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State Library of Massachusetts Author Talk: MICHAEL HOLLEY
A conversation with bestselling author and sports commentator MICHAEL HOLLEY, who will have available for purchase and signing his book Belichick and Brady: Two Men, the Patriots, and How They Revolutionized Football. Belichick and Brady explores the partnership between the head coach and quarterback for the New England Patriots, the most successful coach/quarterback pair in NFL history. Based on interviews with current and former players, coaches, and executives, Belichick and Brady gives behind-the-scenes details about the rise and dominance of Brady, Belichick,…
Find out more »ROSALYN D. ELDER on African American Heritage in Massachusetts
Join us at the State Library of Massachusetts at noon on Thursday, February 8, to hear author Rosalyn D. Elder speak about her recent book Exploring the Legacy: People and Places of Significance, part of the African American Heritage in Massachusetts series. Exploring the Legacy is both a tourist guide and a history book, providing details about 741 sites significant to African American heritage across the Commonwealth. Author Rosalyn D. Elder is a registered architect and entrepreneur who founded and operated Treasured Legacy,…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with BROOKE BARBIER
Come to the State Library at noon on Wednesday, March 7, for an author talk and book signing with BROOKE BARBIER, author of Boston in the American Revolution: A Town versus an Empire. Boston in the American Revolution explores the truths behind the myths of the key players in the American Revolution, including Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. These historical figures come to life in vivid detail in this lively and entertaining read. In addition to its fresh…
Find out more »AMBER MOULTON: The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum Massachusetts
Join us at the State Library for an author talk and book signing with AMBER MOULTON, author of The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum Massachusetts. Based on information from court and church records, family histories, and popular literature, The Fight for Interracial Marriage Rights in Antebellum Massachusetts chronicles the grassroots movement to overturn the Commonwealth’s ban on interracial marriage that culminated in its repeal in 1843. Even though Massachusetts was known as an abolitionist stronghold before the Civil…
Find out more »Former State Representative/author KATHLEEN TEAHAN on “The Story of the Chocolate Chip Cookie”
Did you know that the chocolate chip cookie is the official cookie of Massachusetts? We invite you to come to our next author talk on May 9th to hear author (and former State Representative) KATHLEEN TEAHAN share the story of the much-loved chocolate chip cookie, invented right here in the Commonwealth! Kathleen Teahan’s children’s book, The Cookie Loved ‘Round the World: The Story of the Chocolate Chip Cookie is a fictionalized history of the invention of the chocolate chip cookie…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with PATRICIA HARRIS and DAVID LYON
The State Library invites you to our final author talk of the season: on Thursday, June 21, authors PATRICIA HARRIS and DAVID LYON will speak about their new book, Historic New England: A Tour of the Region’s Top 100 National Landmarks. Just in time for your summer road trip, this author talk will focus on some of the most interesting historic destinations in all of New England. This region contains one of the highest concentrations of National Historic Landmarks in…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with KARILYN CROCKETT
The State Library of Massachusetts invites you to join us at noon on Tuesday, September 18, for an author talk and book signing with Dr. Karilyn Crockett, author of People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making. People before Highways explores a 1960s grassroots movement to halt the planned extension of the interstate highway system through the city of Boston. When it became clear that the planned highway would disproportionately impact poor communities of color,…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with BARBARA BERENSEN
Join us at the State Library of Massachusetts on Wednesday, October 17, for an author talk and book signing with BARBARA BERENSEN, Senior Attorney at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and author of the new book Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers. In anticipation of the 2020 centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement explores the Bay State's pivotal role in the amendment’s passage. According to Berenson, “the women’s rights movement…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with MELINDA PONDER
The State Library of Massachusetts invites you to our next author talk and book signing on Wednesday, November 7, with Dr. Melinda M. Ponder, author of the recent book Katharine Lee Bates: From Sea to Shining Sea. One hundred years ago, on November 11, 1918, Massachusetts poet and Wellesley College professor Katharine Lee Bates joined the throngs of ecstatic Bostonians who were celebrating the Armistice that ended World War I. That same morning, on a hillside in France, the soldiers…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Dick Lehr
Bestselling author of Black Mass and award-winning investigative journalist Dick Lehr will be speaking at the State Library on Wednesday, December 12, about his recent novel, Trell. Soon to be adapted into a motion picture, Trell is the gripping story of a teenage girl who teams up with a Boston Globe reporter in an effort to free her wrongfully-convicted father. Written for a young adult audience, this novel is a departure from Lehr’s previous true-crime bestsellers; however, much like his…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Jim Hamilton
