Find the Joy! – Randy Susan Meyers
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

Many authors find book promotion to be challenging and intimidating. In her talk, Randy will discuss promotional activities before a book launch including: working collaboratively with a publisher, public readings, marketing, social media and author photos, and how we can approach these tasks with optimism and joy.

International bestselling author Randy Susan Meyers has been featured in People, The New York Times, The LA Times, and the Washington Post. Her books, translated into over 30 languages, earned an Indie Next Pick and were highlighted by Kirkus as among the ‘10 Best Books of the Year.’ The Massachusetts Council of the Book selected three of her novels as ‘Must Reads.’ Her books have been translated into over thirty languages.

Meyers’ novels explore domestic drama, societal issues, and cultural nuances, informed by her years working with troubled youth, community centers, governmental agencies, and criminal justice. She gained the most insight into family and other politics during her four years as a bartender in a small Boston neighborhood bar.

A Brooklyn-Boston hybrid, she lives in Jamaica Plain, teaches seminars at Grub Street and provides private classes and book counseling. She treasures family, friends, books, and NY bagels.

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

Home

(617-730-2370)

Galiot Press – Henriette Lazaridis
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

Henriette Lazaridis will be talking about her new publishing venture, Galiot Press, and how its unique take on the publishing industry creates opportunities for authors.

Henriette Lazaridis is the author of Last Days in Plaka (a Good Morning America Buzz pick), Terra Nova (which the New York Times called “ingenious”), and The Clover House (a Boston Globe bestseller). A first-generation Greek/American, she earned degrees in English literature from Middlebury College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Pennsylvania. Her essays and articles have been published in Elle, Forge, Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, New England Review, and elsewhere. She is co-founder of Galiot Press, an innovative new publishing venture, and runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. An avid athlete, Henriette writes about athletic and creative challenges at The Entropy Hotel on Substack.

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

Home

(617-730-2370)

Beyond the Black Dahlia – Matt Berger (Dr. Noir)
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

Matt Berger (Dr. Noir) will discuss Elizabeth Short, AKA The Black Dahlia. His talk will go beyond the details of the 1947 homicide and its still ongoing investigation to also look at Elizabeth Short the person and Medford native as well as his experience managing the YouTube channel Doctor Noir.

Dr. Matthew Berger was born in Philadelphia and raised in its suburbs. After earning political science degrees from Yale (BA) and Harvard (MA), he spent nearly two decades as a public health data analyst and project manager. During this time, he earned an MA in biostatistics and a PhD in epidemiology from Boston University. In 2016, Dr. Berger launched his non-fiction storytelling website Just Bear With Me. Essays he published there led him to write his first book, Interrogating Memory: Film Noir Spurs a Deep Dive Into My Family History…and My Own, which he published in 2022. Dr. Berger plans two additional books – one about his Philadelphia Jewish ancestors and one about his idiosyncratic life – to complete an “interrogating memory” trilogy. In 2023, he started the Doctor Noir YouTube channel. Dr. Berger lives in Brookline with his wife Nell, two daughters, and Casper the Friendly Golden.

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

Home

(617-730-2370)

Season of the Witch – Bridget M. Marshall
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

In the spirit of Halloween, Marshall will discuss the lesser known witch trials of western Massachusetts.

Bridget M. Marshall is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell where she teaches courses on Gothic novels, disability in literature, witchcraft trials, and American literature. Her most recent book is Industrial Gothic: Workers, Exploitation and Urbanization in Transatlantic Nineteenth-Century Literature (2021, University of Wales Press). In it she explores how nineteenth-century British and American literature reflects anxieties about the Industrial Revolution and how authors used Gothic stock characters and imagery – vampires, ghosts, and haunted buildings – to explore some of the real-life terrors of the world’s industrial transformation.

NEXT MEETING:

Twenty Plus Years in the FBI – David Nadolski
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

Hear what a retired Supervisory Special Agent from the Boston Division of the FBI has to say about investigating property crimes, violent crimes, public corruption, civil rights violations, white collar crimes, foreign counter intelligence, crime scene investigations, and conducting surveillance operations.

Nadolski was a member of the elite FBI Evidence Response Team (ERT) investigating the 1998 bombing of the American Embassy by members of al-Qaeda and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. It was considered a dangerous mission which resulted in operation Infinite Reach, a series of missile strikes ordered by President Bill Clinton.

Closer to home, he was the primary case agent on numerous Boston Division investigations including the 1996 theft of priceless historical books from the John Quincy library in Quincy, MA.

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

NEXT MEETING:

Celebrate!
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

Read two pages of something you’ve written or recently published whether you’re coming to the library or joining via Zoom. Let me know by Tuesday to get on the reading list. (Name and title.)

More on the Marathon Bombing – Susan Clare Zalkind
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
6:30 to socialize
The meeting proper starts at 7pm

The Waltham Murders by Susan Clare Zalkind: A crusade to find a killer becomes a gripping, intensely personal investigation into a shocking cold case and the radicalization of a terrorist.

Susan Clare Zalkind is a journalist, writer, producer and New Englander. Her work has appeared in This American Life, the Guardian, CityLab, VICE, the Daily Beast, The Irish Times, and Boston magazine. She also wrote and produced the 2022 Hulu docuseries The Murders Before the Marathon, named one of the best shows of the year by The Wall Street Journal. She likes to swim in the ocean.

You can follow reactions and updates on Susan’s investigation at: https://susanzalkind.substack.com/

To join in person:
The Public Library of Brookline
361 Washington St
Brookline, MA 02445

Home

(617-730-2370)