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

< October 2018 >

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

Unless noted otherwise all events are free & open to the public.


2018 Feinberg Series: Another World is Possible: Revolutionary Visions, Past & Present   Ousmane Power-Greene, Lior Libman & Jasmine Burens, & Kate Daloz will talk about “Imagining Community, Living in Community” in the Cape Cod Lounge, Student Union, UMass, Amherst   See here for more information.
Samuel Abrams, director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization & author of Education & the Commercial Mindset, will talk in the Paino Lecture Hall, Beneski Earth Sciences Building, Amherst College, about “Milton Friedman & the Evolution of School Choice.”   For more information see the Amherst College Calendar.
Join Harry Franqui-Rivera in celebrating the publication of his new book, Soldiers of the Nation: Military Service & Modern Puerto Rico, 1868-1952.   Franqui-Rivera is an Associate Professor of History at Bloomfield College, New Jersey.   He served as Research Associate at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, City University of New York & is a Board Member at the Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies, CUNY, Graduate Center.
Amherst Books Noontime Book Conversation will feature Gerald McFarland leading a discussion of his latest novel, T.T. Mann, Ace Detective.   Meeting ordinarily on the second Tuesday of every month from 12:10pm until 1:00pm, the group has no fixed members (although quite a few regulars).   Readers are urged to nominate a book to be read, especially if they are willing to lead the discussion.   We focus on fiction & drama with occasional foray into the graphic novel.   We limit the length of our selections to about 200 pages, although this is a guideline rather than a fixed rule.   We believe in the joy of re-reading, so some of our selections are works that many have already read at least once.   The noontime book group is under the general oversight of Michael Greenebaum (mlgreenebaum33@gmail.com) who selects the books & leads the discussions.   He is happy to hear from those with ideas or questions.   Amherst Books offers a 10% discount on the month’s book for those who plan to join the group.

