Items tagged with 'books'
A few of the 700some stories about the street names of Albany
Morton was named after Washington Morton, husband of Cornelia Schuyler Morton. (He was the son-in-law of Philip Schuyler.) As for the other street... is that Hawk or Hawke?
There are 785 streets in the city of Albany. And Erik Schlimmer has figured out the backstory for the name of almost every one of them.
That monumental effort -- it took him four years -- is collected in the new book Cradle of the Union: A Street by Street History of New York's Capital City. (Mentioned earlier.) And the result is like a bag of local history potato chips. Once you snack on a few of the street name histories it's hard to stop.
"In all place names -- street, the town they live in, a mountain range, a stream, a pond, a building -- there's usually a story behind the name," Schlimmer told us this week when we met up with him. "And the story is usually pretty good."
Here are a few of those important or funny or surprising or sometimes dramatic stories...
Chad Orzel: Breakfast With Einstein
Check it out: Union College physics professor/science writer Chad Orzel has a new book out today called Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects. Blurbage:
In Breakfast with Einstein, Chad Orzel illuminates the strange phenomena lurking just beneath the surface of our ordinary lives by digging into the surprisingly complicated physics involved in his (and anyone's) morning routine. Orzel, author of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog, explores how quantum connects with everyday reality, and offers engaging, layperson-level explanations of the mind-bending ideas central to modern physics.
From the sun, alarm clocks, and the red glow of a toaster's hot filaments (the glow that launched quantum mechanics) to the chemistry of food aroma, a typical day is rich with examples of quantum weirdness. Breakfast with Einstein reveals the hidden physics all around us, and after reading this book, your ordinary mornings will never seem quite as ordinary again.
Orzel's previous book was Eureka: Discovering Your Inner Scientist . And How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog was a Jeopardy! answer earlier this year.
(We're now looking forward to Waking Up With Newton and an explanation of why it's so hard to get out of bed in the morning.*)
Orzel will be at The Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady this Saturday, December 15 for a signing from 1-2:30 pm.
____
* Yep. That's a terrible inertia joke. Oof.
author photo via Oneworld Publications
That project to figure out the history of every Albany street name has been completed, and there's a new book based on it
More than three years ago we heard there was a guy working to figuring out the backstory for the name of every street in the city of Albany. And we were very intrigued. (Because... obviously.)
We also admit that the project sounded, well, really hard. Like a mountain you start hiking up knowing you're probably never going to quite make it to the top.
But Erik Schlimmer got it done. And the book based on his efforts -- Cradle of the Union: A Street by Street History of New York's Capital City -- is now available. Blurbage:
Within Albany's city limits there are 785 streets, and author Erik Schlimmer figured it was time to historically decode every single street name. During his four-year-long research project he examined nearly 1,000 print and online sources and interviewed historians, residents, and fellow researchers. ...
Schlimmer is most at home decoding names in the Adirondack Mountains. In 2014, his first place name book to that range, History Inside the Blue Line, was released. Two years later a second one, Among the Cloud Splitters, was published. He found urban history just as interesting. "I'm drawn to mountain history, especially when it comes to who settled the valleys and who climbed the mountains first. But street name history is equally fascinating. It's what I call 'obvious history.' These are the streets we live on and travel down every day. Who can tell you why even their own street is named so? It's neglected history."
The book includes a foreword by Jack McEneny. It's $22 and available online (see the link above).
We haven't the seen the book, yet, but we're looking forward to checking it out.
The Albany Public Library is eliminating late fines for books and other items
Updated
The Albany Public Library announced today that it's eliminating late fines for books, DVDs, CDs, and audiobooks starting January 1.
It's also waiving previously racked-up late fees for these types of items.
But if there aren't fines, what's going to prompt people to bring books back on time?
Well, you might be surprised about how that works now.
Michael DeMasi: What They Said
Check it out: Longtime Capital Region journalist Michael DeMasi has a book coming out that's based on the many stories he's covered around this area.
Blurbage for What They Said: 25 Years of Telling Stories:
A salvager who bought downtown Albany's biggest, ugliest building. An Irish priest lifting spirits at a maximum-security prison. A wealthy socialite whose 40 dogs eat organic chicken. A laid-off farmhand temporarily working as a human billboard. An upstate New York mayor who became the Pied Piper of Guyanese immigrants. A friendly clock enthusiast named Smiley Lumpkin.
