhabitants…an utterly delightful book."-- Washington Post

Predators: A Pop-up Book with Revolutionary Technology » Get up close and personal with some of the world's most terrifying and dangerous predators! Amazing 3-D pop-ups swing off the page, bringing to life spiders, polar bears, crocodiles, and more! Filled with interesting facts and vibrant artwork, Predators! takes readers on an interactive and imaginative journey into the wild! This paper-over-board book has innovative, swinging pop-ups.

Yellow Square: A Pop-up Book for Children of All Ages » More child-friendly than last year's 600 Black Spots, the new addition to the series that began with One Red Dot is just as much an overture to exploring art. A yellow square hides in plain sight in or within the paper engineering on each spread; sometimes, the creation of the yellow square is entirely up to the reader. On the first spread, for example, that square exists only when the reader peers through a die-cut while holding the book at the correct angle-in other words, perspective is everything. Captions are variously enigmatic ("The fog of art/ and a yellow square," for an elaborate windows-like construction topped in vellum) or childlike ("The cow jumped over the moon/ and a yellow square," for an abstract paper sculpture). As before, Carter confines himself to primary colors, black and white; even with this palette, he alludes to a number of artists, among them Agam, whose name he spells out in a tribute piece; Christo, in a trio of wrapped structures; Miro; and Calder, via a trapeze with rotating flaps that stand in for performers. Not all the spreads are equally impressive, but the best are dazzlers. Ages 3-up. --Publisher's Weekly

Great Reading for Young Adults:

The Graveyard Book (Hardcover) » ""The Graveyard Book manages the remarkable feat of playing delightful jazz riffs on Kipling’s classic Jungle Books. One might call this book a small jewel, but in fact it’s much bigger within than it looks from the outside." -- Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn

"Neil Gaiman's on tour with his fantastic new book, The Graveyard Book. I'm about halfway through it and enjoying it immensely -- it's the spookiest, coolest, most dream-like and smart young adult horror novel I've read. As he tours, Neil is reading the book aloud, a different chapter at every stop, and his publishers are putting the readings online every day, chapter after chapter. Neil's a fantastic reader, probably the best living author-reader I've heard (except, maybe, for the magnificent, towering brilliance that is Daniel Pinkwater), and this is a do-not-miss bit of free vid." --Boing Boing Watch: Neil Gaiman reading chapter one, The Graveyard Book

The Maze of Bones (The 39 Clues Series #1, Hardcover) » The 39 Clues is Scholastic's groundbreaking new series, spanning 10 adrenaline-charged books, 355 trading cards, and an online game where readers play a part in the story and compete for over $100,000 in prizes.

The 39 Clues books set the story, and the cards, website and game allow kids to participate in it. Kids visit the website - www.the39clues.com - and discover they are lost members of the Cahill family. They set up online accounts where they can compete against other kids and against Cahill characters to find all 39 clues. Through the website, kids can track their points and clues, manage their card collections, dig through the Cahill archives for secrets, and "travel" the world to collect Cahill artifacts, interview characters, and hunt down clues. Collecting cards helps: Each card is a piece of evidence containing information on a Cahill, a clue, or a family secret.

Yes, this all sounds gimmicky, but the books are well written by top children's authors and kids are hooked into the codes and clues contained in the books, website and cards. Ages 8-12 years.

The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (Hardcover, signed copies!) » " Add a scattering of plot twists and turns, some horrifying otherworld monsters, and an all-out battle between good and the result has the makings of a highly entertaining fantasy. To his credit, the author successfully weaves together the many plot threads that go into this intricate and skillfully written fantasy. Although the novel is essentially plot driven, the book's characters are well developed and engaging. The addition of historical figures in the story, such as Niccolo Machiavelli and Joan of Arc, add an appealing intrigue to the book. Teens who like fast-paced fantasies with lots of action, like Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books or Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series are sure to enjoy this new addition to the genre." -- VOYA

Chains (Signed Hardcover, first editions)) » As she says of the book, “A decade ago, while researching Fever 1793, I came across facts that shocked me; that Benjamin Franklin owned slaves, that twenty percent of New York City in 1776 was held in bondage, and that the Revolution was not fought for the freedom of all Americans.” The result of this shock is Chains, a complex but kid-friendly look at the Revolutionary War through the eyes of a Loyalist’s slave. As Anderson says in her Author’s Note at the end, “you really can’t look at this through good guy/bad guy glasses.” So it is that you end up with a book that is nuanced, historically accurate within an inch of its life, and infinitely readable." --Fuse #8

Lincoln Shot: A President's Life Remembered (Hardcover) » "This unique biography of Abraham Lincoln employs a richly-illustrated newspaper format and a vigorous, readable writing style to present the story of the Civil War president's remarkable life and tragic death. Written for young adults, it will appeal to readers of all ages. In this bicentennial season of Lincoln books, this one stands out with its attractive format and fast-paced prose."--James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom

The oversized vertical trim underscores the newspaper look and feel. Meticulously researched and exquisitely designed, Lincoln Shot is a uniquely inviting and accessible tribute to Lincoln, whose birth bicentennial is February 12, 2009. All ages.

