Literati is thrilled to welcome Jospeh Fink to the lobby of the Ann Arbor District Library Downtown in support of his novel, Alice Isn’t Dead, a novel that expands the story told in the hit podcast of the same name. A signing will follow the event. A copy of Alice Isn’t Dead you wish to have signed is required to join the signing line. Literati will have copies of the book available to sale at the event, and copies will be available in the store starting when the book goes on sale on October 30th. You can also pre-order the book to pick-up at the store or the event at our website of by calling 734-585-5567. Additional event details TBA.
About the book: From the New York Times bestselling co-author of It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale comes a fast-paced thriller about a truck driver searching across America for the wife she had long assumed to be dead.
“This is not a story. It’s a road trip.”
Keisha Taylor lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared. After months of searching, presuming she was dead, Keisha held a funeral, mourned, and gradually tried to get on with her life. But that was before Keisha started to see her wife, again and again, in the background of news reports from all over America. Alice isn’t dead, and she is showing up at every major tragedy and accident in the country.
Following a line of clues, Keisha takes a job with a trucking company, Bay and Creek Transportation, and begins searching for Alice. She eventually stumbles on an otherworldly conflict being waged in the quiet corners of our nation’s highway system–uncovering a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman.
Why did Alice disappear? What does she have to do with this secret war between inhuman killers? Why did the chicken cross the road? These questions, and many more will be answered in Alice Isn’t Dead.
About the author: Joseph Fink created the Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn’t Dead podcasts. He lives with his wife in New York.
Washington, D.C.-based journalist Katherine Reynolds Lewis reads from her new book offering a theory of disciplining kids that involves building their skills to address the root causes of misbehavior.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL Downtown 1st fl. lobby. Free. 327-4200
Literati Bookstore is thrilled to welcome Lindsay-Jean Hard who will be sharing her new cookbook Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems Into Delicious Meals
About Cooking with Scraps:
“A whole new way to celebrate ingredients that have long been wasted. Lindsay-Jean is a master of efficiency and we’re inspired to follow her lead!” –Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, cofounders of Food52
In 85 innovative recipes, Lindsay-Jean Hard shows just how delicious and surprising the all-too-often-discarded parts of food can be, transforming what might be considered trash into culinary treasure.
Here’s how to put those seeds, stems, tops, rinds to good use for more delicious (and more frugal) cooking: Carrot greens–bright, fresh, and packed with flavor–make a zesty pesto. Water from canned beans behaves just like egg whites, perfect for vegan mayonnaise that even non-vegans will love. And serve broccoli stems olive-oil poached on lemony ricotta toast. It’s pure food genius, all the while critically reducing waste one dish at a time.
“I love this book because the recipes matter…show[ing] us how to utilize the whole plant, to the betterment of our palate, our pocketbook, and our place.” –Eugenia Bone, author of The Kitchen Ecosystem
“Packed with smart, approachable recipes for beautiful food made with ingredients that you used to throw in the compost bin!” –Cara Mangini, author of The Vegetable Butcher
Lindsay-Jean Hard received her Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. Her education and passion for sustainability went on to inform and inspire her work in the garden, home, and community. The seeds of this book were planted in her Food52 column of the same name. Today she works to share her passion for great food and great communities as a marketer at Zingerman’s Bakehouse. She lives, writes, loves, and creates in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Emory University (Atlanta) English professor Michelle Wright reads from Physics of Blackness, her 2015 book about how different cultures and historical moments define blackness.
4-6 p.m., 2021C Tisch Hall, 435 S. State. Free. 763-2351
Seattle writer Sharon H. Chang reads from Hapa Tales and Other Lies, her new memoir that explores her Asian American and mixed race identity through the prism of a Hawaii vacation that turns into something more when she gets involved with the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement. The program begins with an open mike for poets, who are welcome to read their own work or a favorite poem by another writer.
7 p.m., Bookbound, 1729 Plymouth. Free. 369-4345.
Literati Bookstore is thrilled to welcome Susan Orlean to the lobby of the Ann Arbor District Library in support of her latest, The Library Book. Copies of this new book and Orlean’s other titles will be available for sale, courtesy of Literati Bookstore.
About The Library Book: Susan Orlean, hailed as a “national treasure” by The Washington Post and the acclaimed bestselling author of Rin Tin Tin and The Orchid Thief, reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution–our libraries.
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. As one fireman recounted later, “Once that first stack got going, it was Goodbye, Charlie.” The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more. Investigators descended on the scene, but over thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library–and if so, who?
Weaving her life-long love of books and reading with the fascinating history of libraries and the sometimes-eccentric characters who run them, award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean presents a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling story as only she can. With her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, she investigates the legendary Los Angeles Public Library fire to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives. To truly understand what happens behind the stacks, Orlean visits the different departments of the LAPL, encountering an engaging cast of employees and patrons and experiencing alongside them the victories and struggles they face in today’s climate. She also delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from a metropolitan charitable initiative to a cornerstone of national identity. She reflects on her childhood experiences in libraries; studies arson and the long history of library fires; attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and she re-examines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the library over thirty years ago. Along the way, she reveals how these buildings provide much more than just books–and that they are needed now more than ever.
