Bookwatch Blog

2008-09-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Watch North Carolina Bookwatch Online!

Missed an episode of UNC-TV's local literary series? Never fear. Simply visit the North Carolina Bookwatch Web site and click on any episode for the latest interviews with the state's best and brightest authors!

2008-09-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

BOOKMARKS Presents...
Garrison Keillor

With Support from Wake Forest University/Hosted by NC Bookwatch's Own D.G. Martin

Monday, September 29, 2008,
Doors open: 9:00 am
Musical Prelude: Polecat Creek, 9:45 am
Event Begins: 10:00 am
Event Concludes: 11:15 am
Brendle Recital Hall, Wake Forest University

The bestselling author will share his insights in one of only two North Carolina appearances on his national tour for Viking’s release of LIBERTY: A Novel of Lake Wobegon.

The event will be held in Brendle Recital Hall and emceed by D. G Martin, host of UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch. In LIBERTY: A Novel of Lake Wobegon renowned storyteller Garrison Keillor spins yet another tale that is fresh and funny and will further cement his reputation as a writer that makes “the ordinary extraordinary” (Chicago Tribune). LIBERTY is, in the author’s words, “Lake Wobegon as you imagined it – good loving people who drive each other crazy.” With his trained comic eye for the absurd and ear for small town dialogue, Keillor has once again brought Lake Wobegon to life. All the memorable characters that keep us returning to the beloved fictional Minnesota town are here: Pastor Ingqvist, the Sons of Knute, Sister Arvonne of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and her ocarina band, the Norwegian bachelor farmers, Dorothy and the Chatterbox Café, Wally in the Sidetrack tap.

Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion, and the author of seventeen books, including the New York Times bestselling Lake Wobegon novels, Homegrown Democrat and Daddy’s Girl. He is the editor of two anthologies of poetry, Good Poems and Good Poems for Hard Times. He wrote and was part of an all-star ensemble cast for the feature film, A Prairie Home Companion, directed by Robert Altman. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota and New York City.

Prior to Mr. Keillor’s reading and talk, Polecat Creek principals Laurelyn Dossett and Kari Sickenberger share selections of their music at 9:45 a.m. Polecat Creek started small, much like the piedmont North Carolina stream that bears its name. In the mid 1990’s Kari Sickenberger and Laurelyn Dossett, both natives of the south, were living in the Greensboro area. Through some mutual friends they ended up in a book club together. A guitar standing in the corner of Kari’s apartment led to an evening of harmony singing – Carter Family songs and some early Gillian Welch. They haven’t stopped singing since.A booksigning will follow the program for all ticketholders. Books will be on sale at the event.

For Tickets:

To reserve and/or charge (VISA, MASTER CARD) tickets, call the Wake Forest University College Book Store at 336-758-5145. Voice mail is available twenty-four hours a day.

$95 – Premier Breakfast with Garrison Keillor This private reception with Mr. ( $55 is tax deductible).    

$25 – General Admission

$15 – Student and Senior (65 and up) with ID, General Admission.

All proceeds benefit BOOKMARKS Festival of Books, in presenting our annual book festival. Please note, tickets are non-refundable.

2008-09-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Anna R. Hayes Shares Her Book, Without Precedent: The Life of Susie Marshall Sharp On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 26, at 9:30 PM

The first woman judge in the state of North Carolina and the first woman in the United States to be elected chief justice of a state supreme court, Susie Marshall Sharp (1907-1996) broke new ground for women in the legal profession. When she retired in 1979, she left a legacy burnished by her tireless pursuit of lucidity in the law, honesty in judges, and humane conditions in prisons.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 26, at 9:30 PM, author Anna Hayes shares her new biography Without Precedent—profiling Sharp's career as an attorney, distinguished judge, and politician within the context of the social mores, the legal profession, and the political battles of her day, illuminated by a careful and revealing examination of Sharp's family background, private life, and personality.

Judge Sharp was viewed by contemporaries as the quintessential spinster, who had sacrificed marriage and family life for a successful career. The letters and journals she wrote throughout her life, however, reveal that Sharp led a rich private life in which her love affairs occupied a major place, unsuspected by the public or even her closest friends and family.

With unrestricted access to Sharp's abundant journals, papers, and notes, Anna Hayes uncovers the story of a brilliant woman who transcended the limits of her times, who opened the way for women who followed her, and who improved the quality of justice for the citizens of her state. In this episode, Hayes shares her book, Without Precedent, the story of a complicated woman, at once deeply conservative and startlingly modern, whose intriguing self-contradictions reflect the complexity of human nature.

