Can’t view it? Click on the link below.
Stump Gets Reviewed in Amplitude
So excited to see a review of Stump the Librarian: A Writer’s Book of Legs!
Check out the review at Amplitude, an online and print magazine with the tagline “Powerful, Practical, and Positive Living with Limb Loss.”
Click on the cover below to see Amplitude magazine’s home page, which includes a PDF of the current January/February 2019 issue. The review is on page 7.
I sent out advanced copies of my book to several amputee related publications for reviews. Whatever your subject, find publications on that subject. Submit your book. Also, if you’ve read my book, please post a review on Amazon or Goodreads. A few honest words would be appreciated. Just click on the respective logo on the right. If you have already reviewed it, thank you.
In other book news, I found the children’s picture book Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, by Jessica Kensky Patrick Downes, and illustrated by Scott Magoon, in Amplitude magazine. It just won the Schneider Family Book Award, the American Library Association’s best book for young children with a disability experience. It was included in my Best of 2018 list.
Stump’s Best of 2018
Here’s the best of 2018! By category, only one winner per category, no runner ups, no honorable mentions, no blah blah blah. I’ve culled the list from 427 articles, 119 Youtube videos, 67 books, and 41 movies. Unlike many other best of’s on the internet, I’ve actually read, watched, or listened to the media that tops my list. Enjoy and Merry New Year!
Books
Books by an Amputee
Stump the Librarian: A Writer’s Book of Legs (I’m rather biased, it’s mine!)
Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship, by Jessica Kensky, Patrick Downes, illustrated by Scott Magoon
Nonfiction
The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles, Gary Krist
Fiction
Ready Player One, Ernest Kline (A PBS Great American Read)
Pictorial Works
Journey: An Illustrated History of Travel, Simon Adams
Children’s Picture Book
Her Right Foot, Dave Eggers, Art by Shaun Harris
Career
Chart
Christmas Song
Merry Christmas from the Family by Robert Earl Keene
Conversation
Crime
Convicted killer confesses to 90 murders
Generation Gap
Language
Emma Stone learns British slang from Rachel Weisz
Also a language lesson to everyone not living on Cape Cod. It’s an island, so it’s “on Cape Cod” not as this headline reads “in Cape Cod.” It’s like when when people call the Gulf of Mexico, the ocean. Sorry, rant over.
Long Form Journalism
Map (Interactive)
Medieval London’s Bloody Murders
Mental Health
Movies
Documentary
Tower
Biopic
The Disaster Artist
Comedy
We’re the Millers
Music
Beat Root Revival, Live At the Saxon Pub in Austin, Texas
Sports Writing
Bill Belichick and Nick Saban Friendship
Social Media
Television-Series
Big Little Lies
Travel
Travel is No Cure for the Mind
Truck Drivers
Weeds
Thanks for reading, watching, and listening.
Best Mail
Jump over to my personal page to learn more about the best Christmas present!
Are you Thankful?
This past month I’ve been on an incredible journey. Here’s a few photos from Stump the Librarian‘s book stops. Thanks for supporting a local author and your hometown librarian.
I was in great company at my Page and Palette book signing. Frye Gaillard (A Hard Rain), political cartoonist, JD Crowe (Half-Thunk Thoughts), and The Grinch!
The event at Barnes & Noble in Spanish Fort on the 28th was special too. The Brewster family came by and so did a former co-worker and now Spanish Fort Public Library Librarian Zach Basler.
Sue’s always by my side, em well, except when The Grinch is around.
On Thursday, I talked about leg stories and leg history at the “Tea for Two” program at the Fairhope Museum of History. Director Phillip Bolin and Special Projects Assistant Darby Wiik were gracious hosts. The audience had lots of questions, which I love because, questions usually turn into conversations.
Enjoy the holiday season and check my author site to find out where I’ll be signing and telling leg stories next. Thanks for reading Stump the Librarian.
Until then, want to know where you would be cataloged in the Dewey Decimal System?
