Leo Castelli reigned for decades as America’s most influential art dealer. Now Annie Cohen-Solal, author of the hugely acclaimed Sartre: A Life recounts his incalculably influential and astonishing life in Leo and His Circle (Knopf, $35). After emigrating to New York in 1941, Castelli would not open a gallery for sixteen years, when he had reached the age of fifty. But as the first to exhibit the then-unknown Jasper Johns, Castelli emerged as a tastemaker overnight and fast came to champion a virtual Who’s Who of twentieth-century masters: Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Twombly, to name a few. Leo and His Circle brilliantly narrates the course of one man’s power and influence. But Castelli had another secret, too: his life as an Italian Jew. Annie Cohen-Solal traces a family whose fortunes rose and fell for centuries before the Castellis fled European fascism. Drawing on her friendship with the subject, as well as an uncanny knack for archival excavation, Annie Cohen-Solal gives us in full the elegant, shrewd, irresistible, and enigmatic figure at the very center of postwar American art, bringing an utterly new understanding of its evolution. 6pm

What is the meaning of life? Since the dawn of civilization, humankind has sought to answer the mysteries of existence. Unfortunately this restless search for the divine has, all too often, driven seekers in regrettable directions--toward the comically ridiculous and irrational but also the frighteningly horrific and maniacal.

Arm yourself with God's Lunatics (Harper, $16.99) before your next encounter with those who have been blinded by the light. Award-winning author Michael Largo, "the Capote of kaput" ("Atlanta Journal-Constitution"), chronicles history's vast and colorful cast of true believers--from the hidden side of the Bible's eccentric characters to today's street-corner doomsayers, and from extraterrestrial communicators, levitating hermits, and flagellating ascetics to self-serving preachers of overindulgence who believed money, sex, and drugs were the keys to the portal to divine understanding. In addition to the firewalkers, serpent handlers, cultists, terrorists, and alleged time travelers, God's Lunatics also reveals the dubious foundations of the world's major faiths and the many religious customs and laws that continue to influence governments and society, whether you are a believer or not.

Beginning in 1897 with the arrival of Luther Halland, the story of Hallandale Beach is one of steady growth and enduring prosperity. Hallandale Beach, Florida (History Press, $21.99) became a town during the great Florida boom of the 1920s, and in 1947, when its boundaries expanded to the Atlantic Ocean, Hallandale Beach became a city. Today, this quintessential South Florida community has grown to offer all the luxuries of a big city without losing any of its hometown charm. Balancing world-class restaurants and exciting entertainment with welcoming residential neighborhoods, Hallandale Beach truly has it all. Join South Florida expert Seth H. Bramson as he takes you on a journey through Hallandale Beach's proud past and budding future to show why, for more than ninety years, it has been Broward County's city of choice. 7:30pm

Lauren Weisberger is the author of The Devil Wears Prada, which spent more than a year on the New York Times hardcover and paperback bestseller lists. The film version, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, won a Golden Globe Award and grossed over $300 million worldwide. Her second novel, Everyone Worth Knowing, was also a New York Times bestseller. In her newest novel, Last Night at Chateau Marmont (Simon & Schuster, $25.99), Brooke is drawn to the soulful, enigmatic Julian Alter the very first time she hears him perform “Hallelujah” at a dark East Village dive bar. Now five years married, Brooke balances two jobs—as a nutritionist at NYU Hospital and as a consultant to an Upper East Side girls’ school, where privilege gone wrong and disordered eating run rampant—in order to help support her husband’s dream of making it in the music world. Things are looking up when after years of playing Manhattan clubs and toiling as an A&R intern, Julian finally gets signed by Sony. All that changes after Julian is asked to perform on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno—and is catapulted to stardom, literally overnight. At first the newfound fame is fun—who wouldn’t want to stay at the Chateau Marmont or visit the set of one of television’s hottest shows? When rumors about Brooke and Julian swirl in the tabloid magazines, she begins to question the truth of her marriage and is forced to finally come to terms with what she thinks she wants—and what she actually needs. 6pm

In what could be thought of as the Jewish Mother's Guide to Life, Jill Zarin, the breakout star of Bravo's hit series, The Real Housewives of New York, teams up with her sister, Lisa Wexler, award-winning host of daily radio program The Lisa Wexler Show, and her mother, the estimable Gloria Kamen who made a splash on Jill's series last year. Secrets of a Jewish Mother (Dutton, $25.95) shows readers that being clear about what you want is the best policy, and standing up for yourself and your family is always the right way to go. Using real life examples, stories from Jill, Lisa and Gloria, this mother/daughter trio reveals their secrets to life, love, and happiness. 6pm

Jazzilla plays live in the Gables Books & Books courtyard!

