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