Stan Cox: LOSING OUR COOL: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)
Tuesday 7/6/2010 7pm Manuel’s Tavern, A cappella Books

In America, and especially across the South, air conditioning has become a summer way of life, as ubiquitous as cookouts and baseball. And as climate change continues to push the mercury upward, the role that A/C plays during the sultry times of the year promises to rise along with it. But despite the integral place air conditioners occupy in the modern world, it's rare that they are paid much mind – unless they break or fall victim to a power outage, that is.

With the release of Stan Cox's new book, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer), however, the myriad problems posed by the world's fast-increasing reliance on air conditioning is being revealed. The first book to tackle the weighty issue of air conditioning's effects on energy use – and thus its role in feeding the warming trend it is being used to combat – as well as on our health itself, Cox's work "offers much for consumers, environmentalists, and policy makers to consider before powering up to cool down," as its recent review in Publishers Weekly read. Losing Our Cool is a thoroughly researched, sweeping account of what lies ahead for our artificially cooled world.
A scientist and environmental writer who currently works at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, Cox spent time in Florida, Arizona and India working on the book. His research uncovered astonishing details of the ways in which air conditioning has taken hold of our lives, including the facts that the amount of energy used to power home air-conditioning systems in America, as well as the greenhouse emissions they produce, has doubled over just the last decade, and energy devoted to cooling the country's retail stores has risen by two-thirds. Six out of every seven gallons of diesel fuel imported by the U.S. into Iraq and Afghanistan goes toward running air conditioners. And amazingly, the amount of electricity Americans use for air conditioners each year is equal to what it takes to power the entire continent of Africa. In addition to those eye-popping details of air conditioning's role in energy use, Cox presents troubling accounts of the technology's effects on rates of infection, allergy, asthma and obesity.
As summer turns up the heat outdoors and inevitably leads us to turn to air conditioning to keep it down indoors, Cox's new book is sure to spark lively discussions of just where all the Freon-induced comfort is leading.

Julie Andrews: THE VERY FAIRY PRINCESS
Friday July 9, 6pm Little Shop of Stories

As any library staff member will tell you, there can never be too many princess stories. Geraldine leads a rather ordinary life, and each page highlights a part of her mundane day. However, in the grand tradition of other literary, bedazzled mini-divas, Geraldine's imagination and love for the color pink brighten the daily grind of being a scab-kneed little girl. Readers will enjoy Geraldine's princess attitude and the vibrant fantasy brought to life through Davenier's ink and colored pencil illustrations.
While her friends and family may not believe in fairies, Geraldine knows, deep down, that she is a VERY fairy princess. From morning to night, Gerry does everything that fairy princesses do: she dresses in her royal attire, practices her flying skills, and she is always on the lookout for problems to solve. But it isn't all twirls and tiaras - as every fairy princess knows, dirty fingernails and scabby knees are just the price you pay for a perfect day! This new picture book addition to the Julie Andrews Collection features the joyful illustrations of Christine Davenier, and is sure to inspire that sparkly feeling within the hearts of readers young and old.

Jon Clinch: KINGS OF THE EARTH
Monday, July 12, 2010 7pm Georgia Center for the Book

In Clinch’s multilayered, pastoral second novel (after Finn), a death among three elderly, illiterate brothers living together on an upstate New York farm raises suspicions and accusations in the surrounding community. After their beloved mother, Ruth, dies, Audie, considered mentally "fragile," is devastated, but goes on tending to the Carversville farm with his brothers Vernon and Creed. When Vernon, frail at 60 and not under a doctor’s care, dies in his bed with evidence of asphyxiation, Creed is interrogated by troopers, along with Audie, the brother closest to Vernon. Family histories and troubles are divulged in short chapters by a cacophony of characters speaking in first person. Secrets and hidden alliances are revealed: Vernon’s nephew, Tom, grew and sold marijuana, which the family used medicinally; the brothers endured painful, bloody haircuts administered by their father. Alongside the police troopers’ investigation, each player contributes his own personal perspectives and motivations, including allusions to homosexual behavior. Inspired by the Ward brothers (of the 1992 documentary My Brother’s Keeper), Clinch explores family dynamics in this quiet storm of a novel that will stun readers with its power.

