Author and Special Speaker EventsThis couldn't be done Without YOU!
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The Library Hosts Interesting Speakers
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Some Previous Author Events
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PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
ANTHONY DOERR
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015 The New York Times best-seller list is usually filled with super popular authors like James Patterson, John Grisham, Janet Evanovich and JK Rowling. They deserve to be on the list because they are good writers, and they sell a lot of books. However, they are not the only good writers in the world. And, once in a while one of those terrific writers that no one has ever heard of makes it big, too. Such is the case with Anthony Doerr, who spoke at our library on October 14. Anthony Doerr lives in Idaho, and prior to last year, he was an accomplished, but not especially well-known author. He had published one novel, some books of short stories, and a memoir. Then he wrote All the Light We Cannot See, and things took off! Still, it did not happen overnight.
All the Light We Cannot See was published in May of 2014 to positive critical reviews but little fanfare. It made it onto the NY Times Bestseller list, gradually creeping up the list over the next several months. Last fall, the book was named a finalist for the National Book Award. Notoriety started to pick up, mostly through word-of-mouth, but also by winning a myriad of end-of-the-year best book awards. Finally, early in 2015, All the Light We Cannot See ascended to the NY Times top spot for three weeks. Currently, it has been on the list for 48 straight weeks, and remains one of the most popular circulating books in our library! About the book: All the Light We Cannot See was called “hauntingly beautiful” by the New York Times. The novel follows a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Deftly interweaving their lives, Doerr illuminates the ways that, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times). |
Anthony Doerr
Anthony Doerr is an American fiction writer, born in 1973 in Ohio. He is the award-winning author of The Shell Collector, About Grace, Four Seasons in Rome, Memory Wall, and the novel All the Light We Cannot See. He was a 2014 National Book Award Finalist. Doerr's fiction has won four O. Henry Prizes and has been anthologized in several prestigious anthologies. He has won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Rome Prize, the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an NEA Fellowship, the National Magazine Award for Fiction, three Pushcart Prizes, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, three Ohioana Book Awards, the 2010 Story Prize, which is considered the most prestigious prize in the U.S. for a collection of short stories, and the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, which is the largest prize in the world for a single short story. His books have twice been a New York Times Notable Book, an American Library Association Book of the Year, and made lots of other year-end "Best Of" lists. In 2007, the British literary magazine, Granta, placed Doerr on its list of 21 Best Young American novelists. (Bowker Author Biography). And now Doerr has won the 2015 Pulitzer Award for Fiction.
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Nicole Kear
May 20, 2015
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Once again, the Library and the Friends Two Towns-One Book committee brought an interesting speaker to our community. Nicole Kear spoke of her life-changing diagnosis that inspired her memoir, Now I See You. She is going blind because of retinitis pigmentosa within the next decade. Instead of making preparations, Kear decides to make the most of the vision she has left. She joins circus school, tears through boyfriends, travels the world, and through all these hi-jinks, she keeps her vision loss a secret.
When Nicole becomes a mother, just a few years shy of her vision's expiration date, she wants to relish every moment with her kids. And, as her world grows blurred, one thing becomes clear: no matter how hard she fights, she won't win the battle. But if she shares her secret, and comes to terms with the loss, she can still win her happy ending. Told with humor, Now I See You is an uplifting story about refusing to cower at life's curveballs, about the power of love to triumph over fear. And, at its core, it's a story about acceptance: facing the truths that just won't go away, and facing yourself, broken parts and all. Nicole regaled the audience with her humor, signed books, and answered questions. |
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The Library and the Friends Two Towns-One Book committee did it again! Jan-Philipp Sendker, author of The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, the book selected for the 2015 community read program, came to Clifton Park.
Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1960, Mr. Sendker was the American Correspondent for Stern from 1990 to 1995, and its Asian correspondent from 1995 to 1999. In 2000 he published Cracks in the Great Wall, a nonfiction book about China. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is his first novel. Mr. Sendker shared share insights, signed books, and discussed his writing ventures and latest book, Whispering Shadows. Questions were answered and long lines waited for book signing. View Photos of Event
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Piper Kerman
September 22, 2014 View Photos of Event.
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Ms. Kerman wrote the #1 New York Times best-selling memoir, Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison, in 2010. A Smith College graduate, Piper was bored stiff with her middle-class life. Recklessly, she got involved with an unsavory group of bohemian artists who were involved in the drug trade and money laundering.
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Author Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge
January 11, 2013 |
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Jim Ryun
May 20, 2013 |
Olympic Medalist and World Record Miler Jim Ryun wrapped up the 2013 Two Towns-One Book festivities when he spoke at the library. Ryun talked about meeting Louis Zamperini, the subject of Unbroken, shared stories from his own Olympic experiences, and showed videos chronicling his rise from a skinny little kid to world record runner.
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Matt McElligott
with avid fan. March 5, 2013 |
Math, mad scientists, and mixed-up mayhem of a piratical variety was on the library horizon when families and other children's literature enthusiasts were treated to an evening with local author and illustrator Matt McElligott.
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Markus Zusak
April 3, 2012 |
The Two Towns-One Book 2012 author event brought a discussion with Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, using SKYPE technology via computer from his home in Australia.
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Will Shortz
December 5, 2011 |
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Alafair Burke
October 29, 2011 |
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Janine Cammarata
October 17, 2011 |
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Lee Child
November 3, 2010 |
Author Lee Child thrilled the capacity crowd of over 300 at the Library with his discussion of his writing process (a word at a time without outlining the entire book), noting that he doesn't "even have a plan for that paragraph." Going back to Cro-Magnon man, he noted that through storytelling, we were able to figure out a way to survive the dangers that faced us every day.
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Scott Kellogg
April 14, 2010 |
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Terry Trueman
April 8, 2010 |
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