The Decatur Book Festival announces…

Famed American literary icon Joyce Carol Oates will deliver the keynote address at the 2014 Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF) Aug. 29 – 31.

Oates will kick off the ninth annual festival on Friday, Aug. 29, at 8 p.m. at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University. She will be joined onstage by her biographer and Atlanta resident, Dr. Greg Johnson.

The event will mark the launch of her new short story collection, Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories. The new collection has been described as “insightful, disturbing, and breathtaking in its lyrical precision,” and is said to display Oates’ “magnificent ability to make visceral the terror, hurt, and uncertainty that lurks at the edges of ordinary lives.”

Best known for her fiction, Oates’ novels include Blonde, a bold reimagining of the inner life of Marilyn Monroe, and We Were the Mulvaneys, which follows the disintegration of an American family in the late 20th Century.

Since 1963, 40 of Oates’ works have been included in the New York Times annual list of notable books. Among her many honors are two O. Henry Prizes, two Bram Stoker Awards, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Book Critics Circle, the Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement, the PEN Center USA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and The Poets & Writers Distinguished Lifetime Award. In 2010, reflecting the widespread esteem in which her work is held, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.

AJC DBF Executive Director Daren Wang said he is honored to have Joyce Carol Oates as the keynote speaker for this year’s event.

“There are few authors — very, very few — that rise to Joyce Carol Oates’ level of accomplishment. She has created 40 novels, many of them good enough to base an entire career upon, and countless stories, essays, and poems. Instead of listing the major awards she has won, it is much easier to list the one or two she unjustly has not,” asserts Wang. “She does us all a great honor by coming to the Decatur Book Festival, but for me, having grown up less than 20 miles from her hometown of Millersport, NY, her keynoting the festival feels like an odd but wonderful kind of homecoming.”

Following the keynote at Emory on Friday, the AJC DBF will kick off Saturday, Aug. 30 with a children’s parade on the Decatur Square. Events and author presentations will continue in downtown Decatur throughout the weekend. A second children’s parade will start Sunday’s festivities, followed by another full day of author talks and events suited for all ages and interests.

AJC DBF Program Director Philip Rafshoon said he’s especially proud of the distinct, eclectic lineup at this year’s festival.

“Our lineup this year shows DBF’s commitment to showcasing the widest variety of authors and subjects possible. With strong support from publishers and our community, we are, once again, able to provide the region with an unbelievable array of today’s top writers and talent,” said Rafshoon. “I’m extremely proud of our diverse lineup and glad to know that there is going to be something for everyone at this year’s festival.”

Author highlights for the 2014 AJC DBF include:

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From the guys of “My Parent’s Basement”.  Decaturish talked with them too!

In the ever evolving epic journey to open a brick and mortar location the My Parents’ Basement team is hosting another all comic book yard sale this Saturday June 7th from 7am-5pm at 1064 Forrest Boulevard, Decatur, Ga 30030! The first event was a smashing success and everyone can expect more of the same intrigue, mischief and Comics By The Pound!

As always, MPB provides a vast array of comic books. This yard sale marks the fourth “Pop-Up” event the company has held. This event, more so than the previous events will have more collected series, story arcs, new comics, more rare comics and of course more Comics By The Pound, where we sell mass quantities of books for $1 per pound. It’s great for younger children, teachers, crafters and philanthropists. Plus!! Discounts for anyone in costume!!! Super extra cool raffle prizes!! Snacks and drinks!

about My Parents’ Basement:

My Parents’ Basement is currently an online comic book store moving progressively forward to become a full scale restaurant and craft beer bar while also being the area’s defining comic book retail store.

https://www.facebook.com/events/293258994167314/?ref=ts&fref=ts

http://stores.ebay.com/myparentsbasementcomicbooks/

A great new book, “Hiking Atlanta’s Hidden Forests“, got me thinking about known and unknown hiking trails around Atlanta.  The book includes 20 hikes inside the perimeter – including ones around Decatur Cemetery/Glenlake Park and Deepdene/Frazer Forest – and 40 beyond I-285.

You can view the full table of contents HERE.

Are your favorite Atlanta area hikes included on the list?  Are there others that weren’t included?

Ask, and you shall receive. Eventually.

A few weeks ago Brianc suggested a post of Little Shop of Stories best sellers. Well, here you go. Below are lists based on shop sales for the first quarter of the year.

Children’s Books

1. Bad Kitty: Drawn to Trouble, by Nick Bruel (graphic novel)
2. Origami Yoda: Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue, by Tom Angleberger (chapter book)
3. Divergent, by Veronica Roth (Young Adult)
4. Potato Chip Science, by Allen Kurzweil (nonfiction)
5. Day the Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers (picture book)
6. Timmy Failure: Now Look What You’ve Done, by Stephan Pastis (chapter)
7. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, by Eric Litwin, illustrated by James Dean (picture)
8. Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses, by Kimberly and James Dean (picture)
9. Panic, by Lauren Oliver (YA)
10. Carnivores, by Aaron Reynolds and Illustrated by Dan Santat (picture)

Children’s titles sold at events outside the shop and at bookfairs

1. Five, Six, Seven, Nate!, by Tim Federle (chapter)
2. How to Act Like a Kid: Backstage Secrets of a Young Performer, by Henry Hodges and Margaret Engel (nonfiction)
3. Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies, by Cokie Roberts and illustrated by Diane Goode (picture)
4. Better Nate Than Ever, by Tim Federle (chapter)
5. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin (chapter)
6. Dinosaurs Before Dark, by Mary Pope Osborne (chapter)
7. Wildwood, by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis (chapter)
8. Impossible Knife of Memory, by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
9. Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
10. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck, by Jeff Kinney (chapter)

Adult Titles
1. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, by Cokie Roberts (nonfiction)
2. The Opposite of Worry: The Playful Parenting Approach to Childhood Anxieties and Fears, by Dr. Lawrence J. Cohen (nonfiction)
3. Ladies of Liberty, by Cokie Roberts (nonfiction)
4. American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning, by Kate Sweeney (nonfiction)
5. Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson (fiction)
5. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt (fiction)
7. Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd (fiction)
8. We Are Our Mother’s Daughters, by Cokie Roberts (nonfiction)
9. The Returned, by Jason Mott (fiction)
10. Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern (fiction)
10. Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple (fiction)
10. Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh (graphic novel)

The adult list is event driven, including the top four titles. Serious fiction also does well.

A quick post to let you know what’s going on in literary (and porkarary) Atlanta during the next seven days.

This Week

Allen Kurzweil, author of Potato Chip Science (an Atlanta Science Festival event), Thursday, March 27th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Girls Gone Sci-Fi Tour with Jessica Brody (author of Unremembered), Jessica Khoury (Origin, Vitro), Tamara Ireland Stone (Time Between Us, Time After Time), and Lauren Miller (Parallel), (not an Atlanta Science Festival event), Friday, March 28th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Austin Kleon, author of Show Your Work!, Friday, March 28th at 7:15pm, Decatur Library (sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book), free.

Mail Chimp presents Baconfest 2014, Saturday, March 29th at 1pm, Dad’s Garage, $27 to $92 (depending on the level you wish to pig out).

Kate Sweeney, author of American Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning, Saturday, March 29th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Emory professor Patrick Allitt, author of A Climate in Crisis: American in the Age of Environmentalism, Monday, March 31st at 7:15pm, Decatur Library (sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book), free.

Dr. Michael Saag, author of Positive: One Doctor’s Personal Encounters with Death, Life, and the US Healthcare System, Tuesday, April 1st at 7pm, Carter Presidential Library and Museum Theater, free.