LibraryThing Local

Craving something more with your reading this Fall? Join us for a reading group on sexual and gender identity, featuring a top-notch booklist covering everything from cutting edge to classics. Facilitators Toni Amato and Jaclyn Friedman will lead this 5 week exploration of queerness and literature, making ... (more)connections between the worlds of the authors and our own lives. The group is FREE and will meet every other Tuesday, September 9 - November 11, from 6 to 8 PM. Books will be made available at a discount to all, and free to those with financial need. Space is limited - call 617-876-5310 or email klpereira@centerfornewwords.org to let us know you’re interested.

"Carol Band is a truly delightful storyteller..."Parenting Publications of America "Slightly sarcastic, absolutely on the mark and really, really funny!"Bill Lindsay Editor in Chief, Dominion Parenting Media/Parenthood.com Carol Band's humor column, "A Household Word," has won numerous awards--including ... (more)the Gold Award from Parenting Publications of American for two consecutive years--and is featured in publications and websites around the country. Carol's writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Boston Parent's Paper, L.A. Parent, and AARP Magazine, as well as numerous websites Eons.com, Humorpress.com, and parenthood.com.

PEN New EnglandReadings at the Hotel MarloweBarbara Helfgott Hyett is the published author of In Evidence: Poems of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps ; The Double Reckoning of Christopher Columbus; The Tracks We Leave: Poems on Endangered Wildlife. Barbara has taught Literature and Writing at ... (more)MIT and Boston University, where she won the Sproat Award for Excellence in Teaching English. Barbara Helfgott Hyett is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her poems have appeared in dozens of magazines including The Nation, The New Republic, and The Partisan Review.Please note: this is an off-site event to be held at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, MA. Directions to the Hotel Marlowe. For info or questions, contact: Emily Hiestand, / 617-497-1225. About PEN New England PEN New England is an organization of writers and all those who love the written word. Our mission is to advance the cause of literature in New England and defend freedom of expression everywhere. PEN New England is one of five regional branches of PEN American Center, and part of International PEN, the oldest human rights organization in the world, and also the oldest international literary organization. PEN NE is honored to collaborate with the Marlowe Hotel and Porter Square Books to produce the PEN-Marlowe Reading Series, now in its fourth year. The monthly reading series is programmed by two PEN NE board members and award-winning authors: fiction writer, Edith Pearlman, and essayist/photographer, Emily Hiestand. For more information, visit the PEN New England website.

"An outstanding medical thriller, sharply plotted, with crisp dialogue, intelligent characters--and a premise that will freeze your blood. Gary Braver is one hell of a good writer."Douglas Preston author of The Wheel of Darkness "[This book] cuts to the bone, a nerve-jangling thriller that combines ... (more)the horror of Silence of the Lambs with the medical terror of Robin Cook...As terrifying as it is ingenious, the book is destined to become a classic of suspense and horror."James Rollins author of The Judas Strain Gary Braver is the author of six critically acclaimed suspense novels. Flashback is the only thriller to have won a prestigious Massachusetts Book Award. He teaches fiction writing as well as course in popular literature as a professor of English at Northeastern University. He has taught fiction-writing workshops throughout the United States and Europe for more than twenty years.

Fiction title for September: SOMEWHERE OFF THE COAST OF MAINE by Ann Hood Our in-store book group meets the second Thursday of each month at 6 pm. All are welcome to attend. The next month's title is chosen by majority vote at the close of each meeting. Choices are in-print, paperback format and alternate ... (more)monthly between fiction and non-fiction. As a member of our book group, you will receive a 15% discount on the title of the month.

"McCullough's concept of 'slow medicine' is an example of that ethic of care in action."Library Journal "This book will literally speak volumes to many baby boomers who find themselves helping aging parents through their late-life journey."Peggy Carlson Dennis McCullough, M.D. has been a family ... (more)physician and geriatrician for thirty years. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, and serves as a faculty member in the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. He is a member of the American Geriatrics Society, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the American Medical Directors Association, as well as the coauthor of The Little Black Book of Geriatrics. He lives with his wife, the poet Pamela Harrison, in Norwich, VT.

"Kennedy excels at making the complex compelling...a stylish and wholly original triumph."Publisher's Weekly starred review. Pagan Kennedy is the author of ten books in a variety of genres--from cultural history to biography to the novel, including her most recent book The First Man-Made Man. A regular ... (more)contributor to the Boston Globe, she has published articles in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including several sections of the New York Times. A biography titled Black Livingstone made the New York Times Notable list and earned Massachusetts Book Award honors. Her novel, Spinsters, was short-listed for the Orange Prize. She also has been the recipient of a Barnes and Noble Discover Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and a Smithsonian Fellowship for science writing.

