LibraryThing Local

Charlotte author Charla Muller will discuss and sign copies of her new book (co-authored by Betsy Thorpe), 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy. In 2006, Muller—-a homemaker, mother and marketing consultant-—wanted to give her husband a special 40th birthday present. The gift? Sex every night ... (more)for a full year. This unique and realistic look into a modern marriage is done with lots of humor, sincerity, and grace.

Tana French will read from and sign copies of her new novel, The Likeness. In this sequel to her bestselling, critically acclaimed In the Woods, French returns to her quirky and engrossing Dublin detective squad characters. Detectives Cassie Maddox and Sam O'Neill investigate the murder of a young ... (more)woman who not only bears the name that Cassie used previously as an undercover cop but who looks exactly like her.

Get the inside perspective on Wake County Schools' spectacular growth and change from two in the know. Former Wake Co. School Superintendent Bill McNeill (pictured) and school board member and business leader Tom Oxholm present A SCHOOL DISTRICT'S JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE: LESSONS FROM BUSINESS & EDUCATION. ... (more)They blend business principles with excellent leadership to create a remarkable tool for educators and communities. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Martin Clark, author of the acclaimed novel The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, will read from and sign copies of his new novel, The Legal Limit. Clark, a circuit court judge, lives in Stuart, Virginia.

The fourth entry in Stephenie Meyer’s hugely popular vampire series is available at midnight, Saturday, August 2. Reserve your copy now and come to party as we count down to midnight. Costumes highly encouraged! Fun and activities for all.

Watch for more info to come about our Breaking Dawn Release Party.

Durham author Haven Kimmel will read from and sign copies of her fourth novel, Iodine. In Iodine, Kimmel makes an exciting foray into psychological gothic territory. This unique portrait of the emotional effects of trauma is tantalizing, shocking, and ultimately hopeful.

Save money and be kind to the environment. Stephen & Rebekah Hren present their THE CARBON FREE HOME; 36 REMODELING PROJECTS TO HELP KICK THE FOSSIL-FUEL HABIT. Learn how you can turn your existing house into an environmental asset. To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 ... (more)or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Save money and be kind to the environment. Stephen & Rebekah Hren present their THE CARBON FREE HOME; 36 REMODELING PROJECTS TO HELP KICK THE FOSSIL-FUEL HABIT. Learn how you can turn your existing house into an environmental asset. To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 ... (more)or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Editor Ann Wicker and contributor David Childers will discuss and sign copies of the new book, Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas. "Making Notes is a rollicking road trip through the music of the Carolinas, with people who lived the music life and still remember it like it was only yesterday. It's ... (more)a compilation of amazing memories about music rooted in the Carolinas—but universal in its appeal...If you really love music, don't miss this book," writes Terry Hummel, former publisher of Rolling Stone.

Diesel's Malibu Book Group will be gathering to discuss The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, by Erik Larson. All are welcome! For more on Eric Larson, click here

Durham native Clyde Edgerton will read from and sign copies of his new novel, The Bible Salesman. From this "Southern tale-spinning master," (Rocky Mountain News) comes a tender and hilarious new novel featuring scoundrels and innocents, car thievery and the Holy book. Edgerton, a professor of ... (more)creative writing at UNC-Wilmington, is the author of seven best-sellers, including Raney, Walking Across Egypt, and Where Trouble Sleeps.

William "Bill" Curry comes to us with TEN MEN YOU MEET IN THE HUDDLE: LESSONS FROM A FOOTBALL LIFE. He snapped balls to Namath, Starr, Unitas and is now a college football analyst for ESPN. For him, football is a metaphor for life and he tells the story with great passion. To request a signed or personalized ... (more)copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

William "Bill" Curry comes to us with TEN MEN YOU MEET IN THE HUDDLE: LESSONS FROM A FOOTBALL LIFE. He snapped balls to Namath, Starr, Unitas and is now a college football analyst for ESPN. For him, football is a metaphor for life and he tells the story with great passion. To request a signed or personalized ... (more)copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) will be on hand to present an interactive writing workshop based on her book, Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words & Stories & Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It. This workshop is for creative writers, journal-keepers, and anyone ... (more)with stories to share. Participants will make notes on thirsty pieces of paper, play games, and share inspiring words.

Linda Villarosa will read from and sign copies of her debut novel, Passing for Black. E. Lynn Harris writes, "Passing for Black weaves issues of identity and sexuality into an engaging tale of love, passion, and family. Finally the story we’ve been waiting for, delivered in page turning, finely written ... (more)prose by one of my favorite writers." Villarosa, a former editor at the New York Times and Essence Magazine, is also the author of Body & Soul: The Black Woman's Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Well-Being.

