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Amherst Books
8 Main Street  Amherst, MA 01002  ˇ   413.256.1547  ˇ  800.503.5865  ˇ  books@amherstbooks.com
Events

< April 2007 >

Events listed in white are at the bookshop; events listed in yellow are elsewhere.

All events are free & open to the public.

(Click on a picture or a title to check our inventory or to purchase.)
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Ralph Nader, the visionary & tireless worker for the public good whose dedication to the democratic process has infuriated his critics, will talk at the bookshop & sign copies of his new autobiography, The Seventeen Traditions.  

At 4:15 An Unreasonable Man, a movie about him, will be shown at the Amherst Cinema Arts Center, after which Nader & the director, Henriette Mantel, will talk & answer questions.

Gizzi
Peter Gizzi will read from his new collection of poetry, Outernationale, in Memorial Hall at the University of Massachusetts.   Gizzi is author of numerous volumes of poetry, including Some Values of Landscape and Weather, Periplum & Other Poems, & Artificial Heart.   His editing projects have included o•blék: a journal of language arts, The Exact Change Yearbook, & The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer.   He teaches in the English department at the University of Massachusetts.
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Dave Copeland will sign copies of his new book, Blood & Volume: Inside New York's Israeli Mafia.   Ron Gonen, together with pals Ran Efraim & Johnny Attias, ran a multi–million dollar drug distribution & contract murder syndicate that rose to prominence in Brooklyn, Queens, & Manhattan during the 1980s.   Calling themselves the “Israeli Mafia,” Gonen & his pals led one of the most brutal gangs ever to operate in New York City.   The gang made the three richer than they had ever dreamed, but brought on troubles they never expected.   Blood & Volume, author Dave Copeland gives an exclusive & never–before revealed look into one of the most successful Israeli gangs ever to operate on American soil.
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Juan de Recacoechea will read from his recently translated book, American Visa, in Pruyne Lecture (Fayereweather 115) at Amherst College.   Recacoechea was born in La Paz, Bolivia, & worked as a journalist in Europe for almost twenty years.  After returning to his native country, he helped found Bolivia’s first state run television network, served as its general manager, & then dedicated himself to fiction writing.   American Visa is his first novel to be translated into English, & was awarded Bolivia’s National Book Prize in 1994.   George Pelecanos wrote that “American Visa is beautifully written, atmospheric, & stylish in the manner of Chandler . . . a smart, exotic crime fiction offering.”
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Amherst’s beloved Gale McClung will talk at the Jones Library about a new book that she & her late husband, Robert, were editing before Bob died, At War & at Home: One Family's World War II Correspondence.   This extraordinary collection of World War II correspondence offers a fascinating look at the lives of an average American family from western Pennsylvania.   With all three sons participating in the war, the McClung family members, all remarkably good letter–writers, had ample opportunity to share their thoughts & views on life in the war & on the home front.
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Aaron Petrovich will read from his new book, The Session.   Funny, frantic, & with a subversive intelligence, Aaron Petrovich’s Keatonesque heroes, Detectives Smith & Smith, stumble upon a bizarre new religion while following the trail of a murdered mathematician’s missing organs.   Their investigation to discover the truth—about the mathematician murder, the mob of men & women who may have eaten him, & ultimately the nature of truth, sanity, & identity—leads them into a lunatic asylum they may never leave.
EmperorsChildren
Claire Messud will read from her recent novel, The Emperor’s Children, in Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115) at Amherst College.   She is author of three previous books—The Hunters: Two Novellas, The Last Life, & When the World was Steady.   She has twice been nominated for a PEN Faulkner Award, once for a National Book Award, & is the beneficiary of an American Academy of Arts & Letters Strauss Livings Award.   Sponsored by Amherst College’s Creative Writing Center.
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Amity Gaige will read from her new novel, The Folded World.   Gaige, who teaches at Mt. Holyoke College, is author of the highly praised novel O My Darling, of which Stuart Dybek wrote, “Given its level of sophistication & off–center wit, it’s a bit startling to realize that O My Darling is Amity Gaige’s first novel.   The characters, beautifully drawn, are as unsentimental toward one another as their author is toward them & yet, wonderfully, this novel with its many ambushes of lyrical moments, is deeply felt.’   (Read more!)
