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Black History Month: "America's Mandela" brings in the celebration at the Carter Library

by Clara Nibbelink

Bryan Stevenson, a criminal rights lawyer and executive director (and founder) of the Equal Justice Initiative, was dubbed "America's Mandela" by Desmond Tutu, and boy, does the name fit.

Like his namesake, Stevenson works tirelessly for freedom and justice for all, refusing to accept that "that's just the way things are" when one hears that if current imprisonment trends continue, 1 in 3 black men will spend time in jail during their lifetime. Perhaps this is why Stevenson was seen as the perfect fit for President Obama's recently created Task Force on 21st Century Policing, of which Stevenson is a vital member.

We hosted Stevenson at the Carter Library last week. It was a Wednesday night, and the house was packed. I got in late and sat on the floor by the wall in the overflow seating room, watching Stevenson on a screen while he spoke, in person, to other members of my community right next door. The audience was no more white than it was black, no more black than it was white. And Stevenson was, even on a screen, riveting.

You may have heard of Stevenson before--he gave a Ted Talk in 2012, the first place many people heard his now oft-quoted maxim: "The opposite of poverty is not wealth--the opposite of poverty is justice." If you missed him then, you might have caught him on The Daily Show opposite Jon Stewart late last year just after his book premiered. His book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, is a memoir and call to action that chronicles his first case fighting for the exoneration of an innocent man on death row--the case of Walter McMillan, who, in 1988 in Monroeville, Alabama (the setting of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird), was sentenced to death by a judge named Robert E. Lee Key, Jr., for the murder of a white woman. Stevenson won the case. (It's for this reason that is also called "a modern day Atticus Finch.")

What makes Stevenson so captivating (and radical and effective), is that he doesn't allow his story to be dumbed down or misinterpreted. His message is very clear: The legal system is broken. The legal system is racist. The legal system must be changed. And the way to change it, Stevenson says, is through hope. Through changing America. Through changing the narrative that we have about African-Americans in America. The spookiest part of Stevenson's speech--and he mentions this in the Jon Stewart interview as well--was that he said, you go to Germany, you go to Bosnia, you go to South Africa, and you see people contending with the atrocities committed there. You see truth and reconciliation. While over there the message is "never forget," in America you see people trying to forget.

Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative are doing everything in their power to fight--not just legal battles--but battles of narrative. He published a calendar (a copy of which is now hanging in our shop) that puts a historical marker on each day with a racially-motivated crime that took place in our history. The calendar is chock full. Almost no day is clear. Stevenson is against the celebration of the Confederacy, of the sharing of Martin Luther King Day with Robert E. Lee Day in the deep South (where he lives). He says that where others see a celebration of a particular culture, he sees a whitewashed history of oppression which he has no wish to celebrate. He's not wrong.

Stevenson's points will make you squirm. "We're sending children to prison," he says. "Children." He brings mental illness to the forefront, noting that sending a mentally ill person to death row just gets easier and easier. Noting also that the mentally ill people locked up are disproportionately poor and black. That the system was against them from the beginning. "Our criminal justice system treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent." Again, he's not wrong.

But Stevenson's message--his prescription for change--is one of unrelenting hope. He says that the reason the system doesn't work is because those inside of it have become cynical, have given up, and are fighting for the wrong reasons. He says that to sustain justice and mercy and to find equality one must not shut themselves off to others but to be continually open to discomfort. To brokenness. Stevenson, in fact, ended the night saying that he fought for broken people because he was a broken person himself. That we all are. And we must take care of each other. He told an almost unbelievable story of hope, in which a white prison guard with a confederate flag on his car gave Stevenson nasty treatment before the trial of Stevenson's (also black) client. Afterwards, the guard apologized, saying that he had been through foster care himself (just as the client had) and he thought what Stevenson had done in defending him was a good thing. They shook hands, and a man who could never change, did. Just like that.

And that is Stevenson's moral: One must not close one's eyes to the bad shit. One must fight it with all they've got--with law, with narrative, with thunder. But one must always have one's arms open to hope. 

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Reading Room turned 1 today! Happy Birthday to us!

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The 25th Anniversary, a few months out

A few months ago, on December 1st, A Cappella hit 25 years old. It is a strange thing to join an organization just as it celebrates its deep roots in the community, its longevity, and all the great memories it had through the tough and triumphant times. It is strange, but it is also a bit of a gift. I (Clara, the PR girl) am the lucky young upstart at the beginning of her career who gets to see what a good business--one that gives back and forms relationships and fosters love and conversation--looks like decades out, and what it took to get there.

But like I said, newcomer here, so to commemorate our 25th anniversary celebration (we had it on December 5th), I'll let those who know what they're talking about speak a little about A Cappella at 25. Here's the highlight reel from the night, in the words of those who contributed to our 25th anniversary book, A Cozy Infinity: 25 (Mostly) Atlanta Writers on the Never-Ending Allure of Books and Bookstores. It kind of ended up being a tribute to, well, my boss, Frank. Which I think is fitting.

Chuck Reece, editor-in-chief of The Bitter Southerner

Pictured: from left to right, Frank Reiss, A Cappella Owner, and Chuck Reece. Photo credit Chris Buxbaum.

"When you read this book...it's basically the story of us figuring things out."

Cliff Graubart, owner of the Old New York Bookshop 

"Over the years...I've watched Frank reinvent himself. What was most surprising...was his sex change operation. It was harder of an adjustment for me than for him. We dated for twenty years. I'm still getting used to seeing him in pants."

He was joking.

Hank Klibanoff, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

"We are a family of readers...and there's nothing better than to be with readers."

"I'd never want to be in a house of books I've read. ...and [it was] things like that drove me straight to Frank's."

"Frank--I have to tell you--I have a special affinity for him because he is from Alabama. And what could be finer?"

Amanda Gable, award-winning author of The Confederate General Rides North

"Frank has created a great third space in Atlanta in which we can gather and nurture a strong cultural community...[a place that's] not our home, not our workspace...and I thank everyone else who works at the store to give people a place to renew themselves."

Rebecca Burns, author and journalist

"What this feels to me is a tribute to Frank and what Frank has done for us...and how he's helped us transform."

