Virtual Author Talks

 

March Virtual Authors 

 

The Power of Friendships with NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg 

 

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at 4 pm

 

You are invited to an intimate conversation with Nina Totenberg as she talks about her nearly fifty-year friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her book Dinners With Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships

Dinners with Ruth is an extraordinary account of two women who paved the way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers. It is also an intimate memoir of the power of friendships as women began to pry open career doors and transform the workplace. 

During Ruth’s last year, they shared so many small dinners that Saturdays were “reserved for Ruth” in Nina’s house. Dinners with Ruth also weaves together compelling, personal portraits of other fascinating women and men from Nina’s life, including her cherished NPR colleagues Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer; her beloved husbands; her friendships with multiple Supreme Court Justices, including Lewis Powell, William Brennan, and Antonin Scalia, and Nina’s own family—her father, the legendary violinist Roman Totenberg, and her “best friends,” her sisters. Celebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and life-affirming relationships. Inspiring and revelatory, Dinners with Ruth is a moving story of the joy and true meaning of friendship. 

This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Register now!

 


 

20 Years of Dragon-Riding in YA Fantasy with International Bestselling Author Christopher Paolini

  

author with two book covers showing dragons

 

Thursday, March 14 at 4 pm

 

Join us as we chat with master storyteller and internationally bestselling author Christopher Paolini about his return to the World of Eragon with Murtagh, a stunning continuation of the epic fantasy. 

The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society. Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems. In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. 

This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Register now!

 


On Retelling Greek Classics: An Exploration of the Modern Epics with Madeline Miller

  

Author with two book covers showing Greek faces

 

Tuesday, March 21 at 7 pm

 

You’re invited to a fascinating exploratory conversation with Madeline Miller, bestselling author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, as she chats with us about her body of work and her process in retelling Greek classics into modern epics in fiction. 

In The Song of Achilles, Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary King Peleus, is strong, swift, and irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice. 

In Circe, to Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. 

This program is presented in partnership with the Marathon Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Register now!