MARCH 2009: News from HooksBookEvents
Wednesday March 04, 2009
Greetings from Perry and Loretta! As always, we are busy helping to spread the good ideas tucked between the covers of some of the country’s bestsellers.
This March we are launching a new concept – BOOK SALONS, where we bring wonderful authors right into people’s homes for a short reading, a Q&A session, and some good wine and hors d’oeuvres. See more on that below. And do let us know when you’d like to book a Salon for your friends.
GIVING BACK continues to be a big part of our mission, and, as you’ll see below we are supporting the work of New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, author of The Forever War. You may have heard of the work he’s doing on behalf of Shamsia Hussein, the Afghan girl at the Mirwais School who was burned in an acid attack by the Taliban in Afghanistan – a child who had acid thrown on her just for attending school. We felt compelled to send money, and encourage you do, as well.
Don’t forget to check out our upcoming MARCH and APRIL EVENTS – and even more are listed on our website. Remember that many of these writers we book will have time to come to your organization, so send us an email if you’d like to set up a session.
We’ll look forward to talking to you again via our e-news blast in April. To stay on top of what we’re up to this month, check out our new blog: http://hooksbookevents.blogspot.com. Of course, if you’d like to book one of our authors at your office – or a book salon at your home – don’t hesitate to ping us.
Only the best,
Perry Pidgeon Hooks, president and co-founder, Hooks Book Events, perry@hooksbookevents.com
Loretta Yenson, CFO and co-founder, Hooks Book Events, loretta@hooksbookevents.com”:mailto:loretta@hooksbookevents.com
BOOK SALONS
We hosted our first salon, Conversations in the Cottage, with the fabulous Flora Fraser (pictured left, with Perry) who discussed her latest book on Pauline Bonaparte (Napoleon’s favorite sister). Women gathered in the cottage office of our great pal Joy and enjoyed some wine and French goodies and a very intimate conversation about Pauline’s European escapades.
About Flora Fraser: The author of Beloved Emma: The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton; The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline; and Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III, Flora Fraser lives in London with her husband and three children. Her new book focuses on Napoleon’s favorite sister. Celebrated for her looks, notorious for her passions, immortalized by Antonio Canova’s statue, and always deeply loyal to her brother, Pauline Bonaparte Borghese is a fascinating figure in her own right. At the turn of the nineteenth century, she was considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in Europe. She shocked the continent with the boldness of her love affairs, her opulent wardrobe and jewels, and, most famously, her decision to pose nearly nude for Canova’s sculpture, which has been replicated in countless ways through the years. Click here for more: http://hooksbookevents.blogspot.com
On March 1 famed New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik (Angels and Ages) was the celebrity author who spoke at our second Salon – a birthday bash book party! The event was hosted by our good pal Marcia, who had a big birthday on February 12. She thought it was especially fitting that Adam come to speak about the two men also born on that day: Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin.
About Adam Gopnik: A writer for The New Yorker since 1986, Adam is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism and the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. From 1995 to 2000, he lived in Paris and now lives in New York City with his wife and children. About Angels and Ages: On a memorable day in human history, February 12, 1809, two babies were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one-room Kentucky log cabin; Charles Darwin on an English country estate. It was a time of backward-seeming notions, when almost everyone still accepted the biblical account of creation as the literal truth and authoritarianism as the most natural and viable social order. But by the time both men died, the world had changed: ordinary people understood that life on earth was a story of continuous evolution, and the Civil War had proved that a democracy could fight for principles and endure. And with these signal insights much else had changed besides. Together, Darwin and Lincoln had become midwives to the spirit of a new world, a new kind of hope and faith. To hear what the guests at this Salon said after listening to Adam, click here: http://hooksbookevents.blogspot.com.
GIVING BACK
When we started Hooks Book Events, Loretta and I decided that giving back would be part of how we do business and we want to tell you a few of our favorite causes and encourage you to check these out and if you resonate, you can support them too.
We continue to give to the Grameen Foundation. In fact, we produced our seventh event in February for Grameen’s president and CEO Alex Counts. We attracted more than 100 area Cornell alums to this wonderful event.
