Pre-Order These Books Now and Have Them the Day They Come Out!
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Dear Reader,
Hey, hey, the gray is going away! At least, we think that spring is just around the corner, and we're celebrating the return of colors to the world with a new pastel palette of our fabulously popular Leuchtturm notebooks. If you haven't yet tried these notebooks, we highly recommend that you do. Their pages stand up well to marker and fountain pen, and are cleverly pre-numbered so you can create your own table of contents at the front. They come in lots of sizes and with blank, lined, dotted, or squared pages. We'll just warn you that once you start using them, addiction is inevitable.
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And this month we’re very happy to announce a new partnership with our downtown neighbors at Evanston Public Library:
The Midwest Address Author Series
. We’re collaborating with EPL to showcase a diversity of authors from the heartland, writing in a range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Events will alternate between our two venues, and Bookends & Beginnings will always be there to sponsor a book-signing after the talks. The series kicks off on Thursday, March 19 with
Lauren Michele Jackson
, author of
White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue… and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation
, appearing at Bookends & Beginnings; followed on March 24 by author
Toni Gilpin
discussing
The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland
at Evanston Public Library. For details, see our listings below. And there are lots more great authors to come in the series!
And if you haven’t yet reserved your seats for our unique and amazing
Fossil Feast dinner with Field Museum of Natural History Provost Neil Shubin,
please do it soon, since capacity is limited. There are still a few seats left at the head table, where in addition to hearing the talk, you can consume your Jurassic-style dinner in Neil’s company! Details are below or go to
Brown Paper Tickets.
Read on for more great March events, and as always, read on!
Yours,
Nina
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And don't forget, if you're reading this newsletter you are already enrolled in our free membership program, which means that for every $100 you spend with us, you will automatically get $5 off your next sale—a rolling 5% loyalty discount that doesn't expire!
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March Events
Monday, March 9 CLOSED FOR INVENTORY
OFFSITE AT EVANSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY Tuesday, March 31, 7 pm
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This Event Happens in April but Tickets Will Go Fast So
Act Now
to Get a Seat!
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Thursday, April 2, 6 - 9 pm
Off-site at Terra & Vine Restaurant
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Bookends & Beginnings presents scientist and Field Museum Provost Neil Shubin at a dinner and discussion of his new book
Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA
.
You'll hear a fascinating story about the scientific quest to decode our multi-billion-year evolutionary history using fossils, bacteria, DNA, and other evidence. And you'll enjoy a delicious three-course "Fossil Feast" dinner at Evanston's Terra & Vine restaurant that's not Paleo—it's downright Jurassic:
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First Course:
House Made Focaccia, olive oil
and
A Field [Museum] Salad
mixed greens, dinosaur kale, quinoa, carrots, paleo vinaigrette
Second Course;
Tomahawk Porkchop
8 oz pork chop with bone, beluga lentils, basil mashed potatoes, pink peppercorn sauce
Dessert:
Molten Lava Cake
chocolate ganache, candy sprinkles
An herbivore menu is available upon request. Two glasses of house wine or beer are included.
There are three ticket levels:
$110 for an individual ticket, including dinner, 1 signed copy of the book, and a $10 Bookends & Beginnings Gift Certificate
$185 for a couples ticket, including two dinners, 1 signed copy of the book, and a $10 Bookends & Beginnings Gift Certificate
$160 for an individual VIP ticket, including dinner, seating at Neil Shubin's table, 1 signed copy of the book, and a $25 Bookends & Beginnings Gift Certificate (no couples package for the VIP table; only 8 VIP seats available, first-come, first served)
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Closed for Inventory
Monday, March 9
We'll be closed today while we do a full inventory of the entire store. It's Spring cleaning season! Remember, you can still order books online from us at
www.bookendsandbeginnings.com
—
today, or any day, or in the middle of the night in your pajamas!
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Wednesday, March 11, 6 - 7:30 pm
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Like so many American factory towns, Lewiston, Maine, thrived until its mill jobs disappeared and the young began leaving. But then the story unexpectedly veered: over the course of fifteen years, the city became home to thousands of African immigrants and, along the way, turned into one of the most Muslim towns in the US. Now about 6,000 of Lewiston’s 36,000 inhabitants are refugees and asylum seekers, many of them Somali. Cynthia Anderson tells the story of this fractious yet resilient city near where she grew up, offering the unfolding drama of a community’s reinvention
—
and humanizing some of the defining political issues in America today.
Home Now
gives a poignant account of America’s evolving relationship with religion and race, and makes a sensitive yet powerful case for embracing change.
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Cynthia Anderson
grew up in western Maine. Her collection of stories,
River Talk
, was a
Kirkus Reviews
Best Book of 2014 and received the 2014 New England Book Festival award for short stories. Other work has appeared in the
Christian Science Monitor, Boston Magazine,
the
Miami Herald,
the
Iowa Review, Redbook, Huffington Post,
and others. Anderson lives with her family in Maine and Massachusetts. She teaches writing at Boston University.
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Thursday, March 12, 6 - 7:30 pm
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Over the past few decades, there have been dramatic changes in the dynamics of family life as more children are born to unmarried parents. Drawing from research with young parents in Chicago and Salt Lake City,
Lost and Found: Young Fathers in the Age of Unwed Parenthood
chronicles the lives of several fathers as they transition to parenthood, weaving social history, developmental psychology and public health into their stories.
It highlights the diversity of young fathers and concludes with an innovative proposal for father-inclusive prenatal care to help stabilize young families.
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Paul Florsheim
is a Professor of Community and Behavioral Health Promotion in the Joseph Zilber School of Public Health at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, where he teaches classes on public health and mental health. Dr. Florsheim, who received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern, works with young fathers and mothers in Milwaukee, both as a researcher and a clinician. He also does research on child and adolescent mental health services and child abuse prevention.
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Dr. Wrenetha Julion
is Professor and Chairperson of the Women, Children & Family Nursing department at Rush University College of Nursing, where she developed the Building Bridges to Fatherhood program, designed by and for non-resident African American fathers to promote their positive and sustained involvement in the lives of their young children. She is also co-author of the Chicago Parent Program, a nationally recognized parent training program for at-risk families living in low-income, ethnic minority communities.
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Tuesday, March 17, 6 - 7:30 pm
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David Barber is
poetry editor of
The Atlantic
, where he has also worked as a staff editor and online literary editor.
In this, his third collection of poetry, the past makes its presence felt from first to last. Drawing on a wealth of eclectic sources and crafted in an array of nonce forms, these poems range across vast stretches of cultural and natural history in pursuit of the forsaken, long-gone, and unsung.
Here too are guiding spirits whose like will not pass this way again: Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club; Henry Walter Bates in darkest Amazon; George Catlin among the Choctaw; Little Nemo in Slumberland; Yogi Berra in all his oracular glory. Reveling in vernacular lingo of every vintage even while brooding on dark ages without end,
Secret History
chronicles a world of long shadows and distant echoes that bears more than a passing resemblance to our own.
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David Barber
is the author of
Wonder Cabinet
and
The Spirit Level
, which received the Terrence Des Pres Prize from TriQuarterly Books. His poetry has been anthologized in
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing
, edited by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. His work has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writing Conference, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and PEN New England.
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Wednesday, March 18, 6 - 7:30 pm
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This month, the Mortality Book Club is reading
Final Gifts
by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley
In this moving and compassionate classic, hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill. Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts—of wisdom, faith, and love—that the dying leave for the living to share. Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death,
Final Gifts
shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.
Our Mortality Book Club reads and discusses books having to do with the important but frequently avoided issues we confront at the end of our lives. Regular book club members include hospital and hospice workers, but also the adult children of aging parents, or just anyone who wonders about the many questions—medical, emotional, social, and philosophical—raised by human mortality. The book club facilitator is Jasmin Tomlins, a practicing death doula.
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A MIDWEST ADDRESS EVENT, IN COLLABORATION WITH EVANSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Thursday, March 19, 6 - 7:30 pm
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In her debut essay collection,
White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue… and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation
,
Lauren Michele Jackson, a professor of English and African American studies at Northwestern University, examines the problematic social trend of “black aesthetics without black people.” Her essays analyze the desire for black culture by people who are not black and take to task America’s tendency to poach blackness for its profit and benefit. From art to fashion, language to activism, black culture influences worldwide trends. And, according to Jackson, everyone wants to be “cool” without fearing for their lives, to be “black” with the wealth and privilege of whiteness.
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Lauren Michele Jackson
teaches in the departments of English and African American studies at Northwestern.
Her writing about race and culture has appeared in
The Atlantic
,
The New Yorker
,
The Paris Review
,
Essence
, the
New Republic
,
Teen Vogue
,
Rolling Stone
,
and
New York
magazine, among many other places.
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A MIDWEST ADDRESS EVENT, IN COLLABORATION WITH EVANSTON PUBLIC
LIBRARY
OFFSITE AT EVANSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
Tuesday, March 24, 7 - 8:30 pm
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The Long Deep Grudge: A Story of Big Capital, Radical Labor, and Class War in the American Heartland
, by labor historian, activist, and writer Toni Gilpin, explores one of the most bitter and deeply rooted conflicts between labor and capital in American history: that between Chicago-based International Harvester corporation—one of the founding industrial empires—and the Farm Equipment Workers—one of the most uniquely radical unions. This book addresses the rise and collapse of the American labor movement, and it points to ways in which unions might again champion the interests of the entire working class.
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Wednesday, March 25, noon - 1:00 pm
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Innovation—the ways ideas are made valuable— plays an essential role in economic and social development, and is an increasingly topical issue. Over the last 150 years our world has hit an accelerated rate of transformation. From airplanes to television to penicillin, and from radios to frozen food to digital money, the fruits of innovation surround us.
Innovation l
ooks at what innovation is and why it affects us so profoundly, examining how it occurs, who stimulates it, how it is pursued, and what its outcomes are, both positive and negative. Considering innovation today, and discussing future disruptive technologies such as AI, which have important implications for work and employment, the authors consider the extent to which our understanding of innovation has developed over the past century and how it might be used to interpret the global economy.
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Anyone is welcome to join the Very Short Book Club, which is gradually working toward a complete understanding of everything by tackling a new title from the Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions series every month. The monthly discussions are mediated by our staffer George and welcome all types of thinkers. Or just come browse our collection of 300+ VSIs, offering concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume provides trenchant and provocative discussions of the central issues in a given topic. If you'd like to learn more about the group stop in and talk to George or email him at
George@bookendsandbeginnings.com
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Thursday, March 26, 6 - 7:30 pm
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Esther is a stowaway. She’s hidden herself away in the Librarian’s book wagon in an attempt to escape the marriage her father has arranged for her—a marriage to the man who was previously engaged to her best friend. Her best friend who she was in love with. Her best friend who was just executed for possession of resistance propaganda.
The future American Southwest is full of bandits, fascists, and queer librarian spies on horseback trying to do the right thing.
Anyone is welcome to join our Science Fiction Book Club, led by our staffer Brooke, who is excited to share her passion for diverse science fiction books. If you haven't looked at the science fiction or fantasy shelves in a while, you may be surprised at the influx of talented women, POC, and LGBTQ+ writers that are writing some of the most interesting and compelling works in the genres. Brooke's goal is to highlight these traditionally underrepresented groups. Each month, we'll explore a new read from a diverse SF/F author. So if you came last month, bring a friend, and if you weren't able to make it last time, here's your chance!
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OFFSITE AT EVANSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
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It was a time, much like today, when Americans feared for the future of their democracy and women stood up for equal treatment. At the crossroads of the Watergate scandal and the women’s movement stood a young lawyer named Jill Wine Volner (as she was then known), barely thirty years old and the only woman on the team that prosecuted the highest-ranking White House officials. Called “the mini-skirted lawyer” by the press, she fought to receive the respect accorded her male counterparts―and prevailed.
