1. A Delicate Truth
4. Life After Life
ARTSWhat are you reading now?
In which Janet Geddis explains her neighborhood’s proud history of prostitution, a poet visiting Books & Books is inspired by the abundance of sequins and brightly colored hair, a reporter tells what it feels like to be the only man at a Sarah Dessen reading, and the folks at Little Shop of Stories change all the light bulbs in the store. Lady Banks' Commonplace Book
Debra Moffitt's Secret Garden
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- Published on Sunday, 12 May 2013 10:42
Interview with Author, Debra Moffitt
Carolyn: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of my all time favorite books. It is in a secret garden that both children heal. You make reference to “the secret garden” in your book, Garden of Bliss. Was this deliberate?
Debra: I lived many years in Europe, and I often heard references to the secret garden. Someone would say to me, “Keep that reflection to explore in your secret garden.” The image was so powerful that I wondered what they meant. When I researched, I learned that secret gardens date back to the Middle Ages, a time when nothing could thrive in the chaotic, war-torn, drought-stricken land. Closed walls went up to create a place where delicate herbs and fruit trees could grow in protected places. Some secret gardens still exist inside castle grounds and behind monastery walls. The secret garden, for me, is a symbol of the sacred inner terrain of the soul where we can discover our gifts and cultivate a more peaceful and joy-filled life in a protected inner place. Later when presenting a writing workshop called “Journey into the Secret Garden” one of the participants said, “Have you read the book, The Secret Garden?” I hadn’t at that point. I find that the children’s book is much inspired by the European legend.
The 2013 Summer Okra Picks are ready for picking
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- Published on Sunday, 21 April 2013 23:29
For Immediate Release: The 2013 Summer Okra Picks
(Columbia, SC) April 19, 2013 -- Southern indie booksellers like their okra, and they love their southern books. The new list of Okra Picks-- great southern books, fresh off the vine-- has just been released. A dozen new books that all have two things in common: They are southern in nature, and there is a southern indie bookseller that wants everyone to read each one!
The Summer Okra Picks List!
A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White
Touchstone Books, June 2013 9781451608878
And Then I Found You by Patti Callahan Henry
St. Martin’s Press, April 2013 9780312610760
The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel
Grand Central Publishing, June 2013 9781455503254
The Girl from Felony Bay by J.E. Thompson
Walden Pond Press, May 2013 9780062104465
Heart of Palm by Laura Lee Smith
Grove Press, April 2013 9780802121028
In the Garden of Stone by Susan Tekulve
Hub City Press, May 2013 9781891885211
Looking for Me by Beth Hoffman
Pamela Dorman Books, May 2013 9780670025831
The Time Between by Karen White
New American Library, June 2013 9780451239860
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
Gallery Books, July, 2013 9781476707723
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton Disclafani
Riverhead Books, June 2013 9781594486401
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
St. Martin’s Press, April 2013 9781250028655
Okra Picks are chosen by Southern Indie Booksellers each season as the upcoming southern titles they are most looking forward to hand selling. For more information visit sibaweb.com/okra.
2013 SIBA Book Award Finalists
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- Published on Thursday, 18 April 2013 01:01
The Story
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk took him through A Land More Kind Than Home, down to The Cove where the Sea Changes, and A Million Suns Shine Shine Shine on its Fathomless waves, holding him in Thrall. His Descent led Down Bohicket Road towards his Permanent Camp overlooking The Accidental City, its buildings climbing the far slope to Stand Up That Mountain in the distance. It’s just a piece of Stray Decorum, he thought walking through the streets, dodging Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons as it swatted at the Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, who no longer lived in the old apartment building on the corner but had left the critters to flutter about, nonetheless. He wandered past My Bookstore and walked into the Back in the Day Bakery, where a class on Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking was underway (you could tell by the smell of fried chicken). He thought, “I’m hungry,” as he and my sister and Pete all gathered Around the Southern Table, laden with heaping platters of ole Fred Thompson’s Southern Sides. Billy Lynn turned to my sister and said “I just want to Chomp on 34 Pieces of You.” And she smiled. “Wouldn’t that make me Three Times Lucky,” she said. I knew then I was Losing My Sister to him.
(Columbia, SC) April 17, 2013 -- Southern Indie Booksellers have spoken! Members of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance have selected this year’s finalists for the 2013 SIBA Book Awards. There are twenty-five books on the list, representing booksellers' favorite hand sells of the year in fiction, nonfiction, children's, young adult, poetry and cooking.
2013 SIBA Book Award Finalists:
Fiction
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash (William Morrow & Company)
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (Ecco Press)
The Cove by Ron Rash (Ecco Press)
Sea Change by Karen White (New American LIbrary)
Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer (St. Martins Press)
Stray Decorum by George Singleton (Dzanc Books)
Poetry
Descent by Kathryn Stripling Byer (Louisiana State University Press)
Permanent Camp by George Ellison (History Press)
Thrall by Natasha Trethewey (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Nonfiction
The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell (Harvard University Press)
Down Bohicket Road: An Artist S Journey. Paintings and Sketches by Mary Whyte. with Excerpts from Alfreda S World by Mary Whyte (University of South Carolina Press)
Losing My Sister by Judy Goldman (John F. Blair Publisher)
My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop by Ron Rice (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers)
Stand Up That Mountain by Jay Erskine Leutze (Scribner Book Company)
Cooking
The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day & Griffith Day (Artisan)
Fred Thompson's Southern Sides: 250 Dishes That Really Make the Plate by Fred Thompson (University of North Carolina Press)
Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart (Gibbs Smith Publishers)
Around the Southern Table: Coming Home to Comforting Meals and Treasured Memories by Rebecca Lang (Oxmoor House)
Children's
Chomp by Carl Hiaasen (Alfred Knopf Books for Young Readers)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin and James Dean (HarperCollins)
Young Adult
34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues (Simon Pulse)
A Million Suns by Beth Revis (Razorbill)
Fathomless by Jackson Pearce (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Dial Books for Young Readers)
Finalists will be judged by a juried panel of SIBA booksellers, and winners will be announced on July 4, "Independents Day." More information about the SIBA Book Awards can be found at sibaweb.com/siba-book-award.
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