Former Independent writer Bob Moser will discuss and sign copies of his new book, Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority, which details both the changes that have reshaped the Southern vote and how the Democratic Party can build a new progressive majority that includes the South. ... (more) A native North Carolinian, Moser is an award-winning correspondent for The Nation.

Bob Moser presents BLUE DIXIE: AWAKENING THE SOUTH'S DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY. He builds a powerful case for a new Southern strategy for the Democratic Party. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least ... (more)48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Brock Clarke will read from and sign copies of his marvelously titled novel, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England (now available in paperback). After spending 10 years in prison for accidentally burning down Emily Dickinson’s house and killing two people in the process, Sam Pulsifer ... (more)is determined to start a new life. But when the houses of Mark Twain, Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne start going up in smoke, Sam's past comes back to haunt him. In this comic, literary "whodunit," Clarke manages to skewer just about everything in today's literary culture—authors, fictional memoirs and factual novels, bookstores, reading groups, English professors, and even Harry Potter.

Renowned storyteller Lloyd Arneach treats us to his LONG AGO STORIES OF THE EASTERN CHEROKEE, an insightful look into the folklore and lives of the Cherokee past and present. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com ... (more) (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Duke physician Paul Austin will kickoff the publication of his new memoir, Something for the Pain: One Doctor's Account of Life and Death in the ER, with a reading and book signing. Austin—"the ER doc you’d hope to get if something really bad happened"—provides a revealing account of the daily ... (more)trials and tribulations of those who work in emergency rooms everywhere, and the toll this kind of work has taken on his own life.

Cyma Rubin presents her unique THE AMERICAN SOLDIER: A PHOTOGRAPHIC TRIBUTE, THE CIVIL WAR TO THE WAR IN IRAQ. The book includes 116 enlarged photographs (including several Pulitzer Prize winners) dating back to the Civil War and the dawn of the photographic era. This is an intimate and historical ... (more)look into the lives of America's fighting forces. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Quotation maven Mardy Grothe will discuss and sign copies of his new book, I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like: A Comprehensive Compilation of History's Greatest Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes. Grothe, the author of Oxymoronica, Viva la Repartee, and Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You, is sure ... (more)to entertain, educate, and inspire everyone who loves quotations.

Cyma Rubin presents her unique THE AMERICAN SOLDIER: A PHOTOGRAPHIC TRIBUTE, THE CIVIL WAR TO THE WAR IN IRAQ. The book includes 116 enlarged photographs (including several Pulitzer Prize winners) dating back to the Civil War and the dawn of the photographic era. This is an intimate and historical ... (more)look into the lives of America's fighting forces. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Here's an afternoon treat for young, aspiring writers. Diane Berry presents her new novel, PORT CITY PIRATES, about teens who set about solving a centuries' old haunting on the N.C. coast. She also discusses the writing process. For ages 9 and up. Why the unusual time for the program? Her ... (more)program "bridges" the meetings of the Elementary and Battle of the Books clubs. You don't have to be attending either club to come to Diane Berry's program. But if you're in either club, consider adjusting your departure or arrival time accordingly. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Buddhist meditation teacher and organic gardening mentor Wendy Johnson will read from and sign copies of her new book, Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World. Johnson, who has been gardening and meditating at the Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in northern California for ... (more)thirty years, shares in this book both her practical knowledge and her insights into inner and outer growth.

Award-winning journalist Alan Weisman will discuss and sign copies of his new book, The World Without Us, which teases out the consequences of a simple thought experiment: What would happen if the human species were suddenly extinguished? Weisman's enthralling tour of the world of tomorrow explores ... (more)what little will remain of ancient times, while anticipating—often poetically—what a planet without us would be like.

North Carolina author Dan Barefoot will discuss and sign copies of his new book, Hark the Sound of Tar Heel Voices: 220 Years of UNC History. This collection of first-person accounts of life at Carolina includes what men like Bill Friday or Frank Porter Graham said about their time there, as well as ... (more)Andy Griffith telling about how he couldn't afford the tuition until disability aid for a bad back and work as a cafeteria bus boy allowed him to continue his studies.

Dr. Paul Austin gives us medicine from the doctor's perspective in SOMETHING FOR THE PAIN: ONE DOCTOR'S ACCOUNT OF LIFE AND DEATH IN THE ER. You see an eye-opening account of life in the ER by a Durham doctor. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 ... (more)or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Lawyer Anna Hayes will discuss and sign copies of her new biography, Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp. Sharp's public life—which included being the first woman judge in North Carolina and the first female chief justice of a state supreme court—is an interesting story of feminism, ... (more)lawyering, and party politics. But this book also tells a totally unexpected personal story, based on well-documented journals and letters, and revealing a life much more complex than Sharp's public persona.

Dr. Paul Austin gives us medicine from the doctor's perspective in SOMETHING FOR THE PAIN: ONE DOCTOR'S ACCOUNT OF LIFE AND DEATH IN THE ER. You see an eye-opening account of life in the ER by a Durham doctor. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 ... (more)or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Katherine Min will read from and sign copies of her novel, Secondhand World, which is newly available in paperback. Isolation pervades this haunting debut, a depiction of a tragedy-beset Korean-American family living in upstate New York during the aftermath of the Korean War. Min's rendering ... (more)of an outsider family's tight-knit alienation is spot-on. Secondhand World was a PEN/Bingham finalist.

Christopher Paolini's hugely popular INHERITANCE cycle continues in the eagerly anticipated BRISINGR. It's available just after midnight on Saturday, September 20. So we're counting down the final moments in style with our fabulous party at 11! Come see real expert swordplay, courtesy of NBS GYM of ... (more)Raleigh! Reserve your copy of BRISINGR now.

Bob Moser presents BLUE DIXIE: AWAKENING THE SOUTH'S DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY. He builds a powerful case for a new Southern strategy for the Democratic Party. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least ... (more)48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Bob Moser presents BLUE DIXIE: AWAKENING THE SOUTH'S DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY. He builds a powerful case for a new Southern strategy for the Democratic Party. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least ... (more)48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

*Rescheduled from Sept. 2* Former Independent writer Bob Moser will discuss and sign copies of his new book, Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority, which details both the changes that have reshaped the Southern vote and how the Democratic Party can build a new progressive majority that ... (more)includes the South. A native North Carolinian, Moser is an award-winning correspondent for The Nation.

David Leavitt will discuss and sign copies of his recent book, now available in paperback, The Indian Clerk. This richly imagined historical novel relates the strange and ultimately tragic relationship between an esteemed British mathematician and an unknown and unschooled mathematical genius. The ... (more)Indian Clerk was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award and a New York Times Notable Book.

How does a minor character in a book get the author to give him more limelight? You'll get to ask William Conescu that when he presents his new novel, BEING WRITTEN, a swift and nicely structured dark comedy from a new N.C. writer. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, ... (more)call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Anna Hayes joins us with her biography WITHOUT PRECEDENT: THE LIFE OF SUSIE MARSHALL SHARP. With unrestricted access to Sharp's papers, Hayes uncovers the story of a brilliant woman who not only transcends the limits of her time but also had a rich and unsuspected private life. Can’t ... (more)make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Anna Hayes joins us with her biography WITHOUT PRECEDENT: THE LIFE OF SUSIE MARSHALL SHARP. With unrestricted access to Sharp's papers, Hayes uncovers the story of a brilliant woman who not only transcends the limits of her time but also had a rich and unsuspected private life. Can’t make it? ... (more) To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

SIGNING LINE TICKET EVENT; receive a ticket with the purchase of LIBERTY. The host and author of Prairie Home Companion brings a new tale of Lake Wobegon as it's always been—good loving people who drive each other crazy! Hear about LIBERTY, the latest Lake Wobegon novel. ... (more) Garrison Keillor is signing back list books and personalizing. Photography is allowed, so bring your camera! Tickets are $5 each. Or, receive a free ticket with the purchase of LIBERTY. The program ticket also serves as your signing line ticket. Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

To top off Gay Pride events in Durham, Jeffery Beam will read from and sign copies of his new book, The Beautiful Tendons: Uncollected Queer Poems, 1969-2007. These poems from native North Carolinian Beam were originally published in many of the most important gay magazines and anthologies of the past ... (more)decades, and include three longer poem sequences on love, friendship and spirituality.

William Conescu will read from and sign copies of his debut novel, Being Written, in which the hero of the story "hears the author’s pencil scratching away and starts performing drastic acts to win more page-time from the book's other characters... Ionesco, eat your heart out. I suppose you could ... (more)argue the hero is simply nuts, but I'd rather argue that William Conescu is simply a genius," writes Wilton Barnhardt. Conescu graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and earned an MFA in creative writing at NCSU.

Comic Jeremy Greenberg presents RELATIVE DISCOMFORT: THE FAMILY SURVIVAL GUIDE — just in time for the holidays! There are many how-to books. Finally, here is a book on how to laugh your way through any and every stressful family encounter. Jeremy will be here before his evening stand up comic gig. Can’t ... (more)make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Stand-up comedian and writer Jeremy Greenberg will read from and sign copies of his new book, Relative Discomfort: The Family Survival Guide. If you've ever had a knot in your stomach before a family event, this is the book that will help you laugh your way through any and every stressful family ... (more)encounter. Greenberg has written for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jokes, Comics Unleashed, Atlantic Business Magazine, and American Jewish Life Magazine.