Anna R. Hayes is a former partner in the Raleigh, North Carolina, law firm of Manning, Fulton, and Skinner, P.A. She divides her time between Paris and Chapel Hill.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Anna Hayes on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 26, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 28, at 5 PM.

2008-09-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

Renowned Historian Joseph T. Glatthaar Shares His Latest, General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse, on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 19, at 9:30 PM

"You would be surprised to see what men we have in the ranks," Virginia cavalryman Thomas Rowland informed his mother in May 1861, just after joining the Army of Northern Virginia. His army—General Robert E. Lee's army—was a surprise to almost everyone: With daring early victories and an invasion into the North, they nearly managed to convince the North to give up the fight. Even in 1865, facing certain defeat after the loss of 30,000 men, a Louisiana private fighting in Lee's army still had hope. "I must not despair," he scribbled in his diary. "Lee will bring order out of chaos, and with the help of our Heavenly Father, all will be well."

Astonishingly, after 10 years of scholarship, there are still some major surprises about the Army of Northern Virginia. In General Lee's Army, renowned historian Joseph T. Glatthaar draws on an impressive range of sources assembled over two decades--from letters and diaries, to official war records, to a new, definitive database of statistics—to rewrite the history of the Civil War's most important army and, indeed, of the war itself.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 19, at 9:30 PM, Glatthaar shares General Lee's Army—a masterpiece of scholarship and vivid storytelling, narrated as much as possible in the words of the enlisted men and their officers.

In General Lee's Army, Glatthaar takes readers from the home front to the heart of the most famous battles of the war: Manassas, the Peninsula campaign, Antietam, Gettysburg, all the way to the final surrender at Appomattox. General Lee's Army penetrates headquarters tents and winter shanties, eliciting the officers' plans, wishes, and prayers; it portrays a world of life, death, healing, and hardship; it investigates the South's commitment to the war and its gradual erosion; and it depicts and analyzes Lee's men in triumph and defeat.

Through Glatthaar’s work, the history of Lee's army becomes a powerful lens on the entire war. The fate of Lee's army explains why the South almost won -- and why it lost. The story of his men -- their reasons for fighting, their cohesion, mounting casualties, diseases, supply problems, and discipline problems -- tells it all. Glatthaar's definitive account settles many historical arguments. The Rebels were fighting above all to defend slavery. More than half of Lee's men were killed, wounded, or captured -- a staggering statistic. Their leader, Robert E. Lee, though far from perfect, held an exalted place in his men's eyes despite a number of mistakes and despite a range of problems among some of his key lieutenants.

Joseph T. Glatthaar received a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University, an M.A. in history from Rice University, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has taught at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Military Academy, and the University of Houston. He is currently the Stephenson Distinguished Professor of History and chair of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Joseph T. Glatthaar on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 19, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 21, at 5 PM.

2008-09-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

Therese Fowler Shares Her First Book, Souvenir, on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 12, at 9:30 PM

Therese Fowler’s book Souvenir features protagonists Meg Powell and Carson McKay, who grew up side by side on their families’ farms, joined by an ever-deepening love. Everyone in their small rural community in northern Florida expected that Meg and Carson would always be together. But then, at twenty-one, Meg was confronted with a marriage proposal she could not refuse, and her life changed forever. Seventeen years later, Meg’s marriage has slipped into routine as she juggles the demands of her medical practice, the needs of her widowed father, and the whims of her rebellious teenage daughter, Savannah. Meanwhile, after a long time away, Carson is returning home to prepare for his wedding to a younger woman. As Carson tries to determine where his heart and future lie, Meg makes a shocking discovery that will upset the balance of everyone around her.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 12, at 9:30 PM, Fowler shares her unforgettable story that illuminates the possibility of second chances, the naive choices of youth, the tensions within families, and the transforming power of love.

Therese Fowler holds an MFA in creative writing. She grew up in Illinois, and now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband and two sons. This is her first novel.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Therese Fowler on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 12, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 14, at 5 PM.

2008-09-04T11:12:00.001-07:00

Jean Anderson Shares Her Latest, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 5, at 9:30 PM

Part culinary love letter and part cookbook, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking takes the reader “back-roading” as Jean Anderson shares some 40 years of traveling about the South. In these pages, moreover, she assembles more than 200 of the best southern recipes she has collected both at home and on the road – the classic, the contemporary, the homespun, and the haute. She also introduces the characters she’s met along the way, the cranky as well as the comical, and dishes up plenty of chatty tales, bits of folklore, and fascinating back stories about southern cooks and southern cooking. No dose of history was ever easier to swallow.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, September 5, at 9:30 PM, Anderson shares many of the insightful images of the land and the food she captured in her latest offering.