"Frank was there and nurtured all of us at the high point...[and through] many incarnations of the store; and he's been the same graceful person...and we wouldn't be the same authors without someone like that."

James Kelly, Atlanta music writer

"I'm really proud to be here tonight."

"The one thing I know about Frank Reiss and about A Cappella is that a bookstore like that is the nucleus of a great community. Whatever you're into...you can go to A Cappella and get the state-of-the-art book in whatever you're interested in. That's a really great thing for the community that a place like that has been around for 25 years."

Jack Wilkinson, Atlanta sports writer

"When he was still on Moreland...I used to come stop in there so much. Frank thinks it's because I liked the books, but really it was so hot that summer I wanted to get inside and stand under that air conditioning vent."

"The more I got to hang around Frank and the more I got to know the store, the more I learned what a special person he is and what a treasure the store is."

"My last and most favorite book signing that was held [at Manuel's, with A Cappella Books] was for my daughter. ...Somehow a child of mine ended up being a Rhodes scholar. [And I asked her], "Katharine, where would you like to have a book signing?" "At Manuel's of course, Daddy." Frank provided the books. It was one of the shining moments of my life. ....I would just like to thank Frank for his friendship, for what he's done for all of us in the community, and I can't wait to get over to Manuel's."

Susan Rebecca White, author of Bound South, A Place at the Table

"I bought a house a block from A Cappella and that was when my first book came out. Frank got a copy of it and he read it because I was his neighbor, and he called me and left his message saying, "I really didn't expect to like this book...but it was totally up my alley" ...Looking back that was probably the best review I've ever gotten. Being a little Buckhead girl wanting to fit into Little Five Points and Frank kind of giving me the welcome mat. ...A lot of times when people talk about your books they haven't read them but Frank reads them!"

Jessica Handler, author of Invisible Sisters, Braving the Fire

Pictured right, Jessica Handler. Photo credit Chris Buxbaum.

"I used to be afraid of A Cappella Books...back when it was across from the yacht club and stocked with all the right titles, all the right authors, all the leftie authors...and I was intimidated. I couldn't go in. Thankfully, I got over that."

Charles McNair, author of Pickett's Charge

"This community: the navel of it is this little bookstore that we've all been in all these years. My essay [in A Cozy Infinity] is called 'The Thin Place.' The Irish believe that between this world and our world there are certain places where it's thin between our world and the other side. Bookstores feel like that to me."

"It has meant a ton...I walk into A Cappella and there's my book...and that's all I need to say about what Frank has done for all of us here."

And then, we have Frank himself. 

Frank Reiss, owner of A Cappella Books

Photo credit Cody Turner

"I told my grandfather I was opening a bookstore, but it would be different books, books you can't get in a mall store, and he said, 'What? Sex books?'"

"All I really wanted to say was when I opened A Cappella 25 years ago I had every intention of it lasting this long and longer so it didn't seem like such a big deal. I just thought, Yeah, this is what I'm gonna do--I like it and this is gonna be my career. But for any independent business...it's just a lot harder so we work a lot harder. ...It was easy for a decade and it started getting hard. ...So I'm really happy that we've made it this far and I'm happy to make it further. "

"I was twenty one years old when I started selling books in San Francisco and it's all I've ever done. I happened along a 'Help Wanted' sign and I'm just so thankful...that's what put me on the path that I've been on for all these years. It made so much sense to me and to who I was and it's the thing I needed to do and I'm lucky enough to get to do."

"The real motivation that's pulled me through has been this community. The community is the reason it's been worth sticking through. Getting to sell books has opened me up to all these interesting wonderful talented people...I'm here to give thanks to you in the sense that we give thanks when we sit down to dinner. (tears up) So...thanks."

Thank you, Frank! For this wonderful little store, and for all of our wonderful little places in it.

Frank, feasting. Photo: Clara Nibbelink

Decatur High School's a cappella choir, singing "For the Longest Time". Photo: Chris Buxbaum.

The beautiful cake. Photo: Chris Buxbaum.

Tony Paris, the editor of the A Cozy Infinity. Photo: Chris Buxbaum.

Glen, long-time A Cappella staffer. Photo: Cody Turner.

Some of the A Cappella family. Photo: Chris Buxbaum.

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Thank YOU for Indies First

If this blog has done anything in these weeks leading up to Indies First, it's given us a platform to articulate why this day is worth celebrating. It helped us profile our authors who gracefully and wonderfully offered to be a part of the day; it helped us explore our own connections to the spirit of indie, to books, and to A Cappella; and it gave us a place to really think about why a day like Indies First should matter to anyone but the booksellers.

It should matter because, I think, bookstores are one of the places that show what the community can be. 

Most of the people that came out to Indies First weren't there for David Cross (though he certainly had his own crowd, and he was gracious and great to them). Most of the people were there for, I think, the spirit of Indies First itself. They had heard somewhere that Indies First/Small Business Saturday was happening and they wanted to show their support. We had a steady flow of customers throughout the day who came in and just...you know...bought books. Came, browsed, bought, left. For them it wasn't necessarily about meeting authors or eating food and watching music (though for those that did that, the experience was that much more cool and exciting). They were just there to support a local shop. And that's awesome.

We're so happy to be part of a community that wants local bookstores with weird titles to thrive. We're happy to be a part of a community where a hot dog vendor, a hand-crafted ice cream vendor, and a smorgasboard-of-delicious-regional-foods vendor can get together with a bookshop and celebrate that we're small businesses supporting one another. We also celebrate that our authors were local, that they brought their friends and family, and that everyone who was there was just, like, so happy to be there.

Of course it wasn't perfect. There's always room for improvement. We would've liked a bigger crowd to give our food vendors more money for taking a risk spending the day on DeKalb Ave with us. We'd have liked, maybe, to get the whole neighborhood to celebrate the day as their own. We'd have liked live music throughout the day. Maybe some readings by our authors. There's a lot of things we can think about and can do better next time. And we'll do it.

