Join Us For the Discussion at:
Civic Media Center
Tuesday, May 22, 7:00pm
BASICs Bus Tour

In recent years, pornography has become increasingly violent, cruel, and degrading towards women even as it has become more and more mainstream. Millions of women and young girls are trafficked as chattel in the international sex industry. This is NOT society becoming more comfortable with sex; this is society becoming saturated with the sexualized degradation of women. Meanwhile, Christian fundamentalists and others are assaulting women’s right to abortion and birth control. Forcing women to have children against their will is female enslavement.

Women are not objects. Women are not things to be used for the sexual pleasure of men NOR are they breeders of children. WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS CAPABLE OF FULL EQUALITY IN EVERY REALM!

Sunsara will talk about how we can – and must – defeat the war against women and how doing so can contribute to the movement for the kind of revolution that can fully liberate women and emancipate all of humanity.

About Sunsara Taylor:

Sunsara Taylor is a writer for Revolution Newspaper, a host of WBAI’s Equal Time for Freethought, and sits on the Advisory Board of World Can’t Wait. She has written on the rise of theocracy, wars and repression in the U.S., led in building resistance to these crimes, and contributed to the movement for revolution to put an end to all this. She takes as her foundation the new synthesis on revolution and communism developed by Bob Avakian. You can find her impressive verbal battles with Bill O’Reilly and various political commentary on things from abortion to religion to cultural relativism by searching “Sunsara Taylor” on youtube and don’t forget to check out her blog.

About the Bob Avakian BAsics Bus Tour:

As one facet of the BA Everywhere…Imagine the Difference It Could Make! Campaign, there will be volunteers streaming into cities on a 30 foot RV decorated from head to toe with the front and back covers of the book BAsics, a book of quotations and short essays by Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader who has re-envisioned communism. They will be traveling and bringing the message of revolution and introducing people from all walks of life to Bob Avakian’s revolutionary vision and works. This work can introduce people to “the basics” of understanding and changing the world and give them the foundation from which to act on the world and learn more and getting into all kinds of discussions off of it.

As Revolution newspaper says: “…The bus tour will be changing the atmosphere, bringing the fresh wind of the possibility of a whole new world, attracting people’s deep hopes for humanity and outrage at the world as it is… stirring up controversy, deep engagement and critical thinking. The crew will be representing something much bigger than themselves.”

We encourage you and others to check out and follow the tour’s blog.

What people are saying about the BAsics Bus Tour:

“I wanna put in my strong endorsement of this freedom bus… Courageous brothers and sisters going down to the gut-bucket South. The old Jim Crow senior, still the Jim Crow junior, of course. Whole lot of lynching used be going on in the past, still police brutality taking place, unemployment and underemployment taking place. Dilapidated housing in place, disgraceful school system’s in place… Revolutionary Communist Party bearing witness in a serious kind of way. And I just want to let folk know… I’m behind what they’re doing… keeping track of the injustice here in the state. Keep track of the freedom bus—the Avakian bus!”

-Cornel West

“Greetings from New York City. When I first heard about the /BAsics /Bus Tour I was immediately reminded of the Freedom Riders who traveled boldly and courageously into the belly of the beast, the Deep South, some forty years ago. Their mission was to desegregate interstate bus travel. Today, 40+ years later, the bus tour’s goals are more far-reaching – to question and to confront the existing system of capitalism and imperialism. The good news is that the tour is providing the answers and solutions to all of this through the works of Bob Avakian.”

-Professor at an inner-city school, NYC

Of course you are … well… we have good news – Wild Iris Books is now offering affordable and eye-catching advertising space on our website.

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If you are a non-profit organization or running a community event and have a publication where you are offering advertising, contact us about trading advertising opportunities.  

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Even when you win, you lose.

Or, at least that is what President Snow would like to drill into Katniss, who spends a good portion of the book trying to convince him that she and Peeta are indeed a couple, and happy, and … wait, what? Another fight to the death? Are you KIDDING me? Can’t a girl catch a break?!

At first I was a little eye-rolling at the idea of her having to go back into the ring. It just seemed like a very … a very sequel thing to do. Take all the things everyone liked from the first book (young love! a fight to the death! conflict!) and play that out again, exactly, in the second book.

However, it certainly didn’t turn out the way I expected, and I was glad I’d bought all three books at the same time, so that I could go right into the last installment.

View all my reviews

On Thursday, May 3, ABA CEO Oren Teicher e-mailed member stores about an important opportunity to make a public comment about the Department of Justice consent decree in regard to the agency model. The full e-mail follows.

