This is what we are hearing from our book advocacy groups.
This is the big one.
A nationwide book ban billhas been introduced (HR 7661) that would throw schools and school libraries into chaos. In the name of persecuting LGBTQ+ voices — especially transgender people — it would force massive book removals in schools nationwide.
Your House Representative needs to hear from you now. In Chatham County, our rep is Valerie Foushee. Surrounding areas are represented by Deborah Ross, Richard Hudson, and Brad Knott. To find your representative, clickhere. As a bookstore, we believe we should all have the ability to choose our books.
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Welcome March! This Wednesday from 1:30-3:30 pm, our friend and exquisite writing guru Margot Lester returns for another session of Writer's Office Hours. If you are looking for a nudge or some advice on a writing project or homework you are working on, Dr. Margot will be in. Take advantage of free advice from a writing professional.
This Saturday, March 7th at 11am, we are delighted to welcome back Donna Everhart, who will discuss her latest novel,Women of a Promiscuous Nature.
Girl, Interrupted meets The Handmaid’s Talein 1940s North Carolina, as a young woman is accused of “promiscuity” and unjustly incarcerated at The State Industrial Farm Colony for Women…
Based on the long-buried history of the American Plan, this powerful and shockingly timely story of resistance and resilience exposes the real government program designed to regulate women’s bodies and sexuality throughout the first half of the 20th century.
*A Publishers Marketplace BUZZ BOOKS Selection*
“Both a cautionary tale and a deeply compassionate rendering of women wrongly imprisoned in a system designed to break them, Everhart’s propulsive story is filled with injustice, intrigue, and the determination to fight back.”—LISA WINGATE, #1 New York Times bestselling author ofShelterwood
Donna Everhart is a USA Today bestselling author known for vividly evoking challenges of the heart and the complex heritage of the American South in her acclaimed novels When the Jessamine Grows, The Saints of Swallow Hill, The Moonshiner's Daughter, The Forgiving Kind, The Road to Bittersweet, and The Education of Dixie Dupree. She is the recipient of the prestigious North Carolina Society of Historians Award of Excellence, the SELA Outstanding Southeastern Author Award from the Southeastern Library Association, and her novels have received a SIBA Okra Pick, an Indie Next Pick, and two Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selections.
We are filling up fast for our Book Club eventson Thursday, March 12th at 6:30pm and Friday, March 13th at 10:30am. Get your tickets now forBook Club Night or ourMorning Book Club Social. We are excited to welcome our new neighbor, novelist Therese Anne Fowler, as our special guest. Therese is the New York Times, IndieBound, and USA Today bestselling author of multiple novels including Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, which was adapted for television starring Christina Ricci, and most recently It All Comes Down to This. She has been a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Award and the Southern Book Prize for fiction. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Week, Harper’s Bazaar, the Telegraph, and elsewhere. Her novels are sold in translation worldwide. We will be presenting the same books at both events. There will be book give aways and fun to be had. Tickets are $10.70.
Saturday, March 14th at 11am, please join us for an insightful panel discussion, HEAR US NOW: Acclaimed Women Novelists on the Erasure of Women’s Voices featuring Jill McCorkle, Nell Joslin, and Terri Lewis.In honor of Women's History Month, novelists Jill McCorkle, Nell Joslin, and Terri Lewis discuss the absence of women's voices in literature and history and how, in writing fiction, they've given voice to the overlooked and forgotten.
Later that Saturday at 2pm, Melissa Falivenowill discuss her novel Hemlock with Gaby Calvocoressi, the National Book Award nominated poet. In Hemlock, a woman haunted by a dark inheritance returns to the woods where her mother vanished, in this queer Gothic novel—a butch Black Swan.
The end of the month heralds the long awaited return of our favorite crime writer from Northern Ireland. That's right… Steve Cavanagh will discuss his latest,Two Kinds of Strangerson Saturday, March 28that 11am. To attend, purchase your copy ofTwo Kinds of Strangersfrom McIntyre's and you and a friend can attend.
Across North Carolina today, primary ballots are being cast. Don't forget to vote!
All the best from the Usual Suspects,
Pete, Johanna, Sarah G., Tyler, Amy, Juliana, Sarah C. and Keebe
