On Monday April 2nd at 7pm at the Southfield Public Library (26300 Evergreen Road, Southfield, Michigan 48076) , author and Detroit News columnist Susan Whitall along with Kevin and Keith John (children of Little Willie John) will host an event in memory and celebration of one of Detroit's greatest unsung musical heroes, Little Willie John, creator of such timeless classics as "Fever," "Need Your Love So Bad," and "Grits ain't Groceries." One of the first singers to successfully meld gospel with rhythm and blues into what eventually became known as soul music, Willie was primed to become a breakout pop star when a tragic incident led to his imprisonment and suspicious death at the age of 30. "Fever: Little Willie John's Fast Life, Mysterious Death and the Birth of Soul" is the first authorized biography to consider the life of the influential singer and the circumstances surrounding his untimely death. Author Susan Whitall will be joined by John's two sons, Keith and Kevin John, for a rare presentation in memory of this brilliant, and electrifying singer. "Little Willie John is the soul singer's soul singer." - Marvin Gaye "My mother told me, if you call yourself 'Little' Stevie Wonder you'd better be as good as Little Willie John." - Stevie Wonder For more information click here.
 Author Scott Martelle will be doing a signing at The Book Beat (26010 Greenfield Rd. Oak Park MI 48237) on Thursday, April 5th from 7pm-8pm for his new title Detroit: A Biography. Joining him in conversation about the book will be M.L. Liebler
Scott Martelle, a third-generation journalist, was born in Scarborough, Maine, and grew up there and in Wellsville, New York, about two hours south of Buffalo. His first newspaper job came at age 16, writing a high school sports column for the Wellsville Patriot, a weekly (defunct), then covering local news part-time for the Wellsville Daily Reporter. After attending Fredonia State, where he was editor of The Leader newspaper and news director for WCVF campus radio, he worked in succession for the Jamestown Post-Journal, Rochester Times-Union (defunct), The Detroit News and the Los Angeles Times, where he has covered presidential campaigns, books, local news and features, including several Sunday magazine pieces. Freelance work has appeared in the New York Times Book Review (books in brief), Buffalo News, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Teaching Tolerance (Southern Poverty Law Center), Solidarity (United Auto Workers) and elsewhere. He also speaks occasionally at school and college classes about journalism, politics and writing. Detroit: A Biography takes a long, unflinching look at the evolution of one of America's great cities, and one of the nation's greatest urban failures. It tells how the city grew to become the heart of American industry and how its utter collapse—from 1.8 million residents in 1950 to 714,000 only six decades later—resulted from a confluence of public policies, private industry decisions, and deep, thick seams of racism. And it raises the question: when we look at modern-day Detroit, are we looking at the ghost of America's industrial past or its future? "A valuable biography sure to appeal to readers seeking to come to grips with important problems facing not just a city, but a country." - Kirkus For more information about the event, click here.  Legendary poet, activist, owner of Peace Eye Bookstore, and founding member of The Fugs, Ed Sanders will be appearing in Book Beat on Monday, April 9th from 7:30-8:30 pm to promote the release of his newest book Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side. This event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase at the event. To reserve copies of the book or if you have any questions regarding this event, please call Book Beat (248) 968-1190. Sanders will also be reading and performing with Sixto Rodriguez at Wayne State University on April 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Welcome Center. 
"Full of encounters with a veritable who's who of downtown New York and the counterculture beyond it (Lenny Bruce, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, Andy Warhol, Pete Seeger, Ken Kesey, Charles Olson, George Plimpton, Abbie Hoffman, and the Grateful Dead, just to name a few), Fug You is an illustrated history of social change in the 60's, as told by he man at the center of it all. In short and in long, this is a "coming-of-age" drama of epic proportions, tracing the voyage of a man through the wild electromagnetic forests of the 1960's as he holds together a longtime marriage with his college sweetheart while savoring an era of experimental art, music, sexual rebellion, and demand for genuine change in America." -from the introduction to Fug You Book Beat will have a large selection of the author's works on hand for sale at and before the event. For more information on the event, click here.  The Book Beat reading group will meet on Wednesday, April 4th at 7:00 PM at the Goldfish Teahouse in Royal Oak, MI to discuss the novella THE HOUR OF THE STAR by Brazilian author Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) . For more information on the Book Beat reading group please call: 248-968-1190. Read more HERE.
1 Million Books will be given away nationwide!! The Book Beat will be a distribution point for the metro-Detroit area and we will be distributing books to "givers" on April 16th, one week in advance of the event. Stay tuned for more info soon...
Book Beat is an independent locally owned bookstore serving the metro Detroit area since 1982. We appreciate your support and comments. Special orders are always welcome! For more information please call 248-968-1190 during store hours Mon.-Fri. 10 am-9 pm, Sat. 10 am-7 pm & Sun. 12-5pm. Visit us in person at 26010 Greenfield in Oak Park, MI 48237 or online 24/7 at thebookbeat.com - Thank you for reading!
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Whitall with Keith & Kevin John signing at Southfield Public Library
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