Join Porter Square Books for an evening with contributors to The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008, edited by Lucy McCauley. Reading with us will be: Susan Freireich is the recipient of the 1998 Frances Shaw Fellowship at The Ragdale Foundation, and the 2005 Mildred Sherrod Bissinger Memorial Endowed ... (more)Fellowship at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. She has also received support and time for her work from Norcroft, Hedgebrook, Blue Mountain Center, and Casa Libre en la Solana. Her work has appeared in Poetic Voices Without Borders and in The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2007 and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. Tracy Slater is author of essays and articles in the US from the Boston Globe, Best Women's Travel Writing 2008, The Chronicle Review, and Post Road; and in Japan from The Asahi Weekly, Kansai Time Out, and Kansai Scene. She is also the founder of the Four Stories Boston, Osaka, and Tokyo literary series. She teaches writing at Boston University and has her PhD in English and American literature. Terri Trespicio is a senior editor at Body and Soul magazine, writer, and public speaker. She has appeared on The Today Show, The Martha Stewart Show, Fox News, and NECN. She earned her M.F.A. in creative writing at Emerson College, and currently teaches editing in the publishing certificate program at Boston University. Her work has recently appeared in Boston Magazine, Boston Weddings, Lola, and Boston Globe magazine, where she's a regular contributor to the Coupling column. She lives in Waltham. Kate Wheeler is an award-winning fiction writer and journalist. Once upon a time she was a Buddhist nun, but is now married and lives in Somerville. She teaches and practice meditation, and travels as much as she can. She's now at work on her second novel. Lucy McCauley's travel essays have appeared in such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, Harvard Review, Science and Spirit, and Salon.com. She is series editor of Best Women’s Travel Writing and editor of three other Travelers’ Tales anthologies—Spain (1995), Women in the Wild (1998), and A Woman’s Path (2000), all of which have been reissued in the last few years. In addition, she has written case studies in Latin America for Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and now works as a developmental editor for publishers such as Harvard Business School Press.

"The book is filled with fascinating dramatically told stories."Booklist "Yolen tells the tales of 13 female pirates, from Persia to China, from 500 years before the Common Era to the 19th century. Not only does she tell them vividly, she also strives to untangle fact from fiction, history from legend, ... (more)highlighting the telling details that will draw kids in."Kirkus Reviews Jane Yolen s the award-winning author of nearly three hundred children's books, including Snow, Snow: Winter Poems and The Rogues. She has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of the Americas. Jane lives in Western Massachusetts and Scotland.

"[This book] is the most masterful and engaging story of what it means to be an immigrant from America that I've ever read."Howard Frank Mosher author of On Kingdom Mountain "Limber with history, ripe with life, plus the splendors of exactitude, this magnificent narrative poem is Leland Kinsey's ... (more)richest to date. I pored over it."Edward Hoagland author of Hoagland on Nature: Essays Leland Kinsey is the author of sex collections of poetry including Sledding on Hospital Hill. He lives with his family in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, near the Canadian border.

Get new insights into Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake in this lecture and discussion. Bakirathi Mani is a professor at Swarthmore College, and the Chair of their Women's Studies Department. She has Pd.D.s in Modern Thought and Literature and Cultural and Social Anthropology, and specializes in studying ... (more)the South Asian diaspora in the United States. As such, she is a scholarly authority on Jhumpa Lahiri and her works. This event is part of the Watertown Free Public Library's One Book, One Watertown program.

"One comes away from Miller's page-turner with a reverence, almost an unalloyed love for Tenen, Tufts, and the Kartchner family that owned the land under which the young spelunkers discovered the cave."Tuscon Weekly Kartchner Caverns tells the story of two young spelunkers, just out of the University ... (more)of Arizona, who stumbled upon some fantastically beautiful caves on a southern Arizona hillside, kept them secret for 14 years out of fear they might be looted and destroyed, and eventually succeeded in having them developed as a state park. The book is a non-fiction narrative, extensively researched, that brings to life an important piece of contemporary Western history. It is an adventure story, a character study of two eco-heroes, and a chronicle of the triumph of the environmental approach in a corner of the natural world where pillage, not preservation, had been the norm. Neil Miller teaches journalism and nonfiction writing in the English department at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He is a former staff writer at the Boston Phoenix. Miller is the author of five books, including Sex-Crime Panic: A Journey to the Paranoid Heart of the 1950s and Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present. His articles have appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and a number of other publications.