Our friend Marcia, who hosted a birthday bash Salon on March 1, also feels giving back is crucial. She chose to have the event catered by New Course Catering, part of 3rd & Eats Restaurant, which provides culinary arts training to homeless and chronically unemployed individuals [NewCourseCatering.com]. Hooks Book Events also donated a portion of the sale of Adam Gopnik’s book to Crossway Community, an entrepreneurial, non-profit organization run by Kathleen Guinan. “Our mission is to promote learning, creativity, and community for all families,” Kathleen says. For information visit www.crossway-community.org.
We also very excited about supporting the work of New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, author of The Forever War.You may have heard of the work he’s doing on behalf of Shamsia Hussein, the Afghan girl at the Mirwais School who was burned in an acid attack by the Taliban in Afghanistan – a child who had acid thrown on her just for attending school. We felt compelled to send money, and encourage you do, as well.
After receiving our check, Dexter wrote to us to say: You recently sent me a donation to help Shamsia Hussein and support the Mirwais School for Girls, where Shamsia and 1,500 other Afghan girls attend classes in very difficult circumstances. I have finally returned to the United States from Afghanistan and was able to open the many envelopes sent by people who wanted to help. I am happy to report that to date I have received 51 checks and one five-dollar bill, totaling $8,855. Incredible! On behalf of the girls at the Mirwais School in Afghanistan, and of Shamsia, thank you very much. I am sure they will be amazed and moved by your extraordinary generosity. I am a hard-bitten foreign correspondent, and I’m moved, too. I promise you I will spend your money wisely and humanely and make sure it does much good. The needs of the girls, as you can imagine, are basically bottomless.
To support this cause, contact Dexter directly at filkins@nytimes.com. View his New York Times articles here.
UPCOMING EVENTS: MARCH 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009: Angels and Ages
by Adam Gopnik (Knopf Publishing Group, 2009)
Monday, March 02, 2009: Animal Spirits
by Robert Shiller and George Akerlof (Princeton University Press, 2009)
Tuesday, March 03, 2009: The Leaders We Need & What Makes Us Follow
by Michael Maccoby (Harvard Press, 2007)
Thursday, March 05, 2009: Disunion
by Elizabeth Varon (UNC Press, 2008)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009: The Trophy Kids Grow Up
by Ron Alsop (Wiley)
Thursday, March 12, 2009: Gender and The Sectional Conflict
by Nina Silber (University of North Carolina Press)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009: Living with History: Making Social Change
by Gerda Lerner (UNC Press, 2009)
Wednesday, March 25, 2009: The Collaborative Public Manager
by Rosemary O’Leary (Georgetown University Press, 2009)
Thursday, March 26, 2009: Fixing Global Finance
by Martin Wolf (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009: Governance in Dark Times
by Camilla Stivers (Georgetown University Press, 2008)
UPCOMING EVENTS: APRIL 2009
Friday, April 03, 2009: Fl!p
by Peter Sheahan (Harper Collins, 2008)
Tuesday, April 07, 2009: Positive Leadership
by Kim Cameron (Berrett-Koehler)
Wednesday, April 08, 2009: Born Digital
by John Palfrey (Perseus Publishing, ’08)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009: A Guide to Smithsonian Architecture
by Amy Ballard and Heather Ewing (Smithsonian Books, 2009)
Fri., April 17, 2009: Mrs. Lincoln: A Life
by Catherine Clinton (HarperCollins, 2009)
Monday, April 20, 2009: The Woman Behind the New Deal
by Kirstin Downey (Doubleday Publishing, 2009)
Monday, April 20, 2009: Ladies of Liberty
by Cokie Roberts (HarperCollins 2008)
Tue., April 21, 2009: What We Know about Emotional Intelligence
by Richard Roberts (MIT Press, 2009)
Monday, April 27, 2009: We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters
by Cokie Roberts (Harper Perennial)
Contact Information
phone: 301-229-1128
perry@hooksbookevents.com
www.hooksbookevents.com