But for now, this year, Indie First/ Small Business Saturday 2014, we're calling it a success. Because it was a great day. A fun day. People who wouldn't have met each other did, and they talked, exchanged emails, bought books, got pictures. We had David Freaking Cross! We got to work with authors we love and meet authors we never met before (and they are quickly becoming authors we love as well). For my part, I got to spend the day with my whole extended family who came out to buy over $200 in books collectively and spend the rest of their money at all the food trucks (multiple times) (My grandfather in particular really wanted to make sure the ice cream truck got enough business. Heheh.)

It was awesome. It reminds me why I work here. And we hoped that for those of you who came out, it was a good day as well.

Thanks so much, Atlanta, for making Indies First a success for A Cappella Books. 

Ta-ta till next time...

Clara, PR girl,

& THE A CAPPELLA TEAM

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A wonderful time at A Cappella Books for Indies First! About to go hear some live music from local author and musician Ben Wakeman. A good Saturday to be at work.

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the store is waiting for you

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Absolutely cannot WAIT for this Saturday, when Queen of Cream, Doggy Dogg, and The Pickle food trucks will all bless us with their company in celebration of Small Business Saturday.

Find them and us as 208 Haralson Ave NE. Atlanta, GA 30307. November 29th, 2014.

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Jennifer Hill Booker: From the South to the South of France (Okay, Paris)

On Saturday, November 29th, Chef and author Jennifer Hill Booker will celebrate Indies First/Small Business Saturday with us here at A Cappella Books. Join us for a day of authors, food, and fun--meet Jennifer and our other guest authors David Cross, Jessica Handler, Ted Wright, and Ben Wakeman and celebrate small businesses and indie bookstores with us!

Pictured: Jennifer Hill Booker, doing what she does best

This is how it started:

I learned at an early age that the kitchen is where the great smells, tastes, laughter and love was—and that that was where I wanted to be.

Jennifer Hill Booker—Le Cordon Bleu-certified chef, founder and owner of  the catering company Your Resident Gourmet in Lilburn, and author of the new cookbook Field Peas to Fois Gras: Southern Recipes with a French Accent—always knew what she wanted to do. For her, the choice was easy: she loved the fact that she could brighten someone’s day “without a word, or touch, but well-cooked food.” A Cappella Books is delighted to feature Booker and her cookbook full of this well-cooked food on Indies First, where we suspect she will brighten ourday as well. (If not with food, then with the promise of it in her cookbook, beautifully illustrated by Atlanta-based photographer Deborah Whitlaw Llewelly.)

Pictured: the beautiful book. check out those mushrooms! 

Booker’s cookbook is unique in that it boasts a fusion not often seen in kitchens, professional or at home. I mean, Southern food? Made French? But this cookbook makes sense to Booker: it is, after all, nothing short of the story of her life. She grew up on a farm in the South, watching her mother and grandmother cook and knowing that it was what she wanted to do. After graduating from the University of Tulsa and earning her Associates at Oklahoma State University, Booker relocated to Germany with her husband. It was there where she first applied to the elite Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Paris. After rigorous training at Le Cordon Bleu, Booker emerged more professional a chef than ever, yet still wanting to retain her cultural food heritage. According to Booker, this cookbook (which, in recipe form, is her) was a long time coming:

 I have been mentally writing this book for the last 20 years, and when the opportunity to get it on paper and printed presented itself, I jumped on it. I wrote Field Peas to Foie Gras: Southern Recipes with a French Accent, as a way to pay homage to my ancestry and give my daughters a legacy they can be proud of.

And how could they not be? After all, aside from being a chef and an author, Booker is a business-owner, an educator, and a person who dedicates her life to service. When reading her bio, it is easy to see that Booker is not only focused on making good food—she’s focused on giving back to the community through food. Booker, as a GA Grown Executive Chef, travels the state and represents Georgia family farmers. She offers culinary therapy sessions for The Cottages on Mountain Creek, a private residence for those living with mental illness. She volunteers for Africa’s Children Fund, Cooking Matters, Live Healthy & Thrive Youth Foundation, and Les Dames d’Escoffier International’s GreenTables Initiative. As a part of Les Dames d’Escoffier, she’s a proud member of the only organization of its type—a philanthropic society of professional women in the culinary arts. And she writes. She’s contributed to magazines and online publications, and now she has her own healthy living blog at YourResidentGourmet.net.

Pictured: Booker and cute animal.

What struck me most about Booker is not how busy she is (she seems quite busy), but how diverse her range of professional skills is. How she uses her skills to fill many different roles. For Booker, this is a result of a combination of personal fulfillment and good business strategy. Teaching started out as a way to stay in the field while raising her kids, while her catering business started as a way to make money in her field in a country where she couldn’t find work. And through it all, she’s still been able to use “cooking as [her] creative outlet.” As for service:

My mother instilled in my sisters and I, the importance of volunteering our time and talents where they could be of service. So I volunteer because I believe I can make a positive difference in someone's life—even if it's a small one.

Booker’s cookbook is a great example of why chefs write cookbooks. It’s not just about the recipes, it’s about the story behind them. It’s about the where and why of the recipe as much as the what. For Booker, it’s about the fusion of worlds. Chefs don’t just speak through words, they speak through food—and cookbooks are a great way to hear their story in full. I, personally, cannot wait to read Booker’s and try my hand at some Fig Stuffed Chicken Livers.

Pictured: bacon-wrapped stuffed figs. Not the same thing, but I also want to try this. IS THIS IN YOUR BOOK, JENNIFER?!?

Booker is a wonderful chef, author, and—we suspect—human to hang with. She cheerfully told us that hot dogs are her favorite food (maybe there’s a recipe for them in the book!), that she reads anything from textbooks to erotica, and that she shamefully only has two tattoos (“and for someone in the culinary industry having two is like having none at all”). And that she cries every time she sees It’s A Wonderful Life. A Cappella Books is excited to welcome Booker to the store for Indies First, where she may not be able to find many textbooks or much erotica, but the all-in-between should suit her quite nicely (also the ah, cookbooks).

Jennifer, it’s a delight to have you on board!

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Liking What You Like: Ted Wright, Indies First, and Why People Buy Stuff

On Saturday, November 29th, A Cappella Books will be celebrating Indies First/ Small Business Saturday with some kickass authors, great local food trucks, awesome music, and that festive community spirit. Ted Wright is one of our featured authors--along with David Cross, Jessica Handler, Jennifer Hill Booker, and Ben Wakeman. Wright is the CEO of a marketing company and an author. Come meet him and celebrate with us on Indies First!

Pictured: Ted Wright in his work environment.

Ted Wright tells stories. In fact, that’s kind of his line of work—Wright is the founder and CEO of Fizz, a Word of Mouth Marketing company based out of Decatur, Georgia, where the name of the game is to help a company find “a story that is interesting, relevant and authentic. If a story is relevant, interesting, an authentic, it’ll get passed around.” Wright is also an 8th generation Atlantan, a practicing entrepreneur since the third grade (when he sold “Jolly Ranchers and Bubble Yum at Oak Grove Elementary”), and recently wrote a book on his much-coveted knowledge called Fizz: Harness The Power of Word of Mouth Marketing To Drive Brand Growth.

Wright is wonderful to talk to—the PR folks who run his website accurately call him “funny, engaging, and extremely unboring”—a fact that I can personally attest to as I met with Wright for a business lunch at Victory Sandwich Bar in Decatur. (He paid, the gentleman.) He looks you in the eye, tells his stories, and approaches you with such enthusiasm that it’s hard not to get swept up in what he’s saying. No wonder the guy’s the leading Word of Mouth Marketing speaker working today, or has business clients all across the globe. It, helps, too, that he knows his stuff. Wright was instrumental in re-vamping the Pabst Blue Ribbon brand, and if you’re a young, totally cool hipster like me, this fact makes you give the dude major props. I don’t even know why—or if—I like PBR, just that I started drinking it because all the cool kids drank it. I guess I have Ted to thank for that.

Pictured: PBR. DELISH.

The story of Wright and Fizz and how he got to be where he is today is analogous to the stories we hear about people like Steve Jobs, aka slackers-turned-innovators. Though Wright, unlike Jobs, managed to graduate—after all, he’s an alumnus of the marketing and consulting firm Booz Allen & Hamilton and holds an MBA with honors from The University of Chicago—he says that he was a “crappy employee.” He liked to pioneer things, that “creating something that was valuable and sustainable” appealed to him much more than, say, doing what he was told. In short, he wanted to lead, not follow. Here’s the way Wright puts it in his mission statement: “Having a killer team, living on the cutting edge, being rebellious, being right—these are the things that bring me joy. Thus Fizz was created and has grown along the path it has taken.”

And what a path it is. Wright is now cited as the best Word of Mouth Marketing speaker working today and has won numerous public speaking awards for his talks. Along with PBR, he’s revamped Chocolate Milk, Bissell, Intuit, AT&T, and Intel, and more. The everyday layman might not know him by name (yet), but they definitely know the brands he works with. Seems like Wright’s strategy—helping companies find their story and then letting the public run with it—works. And he’s not hoarding his ideas, either. In his new book, Fizz, Wright shares all that he’s learned in his field. He seems to enjoy the sharing process, saying that he liked being forced to “put [him]self in the shoes of a start-up owner or a global CEO with a product line that needed help.” He’s not worried about his own book putting himself out of work. He’s just excited about more people knowing what Word of Mouth Marketing can do.

Pictured: Ted's book. CATCHY COLOR AND TITLE

That’s the key thing about Ted—he’s a person who does things because he genuinely likes doing them. And that is what he looks for in his clients and the brands he’s pushing. He knows people gravitate toward stuff that other people actually like, not stuff that's been pushed down our throats through relentless advertising. Or, in his own words, “We wanted to be involved with anything that people were doing because they liked doing it.”

Pictured: Wright, with ice water (?!)

Wright likes A Cappella Books for the same reason he likes anything—because we also do this because we like doing it. A Cappella is unique in that it started as an antiquarian bookstore, and while over the years it has shifted focus and accrued more popular titles, our staff and owner Frank Reiss take extra care to ensure that everything that ends up on the shelves reflects the philosophy of A Cappella Books and its longtime customers. Namely: good books. Music books. Weird books. Books you can’t find elsewhere. And books that reflect the staff. Wright flatteringly said that anyone who knows books will end up at A Cappella and realize they’re home—that in a place like ours, you can tell the people in charge really care. And that, Wright says, is what really makes a place stick around.

We’re so happy to have Wright here for Indies First. He’s an entrepreneur, a communicator, and is fiercely dedicated to the Atlanta community, especially to the people who are doing stuff they like just ‘cuz. Wright’s fun facts about himself on his website are that he likes good bourbon and driving fast cars (“though never at the same time”), but I’d prefer to leave you with this less cool but very cute image: Wright’s VERY FIRST MEMORY of reading was as a little kid with the book The Battle of Britain, for 30 minutes a week, in the DeKalb County’s SQUIRT program, which stood for “Super Quiet Uninterrupted Reading Time.”

Dawww.SQUIRT. Cute.

Welcome, Ted! We’re so pleased to have you here at A Cappella Books!

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Jessica Handler: On Indies First, Atlanta, and Writing in Order to Live

by Clara Nibbelink

On Saturday, November 29th, A Cappella will be celebrating Indies First/Small Business Saturday from 11-7. We will be joined by a number of wonderful authors, including David Cross, Ben Wakeman, Ted Wright, and Jennifer Hill Booker. Among this awesome lineup is Jessica Handler, the author of Invisible Sisters: A Memoir and Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss. This is Handler's second appearance at A Cappella Books for Indies First. We're so glad to welcome her back.

Pictured: Jessica Handler

Jessica Handler is one of A Cappella’s favorite authors.

She’s warm and amiable, claims to be “very good at pilling a cat” and is so beloved by store members that when I kept the store open ten minutes past closing for her to swing by and pick up a book for her friend (it was The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore), no one got mad, at me or at her. They just came out to say hello. She joined us for Indies First last year when she was best known for her incredible memoir on loss and growing up, Invisible Sisters, and her new book Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss was poised for release. Inviting her back for Indies First this year was a no-brainer. And for Handler, it was a no brainer as well:

 Indies First is a personal reminder of the role independent businesses play in contributing to the life of a vibrant community. When you buy your books from an independent bookstore, not only are you supporting your neighbor's livelihood, you're buying books from people who share your tastes, who stock books you want to read, and who love books, reading, and your community, because they're a part of that same community. Looking for friends? Go into an independent bookstore, buy a book, and talk books with the folks who work there. You're guaranteed to connect with like minded people. 