The library is excited to welcome the prolific author Jane Yolen to the Watertown Savings Bank Room Friday, September 19 at 3 pm. Yolen, the award winning author of nearly three-hundred works written for children, teens and adults, will showcase her highly praised new title, Sea Queens: Women Pirates ... (more)Around the World (Charlesbridge, 2008), which garnered a starred review in Kirkus Reviews. Children will be familiar with such works as How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and Owl Moon while teens and adults may recognize her works of fantasy such as the Mythopoeic Society Fantasy Award winning Briar Rose. Ms. Yolen will be available for book signing following a lecture. No registration required.

How does faith inform your sexuality? Queer and Catholic examines the culture of how being raised catholic informs and influences, positively or negatively, our queerness and how our queerness affects our Catholicism, our vestigial catholic nature or even our flight from and continued struggle with ... (more)the ‘the Church of Rome.’ Whether we embrace or reject our Catholic upbringings, they affect and shape who we are and bump up against our queer identities. Examining the culture of Catholicism, rather than the dogma or letter of it, these essays and short stories do not seek to address whether or not queers and the Catholic Church can reconcile or how and why the church should change, but instead explore the impact that growing up Catholic and queer has on us as individuals, writers, and political agents. Join editor Amie M. Evans, and contributors: Austin J. Austin, Susan McDonough-Hintz, Mallory Hanora, Vince Sgambati, and Emanuel Xavier as they read from their contributions to the anthology with special guest Scott Pomfret.

Alex Hutchinson will be selling and autographing copies of his new book Purple State.

Now you see him, now your don't! This month we will be reading H.G. Well's classic science fiction novel, the Invisible Man and watching James Whale's B&W film version starring Claude Rains. After which will be discussing both the novel and the film!

more info coming soon!

"...emotionally authentic...a ravishing novel of the mystery of death and life’s assertion."Bookslist (starred review) "Deeply touching and absorbing..."Publisher's Weekly Francine Prose is the author of fifteen books of fiction, including A Changed Man and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for ... (more)the National Book Award, and the nonfiction New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. She is the president of PEN American Center. She lives in New York City.

"[This book] is a lively, informative, readable, and enlightening perspective, to be both enjoyed for its literary merits and digested for its insights."Zbigniew Brzezinski author of Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower "With a keen eye for detail and a deep sensitivity ... (more)towards his subject, Daniloff has written a rich and rewarding account of his years covering the Soviet Union."Marvin Kalb Edward R. Murrow Professor Emeritus at Harvard Nicholas Daniloff is Professor of Journalism at Northeastern University. His previous books include The Kremlin and the Cosmos and Two Lives, One Russia.

"A surprising and gracefully written exploration of Boston's true nature. If you love this city, you will love this book."Eric Jay Dolin author of Leviathan "A wonderful piece of work: lively, thought-provoking, and totally absorbing. The city of Boston has been chopped to pieces, riddled with tunnels, ... (more)and surrounded by fill, but as Mitchell reveals in [this book] it is still a place of wonder."Nathaniel Philbrick author of Mayflower John Hanson Mitchell concentrated much of his earlier early work, including, most famously, Ceremonial Time, on a square-mile tract of land known as Scratch Flat, located thirty-five miles northwest of Boston. He is the author of numerous books and editor of the award-winning magazine Sanctuary, published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Mitchell lives in Littleton, Massachusetts.

"It is unbelievably beautiful. Spectacular!"Keene Metzger "This book is gorgeous...Wise, common sense advice is scattered through it. Characters work hard and have good sense and good priorities."Pastor Mike Knudson Bill Buffett grew up in Omaha, attended Central High School, and worked at Buffet's. ... (more)He received degrees from Carleton College, Yale, Harvard, and Boston Universities. He taught high school history in Illinois, drove a taxi in Boston, and was the director of Fenwood Inn at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Bill lives with his wife in Arlington, MA.

Spencer has too many toys! He has robots, puzzles, board games, stuffed animals, and plastic dinosaurs. Toys spill out of every drawer and closet and clutter the floor of every room. Come along as Spencer tries to persuade his mother to keep them all--because every single toy is his favorite! David ... (more)Shannon is the award winning bestselling author of many children's books including, Good Boy, Fergus!, Alice the Fairy, No, David! for which he won a Caldecott Honor, How I Became a Pirate, and Pirates Don't Change Diapers. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Heidi, their daughter Emma, and their West Highland terrier, Fergus.

Part memoir, part journalistic reportage, Mexican Enough illuminates how we often cast off our identity in our youth, only to strive to find it again as adults—and the lessons to be learned along the way.

