The Book Babes

"BETWEEN THE COVERS": THE WEST COAST TOUR

     The Book Babes have just successfully completed the first leg of their "Between the Covers" book tour in the Tampa Bay area (where Book Babe Margo Hammond resides).  Thanks to all those who came out for our events. Now it's on to the West Coast (home of Book Babe Ellen Heltzel) where, once again, readers will be able to buy a pre-publication copy of "Between the Covers: The Book Babes' Guide to a Woman's Reading Pleasures" 

     The official publication date given in a previous blog was incorrect. The book will be published by Da Capo Press (part of the Perseus Group) on November 15 , the final day of the Portland, Seattle and San Francisco leg of Book Babes' tour. Books have been and will be available at all the Babes' appearances, thanks to the hard work of Da Capo, which has been arranging for copies to be shipped to the signing sites directly from the warehouse. So, if you are in any of these three Western cities in November, come early and get a pre-pub, signed copy!

     Also, check out the nearly full-page spread the Babes' got in More magazine's November issue (page 38). Book tours are better than Botox!

BOOK BABES WEST COAST BOOK TOUR

PORTLAND
    
     November 7: Powell’s Burnside store (downtown store at 1005 W. Burnside) at 7:30 p.m. The Book Babes will present and sign their book.
    
     November 8:  Wordstock: Portland ’s Festival of the Book, 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., at 1 p.m. on McMenamins Stage: The Book Babes will present and sign their book.

     November 9:  Wordstock: Portland ’s Festival of the Book, 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

At 12:30 p.m. Ellen is appearing on a Book Review Crisis panel

At 3 p.m. Margo is moderating the First Book panel.

     November 12:  Annie Bloom’s Bookstore, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, at 7:30 p.m.. Writer Floyd Skloot, author of "In the Shadow of Memory" will introduce the Book Babes who will present and sign their book. Skloot is the author of "In the Shadow of Memory," one of the books featured in "Between the Covers."

Also look for interviews with the Book Babes in Portland on 

“Better TV” with reporter BROOKE CARLSON (airing to be announced)

KBOO Radio in Portland, LIVE IN-STUDIO 9:30-10 a.m. on November 11

“AM Northwest” (KATU-TV, ABC) on November 12

SEATTLE

    November 11:  Elliott Bay, 301 S Main St., at 7:30 p.m. The Book Babes will present and sign their book.

SAN FRANCISCO

    

November 13: Books Inc, Burlingame store, 1375 Burlingame Ave. at 7 p.m. The Book Babes will present and sign their book.

     November 15: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., in Corte Madera, at 1 p.m. The Book Babes will celebrate women reading with several authors who appear in "Between the Covers," including  Maureen Adams ("Shaggy Muses"), Liza Dalby ("The Tale of Murasaki"), Jane Ganahl ("Naked on the Page"), Jane Juska ("A Round-Heeled Woman"), and Caille Millner ("The Golden Road: Notes on My Gentrification"). The Book Babes will be introduced by San Francisco writer/editor Divina Infusino.

Also watch for an interview with the Book Babes in San Francisco on

KRON-TV in San Francisco, “Weekend Daybreak”


COMING UP IN DECEMBER:

An interview of Margo by Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio will be aired on   “Book Talk” Tampa Cable TV show throughout December

December 2: Ellen and Margo will be featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio/Sirius XM Radio at 10 a.m. ET.

December 16: Margo will appear from 7-8 p.m. at Schwartz Bookshop, 4093 N. Oakland Ave., in Shorewood, Wisconsin

December 20: Margo will appear at Andrea's, 2401 60th St., in her hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin

 

THE BOOK BABES' BOOK TOUR: Tampa Bay

     The Rays are not the only game in town. Here is the schedule for the Book Babes who will be together this weekend in St. Petersburg and Tampa to debut their new book, "Between the Covers: The Book Babes' Guide to a Woman's Reading Pleasures," which will be published November 10 by Da Capo Press.

Thursday, October 23
     8:30-9 p.m. Watch Book Babe Margo Hammond, interviewed on WEDU-TV's Up Close with Cathy Unruh.

Friday, October 24
    12:30 p.m.: Watch Book Babes Ellen Heltzel and Margo Hammond on Your Turn on WTVT-Ch. 13 with anchor Kathy Fountain.
      6 p.m.: Come listen to the Book Babes at Inkwood Books, 216 South Armenia Avenue in Tampa. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Saturday, October 25
     10 a.m.: Listen to the Book Babes on the Women's Show on WMNF-88.5 FM
     11:15 a.m. in Davis 130 on the campus of the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg: Come to meet the Book Babes at the Times Festival of Reading. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

WOMAN POWER

October is the month for... publishing a book! Almost on store shelves (official release date: Oct. 21, official on-sale date: Nov. 10) is The Book Babes' "BETWEEN THE COVERS: The Book Babes' Guide to a Woman's Reading Pleasures." To introduce it, the Babes will appear together in the flesh at the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading Oct. 25 and on the West Coast -- Portland, Seattle, San Francisco -- in early November. We'll post the complete schedule as those events draw near, so if you're in the area, please join us to celebrate.

"Between the Covers" recommends books by both men and women authors, but the choices were made on the basis of the books' relevance to women's lives. It's a book written by, for and about the joys and challenges facing the contemporary woman, from the teenage years through the so-called golden ones... which raises the question: Don't we want to make them ALL golden? 

Meanwhile, two ways to join the up-with-women zeitgeist: Ursula Le Guin's "Lavinia" and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's "The Palace of Illusions." Le Guin dips into Roman mythology to retell Virgil's story, the Aenid, from a wife's point of view; likewise, Divakaruni draws from the ancient Hindu text, the Mahabharat, to bring women in that tale from out of the shadows. Publishers are hopelessly addicted to comparing new books to bestsellers in the hope that they can build a big audience for what they're schlepping. So forgive me if I indulge in the same awkward comparison. But if you think of "The Red Tent" dressed up in non-biblical clothing, you've got the idea of what both of these novels can provide. And with our world in such chaos, what better time to turn to the ancients for inspiration and guidance?   

Both of these books received four stars from Bookmarks magazine, the best publication for readers -- and I say this without knowing what if anything the magazine plans to say about "Between the Covers." We authors can only hope for the attention we so richly deserve.
-- Ellen