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Greetings!
This week Tung-Hui Hu, Summer Poet in Residence at the University of Mississippi, will read and sign at Off Square Books on Tuesday, July 8th.
Square Books Summer Camp begins on Thursday, July 10. Camp Square Books will feature readings by Julia Reed, Jack Pendarvis, Bret Lott, Martin Clark, David Wroblewski, and Andre Dubus III.
JULY 10-17
CAMP SQUARE BOOKS
SIX WRITERS*SEVEN BOOKS*EIGHT DAYS
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RESERVED SEATING AT READINGS
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DISCOUNTS ON BOOKS AT SIGNINGS
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DRINKS WITH THE AUTHORS
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SPECIALS FROM SOME OF OUR
INDEPENDENT BUSINESS
AFFILIATES AROUND TOWN
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SUMMER CAMP ACTIVITIES
It's FREE, but in order to get all the perks, you need to
email summercamp@squarebooks.com to register.
Our Dear Reader newsletter and the current calendar are available at www.squarebooks.com.
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SUMMER POET IN RESIDENCE
 Tuesday, July 8,
signing/reception @ 5p.m.,
reading @ 5:30 p.m.
Tung-Hui Hu
MINE
(Ausable Press, pb. 16.00)
Something has happened here: An empire has gone to seed, an entire
country goes on strike, people begin eating dirt and flowers, and a
couple lives on a riverboat to avoid the ground. In Mine, award winning poet Tung-Hui Hu
makes myths out of the personal. He speaks of desire and awkwardness
and the earth that contains both. Resonant, blunt, and sharply
intelligent, this is writing that excavates. As history unfolds
over and over the same geography, these poems become, as Hu has
written, "practice for the living." The book grows out of the poet's
interest in how the histories we extract from the land become
interlaced with our identity. The book asks, Where do we come from? But
also, How do we make amends? BUY NOW!
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CAMP SQUARE BOOKS EVENTS
One author TWO books...
 Thursday, July 10,
signing/reception @ 5 p.m.,
reading @ 5:30
p.m.
Julia Reed
THE HOUSE ON FIRST STREET: My New Orleans Story
(Ecco, hd. 23.95)
To know that this
little book is a great read, you need only to know that native
Mississippian Julia Reed decided to settle down after a long and
colorful spell as a vagabond reporter for Vogue and Newsweek,
after finding and marrying a fabulous Mr. Right and falling in love
with and buying a charming 1847 house on the corner of First and
Chestnut in New Orleans--exactly four weeks
before hurricane Katrina struck. 'Nuff said. It's funny and meaty and
gossipy in true Julia Reed style, somehow reverent and
irreverent, recounting all the New Orleans characters and scenarios
behind the crazy renovation of the house during the great city's
darkest hours. LH BUY NOW!
 Julia ReedHAM BISCUITS, HOSTESS GOWNS, AND OTHER SOUTHERN SPECIALTIES
(St. Martin's, hd. 23.95)
In Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties
Julia Reed collects her thoughts on good cooking and the lessons of
gracious entertaining, taking the reader on a lively and very personal
tour of the culinary--and social--South. In essays on everything from
pork chops to the perfect picnic, Reed revels in the qualities that
make the Southern table the best possible place to pull up a chair. She
provides recipes for some of the region's best-loved dishes, along with
her own variations on the classics. Grace and hilarity suffuse
these essays from a writer who makes her experiences in--and out of--the
kitchen a joy to read. BUY NOW!  Friday, July 11,
signing/reception @ 5 p.m.,
reading @ 5:30
p.m.
Jack Pendarvis
AWESOME
(MacAdam/Cage, hd. 18.00)
Pendarvis gives us Awesome the giant's larger-than-life tale in, as Barry
Hannah puts it, "gutbusting, high wit." Awesome proudly wears a derby
hat much like a king wears a crown, but this derby becomes a crown of thorns. A
Paul Bunyanesque character, with a robot named Jimmy instead of an ox named
Belle, Awesome seems to have the world in the palm of his hand--until
the love of his life, Glorious Jones, leaves him at the altar. Boosted by a
contemplative, narrative from a somewhat conceited but gentle giant,
this is a story in the name of love and the search for what every giant craves.
Get this book and join the Pendarvis Posse. Dude, you're in for an awesome good
time. DS BUY NOW! Monday, July
14,
signing/reception @ 5 p.m.,
reading @ 5:30
p.m.
Bret LottANCIENT HIGHWAY
(Random House, hd. 25.00)
Ancient Highway
brilliantly weaves together the hopes and regrets of three characters
from three generations as they reconcile who they are and who they
might have been. For the Holmeses, a longing for something else--another place, a second chance--seems
to infect the family DNA. From Earl's journey west toward Hollywood
glory, to his daughter Joan's wish for a normal existence away from the
bright lights, to his grandson Brad's yearning for truth, this
deep-rooted desire sustains them, no matter how much the goals elude
them. Inspired
by stories of his own family, Bret Lott beautifully renders the lives
of ordinary people with extraordinary faith in this mesmerizing and
finely wrought tale of love and letting go. BUY NOW!
