The following is from Montclair Public Library:
Montclair Public Library will host three author events this fall as part of its With the Author series. The series, presented in partnership with Watchung Booksellers, promotes local authors with the intent of fostering a love of reading and a love of literature.
Below is the list of book talks in the fall series:
Wednesday, September 28 at 7pm at the Main Library
Journey to the Land of Look Behind by Denise Laidler
Talented and driven Indigo Wade is entrenched in the daily rigors of her frenzied life. Hemmed in by disillusionment with her engineering career, the expectations of a tyrannical mother and bloodless matches with her lover, Reed she yearns for a life of her own design. A whiskey soaked voice from her childhood pulls her back to her island roots to face the father whose instincts capsizes notions of kinship and trust. What begins as a reluctant trip home becomes an odyssey of discovery and truth-telling. Set in New Orleans and Jamaica, Journey to the Land of Look Behind illustrates what’s left amidst the wreckage of a woman abandoned by a father who navigates relationships like a chess grandmaster. From the intoxicating bacchanal of New Orleans’ speakeasies to the green grottoes of Port Antonio, hers is a journey beyond the bounds of family and obligation to full self-emancipation.
Tuesday, October 25 at 7pm at the Main Library
Child, Please: How Mom’s Old-School Lessons Helped Me Check Myself Before I Wrecked Myself
by Ylonda Gault Caviness
Child Please explores what happens when Ylonda Gault finds herself worlds away from her black, working-class roots—as a parenting editor living in an affluent, liberal enclave near New York City. Gault takes a wry peek through a prism of race and class to dissect the zeitgeist, family drama and “mother-sucking” absurdities that make her wonder whether she is going crazy or coming back. As motherhood and career begin to careen—often poignantly; sometimes comically—Gault eventually falls back on her home training. She learns to stand up to the overwhelmingly white mommy mania culture and bow down to her mama’s life lessons. She mines the history and poetry of her straight-no-chaser mama, learning how deeply the harshness with which she was raised reflect the tragedies of Jim Crow segregation and other elements of the black experience. In the end, Gault concludes that Mama had motherhood and womanhood right all along. After all, you really don’t need expert advice when all you have to do is, “Act like you got some sense!”
Monday, November 21 at 7pm at the Main Library
The New Romantics: Ten Stories of Mystery, Passion, Travel and Vampires by Richard Marranca
This diverse collection is about the joy, journey and mystery of life; it includes travel tales in exotic locales, artists and philosophers in crisis and ecstasy, vampires in a bookstore, a Buddhist monk at a Catskill resort, the highs and lows of romance, and the importance of wild places within and without.
All events are free and open to the public, but registration is recommended. The library is handicapped accessible and can provide assistive listening devices upon request.
For more information on these events or to register, please visit montclairlibrary.org/calendar or call 973-744-0500 ext. 2235.
About Montclair Public Library
Founded in 1893, the Montclair Public Library serves the citizens of Montclair, New Jersey through two facilities: the Main Library at 50 S. Fullerton Avenue and the Bellevue Branch at 185 Bellevue Avenue, currently celebrating the Carnegie library building’s 100th anniversary. The Montclair Public Library relies on municipal and private funding to offer a host of free educational programs, family events and services seven days a week, changing lives every day through words, ideas and community connections.
