Bookstock

April 30 - May 7, 2006
Laurel Park Place - Livonia

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Bookstock, the area's largest
used book and media sale where all proceeds benefit literacy and education
projects in metropolitan Detroit, will be held Sunday, April 30 through
Sunday, May 7 at Livonia's Laurel Park Place.

A true book lover's paradise, Bookstock has tens of thousands of donated
used books, DVDs, CDs, books on tape, magazines and records for sale at
bargain basement prices. Savvy shoppers and collectors can get first crack at
the Bookstock Pre-Sale on Sunday, April 30 from 8:45 - 11:45 a.m. The sale
will continue through Sunday May 7, running Sundays, noon-6:00 p.m. and Monday
- Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. There is a $10.00 admission charge for the
Bookstock Pre-Sale only. Books will be sold for half-price on Sunday, May 7,
the last day of the sale.

Now in its fourth year, Bookstock is presented by The Friends of Literacy,
a group of area literacy and educational organizations. Detroit Free Press
columnist Rochelle Riley is Bookstock's Honorary Chairperson. All of the books
and media items sold at Bookstock are donated at collection sites throughout
the year. These donations continue to provide reading enjoyment and promote
learning by funding education and literacy projects in Detroit and throughout
the metropolitan area. More than 700 volunteers work together throughout the
year to collect and sort donations and organize and staff the weeklong
Bookstock sale.

Bookstock is sponsored by the Detroit Jewish Coalition for Literacy, the
Oakland Literacy Council, the Detroit Jewish News, CBL & Associates
Properties, Inc., and a consortium of Jewish communal non-profit organizations
which support education and literacy throughout metro Detroit.

Laurel Park Place is located on 6 Mile Road, east of I-275 in Livonia

Detroit Noir--The '08 Tour

Detroit Noir editors John and EJ are out of rehab, and ready to go back on the road.

The '08 Tour kicks off tomorrow night at seven at Borders in Grosse Pointe, and Saturday at noon (noon?) at the Borders in the Southland Mall in Taylor. There shall be readings, signings, Q&A, text messaging, and bowling challenges.

Click on the link for the Detroit Noir blog for store addresses, phone numbers, and all the other details we count on the newly-sober editing team to get right.

Hope to see you there.

Elmore Leonard

You’re feeling at a loss, can’t pin down why, then it hits you: It’s been more than a year since you read any Elmore Leonard.

What happens next is, you’re on your second or third Elmore Leonard novel in a row, with a stack growing at your elbow, and no inclination to read anything written by anyone else ever again.

This go-round started with City Primeval: High Noon In Detroit (1980), which reads something like a landlocked version of Charles Willeford’s Miami Blues (1984). The book has two endings. The first made me laugh, and then made my skin crawl. The second ending is initially more pleasing; tidier...but just you wait a day or two, and it'll catch up to ya.

Next: Pronto (1993) is from the stretch of books (beginning with Get Shorty) that had lazy critics touting Leonard as a writer of comic novels. (Funny yes, comic no.) I’m near the end of this book now, and I think it works better than, say, Get Shorty or Maximum Bob, thanks to its great straight man U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens. Also: the very best joke in the book is a plot point that no one mentions. Not even the author. Now that’s funny.

Sitting at my elbow, God help me: Glitz (1985), Stick (1983 – Swag, wherein the character of Stick was introduced, is one of my favorites) and Valdez Is Coming (1970).

I hope that I’ll get caught up in March Madness, though, and save some Elmore Leonard for another time.

Traveled, Bought, Read

Just back from a week in San Francisco, a city I knew only through Hammett, Kerouac, and Vertigo.

If I was ten years younger I wouldn’t have come back.

Bought:

The Prone Gunman, Jean-Patrick Manchette
Never Live Twice, Dan J. Marlowe
Kill The Boss Goodbye, Peter Rabe
Zero Cool, John Lange
Money Shot, Christa Faust
The Sisters,
The Amateur,
The October Circle, Robert Littell
The Tears of Autumn,
The Secret Lovers,
Second Sight,
The Last Supper, Charles McCarry

Read:

Missionary Stew, Ross Thomas
Myself When I Am Real, Gene Santoro (Charles Mingus bio)

Reading:

Back To The Badlands: Crime Writing In The USA, John Williams
Money Shot, Christa Faust