Read&Connect:Georgia Joins the Global Conversation

Dear Friends,

Summer is upon us, the days are sunny and the streets are full of people talking to one other and sharing their thoughts and ideas, and below are some exciting news from Radarami, including our 15^th book launch and upcoming summer tours to the oft-forgotten regions of Georgia.

With your support and partial funding from the US Embassy Translation Program, Radarami recently published and launched it's 15th Book "Gone Tomorrow: Hidden Life of Garbage" by Heather Rogers. The book is a sobering exploration of our high-octane trash output and was named an editor’s choice by the New York Times and a nonfiction choice by The Guardian. The book launch took place on May 27th in “Mediathek” – a modern-style Public Library, situated in the beautiful Vake Park, in the center of Tbilisi. The launch featured a short introduction by Maia Khechinashvili, an active member of Tbilisi Guerilla Gardening, and a stimulating overview of the book by Stela Namgaladze, a member of the Young Greens Georgia. Over 50 people attended the presentation and they all received their own personal copy of the book.

Radarami has a busy summer ahead: we will be distributing the copies of “Gone Tomorrow” at our more than 100 locations; and organizing presentations in the Eastern, Northern and Southern regions of Georgia. Meanwhile, our next book “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do” by Tom Vanderbilt is being translated and edited.

This Spring was very active for Radarami: we traveled to some of the biggest regional cities of Georgia and held presentations for "Bloodlands." Our events were well covered by the local media and aroused lively discussions in those cities. Nana Gagua – a school director, Nino Chkhetia – a journalist and Goderdzi Tevdoradze – a historian presented the book to the audiences in Ozurgeti, Batumi, and Kutaisi respectively. Later on at the Tbilisi Book Festival Radarami gave away the final copies of “Bloodlands” and shortly discussed this book’s importance with its editor Davit Kopaliani and translator Giorgi Gureshidze.

Our books have been very popular on two major book fairs in Tbilisi that took place in late May. As a result we are out of copies of “Being Wrong”, “Switch” and ‘Bloodlands” and trying hard to raise 5000$ for another print run, remember each 10$ prints 5 books! We thank you for your generous support and for making it possible for Georgian readers to engage in the worldwide conversation through these books.

If you have any questions/comments please email me at mariama@radarami.org

Kindest Wishes,
Radarami Team

 Photo Credits:

Saba Chanuyvadze 

Dear friends, 

Before getting down to business, I'd like to thank those who gave to Radarami during the Holidays. We raised over $1600 and look forward to spending it in our continued quest to spread the global conversation throughout Georgia. I hope all our seasonal donors are enjoying their "Thank You" gifts. 

And now to business...

In mid-December, as promised and anticipated, we printed 2000 copies of Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. A simply massive effort of time, resources, and support by you, our dear donors, and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. We kicked off spreading the word (and the book) in late December with a Bloodlands Book Launch at the Literature Museum in Tbilisi. A short, well-attended presentation was followed by distributing 150 books and the beginnings of what has turned into a very active and ongoing discussion. 

In January, Bloodlands was distributed to over 100 locations around Georgia, including Abkhazia. The bookstores we partner with quickly sold out, which pushed Bloodlands to the No. 1 bestseller for the Laterna Bookstore Chain.

In February, we traveled to Gori, the birthplace of Stalin, to give a presentation at the Stalin Museum, which turned out to be one of the most lively discussion events we're ever had. Because of the book and the locale, we received a very large amount of media coverage, which continued to spread the word about Radarami and increase demand for Bloodlands. 

In March, we're heading out to the regions -- Batumi, Ozurgeti, and Kutaisi -- to get books and stoke the discussion about Stalin and the world at large. Given the high demand and level of conversation for Bloodlands since its publication, we're excited to get it into the hands of some of our most active readers and hear what they're talking about.

No. 15 in the Read & Connect Series: Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers will be published in late March/the beginning of April. This book looks deeply into the global waste industry, capitalism, and garbage and we're grateful for funding through the US Embassy’s Book Translation Project and by your donations for this topically relevant book. 

Radarami will continue to spread the global conversation in Georgia one book and one reader at a time as we move forward 2015. It's hard to believe that we're about to publish No. 15 in the Read & Connect Series. Stay tuned for more exciting developments at Radarami. If you have any other questions or comments, please email brian@radarami.org.

Thank you again for your generous support.

 

Best wishes,

The Radarami Team

Links:

• http://eng.radarami.org