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…

For Mystery Lovers (via Mystery Lovers Bookshop): 

• Tess Gerritsen & Lisa Gardner–together for a Summertime Thriller Chiller at MLB (with popsicles!) July 16 at 7pm
• MLB’s “Coffee & Crime” author breakfast series with Harry Dolan, July 24 at 10am.  Click here for $5 tickets.

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Summertime Romance (via Booktour.com):

• Pittsburgh-based romance author Gwyn Cready at the Carnegie Museum of Art July 8 at 6:30 pm.

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Wanderlust:

Author Brad Herzog is coming to the Pittsburgh area for two events on his book tour–at the Joseph-Beth on the South Side, July 12 at 7pm, and at the Butler Area Public Library on July 1 at 6pm.  Here’s the book trailer for his new book, Turn Left at the Trojan Horse.  Skip ahead to the 1-minute mark where the video gets good.

The New Yinzer –what can I say?  I love the cheeky title, the blend of Pittsburgh attitude and the tip of the hat to the mag that I both love (Shouts & Murmurs) and hate (the elitism).  For those who don’t know, The New Yinzer is a literary magazine based in Pittsburgh, which started out online in 2002—and their website is a must-visit, with fresh new poetry, fiction, criticism, and interviews, but also, the visual art is amazing.  I particularly liked the photo essay on the G20 summit.

The New Yinzer also has a reading series—you can find out more on their blog The New Yinzer Presents.  They’ve published 3 anthologies: Dirt, Pittsburgh Love Stories, and For A Time We Wanted Something New, and I hope to have reviews on Books N’at soon.