Looks like Handler’s methods work. Now we like-minded people are connected with her, and much better for it. In fact, Handler and the store know each other so well that she's a contributor to our upcoming book about all things A Cappella: A Cozy Infinity. 

Handler grew up in Atlanta in the 60s, right when the civil rights movement was in full swing. Her father actually moved their family down to Atlanta from Pennsylvania to be closer to the action—he was a Civil Rights lawyer working with labor unions. Handler’s coming-of-age in Atlanta and her family’s enormous struggle dealing with her two very sick sisters is what she chronicles in her first book: Invisible Sisters: A Memoir. The book was based on a Pushcart Prize-nominated essay and was named among the Georgia Center’s 2010 list of “25 Books All Georgians Should Read” and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Eight Great Southern Books in 2009”. It was also named Atlanta Magazine's "Best Memoir of 2009". Handler’s second book, Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss, speaks for itself and for Handler—it demonstrates how courageous she has been in her life and her writing career to not only be able to write about her loss many times over, but to provide a kind, compassionate, and practical how-to guide for other authors to be able to do the same.

Pictured: Jessica Handler and mother. Photo from Frontdoor.com

Handler is a writer and a creative writing professor. (Her previous jobs include a magazine feature reporter and a magazine editor.) Her nonfiction work has appeared on National Public Radio, Newsweek, Tin House, Southern Arts Journal, and Arts Media. She received a 2009 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellowship at the much-revered Kenyon Review Writers workshop,  and was a Creative Writing Fellow at the Hambridge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences. On her website you can find links to many other articles she’s written—for Psychology Today, for Full Grown People, for my personal favorite, The Rumpus. And the link to her blog is cheekily titled, “Because blogging is writing.” When I asked Handler about what reading and writing mean to her, it quickly became evident why she is so successful in her career. Firstly, she’s always been a reader and a writer—she’s kept journals since she was nine, and those journals played a huge part in helping her craft her memoir. Her family, too, were always readers. Handler says she didn’t learn till college that “Let us go then, you and I” was T.S. Eliot and not just her dad’s way of telling her to get in the car. Reading and writing have always been there for her, and perhaps most importantly, she—joyously and with patience and drive—has always shown up for them.

I like all of the writing process, even the hard parts, the distressing parts, the frustrating parts. I like the "eureka" moments when the right word or phrase just fits, or when I make a connection in metaphor or watch what a scene I've written can really do for the manuscript as a whole. I don't like - as much - the waiting.

Handler, too, devours books. I asked her what books she read as a kid and what books she read now and she replied, “Is ‘all of them’ an answer?” The only thing she doesn’t like, she says, is that writers don’t make much money doing what they love. Hear hear, Jessica.

Pictured: Handler reading from Braving the Fire. Photo from video posted by Nicki Leone.

We know we are blessed/given good vibes/totally in debt the abundance of the universe, man, when we remember that we are part of the same community that Handler is a part of—that independent bookstores like A Cappella and that brave and funny and cool writers like Jessica Handler have the opportunity to work with each other and co-exist within the same vibrant city. Handler says Atlanta is so ingrained in her that now it “keeps doing this hologram thing with me, where I see an intersection or a tree or a building or a person as dual—then and now, at the same time. I love that.” Atlanta is ingrained in us, too—in the people who work here and the spirit of the bookstore itself. I’m sure Frank, our owner, could tell you something about seeing dual, through all the change that he’s seen as A Cappella has grown and moved and withstood the times. Perhaps we know we can learn something from Handler about endurance even through change. Perhaps that’s why we keep inviting her back. Or perhaps she’s just a really nice person and a good writer and people like her books. Either way…

What drives your writing? I ask Handler.

Can I quote Joan Didion here, and say, "we tell ourselves stories in order to live?"

 These life-giving stories are available at A Cappella Books every day, from 11-7 Monday through Saturday and 12-6 on Sunday. They will be available on Indies First, Saturday, November 29th when Handler & co. join us to celebrate small bookstores celebrating the stories we love. We’re grateful to have her here, and we hope you will be too.

Pictured: Handler (right) at Indies First 2013 with author Lu Ann Cahn (left)

Sources:

Jessica Handler, jessicahandler.com, Georgia Center for the Book website, “When Do You Write?” interview with Anjali Enjeti. Publisher’s Weekly review of Invisible Sisters, google images and links therefrom, A Cappella Books facebook page

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Ben Wakeman: Music, Writing, and Doing-It-Yourself

by Clara Nibbelink

On Saturday, November 29th, A Cappella Books will join the small business community in Atlanta by celebrating Small Business Saturday/ Indies First. We will feature several authors on this day, including David Cross, Jessica Handler, Jennifer Hill Booker, and Ted Wright. Ben Wakeman is another of our featured authors and a longtime Atlanta musician. His first novel, Rewind, Playback will be for sale in our bookstore on Indies First. 

Pictured: Wakeman. From his website.

Ben Wakeman is a software programmer. He also played quarterback on his high school football team, first fell for books by reading Judy Blume, and once collaborated with John Mayer. He’s been in Atlanta since the early 90s, playing his guitar in Atlanta’s singer-songwriter scene at the now-famous Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. And Wakeman—this man of many talents, who calls himself “a DIY guy” for the way that he’s scrappily taught himself what he needed to know in the way of his career and interests—writes. Wakeman writes short stories and he’s written his first novel, Rewind, Playback. Which, in DIY fashion, Wakeman published himself.

Rewind, Playback is a story about music. It’s about two friends and bandmates, one who went on to become a rock star and one who didn’t. It’s about their reunification after years of silence. And it’s about when life presents you the strange and heart-wrenching opportunity to look down the road not taken.