After decades of researching and reveling in the foods of the South, Anderson admits, “My passion for southern cooking shows no sign of cooling, and it’s this passion that I’m eager to share along with a life’s worth of recipes and recollections.”

Interwoven throughout are snapshot biographies of those who have influenced southern cooking, figures like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington Carver, whose peanut research saved southern farmers from ruin after boll weevils had chomped their way through the cotton fields, Mary Randolph, who wrote America’s first cookbook, and Duncan Hines, one of American’s earliest and most respected restaurant reviewers. A Love Affair with Southern Cooking also presents capsule histories of the South’s most famous recipes including Pickled Shrimp, Brunswick Stew, Red-Eye Gravy, Cathead Biscuits, Hush Puppies, Lane and Lady Baltimore Cakes.

Jean Anderson has written more than twenty cookbooks and won five Tastemaker Awards (“cookbook Oscars”). In 1999 she was inducted into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame. She writes for Bon Appétit, Cottage Living, Family Circle, Food & Wine, Gourmet, and More magazines.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Jean Anderson on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, September 5, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, September 7, at 5 PM.

2008-08-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Bernie Harberts Shares His Book, Too Proud to Ride a Cow on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 29, at 9:30 PM

After spending almost five years sailing alone around the world on a journey that began and ended in Oriental, NC, Bernie Harberts arrived home a prisoner of the very independence he’d worked so hard to cultivate. Deciding it was time to let people back in his life, Harberts set out by mule from Oriental to San Diego, California. His new book, Too Proud to Ride a Cow, is the account of Bernie's 13-month, 3,500-mile voyage.

Written to explain why and how he crossed the continent with little more than a twenty-year old mule, a tipi and a camera, Too Proud reveals the America Harberts discovered at his 8-mile per day pace. In addition to 9 maps, the 256-page book contains 93 photographs (47 in color) from Harberts’ voyage.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 29, at 9:30 PM, Harberts shares how, armed only with simple curiosity and an uncooperative mule, he discovered that most Americans felt the same way he did—that they were adrift in a sea of isolation. The author and modern-day adventurer illustrates the ways he crossed the everyday divide between isolation and companionship on an American bridge of ranchers, lady poachers and ordinary citizens.

Bernie Harberts other works include Woody and Maggie Walk Across America and 65 Days Alone at Sea. Currently Bernie is traveling from Canada to Mexico in a mule wagon, exploring the fossil remains of the Western Interior Seaway, the shallow inland sea that flooded the Great Plains 75 million years ago. A dulcimer player and summa cum laude graduate of NC State University, Bernie found this of little use in his voyaging. When he's not living in a sailboat, tipi or mule wagon, Bernie resides in Southern Pines, NC.

Don’t miss D.G. Martin’s engaging interview with Bernie Harberts on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 29, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, August 31, at 5 PM.

2008-08-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Theda Perdue Shares Her Book, The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 22, at 9:30 PM

All Cherokees once lived in the southern Appalachians. They spoke four, mutually-intelligible dialects of an Iroquoian language. A common culture and bonds of kinship held their far-flung villages together and made them a people. Today, most Cherokees do not live in the Southeast; they live in eastern Oklahoma with only a small remnant remaining in the mountains of western North Carolina.

This relocation of the Cherokees was not by choice. In the early nineteenth century, the United States government forced the Cherokee Nation to surrender its homeland and move west of the Mississippi—a journey forever known as the Trail of Tears. Theda Perdue and long-time collaborator Michael D. Green apply their expertise to a fascinating, and, at times, heartbreaking chapter in American history with their book, The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 22, at 9:30 PM, co-author Theda Perdue brings to life The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears and the historic struggles that defined The Trail of Tears as a Cherokee and American tragedy.

Recently appointed to a Guggenheim Fellowship last month, Theda Perdue is a Distinguished Term Professor of History, University of North Carolina, and Chapel Hill. An expert in the field of American Indian history, she also won the Southern Association of Women’s Historians’ Julia Cherry Spruill Award and the Southern Anthropological Society’s James Mooney Prize. She served as President of the American Society for Ethno history and from 2003-4 she was a fellow at the National Humanities Center.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Theda Perdue on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 22, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, August 24, at 5 PM.

2008-08-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Asheville’s Own Wayne Caldwell Shares His First Novel, Cataloochee on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 15, at 9:30 PM

Against the breathtaking backdrop of Appalachia comes a rich, multilayered post—Civil War saga of three generations of families—their dreams, their downfalls, and their faith. Wayne Caldwell’s Cataloochee is a slice of southern Americana told in the classic tradition of Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 15, at 9:30 PM, Caldwell brings to life the Cataloochee’s historic struggles and close kinships over a span of six decades.