New Non-Fiction:

The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (paperback) » Lewis Buzbee’s heartwarming book—an ode to the raptures of browsing, and a tribute to the ingenuities of vending—rekindles and rationalizes my love for bookstores, those sometimes ramshackle dream palaces. A graceful amalgam of memoir and history, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop celebrates bibliophilic pleasures that I hope will never go out of style.” —Wayne Koestenbaum

“The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is a delectable feast for the reader. Like a great meal, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop provides the reader many types of pleasure. Each chapter offers its particular moments of insight and enchantment—it is difficult to pick which chapter offered the greatest satisfaction. I cannot remember when I have read a book with such delight.”—Paul Yamazaki, City Lights Bookstore

Letter to My Daughter (Hardcover) » For a world of devoted readers, a much-awaited new volume of absorbing stories and inspirational wisdom from one of our best-loved writers. Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.

Hot, Flat and Crowded (Hardcover) » A rousing manifesto for our climate-challenged future

"The litany of dangers has been told many times before, but Mr. Friedman's voice is compelling and will be widely heard…Heads will be nodding across airport lounges, as readers absorb Mr. Friedman's common sense about how America and the world are dangerously addicted to cheap fossil fuels while we recklessly use the atmosphere as a dumping ground for carbon dioxide." -- The New York Times

Our political blindness and ignorance vis-a-vis other nations now butts up against the world's instability and, Friedman continues, 'the convergence of hot, flat, and crowded is tightening energy supplies, intensifying the extinction of plants and animals, deepening energy poverty, strengthening petrodictatorship, and accelerating climate change.'

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession (Hardcover) » In 2005, Anne Rice startled her readers with her novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and by revealing that, after years as an atheist, she had returned to her Catholic faith. Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana followed.

And now, in her powerful and haunting memoir, Rice tells the story of the spiritual transformation that produced a complete change in her literary goals.

The Black List (Hardcover) » In The Black List, twenty-five prominent African-Americans of various professions, disciplines, and backgrounds offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs, and joys of black life in America and, in the process, redefine "black list" for a new century.... Spanning the arts, sports, politics, and business, the diverse accomplishments and lives of these remarkable individuals create a kaleidoscope of ideas and experiences, and provide the framework for a singular conver-sation about the influence of African-Americans on this country and on our world.

The Black List is: Slash - Toni Morrison - Keenen Ivory Wayans - Vernon Jordan - Faye Wattleton - Marc Morial - Serena Williams - Lou Gossett Jr. - Russell Simmons - Lorna Simpson - Mahlon Duckett - Zane - Al Sharpton - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - William Rice - Thelma Golden - Sean Combs - Susan Rice - Chris Rock - Suzan-Lori Parks - Steve Stoute - Richard Parsons - Dawn Staley - Colin Powell - Bill T. Jone

21 Nights (Hardcover + limited edition CD) » --a first book by Prince and celebrated photographer Randee St. Nicholas is a stunning multimedia volume offering a rare glimpse into the life, lyrics and mystique of one of the most notable and prolific musicians of our time. This beautifully designed photographic essay flows from Prince's sensational, unprecedented, record-breaking, sold-out 21 concerts in 21 Nights at London's 02 Arena in 2007. Giving insight into his dueling worlds of performance and solitude, 21 Nights incorporates Prince's evocative poetry and lyrics to new songs and other selections, and 124 full-color, sumptuous never-before-published images by Randee St. Nicholas. As part of the multi-dimensional experience, it will also include "Indigo Night," a CD--available only with the book--capturing Prince's after-hours, live after-show sessions--rare and profound moments of musical genius.

New Graphic Novels:

Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! (Hardcover) » The creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus explores the comics form...and how it formed him! This book opens with Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!, creating vignettes of the people, events, and comics that shaped Art Spiegelman. It traces the artist's evolution from a MAD-comics obsessed boy in Rego Park, Queens, to a neurotic adult examining the effect of his parents' memories of Auschwitz on his own son.

