This new discussion series focuses on mysteries.  The selection for this month is Winter Study by Nevada Barr.  Readers who have followed intrepid forest ranger Anna Pigeon fighting fires, crawling through caves, investigating crimes at national monuments, and tracking bears in service of the National Park system will find her back almost where she began, at Isle Royale National Park.  The series is facilitated by Judy Dearlove, who has called Durham home for over three decades.  A passionate reader, she has also taught literature at several local colleges, including Duke, Meredith, and Elon.  Currently, she is engaged in the mysterious process of writing a novel.

Omid Safi will discuss and sign copies of his new book, Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters.  Presenting Muhammad as the lens through which to view both the genesis of Islam and the grand sweep of Islamic history, Safi helps us better understand many hot-button topics facing Muslims today—the purveyance of Holy Wars, the role of women, and the long-running tension with Jews, Buddhists and Christians alike.  Safi is an associate professor of Islamic studies at UNC-CH and the author of The Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam and the editor of Progressive Muslims.

*Doors open at 6:00 pm*

Sam Stephenson will discuss and sign copies of his new book, The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965.  Culled from over forty thousand pictures, here are Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Roland Kirk, Zoot Sims, and Chick Corea, as well as the pimps, prostitutes, cops, dealers, and drug addicts who dropped by (along with the likes of Doris Duke, Norman Mailer, Diane Arbus, and Salvador Dali).  After the reading—music by Jazz Loft legend Ronnie Free and his trio, featuring guitarist Royce Campbell.  Stephenson is a writer and lecturer at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies.