WORLD BOOK NIGHT
Event date: Monday, April 23rd, 2012
The Booksellers at Laurelwood is proud to be a part of this incredible event! We have signed up to be a distributor point and your favorite booksellers here have signed up to be book givers. World Book Night has the goal of giving away one million free paperbacks in one day. On April 23, 2012, 50,000 volunteers will give away 20 copies of a book they love in their community. Every corner of the book industry is working to make World Book Night take off. Publishers are covering costs, authors are forgoing royalties, Ingram is handling shipping logistics, printers and paper suppliers are helping, and the ABA and the ALA are all involved. Check out www.us.worldbooknight.org for the full list of the titles chosen by a panel of librarians and booksellers for their appeal to adult and YA readers.

Barry Wolverton
Discussing & Signing
Neversink
(Waldon Pond Press, $16.99)
Tuesday, April 3rd, 6 p.m.

The Booksellers at Laurelwood is proud to host Memphis’ own Barry Wolverton for the launch party of his first novel, Neversink. When owls threaten the puffins’ way of life on the small island of Neversink along the Arctic Circle, Lockley J. Puffin, helped by a hummingbird and a walrus, sets out to save it. This is an epic tale of some very un-epic birds, a fast-paced and funny story of survival, friendship, and fish. Mr. Wolverton has also written for “National Geographic”, Scholastic.com and Discovery Networks.

Ann Bausum
Discussing & Signing
Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil
Rights Set the State for MLK’s Final Hours.
(National Geographical Society, $19.95)
Thursday, April 5th, 6 p.m.
In early 1968 the grisly on-the-job deaths of two African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, prompted an extended strike by that city’s segregated force of trash collectors. Workers sought union protection, higher wages, improved safety, and the integration of their work force. Their work stoppage became a part of the larger civil rights movement and drew an impressive array of national movement leaders to Memphis, including, on more than one occasion, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King added his voice to the struggle in what became the final speech of his life. His assassination in Memphis on April 4 not only sparked protests and violence throughout America; it helped force the acceptance of worker demands in Memphis. The sanitation strike ended eight days after King’s death.  ”Marching to the Mountaintop “explores how the media, politics, the Civil Rights Movement, and labor protests all converged to set the scene for one of King’s greatest speeches and for his tragic death.

Lewis R. Donelson III
Discussing & Signing
Lewie
(Rhodes College, $25.00)
Thursday, April 12th, 6 p.m.
After 70 years of practicing law, attorney Lewis R. Donelson III, founder and shareholder of Memphis-based Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, has written a memoir, simply entitled “Lewie”. Along his career path, he resurrected the Republican Party in Shelby County and the state of Tennessee, helping put GOP governors and senators in office for the first time since Reconstruction. As a member of the Memphis City Council in the 1960s, he was a peacemaker during the sanitation workers’ strike. His political career was in a day when lawmakers talked across the aisle in pursuit of the common good, and even became friends.

Ann B. Ross
Discussing & Signing
Miss Julia to the Rescue
(Viking, $25.95)
Saturday, April 14th, 1 p.m.
Ann B. Ross is the author of twelve previous novels featuring the popular Southern heroine Miss Julia. In her latest adventure, can Miss Julia spring J. D. Pickens from a sheriff’s clutches and investigate a cult while keeping up appearances as a proper Southern lady? Miss Julia simply can’t abide sitting idle. With young Lloyd moving out and husband Sam off to the Holy Land for two weeks, Miss Julia’s feeling restless already. Maybe it’s time for that overdue home makeover. One thing’s for sure: she won’t waste time watching paint dry-no matter which shade of beige is the latest rage.

Brandon Mull
Discussing & Signing
Beyonders: Seeds of Rebellion
(Aladdin, $19.99)
Monday, April 16th, 6 p.m.
Brandon Mull is back with the second epic installment of his #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy series! Picking up after the incredible cliffhanger ending of “A World Without Heroes,” this next Beyonders book opens with Jason back in our world. Yet after all his efforts to return home, he finds himself itching to cross over to Lyrian. Jason knows that the shocking truth he learned from Maldor is precious information that all of his friends in need to know. As the group ultimately rejoins, they strive to convince their most needed ally to join the war and form a rebellion strong enough to triumph against the emperor.

