February is a busy month at Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café, with a variety of book launches and events to entice all readers. On Wednesday, February 6, at 6 p.m., Leonard Pitts, Jr., presents his historical novel The Last Thing You Surrender: A Novel of World War II. This new tale from the Pulitzer-winning journalist follows three characters in the Jim Crow South during World War II, exploring themes of race relations, patriotism and moral conflict.
On Thursday, February 7, at 6 p.m., author and columnist Robert Turner will launch his new book, Carrots Don’t Grow on Trees: Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities. The book explores changing food culture and the importance of the ‘grow local’ and ‘farm-to-table’ movements. “My book is about the importance of local food production and building community strength and resilience,” says Turner. Also an entrepreneur, Turner owns an organic farm and works as the executive director of the Creekside Farm Education Center. Several groups, including the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP), Organic Growers School and MANNA FoodBank, will be present at Turner’s book launch to discuss their work in supporting the local food web and providing access to healthy food. “The Asheville region is very fortunate to have some important groups that help to protect and preserve our local food production infrastructure,” Turner says. “I hope that people will show up to learn more and support these groups that provide the critical infrastructure to our health, food sovereignty, security and strength.”
Judy Goldman will present her book, Together: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap, on Wednesday, February 13, at 6 p.m. Together explores how Goldman’s life changed when her husband of 40 years was paralyzed from the waist down by a routine medical procedure. “My book is about the life we dream of and the life we make,” says Goldman. “My talk at Malaprop’s will deal with the ever-after part of marriage. I’ll explore how marriages are always moving into a new and unfamiliar world where we have never been before. These shifts do not necessarily cause a marriage to falter. They can strengthen it, if we take the aerial view and keep creating our marriage as if from scratch.”
On Thursday, February 14, at 6 p.m., scholar and poet DaMaris Hill presents her book A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland. An assistant professor of creative writing and African American and Africana studies at the University of Kentucky, Hill’s previous works include The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage and Jim Crow: Staking Claims in the American Heartland, as well as a collection of poetry, \Vi-ze-bel\\Teks-chers\. A former service member of the United States Air Force, Hill has two doctorates, one in English and one in women and gender studies. A Bound Woman offers short biographies of black women in American history, followed by poetry celebrating those women.
Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café is located at 55 Haywood Street in downtown Asheville. To learn more about these and other events, visit Malaprops.com.