September 5 @ 6:00 pm
Heather Miller launches her debut Prime-Time Parenting
A two-hour school-night routine that helps parents support their children’s social, emotional and intellectual development
School nights are a real challenge for most parents. Just as your energy flags, a slew of parenting duties loom ahead. Learn how to create a two-hour school night routine that works for both parent and child. By following this two-hour ritual, you’ll be able to:
- Bond with your children
- Prepare and enjoy a nutritious dinner
- Support your child’s organization and academic success
- Read with your child
- Follow a book-bath-bed routine to an early bedtime
- Enjoy some “me” time once the kids are in bed
The benefits of Prime-Time Parenting include better nutrition, better school performance, a more organized home, and well-rested parents and children.
The hours between 6 and 8pm will never be the same!
September 6 @ 5:30 pm
Please join us to celebrate the launch of Robin Newman’s new book No Peacocks!
Every day, Harry, Phil, and Jim are fed sunflower seeds by the staff who care for them at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. But one day, they decide they’re sick of them. They make a break for the New York City streets in search of pizza or Chinese takeout.
But everywhere they go, they’re told “No peacocks!” by the restaurant owners.
So they try to get an ooey, gooey, delicious meal closer to home. But how are they going to sneak into the school cafeteria and get their wings on the school’s world-famous mac ‘n cheese? A little plotting, some stolen disguises, and a little help from some students, and the mission is a go! But will the peacocks get their mac ‘n cheese? Or will their cover be blown so they have to fly the coop? Based on the real-life beloved bird celebrities who live at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (who are known to run off the grounds), and brought to the page in bold, bright style, No Peacocks! is a hilarious romp and a perfect read-aloud.
September 11 @ 6:00 pm
Kate Walbert reads from her new novel His Favorites
Set in the 1970s, His Favorites is the story of Jo, a teenaged girl who, after a catastrophic and scandalous accident, is sent away to a boarding school. There, she encounters Master Aikens, a charismatic English teacher who encourages her to apply to his sought-after Modern Lit class. Intrigued, Jo agrees. The consequences for Jo are disastrous, immediate and lifelong. His Favorites beautifully shows how the institution closes ranks and protects Aikens when Jo brings his crimes to light, and the very steep price she must pay for being among his favorites.
The silencing of Jo and the underlying complicity of the culture in which she finds herself are all-too familiar and universal. As she recalls the details of the past many years later, she negotiates varying angles of perception, memory, revision, and the limits of language to try to claim and fully voice her history. The result is a devastating, propulsive, unforgettable work of fiction, impossible to put down.
September 12 @ 6:00 pm
Please join us for the launch of Patrizia Chen’s new book Goong-Goong
Marrying into a Chinese family, Patrizia was fascinated and puzzled by the myriad of photographs of old Shanghai; the elegant weddings, exclusive club-like settings, sumptuous homes, banquets, and expensive cars. Inquisitive, she fielded questions, began to collect information, and discovered that she had married into an extraordinarily influential and important Chinese family. Yet… no one knew about the stories. Only her father-in-law, shipping magnate C.Y. Chen (or Goong-Goong, as she always respectfully referred to him) was the key to unlocking the family history.
Though rebuffed at first; in the years to come, the one prickly relationship between inquisitive Patrizia and reserved Goong-Goong warmed to become one of profound joy and deep meaning. Patrizia knew that she had to write the story of this remarkable man and the family that took her in with open arms; about exotic traditions; about fascinating people, places, anecdotes and stories–the stuff of novels–that proved to be real once she began to study the history of the Chen family and the meeting of East and West. Chen shows how families may change but can still preserve their traditions.
Goong-Goong is a unique book, which represents a fascinating cultural bridge between two civilizations and spanning two centuries.
September 26 @ 6:00 pm
Wednesday Martin launches her new book Untrue
Wednesday Martin’s newest work of non-fiction, Untrue: Why Nearly Everything We Believe About Women, Lust, and Adultery is Wrong and How the New Science Can Set Us Free cuts through the junk science and regressive cultural narratives that have shaped our beliefs about female infidelity for centuries, revealing a truth both liberating and disconcerting: women are no more “naturally monogamous” than men; nor are their libidos shrinking violets. Far from it.
Offering insights from thirty experts as well as real women from all walks of life who refuse monogamy, Untrue also analyzes cultural shifts from plow agriculture to polyamory; introduces readers to two important “hidden figures” of American sex research; and takes readers on an immersive, fascinating journey—from the bonobo enclosure at the San Diego Zoo to an exclusive all-female sex party in Manhattan where most of the revelers identify as heterosexual. Untrue asserts that monogamy is a tighter fit for the fairer sex; that females of many species evolved to be “promiscuous”; and that female sexual autonomy may be the most meaningful metric of gender equality. Rich with game-changing data and polemical writing, it promises to take us far out of our comfort zone, and may change the way you think about women and sex forever.