They are some of the people Michael DeMasi has interviewed during more than 25 years in journalism. He shares what they and many others said in this collection of his favorite stories.
Mike is an ace reporter for the Business Review, and before that for the Daily Gazette and Post-Star. He is also, in our experience, consistently friendly and supportive toward fellow local media members. (See his 2016 remembrance of Marv Cermak, whom he credits for demonstrating how you can compete with others and still be friendly.)
What They Said will be available to buy starting next week at Market Block Books in Troy, The Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady, and The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, and online the following week from Troy Book Makers and Amazon.
Updated: There are also a handful of events lined up:
Brenda Ann Kenneally: Upstate Girls
A book collecting Brenda Ann Kenneally's ongoing work documenting the lives of people living through poverty in Troy -- Upstate Girls -- was published in October. (You might remember the North Troy Peoples' History Museum.)
From the book description (link added):
Brenda Ann Kenneally is the Dorothea Lange of our time--her work a bridge between the people she photographs, history, and us. What began as a brief assignment for The New York Times Magazine became an eye-opening portrait of the rise and fall of the American working class, and a shockingly intimate visual history of Troy that arcs over five hundred years. Kenneally beautifully layers archival images with her own photographs and collages to depict the transformations of this quintessentially American city. The result is a profound, powerful, and intimate look at America, at poverty, at the shrinking middle class, and of people as they grow, survive, and love.
This month Adrian Nicole LeBlanc -- who wrote that NYT Mag article -- takes up Kenneally's book in The New Yorker. A clip:
Shaming people who live in poverty is an old reflex in America. Kenneally reminds us that the fault lines of capitalism are everywhere within our nation, running through the very foundation we keep building upon. Her excavations blast through any attempt to deny it. In her book's opening essay, she refers to her photographs as "new fossils." With taking pictures, Kenneally writes, "comes the power to manufacture a record that future generations will consider fact." Whether we choose to look or not, these images are facts.
Harry Rosenfeld: Battling Editor
Former Times Union editor Harry Rosenfeld has a new memoir coming out: Battling Editor: The Albany Years. Blurbage:
In 1978, Harry Rosenfeld left the Washington Post, where he oversaw the paper's standard-setting coverage of Watergate, to take charge of two daily papers under co-ownership in Albany, New York: the morning Times Union and the evening Knickerbocker News. It was a particularly challenging moment in newspaper history. While new technologies were reducing labor costs on the production side and providing ever more sophisticated tools for journalists to practice their craft, those very same technologies would soon turn a comparatively short-lived boom into a grave threat, as ever more digitally distracted readers turned to sources other than print and other legacy media for their news. Between these boundaries, Rosenfeld set about to do his work.
The memoir is a follow-up to Rosenfeld's previous work, From Kristallnacht to Watergate. (Harry Rosenfeld -- and the character Harry Rosenfeld -- appear in both the book and film version of All The President's Men.)
Battling Editor will officially be released by SUNY Press in January. But a handful of events -- readings and book signings -- connected to it start this month...
Nightvale co-creator, Alice Isn't Dead author at Northshire Saratoga
Author Joseph Fink -- one of the creators of the popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast -- will be at Northshire Saratoga December 1 to talk about his novel/podcast Alice Isn't Dead. Blurbage:
Keisha Taylor lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared. After months of searching, presuming she was dead, Keisha held a funeral, mourned, and gradually tried to get on with her life. But that was before Keisha started to see her wife, again and again, in the background of news reports from all over America. Alice isn't dead, and she is showing up at every major tragedy and accident in the country.
The Northshire event will be a conversation between Joseph Fink and AOA's Mary Darcy.
It's Saturday, December 1 at 7 pm in the bookstore at 424 Broadway in downtown Saratoga Springs. Space is limited, so it's a ticketed event -- $5, which is good for admission and a $5 discount on the book.
Northshire advertises on AOA.
Gary Shteyngart at the Spotty Dog in Hudson
Maria Dahvana Headley, Gary Shteyngart, Michael J Seidlinger
Author Gary Shteyngart will be at Spotty Dog Books and Ale in Hudson October 13 as part of the Volume Reading Series. It's a free event. ("Save your $$ for books and beer!")
Shteyngart is, of course, the bestselling author of novels such as Super Sad True Love Story and Absurdistan. His new novel -- Lake Success -- was released last month. Here's Shteyngart talking about the book with NPR's Scott Simon.