Full of humor, darkness, beauty, and wisdom, Cataloochee is a classic novel of place and family.

Nestled in the mountains of North Carolina sits Cataloochee. In a time when “where you was born was where God wanted you,” Cataloochee’s Wrights and the Carters, both farming families, travel to the valley to escape the rapid growth of neighboring towns and to have a few hundred acres all to themselves. But progress eventually winds its way to Cataloochee, too, and year after year the population swells as more people come to the valley to stake their fortune.

Never one to pass on opportunity, Ezra Banks, an ambitious young man seeking some land of his own, arrives in Cataloochee in the 1880s. His first order of business is to marry a Carter girl, Hannah, the daughter of the valley’s largest landowner. From there, Ezra’s brood grows, as do those of the Carters and the Wrights.

With hard work and determination, the burgeoning community transforms wilderness into home, to be passed on through generations. But the idyll is not to last, nor to be inherited: The government takes steps to relocate folks to make room for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and tragedy will touch one of the clans in a single, unimaginable act.

Cataloochee author Wayne Caldwell was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and was educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Appalachian State University, and Duke University. He began writing fiction in the late 1990s. He has published four short stories and a poem, and won two short story prizes. Caldwell lives near Asheville with his wife, Mary. Cataloochee is his first novel.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Wayne Caldwell on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 15, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, August 17, at 5 PM.

2008-08-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

Author Eric G. Wilson Shares His Book, Against Happiness on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 8, at 9:30 PM

Americans are addicted to happiness. When we’re not popping pills, we leaf through scientific studies that take for granted our quest for happiness, or read self-help books by everyone from armchair philosophers and clinical psychologists to the Dalai Lama on how to achieve a trouble-free life: Stumbling on Happiness; Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment; The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living. The titles themselves draw a stark portrait of the war on melancholy. More than any other generation, Americans of today believe in the transformative power of positive thinking. But who says we’re supposed to be happy? Where does it say that in the Bible, or in the Constitution?

In his book Against Happiness, Eric G. Wilson argues that melancholia is necessary to any thriving culture, that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation—and that it is the force underlying original insights. Francisco Goya, Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, and Abraham Lincoln were all confirmed melancholics. So enough Prozac-ing of our brains. Let’s embrace our depressive sides as the wellspring of creativity. What most people take for contentment, Wilson argues, is living death, and what the majority takes for depression is a vital force. Wilson's book suggests it would be better to relish the blues that make humans people.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 8, at 9:30 PM, Wilson, chair of Wake Forest University’s English Department, shares what Publisher’s Weekly calls, “sure-to-be controversial alternative to the recent cottage industry of highbrow happiness books.”

2008-08-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

"North Carolina Bookwatch"
From the blog of Ben Steelman, book editor at the Wilmington Star News

D.G. Martin, the host of North Carolina Bookwatch on UNC-TV, the statewide public television network, has been in Wrightsville Beach this week vacationing with family. He took a break, though, on Thursday (July 31) to drop by the Star-News newsroom to talk about the program and its future.

The son of a former president of Davidson College and a ex-Green Beret, Martin practiced law in Charlotte before holding a long list of executive posts in North Carolina's state university system. In the 1980s, he lost two close races for Congress in North Carolina's 9th District (essentially, the Charlotte metro area) and in 1998 he made a strong bid for U.S. Senate in the Democrat primary. (Somebody named John Edwards ended up winning that one.)

Jack Betts of The Charlotte Observer once described him as a sort of Mister Fix-It of North Carolina public administration; in 2007, for example, he stepped in as interim director of the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

These days, however, Martin is grinning ear to ear about his TV show, now in its 11th season. Martin, who's been the host and moderator since Season 3, has lots of reasons to be pleased: UNC-TV programmers have put Bookwatch in prime time, at 9:30 p.m. Friday nights, with a repeat at 5 p.m. Sundays. Bookwatch's season has just been extended to 26 weeks.

Click here for more...

2008-07-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

Author Eleanora Tate Shares Her Latest Children’s Offering, Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 1, at 9:30 PM

In Eleanora Tate’s new children’s book Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance, Celeste Lassiter Massey must travel to Harlem to live with her actress Aunt Valentina. She's not thrilled at all to leave her friends, home and Poppa in comfortable Raleigh, North Carolina for New York's 1921 fast life. While Celeste absorbs the grit and glamour of Aunt Valentina's lifestyle and the excitement of the Harlem Renaissance, she constantly wonders and worries about Poppa, her friends, and even her cranky Aunt Society back home. Will Celeste ever see North Carolina again?

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, August 1, at 9:30 PM, Tate shares her latest award-winning children's offering with local ties.

Throughout the half-hour, Tate reveals her rich knowledge of the child’s mind and Celeste’s unique experiences as “a fully realized heroine, whose world expands profoundly as she’s exposed to both the cultural pinnacles and racial prejudices of her era” (Publishers Weekly).

“I’ve studied children’s literature by reading tons of children’s books over the years, ever since the 1960s when I decided I wanted to be a children’s book author.” says Tate. “I enjoyed writing about my childhood when I was child…and there was something magical about it. I’ve found you can turn your real life experience into fictional ones as long as you’re willing to make that fiction become larger than life.”

Eleanora E. Tate’s middle grade books reveal the hopes and humor, trials and triumphs of America’s families and communities. In addition to being a children’s book author, she’s also a folklorist, short story writer, creative writing instructor and former newspaper reporter. Her eleventh book, Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance, is an American Association of University Women’s 2007 North Carolina Book Award winner in Juvenile Fiction. It also is a 2008 International Reading Association (IRA) “Teachers’ Choice Award” winner.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Eleanora E. Tate on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 1, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, August 3, at 5 PM.

2008-07-23T11:39:00.001-07:00

Award-Winning Author Robert Morgan Shares His New Biography, Boone on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 25, at 9:30 PM

Robert Morgan has spent the past five years researching and reading everything ever written about the legendary American hero, Daniel Boone. In his engrossing, full-scale book, Boone: A Biography, Morgan looks behind the legends and shows us the true, flesh-and-blood man.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, July 25, at 9:30 PM, the award-winning author shares his beautifully written biography of the American adventurer.

From the very first sentence—"Forget the coonskin cap; he never wore one"—Morgan's authority informs a guided tour not only of Daniel Boone’s life, but life on the 18th-century American frontier. Morgan fleshes out his narrative with a backdrop of life in colonial times, examining the domestic, political, cultural, and natural world of early America. Boone features extensive maps and illustrations throughout, 30 pages of endnotes, an extensive bibliography, and interior spreads detailing period information.

Like novelist-turned-historian Shelby Foote, Morgan writes with a novelist’s understanding of scene, putting the reader squarely down into the forest alongside Boone. In Boone, Morgan has written a biography delivering the living, breathing character of the ultimate American pioneer, dreamer, and visionary.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Robert Morgan on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 25, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, July 27, at 5 PM.

2008-07-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

BOOKMARKS
Festival of Books

On the second Saturday in September, readers and writers come together in one place, on one day — immersed and engaged in individual and collective literary & fun experiences — to enjoy BOOKMARKS Festival of Books.

The fourth edition of BOOKMARKS is set for Saturday, September 13, 2008. It takes place in Historic Bethabara Park, the 1753 Moravian settlement site — a large, open archeological park, which is transformed into a village-like environment of large, enclosed tents housing each literary venue.

At BOOKMARKS, you’ll meet authors, illustrators, chefs, storytellers, and musicians; gain insights on their works; ask questions; and, have books signed. Authors of local, regional and national renown represent the range of fiction and nonfiction. Come to see a favorite author, and find new favorites! Among the 40+ authors you’ll get to meet are Marisa de los Santos, Nikki Giovanni, Katherine Hall Page, Joe and Terry Graedon, Carmen Agra Deedy, and such chefs as Mark Strausman and Pino Luongo, authors of TWO MEATBALLS: In an Italian Kitchen. In the culinary venue, “Food for Thought”, you’ll get to watch chefs demonstrate recipes from their cookbooks and enjoy the samples!

Look for BOOKMARKS’ Honorary Chairman, D.G. Martin, host of UNC-TV’s NC Bookwatch, who will be at the festival.

Aspiring authors will have the opportunity to learn and practice writing skills in BOOKMARKS’ Workshops venue.

In our Young Readers Corral, kids, parents, and caregivers get to meet and interact with children’s authors; participate in age-appropriate demos workshops; literary parties; and, storytime by community leaders. Join in the reading-related activities with manipulatives that are provided by community nonprofits, and correspond to their individual focus areas. Children who take part in lots of activities get a free book to take home! There are Youth and Teens’ authors and activities, too!

You can pick up books by our featured authors from the Barnes & Noble on-site tented store, and then meet with the authors for a personal signing in the Our State magazine sponsored Booksigning Tent.

