A publishing event: the first ever collection of correspondence to and from John F. Kennedy. 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy led his nation for little more than a thousand days, yet his presidency is intensely remembered, and not merely as a byproduct of his tragic fate. Kennedy steered the nation away from the brink of nuclear war, initiated the first nuclear test ban treaty, created the Peace Corps, and launched America on its mission to the moon and beyond. JFK inspired a nation, particularly the massive generation of baby boomers, injecting hope and revitalizing faith in the American project.

Drawn primarily from more than two million letters on file at the Kennedy Presidential Library - many never before published - this extraordinary book presents readers with a portrait of both Kennedy the politician and Kennedy the man, as well as the times he lived in.

Martin W. Sandler has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Among Sandler's books are the six volumes in his award-winning Library of Congress American History Series for Young People. Mr. Sandler has taught American history at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and at Smith College, and has won five Emmy Awards for his writing for television. 

In this heartbreakingly beautiful book of disillusioned intimacy and persistent yearning, beloved and celebrated author Andre Dubus III explores the bottomless needs and stubborn weaknesses of people seeking gratification in food and sex, work and love. 

In these linked novellas in which characters walk out the back door of one story and into the next, love is "dirty"- tangled up with need, power, boredom, ego, fear, and fantasy. 

Slivered by happiness and discontent, aging and death, but also persistent hope and forgiveness, these beautifully wrought narratives express extraordinary tenderness toward human beings, our vulnerable hearts and bodies, our fulfilling and unfulfilling lives alone and with others.

We welcome our audience and speakers at the beginning of every event; this past week we felt that Alice Hoffman was the host at a warm, intimate (yes, SRO, but still intimate!) gathering, where she discussed her first book of nonfiction, Survival Lessons.

This lovely slim volume provides a road map of how to reclaim your life from this day forward, with ways to reenvision everything - from relationships with friends and family to the way you see yourself.
 
As Ms. Hoffman says, "In many ways I wrote Survival Lessons to remind myself of the beauty of life, something that's all too easy to overlook during the crisis of illness or loss. I forgot that our lives are made up of equal parts of sorrow and joy, and that it is impossible to have one without the other. I wrote to remind myself that despite everything that was happening to me, there were still choices I could make." 

Signed editions of Survival Lessons and other titles from Alice Hoffman are on our shelves.