Take this quiz at Spacefem. It’s fun! You can find Stump the Librarian in Biography, but here’s my nonfiction section. The “What it says part about you” is surprisingly true.
Alan Samry’s Dewey Decimal Section:
997 Atlantic Ocean islands
Alan Samry = 121491385 = 121+491+385 = 997
Class:
900 History & Geography
Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.
What it says about you:
You’re connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You’ve had some conflicted times in your life, but they’ve brought you to where you are today and you don’t ignore it.
What Happened at the Launch Party
I had a room full of family, friends, patrons, and strangers that are now friends attend the book launch for Stump the Librarian: A Writer’s Book of Legs at Fairhope Public Library. Here’s a few highlights of what happened and some incredible library and amputee related stories that have happened since.
Check out the legs on these cookies!
I mentioned Gouverneur Morris, as a guy who most people don’t know. Morris wrote the final version of the United States Constitution, and single-handedly penned the Preamble. He was considered a ladies man, even with a peg leg in his day. Someone in the audience said something like, “that sounds right.”
“That was not my experience,” I said to a roomful of laughs. “But you’ll read all about that in the book.”
I mentioned a few other leg amputees in the book including Henry Highland Garnet, an African-American Abolitionist, a local man named Bob Youens, Bert Shepard, and a few not in the book like Bill Veeck, and a three-legged cat named Tripod.
John Woods, my publisher at Intellect Publishing, and emcee for the evening suggested I mention being in a movie.
“Good thing Rosalie’s not here, she’s always saying how much I’m milking this movie thing,” I say, turning to the audience.
“I was in a movie with Nicholas Cage!” I said, about my role in the movie USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage about the ship that delivered the atomic bomb in 1945 and was sunk by a Japanese submarine, and more than a thousand sailors lost their lives. I recognized the tragedy, but tried not to dwell on it. The book launch was a celebration, after all.
“I’m in it for about 16 seconds. Look for me in the SPAM scene.”
Stump Stump
Hmmm…what would be Stump the Librarian’s favorite part of the night?
The Q and A!
There are many amputees in the book, but one I had not heard of and mentioned by an audience member was Peg Leg Bates. I believe it was Elizabeth, who asked me about the new prosthetic cover I was sporting.
Here’s a picture of me at The Gulf, a restaurant in Orange Beach.
It’s from a Canadian Company called Alleles, and pronounced “all Ls” and they are catching on fast. Mine’s the Future Plaid model in cobalt and silver. They are intended to have results like my book cover, to stand out and hopefully, act as a conversation starter.
What’s amazing is the people who came into my circle while finishing the book that have had a personal impact and connection. Jasmine was that person for me, not only did she do a stupendous job editing my book (all remaining errors are mine), but we learned of our common link through Shriners Hospital. I stressed the importance of Shriners in the book and in my life. After the book launch, I heard from people who have given to Shriners, like my retired coworker Darlene. My being a patient provided a connection with donors who now know someone who directly benefited from services at Shriners.
Signing
My sister Laurie surprised me! She came down from Massachusetts to celebrate.
Me with John, Susan, Laurie, and Helen
I personalized books for family, several coworkers, blogging friends, Friends of the Fairhope Library, book club members and a bunch of new friends. Bless everyone for your patience. I’m glad I didn’t look up to the line. I learned that children’s author Karyn Tunks (Mardi Gras in Alabama is available now) has a three-legged cat. I’ve known Karyn for five years and was part of a fantastic blogging group with her and others in attendance, including Lorraine, who gave me a fabulous painted rock of my cover that I’m holding below. read more about it here. Don’t you find it strange that I had to write a book about missing legs before Karyn told me about her three-legged cat Hop Along? (Name changed to protect feline’s privacy).
Afterward
It’s been one heck of an awesome week. Patrons, some I knew, many I didn’t, came up to the desk to share stories.
“Do you know the man who wears an artificial leg that goes to the Methodist Community Center?” I did not.
Oliver told me about a stray his family adopted. “Skippy was part of the family for five years,” he said. I mentioned Skippy when I signed books for Oliver’s grown children.