In
The Watergate Girl
, Jill Wine-Banks takes us inside this troubled time in American history, and the book is also the story of a young woman who sought to make her professional mark while trapped in a failing marriage, buffeted by sexist preconceptions, and harboring secrets of her own. At once a cautionary tale and an inspiration for those who believe in the power of justice and the rule of law,
The Watergate Girl
is a revelation about our country, our politics, and who we are as a society.
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Jill Wine-Banks is an MSNBC legal analyst, appearing regularly on the network’s prime time and daytime shows. She began her career as an organized crime prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice, which led to her selection as one of three assistant Watergate special prosecutors in the obstruction of justice trial against President Nixon’s top aides. She has also served as general counsel of the U.S. Army, solicitor general and deputy attorney general of the state of Illinois, and chief operating officer of the American Bar Association. In each case, she was the first woman to hold the position. A graduate of the University of Illinois and the Columbia Law School, she lives in Chicago.
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February Staff Recommendations
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As a noted pigeon fan and person whose loved ones are constantly telling her not to touch wild animals, I LOVE this hilarious picture book. Along the lines of
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
,
this is an over-exaggerated cautionary tale about how a small action (feeding pigeons) can lead to dire consequences (coo poo EVERYWHERE and not a moment's peace!). The story pairs perfectly with the adorable art. This book is sure to be a storytime favorite. Also, be sure to check out Stutzman's other (equally fun) books:
Llama Destroys the World
and
Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug
.
-Brooke
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This was my first encounter with Anna Kavan, and I was not prepared. The short stories in this collection span her oeuvre as a writer, ranging from the suffocating internal explorations of her early career to the more experimental, surreal, and haunting stories that came later. Her work is dizzying and absurd, wildly imaginative while still maintaining a sense of poignant intimacy. This collection faithfully displays the full extent of Kavan's exhilarating literary experimentation. Kavan invites you to a new phantasmagoric universe with each story—do yourself a favor and get lost for a while.
-George
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Many of us were bowled over by Lily King’s last novel,
Euphoria
.
Writers & Lovers
is a different kind of book: a “portrait of the artist as a young woman” that follows its protagonist, Casey, into her thirties as she stubbornly refuses to give up her dream of writing, despite her mounting debts, her crappy waitress job, and the succession of egocentric male writers she collides with at writers’ colonies and literary events and sometimes takes home with her. It’s a funny, poignant look at contemporary literary life and the gamble we take when we heed The Calling.
-Nina
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A nameless couple is displaced from their home from the raging war. They move to a transparent city. Everything is see-through. This novel brings new light to surveillance. I ended up zipping through this book and was fascinated by the idea of how the city worked. When I got to the end I couldn't help but feel that I wanted more. This was my first experience with Loriga's work, and I'm interested in seeing what he comes up with next. This is a great read for those who liked Yoko Ogawa's
The Memory Police
-Lotte
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Storytime Every Saturday Morning at 10:30 am
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For children ages 2 through 6, Storytime at Bookends & Beginnings is always fun! Our alternating storytellers are Nina Barrett (our store owner), Brooke Williams, and elementary school teacher Chris Kennelly! Also, look out for our Special Storytimes, listed in our events! These extra-special mornings often include a craft and activity to accompany our stories!
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Bookends & Beginnings
is a community-centered and community-sustained, full-service, general-interest independent bookstore, now in our sixth calendar year. We are a member of the Chicago Independent Bookstore Alliance (
ChIBA
), the Great Lakes Independent Bookstore Association (
GLIBA
), and the American Booksellers Association (
ABA
). Show your support by shopping in our store (and
other Chicago-area independent bookstores
), by trading in or donating books of quality and in good condition, by bringing your local and out-of-town friends and family to shop with us, by attending our events, and by "liking" us on
Facebook
and posting reviews on other social media. Remember that you can always see event photos and news updates on
our Facebook page
, which is updated almost daily. There you can also subscribe to our events feed with a single click.
Above all, keep reading good books!
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Bookends & Beginnings
224-999-7722
RSVP for events to
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