Archive for the 'books' Category

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David Rees Reads From How to Sharpen Pencils 8/15

Published on July 18, 2012 0 Comments
Aug ’12
15
7:00 pm

In David Rees’s new book How to Sharpen Pencils (Melville House), the creator of Get Your War On and founder of ArtisanalPencilSharpening.com shares the secrets of his craft, empowering the layman to discover the pleasures (and perils) of sharpening pencils. Over the course of 18 chapters, Rees explains the difference between sharpening techniques, including:

– Using a Pocketknife

– Using a Single-Burr Handcrank Sharpener

– Sharpening Pencils for Children

– and many more!

“How to Sharpen Pencils is very funny—it’s the work, let’s not forget, of the guy responsible for Get Your War On—but it’s no April Fools’ joke, and it’s no bathroom book. It’s a literary oddity that, even as it gleefully pursues the comic possibilities of its premise, subtly gestures towards its own secluded seriousness. And, for what it’s worth, it also marks the standard to which all future pencil-sharpening textbooks must now aspire.”

– Mark O’Connell, NewYorker.com

“I trust my bespoke pencils only to David Rees.”

– Liz Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“You may think that sharpening a pencil is easy, but David Rees makes it look hard, and that makes all the difference.”

– John Hodgman, Areas of My Expertise

The work of David Rees has been featured in such places as: Rolling Stone, GQ, Punk Planet, and The Nation. His work has also been in such anthologies as Ultimate Blogs: Masterworks from the Wild Web and The McSweeney’s Book of Politics & Musicals. He has been featured on podcasts and radio shows such as Bullseye with Jesse Thorn and The Best Show on WFMU.

For more info: artisanalpencilsharpening.com

Wed, Aug 15th, 7pm

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Quimby’s Participates In Bookstore Crawl 2012

Published on July 7, 2012 0 Comments

 

Participating:
Heritage Bicycles • 2959 N Lincoln Ave
Powell’s North • 2850 N Lincoln Ave
Bookworks • 3444 N Clark St
Unabridged • 3251 N Broadway
Quimby’s • 1852 W North Ave
Open Books • 213 W Institute Pl
Powell’s • 1218 S Halsted St
Crawl starts at 1pm at Heritage Bicycles! Spend the day with your two favorite inventions, bicycles and books!

It finally ends at Powell’s in University Village (1218 S. Halsted) for the opening of “Bike Crawl: An Art Show,” which starts at 7pm.
Featured local artists: Kyle Baker, Todd Irwin, Deborah Maris-Lader, Jay Ryan, Maria Sanchez, Shawn Stuckey, Michael Una, and Julia Victor Curated by Kyra Termini
For more info, click the images above.

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Roctober 20th Anniversary Book/Magazine Release Party 3/30

Published on March 7, 2012 0 Comments
Mar ’12
30
7:00 pm

WHAT:            ROCTOBER 20TH ANNIVERSARY RELEASE PARTY
WHEN:           Fri March 30, 2012, 7pm

Since 1992 Chicago’s own Roctober magazine has celebrated popular music at its most unpopular, exploring previously unexamined corners of music history to explore absurd, dynamic, and obscure musical heroes in passionate, heavily researched articles, exhaustive critical discographies and inane comics.

On March 30th, Roctober celebrates its 20th anniversary with a shindig at its favorite store, Quimby’s. Copies of the epic Roctober #50 will be available, as well as two recent books by Roctober contributors, Flying Saucers Rock n Roll: The Best of Roctober (Duke University Press) and Aaron Cohen’s Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace (Continuum), his entry into the popular 33 1/3 series of books on iconic records.

The event will include brief readings from both books, a Q&A about the history of Roctober, and Aretha/Roctober karaoke (including Chic-A-Go-Go host Ratso doing his tribute to Michael Jackson). Books will be available for purchase and signing by Cohen and Roctober editor Jake Austen, and Roctober#50 will be unveiled.

For more info:
facebook.com/roctobermagazine
jake@roctober.com

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Adam Levin & Tim Kinsella Read 3/13

Published on February 17, 2012 0 Comments
Mar ’12
13
7:00 pm

Adam Levin (The Instructions) Reads from Hot Pink with Tim Kinsella, author of The Karaoke Singers Guide to Self Defense

Adam Levin’s debut novel The Instructions was one of the most buzzed-about books of 2010, a sprawling universe of “death-defying sentences, manic wit, exciting provocations and simple human warmth” (Rolling Stone). Now, in the stories of Hot Pink, Levin delivers ten smaller worlds, shaken snow-globes of overweight romantics, legless prodigies, quixotic dollmakers, Chicagoland thugs, dirty old men, protective fathers, balloon-laden dumptrucks, and walls that ooze gels. Told with lust and affection, karate and tenderness, slapstickery, ferocity, and heart, Hot Pink is already Flavorpill’s most anticipated books of 2012.

Adam Levin’s novel The Instructions won the NYLP’s Young Lion’s Fiction Award. His stories have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Esquire. Winner of the 2003 Summer Literary Seminars Fiction Contest and the 2004 Joyce Carol Oates Fiction Prize.

In Tim Kinsella’s novel The Karaoke Singers Guide to Self Defense, a family reunites for a funeral, leery of one another, comparing splintered memories. Will bathes his grandmother. Mel gives her wig a haircut. Norman is not prepared to take over his father’s club. Jesse has never known how old he is. They each cope with limited options and murky desires. Long bus rides through a post-industrial Gothic Midwest, Classic Rock, and compulsive brawls hum a requiem for the late night life of Stone Claw Grove.

Tim Kinsella has fronted such bands as Cap’n Jazz, Owls, Friend/Enemy and Joan of Arc. His writing has appeared in The Chicago Reader, Monsters & Dust, and Stop Smiling.

For more info:

Click here for info about Adam.

Click here for info about Tim.

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Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books present The Fiction Feed: AWP Edition 3/1

Published on December 15, 2011 0 Comments
Mar ’12
1
7:00 pm

Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books present
The Fiction Feed: AWP Edition

Joyland Magazine and Dzanc Books are two innovative publishers pushing fiction with great writing and new means of print and digital distribution. Join us for an evening with four writers, hailing from Chicago, New York and Vancouver. Hosted by Joyland co-founder Brian Joseph Davis and Dzanc co-publisher Dan Wickett.

READERS

Eugene Cross has published work in Narrative Magazine, American Short Fiction, Story Quarterly and Callaloo, among other journals. He is the recipient of scholarships from the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He currently lives in Chicago. Fires of Our Choosing (Dzanc) is his first book.

Kevin Chong is the author of four books, including his acclaimed debut Baroque-a-Nova (Penguin) and the travelogue Neil Young Nation (Douglas & McIntyre). His new novel from Arsenal Pulp is titled Beauty Plus Pity. He lives in Vancouver and is a section editor for Joyland.

Jeff Parker is the author of the novel Ovenman (Tin House) and the story collection The Taste of Penny (Dzanc). He co-edited the anthologies Amerika: Russian Writers View the United States and Rasskazy: New Fiction from a New Russia. His nonfiction book Igor in Crisis: A Russian Journal is forthcoming from HarperCollins.

Megan Stielstra is a writer, storyteller and the literary director for 2nd Story, Chicago’s urban storytelling series. She has performed for the Goodman Theatre, the Chicago Poetry Center and National Public Radio. She teaches in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College. Her debut collection of stories, Everyone Remain Calm, is now available from Joyland/ECW Press.

For more info: joylandmagazine.com and dzancbooks.org

Thursday, March 1, 7PM