February 10: The World Will Follow Joy (New Poems) by Alice Walker

This collection of poetry from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple features verse that pays tribute to Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem and the Dalai Lama and also deals with anger, forgiveness and wisdom. 17,500 first printing.

"Poetry is leading us," writes Alice Walker in The World Will Follow Joy. In this luminous collection — a bestseller in hardcover — the beloved writer offers 60 poems to inspire and incite. Penetrating and sensitive, playful and wise, these intensely intimate poems establish a personal connection of rare immediacy between poet and reader, illustrating the very qualities that have won her a devoted following and continue to draw new readers to her writing.

Attentively chronicling the conditions of human life today, Walker shows in her poetry her necessary political commitments, her compassion, and her spirituality. Casting her eye toward history, politics, and nature, as well as to world figures such as Jimmy Carter, Gloria Steinem, and the Dalai Lama, she is indeed a "muse for our times" (Amy Goodman).

The World Will Follow Joy: Turning Madness into Flowers (New Poems) reminds us of our human capacity to come together and take action. Above all, the gems in this collection illuminate what it means to live in our world today.

Located in Hunt Valley, Maryland and part of Baltimore County, Greetings & Readings of Hunt Valley is the premier independent gift store in Maryland. Fiction, fashion and fun.

February 18: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Banned in several school districts mostly for sexual and racial themes, The Color Purple is a novel about Celie, a poor black woman who surmounts rape and abuse to find her true self. Still retains its power today.

The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name.

Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of women of color in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture.

Celie, the protagonist and narrator, is a poor, barely educated, 14-year-old black girl living in the American South. She writes letters to God because the man she believes to be her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once, a pregnancy that resulted in the birth of a girl. Alphonso takes the girl away shortly after her birth. Celie has a second child, a boy, whom Alphonso also abducts. Celie's ailing mother dies after cursing Celie on her deathbed.

The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number 17 because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence.

Located in Hunt Valley, Maryland and part of Baltimore County, Greetings & Readings of Hunt Valley is the premier independent gift store in Maryland. Fiction, fashion and fun.

February 21: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1983, this feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of black English vernacular.

In The Color Purple, Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her.

Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self.

Best-selling novelist Alice Walker is the author of five other novels, five collections of short stories, six collections of essays, seven volumes of poetry (including the most recent Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, and several children's books.

Located in Hunt Valley, Maryland and part of Baltimore County, Greetings & Readings of Hunt Valley is the premier independent bookstore in Maryland.