In Knock and the Door Will Open (Simon & Schuster, $18) successful psychic medium Jeffrey Wands invites you to embark on a wondrous journey of discovery and harness the power within. Jeffrey believes that each of us is a giant treasure chest waiting to be filled with the gifts that we've been given, but most of us have not summoned the courage to open ourselves up to discover our personal treasures. When you are brave enough, you can change your mind and change your life. Wands’ six keys will allow you to dig deep inside, to look at every aspect of your life, and to achieve your greatest potential. 8pm

As the editor and publisher of Dan's Papers, the area's popular free newspaper, Dan Rattiner has been living in and covering the Hamptons for over fifty years, and has watched it change from a sleepy backwater of fishing villages and potato farms to a playground for the rich and famous. In this follow-up to his popular book In the Hamptons, Rattiner continues to regale us with tales of the people who live, work, and play in one of America's best-known summer colonies, ranging from colorful locals like former East Hampton Town Supervisor Richard T. Gilmartin and marine patrol policeman Ralph George, to more well-known figures like Kurt Vonnegut, Betty Friedan, Alger Hiss, and Martha Stewart. In the Hamptons Too: Further Encounters with Farmers, Fishermen, Artists, Billionaires, and Celebrities (State University of New York, $19.95) tells these stories of the Hamptons as only he can tell them: with dry wit, unassuming language, and as keen an awareness of his own quirks and foibles as he is of those of his fellow human beings. 6pm

Avery Heavenrich, a 20 year veteran investor of the stock market, will address the global credit implosion and its aftermath this evening with a talk on The Creative Rebuilding of Your Investment Portfolio.  The greatest debt bubble of the century has permanently altered the financial landscape.  Making creative investment choices now could affect your long-term investment portfolio, and its preservation and growth. Here are a couple of books that are recommended on the subject and available at Books & Books: This Time is Different by Carmen M. Reinhart & Ken Rogoff (Princeton University Press) and Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles P. Kindleberger & Robert Ailber (Wiley Investment Classics). 8pm

Learn about homeschooling requirements. Have all your questions answered. Come and meet leaders from various homeschooling and enrichment groups in the Miami area. Meet teachers and organizations that provide invaluable services to homeschoolers. Get to know representatives of various homeschooling philosophies and curricula. 7pm

It's the day after Labor Day, 2008, and the elite universe of New York's Upper East Side is about to unravel along with the economy. Socialite Grigsby Somerset is barely aware of her changing world, and has no idea her investment banker husband Blake is about to enter into a devil's bargain with hedge fund owner John Cutter. As autumn unfolds, Grigsby's fairytale life starts to unwind. Street-smart Renee Parker has been hired as John's executive assistant and is convinced that something is amiss with her new boss. Renee enlists her friend Sasha Silver, CEO of Silver Partners, to help her decipher what is happening. They soon discover that John is nearly ruined, except for the assets he is hiding in the Cayman Islands from his wife Mimi, and has concocted with Blake a scheme to redeem himself. This tale of expulsion from a modern-day Garden of Eden captures what happens when economic decline spells ruin for Manhattan's pampered elite.

Alexandra Lebenthal, author of The Recessionistas (Grand Central Publishing, $24.99), is the socially prominent President and CEO of Lebenthal & Co, and its wealth management division, Alexandra & James Inc. Her father is Jim Lebenthal, who made his name in municipal bonds. She also serves as a board member of the School of American Ballet and is involved with several other leading New York cultural institutions including The Business Council of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Capital Campaign for the Museum of the City of New York, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New York Botanical Garden.

Bitingly funny, full of wit and pathos, Martin Amis’ The Pregnant Widow (Knopf, $26.95) is a trenchant portrait of young lives being carried away on a sea of change. The year is 1970, and the youth of Europe are in the chaotic, ecstatic throes of the sexual revolution. Though blindly dedicated to the cause, its nubile foot soldiers have yet to realize this disturbing truth: that between the death of one social order and the birth of another, there exists a state of terrifying purgatory—or, as Alexander Herzen put it, a pregnant widow. Keith Nearing is stuck in an exquisite limbo. Twenty years old and on vacation from college, Keith and an assortment of his peers are spending the long, hot summer in a castle in Italy. The tragicomedy of manners that ensues will have an indelible effect on all its participants, and we witness, too, how it shapes Keith’s subsequent love life for decades to come. 6pm

The Negroni Trio plays live in the Gables Books & Books courtyard.

Brother Duke (Booksurge, $14.99) is the first novel from Adam Scholer, a high school English teacher and Miami native. The main character finds himself hitch-hiking on a bet and when he meets a deranged taxidermist who preserves a cursed dog, mayhem ensues. Brother Duke is for all types of readers ages sixteen to one hundred and six. 8pm

Jutting proudly out of the Mediterranean Sea, like a miracle of nature, Capri is one of the world’s chicest destinations—the European pleasure island. It is a place where well-tanned Italians joyfully share the island’s beauty with celebrities and emphatic island lovers: from limoncello, the native digestivo, to its eponymous Capri pants, to the bright turquoise jewelry and bejeweled sandals made famous by its glamorous denizens.  In the Spirit of Capri (Assouline, $45), a colorful tribute to the isle adored by literary icons and the jet set alike, author and Town & Country editor emeritus Pamela Fiori explains with resonant texts and vibrant images the effortless charm of this fabled island. 6pm

Join us for an evening of Holism, Humor, and Hormones in the Poetry of Healing. Denise Duhamel, award-winning poet and Professor in FIU’s Creative Writing Department, has infused much of her poetry with an uncanny ability to portray the inner life of children and teens. Along the way—or maybe to start with—she discovered the power of humor, of taking a step back to view better, and of integrating mind and body. Her poems bring us, often, to laughter, and poignancy, and recognition. Denise will read from her collections. Sheldon Frank has had a first career as child-adolescent psychiatrist and medical school teacher, working to help children maintain self-esteem and growth in the face of both normal and disease-caused assaults from physical and emotional traumas. As a growing number of his medical colleagues, he has found the power of literature to both express and fortify his patients’ journeys. He will read from the M.F.A. thesis he will present this fall. 7pm

Join us for Camp Books & Books Day with Workman Publishing. There won’t be any bug spray or sharing bunks. There will be crafts and activities – and fun, fun, fun! -- for kids ages 6-12. Megan Nicolay, author of Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-shirt (Workman, $15.95), will help you make your own T-shirt into the coolest T you’ve ever seen. There will be Brain Quest Brain Fest challenges, Jokelopedia joke telling and mask-making. There will be Totally Irresponsible Science experiments and You’ve Got to Be Kidding challenges and questions. Plus prizes and more with Page Edmund, associate publisher of Workman. Free. 10am-12 noon.

Star Island (Knopf, $26.95) is Carl Hiaasen’s hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane. Meet twenty-two-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen—and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster. Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her “undercover stunt double,” Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too “indisposed”—meaning wasted—to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott. Now the challenge for Cherry’s handlers (über–stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker–wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry’s public—and from Cherry herself.
The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink—the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp—and now he’s heading for Miami to find her . . .Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry’s motley posse does?

Tickets are required for this event which includes a reception with the author sponsored by Whole Foods, and a reading/Q&A/signing. Purchase a copy of Star Island at any Books & Books location and you will receive a FREE ticket to the reception/talk/signing at Fairchild Garden. 7pm

An on-the-ground, intimate tour of the human toll of the nation's foreclosure crisis

While working with his father's small company that "trashes out"— enters and empties—foreclosed homes in Florida, Paul Reyes wrote Exiles in Eden, a hard-hitting, personal, and poetic portrayal of his own family and the people and communities affected by the foreclosure crisis.

