Book Events: Jan. 26th – Feb 2nd

Lots of things going on these days in and around the bookstores and Birmingham libraries. It’s going to get tougher to choose which three book events to highlight each week, but that’s part of the fun I suppose.

There are some big annual library book sales coming up soon too. So stay tuned. Here are three author signings and/or book events you may be interested if you live in the Birmingham, AL area:

January 28th at 6:30 p.m. – the Avondale library is hosting their free January Adaptations After Party where they will be discussing and comparing both the book and movie versions of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

January 30th at 5 p.m. – James Scott author of The Kept, a novel of revenge set in 1897 rural New York,  will be signing at Alabama Booksmith.

February 1st from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. – the downtown Birmingham Library is hosting their annual Local Author Expo. This event is one of the more eclectic and colorful author signings in town. It’s always good fun to chat with these hometown authors.

Typography Scarf

Baby, it’s cold outside! While this typography scarf isn’t the most insulating, it’s certainly a gift a book lover would appreciate. The entire scarf is made up of uppercase letters and assembled in a jumble.

Typography Scarf

It looks pretty nifty. It looks to be only available overseas (but they do ship to the U.S.). And it also goes out of stock very very fast. So if this typographic scarf is something you want, check back often and be ready to pounce. They also have a place to enter your email to be notified when it’s back in stock.

The Uppercase Scarf retails for  £48.00 which is around $80. Not bad for a truly unique gift for the book lover in your life.

The Strain on Fox

Wait!? What!? How could I miss this? The Strain, one of my favorite sci-fi trilogy series, from a couple of years ago, is being made into a TV-mini-series by the author himself Guillermo Del Toro!

Here is the only teaser or trailer-related bit I could find for The Strain, which apparently will be on the Fox network:

The teaser doesn’t show much, but I have complete confidence in Mr. del Toro that this will be as close to the books as possible. So it has to be good, right? This is all Wikipedia as on it, which seems a little out of date.

The Strain Trilogy

The Strain trilogy was a good blend of classic sci-fi, vampires and tech. So if you like two out of those three you may like these books. But if you don’t like vampires, then I’d pass if I were you. All three books were fun reads and the series ended on a pretty big note. So go read the books. And then get ready for The Strain on Fox TV this Summer.

Have any of you read these books?

Book Events: Jan. 19th-Jan.26th

Things are starting to pick up around town. There are a lot more author events and book events appearing on calendars around Birmingham. Looks like 2014 is getting under way!

Here are three events this next week that would be of interest to book loving folks in the area:

January 23rd from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. – Theresa K. Thorn, author of Noah’s Wife will be speaking and signing at the Vestavia Hills Library.

January 23rd from 2 p.m. until 5 p .m.  – Gus Mayer will host a book signing with Jane Weitzman who will be there talking about her new book Heart & Sole, which focuses on shoes and clever “art shoes.

January 25th from 2 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. – author Robert Inman will be at the Pelham Library signing copies of his latest book The Governor’s Lady. Inman will be signing any of his books… but you have to bring your own copies! The library will not have books there to sell.

Books, Publishing and Birmingham