Category Archives: Authors

Welcome Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black

By bicadmin | Published: September 6, 2013

A big welcome to Piper Kerman, author (and ex-con) of Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. Following a plea deal for a 10-year-old crime, Piper Kerman spent a year in the infamous women’s correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, which she found to be no “Club Fed.” In Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman takes readers into B-Dorm, a community of colorful, eccentric, vividly drawn women. Her memoir, which has been adapted into an original television series for Netflix, is compelling, moving, and often hilarious. With many teachable moments that emphasize the justice system, codes of behavior, hard words of wisdom, and simple acts of acceptance, Orange is the New Black is an ideal selection for All Campus and Community Reads. And Piper Kerman is an engaging and lively presenter!

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Young Adult Version of Sonia Nazario’s Enrique’s Journey Now Available

By bicadmin | Published: September 4, 2013

With an estimated one million children living illegally in the United Stated, and nearly one in four of the nation’s elementary school students of immigrant status, Pulitzer Prize winner Sonia Nazario’s moving tale of one boy’s journey has met widespread acclaim and become a national bestseller. In Enrique’s Journey: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunited With His Mother, Sonia Nazario’s compelling story has been adapted for a younger audience. The YA version contains a new epilogue, updating readers on where Enrique is today, and on his life since his story become national news. With the immigration raging as a hot-button political issue, Enrique’s Journey brings to light the daily struggles of immigrants, legal and otherwise, and the complicated choices they face to survive.

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Andrew McCarthy Sends Pekin Public Library into a Swoon!

By bicadmin | Published: August 30, 2013

Andrew Mcarthy, NYT best-selling author of The Longest Way Home, thrilled audiences in Pekin, Illinois last week. As he walked through the room of nearly 150 people – most of them women – they burst into applause. “I haven’t done anything yet!” cried Andrew McCarthy. Though by the end of the night, Pekin library patrons thought he’d done plenty. Andrew McCarthy talked about the “parallel life” he’s had for the past 10 years working as what he called an “accidental travel writer” and said his book The Longest Road Home came about as he was leaving for another trip shortly after he and his then-fiancee decided to get serious about making their union permanent. One of the most memorable moments in the evening, according to audience members, was when Andrew spoke about traveling with his children. “My goal as a parent it to make them mini-citizens of the world,” he said.

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Mardi Jo Link, author of Bootstrapper Wins Great Lakes Bookseller’s Choice Award

By bicadmin | Published: August 19, 2013

Mardi Jo Link, author of Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm, has been named the winner of the Great Lakes Bookseller’s Choice award for 2013.  Her hilarious memoir, which Garrison Keillor describes as, “A heroic-comic saga of single motherhood, pure stubbornness, and the loyalty of three young sons,” Bootstrapper recounts Mardi […]

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Forrest Pritchard, Author of Gaining Ground featured in LA Times

By bicadmin | Published: August 14, 2013

The artisanal movement in the United States has become something of an anthropological trend. It’s composed and driven by a preference for things hand made, relatively raw and untransformed, and most of all, a desire for authenticity. In a recent article in the LA Times, Forrest Pritchard’s new memoir, Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmer’s Markets, Local Food and Saving the Family Farm, is featured as a voice in the new food movement, which holds as a primary precept that an actual human being had a hand in making what we put in our mouths. While Forrest Pritchard relates his learning experience in becoming an artisan farmer in Gaining Ground (beef, chickens and eggs, pigs, lamb and for a brief, hilarious time, goats), he’s also teaching us about what the business of artisanship is really about.

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Koethi Zan, Author of The Never List Interviewed by CBS News

By bicadmin | Published: August 9, 2013

“What surprised you the most during the writing process?” Koethi Zan was asked in a recent interview with CBS News. “I couldn’t believe it when the characters I’d created wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do,” said Koethi. Indeed, the characters in The Never List are constantly breaking the rules, taking risks, and winding up in surprising situations. Inspired by the strength and courage of women who have survived abduction and long-term captivity, Koethi Zan’s The Never List isn’t about the powerlessness of women, but rather one of empowerment and resilience.

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Christina Baker Kline, Author of The Orphan Train, Talks About Her Book’s Historical Origins

By bicadmin | Published: August 8, 2013

Christina Baker Kline knits together the past and present. Most of us have no idea about the real orphan trains, and their fascinating historical origins. In a recent TV interview, Christina Baker Kline describes how children were taken from their homes to be transported thousands of miles to new homes in the midwest. She reveals interesting details (redheaded children were banned from the orphan trains for more than a decade!) and describes her research process.

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Welcome Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Grey, and Out of the Easy

By bicadmin | Published: August 2, 2013

Ruta’s award-winning first novel, “Between Shades of Gray”, was inspired by her family’s history in Lithuania and is published in 40 countries. Her new novel, “Out of the Easy” is set in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 1950.

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Welcome Charlotte Rogan, Author of The Lifeboat

By bicadmin | Published: July 31, 2013

An old criminal law text and Charlotte’s childhood experiences among a family of sailors provided inspiration for “The Lifeboat”, her first novel.

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Postcards to Monroe and Reyna Grande

By bicadmin | Published: July 26, 2013
Postcard_Reyna Grande

One Book, One Community of Monroe will take a trip south next year, when the community of Monroe, MI will read The Distance Between Us together. Read More »

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