FREE this week in Atlanta:
“The Prophet’s Country”: A Celebration of the Life and Work of Flannery O’Connor
Tuesday, September 25 and Wednesday, September 26
Emory University Libraries – Atlanta
For more info call (404) 727-7620 or visit the website.
Who remembers the first time you read Flannery O’Connor? Perhaps it’s something akin to when assholes read Ayn Rand for the first time. I was in an elite (at least we thought so) group of students in high school who were privileged to work on the school’s literary magazine, which meant we spent second period doing third period’s homework, reading our schoolmates’ ludicrous teenage poetry out loud, going to Hardee’s with the cross country team and the autistic kids in special ed, and pissing around. Sometimes our teacher would let us root around in the English book room and turn a blind eye when we loaded up our backpacks with old editions and books no longer in the curriculum. We went batshit crazy in there – you don’t set a bunch of lit nerds loose in a room full of musty books and expect them not to rob you blind. I found a 1962 volume of O’Connor’s two novels and short story collection A Good Man is Hard to Find. I’d read some short stories in past English (or “Language Arts”) classes and was curious by the illustration on the cover of a man driving an old car with a sign that said “Church of Christ Without Christ.” And I find that the older I get and the more complicated things like race, religion, and fear become to me, the more meaningful O’Connor’s writing is. Take advantage of Emory Libraries’ acquistion and exhibition of Flannery O’Connor’s letters to Betty Hester this fall.
Amy Sedaris
Friday, September 28
Decatur Recreation Center – 231 Sycamore Street, Decatur
Presented by Wordsmiths Books
For more info see the website.
The last time I tried to catch Amy Sedaris in town (when she was reading from I Like You at the Decatur Library) the Feed and Seed Marching Abominable was performing for Sedaristas waiting anxiously in line with their various paraphanelia clutched closely to their chests and their life partners held even closer. Nothing augments a marching band’s volume like the interior of a concrete parking garage. In the end, I flaked out and didn’t see Amy Sedaris because I was in line right where the spillover room started and someone with bad B.O. and a pungent leather jacket had already beat me to the room. It just wasn’t worth it. I went home and watched the Strangers With Candy episode wherein Jerri and Laird are secretly dating. “I’ve recently learned something about self-respect – that I don’t have any.”
That all goes to say, follow Wordsmiths’ advice and get there early. Also check out Wordsmiths at 141 E. Trinity Place in Decatur – it’s sunny and beautiful, they have a good magazine collection, there’s good parking if you’re jetting over on your lunch break, and they’ll order anything for you.
Tags: books, log ladies
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