My coworker Allyson relayed to me that her friends, whose daughter is an amputee, loved my inscription. Allyson is buying another book to give as a gift for someone she knows from her medieval fair circle.
Also, I learned that Fairhope’s famed storyteller Connie Cazort’s father was an amputee. At the desk in the library she remembered learning new words when she was five. I was alongside her as she told the story and also seemed to teleport into the memory of learning the words “amp-u-ta-shun,” and “art-i-fish-ul leg.”
My coworker Kris told the reference desk staff about 2018’s Hero Dog of the Year. Chichi is a quadruple amputee, apparently some person destined for hell cut off all four of this dog’s legs. Chichi has four new ones, including two front legs with wheels almost like Benito Badoglio. Who’s Benito Badaglio you ask? hehe, wait for it…you have to read my book. bwahahaha! Seriously, if you have an amputee in your life or are caring for someone with a limb difference, please tell them about my book. Let’s keep the conversation going.
Where Can I Buy It?
If you want to buy my book, you can find it online at Amazon (print and e-ink) and Barnes and Noble. You can also get it locally at Page & Palette in Fairhope, where I’ll be chatting with customers and signing books Nov. 18 from 1-5 PM. Soon, Barnes & Noble in Spanish Fort will have it and I’ll be signing books there Nov. 25 from 2-4 PM. Of course, you can also get it directly from the person writing these words.
I was giddy bringing my books into Page and Palette and talking with Stacy and Leigh.
On Sale Now!
Click on the photo or here to buy the print book from Amazon.
Also available as a Kindle Book.
What are People Saying?
Alan Samry’s kaleidoscopic book, Stump the Librarian is at once a glorious compendium of quick biographies of one-legged individuals, a moving memoir, a fascinating history of amputations and prostheses, and a medical investigation of the congenital anomaly that left the author with a disability at birth. Samry, a librarian in Fairhope, Alabama, takes joy in the quest for answers and pursues information with the sublime sense of mission that the best librarians possess. With clarity, candor, and a down-to-earth directness, he takes us with him: fascinated, outraged, horrified, thrilled, and ever curious about a world populated—and profoundly changed—by those who not only get by on a single leg but stand far more firmly than many people with two. Samry weaves poignant personal recollection through his tapestry of information, making Stump the Librarian a must read.
—Molly Peacock, author of The Analyst and The Paper Garden
Alan Samry takes readers on his personal journey of curiosity, humor and exploration. In an unlikely narrative readers learn about Alan’s life as a congenital below-knee amputee. In a very delightful and provocative manner, Alan relates his personal memoirs and shares historical and imagined characters who are like-amputees. Alan’s writing style is fascinatingly varied, and insightful into his own self-discovery. He shares intimate details that enable readers to appreciate his story and perspective. This book is a celebration of Alan – his person, determination, and his insatiable desire for truth.
—Tamara Dean, Director, Fairhope Public Library
You Have a Book?
Why Yes, I do, and I’m very excited and humbled to finally share my writing with readers.
What’s it about? (from the back cover)
Stump the Librarian: A Writer’s Book of Legs is a diverse collection of creative writing that explores Alan Samry’s life as a congenital below-knee amputee and a public librarian. Alan’s cross-genre writing in creative nonfiction, poetry, essays, satire, and experimental writing weaves fascinating mythical, historical, and literary figures into his own absorbing story of being a “born amputee.” In the book, with chapters organized as though the reader were exploring a public library, Alan writes about his experiences in an open, insightful, and humorous way. In his search for other leg amputees, Alan finds a new way of seeing himself, and the world around him.
When is it coming out and where can I buy it?
The book, published by Intellect Publishing, will be available for purchase locally, on Amazon, and for libraries through Ingram in mid-October in print and as an e-book.
Stump the Librarian Book Launch Party
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Fairhope Public Library-Giddens Auditorium
501 Fairhope Avenue, Fairhope, Alabama 36532
6:00 PM
More details on the launch party and other author events coming soon.