It’s a full day, from 9:30 AM til 5:00 PM. Browse through Exhibitor Row, in the heart of the festival, and discover what regional publishers, community organizations, author networks have to offer. Be sure to take a break to enjoy the yummy fare of the many food vendors.

Enjoy the relaxed outdoor festival setting — enjoy a day at BOOKMARKS. And, there is NO admission charge.

Check our website for upcoming author-based events throughout the year, such as “BOOKMARKS Presents: Garrison Keillor” on September 29, 2008.

------------------

BOOKMARKS is a 501(C)3 nonprofit, community-based volunteer organization. BOOKMARKS began as an expansion of the Junior League of Winston-Salem project — building upon its annual READ TO ME Festival for parents and children and adult Book & Author Luncheon — and spun off from the Junior League in the spring of 2006.

www.bookmarksbookfestival.org

2008-07-17T07:12:00.001-07:00

Journalist Rob Christensen Shares His Book, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 18, at 9:30 PM

How can a state be represented by Jesse Helms and John Edwards at the same time? In his book The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics, journalist Rob Christensen answers that question and navigates a century of political history in North Carolina, one of the most vibrant and competitive southern states, where neither conservatives nor liberals, Democrats nor Republicans, have been able to rest easy.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, July 18, at 9:30 PM, the News and Observer political reporter shares this new book and explores this eclectic political climate that the author argues enabled North Carolina to rise from poverty in the nineteenth century to become a leader in research, education, and banking in the twentieth.

Although party divisions and the issues of race that often distinguish them are deeply rooted, Christensen explains, North Carolina voters remain loyal to candidates who focus on issues such as education and building a business-friendly infrastructure. With Christensen as a guide, readers may find there is sense after all in the topsy-turvy nature of Tar Heel politics.

“I had been thinking about a book I wanted to read…something that would tie everything together,” says Christensen. “Politics in North Carolina was like stepping back in history, and I saw all these little threads and I wanted to put it all together…and answer some real questions about several political paradoxes.”

In answering these questions, Christensen takes us to picket lines and debates and through numerous red-baiting and race-baiting political campaigns. Along the way we are introduced to many remarkable characters, including a U.S. senator who was a Nazi sympathizer, a candidate for governor who was a Soviet agent, a senator who helped bring down Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon, and a TV commentator who helped usher in the Reagan Revolution.

Rob Christensen has covered North Carolina politics for thirty-four years at the News and Observer in Raleigh.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Rob Christensen on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 18, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, July 20, at 5 PM.

2008-07-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

Author Francis Mayes Kicks Off the 11^th Season of North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 11, at 9:30 PM

Each year, North Carolina authors publish hundreds of books of all types and for the past ten seasons UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch has brought the best and brightest of these southern scribes to the small screen—shedding light on their works, their lives, and the indelible imprint that the state has left upon them.

And now, North Carolina Bookwatch books even more great writers that ever before when the popular series embarks on its first 26-episode season, premiering Friday, July 11 at 9:30 PM, when Francis Mayes, the New York Times best-selling author of the now-classic Under the Tuscan Sun, presents her latest offering A Year in the World to series host D.G. Martin.

Through A Year in the World Mayes, whose previous travel memoirs memorably captured the experience of life in Italy, expands her horizons to immerse herself in the sights, tastes, and treasures of twelve new special places. With her beloved Tuscany as a home base, Mayes travels to Spain, Portugal, France, the British Isles, and to the Mediterranean world of Turkey, Greece, the South of Italy, and North Africa.

In the premiere episode of North Carolina Bookwatch’ s latest season, Mayes, who divides her time between residences in North Carolina and Cortona, Italy, explains that her expanding worldview stems from an evolving concept of home.

“It was a mysterious process to feel so at home in a country that’s not your own,” says Mayes. “And I started thinking I’d like to go to other places and see if I could be at home there and what it would like, and have that lens to look through.”

Despite any changes in scenery, A Year in the World is vintage Frances Mayes—a celebration of the allure of travel, of serendipitous pleasures found in unlikely locales, of memory woven into the present, and of a joyous sense of quest. An ideal travel companion, the Georgia native brings to the page the curiosity of an intrepid explorer, remarkable insights into the wonder of the everyday, and a compelling narrative style that entertains as it informs.

“I think because I grew up in a small town it made me a traveler…and reading was traveling for me,” says Mayes. “I’ve always read for the places books take me.”

Frances Mayes is the author of four books about Tuscany. Under the Tuscan Sun—which was a New York Times bestseller for more than two and a half years and became a Touchstone movie starring Diane Lane—was followed by Bella Tuscany and two illustrated books, In Tuscany and Bringing Tuscany Home. Mayes is also the author of the novel, Swan, six books of poetry, most recently Ex Voto, and The Discovery of Poetry.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Francis Mayes on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, July 11, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, July 13, at 5 PM, only on UNC-TV!