Ages 2-3 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Reservations Required We’ll do our own leaf hunt obstacle course.

Ages 2-3 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Reservations Required We’ll do our own leaf hunt obstacle course.

"Nonfiction...rarely seems to get the respect it deserves, but Macaulay's latest ambitious, encyclopedic work commands it."Horn Book, starred review David Macaulay is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books have sold millions of copies in the United States alone, and his work has been ... (more)translated into a dozen languages. Macaulay has garnered numerous awards including the Caldecott Medal and Honor Awards, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Christopher Award, an American Institute of Architects Medal, and the Washington Post–Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award. In 2006, he was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, given "to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations." Superb design, magnificent illustrations, and clearly presented information distinguish all of his books. David Macaulay lives with his family in Vermont.

Join Porter Square Books and the Common Cod Fiber Guild for an evening with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is the author of Yarn Harlot, At Knit's End, Knitting Rules!, and Casts Off. She maintains a popular blog at www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ from her wool-filled home in Toronto, Canada, ... (more)where she lives with her husband and three daughters. This event will be held at St. James' Episcopal Church, 1991 Mass Ave. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Seating will be first come first serve. The Common Cod Fiber Guild was started to create an accessible place for speakers and presentations about fiber activities. We wanted a group where we could learn, gossip, and then go for a coffee or cocktail. This group should tie together people from both sides of the river and surrounding communities. For more information visit their website at www.commoncod.com.

Join Diesel Bookstore for a green event with Van Jones, author of Green Collar Economy! ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Van Jones is the founder and president of Green For All, based in Oakland. The mission is to help build an inclusive, green economy - strong enough to lift millions of people out of poverty. Van ... (more)is a tireless advocate, championing "green-collar jobs and opportunities" for disadvantaged people. He is committed to creating "green pathways out of poverty," while greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming. He's worked to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction. Under the slogan "green-collar jobs, not jails," he is calling for green economic development in urban America. As an advocate for the toughest urban constituencies and causes, he has won many honors, which include the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader," and the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship. He's also served on the boards of numerous national environmental organizations. Presently, he is a board member of the National Apollo Alliance, which advocates for clean energy jobs. He is also a founding board member of 1Sky, a national coalition working to avert catastrophic climate change. In 2007, Van helped the City of Oakland pass a "Green Jobs Corps" proposal; the City allocated funds to train Oakland residents in eco-friendly "green-collar jobs." At the national level, Van worked successfully in 2007 with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-MASS) to pass the Green Jobs Act of 2007. That path-breaking, historic legislation authorized $125 million in funding to train 35,000 people a year in "green-collar jobs." Van is also a co-founder of a new national coalition that promotes the idea of a national "Clean Energy Jobs Corps." This multi-billion-dollar federal initiative would put hundreds of thousands of people to work rewiring and retrofitting the energy infrastructure of the United States. In 2005, Van produced the "Social Equity Track" for the United Nations' World Environment Day celebration. UNWED 2005 drew dozens of mayors from around the world to San Francisco, where they developed policies promoting the concept of "Green Cities." In 1996, Van co-founded (with Diana Frappier) the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, now located in Oakland, California. Named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the award-winning Center promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration. The Center, for which Van serves as board president, incubated Green For All in 2007 and spun it off in 2008. His many media appearances includes the popular Peabody award-winning show, The Colbert Report.

Join Clare Langley-Hawthorne at Diesel Bookstore as she presents the second book in her fantastic new historical mystery series! Featuring the strong, outspoken, intelligent and sassy Ursula Marlow, THE SERPENT AND THE SCORPION is a thrilling story of scandal and betrayal that's richly detailed and ... (more)action-packed. ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Clare Langley-Hawthorne was raised in England and Australia. She practiced law in Melbourne until 1995 when she emigrated moved to the United States and began work as a health economist. Clare has since put her pursuit of a PhD on hold to focus on her career as a writer. She lives in the San Francisco bay area with her husband and twin sons. This is her second novel. For more information, visit her web site at www.clarelangleyhawthorne.com

Ages 2-3 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Reservations Required We’ll make firefighter hats and act out being firefighters.

Ages 2-3 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Reservations Required We’ll make firefighter hats and act out being firefighters.

Marshfield Author Amy MacKinnon discusses her thriller TETHERED. This dark, chilling novel will have you on the edge of your seat and your flesh crawling! Guaranteed to put you in the Halloween spirit!

Ages 2-3 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Reservations Required. Come listen to some stories about our favorite Duck and make a duck puppet.

Ages 2-3 9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Reservations Required. Come listen to some stories about our favorite Duck and make a duck puppet.