Steven Hall Reading Update

Author Steven Hall has posted his upcoming US Tour dates. The important date, for the purposes of this post, is the last one. See if you can tell how that date is different from the rest…

Tuesday, April 15th
Ann Arbor MI
5:30pm—Borders Original Voice Awards Ceremony
31410 Lohr Road, Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: 734.997.8884

Wednesday, April 16th
Birmingham MI
7:00pm—Borders
34300 Woodward
Birmingham, MI 48009
Phone: 248.203.0005

Thursday, April 17th
Westlake OH
7:00pm—Borders
Promenade of Westlake
30121 Detroit Road
Westlake, OH 44145

Friday, April 18th
San Diego CA
7:00pm—Borders
1072 Camino Del Rio N.
San Diego, CA 92108
Phone: 619.295.2201

Saturday, April 19th
Long Beach CA
2:00pm—Borders
Los Altos Market Center
2110 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90815
(562) 799-0486

Monday, April 21st
Sacramento CA
7:00pm—Borders
2339 Fair Oaks Boulevard
Sacramento, CA 95825
Phone: 916.564.0168

Tuesday, April 22nd
Portland ME
7:00pm—Borders
430 Gorham Rd.
South Portland, ME 04106
Phone: 207.775.6110

Wednesday, April 23rd
Boston MA
7:00pm— Borders
255 Grossman Drive
Braintree, MA 02184
Phone: 781-356-5111

Thursday, April 24th
Atlanta GA
8:00pm—Wordsmiths Books
545 N McDonough
Decatur, GA 30030
For more on this one, see www.babygotbooks.com

Thanks for the shout out! As you can see, the Baby Got Books Reading Series stop in Atlanta is Hall’s only visit to the Southeastern US and his only stop at an independent book store on this tour (which is fair – this tour is centered around receiving the Borders Original Voices Award)

This is an excellent excuse to post this again:

Poster by Jtrav

Hillary Jordan in the House

Last night was the second event in the Baby Got Book Reading Series and the last night of Wordsmiths Books at the old post office building. About 50-60 hardy souls braved the unseasonably cold weather (there were snow flurries earlier in the day, for crying out loud) and hung around for over three hours on a Monday night. Zach, the owner of Wordsmiths, had to start turning off the light to make people go home. By all accounts, it was an amazing evening.

Hillary Jordan kicked things off with a reading from her novel, Mudbound. Claire from Hope for Agoldensummer described the novel thusly: “it’s tragic and it’s Southern – my two favorite things.” Amen, sister. After the reading, Jordan took several questions from the crowd, signed books, and hung out while the musicians prepared to do their thing.

The musical accoutrement included the coolest guitar rack ever, on which hung a saw that would later be used for musical purposes.

Wayne and Big Peaches of the Wayne Fishell Experience took the stage. While talking up the band’s local roots, Wayne pointed out that the WFX are “Decatur’s only gay acoustic duo.” That’s HIGH-larious if you know Decatur at all.

Hope for Agoldensummer closed out the evening with a spellbinding set. Their last song was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen performed live. I can’t even describe it. If you weren’t there, you’ll just have to suffer with the fact that you missed it. If there is ever an O Brother, Where Art Thou 2, rest assured that these ladies will be providing the bulk of the soundtrack. (And they played the saw.) See this band live in a non-rowdy setting ASAP.

Mark your calendars now. BGB3 goes down on April 24th. Much more to come on that one, so stay tuned.

Welcome to 2008

Happy New Year everyone. Here at BGB, we’re looking forward to what we hope will be an exciting and rewarding year ahead.

Let’s start the New Year off with an anncouncement.

Volume 1 of the Baby Got Books Reading Series will take place later this very month. We’re kicking it off on January 23rd when our featured author will be Rob Sheffield, author of Love is a Mix Tape. (Read BGB reviews of the book here and here. Download Heather’s Love is a Mix Tape Mix Tape at I Am Fuel). The Swear will provide live music. Wordsmiths Books in Decatur will provide the location. The evening is free. Mark your calendars.

We’re hoping that the series will continue with great readings/events every six to ten weeks or so. Or, none of you will show up on the 23rd, and we’ll call the whole thing off. We’re going with optimism for now.

How did this happen, you wonder? It started as a joke in a previous post, and then it got legs. Many thanks to Russ and Zach at Wordsmiths for making the evening a reality and doing all of the heavy lifting.