Saturday, March 20, 2010

I Love Big Books!



If you love to read as much as I do, you already know how it feels to get that email notice from the library saying that the best-selling title you requested MONTHS AGO is finally on the hold shelf for you, right? You see, I love big books--the kind that just beckon you to spend a week-end immersed in their story, the kind that you wake up in the middle of the night just so you can read another chapter, the kind that takes both hands to hold! And such is the case with Stephen King's Under the Dome.

How DOES the guy come up with these ideas and then go on to develop such amazing explanations? And how does he think up all those characters--the kind that everyone recognizes, the wackos, the heros? So, while everyone was complaining about the three inches of March snow we got yesterday, I confess that I was secretly thinking, oh good--I have a great excuse for cuddling under the covers and reading!

I'm about a fourth of the way through it already and find that I am feeling a wee bit guilty for reading it rather than some of the books by our upcoming visiting authors. But, King is my pure entertainment reading, my guilty pleasure, in other words! Gotta go--the dome awaits me.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Hear the Stories of Thirteen Immigrant Families By Award Winning Journalist Steven Roberts

Monday, March 8, 6:30 PM
Central Library

New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist and well-respected commentator Steven V. Roberts has always been fascinated by his grandparents’ migration to America from the Old World nearly one hundred years ago, and he traced their story in his stirring memoir My Fathers’ Houses. In his latest book, From Every End of this Earth: 13 Families and the New Lives They Made in America, he explores the contemporary immigrant experience and shares the accounts and voices of thirteen families who are following in the footsteps of his ancestors.

Roberts has been a journalist for more than forty years, working at the New York Times and U.S. News & World Report. He and his wife, television journalist and author Cokie Roberts, coauthored the New York Times bestseller, From This Day Forward.

The Journey Series is sponsored by the Des Moines Public Library Foundation with financial support from Wells Fargo, coordinated with assistance from HarperCollins Publishing, the Duncan Entertainment Group, and the Iowa Council for International Understanding.

Peter Hedges' New Book, The Heights, Now Available

Peter Hedges, another hometown boy, returns to Des Moines to kick off the 2010 season of AViD. I was lucky enough to receive an advance reader copy of his newest work, The Heights, and it sounds like it is already attracting some attention since it went on sale March 4. Listen to what Peter has to say about it.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

AViD Author Peter Bognanni Creating Quite a Buzz

It's great fun to watch as a young author's work takes off and such is the case for our home-grown AViD author Peter Bognanni. In addition to an early starred review in Publishers Weekly, his book has also been noticed by Indie Bound, Borders, and Barnes & Noble. Local bookseller Beaverdale Books is in love with Peter's book and now we are hearing that even Oprah has discovered the story and will mention it in her April issue. And best of all, he will be here to speak about his experiences on Monday, May 10 as one of our AViD authors.


Here's Peter on Minnesota Public Radio

Here's Peter on a Twin Cities morning TV show