Two great arts are mixed in Lenard Moore's A TEMPLE LOOMING: POEMS. Old black and white photographs are brought to life through beautifully rendered poems. Can't make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least ... (more)48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Eric Roston will discuss and sign copies of his new book, The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat. "With delightful verve and zest, Roston explores the awesomely cornucopian roles of carbon, ranging from cosmic to cellular, from climate to cancer. He also makes ... (more)a compelling case that human destiny and carbon are now inextricably coupled," writes 1986 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Dudley Herschbach. Roston is a senior associate in the Washington, DC office of Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

Stand-up comedian and writer Jeremy Greenberg will read from and sign copies of his new book, Relative Discomfort: The Family Survival Guide. If you've ever had a knot in your stomach before a family event, this is the book that will help you laugh your way through any and every stressful family encounter. ... (more) Greenberg has written for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jokes, Comics Unleashed, Atlantic Business Magazine, and American Jewish Life Magazine.

Environmental activist Diane Wilson will read from and discuss her "hot as hellfire" memoir, Holy Roller: Growing Up in the Church of Knock Down, Drag Out; or, How I Quit Loving a Blue-Eyed Jesus. Holy Roller covers Wilson's early life, while her adult life is explored in her previous memoir, An Unreasonable ... (more)Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas.

Greg Melville will discuss and sign copies of his new book, Greasy Rider: Two Dudes, a Car Powered by Vegetable Oil, and a Cross-Country Trip in Search of a Greener World. Join Greg and his college buddy Iggy as they travel from Burlington, Vermont to Berkeley, California, stopping at all the ... (more)green meccas along the way. Melville will be driving his beloved Greasecar to all his readings along the East Coast—-fueling up only on veggie-oil waste—-so The Regulator will be looking to local restaurants for donations!

Peter Manseau will read from and sign copies of his debut novel, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter. Known for his book Vows—a memoir of growing up the son of a former priest and nun—Manseau uses in this novel an alter ego to tell the story of fictional Yiddish poet Itsik Malpesh, born in the city ... (more)of Kishinev. Manseau is also the co-founder of the award-winning online magazine, KillingTheBuddha.com, which publishes incisive new writing on religion.

N.C. State professor and economist Michael L. Walden presents NORTH CAROLINA IN THE CONNECTED AGE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A GLOBALIZING ECONOMY. He has written in lively style a guide to the history of our economy and what the future might hold. Can’t make it? To request ... (more)a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

N.C. State professor and economist Michael L. Walden presents NORTH CAROLINA IN THE CONNECTED AGE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN A GLOBALIZING ECONOMY. He has written in lively style a guide to the history of our economy and what the future might hold. Can’t make it? To request a signed or ... (more)personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Howard Lee, chair of the North Carolina State Board of Education, will read from and sign copies of his new book, The Courage to Lead: One Man's Journey in Public Service. Lee, the first African American to chair the state education board, was also the first black mayor of a predominantly white town ... (more)in the South (Chapel Hill), as well as a state senator and a secretary of the Department of Natural and Economic Resources. His life story is both inspiring and insightful.

Adam Braver will read from and sign copies of his new novel, November 22, 1963. Philip Lopate writes, "This extraordinary reconstruction blends fact and imagination with a subtlety that utterly dissolves the line between public and private. It's the intimacy, the closeness we come to these (mostly) ... (more)well-known protagonists, that is so shocking and moving. Adam Braver has pulled off quite a feat, realigning all our notions and expectations of historical fiction.

From the editor of Bon Appetit comes a new cookbook, THE BON APPETIT COOKBOOK: FAST EASY FRESH. And as is often the case with our cookbook programs, there will be samples! Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com ... (more) (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

From the editor of Bon Appetit comes a new cookbook, THE BON APPETIT COOKBOOK: FAST EASY FRESH. And as is often the case with our cookbook programs, there will be samples! Can’t make it? To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com ... (more) (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

John Shelton & Dale Volberg Reed bring their HOLY SMOKE: THE BIG BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA BARBECUE to Quail Ridge. This is a comprehensive and entertaining exploration of the Tar Heel barbecue treadtion. And what would a book on barbecue be without samples? Can’t make it? To request a signed ... (more)or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

John Shelton & Dale Volberg Reed bring their HOLY SMOKE: THE BIG BOOK OF NORTH CAROLINA BARBECUE to Quail Ridge. This is a comprehensive and entertaining exploration of the Tar Heel barbecue treadtion. And what would a book on barbecue be without samples? Can’t make it? To request a signed ... (more)or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

Get ready for a set of HANDsome fairytales with KNUCKLE HEADS, Joan Holub's latest. The author of over 120 (!) children's book presents her new "fractured fairytales" collection. For ages 4 and up. This is also a View From Tuesday event, ideal for teachers and media specialists. Can’t make it? ... (more) To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact orders@quailridgebooks.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.