Literati Bookstore and First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor were blown away by the enthusiastic response and incredibly quick sell-out for our 7pm event on 10/25, so we’ve worked to bring you this additional, same-day event opportunity at 4pm! We’re so grateful that Anne has made herself available for this additional event, and so excited to bring it to you! Programming for this event will be indentical to the 7pm event.
Tickets are general admission and include a pre-signed hardcover copy of Almost Everything, to be picked up at First United Methodist Church the evening of the event. Literati Bookstore will have additional copies of Anne’s titles available for sale.
About Almost Everything: From the bestselling author of Hallelujah Anyway, Bird by Bird, and Help, Thanks, Wow, comes a new book about the place hope holds in our lives. “I am stockpiling antibiotics for the Apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen,” Anne Lamott admits at the beginning of Almost Everything. Despair and uncertainty surround us: in the news, in our families, and in ourselves. But even when life is at its bleakest–when we are, as she puts it, “doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over-caffeinated”–the seeds of rejuvenation are at hand. “All truth is paradox,” Lamott writes, “and this turns out to be a reason for hope. If you arrive at a place in life that is miserable, it will change.” That is the time when we must pledge not to give up but “to do what Wendell Berry wrote: ‘Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.’” In this profound and funny book, Lamott calls for each of us to rediscover the nuggets of hope and wisdom that are buried within us that can make life sweeter than we ever imagined. Divided into short chapters that explore life’s essential truths, Almost Everything pinpoints these moments of insight as it shines an encouraging light forward. Candid and caring, insightful and sometimes hilarious, Almost Everything is the book we need and that only Anne Lamott can write.
About Anne Lamott: Anne Lamott is the New York Times bestselling author of Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; Bird by Bird; Operating Instructions, and Hallelujah Anyway. She is also the author of several novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California.
About First United Methodist Church: At First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor, we welcome everyone of every ability! Young or old, Democrat or Republican, gay or straight, genderqueer or cisgender, filled with doubts or firm in your faith–you are invited to join us. Our congregation is grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which tears down walls and builds up community. We are progressive and relevant–committed to seeking peace and building hope through worship, service, social justice, and educational opportunities in our local, national, and international communities.
Sold out!
Literati Bookstore and First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor were blown away by the enthusiastic response and incredibly quick sell-out for our 7pm event on 10/25, so we’ve worked to bring you this additional, same-day event opportunity at 4pm! We’re so grateful that Anne has made herself available for this additional event, and so excited to bring it to you! Programming for this event will be indentical to the 7pm event.
Tickets are general admission and include a pre-signed hardcover copy of Almost Everything, to be picked up at First United Methodist Church the evening of the event. Literati Bookstore will have additional copies of Anne’s titles available for sale.
About Almost Everything: From the bestselling author of Hallelujah Anyway, Bird by Bird, and Help, Thanks, Wow, comes a new book about the place hope holds in our lives. “I am stockpiling antibiotics for the Apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen,” Anne Lamott admits at the beginning of Almost Everything. Despair and uncertainty surround us: in the news, in our families, and in ourselves. But even when life is at its bleakest–when we are, as she puts it, “doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over-caffeinated”–the seeds of rejuvenation are at hand. “All truth is paradox,” Lamott writes, “and this turns out to be a reason for hope. If you arrive at a place in life that is miserable, it will change.” That is the time when we must pledge not to give up but “to do what Wendell Berry wrote: ‘Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.’” In this profound and funny book, Lamott calls for each of us to rediscover the nuggets of hope and wisdom that are buried within us that can make life sweeter than we ever imagined. Divided into short chapters that explore life’s essential truths, Almost Everything pinpoints these moments of insight as it shines an encouraging light forward. Candid and caring, insightful and sometimes hilarious, Almost Everything is the book we need and that only Anne Lamott can write.
About Anne Lamott: Anne Lamott is the New York Times bestselling author of Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; Bird by Bird; Operating Instructions, and Hallelujah Anyway. She is also the author of several novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California.
About First United Methodist Church: At First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor, we welcome everyone of every ability! Young or old, Democrat or Republican, gay or straight, genderqueer or cisgender, filled with doubts or firm in your faith–you are invited to join us. Our congregation is grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which tears down walls and builds up community. We are progressive and relevant–committed to seeking peace and building hope through worship, service, social justice, and educational opportunities in our local, national, and international communities.
All writers welcome to read their own or other favorite poetry or short fiction afterward at open mic.
Hosted by Joe Kelty, Ed Morin, and Dave Jibson
see our blog at Facebook/Crazy Wisdom Poetry Series
Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room, 114 S. Main St. Free. 7346652757.info@crazywisdom.net www.crazywisdom.net
ToastMasters at SweetWaters is an opportunity to practice your personal and/or professional speaking as well as Leadership in a fun friendly atmosphere.
The club is open to everyone. Attendees have the opportunity to speak, give and receive feedback about speaking, presentations and current events.
We typically have 2-4 prepared speeches followed by (Kind and constructive evaluations) to provide feedback and growth. Attendees will have an opportunity for impromptu speaking as well.
Sweetwaters Cafe, 123 W Washington. Free. chrisjriley@hotmail.com
Detroit News writer Michael Hodges reads from his new book about the “architect of Detroit,” best known for his auto factory designs, who also designed Hill Auditorium and other U-M landmarks.
7 p.m., Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Dr. Free. 971-0990
Mental health counselor Susannah Sheffer reads from her 2013 book about the stress and trauma experienced by death row defense attorneys, most of whom fail to save their clients.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL Downtown 4th-floor meeting rm. Free. 327-4200.
Join us for a special spooky story time with author Rebecca Grabill, as she presents her picture book Halloween Good Night. Count up to ten and back again with this sweet and clever Halloween bedtime story starring your favorite monsters!
All adults and teens in grade 6 & up invited to learn about this nonprofit (also known as NaNoWriMo) encouraging teens and adults to write a 50,000-word novel by the end of November. Refreshments.
4-5 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200.
Halloween-themed storytelling program by Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild members.
6-8 p.m., Serendipity Books, 113 Middle, Chelsea. Free. 475-7148.
Literati is thrilled to welcome author Meghan O’Gieblyn who will sharing her new essay collection Interior States. She will joined for a discussion about her work by writer and Literati bookseller Young Eun Yook.
About Interior States:
A fresh, acute, and even profound collection that centers around two core (and related) issues of American identity: faith, in general and the specific forms Christianity takes in particular; and the challenges of living in the Midwest when culture is felt to be elsewhere.
What does it mean to be a believing Christian and a Midwesterner in an increasingly secular America where the cultural capital is retreating to both coasts? The critic and essayist Meghan O’Gieblyn was born into an evangelical family, attended the famed Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for a time before she had a crisis of belief, and still lives in the Midwest, aka “Flyover Country.” She writes of her “existential dizziness, a sense that the rest of the world is moving while you remain still,” and that rich sense of ambivalence and internal division inform the fifteen superbly thoughtful and ironic essays in this collection. The subjects of these essays range from the rebranding (as it were) of Hell in contemporary Christian culture (“Hell”), a theme park devoted to the concept of intelligent design (“Species of Origin”), the paradoxes of Christian Rock (“Sniffing Glue”), Henry Ford’s reconstructed pioneer town of Greenfield Village and its mixed messages (“Midwest World”), and the strange convergences of Christian eschatology and the digital so-called Singularity (“Ghosts in the Cloud”). Meghan O’Gieblyn stands in relation to her native Midwest as Joan Didion stands in relation to California – which is to say a whole-hearted lover, albeit one riven with ambivalence at the same time.
MEGHAN O’GIEBLYN is a writer who was raised and still lives in the Midwest. Her essays have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, n+1, The Point, The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Best American Essays 2017, and the Pushcart Prize anthology. She received a B.A. in English from Loyola University, Chicago and an MFA in Fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband.
Young Eun Yook is a singer/writer born in Korea and New Jersey. She is a recipient of the Lucille Clifton memorial scholarship from Community of Writers at Squaw Valley and The Paul Mariani Fellowship at The Glen Workshop. You can find her work in the anthology, Goodbye Mexico: Poems of Remembrance and elsewhere. Young Eun received her MFA from the University of Michigan where she won The Meader Family Award and the Se-AH Haiam Scholarship. She is a Kundiman fellow.
