Solstice Magazine Benefit & Night Riffs at The Rockwell

You are invited to our annual benefit! Join us for SOCIALIZING & BRIEF READINGS BY NIGHT RIFFS GUEST AUTHORS (introduced by Dzvinia Orlowsky):

  • Oliver de la Paz, 
  • Jabari Asim,
  • Richard Hoffman, and
  • Ewa Chrusciel

There will be LIVE MUSIC by West Street Jazz, a Boston-based jazz trio/quartet focusing on maintaining the jazz tradition and performing music from the greats, such as Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Kenny Brunnell, and Grant Green.

Don’t miss out on the GOURMET GRATIS FOOD, CASH BAR, BOOK TABLE & AUTHOR SIGNINGS, AND OUR INFAMOUS SILENT AUCTION.

JOIN US FOR A CHANCE TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT DIVERSITY!  
Donations optional except for $10 cover at door.

George Howe Colt presents THE GAME at Wellesley Books

George Howe Colt, National Book Award finalist for The Big House, presents The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968, the story of that iconic American year, as seen through the young men who lived it and were changed by it. Learn more at store.wellesleybooks.com 

About The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968

*A New York Times Notable Book*
*A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year*

From the bestselling National Book Award finalist and author of The Big House comes “a well-blended narrative packed with top-notch reporting and relevance for our own time” (The Boston Globe) about the young athletes who battled in the legendary Harvard-Yale football game of 1968 amidst the sweeping currents of one of the most transformative years in American history.

On November 23, 1968, there was a turbulent and memorable football game: the season-ending clash between Harvard and Yale. The final score was 29-29. To some of the players, it was a triumph; to others a tragedy. And to many, the reasons had as much to do with one side’s miraculous comeback in the game’s final forty-two seconds as it did with the months that preceded it, months that witnessed the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, police brutality at the Democratic National Convention, inner-city riots, campus takeovers, and, looming over everything, the war in Vietnam.

George Howe Colt’s The Game is the story of that iconic American year, as seen through the young men who lived it and were changed by it. One player had recently returned from Vietnam. Two were members of the radical antiwar group SDS. There was one NFL prospect who quit to devote his time to black altruism; another who went on to be Pro-Bowler Calvin Hill. There was a guard named Tommy Lee Jones, and fullback who dated a young Meryl Streep. They played side by side and together forged a moment of startling grace in the midst of the storm.

 

About the Author
George Howe Colt is the bestselling author of The Big House, which was a National Book Award finalist and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; Brothers; November of the Soul; and The Game. He lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, the writer Anne Fadiman.

 


Craft on Draft presents – Writing Your Novel’s Biggest Moments at Trident Booksellers & Cafe

Going big can be a challenge. Write too loud and your big moments become melodrama, not loud enough and they can lose their punch. Come hear how authors Rachel Barenbaum (A Bend in the Stars), Mark Guerin (You Can See More from up Here), and Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne (Holding on to Nothing) found the right volume for their novels’ biggest moments.

Want in on the action? Submit one page from your own big, loud moment (max 250 words). Include a brief explanation of the problem it solved navigating the middle of your novel. One lucky winner will have their entry read and discussed by the authors, receive a GrubStreet pint glass + drink, and have their piece and an interview published on the Dead Darlings blog. Email submissions to info@craftondraft.org by October 24.


A Night in with Joyful Clemantine Wamariya

Join Read4Refugees (in collaboration with the Girls’ Night In Boston Community) for a night in to raise money for refugees.

Wear your best pajamas, bring a book to swap, and get ready to cozy up with other compassionate booklovers. The event will run from 7 – 9pm and feature a virtual reading and Q&A from the incredible author and human rights activist, Clemantine Wamariya.

Joyful Clemantine Wamariya is an internationally renowned speaker, a New York Times bestselling author, and an accomplished human rights advocate. Her memoir The Girl Who Smiled Beads debuted with Crown Publishing in April 2018 and is published in 7 languages and dozens of countries. Clemantine received her BA in Comparative Literature from Yale University in 2014 and built her career as “a compelling storyteller and fierce advocate” (Amy Poehler). Clemantine has appeared four times as a guest on The Oprah Show and was appointed by President Obama in 2016 to serve on the board of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

All proceeds from this event will support RefugePoint, an award-winning organization that brings critical resources to people on the front lines of the refugee crisis. The Read4Refugees campaign supports highly vulnerable refugees who are often overlooked by traditional forms of humanitarian aid; refugees who have spent almost 20 years in a country of asylum, the chronically ill, LGBTQI individuals, survivors of violence and torture, and women and children.

