In a coincidence that I can only describe as odd, I first learned of Julian Barnes yesterday when I read a short story he scripted for the New Yorker titled “Homage to Hemingway” and returned to my room to find that he won the Mann Booker Prize for his novel, The Sense of an Ending. All I can offer is that I enjoyed the short story and found it clever in its structure and conclusion. Congrats to Mr. Barnes. It seems we should check him out in the longer format.

It’s been a while since I spent some time with a Walter Mosley novel, but I think a visit to town may renew my interest. His best known work is still probably the first in the Easy Rawlins series, Devil in a Blue Dress.

He’s out in support of his latest, the third in the Leonid McGill series, When the Thrill Is Gone. Mr. Mosley will be at the Day Chapel of the Carter Center at 7pm.

The following copy is from the Georgia Center for the Book, an outstanding organization that stages many of the author appearances we have mentioned here.

Historian John McMillian joins us with a fascinating new look back at the ’60s: Smoking Typewriters: The Sixties Underground Press and the Rise of Alternative Media in America. The book, published by Oxford University Press, is a ”compact, sharply etched, tour-de-force recollection of rebellious young journalists” who stormed the barriers of the mainstream media and forever changed American journalism and publishing. It’s a well researched and audacious examination of the many counterculture weeklies that popped up in the era of Vietnam, drugs and rock and which laid the foundation for today’s seemingly limitless alternative journals.

After a long hiatus, the Ballroom Book Bash is back! A Cappella Books and the Highland Inn Ballroom Lounge are again joining forces to bring you one of the coolest events in town.

This is where we “discovered” Bernadette Seacrest when she started an evening that featured Atlanta’s own Karen Abbott (also an alum of our little northeastern college) reading from her New York Times bestseller, Sin in the Second City.

Now the series is back with lad lit icon, Nick Hornby. Hornby may still be best known for the meandering musical musings of Rob Fleming (and those lists) in 1995′s High Fidelity, but he has done some great work since then. It’s easy to recommend Songbook to any music fan of a particular age and let’s be honest, About A Boy, speaks to a lot of men (even those who can’t stand Hugh Grant). At one point, I subscribed to Believer magazine just so I could catch Hornby’s monthly column about what he was reading (which sorta inspired our own reading lists – Rube & Rose).

Nick will be signing books and discussing his latest – Juliet, Naked – a remarkable return to form. He will be followed by music of course, courtesy of Can Can.

It all happens on Monday, October 18, beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 and include a copy of Juliet, Naked. They’re on sale now at A Cappella Books and here.

The book titles tell you a lot about the man who some call today’s Hunter S. Thompson. That may be a stretch but he is fun to read and presumably fun to listen to as well. He will be at SCAD Atlanta, 1600 Peachtree Street, at 6:30 on October 7th. Personal experience suggests that you get there early to deal with parking, security, etc.

Here are some of those book titles:

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

Eating the Dinosaur

Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota