Square Books Heats Up With Full Schedule
Whether you are in the mood for some taut, suspenseful fiction or a conversation about London, a city that recently had the eyes of the world trained on it, Square Books has you covered as August winds to a close.
Peter Heller will be signing his book The Dog Stars on Wednesday, August 22nd. What you will get from The Dog Stars: a hunting-fishing-nature-airplane-dog-survivalist drama. What you will not expect: a compelling adventure from inside the head of Hig, the hunter-gatherer, pilot, survivalist. The reader becomes part of this adventure/terror as a guest of Hig’s moment-by-moment thoughts, his necessary and constant guard in the devastated and altered land (The West) where he continues to find beauty and solace in the natural world even though people hunt and kill each other and there is only one friend and one dog to trust.
Celebrated artist Peter Brown will be at Square Books Jr. to sign Creepy Carrots on August 24th, a clever picture book parable about a rabbit who fears his favorite treats are out to get him. Brown’s stylish illustrations pair perfectly with Aaron Reynolds’ text in this hilarious picture book that shows it’s all fun and games…until you get too greedy.
There will be three events on September 27: Jay Watson, Joseph P. Ward, and Sheila L. Skemp will be on hand to read and sign their books.
In Reading for the Body, Jay Watson argues that southern literary studies has been over idealized and dominated by intellectual history for too long. Watson calls for the field to be rematerialized and grounded in awareness of the human body as the site where ideas, including ideas about the U.S. South itself, ultimately happen.
Joseph P. Ward’s book, London: A Social and Cultural History, 1550-1750, is an extensive account of a crucial period that witnessed the city’s rise to worldwide prominence, during which it dominated the social, political, and cultural life of the British Isles as never before nor since. Drawing on the latest in urban history, accounts by contemporary Londoners and tourists, and fictional works featuring the city, London explores the city’s pivotal role as a harbinger of modernity.
In The Making of a Patriot, renowned Benjamin Franklin historian Sheila Skemp presents an insightful, lively narrative that goes beyond the traditional Franklin biography. Patriot sheds light on the conspiratorial framework within which actors on both sides of the Atlantic moved toward revolution and it highlights how this event ultimately pitted Franklin against his son, suggesting that the Revolution was, in no small part, also a civil war.
In her new novel Dare Me, Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as “total authority and an almost desperate intensity,” offers up a Fight Club among cheerleaders, a harrowing exploration into the dark heart of the all-American girl. Addy Hanlon and Beth Cassidy are the varsity cheerleaders all the other girls fear and admire, the unchallenged rulers of their high school kingdom. Then a shocking event upends their fragile peace. As the girls’s season moves towards its highly anticipated finale, Addy and Beth are forced to ask where their loyalties lie as they stakes grow higher, and more dangerous. Abbott will sign Dare Me on Tuesday, August 28th.
Courtney Miller Santo will be signing her book The Roots of the Olive Tree on August 29th. Her novel introduces readers to the Keller family—five generations of firstborn women—an unbroken line of daughters living together in the same house on a secluded olive grove in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. Told from varying viewpoints, Santo’s compelling and evocative debut novel captures the joys and sorrows of family—the love, secrets, disappointments, jealousies, and forgiveness that tie generations to one another.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the integration of the University of Mississippi. James Meredith will be signing A Mission From God: A Memoir and Challenge for America on August 30th. Opening with a riveting account of the attempt to assassinate him in 1966 outside Hernando, Mississippi, Meredith’s new book rarely loses its grip on the reader. The author ranges across a spectrum of history and events, including his genealogical history, his military career, and the crisis surrounding his desegregation of Ole Miss.
