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Events Updates

Jane Green

April 11, 2022

Jane Green event on April 11th with Zoom Registration Link
Watch recording on YouTube – Gallery View

About Jane Green

“The author of eighteen New York Times bestsellers and nineteen USA TODAY bestsellers, Jane Green is a former journalist in the UK and a graduate of the International Culinary Center in New York. Her many novels include Jemima J, The Beach House, Falling, The Sunshine Sisters and, most recently, The Friends We Keep, and she has published one cookbook, Good Taste.”

About “Sister Stardust”

Jane Green reimagines the life of troubled icon Talitha Getty in this transporting story from a forgotten chapter of the Swinging ’60s

Claire grew up in a small town, far from the glitz and glamour of London. On the cusp of adulthood, she yearns for the adventure and independence of a counterculture taking root across the world.

When she’s offered the chance to start anew in Morocco, in a palace where famous artists and musicians—even the Rolling Stones—have been known to visit, she seizes the chance. Arriving in Marrakesh, she’s quickly swept up in a heady world of music, drugs and communal living. And Talitha Getty, socialite wife of a famous oil heir, seems to preside over the whole scene. As Claire is pulled into her orbit, the realities of Talitha’s precarious existence set off a chain of dangerous events that could alter Claire’s life forever.

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Bryn Turnbull

March 21 – Recording Available

Event information for Bryn Turnbull author talk on Mar 21, 2022 with link to Zoom Registration page
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About Bryn Turnbull

When she was eleven years old, Bryn Turnbull accidentally put her foot through a single-pane window while leafing through a well-worn copy of Sandman (Volume 2). The incident, which resulted in a trip to the hospital, five stitches, and a unique application of superglue, taught her two things: one, that reading is not, and should not be attempted as, a full-contact sport; and two, that writers can create worlds within a book so absorbing, so completely and utterly all-encompassing, that they can drive readers to such distraction as to forget the outside world entirely.

Today, Bryn is a writer of historical fiction. Equipped with a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews and a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from McGill University, Bryn, who resides in Toronto, writes books intended to drive readers to similar levels of distraction – to transport them into different eras and different worlds, but hopefully not into the hospital.

With a penchant for fountain pens that leak ink onto her fingers, antique furniture, and traveling, Bryn is, admittedly, an old soul with limited patience for modern conveniences – but if you want to get in touch with her, email – that most ancient of online technologies – is the best way to do it.

Bryn is represented by Kevan Lyon of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. Her debut novel, The Woman Before Wallis, was released by Mira on July 21, 2020, and became a Canadian bestseller.

About “The Last Grand Duchess”

Publishers Weekly: “Turnbull again successfully humanizes a family of powerful historical figures… with a gift at making Olga’s situation painfully tangible. This amply justifies taking another look at the lives of the condemned royals.”

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Daniel Black

February 21, 2022

Event information for Daniel Black author talk on Feb 21, 2022 with link to the recording on YouTube
Watch recording on YouTube

About Daniel Black

Daniel Black is an author and professor of African American studies and English at Clark Atlanta University, His books include The Coming, Perfect Peace, and They Tell Me of a Home. He is the winner of the Distinguished Writer’s Award for the Mid-Atlantic Writer’s Association has been nominated for The Townsend Literary Prize, The Ernest J. Gaines Award, the Ferro-Grumbley Literary Prize, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Georgia Author of the Year Prize. He was raised in Blackwell, Arkansas and lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

About “Don’t Cry For Me”

“On his deathbed, a Black father named Jacob writes a letter to his gay son, Isaac, to whom he has not spoken in many years. Jacob seeks not only reconciliation but the opportunity to communicate family and ancestral truths to his only son as he recalls a rural Arkansas background dating to the days of enslavement, his painfully chaotic relationship with Isaac’s mother, and his sorrow at the collapse of their family. Above all, he senses where he failed as a father. From the multi-award-nominated author of Tell Me of a Home; with a 75,000-copy first printing.” – Library Journal, September 1, 2021.

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Mallory O’Meara

Monday, December 6

Event information for Mallory O'Meara with link to recording on YouTube
Watch recording on YouTube

About Mallory O’Meara

Mallory O’Meara is the award winning and bestselling writer of The Lady from the Black Lagoon. Every week, she cohosts the literary podcast Reading Glasses. She lives in the mountains near Los Angeles with her two cats, where she is working on her next nonfiction book. Bourbon is her drink of choice.

About “Girly Drinks”

From Los Angeles Times bestselling author Mallory O’Meara comes a lively and engrossing feminist history of women drinking through the ages

Strawberry daiquiris. Skinny martinis. Vodka sodas with lime. These are the cocktails that come in sleek-stemmed glasses, bright colors and fruity flavors—these are the Girly Drinks.

From the earliest days of civilization, alcohol has been at the center of social rituals and cultures worldwide. But when exactly did drinking become a gendered act? And why have bars long been considered “places for men” when, without women, they might not even exist?

With whip-smart insight and boundless curiosity, Girly Drinks unveils an entire untold history of the female distillers, drinkers and brewers who have played a vital role in the creation and consumption of alcohol, from ancient Sumerian beer goddess Ninkasi to iconic 1920s bartender Ada Coleman. Filling a crucial gap in culinary history, O’Meara dismantles the long-standing patriarchal traditions at the heart of these very drinking cultures, in the hope that readers everywhere can look to each celebrated woman in this book—and proudly have what she’s having.

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Jean Meltzer

Monday, November 22

Event information for Jean Meltzer with link to Zoom registration page

About Jean Meltzer

JEAN MELTZER has the unique distinction of being the world’s only Emmy-award winning, chronically-ill and disabled, rabbinical-school drop-out. Yet, it is this extraordinary background — coupled with a firm belief in holding onto your joy and seeking out happy endings — which forms the basis of her diverse work.

Jean received her BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Dramatic Writing in 2002. After graduation, she served as Creative Director of Tapestry International, an Oscar-winning television and film production company, where she oversaw the writing, development and production for over 250-hours of children’s television, and won numerous awards for her work. In 2006, Jean moved to Israel to pursue a career in the rabbinate, and studied at several colleges and seminaries for five years. She also became an outspoken advocate for the disease, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). In 2012, Jean ended her rabbinical studies and spent the next two years homebound due to this disease.

Today, Jean lives a thriving, chronically-fabulous, Jewish life in Virginia. She sees her challenges as part of a larger journey and is eager to share her stories with others. Her first book, The Matzah Ball, will be published by Mira in 2021. She is represented by Carolyn Forde and Marilyn Biderman at Transatlantic Agency.

About “The Matzah Ball”

Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach.

But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg.

Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.