Grounded in Florida and Reyes family history, and with character-driven visits to the dark corners of this crisis—including with those who are calling for revolution—Reyes explores the human element of this frightening rattling of the American Dream. From examining the unique "ecosystems" of each failed mortgage to witnessing parts of abandoned Florida returning to its wild natural state, Reyes takes the reader far from the machinations of Wall Street to the sun-baked side streets where the true costs of this crisis can be seen. The result is an extraordinary book about the allure and dream of home—and a portrait of an America where the exiled insist on the right to their own America dreams, even as the terms are forcibly redrawn.

Debbie Orta plays live in the Books & Books Courtyard!

Cecilia Dubon Slesnick was born in Managua, Nicaragua but grew up in Coral Gables, FL. She’s been getting in trouble for drawing instead of paying attention since about the 3rd grade. A museum professional by day and artist by night, Cecilia pays attention to just about everything and everyone who colors her world, and trying to capture all the special moments. You never know- if you meet her you may end up the subject of a piece or two. This series “A Slice of Miami Pie” painted this summer focuses on all things delicious and Miami. The pieces are unique and whimsical while drawing inspiration from our community

Self-published in 2003, Hilary Thayer Hamann’s Anthropology of an American Girl (Spiegel and Grau, $26.00) touched a nerve among readers, who identified with the sexual and intellectual awakening of its heroine, a young woman on the brink of adulthood.  A moving depiction of the transformative power of first love, Hamann’s first novel follows Eveline Auerbach from her high school years in East Hampton, New York, in the 1970s through her early adulthood in the moneyed, high-pressured Manhattan of the 1980s. 

Centering on Evie’s fragile relationship with her family and her thwarted love affair with Harrison Rourke, a professional boxer, the novel is both a love story and an exploration of the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world.  As Evie surrenders to the dazzling emotional highs of love and the crippling loneliness of heartbreak, she strives to reconcile her identity with the constraints that all relationships—whether those familial or romantic, uplifting to the spirit or quietly detrimental—inherently place on us. Though she stumbles and strains against social conventions, Evie remains a strong yet sensitive observer of the world around her, often finding beauty and meaning in unexpected places. 

Newly edited and revised since its original publication, Anthropology of an American Girl is an extraordinary piece of writing, original in its vision and thrilling in its execution. 6pm

Jon Scieszka's Spaceheadz is the perfect combination of the age old experience of holding and pouring over a physical book with newest media technology that kids love!

Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn't hard
enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren't
kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in
the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to
complete: to convince 3,140,001 kids to BE SPHDZ. But with a hamster as
their leader, "kids" who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K
as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and
pull off their assignment?

Jon Scieszka was born in Flint, Michigan on September 8, 1954. It was a Wednesday. Right around lunchtime. He earned his MFA in Fiction from Columbia University in New York in 1980, then painted apartments.Not knowing what he was getting into, Jon applied for a teaching job at an elementary school called The Day School in New York City. Teaching school, Jon re-discovered how smart kids are, and found the best audience for the weird and funny stories he had always liked to read and write. He took a year off from teaching to write stories for kids. He sent these stories around to many publishers, and got rejected by all of them. He kept painting apartments and writing stories.

Through his wife Jeri, who was working in NY as a magazine art director, he met a funny guy named Lane Smith. Lane was painting illustrations for magazine articles, and working on his first children's book. Jon gave Lane his story—A. Wolf's Tale. Lane loved it. Lane drew a few illustrations for the story and took it to show many publishers. He got rejected by all of them. "Too dark," they said. "Too sophisticated," they said. "Don't ever come back here, okay?" they said.Jon and Lane liked A. Wolf's Tale. They kept showing it around. They kept getting rejected. Finally, Regina Hayes, an editor at Viking Books said she thought the story and the illustrations were funny. She said she would publish the book. And she did, in 1989, with the title changed to: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!.

Jon is now working on a giant pre-school publishing program called Trucktown. It's a world where all of the characters are trucks. And all of the trucks act like real preschoolers—loud and crazy and wild and funny.