(November’s discussion will meet on Tuesday the 13th.   November’s choice will be Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation.   Michael Greenebaum will lead the discussion.)
Join UMass professor Sally Campbell Galman in celebrating the publication of her new book, Naptime at the O.K. Corral: Shane's Beginner's Guide to Childhood Ethnography.   Galman, who teaches in the College of Education, is an anthropologist of education & a visual artist.   She is also author of Shane, The Lone Ethnographer: A Beginner's Guide To Ethnography, now in a new edition.
Join Amherst College professor Geoff Sanborn in celebrating the publication of his new book, The Value of Melville.   Sanborn is author of several books on Herman Melville as well as Plagiarama!: William Wells Brown & the Aesthetic of Attractions.
Lian Xi will talk at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 867 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, about his new book, Blood Letters: The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao’s China.   Lian is a professor of religion at Duke University.   His previous books include The Conversion of Missionaries & Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China.
Michael Lewis will talk with Cullen Murphy about his new book, The Fith Risk: Undoing Democracy, which explores the transition of government agencies from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, at the Johnson Chapel, Amherst College.   Lewis is author of numerous books, including The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar’s Poker, & Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.   For more information, the Amherst College Calendar.
Join us in celebrating the publication of a new book by local author Íde O’Carroll —Irish Transatlantics, 1980-2015.   In it, O’Carroll uses the idea of “transatlantic” to illustrate a range of modern Irish migrant experiences that bridge both Ireland & the United States — 20 stories in all — drawn from the 84 interviews she conducted in Ireland & America between 2013 & 2016 for the Archives of Irish America at New York University.   O’Connell, is also author of Models for Movers: Irish Women’s Emigration to America.
UMass professor Jordy Rosenberg will read from his debut novel, Confessions of the Fox—which was a New York Times Editor’s Choice selection & was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.   Co-sponsored by the Amherst College Visiting Writers Series.
2018 Feinberg Series: Another World is Possible: Revolutionary Visions, Past & Present   Atenea Jiménez & George Ciccariello-Maher will talk in the Bernie Dallas Room, Goodell Hall, UMass, about “21st-Century Socialism: Venezuela’s Communes in Historical Perspective.”   See here for more information.
Lexie Bean & contributors Alex Valdes & Nyala Moon will talk in Franklin Patterson Hall, Hampshire College, Amherst, about Bean’s recent anthology, Written on the Body: Letters from Trans & Non-Binary Survivors of Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence.   Offering support, guidance, & hope for those who struggle to find safety at home, in the body, & other impossible-seeming places, the collection of letters written to body parts weaves together powerful narratives of gender, identity, & abuse, caringly collected & tenderly held.   For more information, see the Hampshire College Ethics & the Common Good announcement.
Hoa Nguyen will read in the Great Hall, Old Chapel, UMass, Amherst, as part of the MFA Visiting Writer Series.   Nguyen is author, most recently, of Violet Energy Ingots, though her list if books & publications is long, & includes As Long as Trees Last, Your Ancient See Through & Hecate Lochia.  For more information, see the UMass MFA’s events calendar.
Globalism & its Discontents: Point/Counterpoint with Ilan Stavans   Nobel Prize winning author Joseph Stiglitz will talk in the Lipton Lecture Hall, Science Center, Amherst College, as part of the 2018-2019 Point/Counterpoint series.   For more information on the series, go here.
jubilat/Jones Reading Series at the Jones Library, Amherst.   Joseph Fletcher & Jessica Fjeld will read.   Meet the poets at an informal Q & A session that follows the reading.
Join UMass anthropologist, Elizabeth (“Betsy”) Krause, in celebrating the publication of her latest book, Tight Knit: Global Families & the Social Life of Fast Fashion.   Krause is also author of Unraveled: A Weaver’s Tale of Life Gone Modern, whose publication we also celebrated.   The trio Jazz Sketches will be performing to enhance everyone's pleasure!
Greg Mattingly, a guide at the Emily Dickinson Museum & a contributing member of the Emily Dickinson International Society, will read from his new book, Emily Dickinson as a Second Language: Demystifying the Poetry.   As Mattingly writes, “Dickinson wrote in a time & place different from ours, with its own special vocabularies & cultural contexts.  Moreover, this ‘Private Poet,’ as she has been called, formed her own private vocabulary so her poems often have specific local & personal referents.   Emily Dickinson as a Second Language, rewards the reader with a fuller appreciation of the poems by revealing & explaining these elements of the poet’s art.
Stephen Dillon, who teaches Critical Race & Queer Studies in the School of Critical Social Inquiry at Hampshire College, will read from his new book Fugitive Life: The Queer Politics of the Prison State.   During the 1970s in the United States, hundreds of feminist, queer, & antiracist activists were imprisoned or became fugitives as they fought the changing contours of U.S. imperialism, global capitalism, & a repressive racial state.   In Fugitive Life Dillon examines these activists’ communiqués, films, memoirs, prison writing, & poetry to highlight the centrality of gender & sexuality to a mode of racialized power called the neoliberal-carceral state.
Amherst’s own Joseph Ellis will sign copies of his new book, American Dialogue: The Founders & Us.   Ellis, who teaches history at Mt. Holyoke College, is author of many books, including Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, & American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the National Book Award.
Debra Magpie Earling will read from recent work. Earling is a Native American novelist & short story writer.   Her books include, Perma Red & The Lost Journals of Sacajewea.   Co-sponsored by the Amherst College Visiting Writers Series.
Lisa Kohn will read from her new memoir, To the Moon & Back: A Childhood under the Influence.   Kohn— whose day job is the head of a leadership consulting & executive coaching firm where she spends much of her time speaking, writing, teaching, & presenting her ideas & approaches to life & to business—writes about her childhood, of being raised in & torn between two conflicting worlds.   There was the world she longed for & lived in on weekends—her mother’s world, which was the fanatical, puritanical cult of the Moonies—& the world she was forced to live in during the week—her father’s world, which was based in sex, drugs, & the squalor of life in New York City’s East Village in the 1970’s. .  
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