The second part presents a facsimile of Breakdowns, the long-sought after collection of the artist's comics of the 1970s, the book that triggers these memories. Breakdowns established the mode of formally sophisticated comics that transformed the medium, and includes the prototype of Maus, cubist experiments, an essay on humor, and the definitive genre-twisting pulp story "Ace Hole-Midget Detective."

Pulling all this together is an illustrated essay that looks back at the sixties as the artist pushes sixty, and explains the obsessions that brought these works into being. Poignant, funny, complex, and innovative, Breakdowns alters the terms of what can be accomplished in a memoir.

The Best American Comics 2008 (Hardcover) » This newest edition to the Best American Series--"A genuine salute to comics" (Houston Chronicle)--returns with a set of both established and up-and-coming contributors. Editor Lynda Barry and and brand new series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden--acclaimed cartoonists in their own right-- have sought out the best stories culled from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the Web to create this cutting-edge collection "perfect for newbies as well as fans"--The San Diego Union Tribune. This newest volume features luminaries like Chris Ware, Seth, and Alison Bechdel alongside Paul Pope's "Batman" and beloved daily cartoonists like Matt Groening.

Lynda Barry's smart comic illustrated introduction, about what makes comics relevant, important and "good" is easily worth the cost of the book. This is the best comic anthology yet, introducing lots of unknowns in an annual series that is redefining the genre.

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Volume 3 (Hardcover) » “[Jansson’s] work soars with lightness and speed, and her drawings only echo her writing: delicate but precise, observant yet suggestive . . . Jansson was exceptional, an exuberant explorer of emotional independence and interdependence, a liberating force.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Fifty years ago, Tove Jansson’s observations of everyday life—whimsical but with biting undertones—easily caught the attention of an international audience and still resonate today. This third volume returns to Moominvalley, where its beloved inhabitants get tangled up in five new stories. Moomin falls in love with a damsel in distress, an unseasonably warm spell turns the valley into a tropical rain forest, and a flying saucer crashes into Moominmamma’s garden.

Berlin, Book Two: City of Smoke (Hardcover) » Praise for Berlin Book One: “A comic of impressive scope, taking place in Weimar Berlin and touching on the issues of politics, aesthestics and technology in that cultural ground zero.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“[Berlin] will be the longest, most sophisticated work of historical fiction in the medium. Lutes has a natural, clean, European drawing style, much like Hergé’s Tintin . . . This book has the density of the best novels.” —Time

The second installment of the epic historical trilogy

The second volume of Jason Lutes's historical epic finds the people of Weimar Berlin searching for answers after the lethal May Day demonstration of 1929.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (paperback) » The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who ages in reverse: He is born seventy years old and becomes younger as the years progress. This faithful graphic-novel adaptation chronicles Benjamin Button's many adventures: He falls in love with a woman who ages normally (this causes complications), starts a family, and establishes a successful business. In his later years, he attends Harvard and plays on their football team. By the time he is an old man, Benjamin Button resembles a baby. "And then he remembered nothing. Through the noons and nights he breathed and over him there were soft mumblings and murmurings that he scarcely heard, and faintly differentiated smells, and light and darkness."

Tom Nardone's Demented Halloween Treat:

Extreme Pumpkins II - Take Back Halloween and Freak Out a Few More Neighbors (paperback) » From the power-tool wielding author of the national bestselling Extreme Pumpkins and the popular website Extremepumpkins.com comes a new collection of even darker, creepier, and more outrageous do-it-yourself designs to impress friends and horrify neighbors. The demented designs include Projectile Sneeze Pumpkin, Baseball-in-the-Eye Pumpkin, Doll-Eating Pumpkin, and Full-Diaper Baby Pumpkin, along with cool gourd designs, practical jokes, and more. This gleefully gory guide reclaims Halloween from the cheerful, the cutesy, and the parent-sanctioned.

