Boston Public Library author talks feature a wide range of talented writers. Hear authors read from their books, purchase a copy, get it signed, and learn about the creative process that gets such magnificent stories told. To look for even more author talks taking place Boston Public Library locations, please use our calendar of events.
Everybody knows the picture: a man, meticulously rendered by Leonardo da Vinci, standing with arms and legs outstretched in a circle and a square. The drawing turns up just about everywhere: in books, on coffee cups, on corporate logos, even on spacecraft. It has become the world's most famous cultural icon – and yet almost nobody knows about the epic intellectual journeys that led to its creation. Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image decodes this famous picture. Toby Lester is a contributing editor to and has written extensively for The Atlantic. He is an invited research scholar at Brown University's John Carter Brown Library. His previous book, The Fourth Part of the World, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Award finalist and was picked as a Book of the Year by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and several other publications.
The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing's popular Images of America series is Boston's Downtown Movie Palaces from Arthur Singer and Ron Goodman. The book boasts more than 200 vintage photographs and memories of days gone by. Since the late 1800s, Boston has been a trendsetter in the development of the movie business. A magnet for theater architects, Boston became a center for elegant movie houses, including the Metropolitan, Keith Memorial, and Paramount.
Arthur Singer is author of Arthur Godfrey: Adventures of an American Broadcaster and he has written extensively for trade publications.
Ronald Goodman is a lifelong resident of the Greater Boston area. His photographs have been published in many news and artistic publications including American Baby, the Boston Globe, and Harvard Magazine.
The city of Cincinnati is littered with corpses. What is happening is nothing short of an atrocity, and the federal investigation bureaus – both human and Inderland – have absolutely no leads as to who or what is behind these soul-sickening crimes. Enter bounty hunter Rachel Morgan, the woman whose "perfect blood" may have just inspired these ghastly acts of violence. In A Perfect Blood, the newest novel from bestselling author Kim Harrison, Rachel Morgan is tasked with solving a crime of which many suspect her to be culpable. Kim Harrison's bestselling Hollows novels include Dead Witch Walking; The Good, the Bad, and the Undead; Every Which Way But Dead; A Fistful of Charms; For a Few Demons More; The Outlaw Demon Wails; White Witch, Black Curse; Black Magic Sanction, and Pale Demon. She is also the author of The Hollows Insider, and the graphic novel, Blood Work.
Whether it's Roman punch for The Age of Innocence or sabzi challow (spinach and rice) with lamb for The Kite Runner, Swedish meatballs and glogg for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, nothing spices up a book club meeting like great eats. Featuring recipes and discussion ideas for one hundred popular book club selections, this fully revised and updated edition of The Book Club Cookbook: Recipes nd Food for Thought From Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors guides readers in selecting and preparing culinary masterpieces that blend perfectly with literary masterpieces.
Judy Gelman, a public relations consultant, and Vicki Levy Krupp, a former high school history teacher, have participated in many book clubs. Seeking to combine their passion for books, food, and book clubs, they met over stacks of books and endless cups of coffee at a local sandwich shop, where The Book Club Cookbook was born. They both live with their families in the Boston area.
"Is This Thing On?" A Computer Hand Book for Late Bloomers, Technophobes, and the Kicking & Screaming by Abby Stokes introduces computers and gadgets – from smart phones to tablets – to the many new users who are bewildered by all the buttons, screens, and computer lingo. Abby Stokes has demystified computers for more than 135,000 people, mostly seniors, during the past 17 years. She has taught courses in basic computing at Cooper Union and New York University's School of Lifelong Learning, as well as computer skills to private and corporate clients. Stokes is confident that everyone can master the computer and navigate the Internet. She splits her time between New York City and Niantic, Connecticut.
Kathryn Harrison, the admired literary voice and New York Times bestselling author of the iconic memoir The Kiss, returns with Enchantments, an exquisite, mesmerizing novel about the fall of Russia's Romanov Empire as seen through the eyes of Rasputin's daughter. Written in Harrison's signature crystalline prose, Enchantments is a love story about two people who come together as everything around them is falling apart. Kathryn Harrison has written the novels Thicker Than Water, Exposure, Poison, The Binding Chair, The Seal Wife, and Envy. Her autobiographical work includes The Kiss, Seeking Rapture, The Road to Santiago, and The Mother Knot. She has also written a biography, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and, most recently, a book of true crime, While They Slept: An Inquiry into the Murder of a Family. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their three children.
Coral Glynn, single and utterly alone in the world in 1950s England, is a victim of circumstance who must navigate the unexpected cards she has been dealt in the latest novel by Peter Cameron. Peter Cameron is the acclaimed novelist whose work includes his 1994 novel, The Weekend, adapted into a film starring Brooke Shields and Gena Rowlands in 2000, and the 2002 novel, The City of Your Final Destination, adapted into a film starring Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, and Charlotte Gainsbourg in 2010.
The Flight of Gemma Hardy, the latest novel from acclaimed and beloved writer Margot Livesey, is an inventive reimagining of the Jane Eyre story. Margot Livesey is the acclaimed author of the novels The House on Fortune Street, Homework, Criminals, The Missing World, Eva Moves the Furniture, and Banishing Verona.
On December 16, 1773, an estimated seven dozen men dumped roughly 10,000 pounds of tea in Boston Harbor. This symbolic act unleashed a social, political, and economic firestorm throughout the colonies. Combining stellar scholarship with action-packed history, American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution reveals the truth behind the legendary event and examines its lasting consequence – the birth of an independent America. Harlow Giles Unger is a veteran journalist, broadcaster, educator, historian, and author of eighteen books including six biographies of America's founding fathers. He lives in New York.