With an h/t to Vene Franco, here's my to do list:

• Eat
• Pray
• Love
• drink herbal tea from a Verb mug.

Reviews from the press

What happens when you take a quality literary journal and send it out on a CD? A great sampling of contemporary poetry, fiction and music, as Verb adeptly proves with its inaugural issue.--Lit Kicks

Verb ably demonstrates that the sound of poetry and fiction being read aloud reaches into territories that simply cannot be mapped by the printed page. --Library Journal

... broadens the traditional definition of a literary journal. --Poets and Writers

For those who think it's OK to read while driving, allow us to introduce you to Verb--a literature-focused audio quarterly, combining prose, poetry and original music on two CDs.--Paste Magazine

The latest literary trend harkens back to ancient oral tradition. This Atlanta-based quarterly audio magazine combines fiction, poetry, and music from many of the country's best writers.--Southern Living

Contemporary scribes like Marjory Wentworth read their own verse on Verb, an audio-literary magazine that launched last month, promising "great writing in a new form."--

Fortunately, not a speck of dust settles on Verb's debut issue, thanks mostly to the choice of nervy, compelling fiction.--Creative Loafing

Sometimes a helping hand comes from the unlikeliest of people. Some are friends. Some are associates. Some are strangers. But as a rule, you should never ever expect an assist from the deceased. That is unless you’re Daren Wang, and it’s your mission to put together something the world has never seen or heard before.--The Charleston City Paper

I see all of these developments as great supplements to my reading regime, but I wonder if one day, hearing literature will be more common than reading it. Could the printed word ever go the way of the eight-track? --The Book Standard

Listen to fiction, music and poetry while you jog. --St. Petersburg Times

The two-CD first volume retails for $19.95 and contains a blend of original fiction, poetry, and music that ... is unlike anything else that's available. --Publishers Weekly

Hundreds of literary magazines crowd the market, but a new one being launched Sept. 10 is bound to be heard loud and clear.--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Verb is an idea whose time has come, an audioquarterly that features prizewinning writers like Tom Franklin and Robert Olen Butler reading their own work, musicians as good as Peter Case, and poetry too. Verb has everything but an aural centerfold.
--William Gay Author of I HATE TO SEE THAT EVENING SUN GO DOWN and THE LONG HOME

Verb 1991

The very first iteration of Verb came about in 1991 when Daren Wang, Ed Hall, Trey Wood and Nicole Williams launched a literary magazine on cassette. We really had no idea what we were doing, but the issue came together pretty well. I still have a 1" master tape with all this material on it, but haven't seen a machine that would play it in years. Luckily, we moved it to DAT for duplication, and that still survives as well. Now it's available for download--a technological breakthrough. Kodac Harrison and Dave Webb supplied the music. Inexorable Progress by Mary Hood. She allowed us to reprint this fine, but grim story. Gregory Nichol reads. My Big Dog by Zac Imboden. PETA would not be pleased. Read by Eileen Kimble. Scenes from the Cafe de la Luna by Nicole Williams. Nicole narrated this also. Quirky and fun. There is another issue which requires a DAT transfer. Someday.

Verb 1

Verb 1 features poetry from Thomas Lux, Marjory Wentworth, and James Dickey, Fiction from Robert Olen Butler, Tom Franklin and Ha Jin, and music from Stuart Dybek. Opening Hungry Gap Time by Thomas Lux Hitler's Slippers by Thomas Lux Man Peddling Next to His Bicycle by Thomas Lux A Clearing, A Meadow, in Deep Forest by Thomas Lux My Malaria by Thomas Lux My Malaria by Stuart Dybek In Broad Daylight pt. 1 by Ha Jin (read by Jennifer Deer) In Broad Daylight pt. 2 by Ha Jin (read by Jennifer Deer) In Broad Daylight pt. 3 by Ha Jin (read by Jennifer Deer) In Broad Daylight pt. 4 by Ha Jin (read by Jennifer Deer) In Broad Daylight pt. 5 by Ha Jin (read by Jennifer Deer)

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