November 13, 2019 | Posted by Village

Dear Gentle Reader,

Hello summer! We kick off June with not a splash, but rather a cannonball. Friday night David Sedaris visits McIntyre’s for the first time. With several fans among our staff, we have read Calypso and LOVED it. Friday night promises to be fabulous. While his event in the barn is very nearly sold out – you can come get in line after the event (around 7:30pm) and get your books signed. We have plenty of copies of Calypso available!

Ironic, isn’t it, to think that with all the rain we have been having locally, that we are in the midst of a national water crisis?!? Join us for a terrific discussion with Seamus McGraw this coming Saturday afternoon at 2pm.

And our summertime programming for the young’uns begins this weekend with a visit from Stacy McAnulty who will discuss her critically acclaimed middle grade novel, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl! It’s a staff favorite! And, SUNDAY is the first meeting of our new middle grade book club. Our fabulous bookseller Anna, who is also a reading specialist, will lead games, crafts and book discussion. Come by and check it out. For this first meeting, no pressure to read the book, Gertie’s Leap to Greatness. Just come for fun and friendship!

Friday, June 1st at 10:30am
Friday Storytime
Today’s Theme: Summer’s Here!

Friday, June 1st at 6:30pm *Ticketed Event*
David Sedaris visits to read from and sign copies of Calypso, his first book of essays in five years.

In case you missed it, the book made the cover of last week’s New York Times Book Review.

Please note: Online ticket sales are closed for this event, but there are a limited number of tickets in store. Call us at 919-542-3030 for ticket info- there are 35 left as of this writing. A ticket does not necessarily guarantee a seat, but it will get you a signed copy of Calypso and a spot in the Barn. At 7:30pm, Mr. Sedaris will begin signing books at McIntyre’s.

If you do not get a ticket from us to hear him speak, you can still come out and with the purchase of Calypso, get in the signing line as he loves his fans. Roost is staying open so folks have a place to gather for a drink and some pizza.

If you’ve ever laughed your way through David Sedaris’s cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you’re getting with Calypso. You’d be wrong.

When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it’s impossible to take a vacation from yourself.

With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny – it’s a book that can make you laugh ’til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris’s powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.

This is beach reading for people who detest beaches, required reading for those who loathe small talk and love a good tumor joke. Calypso is simultaneously Sedaris’s darkest and warmest book yet – and it just might be his very best.

David Sedaris is the author of the books Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked, and Barrel Fever. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and BBC Radio 4. He lives in England.

Saturday, June 2nd at 11am
Stacy McAnulty shares The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

Stacy McAnulty visits to discuss her critically acclaimed middle grade novel- it’s a staff favorite!

Lucy Callahan was struck by lightning. She doesn’t remember it, but it changed her life forever. The zap gave her genius-level math skills, and ever since, Lucy has been homeschooled. Now, at 12 years old, she’s technically ready for college. She just has to pass 1 more test – middle school!

Lucy’s grandma insists: Go to middle school for 1 year. Make 1 friend. Join 1 activity. And read 1 book (that’s not a math textbook!). Lucy’s not sure what a girl who does calculus homework for fun can possibly learn in 7th grade. She has everything she needs at home, where nobody can make fun of her rigid routines or her superpowered brain. The equation of Lucy’s life has already been solved. Unless there’s been a miscalculation?

Stacy McAnulty is the author of many books for young readers, including chapter book series The Dino Files and GoldieBlox and picture books including Excellent Ed, 101 Reasons Why I’m NOT Taking a Bath, and Beautiful. The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is her middle-grade debut. A former mechanical engineer, Stacy writes about math and science with authority. She lives in Kernersville, NC.

Saturday, June 2nd at 2pm
Seamus McGraw investigates A Thirsty Land, the Making of an American Water Crisis

As a changing climate threatens the whole country with deeper droughts and more furious floods that put ever more people and property at risk, Texas has become a bellwether state for water debates. Will there be enough water for everyone? Is there the will to take the steps necessary to defend ourselves against the sea? Is it in the nature of Americans to adapt to nature in flux?

The most comprehensive—and comprehensible—book on contemporary water issues, A Thirsty Land delves deep into the challenges faced not just by Texas but by the nation as a whole, as we struggle to find a way to balance the changing forces of nature with our own ever-expanding needs. Part history, part science, part adventure story, and part travelogue, this book puts a human face on the struggle to master that most precious and capricious of resources, water. Seamus McGraw goes to the taproots, talking to farmers, ranchers, business people, and citizen activists, as well as to politicians and government employees.

Their stories provide chilling evidence that Texas—and indeed the nation—is not ready for the next devastating drought, the next catastrophic flood. Ultimately, however, A Thirsty Land delivers hope. This deep dive into one of the most vexing challenges facing Texas and the nation offers glimpses of the way forward in the untapped opportunities that water also presents.

Seamus McGraw is the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone, and the forthcoming Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Line of Climate Change. Seamus has been a regular contributor to many publications, including the New York Times, the Huffington Post, Reader’s Digest, Stuff magazine, Spin, and The Forward. He has won a number of journalism awards. A father of four, he lives in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania with his wife, Kren, his children, and a neighborly bear named “Fardels” with boundary issues.

Sunday, June 3rd at 2pm
The debut of our Middle Grade Book Club: Kate Beasley’s Gertie’s Leap to Greatness

Join McIntyre’s children’s bookseller Anna Shartzer as she leads a summer books club for kids ages 8-12. This club guarantees fun, friends, crafts, snacks and great book talk. Receive 20% off the selected title.

Gertie Reece Foy is 100% Not-From-Concentrate awesome. She has a daddy who works on an oil rig, a great-aunt who always finds the lowest prices at the Piggly Wiggly, and two loyal best friends. So when her absent mother decides to move away from their small town, Gertie sets out on her greatest mission yet: becoming the best fifth grader in the universe to show her mother exactly what she’ll be leaving behind. There’s just one problem: Seat-stealing new girl Mary Sue Spivey wants to be the best fifth grader, too. And there is simply not enough room at the top for the two of them.

Kate Beasley lives with her family in Claxton, Georgia, with two dogs, one parrot, lots of cows, and a cat named Edgar.

Book Club Leader Anna Shartzer has been a reading specialist, instructional coach, teacher and most recently bookseller. Her eighteen year career has been all about encouraging reading and readers. She has founded three children’s book clubs and has helped to lead sessions on more than thirty titles. She is passionate about engaging readers, supporting them in making connections and creating a fun environment for young book lovers.

Saturday, June 9th at 2pm
Andrew Lawler discusses The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke

A sweeping account of America’s oldest unsolved mystery, the people racing to unearth its answer, and what the Lost Colony reveals about America today

What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke? That question has consumed historians, archeologists, and amateur sleuths for four hundred years. In The Secret Token, Andrew Lawler sets out on a quest to determine the fate of the settlers, finding fresh leads as he encounters a host of characters obsessed with resolving the enigma. In the course of his journey, Lawler examines how the Lost Colony came to haunt our national consciousness.

Sunday, June 9th at 2pm
One of the true masters of Southern Cooking drops in to discuss her new cookbook. Virginia Willis shares Secrets of the Southern Table: A Food Lover’s Tour of the Global South

Mark your calendars! Georgia-born French-trained Chef Virginia Willis has made chocolate chip cookies with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, foraged for berries in the Alaskan wilderness, harvested capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano in Sicily, and beguiled celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Morgan Freeman, and Aretha Franklin with her cooking — but it all started in her grandmother’s country kitchen.

 

All the best from the usual suspects:

Pete, Sarah, Mouse, Billy, Johanna, Anna, Kelley, Hazel and Keebe