Home to the Boston Red Sox since its construction in 1912, Fenway Park is perhaps best known as the site of some of baseball's most historic moments. Piecing together a century of history, Field of Our Fathers: An Illustrated History of Fenway Park celebrates the legacies of those who have played and performed in the shadow of the Green Monster over the years, making Fenway what it is today. Author Richard A. Johnson compiles an impressively comprehensive collection of essays, newspaper clippings, fan memorabilia, and photos, expertly capturing the essence and inexplicable charm of one of America's most venerable ballparks.
Richard A. Johnson serves as the curator of the Sports Museum at TD Garden. He has authored and edited numerous books on a variety of sports topics, including histories of each of Boston's four major sports franchises as well as the Boston Braves, Boston Garden, Boston Marathon, and A Century of Boston Sports.
Note: Richard Johnson is speaking at the South Boston Branch on April 9th and at the Central Library at Copley Square on May 15th.
Fenway 1912: The Birth of Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year tells the incredible stories of Fenway, from the architect whose creativity has helped Fenway Park remain relevant, to the long winter when local laborers poured concrete and erected history, to the notorious fixers who then ruled the game, to the ragtag team who delivered a world championship, Fenway's first. Drawing on extensive research, featuring never-before-seen blueprints, baseball historian Glenn Stout delivers a remarkable story of innovation, desperation, and perspiration, capturing Fenway Park as no other author has.
Glenn Stout has written and edited more than eighty books. He has served as Series Editor of the prestigious Best American Sports Writing series since its inception in 1991. A native of Ohio and graduate of Bard College and Simmons College, Stout lived in Boston and worked at the Boston Public Library for many years. He now lives in Vermont. Co-presented by the Author Talk and Local & Family History Lecture Series
Next in the bestselling Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series, in Dorchester Terrace Anne Perry's beloved husband-and-wife team must race to find a traitor within the Special Branch itself, before dangerous government secrets start a war, the likes of which Europe has never seen. Anne Perry is the New York Times bestselling author of two acclaimed mystery series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels. She is also the author of several World War I novels, as well as nine holiday novels, and the stand-alone bestseller set in the Ottoman Empire, The Sheen on the Silk. She lives in the Scottish Highlands.
Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic's First Class Passengers and Their World is the story of history's most famous ship told through the lives of its most fascinating passengers. The Titanic has often been called "an exquisite microcosm of the Edwardian era," but has never before been presented as such. Through vividly drawn characters, we gain insight into the arts, politics, and culture of a world both distant and near to our own. All converge on the boat deck of the Titanic during the ship's final hours, and we become witnesses to a heartbreakingly poignant scene where not all survive. Hugh Brewster is an award-winning writer and editor. For 20 years, he was the editorial director and publisher of Madison Press Books, producer of some of the all-time bestselling Titanic books. The author of several books for children, he speaks regularly on the Titanic. Hugh Brewster lives in Toronto.
Fenway Park. The name evokes a team and a sport that have become more synonymous with a city's identity than any stadium or arena in the country. Since opening in the same week of 1912 that the Titanic sank, the park's instantly recognizable confines have seen some of the most dramatic happenings in baseball history. Through it all, the Boston Globe has been the consistent, respected chronicler of every important moment in park history. It is the Globe's insider perspective, combined with more than a century of exemplary journalism that makes Fenway Park: a Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Baseball Park in America the definitive narrative history of both park and team.
Since joining the Globe sports staff in 1973, John Powers has spent hundreds of hours watching games and talking to players.
Ron Driscoll is a former copy editor for the Cape Cod Times and the Boston Globe.
The authors will be interviewed by Janice Page, book development editor at the Boston Globe.
Home to the Boston Red Sox since its construction in 1912, Fenway Park is perhaps best known as the site of some of baseball's most historic moments. Piecing together a century of history, Field of Our Fathers: An Illustrated History of Fenway Park celebrates the legacies of those who have played and performed in the shadow of the Green Monster over the years, making Fenway what it is today. Author Richard A. Johnson compiles an impressively comprehensive collection of essays, newspaper clippings, fan memorabilia, and photos, expertly capturing the essence and inexplicable charm of one of America's most venerable ballparks.
Richard A. Johnson serves as the curator of the Sports Museum at TD Garden. He has authored and edited numerous books on a variety of sports topics, including histories of each of Boston's four major sports franchises as well as the Boston Braves, Boston Garden, Boston Marathon, and A Century of Boston Sports.
Note: Richard Johnson is speaking at the South Boston Branch on April 9th and at the Central Library at Copley Square on May 15th.
The alarming spike in autism in recent years has sent doctors and parents on a search for answers. Many controversies have erupted around the issue and many key concerns remain unexplored. The Autism Puzzle: Connecting the Dots Between Environmental Toxins and Rising Autism Rates is the first book to address the compelling evidence that it is the pairing of environmental exposures with genetic susceptibilities that may be influencing the brain development of children. Journalist Brita Belli brings us into the lives of three families with autistic children, each with different ideas about autism. The Autism Puzzle puts a human face on the families caught between the debates, and offers a refreshingly balanced perspective. Belli is the editor of E – The Environmental Magazine, an independent magazine dedicated to green issues. She has appeared on numerous TV programs as an eco-expert and maintains a blog on autism and the environment at www.autismandtoxins.com.