The Volume lineup for that night includes two more authors:
MARIA DAHVANA HEADLEY is a New York Times bestselling author, most recently of The Mere Wife, Magonia, Aerie, Queen of Kings, and The Year of Yes. She grew up in rural Idaho on a survivalist sled-dog ranch, and now lives in Brooklyn. Her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and Arte Studio Ginestrelle, among other organizations.
MICHAEL J SEIDLINGER is an Asian American author of a number of books including My Pet Serial Killer and Standard Loneliness Package. He's currently working on a novel, a nonfiction book about death, and a poetry collection. He serves as Library and Academic Marketing Manager at Melville House, Editor-at-Large for Electric Literature, and is a member of The Accomplices.
The event starts at 7 pm on Saturday, October 13. There will be a DJ set following the authors, along with a book signing.
author composite image via Volume Reading Series
Susan Orlean at Northshire Saratoga
Journalist Susan Orlean will be at the Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs December 4 for a talk. Tickets are $5 and available online.
Orlean will be having a conversation with Issac Pulver, director of the Saratoga Springs Public Library. And they'll be talking about the upcoming The Library Book. Book blurbage:
Susan Orlean re-opens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling homage to a beloved institution - our libraries. On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. Raging through the stacks, the fire reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. It was the largest library fire in the history of the United States: it destroyed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more, and shut the library down for seven years. The mystery remains: did someone purposefully set fire to the library--and if so, who?
Weaving her life-long love of books and reading with the fascinating history of libraries and the sometimes-eccentric characters who run them, award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Orlean presents a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling story. With her signature wit, insight, compassion and talent for deep research, she investigates the legendary Los Angeles Public Library fire to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives, and reveals how these buildings provide much more than just books and are needed now more than ever.
Orlean is, of course, the journalist behind article/books such as The Orchid Thief. She is also an avid and popular Twitterist. (Is that a word? It is now, for better or worse.)
The Northshire event is Tuesday, December 4 at 6 pm. It wouldn't be surprising if it filled up.
Northshire advertises on AOA.
photo: Noah Fecks
Bootlegger of the Soul: The Literary Legacy of William Kennedy
Relevant to your Albany literary interests: Bootlegger of the Soul: The Literary Legacy of William Kennedy is set to be this October.
It sounds very much like what it says on the label. Blurbage:
Until now, Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Kennedy's literary legacy has never been celebrated in one book. From novels such as Ironweed, Legs, and Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (the Albany Cycle) to Bootlegger of the Soul screenplays like The Cotton Club, as well as his many years of investigative journalistic work, Suzanne Lance and Paul Grondahl, have compiled reviews, essays, and interviews about Kennedy's contributions to the literary landscape in the new book from SUNY Press, Bootlegger of the Soul. Also included is original writing by the author himself--a play and a short story.
This collection, published in the author's ninetieth year, is a portrait of the award-winning writer whose work has put Albany, NY on the world's literary map.
Kennedy will be at the big Albany Book Festival at UAlbany on Saturday, September 29 from 2-2:45 pm for a book signing.
And he'll be appearing with Suzanne Lance and Paul Grondahl at bookshops around the area:
+ October 7: The Book House at Stuyesant Plaza 1 pm
+ October 11: Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs 6 pm
+ October 13: The Open Door in Schenectady 1 pm
NYS Writers Institute visiting writers fall 2018
The fall lineup for the NYS Writers Institute visiting writers series is out. And it is again full of high-profile authors, actors, artists, and other creators talking talking about all sorts of topics.
The visiting writers series is in addition to the Albany Book Festival September 28-29 at UAlbany, which has its own stacked lineup of authors.
Here's a scan of the upcoming visiting writers schedule, which starts off the first week of September...
Colson Whitehead is the next New York State Author, Alicia Ostriker the next State Poet
Colson Whitehead and Alicia Ostriker
The next New York State Author will be Colson Whitehead, and the next State Poet will be Alicia Ostriker.
Their selection was announced this week -- and they'll be inaugurated at the opening of the Albany Book Festival at UAlbany Friday, September 28 at 7:30 pm. Both writers will be reading at the event, which is free and open to the public.
Colson Whitehead is, of course, a famous novelist whose most recent work -- The Underground Railroad -- won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Alicia Suskin Ostriker is a poet and poetry critic. Bio blurbage: "Alicia Ostriker, the author of sixteen volumes of poetry, is one of the most acclaimed poets, as well as one of the most influential poetry critics of her generation. Joyce Carol Oates asserts that her 'iconoclastic expression, whether in prose or poetry, is essential to understanding our American selves.' Ostriker's work explores motherhood, womanhood, social justice, Jewish identity and-- in the words of poet Joan Larkin-- 'takes on nothing less than what it feels like to be alive.'"
The first Albany Book Festival will be at UAlbany this fall and the lineup is stacked with notable authors
The lineup includes Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, food writer/Splendid Table host Francis Lam, and Harvard professor Annette Gordon-Reed who won the Pulitzer Prize (and a bunch of other awards) for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.
The New York State Writers Institute has the first Albany Book Festival set for September 29 on the UAlbany campus. And holy moly is the lineup stacked.
Among the authors who will be there: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Gregory Maguire, Mark Kurlansky, Francis Lam, Michael W. Twitty, Annette Gordon-Reed, Walter Mosley, Laura Lippman, Khizr Khan. (A fuller lineup is below.)
Festival blurbage:
A message from NYS Writers Institute Director Paul Grondahl:
"The Albany Book Festival is a new initiative for us and we ask you to join us in creating something truly amazing that elevates UAlbany and our capital city for years to come." ...
Bookstores, publishers, literary organizations, and vendors of book-related merchandise will fill numerous display tables and close to 100 local authors will also participate, signing and selling copies of their books.
The book festival will be Saturday, September 29 from 10 am to 4 pm in the new section of the UAlbany campus center on the uptown campus. It's free and open to the public.
NYS Summer Writers Institute 2018
Actor/playwright/essayist Wallace Shawn will be part of a panel discussion titled "Fears & Night Thoughts" with Francine Prose and Binnie Kirschenbaum. / photo: Jared Rodriguez
The New York State Summer Writers Institute has returned to Skidmore for the summer, and that means the a big slate of free public readings for the next the month.
As usual, the lineup is full of names you'll recognize, such as Russell Banks, Claire Messud, Mary Gaitskill, Rick Moody, Robert Pinsky, Joyce Carol Oates, and William Kennedy. The readings are on Skidmore's campus and are free and open to the public.
This year's schedule also includes two weekend panel discussions.
So, let's have a look...
Crime fiction writing workshop at Albany Public Library with Frankie Bailey
This could be interesting and fun: Local author Frankie Y. Bailey will leading a crime fiction writing workshop at the Albany Public Library's Howe Branch in July. Blurbage:
Come learn the craft of crime fiction writing in this 4 part series! Local criminal justice professor and mystery writer Frankie Y. Bailey will lead this hands-on program for patrons of all experience levels. This program is designed as a four-part series, but participants who are unable to attend every module are still welcome to sign up.
The class is on Mondays at 6 pm starting July 9. It's free, but registration is required.
Bailey is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at UAlbany. And she's written a bunch of mystery / crime novels, including a near-future detective series set in Albany.
Bailey will be honored with Alice Green at the Albany Public Library Foundation's Literary Legends Gala October 20.
Frankie Bailey photo via author website
Talking about Visionary Women at Northshire
Andrea Barnet will be at Nortshire Saratoga June 30 to talk about her new book Visionary Women: How Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World. Book blurbage:
Author Andrea Barnet will talk about four influential women we thought we knew well--Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters--and how they spearheaded the modern progressive movement.
"Visionary Women" is the story of four women who profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Together, these women--linked not by friendship or field, but by their choice to break with convention--showed what one person speaking truth to power can do. Jane Jacobs fought for livable cities and strong communities; Rachel Carson warned us about poisoning the environment; Jane Goodall demonstrated the indelible kinship between humans and animals; and Alice Waters urged us to reconsider what and how we eat.
Visionary Women was published this past spring. Here's a largely positive review in the Washington Post. And here's Barnet talking about the book's subjects at the LA Times Book Festival in April.
The Northshire event is at the shop on Broadway in downtown Saratoga Springs Saturday, June 30 at 7 pm. It's free.
Northshire advertises on AOA.
APL Foundation Literary Legends 2018: Alice Green and Frankie Bailey
Alice Green and Frankie Bailey
The Albany Public Library Foundation will be honoring Alice P. Green and Frankie Y. Bailey at its Literary Legends ceremony this fall. But next week -- Thursday, June 7 -- the two authors/scholars will be at an-evening-with-the-authors event at the Albany Public Library to talk about their work. From Literary Legends blurbage:
Alice Green is an Albany giant--a notable activist and community leader. She has never ignored the importance of culture in her tireless work for justice. A champion of literature, she founded the Paden Institute, a residency for writers of color in the Adirondacks. She is also a founder of one of Albany's longest running black newspapers, The South End Scene.