Wakeman is perhaps uniquely poised to write a novel like this. A musician himself, Wakeman’s initial push to move to Atlanta was to be near where the action was happening, and he quickly settled into the scene at Eddie’s Attic and ran into opportunity after opportunity to meet the songwriters who’d inspired him growing up. Shawn Mullins and Kristian Bush became his mentors. Gillian Welch, Indigo Girls, the Zac Brown Band all passed through and Wakeman got to meet and collaborate with them in exciting ways. He began to open at Eddie’s. He was getting bigger. He was getting better. He was getting there.

Pictured: Eddie's Attic. Pic from birdcityrevolutionaries.com.

But Wakeman—who still plays around Atlanta and maintains a devoted following of local musicians, friends, and fans who know and love him—chose a different path. He settled down instead with the woman he loved and taught himself to program software. Perhaps much in the way he taught himself guitar. He chose to raise his sons rather than play the wild wandering troubadour, the rock star.

One has to imagine Wakeman sitting at his computer before writing this novel, looking across at the map of his own life and the roads taken, and not.

We don’t know Ben Wakeman, really. Like him, we’re just another part of the Atlanta creative community trying to make ends meet while still doing what we love. But we’re excited to meet him, and we’re glad that we have the opportunity to showcase his book and his talents on Indies First. A Cappella Books is known for its books about music, and so it seems fitting to present a local author who has had music and writing in the blood for as far back as he can remember.

Meanwhile, for Wakeman, there is more to come. Come out to support him on Indies First, but stay tuned—he’s still making albums, and he’s writing short stories. His first novel might be about music but it’s also about relationships, nature, love. These are the themes, Wakeman says, he’s drawn to in his music and in his writing.

Pictured: Rewind, Playback by Ben Wakeman

We welcome Wakeman to the store on Indies First, November 29th, to meet everyone, sign and sell some books, and to play us a few of his own songs. Join us and support this DIY guy—a newcomer to novel-writing but a staple of Atlanta’s music scene. We'll be there. We'll see you soon.

Wakeman on his mother, his inspiration for writing:

Though never published, my mom has been an avid writer since I can remember. She's kept a journal everyday for most of her adult life and her study shelves are filled with them. The journals, in various shapes, sizes, are like time capsules. I can pull one off the shelf and read about a day when I was seven. 

Wakeman on the types of books he likes to read:

Fiction is mostly my wheelhouse. I love to be taken into a story and suspended for a time. I love about everything Ron Rash has ever written and I'm also very fond of Wally Lamb's work…There's something exquisite about a story that feels like it could be happening next door.

Wakeman on becoming a musician:

Music was always around and apart of me. I played violin from the age of five and spent most afternoons in my older brothers' room singing along to all the great music of the seventies: Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac - but James Taylor was my jam. I believe he, more than any other artist placed a lasting imprint on me. At 14 are started a band and then taught myself to play the guitar - in that order. Two weeks later, my best friend Dudley Greene and I had written our first song. Three months after that we were playing at a dance.

Pictured: Wakeman with his guitar. From his website.

Sources:

Ben Wakeman, benwakeman.com, openingbands.com (Screen Door feature), Rewind, Playback book description

[acappellabooks-blog]

Indies First Staff Post #4, Or, Teenage Isolation Hell

by Annie Humphrey

the part-timer at the front with the English accent and a penchant for improv

I will echo another A Cappella employee, Chris Fanning, and mention that my own interest in independent bookstores stems from a rebellious streak and a want to strike out on my own. Just like Chris, I needed to find myself as a unique individual-- an outsider like nobody else (except Chris in this case), and I wanted to read what I wanted to read, man, not just what was on the Bestseller list. Books were a way to relate to other’s lives and answer “who are this me is”, and how to become this me-ness totally? Authentic, like nobody else, not even Chris.

Part of finding myself as writer has been about finding myself as reader.  It didn’t come easy to me. I didn’t click with it the way some kids do. The majority of my time was spent daydreaming and I think I resented any distraction from that. It wasn’t until I was twelve and my Grandfather made a point of leaving his copy of Christine by Stephen King out, instructing me “not to touch it,” that I was even remotely interested. After devouring that, another King book appeared within easy reach, and with a blind eye turned. I was hooked. When puberty hit and I realized I was gay in an isolated, working-class coastal town in England, reading became a vitally important lifeline for me. It was one of the only way to find sentiments that even remotely spoke to what I was feeling, and helped me to feel not so alone (turns out it is only fun to be an outsider when you choose to be). So there was a desire to seek-- to find my tribe-- and learn about the lives of those “like me”. It wasn’t always great-- who knew so many books with lesbians wound up in a case of the murders. There was also something fascinating to me about books I’d seen as Movies. I gobbled them up together when possible. Movies were my first love-- I’d be reading some film magazine and some hip Indie Director might casually toss out a literary reference-- and I wanted to understand it. I didn’t want to be excluded from that knowledge, I needed to fit into this group.  Years later when I decided I wanted to write screenplays, I figured I had better learn something from the greats in a hurry. Alone at home I could kind of see how others did it and try, in vain, to copy them. Finally something clicked and I started finding authors I was really interested in consistently, and I fell in love with books in their own right.

Pictured: Teenage isolation hell. Note the lack of gay people.

So now I am lucky to work at A Cappella. It helps support my book habit and keeps me learning. A major perk is meeting authors at our events and listening to their advice. Another plus is that the people I work with are a motley, and passionate, crew. Anyone who has been in to any Indie bookstore has been subjected to the bizarre and often shoddy theories of such a staff-- on everything from The Masons to Madonna (we currently carry books on both).This  group of oddballs and outsiders don’t fit anywhere else-- and let me tell you, they REALLY know books. So why not try and think of us as characters in your next book-buying adventure? It’s like the story has begun before you even get the book home! This is why you have to shop Indie-- to keep these ‘characters’ contained and away from the food-service industry. I suppose another reason might be that if you love reading and you love books, you have to support authors and publishers...more weirdos and oddballs with opinions. So, please, support your local non-chain bookstore and keep buying books. Let’s keep them all  in business, for your sake...

Pictured: Boring. Again, no gays.

[acappellabooks-blog]

November 29th, shop with us for Small Business Saturday/Indies First. American Express users can register their card online at shopsmall.com and get the 1st $30 purchase free. 