Dear ABA Member Bookseller:

Since the Department of Justice made international front-page headlines earlier this month with its filing about e-book pricing, I have been asked by scores of booksellers nationwide, What can we do? How can we make our voices heard about this issue of paramount importance?

I’m writing today to share news about a step that every independent bookseller in the United States can take to advance the argument that the agency model must be preserved to help maintain diversity and competition in our industry. It will involve some work, but rarely has there been a more important issue before us — or a clearer path to allow our views to be known. I know there is a certain degree of skepticism about whether anything we say will have any effect, but to remain silent at this critical juncture would, in my opinion, be a bad mistake.

As you recall, on April 11, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil suit against Apple and five major publishers with agency model pricing for e-books. In announcing the civil suit, DOJ also announced that Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Hachette had settled with the government. While denying that they had violated antitrust laws and while defending the agency model, the three publishers agreed that they would no longer employ the agency model for e-books for two years. And, while Apple, Macmillan, and Penguin have stated that they intend to vigorously fight the civil suit, clearly this dramatic federal incursion into the marketplace has sent highly disruptive tremors across the publishing landscape.

Importantly, there is federal legislation —  the Antitrust Penalties and Procedures Act (often referred to as the “Tunney Act,” after the law’s sponsor, former California Senator John Tunney) — that gives us a crucial opportunity to make our views known about DOJ’s proposed settlement with the three publishers.

That settlement must be approved by the court, but, before that can happen, the Tunney Act requires DOJ to accept comments from the public, to publish the comments, and to submit a written summary of the comments to the federal court charged with considering approval. A federal judge will then determine whether the remedy being proposed is “in the public interest.”

The comment period extends for 60 days, and the deadline for submitting comments is Monday, June 25.

Even if you have already written letters this year about other important issues — be it sales tax or free expression — I’m calling on you to please once again pick up your pen. It’s hard to imagine a more pressing or important moment.

The law requires that these letters be published, summarized, and considered by the court. We often use the phrase “speak truth to power.” Here is the issue, the time, and the opportunity to do so. Please join ABA, the regional booksellers associations, and your colleagues in writing.

As ABA made clear in a meeting with DOJ on March 19, we could not believe more strongly that the agency model has been good for our channel, good for all bricks-and-mortar bookstores, good for publishing, and, most importantly, good for readers and book buyers. Since its introduction, the agency model has corrected a distortion in the market fostered by below-cost pricing, predominantly led by Amazon.com, the ultimate result of which is, we believe, to reduce or to eliminate competition among both retailers and publishers.

Since the introduction of the agency model many more independent booksellers are selling e-books, and those sales have shown steady growth. The agency model has lowered prices to indie bookstore customers, and indies themselves have seen significantly increased price competition among publishers in regard to promotions, discounts, and special offers, all of which have allowed bricks-and-mortar bookstores to offer customers a wider array of titles at a greater value.

In short, since the introduction of the agency model, the e-book market for consumers has become far more competitive — not less so!

Deeply discounted books were among the key components in the fuel stoking Amazon’s engines of growth. It’s frankly somewhat stunning that DOJ would accept the possible upending of an industry as important to the cultural and intellectual life of our nation as bookselling and publishing so that one retailer could pursue a policy that is nearly certain to result in monopolization of the e-book market.

Before the introduction of the agency model, Amazon had a 90 percent market share in e-books, when they were selling below cost, a price far lower than indie booksellers could purchase e-books from publishers. Today Barnes & Noble, Google, Apple, Kobo, along with indies and others have joined the market, which has become far more competitive and diverse.

If the agency model goes away for a significant period of time, there is every reason to believe that Amazon will again price below cost and increase its e-book market share. We believe this can only be bad news for the reading public, resulting in a cultural landscape offering a far less diverse range of titles being published and a much-diminished range of publishers.

If you agree that the preservation of the agency model is essential for our industry, please, take the time today to share those thoughts in a public comment letter. As an independent business that will be directly affected by the proposed consent agreement you have the opportunity to join what could be a powerful, and eloquent, choir of voices explaining just how misguided this proposed consent agreement is.

You can send your comments to:

John Read
Chief, Litigation III Section
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
450 5th Street, NW, Suite 4000
Washington, DC 20530

We would appreciate it if you would send a copy of those comments to Dan Cullen so that ABA can also track what is being said about the proposed consent decree.

Importantly, there are publishers that adopted the agency model that are not cited in the civil suit (notably Random House), and there have been no indications yet that those publishers are abandoning the agency model. Also, it’s not yet clear what will happen in the short term vis-à-vis agency for the publishers that are fighting the legal action.

So, as is often the case, in the short term it is critically important to focus our attention and energies where they have the potential of creating the greatest positive effect.

