Programs @ Lanier

At the Lanier Library Annual Meeting, Sunday May 7, 3 PM, NY Times Best-Selling Author

Elizabeth Kostova will talk about the passion in writing her three books, preview her novel in the works, and share the mission of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation for Creative Writing in Bulgaria. Elizabeth finished her debut novel,The Historian after 10 years of research and writing. The labor was rewarded with a listing as a #1 New Times bestseller and acclamation from the Denver Post as “hypnotic.” The Associated Press wrote “stunning” about her second book, The Swan Thieves. Author Ron Rash describes her latest book,The Shadow Land, as “a profound meditation on how evil is...defeated.”

“I grew up in a family of librarians and professors,” says Elizabeth. “I loved books for as long as I can remember. My father would read aloud from Sherlock Holmes and Robert Louis Stevenson. When I was reading on my own, I felt like I was growing up with Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy of Little Women and going with Jules Verne to the center of the earth. I was writing poetry at 7 and knew by 12 that I wanted to be a writer. “My father was a Professor in Urban Planning. When he taught in Slovenia, my childhood

experience in that medieval world changed my life forever. I wroteThe Historian for myself because I enjoyed researching Vlad the Impaler and for my father who told me Dracula stories when I was a child.” ForThe Swan Thieves, she researched psychiatry and French Impressionism to create a historical novel with an art vandal as a central character who refuses to speak. According to the Associated Press, ”Shows the same historical research and scene-setting description that elevated The Historian from a vampire tale to a work of art.”

According to Elizabeth,The Shadow Land was a novel that if unwritten would have left a gap in her life. In search of the owner of an urn of ashes, the story delves into the horrors of a century and traverses the culture and landscape of Bulgaria. Her husband is Bulgarian and her time there motivated the co-founding of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation for Creative Writing in Bulgaria.

Admission is free to the public thanks to support from the Kirby Endowment Fund at the Polk County Community Foundation. Reservations not required so come early to the Tryon Fine Arts Center, 34 Melrose Ave., Tryon, NC. Reception follows next door at the Lanier Library.

You may know BARBARA SMITH HAGERTY as Secretary on the Board of Directors, and, as she says, “Dishwasher extraordinaire at pre-pandemic events.”

What you may not have known was that in her career as a Crop Cytogeneticist and Microscopist for the Department of Genetics/USDA Agricultural Research Service she studied chromosome structure with light and electron microscopy in the analysis of soybean hybrid viability. Responsibilities also included writing grant proposals and journal articles in support of the soybean-breeding program.

More recently she was a contract technical writer for clients that included water

consultants and seismologists. With a BS and MS in botany, genetics, and statistics, and a BS in English, her favorite choice for a reading genre is the history of science, but she is quick to add, “I’ll read anything. I never leave home without a book.”

Her earliest memory of reading is Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr. ”I thought there was a wolf under my bed, and it was instructive to read how Polly outwitted the wolf.”

The first time Barbara entered Lanier Library was on the way to summer camp with her

cousins. “It was 1958 or 59 and Aunt Fran was picking us up in her Suburban outside

the library. I waited sitting on my trunk having been told to read some books, behave

myself, and remember to say yes ma’am. Inside, it was like somebody’s house—my

house had a lot of books, too.

“When Sandra gave my husband and me a tour in 2016, those memories came flooding

back. I was so impressed that such a small town had folks so committed to the literary

arts that I wanted to be part of that group.” When asked, “what is your favorite room of the Library”? Barbara smiles, “ Downstairs with the Felburn Collection and all of those nature books.”

Membership @ Lanier

Is your membership about to expire? No need to come in to the library, just visit the library website by clicking on:

https://thelanierlibrary.org/membership/online-membership-form/ and renew online.

If you aren’t sure when your membership expires,

please contact the library at 828-859-9535.

The first Saturday of every month, avid readers meet at Lanier Library to discuss books

they’ve enjoyed (or not)! It’s casual, enlightening, and there are no rules.

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabelle Monaghan

The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan

Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

Suspect by Scott Turow

All that is Mine, I Carry with Me by William Landry

Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins

You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

The Laughter by Sonora Jha

Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin

Empty Theatre by Jac Jeme

A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Foster by Claire Keegan

The Kunstlers in Paradise by Cathleen Schine

Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March

Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

The Chiffon Trenches by Andre Leon Talley

Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig

Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick

Bringley

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

The World Ending Fire by Wendell Berry

The Boneless Mercies by April Tucholke

“I shall gain glory or die.” So wrote Seamus Heaney in his translation of Beowulf, quoted at the beginning of The Boneless Mercies. But this is far more than a gender-flipped retelling of Beowulf. Tucholke takes the story premise and from it spins a tale of witch queens, giants, terrible magic and stronger friendships in a world as rich as a tapestry, in the voice of an outcast girl determined to change her and her friends’ fate, no matter what men or monsters stand in their way. All written in lyrical, beautiful, and raw prose that feels ancient as epic poems yet perfectly timeless. The Boneless Mercies is

sorted into young adult fiction, but I recommend it for anyone who loves a well-told adventure, beautiful words, stories of fierce girls, or all of the above.

Submitted by Leigh Rabenstein

What a joy it was to host a poetry reading in honor of Poetry Month after a three year hiatus. An attentive audience was able to hear from four talented poets with varied styles. Thank you to Lee Stockdale, Cathy Smith Bowers, Greg Lobas, and Kathy Ackerman (shown above from left to right) for sharing your poems and for providing a reason for poetry lovers to gather at Lanier.

Nancy Pemberton.

"The Past Is Another Country. Explore A Good Historical Novel".