[acappellabooks-blog]

David Cross, or, Yep, He's Really Coming Here

by Clara Nibbelink

On Saturday, November 29th, A Cappella Books will celebrate Indies First/Small Business Saturday. Comedian, writer, and Atlanta native David Cross volunteered to be one of our guest booksellers on Indies First. Cross will arrive at the shop in the early afternoon and stay for a short while to give book recommendations, sign books, and help out the A Cappella staff. We are excited to welcome him back to Atlanta on this big and beautiful day for independent bookstores. Come by the store and welcome him with us! 

Pictured: David Cross. Photo by Christopher McLallen

“Kudzu, honeysuckle, huffy bikes, shitty weed, muddy, cracked concrete with weeds spurting through, sweat dripping in your eyes.”

This is the way David Cross remembers Atlanta, from when he was a kid and lived just thirty minutes out of town, in Roswell, Georgia. Cross, suffice to say, has mixed feelings about his hometown—he said he “never felt fully comfortable or accepted in Atlanta”—and it wasn’t long after he graduated high school that he moved out of town, out of state, and got his comedic start on the streets of Boston. Perhaps if Atlanta had been then as it is now—a fast-growing hub for film, improv, and stand-up (on the Google calendar for Atlanta Open Mics, the month of November boasts 203 shows—that’s, theoretically, 203 opportunities to workshop your act all within thirty short days), he might have been slower to leave. Or perhaps not. Though Cross doesn’t live here anymore—he does manage to make it back at least once a year to visit friends and family—we still are proud to call him one of Atlanta’s own. And Cross, it seems, claims us as well. He says he can remember riding the bus out to Time Out in Lenox Square and playing video games, swinging by A Cappella and picking up his “radical communist theories books,” and that, as time goes on, he feels connected to Atlanta in ways that perhaps his seventeen-year-old self could not have predicted.

…the more I travel the more I feel an attachment to certain sense memories of my childhood… It's nice to come back at least once a year, every year, since I've left. …The "artsy” folks in and around Atlanta are some of the coolest, most decent, smart people I know. There's not a lot of pretense with those folks.

Cross is probably best known at this point in his career for his role as the unforgettable Tobias Fünke on the critically acclaimed (but oh-so tragically cancelled) TV series Arrested Development. And well he should be—Cross’ portrayal of Tobias’ accidental innuendo, fear of nudity, and earnest-though-misguided perusal of his dreams led to his nomination for a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor, numerous Emmy and SAG nominations as a member of an outstanding ensemble cast (not to mention a "Future Classic" award from TV Land won and shared by said cast), and, most importantly, a mountain of gifs of Cross-as-Tobias, mostly painted blue, mostly with the caption, “I'm afraid I just blue myself.”

But to comedy nerds and those in the know (in my sketch comedy class at The Brink we all gab excitedly about Cross-as-harbinger of the best damn sketch around), Cross is the man behind Mr. Show with Bob and David, an HBO sketch comedy series created by Cross and his frequent collaborator, Bob Odenkirk (“Saul” from Breaking Bad). While the series was cancelled by the network in 1998, its cast and crew were nominated for several Emmys, it launched the careers of folks like Sarah Silverman and Jack Black, and it gained a cult following that grew larger as time went on and Cross and Odenkirk gained more and more fame and respect in their respective careers. Mr. Show is hailed as one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time, playing with and enhancing the forms of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and predecessor to more recent hits like Tim and Eric Awesome Show—Great Job! and other sketchy wonders.

Cross is a stand-up comic, a writer, producer, director and actor, and as if that weren’t enough, he’s an author, too. He’s written two books so far—I Drink for a Reason and Hollywood Said No!: Orphaned Film Scripts, Bastard Scenes, and Abandoned Darlings from the Creators of Mr. Show. Both books are amalgamations of reflection and performance—I Drink for a Reason is a mix of personal memories and fictional memoirs, new material and old—truth, fiction, advice, and lists all uniquely layered for you by Cross himself. Hollywood Said No! is a collection of never-before-seen scripts and ideas from the creators of Mr. Show, and the audiobook includes full readings from the cast and crew. On book-writing:

Writing the book was quite a surprising learning experience. I assumed it would come easier to me because of all the other writing I do. But the form is so different I found the whole process intimidating and not completely enjoyable. I think the book is ‘okay’. …I can and will do better next time.

 I kind of suspect that Cross might be playing his own worst critic here. But I’ll buy both books and eagerly await a memoir he promises (jokingly? seriously? please be for real, David!) “sometime before 2025,” just in case. 

Pictured: The Crossinator. Photo by Matthias Clamer

Something you should also know about David Cross: He reached out to us for Indies First. This day is relatively young (ok, really super young, it’s practically a baby)—American Express launched Small Business Saturday in 2010, and Indies First was started just last year in 2013 by author Sherman Alexie. It was last year, its first, its shakiest, its most might-not-make-it, that Cross caught wind of the day and contacted A Cappella owner Frank Reiss to offer his (and his poet-actress wife Amber Tamblyn’s) services on this as-yet-unremarkable day during his Thanksgiving vacation. We couldn’t make the schedule work last year, but the fact of his quiet, polite reaching out—and his kind willingness to do it for us this year—says, I think, more about Cross than can be gleaned from skimming reviews, interviews, or at worst, the words of his critics. I think it shows that he is a person committed to his beliefs, to putting actions to words. Let me explain: Cross has often been criticized of being, to put it not-so-tenderly, a “mouthpiece of the liberal intellectual elite.”* Yet if the “liberal intellectual elite” are people who read, people who think, and people who shop at independent bookstores, then I’d say that they’re probably an okay type of folk. And Cross is more than a mouthpiece (if indeed this is an insult—it is often through comedy and laughing at the system that the system can be questioned, challenged, changed): he is willing to be a set of hands. His reaching out shows that even if Atlanta is not his heart-home, he’s more than willing to support our community. And it shows that he is, simply put, a reader. We do like our readers here at A Cappella.

We are thrilled to welcome David Cross back to the bookstore, and maybe we’ll even a have a few radical communist theories books around for him to take back home with him. We hope you’ll welcome him too, just as you’ll come on Small Business Saturday to welcome our other wonderful authors—Jessica Handler, Ted Wright, Jennifer Hill Booker, and newcomer Ben Wakeman—and eat great food, drink great coffee and beer, listen to playlists hand-tailored by A Cappella staff, and experience the wonder of independent bookstores on this festive, worthwhile day.