Ron Rash
Discussing & Signing
The Cove
(Ecco Press, $26.99)
Tuesday, April 17th, 6 p.m.
The “New York Times” bestselling author of “Serena” returns to Appalachia; this time at the height of World War I, with the story of a blazing but doomed love affair caught in the turmoil of a nation at war. Deep in the rugged Appalachians of North Carolina lies the cove, a dark, forbidding place where spirits and fetches wander, and even the light fears to travel. Or so the townsfolk of Mars Hill believe, just as they know that Laurel Shelton, the lonely young woman who lives within its shadows, is a witch. Alone except for her brother, Hank, newly returned from the trenches of France, she aches for her life to begin. This lyrical, heart-rending tale shows once again this masterful novelist at the height of his powers.

Bree DeSpain
Discussing & Signing
The Savage Grace
(EgmontUSA, $17.99)
Wednesday, April 18th, 6 p.m.
Grace’s life is a mess. Daniel is still a werewolf, Talbot can’t be trusted, and Caleb is still out there. With Sirhan’s impending death, war seems imminent. Will Grace give in to the wolf to save her family? What will happen to Daniel and can their love survive one last test? The non-stop sequel to delivers an even hotter romance and more thrilling action than Bree Despain’s first two novels in the series.

Marie Moore
Discussing & Signing
Shore Excursion
(Camel Press, $13.95)
Thursday, April 19th, 6 p.m.
This is the first in a mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Sidney Marsh, who is a New York-based, Mississippi-born travel agent whose senior citizen charges are being targeted by a killer. Travel agents may be a vanishing breed, but Sydney is holding her ground—at least on land. She is the tour leader on a cruise through Scandinavia to Russia for a group of eccentric senior citizens who call themselves the High Steppers. Sidney expects her days to be filled with long meals, shopping expeditions and visits to museums, churches and fjords. But this cruise is anything but routine. The closer Sydney gets to the truth, the less she understands.

Elizabeth Kantor
Discussing & Signing
The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After
(Regnery, $24.95)
Saturday, April 21st, 5 p.m.
In “The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After,” Kantor reveals how the examples of Jane Austen heroines such as Elizabeth Bennett, Elinor Dashwood, and Anne Elliot can help us navigate the modern-day minefields of dating, love, relationships, and sex. By following in their footsteps–and steering clear of the sad endings suffered by characters such as Maria Bertram and Charlotte Lucas–modern women can discover the path to lifelong love and true happiness. Charged with honesty and humor, Kantor’s book includes testimonies from modern women, pop culture parallels, the author’s personal experiences and, of course, a thorough examination of Austen’s beloved novels. Featuring characters and situations from all of Jane Austen’s books (including unfinished novels, and stories not published in her lifetime), “The Jane Austen Guide to Happily Ever After” tackles the dating and relationship dilemmas that we face today, and equips modern women to approach our love lives with fresh insights distilled from the novels.

Jennifer Chandler
Discussing & Signing
Simply Grilling
(Thomas Nelson, $24.99)
Thursday, April 26th, 6 p.m.
Memphis chef Jennifer Chandler has assembled everything a grilling amateur could possibly need to achieve pit master caliber results any night of the week. Whether you’re cooking with gas, charcoal, or cast iron, “Simply “”Grilling “will eliminate the uncertainty and have you manning the flames with confidence. If your grilling repertoire is limited to burgers and hot dogs, it might be time to reconsider your grill’s true potential. In her accessible style, Chandler explains everything-the tools, the heat, and the flavors. If you’ve always found grilling to be a guessing game, you’ll never have to wonder again if the heat is just right or if you flipped your food too soon. From appetizers to desserts and everything in between,”Simply Grilling “is your guide to delicious meals, hot off the grate.

 

 
Daphne M. Webb
Discussing & Signing
Mississippi Nights
(Ambassador-Emerald International, $14.99)
Saturday, April 28th, 1 p.m.
The bond of brotherhood faces its greatest challenge against resentment and guilt. Can the love between two brothers eventually win against pain and guilt? When Firefighter David Boyette’s fiancé perishes in a car fire, he blames his brother, Sgt. Jeremy Boyette, for her death. Three years later, David returns home with a dark and devastating secret. With the help of family, a woman’s love, and a small child’s devotion, can David overcome insurmountable odds as he and Jeremy face the bitterness that enslaves him? Together the brothers must decide if the bond of brotherhood is stronger than resentment and hate.

