TUESDAY
For those who only discovered (and promptly binge-watched) the show just a few years ago on Netflix, it’s a little weird to think the book that spawned Emmy-winning Friday Night Lights was actually first published in back in 1990. The classic account of the Permian Panthers follows the high school team’s 1988 season in Odessa, Texas. Says the blurb on Amazon: “Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going.” It’s good to know that the book is just as earnest as the show. Themes like racial and social divides in America’s small towns still hold up today, so snag a copy of the 25th anniversary edition (with updates on where the team members are now) and hear author Buzz Bissinger in conversation with the book’s editor, Jane Isay.
Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 7 p.m. Strand Book Store, 828 Broadway (Noho).
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junot diaz
The Bookshop’s Live Auction Was a Bust, But a Rare Edition of Maus Is Cleaning Up
Speaking of auctions involving Richard Hell, the St. Mark’s Bookshop, as you know, held a live auction Thursday to raise funds for its move to a smaller location in the East Village. Though 11 books, including Music of Chance by Paul Auster and Drown by Junot Diaz, were up for grabs, a Baggage Battles-style bidding war didn’t exactly ensue: the event drew just a dozen people, and brought in a modest $100 via Anne Waldman’s First Baby Poems and The Milk of Universal Kindness.
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