'solstice' by Jan Adkins

[bamamick]

Published by WoodenBoat Books. I am on a mini-vacation at the beach, and ordered this book and the book 'sloop' from the WoodenBoat Store. I read it last night and enjoyed it. Reminded me of a book I bought in Maine a long time ago called 'the Enchanted'. I think I still have that one in storage from the move three years ago.

Maine is rich is local stories and storytellers. I wish Alabama had as much local literature. It is hard to find stories about my home (New Orleans is as close as it gets most of the time). Most any bookseller in Maine has a section devoted to Maine authors. I like that.

Mickey Lake

[Paul Pless]

Listening to Edward Osbourne Wilson being interviewed right now. Interesting guy, I think he calls Birmingham home now, yet grew up in Mobile. His novel, Anthill is set in South Alabama.

[bamamick]

Paul, you know about things in Montgomery (two of my kids graduated from college in 'the Gump' as they call it, but bookstores don't seem to be in their sphere of interest), but in Mobile there's a store on Dauphin Street downtown (Bienville Books), and they seem to be the only place around that wants to focus on local writers.

In an aside, my niece's newest play is to be performed by the Shakespeare Festival beginning next January. It's a piece set in the days of the Civil War, with the story centering on a gentleman who publicly was a heavy supporter of the Confederate government, but privately had something to do with moving slaves north through Alabama, probably to western Tennessee. She gave me a quick rundown of it and she seems pleased. Not really something she wanted to do, but the Festival pays her way, and in the end she said she wound up really liking the story.

Mickey Lake

[Paul Pless]

The Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery Alabama? That place is awesome! Have you been? Some really big plays, playwrights, and actors come through there. If I'm in town I'll try to catch the play.

Montgomery has no independent bookstores. Only a Barnes & Noble and a Books a Million. Detroit on the other has several jewels. Katherine and I sometimes will spend an entire day visiting used and rare booksellers. I really love this place, over a million books.



Hey I listened to that interview of Edward Osbourne Wilson, and that novel sounds pretty cool, its really centered on the conservation efforts to save a silvaculture based on a longleaf pine forest in Alabama. I had no idea until hearing his interview that the original virgin pine forests stretching across the South, including virtually all of Alabama, contained the most amount of biodiversity of any ecology in North America.

[bamamick]

According to Dr. Doug whatisname from Alabama public tv (you remember. The guy that walked around in the Talledega National forest with the John Deere cap on his head and the yellow lab with him every step of the way?) Alabama is the most ecologically diverse state in the lower 48. The fault line between Mobile and Baldwin counties is quite striking (Mobile is 14 feet above sea level iirc, the eastern shore is 100 feet in places). You've got the Wiregrass counties. The Blackbelt. 1/6 of all fresh water that falls east of the Rockies finds it's way into Mobile Bay. You've got the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains in the northeast. For a naturalist Alabama has it going on.

My niece, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, wrote the play 'Gees Bend', which was commissioned and performed by the ASF. I have been many times, though I tend to lean towards Shakespeare, and if possible, comedies. They do an absolutely first class job in Montgomery and it is one of the things that Alabamians can really be proud of.

Fairhope has a small independent bookstore called the Page and Pallette, and they will quite often feature local writers, but by and large it's BAM and B&N, just like in Montgomery. Brenda and I have been spending a few Sunday afternoons walking around downtown Mobile though, and Bienville Books is a pretty cool store.

Mickey Lake