Frankie Bailey is a distinguished scholar and professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany. She is also a mystery writer who has popularized the streets and places of Albany with mystery readers across the country through her Hannah McCabe novels, The Red Queen Dies and What the Fly Saw.
Together, Green and Bailey have written three books. Wicked Albany (2009) and Wicked Danville (2011) are popular nonfiction works that explore crime and justice in the Prohibition era. "Law Never Here": A Social History of African American Responses to Crime and Justice (1999) is a scholarly nonfiction work that traces the evolution of the criminal justice system from slavery through the 20th century.
The June 7 event is at the Albany Public Library Washington Ave Branch from 6-8 pm. Tickets are $25 and available online. There will be a reception with wine and dessert and tea and coffee, and then a conversation with the authors and audience Q&A.
Literary Legends 2018
This year's Literary Legends even is Saturday, October 20. Tickets go on sale May 30.
photos: Alice Green via Center for Law and Justice | Frankie Bailey via author website
Katherine Applegate at Skidmore
Newbery Medal-winning author Katherine Applegate will be at Skidmore May 8 for an event organized by Northshire Bookstore. She'll be talking about her new book, Endling: The Last, with author Steve Sheinkin.
Book/event blurbage:
First Katherine Applegate thrilled readers with the action-packed Animorphs series. Then she stole our hearts with the award-winning The One and Only Ivan. Now she takes us on an unforgettable journey in this first book of an epic middle grade series.
Byx is the youngest member of her dairne pack. Believed to possess remarkable abilities, her mythical doglike species has been hunted to near extinction in the war-torn kingdom of Nedarra. After her pack is hunted down and killed, Byx fears she may be the last of her species. The Endling. So Byx sets out to find safe haven, and to see if the legends of other hidden dairnes are true. Along the way, she meets new allies--both animals and humans alike--who each have their own motivations for joining her quest. And although they begin as strangers, they become their own kind of family--one that will ultimately uncover a secret that may threaten every creature in their world.
Applegate won the Newbery Medal -- one of the most prestigious awards in the US children's literature -- for The One and Only Ivan in 2013.
The event at Skidmore is Tuesday, May 8 at 5:30 pm. Tickets are required ($5) and they're available online.
author photo via Katherine Applegate's Facebook page
Northshire advertises on AOA.
Elizabeth Zunon and Martha and the Slave Catchers at The Book House
Albany artist Elizabeth Zunon will be at the Book House this Saturday to talk about Martha and the Slave Catchers, the new book for middle schoolers by Harriet Hyman Alonso that was illustrated by Zunon. Book blurbage:
Thirteen-year-old Martha Bartlett insists on being a part of the Underground Railroad rescue to bring her brother Jake back home to their abolitionist community in Connecticut. It's 1854 and though African-Americans and mixed-race peoples in the north are supposed to be free, seven-year-old Jake, the orphan of a fugitive slave, is kidnapped by his "owner" and taken south to Maryland. Jake is what we'd now describe as on the autism spectrum, and Martha knows just how to reassure him when he's anxious or fearful. Using aliases, disguises, and other subterfuges, Martha artfully dodges Will and Tom, the slave catchers, but struggles to rectify her new reality with her parents' admonition to always tell the truth. She must be brave but not reckless, clever but not dishonest. But being perceived sometimes as white, sometimes as black during the perilous journey has thrown her sense of her own identity into turmoil. Alonso combines fiction and historical fact to weave a suspenseful story of courage, hope and self-discovery in the aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, while illuminating the bravery of abolitionists who fought against slavery.
Zunon has created beautiful illustrations for a handful of children's books. And Grandpa Cacao -- the first book she's both authored and illustrated -- is set to be published next year. As she told us last year, that book grew out of her family history and her childhood in Ivory Coast (also: a love of chocolate).
The Book House event for Martha and the Slave Catchers is Saturday, April 7 from 3-4:30 pm. There will be excerpts from the book, original art work, and Zunon will be signing books.
"Do you like to eat? Do you like to read?"