In Gourmet Bachelor – Global Flavor, Local Ingredients, Chad Carns brings
exciting global dishes to your home in minutes. Elegantly designed with
vivid photography and slick black pages, The Gourmet Bachelor cookbook
includes simple cooking instructions with basic ingredients found at
your local market. Become the wine expert at your next cocktail party
after you read the essential wine guide. Carns also provides a glossary
of gourmet terms if you are just learning how to sear, chop or sauté!
Learn how to cook mouth watering recipes such as Orange-Scented Ricotta
Pancakes or a Lobster Club stacked with creamy avocado and double-thick
bacon. The Gourmet Bachelor cookbook offers a culinary-roller coaster of
exciting, global recipes for any occasion.

Chad Carns put his award-winning, graphic design career on hold to study
global cuisine and wine at the Institute of Culinary Education. He has
been featured several times on Toni On! NY (WPIX), Marie Claire, The
Villager, Next magazine and has been giving live cooking demos at
culinary destination around the country. Carns currently works as a NYC
private chef for special events and intimate dinner parties.

In Jilliane Hoffman's Pretty Little Things, thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson is the middle child in a household that police are already familiar with: her mother works too much and her step-father favors his own blood over another man’s problems—namely, Lainey and her wild older sister, Liza. So when Lainey does not come home from a Friday night out with her friends, it is dismissed by the Coral Springs Police Department as just another disillusioned South Florida teen running away from suburban drama and an unhappy home life.

But Special Agent Bobby Dees, who has headed up the department’s di4cult Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad in Miami for more than a decade, is not quite so sure. Nicknamed “The Shepherd” by colleagues, he has an uncanny ability to find the missing and bring them back home—dead or alive. Haunted by the still unsolved disappearance of his own daughter, Bobby recognizes the all too familiar up-swell inside him, the gut feeling that Lainey Emerson is no runaway.

A search of Lainey’s computer and a talk with her best friend reveal Lainey was involved in a secret Internet relationship, spawned over a chat room, and nurtured through untraceable instant messages. Bobby fears she may be the victim of an on-line predator, and he fears she may not be the only one.

BEST KNOWN AS THE DIRECTOR of such spectacular films as The Ten Commandments and King of Kings, Cecil B. DeMille lived a life as epic as any of his cinematic masterpieces. As a child DeMille learned the Bible from his father, a theology student and playwright who introduced Cecil and his older brother, William, to the theater. Tutored by impresario David Belasco, DeMille discovered how audiences responded to showmanship: sets, lights, costumes, etc. He took this knowledge with him to Los Angeles in 1913, where he became one of the movie pioneers, in partnership with Jesse Lasky and Lasky’s brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn). Working out of a barn on streets fragrant with orange blossom and pepper trees, the Lasky company turned out a string of successful silents, most of them directed by DeMille, who became one of the biggest names of the silent era. With films such as The Squaw Man, Brewster’s Millions, Joan the Woman, and Don’t Change Your Husband, he was the creative backbone of what would become Paramount Studios. In 1923 he filmed his first version of The Ten Commandments and later a second biblical epic, King of Kings, both enormous box-office successes. Although his reputation rests largely on the biblical epics he made, DeMille’s personal life was no morality tale. He remained married to his wife, Constance, for more than fifty years, but for most of the marriage he had three mistresses simultaneously, all of whom worked for him. He showed great loyalty to a small group of actors who knew his style, but he also discovered some major stars, among them Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert, and later, Charlton Heston.

DeMille was one of the few silent-era directors who made a completely successful transition to sound. In 1952 he won the Academy Award for Best Picture with The Greatest Show on Earth. When he remade The Ten Commandments in 1956, it was an even bigger hit than the silent version. He could act, too: in Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard, DeMille memorably played himself. In the 1930s and 1940s DeMille became a household name thanks to the Lux Radio Theater, which he hosted. But after falling out with a union, he gave up the program, and his politics shifted to the right as he championed loyalty oaths and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist witch hunts.

As Scott Eyman brilliantly demonstrates in Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille (Simon & Schuster, $35.00), this superbly researched biography, which draws on a massive cache of DeMille family papers not available to previous biographers, DeMille was much more than his clichéd image. A gifted director who worked in many genres; a devoted family man and loyal friend with a highly unconventional personal life; a pioneering filmmaker: DeMille comes alive in these pages, a legend whose spectacular career defined an era.