2008-06-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

But Wait...There's More!

Each year, North Carolina authors publish hundreds of books of all types and for the past ten seasons North Carolina Bookwatch has brought the best and brightest of these southern scribes to the small screen—shedding light on their works, their lives, and the indelible imprint that the state has left upon them.

And now, North Carolina Bookwatch embarks on its first 26-episode season, premiering Friday, July 11 at 9:30 PM. Hot off the presses, the following authors have also been "booked" for this jam-packed season:

Joe Glatthaar (General Lee's Army)

Tony Earley (The Blue Star)

JD Rhoades (Breaking Cover)

Therese Fowler (Souvenir)

Cindy Ramsey (Boys of the Battleship North Carolina)

Anna Rubino (Queen of the Oil Club)

Nancy Peacock (A Broom of One's Own)

Louise Hawes (Black Pearls)

Nortin Hadler (Worried Sick)

Check back soon for more author updates or click here for the latest North Carolina Bookwatch listings.

2008-06-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

NORTH CAROLINA BOOKWATCH RETURNS JULY 11!
(Opening Lineup Announced)

Spice up your summer reading when the 11th season of North Carolina Bookwatch premieres next month! In affable host D.G. Martin’s illuminating interviews, the Tar Heel State’s best and brightest writers shed light on their lives, work and the indelible imprint that our state leaves on their writing.

Don't miss a single encore episode of the upcoming 11th season of North Carolina Bookwatch, booking the most acclaimed Tar Heel authors and their latest works, Friday nights at 9:30 PM, with encore episodes Sundays, at 5 PM.

A sampling of this year's series includes:

Friday, July 11, & Sunday, July 13
Frances Mayes
A Year in the World

Friday, July 18, & Sunday, July 20
Rob Christensen
The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics

Friday, July 25, & Sunday, July 27
Robert Morgan
Boone

Friday, Aug 1, & Sunday, Aug 3
Eleanora Tate
Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance

Friday, Aug 8, & Sunday, Aug 10
Eric Wilson
Against Happiness

Friday, Aug 15, & Sunday, Aug 17
Wayne Caldwell
Cataloochee

Friday, Aug 22, & Sunday, Aug 24
Theda Perdue
The Cherokee Nation and The Trail of Tears

Friday, Aug 29, & Sunday, Aug 31
Bernie Harberts
Too Proud to Ride a Cow

Friday, Sept 5, & Sunday, Sept 7
Jean Anderson
A Love Affair with Southern Cooking

Click here for more information and the latest updates.

2008-04-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Author Andrew Britton
Dies at Age 27

Thriller writer, military veteran, and North Carolina Bookwatch guest Andrew Britton, whose third novel The Invisible was published in March 2008, has died. He was 27 years old.

The Raleigh Chronicle reports that according to his family, Andrew was found at his apartment in Durham on Tuesday, after he had apparently passed away from a heart condition that was previously undiagnosed. "He just went to sleep and never woke up," said his mother, Annie Nice.

Britton appeared in an episode of North Carolina Bookwatch's 2006 season to discuss his first novel, The American.

Click here to watch D.G. Martin's North Carolina Bookwatch interview with Andrew Britton.

2008-03-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

Cokie Roberts At Quail Ridge Books In May; Tickets Available Now!

Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC is thrilled to host NPR commentator and author Cokie Roberts on Friday, May 16, at 7 PM. This event will be at the McKimmon Center at NCSU. Tickets are available: $5 per ticket, or receive a free ticket with the purchase of her new book, LADIES OF LIBERTY: THE WOMEN WHO SHAPED OUR NATION. (LADIES is available April 8, but you may pre-order now.)

To request a signed or personalized copy, call 828-1588 or 1-800-672-6789 or contact qrbOrders@aol.com (at least 48 hours in advance for email) to check availability.

2008-02-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

Lee Woodruff Shares Her Touching Joint Memoir
Quail Ridge books in Raleigh, NC, welcomes Lee Woodruff on Friday, March 7, at 7 PM. Her husband and ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff was critically injured reporting in Iraq. Together, they give their reactions to his injuries, recovery, and its aftermath. She’ll be here with the paperback of their memoir, IN AN INSTANT: A FAMILY’S JOURNEY OF LOVE AND HEALING. Sorry, Bob Woodruff won’t be in attendance. Bring your cameras; photography is allowed.