Bookmarked: There is an Albany Food Readers Book Club that meets every two months to talk about -- you guessed it -- books about food. Group blurbage:
Do you like to eat? Do you like to read? Do you want to learn more about food? If so, you might enjoy joining our book club: Albany Food Readers! Albany Food Reader's is a local casual book club focusing on books dealing with our food system. The overall goal of this active reading community is to promote overall food awareness. People of all opinions, ideas, locations, and backgrounds are accepted and encouraged to join.
Topics include farming, agriculture, cooking education, nature, ecology, food history, food science, food biographies, and food memoirs. Basically, if it deals with the food system at large, it's right in our wheelhouse.
Here's the list of previous books the club has read.
The group meets in the Honest Weight community room. The next get together is in May when the topic will be either Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line by Michael Gibney or The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef by Marco Pierre White (there's currently an online vote to choose).
Virginia Eubanks and Automating Inequality at Market Block Books
One of the hottest books of the moment right now about the intersection between tech and government and society is Automating Inequality by Virginia Eubanks, an associate professor of political science at UAlbany and a Troy resident. And Eubanks will be at Market Block Books in downtown Troy March 31 to talk about the book.
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor was released in January, and it's gotten a string of high-profile coverage and strong reviews in outlets ranging from NPR to Wired to Vox to Boing Boing. Book blurbage:
Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems--rather than humans--control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor.
Automating Inequality systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. The book is full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, from a woman in Indiana whose benefits are literally cut off as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile.
The event at Market Block is Saturday, March 31 at 11 am. It's free.
By the way: You might remember Eubanks from her article in The Nation a year or so back about Troy, the effects of Irene, and the future of flood insurance.
author photo: Sadaf Rassoul Cameron
Charles Frazier at Northshire Saratoga, and more upcoming author events
Charles Frazier -- who won the National Book Award for Cold Mountain -- will be at the Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs April 2. Tickets are required for the limited-space event -- they're $5 and available online.
Frazier will be talking with WAMC's Joe Donahue about his new book, Varina, the second wife of Jefferson Davis. Book blubrbage: "Her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects the secure life of a Mississippi landowner. Davis instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history--culpable regardless of her intentions."
The conversation is Monday, April 2 at 6 pm.
More Northshire author events
Speaking of the Northshire Bookstore, here are a few more upcoming author events...
Chris Gibson at Bethlehem Public Library
Former Congressman Chris Gibson will be at the Bethlehem Public Library March 3 to talk about his book Rally Point. The talk is free and open to the public.
Book publisher blurbage:
... RALLY POINT: Five Tasks to Unite the Country and Revitalize the American Dream looks past the 2016 election, past the finger pointing and conventional political thinking, to focus on clear, primary principles that conservatives must debate and defend to protect the future of America. ...
Drawn from a deep appreciation of history and American exceptionalism, Gibson provides incisive and frank analysis of the current political environment, including President Trump, and provides a roadmap based on time-tested Founding principles to help unite our country and revitalize the American Dream.
As you know, Gibson represented the Congressional District in this area that's now held by John Faso after the Gibson chose not to run again. He was at one point ranked the most "liberal" Republican in the House. There was some thinking that he could have been a formidable challenger to Andrew Cuomo for governor, but he ultimately chose not to run in this year's election.
Gibson has said he had an unfavorable view of Donald Trump leading up to the presidential election -- but voted for him anyway because Hillary Clinton "would have been more of the same -- peace through weakness, economic decline and corruption." [TU]
The talk at the Bethlehem Public Library is Saturday, March 3 at 2:30 pm.
Here's how the NYS Writers Institute gets all those great authors to visit
Many of the walls in the offices of the NYS Writers Institute in the Science Library on UAlbany's uptown campus are covered with posters touting appearances from the history of the visiting writers series. It's a remarkable a list of well-known and notable authors.
Each spring and fall the New York State Writers Institute releases the lineup for its visiting writers series and pretty much without fail we have this thought while looking it over: "Holy moly, how'd they manage to get all these people?"
This is an important moment for the institute. It has a new director -- longtime Times Union journalist Paul Grondahl started last year. The great author William Kennedy, who founded the institute with money from his MacArthur "genius" grant, is celebrating his 90th birthday this month. And the institute is facing competition from other orgs for both events and attention.
So we figured this would be an interesting time to drop by the institute on the UAlbany campus to talk about how they put together those impressive lineups -- and what's in store for the future...
... said KGB about Drawing: What's something that brought you joy this year?