New Recommended Fiction:

Indign

ation (Hardcover) » "Roth's secret, I think, is his supreme confidence as a storyteller—and, paradoxically, a supreme humility. His writing is at the service of his story and characters; he’s a pragmatist, not a belletrist. If certain conventions of plot and language do the job, why get fancy? He can break out the fine writing when the occasion requires…The unnamed protagonist of Everyman at least gets a joyous flash of himself as a boy at the ocean before the lights go out; Indignation makes even that terminally grim book seem sentimental. Everyman and Exit Ghost both have a mood of sorrowful resignation; this book goes about its grieving savagely. And of all Roth's recent novels, it ventures farthest into the unknowable. In his unshowy way, with all his quotidian specificity and merciless skepticism, Roth is attempting to storm heaven—an endeavor all the more desperately daring because he seems dead certain it's not there." -- New York Times

The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow (Hardcover) » A history of terrible violence including rape and murder followed by 27 years of incarceration in a prison with its own codified violence have helped shape Socrates Fortlow, previously featured in two short story collections, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned(1997) and Walkin' the Dog(1999). The hardened ex-con living in South Central L.A. has been chiseled by his experiences into a hulking essence of wise humanity. An initial gathering of diverse characters (a Muslim, a Jew, a Buddhist, a gambler, a singer, a lawyer, two killers, etc.) brought together by Socrates becomes an agent of change. The weekly "Thinkers' Meetings" grow despite internal dissension and attempts at suppression and subversion by authorities. The talks forge bonds, lead to actions, spread beyond L.A. and take on a life of their own. In the face of gangs, drugs, poverty and racism, Mosley poses the deceptively simple question-"What can I do?"-and provides a powerful and moving answer. --Pub. Weekly

Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Mystery:

Mr. White's Confession (paperback) » "As thrilling as it is unnerving…Could have been written by Dashiell Hammett or James Crumley--at their best. " ——Greil Marcus, Esquire

"Strong, brooding…Clark’s most striking achievement is Herbert’s ambiguity, making it appear at once vulnerable and threatening. " ——Dan Cryer, Newsday

"Complex…intriguing…a fascinating and timely journey into the American psyche. " ——Barbara Lloyd McMichael, Seattle Times

"A novel of substance…reveals the subtlety of [Robert Clark’s] artistry and the profundity of his vision. " ——Merle Rubin, The Wall Street Journal

The enthralling international bestseller:

The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Paperback) » “The formula that made more than half a million readers in France fall in love with this book has, among other ingredients: intelligent humor, fine sentiments, an excellent literary and philosophical backdrop, good taste, sophistication and substance.” —La Repubblica

“Enthusiastically recommended for anyone who loves books that grow quietly and then blossom suddenly.” —Marie Claire (France)

“Nobody ever imagined that this tender, funny book with a philosophical vein would have enjoyed such incredible success. For some, it is part Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, part Monsieur Malaussene by Daniel Pennac. While for others it resembles a written version of the film Amelie. Either way, readers are responding in vast numbers.” —Le Monde

New in Paperback:

Brother, I'm Dying (paperback) Told with tremendous feeling, this is a true-life epic on an intimate scale: a deeply affecting story of home and family — of two men's lives and deaths, and of a daughter's great love for them both.

"Memoir is a witness which swears to tell the truth. Memoir is the magic of love and remembrance. Magic is Edwidge Danticat who taps on her keyboard to the rhythm of angels." Nikki Giovanni

"Wonderful. Danticat's moving tale of two remarkable brothers — her own father and her beloved Uncle Joseph, separated for thirty years — is as compelling and richly told as her fiction. Politically charged and sadly unforgettable, their stories will lodge themselves in your heart." Cristina García

Book Beat Reading Group Discussion October 29th at Goldfish Tea House:

The Book Beat reading group selection for Halloween/October is At the Mountains of Madness (paperback). » We will meet Wednesday, October 29th at 7:00 PM at the Goldfish Tea House located at 117 West 4th Street in downtown Royal Oak, just west of Main Street. We have moved our meetings to Goldfish Tea in order to be more flexable with our discussion time. We are reading the Modern Library edition with an essay by Lovecraft on "Supernatural Horror in Literature". Copies are available at the store for a 15% discount.

"Long acknowledged as a master of nightmarish visions, H. P. Lovecraft established the genuineness and dignity of his own pioneering fiction in 1931 with his quintessential work of supernatural horror, At the Mountains of Madness. The deliberately told and increasingly chilling recollection of an Antarctic expedition's uncanny discoveries - and its encounter with untold menace in the ruins of a lost civilization - is a milestone of macabre literature." This exclusive new edition presents Lovecraft's masterpiece in fully restored form, and includes his acclaimed scholarly essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature." This is essential reading for every devotee of classic terror.

Bioneer Conference in Detroit October 17-19

Detroit and the surrounding region need solutions for the challenges that face us. The Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit conference will provide a robust look at the practical and visionary solutions for our communities.

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