7:30pm

The Butterfly Sister

When a suitcase belonging to Beth, a former classmate, arrives on her doorstep, 22-year-old Ruby Rousseau is plunged into the past and a dark mystery. Beth has gone missing, and the suitcase may be the only clue to her whereabouts. Inside the bag, Ruby discovers a tattered copy of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. As Ruby digs into Beth's past, she has no choice but to confront her own, especially her final days at college--including her relationship with a married professor and seeing the ghosts of illustrious writers, dead by their own hands, who beckoned her to join their tragic circle. A former English teacher, she works as a freelance writer and journalist in suburban Chicago, where she lives with her husband and three children.

"That rare thing, a dark mystery that also works on your heart. . . . a beguiling, terrifying story and Amy Gail Hansen a true find." --Jacquelyn Mitchard, New York Times-bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean

7:30 p.m.

Bitter River

A pregnant teenager is found murdered at the bottom of a river, so prosecuting attorney Bell Elkins knows the coming weeks are going to be tough. And it doesn't help that her daughter has decided to go live with her father, Bell's ex-husband; Sheriff Nick Fogelsong, one of Bell's closest friends, is behaving oddly; and a face from her past has resurfaced for reasons Bell can't quite figure out. Searching for the truth behind both the murder and her own complicated relationships will may put Bell's life at risk. In Bitter River, Julia Keller once again weaves a compelling, haunting mystery set against the stark beauty and extreme poverty of a small West Virginia mountain town. Bitter River follows A Killing in the Hills, which is just out in paperback! Julia Keller spent twelve years as a reporter and editor for the Chicago Tribune, where she won a Pulitzer Prize. A recipient of a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, she was born in West Virginia and lives in Chicago and Ohio. 

Miss Linda welcomes local writer Monique Martin, who will read from her children's book The Moon Is Broken.  

Special Story Time presentation of Play-Along Songs

by Ken and Georgia Frawley

Kids will sing-along, move-along, sign-along, and create-along during this lively show of new and traditional songs.

Please note: Sappho's Salon is taking a late summer break. Stay tuned for more Sappho's news in October. 

Clark Street from Argyle to Carmen

New in 2013! City-Made Fest is the City of Chicago's first-ever local-only festival--a weekend-long celebration of all things local, featuring a revolving line-up of Chicago beers on tap, live music from Chicago bands, and local artisans from across the city. The event is open to the public (suggested $5 donation at gate). For more information, visit Andersonville's City Made Information page. 

Gail Tsukiyama and Karen Joy Fowler

Introduced by Jane Hamilton

7:30 p.m.

A Hundred Flowers 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

This evening we present award-winning author Jane Hamilton (Map of the World, Laura Rider's Masterpiece), who will host a reading and conversation with Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) and Gail Tsukiyama (A Hundred Flowers). Don't miss this memorable evening featuring three stellar writers together!

Gail Tsukiyama's A Hundred Flowers is set in China in 1957--at the start of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao has declared a new openness in society, but one July morning 5-year-old Tao watches helplessly as his father is dragged away to a labor camp for writing a letter criticizing the Communist Party. From then on, all members of the household must face their own guilty secrets and strive to find peace in a world where the old sense of order is disintegrating. Tsukiyama brings us a powerfully moving story of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances with grace and courage.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is classic Karen Joy Fowler: subversive, visionary, wise, and morally complex but witty, too. Its arresting premise, drawn from American animal behavior experiments dating back to the 1930's, offers a startlingly original take on the dysfunctional American family, while raising intriguing questions about the limits of science and the rights of animals, as well as the intricacies of memory and forgetting, the power of language and storytelling, and the nature of human and animal consciousness.

7:30 p.m.

Claire of the Sea Light

First Free Church, 5255 N. Ashland

Set in a seaside village in Haiti, Danticat's fifth work of fiction is both dazzling and intricate. Centering on seven-year-old Claire, the tale looks back to the people she's lost in her short life, even as her future hangs in suspense. Nozias, her fisherman father, struggles to raise Claire alone after her mother's death, but he thinks she would fare better in the home of a wealthy businesswoman. What will Claire's fate be? Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but now lives in the United States. She is a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and the winner of the Story Prize, the Pushcart Short Story Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award; she is also a National Book Award nominee. Admission requires purchase of Claire of the Sea Light from Women & Children First. (Note: The Women's Voices Fund will provide a limited number of free tickets for those who cannot afford to buy the book.) Call 773-769-9299 to purchase a book or for more information; online orders can be placed at www.womenandchildrenfirst.com.

7:30 p.m.

Atchison Blue and

The Art of Pausing: Meditations for the Overworked and Overwhelmed

Judith Valente will be reading from and discussing two new books this evening: The Art of Pausing, a collection of haiku-inspired poems exploring the 99 names of God, and Atchison Blue, a spiritual memoir that invites readers to share in her transformative pilgrimages to Mount St. Scholastica Monastery in Atchison, Kansas. Living among women whose Christian witness has recently come under Vatican scrutiny, Valente learned about the healing nature of silence and how to cultivate habits of mindful living. With the heart of a poet and the eye of a journalist, Valente ultimately found the courage to confront the aspects of her own fast-paced life that needed healing. She was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism who has worked at WTTW, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2004, her poetry collection Inventing an Alphabet won the Aldrich Poetry Prize, judged by Mary Oliver. She recently became a Benedictine Oblate. Valente lives in Chicago and Normal, Illinois.

Monday, October 7

Mattilda Sycamore reading from The End of San Francisco 

Wednesday, October 16

Abby Geni reading from her new story collection, The Last Animal 

Wednesday, October 30

Sara Paretsky at the Swedish Museum, reading from her new book Critical Mass, a V.I. Warshawski novel, but one with a back story that Sara characterizes as "quite a departure" from those in her previous V.I. books.

Classics of Women's Literature Book Group - Tuesday, September 3 at 7:15 p.m. - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

Family of Women Book Group - Sunday, September 8 at 2:00 p.m. - Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Kids First Book Group - Sunday, September 8 at 5:00 p.m. - Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood (and selection meeting)

Feminist Book Group - Sunday, September 8 at 6:30 p.m. - Yes Means Yes! ed. by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti

Women's Book Group - Tuesday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m. - Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver