Members Only Preview Sale
Friday, September 1, 3:00-8:00pm
Academy members get early access to the book sale. Free for members, $10 for member’s guest. Memberships will be for sale at the door or online. Refreshments will be served during evening hours.
Giant Book Sale – Free Admission
Saturday, September 2, 10:00am-5:00pm
Sunday, September 3, 10:00am-4:00pm
Monday, September 4, 10:00am-2:00pm
More than 15,000 affordable, gently used books, CDs, DVDs, LPs and audio books sorted and displayed for easy browsing. There’s a Children’s Room for young readers, and a Special Book Room filled with first edition, out-of-print, collectible books and ephemera. Teachers with ID get a 20% discount, excluding Special Book Room and guest author books.
Children’s Program – Free Admission
Saturday, September 2, 10:00-11:30am
Meet and greet Lyle the Crocodile, the most lovable reptile a family could find in its bathtub.
The Pimm family found him in their tub when they moved into a Victorian house in New York City. Lyle alarmed, then charmed them and even grouchy neighbors in classic books by Bernard Waber. Kids can pose with the costumed character, get crafty with art activities, and listen to Lyle’s books read by storyteller Ann Gainer.
Author Presentations – Free Admission
Saturday, September 2
Noon
Eleanor Henderson, Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage
Love endures, and so too, marriage. Despite addiction, depression and chronic illness, love still binds Eleanor Henderson to her husband Aaron. In a searing memoir, Henderson chronicles their 20-year marriage, a seemingly idyllic union. But if ordinary challenges, from finances to parenting, were met, extraordinary ones not so easily. There was his early childhood trauma; his rashes turned painful lesions; his disturbed concerns about the undiagnosed disease’s source. With prose Kirkus Reviews called “all fine turns of phrase with the rawest of nerve endings,” Henderson explores the link between mental and physical illness, and more. Joining her in conversation will be author Brendan Mathews, associate professor of creative writing and literature at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
1:30pm
Tamar Adler, The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z
Tamar Adler transforms leftovers lurking in refrigerators or cabinets into snacks, sauces and components of novel dishes. The recipes are no pie-in-the-sky notions. They emerge from her years in acclaimed restaurants where maximize taste and minimize waste ruled. In the home kitchen, this philosophy eyes aging vegetables, fruits and nuts, dairy, stale breads, meat and seafood, and more in a new light: sustainable yet sumptuous. An empty jar of almond butter inspires Empty Jar Nut Butter Noodles, or leftover salad becomes salad dressing. Joining Adler in conversation will be Shaina Loew-Banayan, author of the memoir Elegy for an Appetite, and chef and owner of Hudson’s award-winning Cafe Mutton.
3:00pm
Wesley Brown, Blue in Green
Jazz pulsates throughout Brown’s novel, with race relations in mid-century America providing the backbeat. The story opens in August 1959, when legendary trumpeter Miles Davis is assaulted by a New York City policeman outside the club Birdland. He lands in jail just after the release of his landmark album, Kind of Blue. The reinvented narrative lets the reader listen in on Davis’ tempestuous relationship with his wife Frances Taylor, an acclaimed dancer, and the voices of Lena Horne, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Eartha Kitt and others. All are negotiating what Davis calls “the business known as show.” Brown will discuss his work with Gerald Seligman, a Grammy-nominated record producer who spent his professional life in the music business.
Sunday, September 3
10:30am
Winners of our annual Young Writers Contest will read their entries.
The contest encourages creative writing among students in grades 9-12 in Columbia County, NY, and Berkshire County, MA. The contest drew 28 fiction or non-fiction (personal essay) entries this year.
Noon
Jonathan Darman, Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis that Made a President
FDR’s life changed forever at age 39. While vacationing off the coast of Maine with his wife Eleanor, he received the devastating diagnosis of polio. With his political aspirations postponed, maybe evaporated, what mattered was his health. In an intimate chronicle of FDR’s illness, recovery and return to political power, Becoming FDR draws a clear and striking connection between his private struggles and his later public triumphs. It reveals how personal hardship helped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt become transformational, compassionate leaders. “Written with grace, ease, and a keen eye for human detail” said the Wall Street Journal. Joining Darman in conversation will be James Lawler, founder of Climate Now, a communication and policy hub, and of Osmosis Films, a creative studio.
1:30pm
Daphne Kalotay, The Archivists
Everyday people may appear to populate this vibrant collection, winner of the 2021 Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, but Kalotay’s characters are anything but ordinary. In her deft hands, they reveal themselves in all dimensions, despite the narrow confines of the short story. They include a hardheaded realist, a grieving father, a frightened woman, lovers and ex-lovers, a mature teen, a resolute nonagenarian and more. Their moving stories consider issues of identity, history, memory and a shared search for meaning. “In a world filled with loss,” said the New York Times, “this is a collection that offers affirmation and solace.”
AND
Jane Roper, The Society of Shame
Roper’s satiric novel captures today’s moment in time: a philandering politician, a wife shunned then celebrated, a pubescent daughter caught in the maelstrom, an internet-fueled image campaign, plus a pinch of misogyny. Local TV catches Senate hopeful Bill Held in his underwear fleeing a house fire, his paramour collapsed nearby. Enter wife Kathleen, home early from a trip; the camera reveals a menstrual stain on the back of her pants. The shame! Can’t a woman control her body and the narrative? Not when social media takes over with tweets and hashtags. The comedy of manners sees Kathleen swept along by a campaign she first abhors, then adores, and finally wrests control of. Kirkus Reviews characterized the novel as “the perfect balance of humor, heartbreak, and understanding.”
Author Jamie Cat Callan will facilitate the conversation between Kalotay and Roper. In addition to her many books, Callan is the creator of The Writer’s Toolbox: Creative Games and Exercises for the “Write” Side of the Brain.
3:00pm
Julie Kabat, Love Letter from Pig: My Brother’s Story of Freedom Summer
In the summer of 1964, hundreds of college students joined the Freedom Summer voter registration project in Mississippi, the author’s brother Luke among them. While he was there, the bodies of two missing student volunteers and a civil rights worker were found. Luke helped organize a memorial, taught in the Freedom School, and grappled with racism, violence and segregation. Kabat, nicknamed “Pig” by her brother, has written an inspiring tribute based on Luke’s letters, diaries and other primary sources, including interviews with surviving Freedom School teachers and students. Love Letter from Pig is also a powerful reminder of the civil rights and racial inequality issues still facing the nation today. Joining Kabat in conversation will be Paul Murray, author of Seeing Jesus in the Eyes of the Oppressed and emeritus professor at Siena College.