Beacon Broadside

On Tour

Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter
of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Leslie Morgan

An interview with authors DeWolf and Morgan on NPR’s Tell Me More aired Christmas Day.

The authors begin the West Coast leg of their tour this
weekend. The entire month of January, they’ll be making appearances in
Washington, Oregon, California, and Colorado. Check out their website for more info.

SEATTLE, WA: January 6, 2013, 2:00pm: Northwest African American Museum.
2300 South Massachusetts St., Seattle, WA; sponsored by New Legacy Puget Sound. Book sales
by Elliott Bay Book Company. 

ELLENSBERG, WA: January 8, 2013, 7:00pm: Central Washington University. 

PULLMAN, WA: January 10, 2013, 7:00pm: Washington State University.

REDMOND, OR: January 11, 2013, 6:30pm: Paulina Springs Books.

SISTERS, OR: January 12, 2013, 6:30pm: Paulina Springs Books.

PORTLAND, OR: January 13, 2013, 7:30pm: Powell’s Books.

PORTLAND, OR: January 14, 2013, 12:00 noon: The Portland
Building. Sponsored by DEEP (Diverse
and Empowered Employees of Portland)

BEND, OR: January 15, 2013, 6:30pm: Bend’s Community
Center 1036 NE 5th Street.

BERKELY, CA: January 18, 2013, 4:00pm: University of
California at Berkeley.
Chevron Auditorium, International
House. Sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Equity &
Inclusion.

WALNUT CREEK, CA: January 19, 2013, 2:00pm: Mt. Diablo
Unitarian Universalist Church. Co-sponsored by the Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA: January 20, 2013, 2:00pm: Museum of the African Diaspora.

PASADENA, CA: January 23, 2013, 5:00pm: La
Pintoresca Library.

SANTA MONICA, CA: January 25, 2013, 7:00pm: location in Santa
Monica TBA: sponsored by CARE/Multicultural Healing.

POMONA, CA: January 26, 2013: 2:00pm: Pomona First Christian Church.

DENVER, CO: January 29, 2013: 7:00pm: University of Denver.

DENVER, CO: January 30, 2013: 6:30, meet the
authors; 7:00 program begins: Park Hill
United Methodist Church. The
evening program will open with a performance by Sankofa, an ensemble of
the Spirituals
Project Choir.

 

Notable Appearances & Mentions

Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground
with the Religious by Chris Stedman

These are just the highlights. Faitheist has been everywhere recently! Check out his website or follow him on Twitter to keep up to date.

The
Melissa Harris-Perry Show/MSNBC (MSNBC also published a piece by Chris on
their website. “In
the Wake of Newtown, Why Blame Atheists?”

Utne Reader
review in January/February issue.

Interview with Amy Goetzman at Minnpost.com
books: “As I read your book, at several places I was struck by how brave you
are.”

A playlist on Largeheartedboy
from Chris about music that relates the book.

A post by Chris on Patheos
about reactions to Faitheist.

 

 

Best of 2012

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

PW’s year end round up included this
article by Robert Atwan on the 10 best essays written since 1950. “Notes of
a Native Son” is #1.

Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Titles for 2012: 

Let the Students
Speak!: A History of the Fight for Free Expression in American Schools
by David L. Hudson 

Prophetic
Encounters: Religion and the American Radical Tradition by Dan McKanan 

 

The Land Grabbers: The New Fight over Who Owns
the Earth by Fred Pearce

Bloomberg’s
BusinessWeek best books of 2012

 

A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a
nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years
later to become the lovely lady she is today by Kate Bornstein

Washington
Blade’s roundup of 2012’s best LGBT books

 

Coming Soon

Into Great Silence by Eva Saulitis (Jan. 15)

Booklist review, Jan
01: “Saulitis’ stunning and sorrowful ‘book of contemplation’ elucidates the
discipline, tedium, danger, and bliss of whale studies… Candid, transfixing,
and cautionary, Saulitis celebrates and mourns for a wondrous and imperiled
species.” 

 

Intensive Care: A Doctor’s Journey by Danielle
Ofri (March 05)

New
York Times op-ed: "Labs, Washed Away"

 

 

Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined
Peace in the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi (March 12)

Kirkus Reviews in print (Jan. 15) and online
(Jan. 01): “in sharp, take-no-prisoners prose, Khalidi maintains that the U.S.
and Israel… have conspired to deny Palestinians any semblance of
self-determination.  A stinging indictment of one-sided policymaking
destined, if undisturbed, to result in even greater violence.”

“Drawing on his own experience as
a Palestinian negotiator and recently released documents, Rashid Khalidi mounts
a frontal attack on the myths and misconceptions that have come to surround
America’s role in the so-called “peace process” which is all process and no
peace. The title is not too strong:  the book demonstrates conclusively
that far from serving as an honest broker, the US continues to act as Israel’s lawyer
– with dire consequences for its own interests, for the Palestinians, and for
the entire region. Professor Khalidi deserves much credit for his superb
exposition of the fatal gap between the rhetoric and reality of American
diplomacy on this critically important issue.” —Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International
Relations at Oxford and author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World.

 

Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods by Christine
Byl (April 16)

"Every denizen of wild places
from Laotse to St. Francis to Rachel Carson to black bears to field mice has
depended upon trails. But rarely have we considered the people, tools, or toil
that lay our favorite trails down. Dirt Work is a spectacular correction of
this omission. Imbued with a tough-minded, ribald reverence for honest labor
that brings to mind a female Gary Snyder or Wendell Berry (if you can imagine
that!), Christine Byl does epic justice to the whole-bodied satisfactions that
come of staying out in the weather, staying alert, and working one’s ass off
for others with love, tenacity and skill."  —David James Duncan,
author of The River Why and Sun House.

“Christine Byl has been summering
on trail crews for more than a decade and a half. A first-rate storyteller, she
details the techniques and tools, and the spirit of fellowship and feel of the
woods. If you love getting into the back country, or even if you're an armchair
backpacker as I am now at age eighty, you'll love Dirt Work.” 
  –William Kittredge, author of Hole in the Sky and The
Nature of Generosity

“Byl’s is not a world of groomed
nature, inert tools, or nostalgic rituals, but a vibrant landscape inhabited by
people and animals and layered by idea and history. She means this book as a
love song, she writes, and it is, not only from her to her fellow laborers, but
from the mind to the body, the hand to the tool, the human to the wild.” —Sherry
Simpson, author of The Accidental Explorer: Wayfinding in Alaska

 

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