Great authors and their books, good food and exceptional company might best describe the annual Breakfast with the Authors hosted by the Friends of the Racine Public Library. Literary enthusiasts will want to mark their calendars for the 21st annual Breakfast being held on Nov. 10 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Roma Lodge, 7130 Spring St. in Racine. This wonderfully intimate event features a fabulous breakfast with fellow book lovers and some of the regions best authors. Each author will offer a short presentation and be available for book signings. Admission to the breakfast is $12 and reservations may be made by contacting Anne at 262.681.2381 by Friday, Oct. 26. Proceeds from the event benefit the Friends of the Racine Public Library. The Friends support the Racine Public Library through advocacy and funding of programs, services and special collection materials.
These featured authors will be in attendance at this year's breakfast:
J.L. Miles: "Cold Rock River"
This passionate novel, by the author of Roseflower Creek, is the journey of two young women born a century apart: pregnant seventeen-year-old Adie Jenkens in 1963 rural Georgia and pregnant seventeen-year-old Tempe Jordan, a slave girl in 1863. Taking place during the Vietnam War and the Civil War, the girls' stories become linked not only through the tragic wars but through a found diary with a secret that could destroy them both. The original novel began as Adie's story alone but developed into a tale of parallel lives when Miles' research led her to portions of The Slave Narratives, commissioned by President Roosevelt during the depression years. After months of reviewing and reading this collection of over two-thousand first person accounts Miles' found she had a remarkable story to tell. "Everything Tempe experiences was lifted from the lives of actual people who wore the chains and bore the scars of slavery," state Miles. Ms Miles, originally from Racine, now resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband Robert, where she is a featured speaker at book clubs, local schools, and writer's workshops.
Obie Yadgar: "Obie's Opus"
An aging actor called on Offenbach on the morning of Oct. 5, 1880. "How is he?" he inquired. "Mr. Offenbach is dead," replied the servant. "He died peacefully, without knowing anything about it." The actor sighed and said, "Ah, he will be surprised when he finds out."
This anecdote is one of hundreds from the world of classical music appearing in Obie Yadgar's new book Obies' Opus. Yadgar, a veteran writer and classical music radio announcer, has collected tidbits of stories in a radio career spanning more than 30 years. With some of the 23 sections titled as "Only a lunatic would dance when sober," and "The importance of being useless as a critic," Yadgar's new book is sure to entertain.
"Obie's Opus is a glimpse of my life in classical music radio, said Yadgar, "and the anecdotes illustrate some of my simple reflections on life sitting behind the microphone. The book is not only a good off-beat reference source for classical music lovers, but it's also a good source for some laughter."
As an Assyrian growing up in Tehran, Iran, Obelit Yadgar (Obie) spent long hours listening to stations in distant lands on the family shortwave radio. Years later he found work in America as an announcer and music programmer, working in classical and jazz radio stations. Yadgar has enjoyed a parallel career as a writer of magazines, newspapers, short stories radio essays and video scripts. His first novel, "Will's Music," was published in 2005. Obie is currently working on his second novel.
Ruby West Jackson and Walter T. McDonald: "Finding Freedom: The Untold Story of Joshua Glover, Runaway Slave
This engaging account of Glover's escape from slavery is a story that resonates on levels both personal and political. Glover's escape helped to galvanize the abolitionist movement in Wisconsin and led Wisconsin to become the only state in the union to declare the federal Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional.
But Glover's escape is only the beginning...
Most written accounts of Glover's life end with some variation of the phrase "and he escaped to Canada." This book is the first to follow runaway slave Joshua Glover through the 33 years of his life after his dramatic escape from Milwaukee's courthouse jail in 1854. Authors Jackson and McDonald do more than examine the political consequences of the "Glover Incident," they examine in detail one man's fascinating life story and introduce the many ordinary people, both black and white, with whom he interacted and encountered in his life. In so doing, they advance Glover to his rightful place in runaway slave literature and make Glover's story his own rather than that of the abolitionists who helped him.
Ruby West Jackson has worked as an educator, community activist, and costumed interpreter of pioneer black women in Wisconsin. A recipient of the National Park Service—Network to Freedom Award, she has served as the African American History Coordinator for the Wisconsin Historical Society and has written frequently on black history.
Walter T. McDonald, a consultant in forensic psychology, has collaborated with Jackson to map Underground Railroad routes into and out of Wisconsin, and has served as a consultant for Rope of Sand, a play about Joshua Glover.
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