"After the gushing NYTBR review of Song For Night, it was great to hear Chris Abani (center) read in person at Akashic Books's party at the Tenement Museum Shop," reports Karen Schechner. The party, celebrating Akashic's fall frontlist (and serving as a prelude to the indie publisher's ten-year anniversary next month, also featured novelist Joe Meno (left) and Mike Farrell (inset), TV's "B.J. Honeycutt," who spoke about the theme of responsible citizenship, an important part of his new memoir, Just Call Me Mike. "Publisher Johnny Temple introduced the authors and talked about how all three fit the unofficial Akashic credo that the writers themselves should be equal to their work," Schechner adds:

"Following his talk, Farrell, who'd shown up using crutches, explained that he'd injured himself on the last leg of a 7,000-mile motorcycle trip to the Arctic Circle. He was nearly home when he stopped for a hike in Muir Woods and fell down a trail he thought he could manage. The lesson, he said, was 'never get off the motorcycle.'"

Schechner also met Amanda Lydon, the former manager of Good Yarns Bookshop in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., who is now the events coordinator at the Tenement Museum Shop and says "things are going really, really well."

Look for my interview with Abani and Meno in tomorrow's edition of GalleyCat.