September 2010 Book talk, slide presentation & signing with
Von E. Martin, author of
A LONG WAY TO NOME: The Serum Run '25 Expedition
Tuesday, September 14 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library
 In 2009 the Serum Run '25 Expedition set out to retrace the original 1925 route across Alaska to deliver lifesaving antitoxin by dog teams to Diphtheria stricken Nome. To prepare for the arduous journey, Washington state musher Von Martin meticulously assembled 1,200 lbs of supplies, trained his team of twelve huskies for hundreds of miles, and made the long midwinter drive to Alaska. What he did not anticipate was the worst Alaskan winter in decades. Cut off from the expedition's support party and faced with an impassable trail, Von Martin and the Serum Run '25 mushers are forced into a heartbreaking decision for their expedition and their faithful dogs. Join Von Martin as he shares his heartfelt story through journal excerpts, photographs, and narratives, all the exhilaration, hardship, and life lessons learned from his huskies during an attempt to cross the Alaskan wilderness by dog team. Learn more here.
Book signing follows. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
 Artist talk. slide presentation & signing with
Victoria Adams:
Where Sky Meets Earth: The Luminous Landscapes of Victoria Adams
Thursday, September 23 @ 7 pm.
Olympic Room, Main Library
Victoria Adams is an American contemporary landscape painter working in oil and wax on linen. She finds inspiration for her primary subject matter - the sky, the land, and deep atmospheric space - in the weather and views of the Pacific Northwest, where she lives and works on Vashon Island. Adams' work has been exhibited widely and is included in private and public collections nationwide.Her work is currently featured at the Tacoma Art Museum through October 3, 2010. Exhibition catalogs, written by TAM's curator Rock Hushka, will be available for purchase and signing at the event. Cosponsored by the University Book Store.
 Free book talk & signing with
K.J. Larsen, author of
Liar, Liar, A new mystery
Wednesday, September 29 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library
LIAR, LIAR is the first book in a riveting, new series introducing P.I. Cat DeLuca and her Pants On Fire Detective Agency. Cat isn't your typical private dick (or jane) and she won't find your long lost Uncle Harry for you. She's the one to call if you find lipstick on your husband's shorts. Cat DeLuca catches cheaters. No one nails an 8X10 glossy better. This is one of those books you can't put down. A funny and smart page-turner from first till last.
One day three sisters, linked by a voracious love of mysteries, set off to write their own. Julianne, Kristen and Kari Larsen, (horse trainer, minister and irreverent baker) deliver a sizzling read and easy smile. Liar Liar is the first book in the Cat DeLuca mysteries. The sisters live in the Pacific Northwest and Chicago area and are currently at work on Cat's next, most fabulous adventure. Learn more at their website. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
October 2010  Booktalk, slide presentation & signing
Joy Keniston-Longrie, author of
Tacoma's Stadium District
Thursday, October 7 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library
A telegram stating, "We have located terminus on Commencement Bay," was sent on July 14, 1873, by R. D. Rice and J. C. Ainsworth, Northern Pacific Railroad commissioners, to Gen. Morton Mathew McCarver in Tacoma and Arthur Denny in Seattle's Pioneer Square. This message set the iron wheels in motion for Tacoma's destiny and transformation from old-growth forests to the Stadium District of today. It is here that railroad tycoons, timber barons, industrial leaders, and everyday people built their homes and raised their families. Perched high on the bluffs overlooking Commencement Bay, Mount Tahoma (Rainier), and the Cascade Mountains is one of the best-preserved historical residential areas in the nation. Magnificent Stadium Bowl is an important gathering place, and the steep spires of Stadium High School have inspired thousands of Tacomans for more than a century. A University of Washington graduate, Keniston-Longrie partnered with her daughters Kelsey and Amberose (Stadium High School classes of 2010 and 2014, respectively) to create this pictorial story of how a simple, seven-word telegram became the catalyst for growth, change, prosperity, and hope. Photographs were contributed from a variety of collections, including the Tacoma Public Library, the Washington State Historical Society, the University of Washington, and private collections. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
Free book talk & signing with
Pen Farthing, author of
One Dog at a Time: Saving the strays of Afganistan
Wednesday, October 13 @ 7 p.m.
Moore Library  The remarkable true story of one man's fight to save the stray dogs of Afghanistan in the spirit of From Baghdad, With Love
In the remote outpost of Now Zad, Afghanistan, Pen Farthing and his troop of young Royal Marines survive frequent engagements with the Taliban and forge links with the local community. Appalled by the horrors of local dog fighting, Pen has no choice but to intervene. Then one of the dogs he frees finds his way into the Marine compound-and into Pen's heart. Soon other strays are  drawn into the sanctuary provided by the makeshift pound, including one young mother who crawls under the compound fence carrying her newborn pups to safety. As his tour of duty draws to an end, Pen cannot leave the dogs of Now Zad to their fates. He begins hatching plans to help them escape to a better life. One Dog at a Time is the gripping account of one man's courage and humanity, and his fight to make a difference in the most hostile and dangerous environments, one dog at a timme. PEN FARTHING, born in England, is a retired Royal Marine and a twenty-year veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He and his wife, Lisa, share their home in Scotland with four dogs. They also manage the Nowzad Dogs charity, which was set up to help relieve the suffering of animals in war-torn Afghanistan.
 The Board of Education
A concert for kids & families! Saturday, October 23
11 a.m. @ Wheelock Library (Reservations required - telephone 591-5640)
3 p.m. @ Moore Library (Reservations required - telephone 591 5680)
Note: You must reserve one seat for each of the people in your group attending the concert. Saturday, October 30
11 a.m. @ the Main Library (no reservation necessary) Close your eyes and think back to the music you loved as a kid: Schoolhouse Rock, early Sesame Street and the Electric Company. Now don't you wish someone would create music like that for your kids? Music that was simultaneously intelligent, witty, and musically REEE-DICULOUS? Get ready for the Board of Education!
As the premier children's music website Zooglobble puts it, the Board of Education's debut record is like nothing else you'll hear in the kids music world. Or, take it from the Seattle Times when they say: "It is the rare record that you can bring to your pre-teen kids without steeling your nerves against six months of repeated plays and an onslaught of cartoon earworms. The BoE did it right." With songs like The Lonely Tomato, 8 Is A Number, Volcanoes and You and The Many Uses, and Dangers, of Commas - parents and kids will have a blast! The Board of Education will rock your world! Learn more at their website.
 Booktalk & signing with
Cherie Priest
author of Dreadnought and Boneshaker
Tuesday, November 30 @ 7 p.m.
Olympic Room, Main Library Cherie Priest is the author of eight novels, including Boneshaker and the just-published Dreadnought. Boneshaker was nominated for both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, and it won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's 2010 Book Award. Cherie's other books include Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Fathom, Wings to the Kingdom, and the Endeavour-nominated book Not Flesh Nor Feathers from Tor (Macmillan). Her short novels Dreadful Skin, Clementine and Those Who Went Remain There Still are published by Subterranean Press. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and a fat black cat.  Priest's latest novel, Dreadnought, follows Nurse Mercy Lynch as she set off from Virginian to see her gravely injured. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she'll catch a train over the Rockies and--if the telegram can be believed--be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle. Reaching the Mississippi is a harrowing adventure by dirigible and rail through war-torn border states. When Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the "Dreadnought."
What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwhackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. Mercy will ll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the "Dreadnought "alive.
Last Updated 02.09.2010 |