Beacon Buzz: Gather at the Table, Faitheist, and more!
January 04, 2013
On Tour
Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter
of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Leslie Morgan
An interview with authors DeWolf and Morgan on NPR’s Tell Me More aired Christmas Day.
The authors begin the West Coast leg of their tour this weekend. The entire month of January, they’ll be making appearances in Washington, Oregon, California, and Colorado. Check out their website for more info.
SEATTLE, WA: January 6, 2013, 2:00pm: Northwest African American Museum.
2300 South Massachusetts St., Seattle, WA; sponsored by New Legacy Puget Sound. Book sales
by Elliott Bay Book Company.
ELLENSBERG, WA: January 8, 2013, 7:00pm: Central Washington University.
PULLMAN, WA: January 10, 2013, 7:00pm: Washington State University.
REDMOND, OR: January 11, 2013, 6:30pm: Paulina Springs Books.
SISTERS, OR: January 12, 2013, 6:30pm: Paulina Springs Books.
PORTLAND, OR: January 13, 2013, 7:30pm: Powell’s Books.
PORTLAND, OR: January 14, 2013, 12:00 noon: The Portland Building. Sponsored by DEEP (Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland)
BEND, OR: January 15, 2013, 6:30pm: Bend’s Community Center 1036 NE 5th Street.
BERKELY, CA: January 18, 2013, 4:00pm: University of
California at Berkeley.
Chevron Auditorium, International
House. Sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity &
Inclusion.
WALNUT CREEK, CA: January 19, 2013, 2:00pm: Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church. Co-sponsored by the Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: January 20, 2013, 2:00pm: Museum of the African Diaspora.
PASADENA, CA: January 23, 2013, 5:00pm: La Pintoresca Library.
SANTA MONICA, CA: January 25, 2013, 7:00pm: location in Santa Monica TBA: sponsored by CARE/Multicultural Healing.
POMONA, CA: January 26, 2013: 2:00pm: Pomona First Christian Church.
DENVER, CO: January 29, 2013: 7:00pm: University of Denver.
DENVER, CO: January 30, 2013: 6:30, meet the authors; 7:00 program begins: Park Hill United Methodist Church. The evening program will open with a performance by Sankofa, an ensemble of the Spirituals Project Choir.
Notable Appearances & Mentions
Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground
with the Religious by Chris Stedman
These are just the highlights. Faitheist has been everywhere recently! Check out his website or follow him on Twitter to keep up to date.
The Melissa Harris-Perry Show/MSNBC (MSNBC also published a piece by Chris on their website. “In the Wake of Newtown, Why Blame Atheists?”
Utne Reader review in January/February issue.
Interview with Amy Goetzman at Minnpost.com books: “As I read your book, at several places I was struck by how brave you are.”
A playlist on Largeheartedboy from Chris about music that relates the book.
A post by Chris on Patheos about reactions to Faitheist.
Best of 2012
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
PW’s year end round up included this article by Robert Atwan on the 10 best essays written since 1950. “Notes of a Native Son” is #1.
Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Titles for 2012:
Let the Students Speak!: A History of the Fight for Free Expression in American Schools by David L. Hudson
Prophetic Encounters: Religion and the American Radical Tradition by Dan McKanan
The Land Grabbers: The New Fight over Who Owns the Earth by Fred Pearce
Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek best books of 2012
Washington Blade’s roundup of 2012’s best LGBT books
Coming Soon
Into Great Silence by Eva Saulitis (Jan. 15)
Booklist review, Jan 01: “Saulitis’ stunning and sorrowful ‘book of contemplation’ elucidates the discipline, tedium, danger, and bliss of whale studies… Candid, transfixing, and cautionary, Saulitis celebrates and mourns for a wondrous and imperiled species.”
Intensive Care: A Doctor’s Journey by Danielle Ofri (March 05)
New York Times op-ed: "Labs, Washed Away"
Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined
Peace in the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi (March 12)
Kirkus Reviews in print (Jan. 15) and online (Jan. 01): “in sharp, take-no-prisoners prose, Khalidi maintains that the U.S. and Israel… have conspired to deny Palestinians any semblance of self-determination. A stinging indictment of one-sided policymaking destined, if undisturbed, to result in even greater violence.”
“Drawing on his own experience as a Palestinian negotiator and recently released documents, Rashid Khalidi mounts a frontal attack on the myths and misconceptions that have come to surround America’s role in the so-called “peace process” which is all process and no peace. The title is not too strong: the book demonstrates conclusively that far from serving as an honest broker, the US continues to act as Israel’s lawyer – with dire consequences for its own interests, for the Palestinians, and for the entire region. Professor Khalidi deserves much credit for his superb exposition of the fatal gap between the rhetoric and reality of American diplomacy on this critically important issue.” —Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at Oxford and author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World.
Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods by Christine
Byl (April 16)
"Every denizen of wild places from Laotse to St. Francis to Rachel Carson to black bears to field mice has depended upon trails. But rarely have we considered the people, tools, or toil that lay our favorite trails down. Dirt Work is a spectacular correction of this omission. Imbued with a tough-minded, ribald reverence for honest labor that brings to mind a female Gary Snyder or Wendell Berry (if you can imagine that!), Christine Byl does epic justice to the whole-bodied satisfactions that come of staying out in the weather, staying alert, and working one’s ass off for others with love, tenacity and skill." --David James Duncan, author of The River Why and Sun House.
“Christine Byl has been summering on trail crews for more than a decade and a half. A first-rate storyteller, she details the techniques and tools, and the spirit of fellowship and feel of the woods. If you love getting into the back country, or even if you're an armchair backpacker as I am now at age eighty, you'll love Dirt Work.” --William Kittredge, author of Hole in the Sky and The Nature of Generosity
“Byl’s is not a world of groomed nature, inert tools, or nostalgic rituals, but a vibrant landscape inhabited by people and animals and layered by idea and history. She means this book as a love song, she writes, and it is, not only from her to her fellow laborers, but from the mind to the body, the hand to the tool, the human to the wild.” —Sherry Simpson, author of The Accidental Explorer: Wayfinding in Alaska