The State Library invites you to our first author talk of 2019, featuring Marshfield author Jim Hamilton, who will speak on January 17th about his new book The Black Cats of Amherst. Published 100 years after the United States entered World War I, The Black Cats of Amherst tells the story of the WWI ambulance unit that formed in Amherst, Massachusetts, in June 1917 and served with several French army divisions during the war. This well-researched book draws upon diaries,…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Linda F. Nathan
The State Library of Massachusetts invites you to our next author talk at noon on Friday, February 8, featuring Dr. Linda F. Nathan, Executive Director of the Center for Artistry and Scholarship, a non-profit affiliated with the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Dorchester. She will be speaking about her latest book, When Grit Isn’t Enough: A High School Principal Examines How Poverty and Inequality Thwart the College-for-All Promise. When Grit Isn’t Enough examines the major myths that inform our ideas about…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Dina Vargo
Join us at our next author talk on Friday, March 8, to explore the cobwebbed corners of Boston’s hidden history with author and historian Dina Vargo, whose new book, Hidden History of Boston, dives into some of the lesser-known “oddball” stories from Boston’s rich history. In this fun, well-written book, you’ll learn about fascinating and sometimes shocking episodes in Boston’s past, such as “Pope’s Night,” when colonial-era mobs celebrated their hatred of the pope, and the 1938 “Zoo Shipwreck,” when…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Eileen McNamara
The State Library of Massachusetts invites you to our next author talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Eileen McNamara, who will be speaking at noon on Monday, April 8, about her latest book, Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World. To register, please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/McNamara-SLM As the visionary founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver changed the lives of millions of people around the world with intellectual disabilities. This comprehensive biography draws from never-before-seen private papers, including diaries, letters, speeches,…
Find out more »Boston’s 20th-Century Bicycling Renaissance
Join us at the State Library for an author talk and book signing with historian and avid cyclist Lorenz J. Finison, author of the new book Boston’s Twentieth-Century Bicycling Renaissance: Cultural Change on Two Wheels. To register, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Finison-SLM Boston’s Twentieth-Century Bicycling Renaissance shares the stories of cycling hobbyists, racers, commuters, bike builders, and others who participated in the resurgence of bicycling in Boston in the 20th century. Author Lorenz J. Finison is a public health consultant and bicycling historian who…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Christine M. DeLucia
The State Library invites you to our final author talk of the season with noted historian Christine M. DeLucia, author of the recent book Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast. To register, please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DeLucia-SLM Memory Lands reexamines the violent 17th-century conflict between Native Americans and European settlers known as King Philip’s War. This book brings to light the alternate histories of this Indigenous resistance movement, providing an alternative to the conventional “Pilgrim-centric”…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Edwin Hill at the State Library of Massachusetts
We have a treat for you this October! Edwin Hill, author of the critically-acclaimed Hester Thursby mystery series, will speak at the State Library of Massachusetts on Thursday, October 3, about his new novel, The Missing Ones. Edwin Hill’s debut novel, the psychological thriller Little Comfort, introduced us to Hester Thursby, a Harvard librarian who uses her research skills to find missing persons. The Missing Ones finds Hester dealing with the trauma of her last case and questioning her interest…
Find out more »Was Henry a Hippie? Locating Thoreau in a Changing Modern World at State Library of Massachusetts
Please join us for an author talk on Wednesday, November 6, with renowned environmental historian Dr. Richard W. Judd, author of the recent book, Finding Thoreau: The Meaning of Nature in the Making of an Environmental Icon. To register, please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SLM-RichardJudd Henry David Thoreau is one of America’s most widely-recognized authors, but at the time of his death in 1862, he was relatively unknown as a writer. In his book Finding Thoreau, Dr. Judd details Thoreau’s reversal of fortune…
Find out more »Author Talk and Book Signing with Richard A. Johnson at the State Library of Massachusetts
Attention New England sports fans—our next author talk is for you! Join us at the State Library of Massachusetts on Monday, December 2, for a conversation with Richard A. Johnson, curator of The Sports Museum at TD Garden and co-author (with Glenn Stout) of The Pats: An Illustrated History of the New England Patriots (published in 2018). To register, please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SLM-RJohnson A New York Times and Boston Globe best seller, The Pats chronicles the complete history of this legendary…
Find out more »Did You Know?
Certain books were “banned in Boston” at least as far back as 1651, when one William Pynchon wrote a book criticizing Puritanism.