Books & Books is proud to join its neighbors in the Bal Harbour Shops for
a celebration of Fashion’s Night Out, with a portion of proceeds from
our sales that night to benefit Miami Book Fair International. And we’ll be celebrating the opening of The Newsstand by Books & Books in its new location –
upstairs inside our bookshop…

America’s most-read, most-watched, and most­ beloved serial killer—Dexter Morgan—is back with Dexter is Delicious (Doubleday, $25.95). After selling more than one million copies and inspiring the wildly popular #1 Showtime series and top-rated crime drama on pay-cable television, New York Times bestselling author Jeff Lindsay returns with his most hilarious, macabre, and purely entertaining novel yet.

Dexter Morgan has always lived a happy homicidal life. He keeps his
dark urges in check by adhering to one stead­fast rule . . . he only kills very bad people. But
now Dexter is experiencing some major life changes—don’t we all?—and
they’re mostly wrapped up in the eight-pound curiosity that is his
newborn daughter. Family bliss is cut short, however, when Dexter is
summoned to investigate the disappearance of a seventeen-year-old girl
who has been running with a bizarre group of goths who fancy themselves
to be vampires. As Dexter gets closer to the truth of what happened to
the missing girl, he realizes they are not really vampires so much as
cannibals. And, most disturbing . . . these people have decided they
would really like to eat Dexter.

Jeff Lindsay’s bestselling, dark, ironic, and oftentimes
laugh-out-loud hilarious novels about the lovable serial killer with no
soul (but a redeeming desire to kill only people who deserve it) have
gained a legion of fans and assumed a place in our cul­ture.

JEFF LINDSAY is the New York Times bestselling author of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, and Dexter by Design. He lives in South Florida with his wife and three daughters. His novels are the subject of the hit Showtime and CBS series Dexter.

Join bestselling author Michelle Richmond for a workshop in which she'll share her secrets and tricks in crafting vital, mesmerizing flash fiction. With in-depth exploration of samples, writing exercises, and an open discussion not only of fundamentals of fiction but of the broader writing world. Free and open to the public, but space is limited, so please reserve early. RSVP to jalison@miami.edu.

Michelle Richmond (UM MFA ’98) is the author of four books of fiction: The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, Dream of the Blue Room, No One You Know, and the New York Times bestseller The Year of Fog. She received the Hillsdale Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the AWP Award, and the Mississippi Review Fiction Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in Playboy, Glimmer Train, Oxford American, Salon, The Guardian, The Believer, Best American Fantasy, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She also blogs for the San Francisco Chronicle. She has taught creative writing at the University of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, St. Mary’s College of Moraga, and Bowling Green State University. She currently serves on the executive council of The Authors Guild.

NOTE: This event has been filled to capacity and if you have not yet RSVp'd we will be unable to accommodate you. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you'd like to attend a similar event, please check out Justin Kramon's workshop on Sunday, September 12 - http://www.booksandbooks.com/justin_kramon

He's a great big sauropod. He's a whole lotta lizard. And he's . . . lost. Have you seen his herd? Help the big guy find his pals—before he becomes lunch for some hungry predators. Yikes! Kate and Jim McMullan’s I’m Big! (Blazer & Bray, $16.99)  is the perfect way for the whole family to celebrate Grandparents’ Day. This will be a Big Day for I’m Big! Kate and Jim have created some of your favorite picture books, like I’m Dirty! and I Stink!, and Kate has written scores of early readers books, so kids can progress with stories they love.

It’s a Book. It’s a special book. It’s a special event. It’s a special book and a special event for the whole family! Meet Caldecott Honor winning author and illustrator Lane Smith for a special multimedia and interactive event for his amazing new book, It’s a Book (Roaring Brook, $12.99) . It’s about a monkey, a mouse, a jackass, a book and our digital world. It’s thoughtful, poignant and funny – with a mischievous little wink in its tone. It’s a book for our ever-changing age. And it’s a book for all ages. Lane Smith is the author and illustrator of the bestselling John, Paul, George & Ben and Madam President. He has also collaborated with Jon Scieszka on The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Math Curse, and The Stinky Cheese Man, for which he received a Caldecott Honor award. He has also illustrated books by Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, and Roald Dahl. And now there’s It’s a Book. Book-loving and/or tech savvy adults, buy this book for yourselves. Parents, buy this for your kids. Grandparents, buy it for your kids AND your grandkids. Read it together; laugh together. Celebrate Grandparents’ Day with an event sure to entertain kids of all ages – even the kids who are old enough to collect Social Security!

