Here we go!  Steelers-themed books to get you even more pumped for the Stairway to Seven.  Many of these can also be found at your local bookstore or at http://www.indiebound.org/.

As we gear up for Superbowl Sunday (woot!), here’s a quick, one-question survey:

We’ll be sharing & discussing the results.

And now…   let us leave you with the Steelers Polka:

Photo via boringpittsburgh.com

A few quick updates.  Sadly, the South Side Joseph-Beth is closing.  We have some wonderful bookshops in the area such as Mystery Lovers and Caliban Books, but this was a great place for events, general book-buying, and a spacious and bright store.  It will be missed.  Near this time last year, the Squirrel Hill B&N closed.

On a brighter note–Pittsburgher  and Post-Gazette reporter Len Barcousky is doing an event for his new book, Remembering Pittsburgh, today at the Fire Escape CoffeeHouse.   Find out more in the Post-Gazette article.   They’ll be donating $2 to the Allegheny County Library Association’s Bookmobile Center for each copy sold.

On December 3, the Gist Street reading series has a great lineup: Holly Goddard Jones, author of Girl Trouble, and poet Jericho Brown.  If you haven’t been to Gist Street yet, please go.  Author John McNally says, “If you want your art without the pretension, your surroundings cozy without being claustrophobic, your hosts friendly rather than brooding, I urge you to check out the fiction and poetry readings at Gist Street.”

And Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures has two events coming up worth checking out: Andrew Ross Sorkin, the author of Too Big to Fail, on November 15, and Lee Child, author of 61 Hours on December 6.

Author Brad Herzog is coming to Pittsburgh on tour for his quirky, modern-day homage to The Odyssey.   He’s speaking and signing books tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on the South Side at 7pm, and tomorrow he’ll be at the Butler Public Library at 6pm.

Brad’s book, Turn Left at the Trojan Horse, is a cross-country excursion in the spirit of the ancient journey of the first road trip in history–The Odyssey.

But instead of a voyage home to Ithaka following the Trojan War, Herzog made his way toward his alma mater in Ithaca, New York. With middle age bearing down on him and a college reunion on his agenda, he asked himself: How has he measured up to his youthful aspirations? What constitutes a life well-lived? In this day and age, what makes a hero?

To answer those classic questions, Brad crafted an itinerary taking him through classically-named places.  He says, “I went to places like Troy, Oregon (population 50), not far from Hell’s Canyon. And Iliad, Montana, which can only be reached by traveling about 40 miles down a dirt-and-gravel road. And Siren, Wisconsin, which was almost completely destroyed by a tornado a few years ago. And other tiny towns with names like Athena and Apollo and Atlas.”

Read more…

There are so many great Pittsburgh poets, screenwriters, playwrights, and authors of fiction and nonfiction. Here’s a quick list—by no means comprehensive—of writers who are either from the ‘burgh, lived here for a time, or have set their work in our fine city. Please let me know of any authors you’d like to add.

• Rachel Carson-Silent Spring…
• Michael Chabon-The Mysteries of Pittsburgh*, Wonder Boys*, Werewolves in their Youth: Stories,A Model World and Other Stories, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Summerland,The Final Solution: A Story of Detection…
• Willa Cather- My Antonia, O Pioneers!, Death Comes for the Archbishop…
• Annie Dillard- An American Childhood*, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,Teaching a Stone to Talk, For the Time Being,The Writing Life and more …
• Patricia Dobler-Talking to Strangers*, Collected Poems…
• Anne Gibbons-The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors…
• Samuel Hazo- The Pittsburgh That Stays Within You, Holy Surprise of Right Now,One Poem at a Time…
• Magaret Hodges- Saint George and the Dragon*,If You Had a Horse, and over 50 more children’s books…
• David McCullough- John Adams, Truman, The Johnstown Flood…
• Nathaniel Philbrick- In The Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex,Sea of Glory…
• August Wilson- Fences*, The Piano Lesson, Jitney, King Hedley II,Three Plays, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom…