January Author Talks
Author David Brooks
Tuesday, January 13 at 2 PM
Join us for an online discussion with prominent cultural writer and bestselling author David Brooks on his book, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply, in which he helps us pose essential questions: If you want to know a person, what kind of attention should you cast on them? What kind of conversations should you have? What parts of a person’s story should you pay attention to?
Driven by his trademark sense of curiosity and determination to grow as a person, Brooks draws from the fields of psychology and neuroscience and the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, and education to present a welcoming, hopeful, integrated approach to human connection. How to Know a Person helps readers become more understanding and considerate toward others, and to find the joy that comes from being seen. Along the way it offers a possible remedy for a society that is riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception.
The act of seeing another person, Brooks argues, is profoundly creative: How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them and, in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How to Know a Person is for anyone searching for connection, and yearning to be understood.
Register now to take part in a riveting and timeless conversation on how to connect with people from all walks of life, and why doing so is paramount to our individual and communal growth.
This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
*The views expressed by presenters are their own and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Findlay-Hancock County Public Library/Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
Journalist Julia Hotz
Tuesday, January 20 at 2 PM
Be sure to jump start your new year with us as we chat virtually with journalist and author Julia Hotz about her book The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging.
The Connection Cure combines diligent science reporting, moving patient success stories, and surprising self-discovery to help us discover the lasting and life-changing power of social prescribing. Traditionally, when we get sick, health care professionals ask, “What’s the matter with you?” But around the world, teams of doctors, nurses, therapists, and social workers have started to flip the script, asking “What matters to you?”
Science shows that social prescribing is effective for treating symptoms of the modern world’s most common ailments—depression, ADHD, addiction, trauma, anxiety, chronic pain, dementia, diabetes, and loneliness. By integrating age-old medicines like art, nature, movement, and volunteer service into patient’s daily lives, social prescriptions are radically changing health and healthcare in more than thirty countries. Julia Hotz travels around the world to survey them —sea-swimming lessons for depression, “culture vitamins” for anxiety, a fishing club for ADHD, a farm-based day-care for dementia, a phone-buddy program for social isolation, and many more.
As the first book on social prescribing, The Connection Cure empowers you to find, experience, and implement this revolutionary medicine in your own community. The success stories Julia finds bring a long-known theory to life: if we can change our environment, we can change our health. By reconnecting to what matters to us, we can all start to feel better.
Register today to find out how you can use the wisdom of social prescribing to live your best life!
This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
*The views expressed by presenters are their own and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Findlay-Hancock County Public Library/Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
Author Liz Moore
Wednesday, January 28 at 7 PM
We are thrilled to welcome Liz Moore to discuss her latest work, The God of the Woods, an instant New York Times bestseller and one of NPR’s 2024 “Books We Love” highlights.
Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.
As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.
Join us in conversation with Liz as we embark on a tale of thrilling twists and disturbing disappearances. Register today to “enter the woods,” if you dare!
This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
*The views expressed by presenters are their own and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Findlay-Hancock County Public Library/Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
February Author Talks
Author Vanessa Riley
Thursday, February 5 at 7 PM
Join us for an unforgettable experience as we chat online with Vanessa Riley about her newest book, Fire Sword and Sea, based on the folk story of the female pirate Jacquotte Delahaye.
The Caribbean Sea, 1675. Jacquotte Delahaye is the mixed-race daughter of a wealthy tavern owner on the island of Tortuga. Instead of marriage, Jacquotte dreams of joining the seafarers and smugglers whose tall-masted ships cluster in the turquoise waters around Tortuga. In Haiti she becomes Jacques, a dockworker, earning the respect of those around her while hiding her gender.
Jacquotte discovers that secret identities are fairly common in the chaotic world of seafaring, which is full of outsiders and misfits. As Jacques, Jacquotte falls in love with Lizzôa d'Erville, a beautiful courtesan who deals in secrets and sex. While others see their work clothes as a disguise, Lizzôa’s true self is as a woman.
For the next twenty years, Jacquotte raids the Caribbean, making enemies and amassing a fortune in stolen gold. When her fellow pirates decide to increase their profits by entering the slave trade, Jacquotte turns away from piracy and the pursuit of riches. Risking her life in one deadly skirmish after another, she instead begins to plot a war of liberation.
Don’t miss out on this exciting discussion! Register now to embark on a seafaring journey of self discovery and reclamation of personal power.
This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
*The views expressed by presenters are their own and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Findlay-Hancock County Public Library/Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
Author Dr. Lindsey Stewart
Tuesday, February 12 at 2 PM
Feminist philosopher Dr. Lindsey Stewart’s book, The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women’s Magic, tells the stories of negro mammies of slavery; the voodoo queens and blues women of Reconstruction; and the granny midwives and textile weavers of the Jim Crow era. These women, in secrecy and subterfuge, courageously and devotedly continued their practices and worship for centuries and passed down their traditions.
Conjure informs our lives in ways remarkable and ordinary—from traditional medicines that informed the creation of Vicks VapoRub and the rise of Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Mix, to the original magic of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (2023), and the true origins of the all-American classic blue jean.
From the moment enslaved Africans first arrived on these shores, conjure was heavily regulated and even outlawed. Now, Stewart uncovers new contours of American history, sourcing letters from the enslaved, dispatches from the lore of Oshun and other African mystics. The Conjuring of America is a love letter to the real magic black women used, their herbs, food, textiles, song, and dance, used to sow rebellion, freedom, and hope.
This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
*The views expressed by presenters are their own and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Findlay-Hancock County Public Library/Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
Author Tim Crouch
Tuesday, February 24 at 2 PM
Tom D. Crouch, a Smithsonian veteran of almost 45 years, paints a robust picture of a unique American establishment and its lasting legacies in his book Smithson’s Gamble.
Follow the fascinating growth and development of the world's largest museum and research complex during its first 60 years. Told in rich detail, Smithson's Gamble reveals how, as it defined a role rooted in curiosity and exploration, the Smithsonian helped to shape the nation's developing identity.
The Smithsonian evolved from a small, narrowly focused organization into an institution leading the way in fields from astrophysics to zoology. Smithsonian researchers, and the hundreds of citizen scientists who they recruited, created a collection that documented the natural and human history of a continent. The American conservation movement and a national weather service are rooted at the Smithsonian. Smithson's Gamble is filled with fascinating characters, twists and turns, and moments of triumph and tragedy, complete with political machinations, a bit of backstabbing, accusations of murder, and the occasional scandal.
This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.
*The views expressed by presenters are their own and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Findlay-Hancock County Public Library/Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.