I hope that you will share your views with DOJ as soon as possible.

Over the years, I know many of you have heard me say that as a group we often tend to under-estimate our capacity to influence public policy, but we’ve had numerous successes when we’ve joined together and have expressed our views in a clear and concise manner. It’s important, however, that every letter reflect your own individual style and opinion.

In issues such as this — in which many of the players are massive corporations and the issues sometimes can seem frustratingly complex — all of us can feel daunted and can wonder whether our contribution might make a difference. But as all of us have seen, many voices joined together can channel the power of important ideas. And, as Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

This is one of those moments that we might just be able to look back at and say that we made a real difference. Send in a letter. Don’t delay.

And, as always, if you have any questions about this critical issue — or any other ABA-related matter, don’t ever hesitate to contact me.

Warm regards.

Sincerely,

Oren Teicher, CEO
American Booksellers Association
200 White Plains Road
Tarrytown, NY 10591
oren@bookweb.org
(914) 591-2665      , ext. 6611

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I were still a 13-year old girl I probably would have stayed up all night to read this book. As it is, I’m 42… so it took me two nights. Hey, I had to work the next day.

Whenever it was that Mockingjay came out, a bunch of my reader friends went nuts. I decided right then that I wasn’t going to read this series, since the people who talked about it had that same sort of fevered intensity that people had about the movie Forest Gump, and there’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back.

However, the movie is about to come out, and I figured I’d rather go to a bad movie than read a bad book, but I’m also a snob and get a little twitchy when people complain about a movie without having read the book first. So, I got suckered into reading the book. And I may never forgive my friends for Forest Gump, or The Big Bang Theory, but I have to say I am now firmly in The Hunger Games camp.

Things I liked about this book (may contain spoilers):

1. Katniss is wise, for having a troubled childhood, but not so wise beyond her years that she instantly knows all the answers to every one of life’s questions. In fact, in many ways, she’s still quite naive.
2. While she may be estranged from her mother, at first, this is not one of those teens-without-adult-supervision stories. She may not have a great relationship with her mother, but she does have Haymitch, and Cinna, and Effa (for what she’s worth).
3. There was love and physical closeness, but it wasn’t sexualized, like in many teen movies I’ve heard of lately.
4. Not everyone winds up happy and healthy at the end. In fact, she gets, and pretty much remains for the series, emotionally damaged. War is hell; it’s good to see that not glossed over.
5. While it was written for teenagers, it wasn’t written down to teenagers. And only someone who has read a preachy, treacly book when they were young will understand that.

When we went to see the movie, I was a little disappointed with some liberties taken. I thought that it was much more tense, at the end of the book, with Peeta being near death and the revelation that the mutts were the previous tributes. I understand why they changed some other things (Madge), but that was the main thing that jumped out at me as “whyyyyyyyy”.

And yes, I would totally have wanted to be Katniss when I was a teenager… Games and all.

View all my reviews

BLNCF is an initiative that is “designed to promote our local economy and support local businesses. Dollars spent at local and independently-owned businesses create a “multiplier effect” in the local economy, meaning that they re-circulate within our community to support small-scale livelihoods and what is unique about North Central Florida.”

BLNCF members receive a 10%*  discount off  in-store purchases.  For online orders use the coupon code “BLNCF” to receive your 10% savings.  Wildirisbooks.com offers over 4 million titles and e-books.  Need a place to start? Check out the Indie Bestseller Lists, our Local Author List or Our Recommended Reading Lists.

If you don’t have your BLNCF Card yet – not to worry – we have them available at the store and you can pick one up to save on your purchase immediately.  Once you come get your card – don’t forget to visit the list of other participating businesses around town.

*Sorry – Discounts do not apply to consignment merchandise

Your sliding scale $5-10 door fee will go to support Maria’s musical endeavors and Friends of Wild Iris.

We’ll be open all day long if you want to hang out before the show starts at seven. Cafe Colette starts serving dinner at 5pm so grab some friends, come early to eat and stay to enjoy a great show!

If you’ve never been a member of NOW, NOW is the time. If you’ve let your membership lapse, renew today! Even if it’s been years, NOW needs you back.

Legislators and lobbyists look at membership to gauge how effective an organization is, and how much of a threat it poses to the patriarchy. Help Gainesville NOW add to this threat with your support!

NOW Board Meeting, Thurs. May 10th, 6:30pm

If you would like to be more active in local feminism, join us for our monthly board meeting at Cafe Colette inside Wild Iris Books.

SE Regional Conference, Sat. May 12th, Raleigh NC.

Florida needs your support. There are two candidates from FL running for National Board member. You can help by voting for them at the conference. If you are a NOW member, we can get you to Raleigh relatively inexpensively, and bring you home again. Let us know of you are interested.

The Invisible War showing at the Hippodrome, Tues. May 15th, 6:30 pm.

$7.50. Co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace.

Feminist Friday Happy Hour, Fri. May 25th, Northwest Grill. 6:30 pm.

Please RSVP.

Florida NOW State Conference, Fri-Sun. June 1-3, Airport Hilton West Palm.

See more about it.

National NOW Conference, Fri-Sun June 29-July1, Baltimore Hilton Airport.

Register for the conference.

Gainesville Area NOW needs you to join our chapter! Every dollar counts in our fight for women’s rights. Your annual membership of $35 is vital. With your support, we can continue to bring issues that are important to you, to the forefront.

You can join here, and you can renew here! Choose FL0165 – It’s important!

For more information check out please visit the website GainesvilleNOW.org

Embassytown by China Miéville

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh, this book. This book!

The only time I have for reading these days is about an hour a day before I go to sleep; so I have to be honest… after two days, I almost started this book over, thinking I must have been too tired to understand it. After four days, I almost put it aside, thinking that I am not a hoopy frood who knows where his towel is and am clearly too meshugganah to grok this literature.

I’m not a big fan of books that – and I’ve seen this more in fantasy than science fiction – without explanation of the term, throw in words that either don’t mean anything [in our time, now] but clearly do [in the setting of the book] or words that mean one thing [to us now] and something completely different [and, again, unexplained] in the book. Or words that are nouns, used as verbs. Get where I’m going with this? So I almost put it aside, because, Sweet Zombie Jesus. I’m not stupid but I am easily frustrated.

After about 100 pages (and I’ll pretty much give any book 100 pages, as that’s when most of them begin to hit their stride) I was hooked. I trusted the author, having enjoyed other books by him, and it totally paid off. By the time that the flashbacks stopped, and everything was being told as-is, going forward, I didn’t even want it to end. And in the end, even the beginning made sense; it’s all about language.

View all my reviews

Rule 34 by Charles Stross

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m not sure why I didn’t like this one quite as much as Halting State; it had much of the same pacing, certainly also told in second person (which as with Halting State didn’t bother me as much as others), and has a few of the same characters. I did like it, mind you; just not as much as the first one. I think, perhaps, I could have done with maybe two less points-of-view – occasionally I would be a page into a chapter and realize it wasn’t in the head of the person I thought it was, and once or twice I had to flip back through the book to even figure out who this person was/is. Granted, some of that could have been that the only time I have for reading is about an hour before bed, and some days my brain is just …. cooked. But, still.

Overall, I think I liked a lot of things that other reviewers haven’t seem to liked that much; the Scottish brogue, being told in the second person (it sort of made me think of playing a computer game, where you’re the character… but not really), and the fact that in spite of the title referencing an old online porn joke, there’s really not that much active porn in the book. Actually, that sort of makes me chuckle at people who may have picked it up actually expecting porn. SURPRISE! Spoiler alert: it’s a murder mystery.

View all my reviews

Well, here we are, at the end of the Mayan calendar and ready to tumble of the face of the dial. How are you feeling?  Ready to skid off the edges of the flat earth?

When people ask me about the Mayan calendar, I tell them what I see in my mind’s eye: a tired scribe who thinks, “Yes. This is a good stopping point, right before the start of this next cycle.” (Or a carver who runs out of space on the dial…) But not the end of the world as we know it, unless you’re speaking metaphorically, rather than literally.

I do feel the upcoming Uranus square Pluto configuration beginning in June of this will be transforming our world in exciting and unexpected ways, just as the conjoining of these two planets in the late 60s kicked off a new era. More on that in June’s forecast. So, prepare for a trippy journey, but don’t give away all your possessions and wait for the clock to stop ticking.

Though with Mars trine Pluto, I doubt even the dooms-dayers will be sitting around waiting.  We’ll all be working hard and active, active, active through May 20^th!

MAY 5th

May begins with a full moon in Scorpio opposite the Taurus sun at 16°.  Taurus is content with what is. while Scorpio is interested in what’s missing. Taurus is the container of the zodiac, it holds onto what it receives, while Scorpio is the releaser. When these two energies combine, it’s time to think about what you’ve held onto too long and need to shed, be it emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, or materially.

Can you strip your values down to their essential core and then ask yourself what people, attitudes, situations, beliefs, and things in your life genuinely feed you?  That’s what this moon desires.