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Don Share & Jacqueline Pope will read from recent work.   Share is author of two volumes of poetry—the brand–new Squandermania, & Union, which was a finalist for the Boston Globe/PEN–New England Winship Award for outstanding book.   His other books include Seneca in English & I Have Lots of Heart: Selected Poems of Miguel Hernández, which received a Times Literary Supplement/Society of AuthorsTranslation Prize; & a forthcoming critical edition of Basil Bunting.   Pope is author of the poetry collection Watermark, of which Rosanna Warren said, “It describes its own compressed language: ‘crossed double–crossed underscored’ in dreamscapes writ in rain, wind, mist, & harbor water.   Tact & mystery marry in these glintings of loss & of life recovered from ruin.”.   Pope’s poems, reviews, essays & translations have appeared in journals & newspapers in the United States & Europe.   Her writing has received the José Marti Prize & awards from the Academy of American Poets & the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
UnderSleep
Poet & Amherst professor Daniel Hall will read from his new volume of poetry, Under Sleep, in Alumni Hall at Amherst College.   Hall is author of two previous volumes of poetry, Strange Relation & Hermit with Landscape. Sponsored by Amherst College’s Creative Writing Center.
Forgery
Sabina Murray will read from her new novel, Forgery, in Memorial Hall at the University of Massachusetts as part of M.F.A. Program's reading series.   Murray is author of Slow Burn, The Caprices, which won the PEN/Faulkner award, & The Carnivore’s Inquiry, which was called “dazzling...lovely, literate, & deeply unnerving” by The New York Times Book Review.   Murray teaches in the English department at the University of Massachusetts.
EmilyDickinsonreads
“Live Lit”   Students in the M.F.A. Program at the University of Massachusetts will read from their recent work.   Evenings usually include a mix of poetry & fiction.   Tonight’s reading, however, will be all poetry—poets Seth Parker, Seth Landman, & Natalie Lyalin will read.
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“Jubilat/Jones Reading Series”   Poets Michael Earl Craig & Cathy Park Hong will read at the Jones Library in Amherst as part of the Jubilat poetry reading series.   Craig is author of Yes, Master & Can You Relax in My House.   He has published poems in Verse, Volt, jubilat, as well as the Verse Press anthology of love poems, Isn’t it Romantic.   Hong is author of Translating Mo'um, which won a Pushcart Prize.   Her recent work, Dance Dance Revolution won the 2006 Barnard Women Poets Prize.   Hong’s work, observes Adrienne Rich, “ is passionate, artful, worldly.   It makes a reader feel & think simultaneously, & rather then implying a nihilistic or negative vision of the future it leaves this reader, at least, revitalized.”
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Jay Ladin will read from his new collection of poetry, The Book of Anna, a series of long narrative poems interspersed with prose diary entries written in the voice of a fictional poet.   Of Ladin's first volume of poetry, Alternatives to History, Herb Leibowitz wrote that Ladin “draws the reader into a world of harsh truths, uncanny beauty, inspired erudition, ironic wit, & cadenced music.”   Ladin’s poetry has been featured in many magazines & journals, including Parnassus: Poetry in Review, North American Review, The Minnesota Review, & Exquisite Corpse.   He has taught writing at Reed College, Princeton University, & the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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University of Massachusetts linguistics professor, Tom Roeper, will read from & talk about his new book, The Prism of Grammar: How Child Language Illuminates Humanism.   Steven Pinker wrote that “for three decades, Tom Roeper has been one of the most acute observers of semantic & grammatical subtleties in children’s speech, & one of the most creative thinkers on how to connect linguistic theory with language acquisition research.   It is nice to have his insights collected into a book, which will be a source of ideas for years to come.”   Read more!
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R. Todd Felton will talk at the Jones Library in Amherst about his book, A Journey into the Transcendentalist’s New England.   (Read more!)   Felton, who lives in Amherst, is a professional photographer & writer.   He is also author of the forthcoming book, A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival.
BridgeandTunnel
John Hennessy will read from his debut collection of poetry, Bridge & Tunnel.   Hennessy has published widely & teaches literature at the University of Massachusetts.   Writing of Bridge & Tunnel, J. D. McClatchy observerd, “As its title predicts, at the heart of Bridge & Tunnel is The Other Side, the state of mind that is New Jersey, Manhattan’s oily shadow–the Oranges, the kills, the Merck plan.   With perfect pitch, John Hennessy hits all the flats & sharps of life there—the jogging bras & bucket–drops, the old time religion & slag heaps.   His eye is canny, his language is keen, his take is wise & acute.   This book sizzles!”   Co-sponsored by Amherst College’s Creative Writing Center.
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Join us in celebrating the publication of a new book by Brian Bunk, Ghosts of Passion: Martyrdom, Gender, & the Origins of the Spanish Civil War .   Bunk, who teaches history at the University of Massachusetts, has made an important contribution to the historiography of the Spanish Civil War with his emphasis on the cultural conditions of the War.   (Read more!)

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