2016 Author Series

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Geraldine Brooks, The Secret Chord

"Geraldine Brooks is a master at bringing the past alive, imbuing history with living, breathing characters who allow us to understand the very difficult task of being human. Whether her novels concern ordinary people or kings, in Brooks’s skillful hands the issues of the past echo our own deepest concerns: love and loss, drama and tragedy, chaos and brutality...  'The Secret Chord' reads like a prose poem, with battle after battle recounted in detail, but it’s a page turner of a poem. "  — Alice Hoffman, Washington Post

Brooks is the author of five novels including the international best-seller Caleb's Crossing and March, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. She lives on Martha's Vineyard.

Author Nicole Galland interviewed Geraldine Brooks.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Matthew Desmond, Evicted

From Matthew Desmond, a Harvard sociologist and MacArthur "Genius," comes a landmark work of scholarship and reportage that will forever change the way we look at poverty in America.  EVICTED: Poverty and Profit in the American City is a brilliant, heartbreaking book. Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge.  He moved into a trailer park and then to a rooming house and diligently took notes on the lives of people who pay 70 to 80 percent of their incomes for homes that, objectively speaking, are unfit for human habitation. It is an astonishing book.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Richard Russo, Everybody's Fool

One of Americas most compelling and compassionate storytellers, Richard Russo discusses his eagerly awaited new novel, Everybody's Fool. Russo returns to North Bath, New York, and the characters of Nobody's Fool, with his signature narrative skill and humor.  As the Boston Globe put it, "A big, rambunctious novel with endless riffs and unstoppable human hopefulness."  "Russo hits his trademark trifecta: satisfying, hilarious, and painlessly profound." — Kirkus Review

Russo is author of eight novels including the Pulitzer Prize winning, Empire Falls, and That Old Cape Magic and Bridge of Sighs.  He lives in Camden, Maine. 

Author Amor Towles interviewed Richard Russo. 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 2016

CARLY SIMON, BOYS IN THE TREES

Simon’s memoir Boys in the Trees reveals her remarkable life, beginning with her storied childhood as the third daughter of Richard L. Simon, the co-founder of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, to a meteoric career in which she became the first artist in history to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. The memoir recalls a childhood enriched by music and culture, but also one shrouded in secrets that would eventually tear her family apart. Simon brilliantly captures moments of creative inspiration, the sparks of songs, and the stories behind writing “Anticipation” and “We Have No Secrets” among many others. Simon insightfully discusses her relationships, her marriage to James Taylor and her enchantment with Martha's Vineyard.  

WMVY Radio host Barbara Dacey interviewed Carly Simon.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Margo Jefferson, Negroland

Growing up in the 1950s, Margo Jefferson was part of Chicago's black upper class. The daughter of a prominent doctor and his socialite wife, Jefferson inhabited a world of ambition, education and sophistication, a place she calls "Negroland."  In her award winning memoir, Jefferson describes the social pressures of her upbringing, and the sense of separation that it engendered. 

A professor of writing at Columbia University School of the Arts, Jefferson won a Pulitzer for criticism during her years as a book and theater critic at The New York Times and associate editor at Newsweek. Negroland was the winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015 and Washington Post 10 Best Books of 2015.

Dawn Davis, vice president and publisher of 37 INK, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Atria Publishing Group, interviewed Margo Jefferson.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Diane Rehm, On My Own

Diane Rehm has hosted NPR's The Diane Rehm Show since 1979. President Obama presented her with the National Humanities Medal in 2014 and her show was named to the Audience Research Analysis list of the top ten most powerful national programs in public radio, the only talk show on the list.  In On My Own, a deeply personal and moving book, the beloved radio host speaks out about the long drawn-out death (from Parkinson’s) of her husband of fifty-four years, and of her struggle to reconstruct her life without him.

Author Alexandra Styron interviewed Diane Rehm. 

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Jane Mayer, Dark Money

Jane Mayer's groundbreaking book on political money and influence, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, has topped the New York Times' best-seller list. The New York Review of Books calls it "absolutely necessary reading for anyone who wants to make sense of our politics. Mayer is telling the epic story of America in our time. It is a triumph of investigative reporting, perhaps not surprising for a journalist who has won most of the awards her profession has to offer." A New Yorker writer for over 20 years, her book Dark Money is essential reading in understanding politics today. Mayer's previous book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, was also a New York Times bestseller.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Tony Horwitz interviewed Jane Mayer.