Debut novelist Justin Kramon will conduct a workshop designed to provide resources for writers trying to publish their short stories, find an agent, or place a novel with a
publisher.  It took an embarrassing number of attempts to find the publisher for his novel, so he thought it might be helpful to other beginning writers to compile some of the resources he drew from to get Random House to take pity on him.  While he was writing and selling his debut novel, Finny (Random House, $15), he often wished that all of this information were gathered in one place, so he’s structured this seminar in order to convey concrete and specific information, such as lists of agents and places to submit
fiction, and will also share examples from his own successes
and failures in publishing, such as the query letter he sent to his
current agent.  Please feel free to bring questions about the publishing
process. 6pm

Playwright, actor, and professor Anna Deavere Smith, hailed by Newsweek as “the most exciting individual in American theatre,” will present “The Changing Landscape of Doctor-Patient Relationships”. Deavere Smith is University Professor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and is affiliated with the NYU School of Law. She has held appointments at Stanford and at the Yale School of Medicine. She was recently commissioned by the Stanford University Medical School to create a project on diversity in the medical school. She was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” Fellowship for creating “a new form of theatre — a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie.”
Smith has a recurring role on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie, played National Security Advisor Nancy McNally on NBC’s The West Wing, and has appeared in such films as Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia, and The American President. She is perhaps best known as the author and performer of two one-woman plays about racial tensions in America — Fires in the Mirror (Obie Award-winner and runner-up for the Pulitzer) and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Obie-winner and Tony Award nominee). Interviewing subjects from all walks of life, Smith recreates their words in performance, transforming herself into an astonishing number of characters. Her latest book is Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts (Doubleday, $14.95). Registration is required for Professor Smith’s presentation. Tickets are free of charge. There will be advance registration for the UM Community from August 23rd to September 1st.  Tickets will be available to the public beginning September 2nd.  For further information and to register please visit http://humanities.miami.edu/programs/lectures/anna-deavere-smith  Event begins at 7pm.

Brian Lutz is the author of Knoll (Rizzoli, $75.00) the first full monograph on the furniture of the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen

The history of Knoll is the history of modern design. Founded in 1938 by
Hans Knoll and joined by his wife, Florence Knoll, the company is
credited for bringing European modern design to America, then nurturing
the best homegrown talents at mid-century to build the most successful
and prestigious high-end furniture company in the world. Throughout its
history Knoll has been at the forefront of cutting-edge and chic
design, the first company to produce Mies van der Rohe’s and Marcel
Breuer’s tubular furniture for a receptive domestic market, making
Bauhaus ideals a reality to an American audience. Knoll also leveraged
America’s newfound economic and cultural status after World War II by
commissioning now-iconic furniture pieces, such as Eero Saarinen’s Tulip
chair and Harry Bertoia’s Wire chairs. More recently Knoll has produced
instant classics from Frank Gehry and Richard Meier. Equally
significant is Knoll’s pioneering foray into office planning, which
resulted in Florence Knoll’s iconic furniture and later one of the first
office systems. Knoll also fully integrated graphic design into its
program, with photography and advertising by masters such as Herbert
Matter and Massimo Vignelli. Comprehensive in narrative and scope, this
monograph will be a classic in its own right with images and texts on
furniture, furnishings, systems, graphics, and unique insight into the
modern world that is Knoll.

Monthly Art table lecture and discussion.  More information to come...

Despite their mostly happy marriage, when their son Ricky's girlfriend vanishes, Maggie and Jones find themselves at odds—Maggie is positive Ricky had nothing to do with Charlene's disappearance, while Jones isn't as sure. With Charlene gone, the memory of another young girl who went missing some twenty years ago is haunting the town. That story didn't have a happy ending, and almost everyone has an unrevealed reason to keep the horror of it firmly in the past.

As Jones and the police turn their focus on Ricky, Maggie must find out the truth about what happened all those years ago. In order to save her son and the young woman whose life hangs in the balance, she'll test the bonds of her community—and find out just how fragile they can be. (Shaye Areheart Books, $24)