Laura Kasischke

It’s summertime again in Grand Rapids—what better time to relax with a good book. Some of the best stories have a good guy to root for and a bad guy that the reader can jeer. And sometimes characters fall into that murky gray area in between. Good vs. evil is explored as the Grand Rapids Public Library ... (more)partners with area organizations to present the second annual GR Reads, a summer reading program designed for adults. Come discover the ten interesting books that our smart staff have selected that look at the good, the bad and everything in between, or join your neighbors for fun, informative programs that are inspired by the books. For a complete list of books and events, visit www.grpl.org/grreads or stop by any GRPL library.

In a Perfect World reading and signing. It was like a fairy tale: Jiselle almost couldn't believe it when Mark Dorn-tragic father and Captain Mark Dorn-chose her to be his wife. But it is no fairy tale. As she settles into married life, Jiselle begins to realize that Mark is away most of the time and ... (more)his daughters hate her. And the Phoenix Flu, which Jiselle had thought of as a mere illness, has begun to spread in new and alarming ways that will threaten Jiselle's marriage, her stepchildren, and the very lives they'd all imagined.

In a Perfect World reading and signing. It was like a fairy tale: Jiselle almost couldn't believe it when Mark Dorn-tragic father and Captain Mark Dorn-chose her to be his wife. But it is no fairy tale. As she settles into married life, Jiselle begins to realize that Mark is away most of the time and ... (more)his daughters hate her. And the Phoenix Flu, which Jiselle had thought of as a mere illness, has begun to spread in new and alarming ways that will threaten Jiselle's marriage, her stepchildren, and the very lives they'd all imagined.

The author of The Life Before Her Eyes reads from and signs her new novel, In a Perfect World. This event is free and open to the public.

Author and poet Laura Kasischke joins us to launch her newest book In A Perfect World, which takes readers to a disquieting place where the promise of domestic bliss is torn asunder by painful truths at home and the terrifying prospect of encroaching disease in the larger world beyond. Kasischke, equally ... (more)acclaimed for her poetry and novels, lends her pitch-perfect narrative skills to a compulsively readable story about marriage, motherhood, and the choices we make when we have no choices left. “Although Laura Kasischke’s novel is frighteningly timely with its backdrop of a pandemic flu, it is also touchingly timeless,” says Katrina Kittle, author of The Kindness of Strangers. “From its haunting opening image to its riveting end, this is a tale of beauty, resilience, love, sacrifice, and even grace found in the most unlikely of places. In a truly ‘perfect world’ every book I read would inspire me like this one.” It starts like an enchanted dream: Flight attendant Jiselle, at 32, has been six times a bridesmaid, but never a bride. That changes when Mark Dorn, a pilot and “the handsomest man in the land” sets his sights on her and she is swept up into fairy-book marriage. But Jiselle soon finds that marriage to Mark is not everything she’d hoped: Mark is away most of the time, piloting international flights, and Jiselle struggles to be stepmother to his resistant children (who are given to diary entries like: “If he marries that f—ing bitch, I’m going to make her life a living hell.”). And then the Dorns’ problems become far worse with the global pandemic of the Phoenix Flu, a deadly strain that has begun to spread with unexpected virulence.
For more information, please visit Harper Collins’ website.