This event is ticketed, while the suggested donation is $30 we encourage you to pay what you can!


Maureen Stanton discusses BODY LEAPING BACKWARD at Wellesley Books

Maureen Stanton presents Body Leaping Backward, her haunting and beautifully drawn story of a self-destructive girlhood, of a Massachusetts town and a nation overwhelmed in a time of change, and of how life-altering a glimpse of a world bigger than the one we come from can be.

“A blazingly important memoir about the possibility of change.” —People Magazine

This is a free event, however we request that you RSVP. You can do so in-store, by phone at 781-431-1160, or online at the Wellesley Books website. All RSVP methods are free.


Launch Reading for The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

Join GrubStreet instructor, Marjan Kamali, on publication day for her new novel, The Stationery Shop, at Porter Square Books. Kirkus Reviews calls this novel “a sweeping romantic tale of thwarted love.” Boston Magazine writes: “Grab your tissues . . . Marjan Kamali’s second novel channels love in the time of coup d’états. Set among the political upheaval of 1950s Tehran, The Stationery Shop follows teenager Roya as she discovers the power of love, loss, and then, decades later, fate. And did we mention you’ll need tissues?” Library Journal says, “”The unfurling stories in Kamali’s sophomore novel (after Together Tea) will stun readers as the aromas of Persian cooking wafting throughout convince us that love can last a lifetime. For those who enjoy getting caught up in romance while discovering unfamiliar history of another country.” And Booklist writes “Kamali paints an evocative portrait of 1950s Iran and its political upheaval, and she cleverly writes the heartbreak of Roya and Bahman’s romance to mirror the tragic recent history of their country. Simultaneously briskly paced and deeply moving, this will appeal to fans of Khaled Hosseini and should find a wide audience.”

Marjan will read from her new novel, talk about the story behind the story, and engage in a Q&A with the audience.


Kim Savage in conversation with Vanessa Linsey

Join us for the paperback release of Kim Savage’s In Her Skin. Kim will be speaking with Vanessa Linsey, author of the upcoming Metta Mom: A Mindful Guide to Managing Your Mood & Your Brood.

 

Kim Savage is a former reporter who received her master’s degree in Journalism from Northeastern University. Her work includes the critically acclaimed novels After the Woods and Beautiful Broken Girls. Kim grew up in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, and lives north of Boston, not far from the real Middlesex Fells of After the Woods.

Praise for In Her Skin:

“The mood of this psychological suspense story is appropriately dark and ominous, with a definite gritty edge . . . Obsessive and haunting.” —School Library Journal

“A dark, enthralling tale of truth, lies, and parallel lives.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The mystery of Vivi’s disappearance lends a sinister cast to seemingly harmless interactions. Jo may act rock hard, but her vulnerability and longing are what give this thriller its stakes.” —Booklist

“Savage layers charade upon charade [in] this dark story full of sinister characters. . . An ambitious, twisted story of adopted sisters that raises intriguing questions about privilege, poverty, and morality.” —Publishers Weekly


Susan Conley in conversation with Maryanne O’Hara

“In this intricate, delicate-as-rice-paper novel, an American painter living in Beijing and trying to clean up her act at a yoga retreat makes gains in fits and starts, ‘a butterfly, flitting from leaf to leaf.’”—O Magazine

From the widely praised author of Paris Was the Place—a shattering new novel that bravely delves into the darkest corners of addiction, marriage, and motherhood

