So you’ve heard all about the #READdifferent campaign but you’re not sure where to start on your journey of literary exploration and discovery. We’re here to help! Each week we will be featuring a new theme or genre that you can use to #READdifferent at the 2015 AJC Decatur Book Festival.
The last blog in this series defines what it truly means to #READdifferent—breaking your literary routine, getting outside your comfort zone, and immersing yourself in a perspective different from your own. The following authors will be at #dbf2015 with their unique stories to help you #READadifferentperspective.
Dangerous When Wet is a poignant memoir about the stormy relationship between Jamie Brickhouse and his mother, Mama Jean. Brickhouse had been struggling with alcoholism since he was young, and his Texan mom only wanted to keep him poised, put-together, and clean. This story follows the author from Texas to New York and eventually to rehab, where he discovers the true love his mother has for him.
Another true story centered around the struggle of alcoholism, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget is a painfully honest memoir by Sarah Hepola in which she focuses on the times she blacked out from drinking to reach immense self-discovery. A past “party girl” by definition, Hepola looks back and wonders why she felt the need to black out so many times, and how her life has changed ever since she stopped. How would she survive living the sober life she never wanted?
Dr. Damon Tweedy comes to DBF this year with his book Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflection on Race and Medicine, a sharp personal investigation on the intersection of race and the medical world, from both doctors’ and patients’ perspectives. From the time Dr. Tweedy entered medical school, professors were questioning whether he belonged there. He learned about diseases that were unexplainably “more common in blacks than whites.” Eventually, Tweedy is diagnosed with one of those chronic diseases himself. This book sheds light on the social, cultural, and economic factors that play a large role in the way blacks are treated in many aspects of medicine.
Joseph Skibell spends lots of time thinking about big ideas as a professor, but in his fourth book, My Father’s Guitar & Other Imaginary Things, Skibell focuses on the little moments in life that, while maybe foolish, make him more human. Through these stories he asks and attempts to answer multiple surprisingly complex life questions. Does a father have any control over his teenage daughter’s sex life? Can a son have control over his father’s expectations?
Acclaimed cook and Iron Chef Cat Cora’s book Cooking As Fast As I Can: A Chef’s Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness tells of the difficulties and successes Cora experienced on her path to both personal and worldwide achievement. It chronicles her cultural upbringing as a Greek in the South, coming-of-age moments, and her big break as a co-host on The Food Network’s Melting Pot. Cooking As Fast As I Can tells Cora’s previously unknown story of her rough past and how she found her only solace in the kitchen.