Meet the Author Series

Big Citizenship Discussion with Co-Founder of City Year, Thurs. Oct 14

Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year and CEO/founder of Be the Change, Inc., has written a new book — Big Citizenship — and is coming to campus to discuss the book and highlight Northeastern students who are Big Citizens. “‘Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others,’ Robert Kennedy famously wrote, ‘he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.’ No one better exemplifies the truth of these words than Alan Khazei, the co-founder of City Year. In this stirring call to arms, Khazei lays out a path for the renewal of America, which should provoke conversation, debate and action.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and presidential historian. Who: Alan Khazei with Barry Bluestone Where: Curry Student Center Ballroom When: Thursday October 14th, 2:30-4:00pm What: Discussion and Book Signing with Alan Khazei!!

Killing Time author John Hollway kills it at Snell!

To begin, let me say that if you missed this author talk with John Hollway, you missed something pretty special. The passion coming from both John and his audience was intense and a lot of important issues were covered. For those of you who were unable to make it but want to experience the presentation, try checking out the Library’s Meet The Author YouTube channel, where all previous Meet The Author presentations are uploaded for you to enjoy. This talk will be added shortly.

John’s telling of a true story about a man being unjustly sent to death row and then released 18 years later evoked many questions, one especially important one being, “If it happened to him, how many others are there?” Not only that but how many we don’t know about. When I thought about this, I kind of had a flash and thought of the film Law Abiding Citizen and how the justice system doesn’t actually provide justice under many circumstances. After hearing everything about the story, I wouldn’t doubt a movie on this book will come out in the very near future with a lot of the same themes, maybe less time killing people though.

The civil case for negligence damages for this particular victim of the justice system is heading to the Supreme Court later this fall, so keep an eye on the Facebook page, “Killing Time by John Hollway and Ronald M. Gauthier” for more info. Be sure not to miss out on future Meet The Author events by checking back on the blog or going to the Library’s News & Events page.

This Week: Meet Authors John J. Siegfried, John Hollway

The Meet the Author Series will kick off this Tuesday, September 14th, with John J. Siegfried. He will be speaking on Better Living through Economics, which he edited. The book is a study of how economic reforms over the past fifty years have helped to raise the standard of living in America and to make the country prosperous. The event will be co-sponsored by the Department of Economics and the NU Bookstore. The following day, Wednesday, September 15, will feature our second event, with another John, the journalist John Hollway. He will be discussing his book Killing Time, which he co-authored with Ronald M. Gauthier. The book describes the Death Row sentence of John Thompson, a black man convicted of killing a rich white man in New Orleans. Thompson insists he is innocent, and eventually two Philadelphia lawyers step in to the case, ultimately proving his innocence. This event is co-sponsored by the NU School of Law, the NU Bookstore, and NU Phi Alpha Delta. Both Better Living through Economics and Killing Time will take place in 90 Snell Library at noon. The third John featured this week will be John Coltrane, whose annual memorial concert takes place this Saturday. Before the concert, on Thursday the 16th from 6:00-8:00 pm in the Amilcar Cabral Center of the NU African American Institute, the Library is co-sponsoring a symposium and book-signing for the recent release of John Coltrane and Black America’s Quest for Freedom: Spirituality and the Music. Unfortunately, John Coltrane himself, who has been dead for some forty-three years, will not be making it to these events. Yet this is a great opportunity to hear a panel of Coltrane experts moderated by NU music professor and jazz composer Leonard Brown, who organized the concert and edited the book. The talks are free and open to the public and refreshments will be served. For further questions about any of these events, please contact Maria Carpenter at m.carpenter@neu.edu. For campus directions, click here.

Meet the Author: Aisling Shen on Feb 23

On Tuesday, February 23, author Aisling Shen will be talking and giving a book signing at Northeastern University for her book, A Tiger’s Heart: A Memoir of A Modern Chinese Woman.  Her book is available at Snell Library. In A Tiger’s Heart, Shen takes the reader on her personal journey through China’s history.  From her early days in the rice fields through China’s major economic boom, her story demonstrates the massive changes, both social and economic, that have shaped China today.  Her talk will be held on Friday, February 23 @ 6 pm, in 405 Ell Hall. To download the event flyer, click here.

Meet Author Elizabeth Nunez Feb. 5

This Friday, February 5, at noon, author Elizabeth Nunez will be speaking about about her novel Anna in Between in 421 Snell Library. The novel centers around Anna, a New York City-based editor who returns to her home in the Caribbean only to find out about her mother’s cancer diagnosis.  Refreshments will be served. Download the event flyer. One of Nunez’s earlier novels, Prospero’s Daughter, is a post-colonial re-telling of The Tempest, in the tradition of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. You can check out all three books, (along with Anna in Between) at Snell Library. (Follow the links above, to the books’ call numbers in NUCAT.)