When Elsey’s husband, Lukas, hands her a brochure for a weeklong mountain retreat, she knows he is really giving her an ultimatum: Go, or we’re done. Once a successful painter, Elsey set down roots in China after falling passionately for Lukas, the tall, Danish MC at a warehouse rave in downtown Beijing. Now, with two young daughters and unable to find a balance between her identities as painter, mother, and, especially, wife, Elsey fills her days worrying, drinking, and descending into desperate unhappiness. So, brochure in hand, she agrees to go and confront the ghosts of her past. There, she meets a group of men and women who will forever alter the way she understands herself: from Tasmin, another (much richer) expat, to Hunter, a young man whose courage endangers them all, and, most important, Mei–wife of one of China’s most famous artists and a renowned painter herself–with whom Elsey quickly forges a fierce friendship and whose candidness about her pain helps Elsey understand her own. But Elsey must risk tearing herself and Lukas further apart when she decides she must return to her childhood home–the center of her deepest pain–before she can find her way back to him. Written in a voice at once wry, sensual, blunt, and hypnotic, Elsey Come Home is a modern odyssey and a quietly dynamic portrait of contemporary womanhood.


SUSAN CONLEY is the author of the novel Paris Was the Place and The Foremost Good Fortune, a book that won the Maine Literary Award for memoir. Born and raised in Maine, her writing has appeared in The New York Times MagazineThe Paris Review, and Ploughshares. She has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Maine Arts Commission, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. She spent three years in Beijing with her husband and two sons before moving back to Portland, Maine, where she currently lives. She teaches in the Stonecoast Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine.

 

 

During the 1930s, an artist and reluctant new wife struggles to reconcile her heart’s ambitions with the promises she has made

Cascade, Massachusetts, 1935. Desdemona Hart Spaulding, a promising young artist, abandoned her dreams of working in New York City to rescue her father. Two months later he is dead and Dez is stuck in a marriage to reliable but child-hungry Asa Spaulding. Dez also stands to lose her father’s legacy, the Cascade Shakespeare Theater, as the Massachusetts Water Authority decides whether to flood Cascade to create a reservoir.

Amid this turmoil arrives Jacob Solomon, a fellow artist for whom Dez feels an immediate and strong attraction. As their relationship reaches a pivotal moment, a man is found dead and the town accuses Jacob, a Jewish outsider. But the tide turns when Dez’s idea for a series of painted postcards is picked up by “The American Sunday Standard” and she abruptly finds herself back on the path to independence. New York City and a life with Jacob both beckon, but what will she have to give up along the way?


A graduate of Emerson College s MFA program, Maryanne O Hara was a longtime associate editor at “Ploughshares” magazine. Her short stories have been published in “Five Points,” “The North American Review,” “The Crescent Review,” and “Redbook,” as well as the literary anthologies “MicroFiction,” “Brevity & Echo,” “The Art of Friction,” and “Flash Fiction: Youth.” She lives near Boston with her family.


Kim Savage at Belmont Books

Join us for the paperback release of Kim Savage’s In Her Skin. 

 

Kim Savage is a former reporter who received her master’s degree in Journalism from Northeastern University. Her work includes the critically acclaimed novels After the Woods and Beautiful Broken Girls. Kim grew up in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, and lives north of Boston, not far from the real Middlesex Fells of After the Woods.

Praise For…


Praise for In Her Skin:

“The mood of this psychological suspense story is appropriately dark and ominous, with a definite gritty edge . . . Obsessive and haunting.” —School Library Journal

“A dark, enthralling tale of truth, lies, and parallel lives.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The mystery of Vivi’s disappearance lends a sinister cast to seemingly harmless interactions. Jo may act rock hard, but her vulnerability and longing are what give this thriller its stakes.” —Booklist

“Savage layers charade upon charade [in] this dark story full of sinister characters. . . An ambitious, twisted story of adopted sisters that raises intriguing questions about privilege, poverty, and morality.” —Publishers Weekly


Lisa Gardner new book luncheon

Join bestselling crime novelist Lisa Gardner for a luncheon at Wellesley Books to celebrate the release of her new book, Never Tell. An unpredictable thriller, Never Tell puts fan favorites D.D. Warren and Flora Dane on a shocking new case that begins with a vicious murder and gets darker from there.

Please note that this special luncheon with the author is ticketed. Your $39 ticket includes a copy of Lisa’s new book as well as food at the luncheon. Buy tickets in-store at Wellesley Books (no fees), by phone from Wellesley Books at 781-431-1160 (no fees), or online through Eventbrite (processing fees apply).