Amy Franklin-Willis at Booksellers on March 17th

 

 

How often can you find a book praised by the likes of Pat Conroy or Dorothy Allison? Amy Franklin-Willis has received starred reviews for her story of family heartbreak and understanding from as varied sources as Library Review, The Atlanta Journal Constitution and Publisher’s Weekly.  Critics are calling her an authentic Southern voice.  Join us for a signing of her debut Lost Saints of Tennessee on Saturday, March 17th, at 1:00 p.m

 

The Youth of Future Past

As a bookseller, I see it once a week: a young reader comes through the door with a look of hungry intelligence in his or her eyes.  They’ve read The Hunger Games trilogy. Madeline L’engle? Yup. Dianna Wynn-Jones? Check.  Zusak’s Book Thief? Uh-huh. Paolini? Gaiman? Done. They feel they’re too old for Brian Jacques and they’re certainly too young for an unguided tour through the vast array of adult science fiction.  Problems may ensue if they go home with, say, Paolo Bacigalupi’s Wind-Up Girl,  or Michael Swanwick’s  Stations Of The Tide, and a foray into Gene Wolfe’s allusive prose just might bore them to tears.  In other words, you don’t know this young and hungry mind. How do you answer these needs? I have a few offerings; books from my tender youth which inspired me to think and dream in new possibilities.

Beast Master’s Planet: A Beast Master Omnibus – Andre Norton (Tor Books) 17.99  Hosteen Storm is a Navajo soldier who has a telepathic link with a cat and an eagle. The time is the future, when Earth has been devastated by interstellar war with the alien Xik. This quartet of stories built around Storm Hosteen’s unusual trio is dramatic, intense,  compassionate, and filled with wondrous mystery. Norton’s protagonists are often very young, resourceful and always enthralling, whether you’re 10 or 110.

Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov: Foundation/Second Foundation/ Foundation and Empire (Spectra Books) $7.99 each For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled  the galaxy. Now it is dying.  Hari Sheldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future–to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years… or only a thousand years, if  the best minds of the galaxy are willing to preserve knowledge and save mankind. Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for the future. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.  We follow Asimov’s sweeping story of the battle of the forces of light and reason against barbarism (Foundation), to the Foundation’s ostensible destruction by the Mule; a mutant of vast and terrifying power (Second Foundation), and finally, to the Foundation’s ongoing challenges to maintain the human culture it has saved after a brief period of chaos and barbarity (Foundation and Empire). Recommended for ages 13 to 300.

I,Robot-Isaac Asimov (Spectra Books) $7.99

The 3 Laws of Robotics are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Dr. Asimov forever changed my perception of robotics and robot development with these simple and profound Laws, setting the way I would think about AIs forever. I find it interesting to observe that those who have read the Robot stories seem to be more comfortable with the possibilities of AI than those who have never read this series of groundbreaking stories.  These works are  often locked-room mysteries whose solutions move forward from these rules.  There are good robots, crazy robots, robot politicians as well as robots who rule humanity in secret and may eventually render humanity obsolete. Asimov creates a timeline of robotic development that has become a part of our mythology.

Alex George signing at Booksellers

It is 1904. When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute, they take one destined for New Orleans instead (“”What’s the difference? They’re both new”"), and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together.

Beatrice is populated with unforgettable characters: a jazz trumpeter from the Big Easy who cooks a mean gumbo, a teenage boy trapped in the body of a giant, a pretty schoolteacher who helps the young men in town learn about a lot more than just music, a minister who believes he has witnessed the Second Coming of Christ, and a malevolent, bicycle-riding dwarf.

“A Good American” is narrated by Frederick and Jette’s grandson, James, who, in telling his ancestors’ story, comes to realize he doesn’t know his own story at all. From bare-knuckle prizefighting and Prohibition to sweet barbershop harmonies, the Kennedy assassination, and beyond, James’s family is caught up in the sweep of history. Each new generation discovers afresh what it means to be an American. And, in the process, Frederick and Jette’s progeny sometimes discover more about themselves than they had bargained for.

Poignant, funny, and heartbreaking, “A Good American” is a novel about being an outsider-in your country, in your hometown, and sometimes even in your own family. It is a universal story about our search for home.