DANIEL MENDELSOHN, “An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic”
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning memoirist and critic DANIEL MENDELSOHN (The Lost) for a discussion of his latest book, An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic.
When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate Odyssey seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematician’s unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his “one last chance” to learn the great literature he’d neglected in his youth—and, even more, a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that the two men explore Homer’s great work together, it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too…
This event is free and open to the public.
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic will be on sale at the event 20% off.
EILEEN MYLES on “Afterglow: a Dog Memoir”
Harvard Book Store welcomes renowned author and poet EILEEN MYLES for a discussion of their latest book, Afterglow (a dog memoir).
In 1990, Myles chose Rosie from a litter on the street, and their connection instantly became central to the writer’s life and work. During the course of their sixteen years together, Myles was madly devoted to the dog’s wellbeing, especially in her final days. Starting from the emptiness following Rosie’s death, Afterglow (a dog memoir) launches a heartfelt and fabulist investigation into the true nature of the bond between pet and pet-owner. Through this lens, we witness Myles’s experiences with intimacy and spirituality, celebrity and politics, alcoholism and recovery, fathers and family history, as well as the fantastical myths we spin to get to the heart of grief.
This event is not ticketed.
The book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD in conversation with the New Yorker’s JAMES WOOD
Harvard Book Store welcomes KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD, bestselling and acclaimed author of the six-volume novel My Struggle, and literary critic JAMES WOOD for a discussion of Knausgaard’s latest book, Autumn—the first in a new autobiographical quartet based on the four seasons. Boston University’s WILLIAM PIERCE, author of Reality Hunger: On Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle, will provide the evening’s introductions.
Autumn begins with a letter Knausgaard writes to his unborn daughter, showing her what to expect of the world. He describes with acute sensitivity daily life with his wife and children in rural Sweden, drawing upon memories of his own childhood to give an inimitably tender perspective on the precious and unique bond between parent and child. Through close observation of the objects and phenomena around him, Knausgaard shows us how vast, unknowable and wondrous the world is.
You purchase buy tickets here.
This book will be on sale at the event for 20% off.
Feminist gamer ZOE QUINN and the fight against online hate in “Crash Override”
Brookline Booksmith welcomes ZOE QUINN, author of Crash Override: How Gamer Gate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life. Through her story as both target and activist, QUINN delves into the controversies, threats, and cultural battles that permeate our online lives.
QUINN is a video game developer whose ex-boyfriend published a vengeful blog post cobbled together from private information, half-truths, and outright fictions, and rallied online hordes to target her. Under the guise of #gamergate, they hacked her accounts; stole nude photos of her; harassed her family, friends, and colleagues; and threatened her with rape and murder. But instead of shrinking into silence, QUINN raised her voice and spoke out against the dark side of online culture in order to make the internet a safer place for everyone.
You may purchase tickets here, but tickets are free with a pre-order of Crash Override.
Vietnam Vet/Memoirist DAVID HOLDRIDGE on “The Avant Garde of Western Civ”
Porter Square Books hosts Vietnam Veteran DAVID HOLDRIDGE, author of the memoir The Avant Garde of Western Civ, an exploration of the complications of “giving.”
HOLDRIDGE served in the Vietnam War in 1969 as an infantry platoon leader outside of Chu Lai. He was wounded and spent eighteen months getting repaired at various hospitals in the United States, culminating with operations at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut where neurosurgeon, Dr. Benjamin Whitcomb managed to free him from his trauma. Subsequently, he spent thirty-five years working with humanitarian organizations amidst populations suffering from war, exploitation, and impoverishment, including assignments in West Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. From 2010 to 2012, he directed an advocacy effort in Washington D.C., which argued for significant transformation of the current systems and approaches of American assistance abroad.
This event is not ticketed.
MADELEINE BLAIS Reads from her Memoir, “To the New Owners”
Porter Square Books hosts nonfiction author, journalist, and memoirist MADELEINE BLAIS as she reads her newest memoir: To the New Owners.
In the 1970s, Madeleine Blais’s in-laws purchased a vacation house on Martha’s Vineyard for the exorbitant sum of $80,000. A little more than two miles down a poorly marked one-lane dirt road, the house was better termed a shack— it had no electricity or modern plumbing, the roof leaked, and mice had invaded the walls. It was perfect. To the New Owners is Madeleine Blais’s charming, evocative memoir of this house, and of the Vineyard itself— from the history of the island and its famous visitors to the ferry, the pie shops, the quirky charms and customs, and the abundant natural beauty. More than that, this is an elegy for a special place.
This event is not ticketed.
JESSICA BERGER GROSS and DAPHNE KALOTAY discuss GROSS’ family memoir, Estranged
Join Brookline Booksmith as they host debut author JESSICA BERGER GROSS and novelist DAPHNE KALOTAY (Sight Reading, Russian Winter) for a discussion of the process of writing about family and abuse.
In her powerful new memoir, Estranged, reminiscent of Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle, JESSICA BERGER GROSS recounts the internalization of her abusive childhood, the decision to break free from her family, and the difficult road that followed that ultimately allowed her to carve a path to happiness.
This event is not ticketed.
Memoirists ALEXANDRIA MARZANO-LESNEVICH (The Fact of a Body) and MELISSA FEBOS (Abandon Me)
Join Papercuts J.P. and La Rana Rossa pizzeria for an evening with memoirists ALEXANDRIA MARZANO-LESNEVICH and MELISSA FEBOS.
LESNEVICH’s memoir The Fact of a Body captures when she began a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working on the retrial defense of death-row convicted murderer and child molester Ricky Langley. She thought her position was clear. Shocked by her unexpected reaction to the case, she digs deeper and deeper, realizing that despite their vastly different circumstances, something in his story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar.
In her dazzling Abandon Me, FEBOS captures the intense bonds of love and the need for connection—with family, lovers, and oneself.
This event is ticketed, and you can purchase tickets here.
Food Feuds: From Ancient Rome to Southie at Kickstand Cafe
Come to Kickstand Cafe to see novelist CRYSTAL KING with her novel Feast of Sorrow, Top Chef judge BARBARA LYNCH with her memoir Out of Line, and Boston Globe’s food critic Ted Weesner.
Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, KING’s seminal debut features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction.
Out of Line describes LYNCH’s remarkable process of self-invention, including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world, and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen. It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture, governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor. Through her story, Lynch explores how the past—both what we strive to escape from and what we remain true to—can strengthen and expand who we are.
This event is free and open to the public.
Actress and Memoirist MARIANNE LEONE Reads from her Latest, Ma Speaks Up
Porter Square Books welcomes local memoirist MARIANNE LEONE with her latest acclaimed work, Ma Speaks Up: And a First-Generation Daughter Talks Back.
Ma Speaks Up is a record of growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, with the wrong family, in the wrong religion. Though Marianne’s girlhood is flooded with shame, it’s equally packed with adventure, love, great cooking, and, above all, humor. The extremely premature birth of Marianne’s beloved son, Jesse, bonds mother and daughter in ways she couldn’t have imagined. The stories she tells will speak to anyone who has struggled with outsider status in any form and, of course, to mothers and their blemished, cherished girls.
This event is not ticketed.