Filled with heart, passion, and unforgettable characters, The Library Book is classic Susan Orlean, and an homage to a beloved institution that remains a vital part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country and culture.
About Susan Orlean: Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the author of seven books, including Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award-winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in upstate New York.
Poetry readings, testimonials, and storytelling by people who have experienced homelessness. Also, an art display and information from area agencies that address homelessness.
6-8 p.m., Ypsilanti Freight House, 100 Market Pl, Ypsilanti. Free. 662-2829, ext. 226.[map]
Join us for a moving poetry night. Caroline Johnson’s first full-length publication, The Caregiver, includes 50 poems that were inspired by the 15 years she devoted to taking care of her aging parents. Midwest Book Review deemed it “very highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library Contemporary American Poetry collections.” Joining her will be UofM MFA candidate Tara E. Jay.
The Caregiver is Caroline Johnson’s first full-length publication. The gathering includes free verse, lyrical poems, prose poetry and some formal verse. Many of the poems won contests and have been previously published in online print journals and anthologies. The poems touch on the topic of grieving but go beyond and focus on the many difficulties a caregiver experiences―both emotional and physical―yet also recognize the spiritual gifts that come with helping a loved one. Caregiving is a significant issue for our times and will only become more important as our population ages.
Caroline Johnson observed both of her parents suffer crippling illnesses such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Rheumatoid Arthritis in the 15 years she spent as family caregiver. During that time she wrote poetry as a way to grieve and celebrate their lives. This book is the culmination of that effort. She has published two poetry chapbooks, My Mother’s Artwork and Where the Street Ends, and more than 70 poems. Her awards include winning the 2012 Chicago Tribune’s Printers Row Poetry Contest, nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and prizes in state and national competitions. A former English teacher, she works as an academic advisor for a Chicago area community college. One of her favorite activities in the past was watching James Bond movies with her father, who served in the U.S. Air Force as a bomber pilot during the Cold War in the 1950s as part of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). Please visit www.caroline-johnson.com.
As a new wave of activists from Black Lives Matter to the Trump resistance respond to the latest tide of repression, misogyny, and racism, today’s activists are becoming the next link in a long line of American social justice movements. Looking to strengthen this historical bond, in her memoir What My Left What Was Doing: Lessons from a Grassroots Activist, Detroit author Joann Castle turns to her deep experiences for lessons learned that speak to universal social and political issues, which resonate today. What My Left Hand Was Doing’s exclusive ‘Activist’s Survival Guide’ offers a relevant, critical bridge between generations of world changers fighting for a better tomorrow. Join us as for an inter-generational discussion between Joann and Alena Williams.
Joann Castle is a lifelong Detroiter and political activist. She was the mother of six young children when she became involved in the radical Catholic movement for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1960s. Against the incendiary backdrop of the 1967 Detroit insurrection and its aftermath, Castle invested in community work, foster care, and co-founded Hourglass, a group which lobbied the Catholic Church to support black self-determination. By 1968, she was an active member of the Ad-Hoc Action Group struggling against police brutality and later joined the Motor City Labor League, a radical left organization. In the early 70s, she co-founded the unprecedented Control, Conflict & Change Book Club which united blacks and whites in collective consciousness raising and political action.
As Castle became more intensely involved in political activities her marriage failed, she broke with her church, and her family disowned her. Against all odds, she embraced her new life and moved on with her children at her side. Castle married Michael Hamlin in 1975, at the height of his work in the Black Power Movement. She later embarked on a twenty-seven-year career in health care services and earned an M.A. in medical anthropology.
What My Left Hand Was Doing is drawn from Castle’s personal experience as an activist corroborated by archival materials from Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library Archives. In 2012, Castle founded, Against the Tide Books, a company dedicated to the publication of Personal Histories in the Struggle for Justice.
Literati is thrilled to welcome authors Bill Shapiro and Naomi Wax who will be sharing their new book What We Keep.
About What We Keep:
With contributions from Cheryl Strayed, Mark Cuban, Ta-Nahesi Coates, Melinda Gates, Joss Whedon, James Patterson, and many more–this fascinating collection gives us a peek into 150 personal treasures and the secret histories behind them.
All of us have that one object that holds deep meaning–something that speaks to our past, that carries a remarkable story. Bestselling author Bill Shapiro collected this sweeping range of stories–he talked to everyone from renowned writers to Shark Tank hosts, from blackjack dealers to teachers, truckers, and nuns, even a reformed counterfeiter–to reveal the often hidden, always surprising lives of objects.
Bill Shapiro co-wrote What We Keep. He is the former editor-in-chief of LIFE magazine, and his previous books include Other People’s Love Letters, and Gus & Me, which he co-wrote with Keith Richards. He serves on the Art Advisory Board of SXSW.
Naomi Wax co-wrote What We Keep. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Iowa Review, and many other publications. She works on the communications team at the Ford Foundation.
