WORDS and WINE: An evening of memoirs, book signings and wine

Join Newcity for BOOKED at Barbara's - bringing new literature one step closer to you.

Wednesday, March 2

7:30 PM

UIC- 1218 S. Halsted at Roosevelt, Chicago

312-413-2665

Wine Reception

Hors d'oeuvres courtesy of Whole Foods Market

"WORDS & WINE"

"Words & Wine" is a partnership between independent bookstores, publishers and wine merchants to create a unique literary event in support of newly published memoir authors.

Each author will read from or discuss their book, participate in a Q & A, alongside the other participating authors, and then sign copies of their books during the wine reception that follows.

PARTICIPATING AUTHORS:

Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
How do you conjure a life? Give the truest account of what you saw, felt, learned, loved, strived for? For Amy Krouse Rosenthal, the surprising answer came in the form of an encyclopedia. In Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life she has ingeniously adapted this centuries-old format for conveying knowledge into a poignant, wise, often funny, fully realized memoir. Using mostly short entries organized from A to Z, many of which are cross-referenced, Rosenthal captures in wonderful and episodic detail the moments, observations, and emotions that comprise a contemporary life. Start anywhere - preferably at the beginning - and see how one young woman's alphabetized existence can open up and define the world in new and unexpected ways. An ordinary life, perhaps, but an extraordinary book.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal is, alphabetically, an author of adult and children's books; contributor to magazines and NPR; host of the literary and music variety show Writers' Block Party; and mother of some kids. She lives in Chicago.

Steven Sorrentino, Luncheonette
On Christmas Eve of 1980, just after Steven arrived in New Jersey to celebrate the holidays, his father contracted a sudden and rare neurological disorder that left him paralyzed. Stepping up to the plate, Steven returned to West Long Branch to help the family out and to take over Clint's Corner, his father's luncheonette. He soon found himself at the grill flipping porkroll (the unofficial state meat) and serving a counter full of eccentrics including Googie the Gizmo and Half Cup Harold. And always at his side was the most colorful of them all, Dolores, the crusty head waitress with coke-bottle glasses, a wayward wig, and a particular flair for butchering the English language. From this unusual post, Steven watched as his ailing father refused to accept defeat. An insightful, bitingly hilarious, and poignant debut, Luncheonette is an uplifting reminder of the unexpected lessons life brings and of the inspiration we find in the least likely places.

Steven Sorrentino has worked in public relations since 1987 where he began as a publicist for Harper & Row, staying with that company during several transformations and becoming Vice President and Executive Director of Publicity at HarperCollins Publishers. He directed campaigns for numerous #1 New York Times bestsellers. In 2001, Sorrentino ended his fourteen-year career at HarperCollins to write a memoir about his experiences as a young man taking over the family business when his father suddenly became ill. Steven Sorrentino lives in New York City.

Karen Spears Zacharias, Hero Mama
It's the 1960s and nine-year-old Karen Spears is living in a trailer in middle Georgia. Her father, David Spears, was killed in the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam, and left behind three young children and a wife with a ninth-grade education. Hero Mama is the gritty, searing, and beautifully written story of what happened to this Southern family in the aftermath of a soldier's death.

At first the widow Spears appeared to fall apart - turning herself into a beer-guzzling, good-time girl, while her children responded in kind. Eventually she recognized how much her children needed her and, with mule-headed tenacity, she earned her nursing degree and bought the family a real home fashioned from bricks, rising above her own flaws to forge a better life for her kids. Now Karen Spears Zacharias pays tribute to this woman of guts and determination - her Hero Mama - who battled overwhelming adversity to pull her family up and make them proud of her, and of themselves.

Karen Spears Zacharias' work has won dozens of writing awards. She has lectured at numerous Vietnam veterans' events; serves on the national advisory board of the Virtual Wall and the Orphans of War Foundation; is a contributing columnist for The Veteran, the magazine for the Vietnam Veterans of America; and is a member of Sons and Daughters in Touch, a national organization for adult children of servicemen killed in Vietnam. She lives in Oregon and Georgia.

Free. Reading. Discussing. Signing.

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