2008-01-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

Examining Jimmy Carter’s Legacy

As the political season heats up, join author Frye Gaillard at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Wednesday, January 16, at 7 PM, for a discussion of the ground-breaking way Jimmy Carter has conducted his post-presidential years. Prophet From Plains covers Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter's major achievements and setbacks in light of what has been at once his greatest asset and flaw: his stubborn, faith-driven integrity.

2007-11-06T09:32:00.001-08:00

William S. Powell Shares His Landmark Publication, Encyclopedia of North Carolina On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 16, at 9:30 PM!

The first single-volume reference to the events, institutions, and cultural forces that have defined the state, the Encyclopedia of North Carolina is a landmark publication that serves all those who love and live in North Carolina for generations to come. Editor William S. Powell, whom the Raleigh News & Observer described as a "living repository of information on all things North Carolinian," spent fifteen years developing this volume.

In the season finale of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, November 16, at 9:30 PM, Powell shares the many contributions by more than 550 volunteer writers—including scholars, librarians, journalists, and many others—who aided in creating what is considered to be the true "people's encyclopedia" of North Carolina.

Powell is widely considered the "dean" of North Carolina historians. Born in 1919 in Johnston County and raised in Statesville, Powell has written or edited numerous volumes of state and local history. Powell's most important contributions are reference works that have long been regarded as foundations for North Carolina history and as models for similar works in other states. The library catalog at UNC-Chapel Hill lists some 112 books and articles by Powell. For his accomplishments, he was honored with the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2000.

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with William Powell on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 16, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, November 18, at 5 PM.

2007-11-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Author & UNC Professor Fred Hobson Shares Off the Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood On UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 9, at 9:30 PM!

“Why should a particular game, played with a round ball by twenty-year-olds in short pants often hundreds of miles away, mean so much to me, since I seem to have so little to gain or lose by its outcome?” Fred Hobson thus begins Off the Rim, his narrative of college basketball and society, of growing up and not growing up. He seeks the answer to this question by delving into the particulars of his own experience as a player and fan in his book, Off the Rim.

Growing up in a small town in the hills of North Carolina where basketball was king, Hobson became a rabid UNC basketball fan at the tender age of thirteen during 1956–1957—the Tar Heels a “magical” 32–0 national championship season. He starred as a high school basketball player and lived a dream by “walking on” the highly successful 1961–1962 Carolina freshman team, the season Dean Smith was elevated to head coach of the Heels. Hobson observed firsthand the difficult early days of Coach Smith before he became the winningest coach in college basketball.

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, November 2, at 9:30 PM, Hobson shares his unique tales this time— a story of a boyhood that never ends, relived each year during basketball season in the frantic, tortured life of a fan.

“This is a book about basketball that is more than a book about basketball. It is, in the beginning, a depiction of a part of the South that departs from the usual idea of Dixie, a look into the culture, religion, and politics of the Carolina hills,” says Hobson. “It is a portrait of the people who made up the South, including the author’s parents, who both were and were not conventional southerners.”

Fred Hobson is a Lineberger Professor of the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-editor of the Southern Literary Journal. He is the author of numerous books, including Mencken: A Life (1994), Tell About the South: The Southern Rage to Explain (1984), and The Silencing of Emily Mullen (2005).

Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Fred Hobson on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 9, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, November 11, at 5 PM.

2007-10-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

Durham’s Own Joe and Terry Graedon Share The Best Choices From The People’s Pharmacy on UNC-TV’s North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 2, at 9:30 PM!

We can read the newspaper for candid restaurant or movie reviews or consult Consumer Reports for an impartial analysis of the best buys on toasters or automobiles. But where can we find objective evaluations of popular treatments for conditions like arthritis, high cholesterol, and migraines?

In an all-new episode of UNC-TV’s local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch with D.G. Martin, premiering Friday, November 2, at 9:30 PM, Joe and Teresa Graedon, the best-selling authors of Best Choices From The Peoples Pharmacy, fill in the void with all the information readers need to become savvy health-care consumers from their latest comprehensive guide to healthful living.

In addition to their books, Durham residents Joe and Terry Graedon write The People's Pharmacy® syndicated newspaper column, which is widely distributed in the United States and abroad. They also co-host an award-winning health talk show that airs weekly on over 500 stations through public radio, the InTouch Radio Reading Service, and the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.

The Graedons are frequent guests on television news and information programs to discuss issues relating to drugs, herbs, home remedies, vitamins and related health topics. Appearances include public television, Dateline NBC, 20/20, Extra, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, and NBC Evening News with Tom Brokaw.
Don’t miss DG Martin’s all-new interview with Joe and Terry Graedon on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, November 2, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airing Sunday, November 4, at 5 PM.