Tuesday, July 15,
signing/reception @ 5 p.m.,
reading @ 5:30
p.m.
Martin Clark
THE LEGAL LIMIT
(Knopf, 24.95)
The Legal Limit
is the story of two brothers, Mason and Gates Hunt, born to a strong,
loving mother and an abusive, good for nothing father. Gates, a high
school football star, is attracted to his father's dark side, becoming
a reckless drinker, fighter, and all-star budding felon. Mason is
devoted to his mother, performs in class, and earns a college
scholarship. While Mason is home during his first year of law school, tragedy
strikes when the brothers go on a high-speed low-ride. The vow of
secrecy the brothers take on this night follows them and grows as their
lives continue to part ways. Martin Clark (The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and Plain Heathen Mischief) has done his best work yet--a moral fable and legal thriller that resonates with authenticity. TM BUY NOW!
 Wednesday,
July 16,
signing/reception @ 5 p.m.
reading @ 5:30 p.m.
David Wroblewski
THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE
(Harmony,
hd. 24.95)
This debut novel is simply amazing. Edgar Sawtelle is a young boy who
lives with his parents on their isolated Wisconsin farm where his
family has bred and raised dogs for generations. Born mute and speaking
only in sign, Edgar has a deep rapport with his parents and with the
many dogs he helps train. When Edgar's troubled uncle Claude returns
home, the Sawtelles' idyllic life begins to unravel, and not long
thereafter, Edgar's world is shattered when his father suddenly dies.
So begins a tragic yet ultimately liberating tale which is destined to
become an instant modern classic in the tradition of The Life of Pi and Water for Elephants.
Stephen King said of the book, "Wonderful, mysterious, long and
satisfying: readers who pick up this novel are going to enter a richer
world. I envy them the trip." I couldn't agree more. CM BUY NOW!
 Thursday, July 17,
signing/reception @ 5 p.m.
reading at 5:30 p.m.
Andre Dubus III
THE GARDEN OF LAST DAYS
(Norton, hd. 24.95)
The son of an acclaimed short story writer who had a hard time supporting his family, Andre Dubus--who has the same name as his father--grew
up avoiding a career as a writer. Later he was inspired to change his
mind after reading a short story by one of his girlfriend's MFA
classmates. A collection of stories and a novel, Bluesman, materialized and drew attention, and then House of Sand and Fog became a #1 bestseller. The Garden of Last Days is an ambitious, muscular piece of work that successfully takes on the larger themes--family alienation, economic stress, sex, honor, and terror (with both a big and small "t")--of our time and place. I've never galloped through a 535-page novel quite like I did this one. TM BUY NOW!
* Only books purchased at Square Books may be signed. | |
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SCANNING THE FRONT TABLES
 THIS LAND IS THEIR LAND
by Barbara Ehrenreich
(Metropolitan, hd. 24.00)
In This Land Is Their Land, Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) offers the most biting and incisive satire of her career. Ehrenreich finds lurid extremes all around. While members of
the moneyed elite can buy congressmen, many in the working class can
barely buy lunch. While a wealthy minority obsessively consumes
cosmetic surgery, the poor often go without health care for their
children. And while the corporate C-suites are now nests of
criminality, the less fortunate are fed a diet of morality, marriage,
and abstinence. Ehrenreich's antidotes are as sardonic as they are
spot-on: pet insurance for your kids; Salvation Army fashions for those
who can no longer afford Wal-Mart; and boundless rage against those who
have given us a nation scarred by deepening inequality, corroded by
distrust, and shamed by its official cruelty. BUY NOW!
 WHAT WOULD KINKY DO?
by Kinky Friedman
(St. Martin's, hd. 23.95)
Kinky Friedman returns with this collection of
hilariously raunchy, sometimes poignant, and always insightful essays.
Considering the current predicament of
our nation and the world at large, the question is, "What would Kinky
do?" His answers invoke Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, George
Bush, and other cultural icons; reflect on Texas etiquette,
smoking in bars, mullet haircuts, and immigration policy; and advise on how to handle a nonstop talker on a
long flight, how to deliver the perfect air kiss, and what to do when a
redneck hollers "Hey y'all, watch this!" With fearless wit and wisdom born from many a late night's experience,
Kinky offers both pearls and cowpats that touch on life, death, and
everything in between. BUY NOW!
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OPENING LINES
"To all the under-celebrated people who make books possible
and available--editorial assistants, copy editors, proofreaders, publicists, print industry workers, truck drivers,
and bookstore workers."
-- from THIS LAND IS THEIR LAND by Barbara Ehrenreich
Ms. Ehrenreich, we "the under-celebrated"
tip our hats right back at ya.
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