Feb 25
MEMORIES AND ACTIVISM
Tuesday, Feb 25 , 2:00pm $18 Buy tickets
Moderator: TBA
With the JCC Adults 55+ Department
TOM WAYMAN / The Road to Appledore or How I Went Back to the Land Without Ever Having Lived There In the First Place
Acclaimed author Tom Wayman’s account of his shift from urban to rural follows him from Vancouver to BC’s Slocan Valley, deep in the Selkirk Mountains, and presents, with his characteristic humour and philosophical insight the ensuing major shifts of perspective and knowledge. Mishaps, misadventures and moments of delight abound during his decades of living immersed in nature.
TOM WAYMAN’s long writing career includes more than twenty poetry collections, three collections of critical and cultural essays, three books of short fiction, and a novel. His honours include the 2022 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award, and being named a Vancouver BC literary landmark. He won the Western Canada Jewish Book Awards in 2016 for Fiction and in 2023 for Poetry.
ELI GREENBAUM / Hell, No, We Didn’t Go! Firsthand Accounts of Vietnam War Protest and Resistance
As long as there have been wars, there has been conscription. And conscription has never been popular.
In Hell, No, We Didn’t Go!, Eli Greenbaum presents firsthand accounts of men who were driven to resist or dodge the Vietnam draft at all costs. These vivid essays and candid oral histories of individuals who found ways to defy the draft, depict events that were often controversial, and almost always emotionally charged. The first-person accounts of draft resistance and protest are held together by an overarching personal narrative, while providing context, commentary, and an unusual fifty-year perspective on the men’s decisions to avoid the Vietnam War, no matter what.
ELI GREENBAUM is an attorney, former ad agency creative director, and the author of several published short stories and articles. He lives in Vancouver.
THE WORLD’S MOST RECOGNIZABLE FACE
Tuesday, Feb 25, 6:00pm $18 Buy tickets
BENYAMIN COHEN / The Einstein Effect: How the World’s Favourite Genius Got into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms, and Our Minds
A fascinating look into how Einstein’s genius and science continues to show up in so many facets of our everyday lives and his enduring legacy as an unlikely pop culture icon. In The Einstein Effect, Cohen embarks on a global quest to unearth Einstein’s ongoing relevance. Along the way, he meets scientists and celebrities, speaks to dozens with the last name Einstein, and even tracks down Einstein’s actual brain, stolen from his body during the autopsy. He shows us the myriad ways the Nobel Prize winner’s influence is still with us, giving an in-depth—and often hilarious—look at the world’s favorite genius like you’ve never seen him before.
BENYAMIN COHEN is the news director of The Forward, and has a bizarre side job as Einstein on social media, with 20 million followers. He is the author of My Jesus Year and lives in West Virginia.
Will also present at King David High School at 10:00am
FOR BOOK CLUBS AND BOOK LOVERS
Tuesday, Feb 25, 8:00pm $20 Buy tickets
LAURIE FRANKEL / Family Family
In Conversation
India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards for memorization, she goes from awkward 16-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero. Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. However, India is an adoptive mom in real life. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do — she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie. Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. And it isn’t love. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it’s complicated.
Friends sitting together with the writer, hearing the story behind the story over nosh – wine can be added! Purchase your tickets in advance and we’ll reserve a table for you and your group.
LAURIE FRANKEL is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of This Is How It Always Is and The Atlas of Love. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and been optioned for film and TV. She lives in Seattle.