Secondarily, if you have essential needs that aren’t getting met, don’t be surprised if emotions boil over the days leading up to the full moon. Where you find resentments and frustrations, you find a need unaddressed or a fear untended.  If you find yourself seething, consider it an opportunity to air your discontent and gain clarity on your needs (versus what you simply want).

This tug of war may be particularly loud in interpersonal relationships where expectations, obligations, and desires often get muddied.  Clarifying boundaries will help ease tensions.

Also examine where your faultfinder might thwart your dreamer. With Mars in Virgo opposite Neptune in Pisces and both squaring the moon’s nodes, there’s a need to let go of an old way of acting or behaving and a need to take a more imaginative and fluid approach. Where do you demand perfection from yourself?  Where do you have codified routines?  If you find yourself stuck and an old approach isn’t working, try surrendering the approach. Feel your way through. The phrase let go and let God/dess comes to mind.

MAY 8

Mercury moves into slow-moving Taurus on May 8^th, calming the pace of our minds, asking us to tie down our thoughts and make them more concrete. Plans and ideas of the last two months can now be nailed down and put into practical action – if they’re pragmatic. If not, we’re likely to scrap them.  Take a laid back approach when negotiating with others, as pushing for what you want will have you smacking head squarely against wall: people can get a bit stubborn – shall we say, bullheaded? – when Mercury travels through this sign.

MAY 15

Venus, planet of love of money, will seem to stop in the sky and then turn direction (retrograde) beginning May 15^th until it turns direct on June 27^th. Traditionally, this isn’t the best time to buy big ticket or luxury items (cars, jewelry) but a fantastic time to rediscover what you love, what you value, and what matters to you.  It’s also a great time to revisit your finances to ensure you’re on sure footing.

An oddity of Venus retrograde periods is that they often bring people from your past out of the woodwork, so Facebook might be a flurry of activity this month, as old friends want to reconnect.

Mostly Venus retrograde allows us to discern what is of true value to us and evaluate the real worth of the people and situations in our life.  We begin to notice when a relationship doesn’t really benefit us. Little frictions and disagreements appear to help us notice the differences or unresolved issues we have with others. However, it’s not time to act on our evaluations, but assess the severity and depth of issues, so we can work on them when Venus goes direct in June.

MAY 20

Sun moves into sunny, curious Gemini.  Circulate, share ideas,  and explore your community. Now is a good time to discover where you’ve boxed yourself in a bit too tight and bring in a bit of variety and change.

Now let’s complicate things a bit and make this new sun part of a new moon eclipse at 0° Gemini.  This is a solar eclipse, so look to where your ideas – especially ideas that you hold true about yourself and your identity – are challenged or need revisioned.

Signs and clues lie in your everyday life – the conversation with the local mail carrier that goes off the rails, the comment from your child’s teacher that challenges your ideas – to see where the revisioning will take place.

New moons are tied to new beginnings, but solar eclipses, especially those tied to the south node as this one is, also speak to the need for surrender and release.  A question to live in this new moon: Is there some cherished idea about myself, my life, my past, or my purpose that needs relinquished in order to move forward?  (Clue: if it’s ego-bound rather than value-driven, it may be slowing you down.)

The new moon’s stressful relationship to the Neptune may incline us to ignore a hard truth or refuse to acknowledge what we’d rather not see.  It also can make us less clear of our direction, and less confident we know where we’re heading.

Saturn in a supportive trine to Venus can aid in mooring us when we feel uncertain. Use your core values as your guide. A Venus-Saturn compass might direct us by asking questions such as: What is lasting, of value, and important in the grand scheme of my life? Will [this direction, person, decision] strengthen my ability to connect in a meaningful way with others? Does it foster a sense of self-respect and self-worth?

Dreams worth pursuing in spite of the obstacles life provides are those aligned to the core principles and foundational values that emerge from this kind of questioning.

Have an amazing, magical month!

If you’re going to the Rock & Mineral Open House being held at Wild Iris Bookstore on May 5th (10 am – 4 pm), here are Gemstone recommendations for the month:

 Aries

Tiger Iron, Carnelian, Bloodstone

Taurus

Copper, Emerald, Amber

Gemini

Peridot, Tanzanite, Moss Agate

Cancer

Natural Pearl, Moonstone, Smokey Quartz

Leo

Red Spinel, Rhodolite, Shungite

Virgo

Labradorite, Peridot, Jade

Libra

Flourite, Opal, Pyrite

Scorpio

Black Tourmaline, Carnelian, Obsidian

Sagittarius

Mookaite, Yellow Jasper, Serpentine

Capricorn

Amethyst, Garnet, Black Onyx

Aquarius

Amazonite, Moss Agate, Lapis Lazuli

Pisces

Fairy Stones, Rock Crystal, Angelite