When I first met Stacia Brown years ago, when she was a graduate student in religion, the main thing that struck me was her ability to think about many, many different things at once—ethics, faith, literature, history, social justice, body image, you name it—and somehow make them all make sense together.

So it stands to reason that the best outlet for her creative energies would be a historical novel—one that draws on her training and research in religion and history.

Stacia, who has graduate degrees from Emory in religion and historical theology and now works at the university, is giving an author talk and reading tonight from that novel, her first, titled Accidents of Providence, at the Decatur Library. The event, which starts at 7:15, is sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book and Charis Bookstore.

If you like highly literate and incredibly well researched historical fiction with a suspenseful tale of a courageous woman (and I do—think Geraldine Brooks!), then you need to discover Accidents of Providence.  It tells the story of Rachel Lockyer, an ordinary tradeswoman in seventeenth-century London during the civil wars, who is condemned to death for allegedly murdering her infant born out of wedlock. But throughout her trial, she remains deliberately evasive about what she did or did not do. Rachel is an original, sharp-witted, and rebellious main character. She was drawn, Stacia has said, out of the challenge of imagining the inner life of a working-class woman of that era—a task doomed to failure, she had been assured, because women of that time did not have inner lives.

It’s a juicy, provocative story—and Stacia adds that it is also a love story, a story of women’s relationships, and a story of the telling and keeping of secrets. And it’s getting lots of praise in high places. Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review with this endorsement: “A heart-poundingly vivid, intellectually provocative account. . . . a romping good read that is character-driven yet intellectually provocative on issues of law, religion and morality—historical fiction at its best.” And this from Library Journal: “This is the best kind of historical fiction—a combination of love story and murder mystery, with a sprinkling of intriguing historical snippets and wonderful writing.” Even Oprah’s magazine has called it “proof that a historical novel can be educational and entertaining, and nothing like homework.”

Stacia has a website with more information at www.staciabrown.com/. Or come meet her tonight and pick up a copy of Accidents of Providence!

Little Shop of Stories writes in with news that the creator of the “Knuffle Bunnies” series, Mo Willems, is coming to the Decatur Library on Thursday, October 7th at 7pm.

See the poster below (click to enlarge) on how to obtain tickets for this event.

Little Shop of Stories is a DM sponsor.

From the Decatur Book Festival blog…

National Book Award winner Jonathan Franzen will be giving the 2010 keynote address. The AJC-Decatur Book Festival is Franzen’s first stop on his international tour for his latest novel, Freedom.

This special event is free, but a ticket is required. You can pick up your ticket at any of the following locations around town:

• Agnes Scott College
• Charis Books
• Blue Elephant Book Shop
• Bound to Be Read
• Eagle Eye Books
• Little Shop of Stories.

The event will begin at 8pm on Friday, 9/3 at Agnes Scott College’s Presser Hall.

Dave over at Little Shop of Stories alerts us to an event that’s just too big for Little Shop to contain – so they’re taking it to Gaines Auditorium at Agnes Scott…

“Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School At A Time, will be speaking at Gaines Auditorium on the Agnes Scott College campus at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, January 28th.

Greg will be launching two new associated books: a young reader’s edition of this best selling book and Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg & Three Cups of Tea (a beautiful picture book). In 1993, Greg attempted to climb K2 and ended up lost and sick in the mountains of Pakistan. He wandered into a village where he was taken in by its residents and nursed back to health. Greg made a promise to these people that he would return someday and build the children of this village a school. And he did. Since then, Greg’s organizations, the Central Asia Institute and Pennies for Peace, have worked to build more than 70 schools in both Pakistan and Afghanistan and have brought educational opportunity to thousands and thousands of school aged children where before there was none.”

Little Shop has more details over on its own blog.