 When I asked Cross why he supported something like Indies First, his reply was: 

Why wouldn't I support Indies First? What do you know? What did you hear?!

 Only good things. Glad to meet you, Mr. Cross.

Pictured: The mouthpiece of the liberal elite. Photo by Ariele Hertzoff.

  Some sources:

*liberally interpreted from a quote of Adam Bugler’s…I believe the word he used was “court jester” instead of mouthpiece. Eh.

Sources: the infallible (ahem, sometimes) wikipedia, imdb, believermag may 2008 interview with david cross, playboy 2012 interview with david cross, npr 2013 interview with david cross and bob odenkirk, radio times 2013 interview with david cross, splitsider 2013 interview with david cross, and, of course, David Cross himself

[acappellabooks-blog]

Indies First Staff Post #3, or I'm Really Very Weird

by Irene Ruby

the part-timer in the front with the purse slung around her shoulder at all times

My name is Irene, I turn 18 this month and I've recently come to the realization and acceptance that I'm really very weird. 

Pictured: The Weirdo.

I first came to a Cappella because the time had come for me to have my first job. I didn't specifically seek out the bookstore, I didn't know anything about it besides that it was owned by my friend's dad and that he needed an extra pair of hands around the store. From all of my other work experiences (volunteering and internships and the like) I learned that I love feeling like I'm helping out in a community on any scale. This was one of my main motivations for starting the job search but I didn't know then what I do now- that I would start working at a stimulating, rich, and magical environment that would truly provide the ideal situation for a first job. A Cappella has many unique and valuable characteristics that I have found to really nurture my mental growth. In addition to the menial labor that every working community requires (and therefore it feels good to get it done), the work I do here is meaningful to me because it is all about my learning. I learn to contribute by helping with necessary tasks, I learn how to be available when I need to and can be, and I learn a whole lot about books. 

I'm not much of a reader. Well, that's not true. I absolutely love reading and if I could, I would do it all the time. However, I don't have the habits formed that allow me to read regularly. A Cappella helps me expand my reading list and exposes me to titles that are extremely specific and interesting to me that I never would have been exposed to otherwise. This is a pretty cool feat, seeing as I have tastes that are very specific and interesting B-). I also get to interact with a wide variety of people who shop with equally specific and interesting (and individual) tastes, which means that I can get recommendations from them, my favorite way to discover new books and things. 

Lastly, a Cappella creates a unique community for me. I know that because we are so small that we have a consideration for each other that big businesses could never have. This means that we both understand when someone from our store's family has something personal come up and that we can accommodate for them, but also that our community depends on the well being of everyone in it. 

A goal that I feel a Cappella could have great prosperity in completing is a strengthening in our connection to the community that we belong to in Atlanta. I know that we have some really great and long-lasting connections already, and obviously this is adequate for a well-run business, but I believe we (and any business) can always strive for more in this area. 

Lastly, I wanna say that in any place with books surrounding you, there is a certain magic. Being in the presence of all these timeless artifacts for large amounts of time leaves you with the energy of unlocked potential within books. It speaks to me, it resonates, and I love it! 

Irene is, besides a talented bookseller and a woman wise-beyond-her-years, an artist, and will be attending college next year at (cross-your-fingers) some fancy art school. We're lucky to have her here at A Cappella. 

[acappellabooks-blog]

Indies First Staff Post #2, or, from Whaling to The World of Books

by Chris Fanning

the guy mostly in the back who does the ordering and the website and a million other things

What brought me to the independent bookstore scene was originally a sense of rebellion. Having been raised in a strict “mainstream” household, many were the warnings I received about the riff-raff that frequented such establishments. “You don’t need anything from that den of iniquity that can’t be had at the mall,” was the standard response to my almost-constant pleas for a ride to the local Books R Us. My formative years for reading were difficult, being stuck with whatever latest romance, mystery, or courtroom thriller was currently on the bestseller lists. I often daydreamed what it would be like to pick up a well-loved copy of Dickens, Bronte, Melville, or any of the other exciting writers I’d only heard about. The public library seemed an obvious place to go, but I was told never to set foot in one; that they reeked of socialism. Even if I had been (even more) inclined to disobey my parents, there was no way for me to get to one of these enigmatic places; in our small suburban town, things were far apart, and sidewalks were non-existent.

Pictured: The burbs, from blog.ecofoil.com.

As I advanced in years and made friends from different backgrounds and age groups, I found myself more mobile and able to visit the stores that had been forbidden just months earlier. They were everything I had imagined and more: Books I had never seen, but only dreamed of; the occasional cat; clientele who were sometimes unwashed, but no less interesting for it; prices ranging from the almost free to unimaginably expensive; staff who were aloof, but clearly more knowledgeable than the slack-jaws at the mall stores. It was the latter that really turned me onto this mysterious world of the independent bookstore. From the first time I got to go into one, I made it my mission to one day find employment at such a place. For years I explored different paths to fulfillment, both financial and personal. After driving a truck, business school, commercial whaling, and even a brief stint in the military doing some classified work in Central America, I still couldn’t shake the desire to work in the world of books.

Pictured: Our knowledgable staff, our oft dreamed-of books

In the early 21st Century, I was fortunate enough to be offered an opportunity at the finest bookstore I had found, to that point. After spending innumerable hours cleaning toilets and taking out trash at A Cappella, I was finally allowed to handle books. No explanation is necessary from that point; it’s all public record. I haven’t read a word of Nora Roberts since, and I couldn’t be happier.

I would love to go on about the importance of supporting independent bookstores -- how it keeps your money in your community, how it provides an oasis of culture in the desert of boorishness, even how it can provide jobs to an otherwise unemployable demographic – but, alas, I am weary from having laid bare such a tender, and heretofore largely unexplored, part of my soul.

We thank Chris for his contribution. He was unwilling at first, but as you can see, it's quite, quite lovely.

Pictured: A Cappella's own burbs. Haralson Ave.