The Thurber House Evenings with Authors 2010 winter/spring series begins Jan. 19 and concludes on May 25. With a seven-author lineup, this is one of biggest seasons in Thurber House history.
The schedule features a wide variety of literary offerings, from humor and mystery to romance, and a special opportunity - "The Author's Table" - which gives fans the chance to enjoy personal time with a favorite author while dining with them in an intimate setting.
The events begin at 7:30 p.m., with six of them to be held at the Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave., and one on March 15, at the Columbus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave. Tickets for Evenings with Authors are $18 in advance and $20 at the door with discounts for students and seniors.
Reservations for The Author’s Table are $40 per person, with the group limited to 25 dinner guests.
For more information, visit www.thurberhouse.com. The complete schedule is listed as follows:
Jayne Anne Phillips
Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.
Phillips is the bestselling author of Machine Dreams. Her first novel in nine years, Lark & Termite, was a New York Times, Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and a National Book Award nominee for fiction. Lark, a teenage girl, spends her days caring for her younger brother, Termite, a child unable to walk or talk, but who seems blessed with the gifts of sight and feeling. Their mother is gone, and an aunt is raising them. The novel links the present to the past, and even to the future, as the characters’ stories reveal family secrets and dreams, ghosts and fear, and above all, the love that unites them.
Lisa See
Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.
See is the author of five previous bestsellers, including the critically acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. She is also the author of the highly praised memoir, On Gold Mountain. Her first novel to take place in America, Shanghai Girls, is a richly woven tale about two sisters who, through arranged marriages, leave Shanghai in 1937 for Los Angeles. The conflicts to reconcile different cultures and the struggles of two women trying to build new lives for themselves in a strange land weave a dramatic tapestry of family, duty and loyalty.
Adriana Trigiani
Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.
Trigiani’s last five novels were instant New York Times bestsellers. There are more than 3 million copies of her books in print in the United States. Her first young adult novel, Viola in Reel Life, begins a new series. Brava, Valentine is the sequel that continues the story started in Very Valentine about the life of shoemaker Valentine Roncalli. A unique business opportunity takes Valentine from New York to Buenes Aires where she comes face-to-face with a family scandal and long-buried secrets that place her between a past love that nurtured her and a new love that promises to sustain her.
Carol Goodman
March 15, 7:30 p.m., Columbus School for Girls, 56 S. Columbia Ave.
Goodman is the award-winning author of five novels, including the bestselling The Lake of Dead Languages and The Night Villa. She will read from her latest novel, Arcadia Falls. It is a riveting tale of psychological suspense and eerie secrets about a mother and daughter who move to an isolated boarding school where everything is far more sinister than anyone imagines. Goodman’s work as been translated into eight languages and she is regarded as that rare combination of a writer with both style and substance.
Christopher Moore
April 1, 7:30 p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.
Ohio native Christopher Moore is the author of 12 novels, including three international bestsellers, Lamb, A Dirty Job and You Suck. He will read from his latest novel, Bite Me, A Love Story, the third in his zany trilogy about vampires in love. True to form, the story encapsulates Moore’s satirical wit, sharp insights and wry storytelling.
Laurie Notaro
April 15; 7:30 p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.
Notaro was the 2009 Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor for her hilarious collection of essays, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death. She is back with a novel, Spooky Little Girl, a wickedly funny revenge tale about a girl who has been wronged by many people, motivating her to come back from the beyond and exact her wrath. Whatever Notaro writes will have the reader laughing out loud. She is the author of several other books, including The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, I Love Everyone (And Other Atrocious Lies) and There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell, among others.
Lee Child
May 25, 7:30 p.m., Columbus Performing Arts Center, 549 Franklin Ave.
Child’s Jack Reacher mysteries sell globally at the rate of one every five seconds or about 6 million copies each year. 61 Hours is the 14th mystery to feature the iconoclastic former Army MP, Jack Reacher, an anti-hero whom men admire and women want. Tall and handsome, Reacher is a loner with a strong moral streak and a clear awareness of the difference between right and wrong.