Calendar

Aug
2
Thu
Anthony DeBenedet: Playful Intelligence: The Power of Living Lightly in a Serious World @ Nicola's Books
Aug 2 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Local physician Anthony DeBenedet discusses his new book that explores the effects and benefits of qualities such as imagination, humor, and wonder. Signing. DeBenedet is also at Literati Aug. 14 (see listing).
7 p.m., Nicola’s, Westgate shopping center. Free. 662-0600.

Aug
4
Sat
Books, Crafts, and Cats! With jessi Gage, J.D. Barker, and J.A. Thomas @ Think Outside the Books
Aug 4 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

Readings by fiction writers Jessi Gage (romance), J.D. Barker (thriller), and J.A. Thomas (romantic mysteries). Also, a silent auction of signed books, used book sale, and cat-themed crafts. Kids invited to read to adoptable cats. Snacks. Fundraiser for Crafty Cat Rescue, a no-kill shelter.
11 a.m.-4 p.m., Think Outside the Books, 2547 Ellsworth, Ypsilanti. Free admission. 680-2418 or craftycatrescue@gmail.com.

Aug
5
Sun
Ann Arbor Poetry: Open Mike @ Espresso Royale
Aug 5 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Poetry open mike.
7-9 p.m. (sign-up begins at 6:30 p.m.), Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.

 

Aug
6
Mon
Emerging Writers: Showing and Telling @ AADL Westgate
Aug 6 @ 7:00 pm – 8:45 pm

Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal discuss ways to create strong, catchy openings for novels, memoirs, and nonfiction stories. For all fiction & nonfiction writers grade 6-adult. Also, Kourvo & Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200.

 

Fiction at Literati: Daniel Abbott: The Concrete @ Literati
Aug 6 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Literati is thrilled to welcome author Daniel Abbott who will be reading from his debut novel The Concrete.

About The Concrete:
Set on the gritty southeast side of Grand Rapids, Michigan, an impoverished area known for drugs and violence, The Concrete centers around the home of Jackson and Mae Carter, foster parents of two boys–Isaac, who is white, and Miles, who is black–who share dark and intersecting histories that neither one is aware of. As the boys try to escape the grim reality of the violent streets–i.e. “the concrete”–in different ways–Isaac through basketball, Miles though music–the novel shifts back and forth in time, in the process revealing the story of an entangled community plagued by trauma and death, trying to confront the ghosts of its past, and seize a better life. A multi-point-of-view work of realistic and often graphic literary fiction, The Concrete is a striking debut that grapples with the effects of childhood trauma on teens, lost dreams, human sexuality, and the difficulties of marriage.

Daniel Abbott received his BA from Grand Valley State University and his MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He lives with his family in Grand Rapids, MI.

Aug
7
Tue
Fiction at Literati: Margaret Bradham Thornton: A Theory of Love @ Literati
Aug 7 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Literati is excited to welcome author Margaret Bradham Thornton who will be sharing her latest novel A Theory of Love.

About A Theory of Love:
A follow-up to her successful debut Charleston and set in the world’s most glamorous landscapes, this moving new love story from Margaret Bradham Thornton draws on a metaphor of entanglement theory to ask: when two people collide, are they forever attached no matter where they are?

Helen Gibbs, a British journalist on assignment on the west coast of Mexico, meets Christopher Delavaux, an intriguing half-French, half-American lawyer-turned-financier who has come alone to surf. Living lives that never stop moving, from their first encounter in Bermeja to marriage in London and travels to such places as Saint-Tropez, Tangier, and Santa Clara, Helen and Christopher must decide how much they exist for themselves and how much they exist for each other.

In an effort to build his firm, Christopher leads a life full of speed and ambition with little time for Helen and even less when he suspects his business partner of illegal activity. Helen, a reluctant voyeur to Christopher’s world of power and position, searches far and wide for reporting work that will “take a bite out of her soul”–refugees in Calais, a mountain climber in Chamonix, an orphaned circus performer in Cuba. A Theory of Love captures the ambivalence at the center of human experience: does one reside in the familiar comforts of solitude or dare to open one’s heart and risk having it broken? Set in some of the most picturesque places in the world, this novel questions what it means to love someone and leaves us wondering–can nothing save us but a fall?

Margaret Bradham Thornton is the author of Charleston and the editor of Tennessee Williams’s Notebooks, for which she received the Bronze ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in autobiography/memoir and the C. Hugh Holman Prize for the best volume of southern literary scholarship published in 2006, given by the Society for the Study of Southern Literature. She is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in Florida.

The Moth Storyslam: Business @ Greyline
Aug 7 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Aug. 7 & 21. Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 10 storytellers are selected at random from among those who sign up to tell a 3-5 minute story on a biweekly theme. August themes: “Business” (Aug. 7) & “Destiny” (Aug. 21). The 3-person judging teams are recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Space limited, so it’s smart to arrive early.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6 p.m.), Greyline, 100 N. Ashley. $8. 764-5118.

 

Aug
8
Wed
Callie Feyen: The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet @ Literati
Aug 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Literait is thrilled to welcome author and eduacator Callie Feyen who will be sharing her new book The Teacher Diaries: Romeo & Juliet.

About The Teacher Diaries: Romeo & Juliet:
What do teachers feel when facing William Shakespeare, tales of family feud, breathless kissing scenes-all in front of a class of teens who are keeping their heads down (and threatening to fall asleep or plot their next prank in the process)? We may never know what our own 8th or 9th grade teachers felt. But, on this count, educator Callie Feyen has done us a favor. She has written a poignant memoir-‘The Teacher Diaries: Romeo & Juliet.’ It begins with a kiss. Then, page by page, it reveals her generous, hopeful, and humorous heart. For teachers everywhere, this is a beautiful book to help them remember why they teach. For those of us who just love to get the juicy details of what someone in a challenging position really thinks, this book will satisfy (and sometimes make us laugh, or cry).

Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has been a middle school teacher, is the Teaching and Learning Editor and Children’s Editor for Tweetspeak Poetry, and serves as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools.

Jennifer Pharr Davis: The Pursuit of Endurance: Harnessing the Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience @ AADL Multipurpose Room
Aug 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

This North Carolina-based endurance hiker and motivational speaker reads from her new book, The Pursuit of Endurance: Harnessing the Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL Downtown Multipurpose Rm. Free. 327-4200

Toastmasters Meeting @ Sweetwaters
Aug 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Toastmasters is an international group devoted to helping each other grow in our abilities to give speeches. The Sweetwaters Toastmasters Club meets twice monthly. We are a fun and friendly group! Toastmasters also helps you develop leadership skills if you wish to do that. Come as many times as you want for free, and decide later if you want to join. In the meantime, come make new friends and have fun!
Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea on Washington Street, 123 West Washington Street. Free. 323-286-3999. https://www.facebook.com/groups/TMSweet/

 

 

 

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