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Celebrate Authors and Reading at the Hoboken Library Festival

4 Sep

On September 21 2024 from 11 AM-3 PM, the library will have our annual Hoboken Library Festival in Church Square Park across from the Hoboken Public Library’s Main Branch. We will have music and a tent full of local authors who you can meet and purchase their works to have them signed. We will also be featuring author talks from Lauren E. Rico, Nathalie Alonso, and Rudy Gutierez. We hope you can join us for a fabulous and fun event celebrating the joy of reading!

Familia
by Lauren E. Rico
A great choice for the upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15-Oct 15) is Lauren E. Rico’s Familia. Isabella Ruiz has been desperate to reunite with her sister who disappeared as a baby from San Juan over twenty years ago. But when a genealogy test finds a match in Gabby DiMarco, Gabby seems in denial that they could be related, though she is willing to come to Puerto Rico to try and solve the mystery between them. New York Times Bestselling Author, Abby Jimenez, describes it as “a masterfully woven tale of mystery, reconciliation, and familial love.” Residing in the NY metro area, Lauren Rico is an award-winning author and a top classical music broadcaster. She is scheduled to be at the Church Square Park Gazebo at noon.

Call Me Roberto!
written by Nathalie Alonso
illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez
Nathalie Alonso is a NY based, Cuban American writer and journalist whose writing has appeared in National Geographic, Outside, and Refinery29, among other publications. Rudy Gutierrez is an award winning artist and children’s book illustrator. Their inspirational picture book, Call Me Roberto!, tells the story of Roberto Clemente, the Puerto Rican, Major League Baseball player who despite racism and discrimination became one of the greatest baseball players. The book includes a mix of English and Spanish and explains Clemente’s importance to Black, Latino, and American history. School Library Journal describes Call Me Roberto as “an appealing and beautifully illustrated biography.” They are scheduled at the Gazebo at 2 PM.

Local authors currently scheduled to be in attendance at the local author’s tent include: Miriam Allenson, Ken Altabef, Russ Colchamiro, Mary Fan, Amy Gash, Catherine Greenfeder, Elise Howard, Caryl Janis, Jeremiah Kleckner, Penny Lane, Linda Parisi, Joan Ramirez, Eileen Sanchez, Ken Schept, Alex Shvartsman, Peter B. Stone, and Nidhi Thakur.

Local Authors from the Mystery Writers of America NY Chapter who will be rotating being in the local author’s tent: Carole Bugge, David Bushman, Philip Cioffari, Peggy Ehrhart, Mariah Fredericks, Jim Fusilli, Elle Hartford, V.S. Kemanis, Tom Lubben, James McCrone, Patrice McDonough, Sarah-Jane McKenna, John O’Rourke, and Theasa Tuohy.

Local Authors from NJ Romance Authors joining us in the local authors tent: Maria Alexander, Beck Erixson, M. Flagg, and Carol Hende.

Posted by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Librarian

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Memoirs of Loss and Love: Everywhere I Look and Crying in H-Mart

24 Jul

Everywhere I Look
by Ona Gritz
Ona Gritz is a former Young Adult Librarian at Hoboken Public Library and we are always excited when she comes back to visit and debut one of her new works such as her new memoir, Everywhere I Look which she discussed with us in May. All though the memoir is newly available, it is a piece that Gritz had been working on for many years. It details her relationship with her older sister, whose life was sadly ended too soon by a horrible crime. Gritz explores and uncovers a variety of family secrets that allow her to have a fuller picture of her sister and their relationship. This story has a moving bittersweet quality, but also manages Ona’s goal of celebrating the life of her sister, even if it was cut short so briefly. The book is being added to our local author collection. Fans of true crime, memoirs, and those interested in complex family dramas will enjoy this work. You can also check out additional books by Gritz including her other new work, a YA Novel, The Space You Left Behind which was published this June and her memoir On the Whole, about raising a baby boy while dealing with her own disability.

Crying in H-Mart
by Michelle Zauner
Crying in H-Mart is the moving and at times also quite funny memoir about Michelle’s Zauner, the woman behind musical act, Japanese Breakfast, and her relationship to her mom, a Korean immigrant who passed away from cancer (they emigrated with Michelle’s American dad from Korea when Michelle was nine months old). H-Mart is the Korean Grocery Store Chain, that sells all the delicious ingredients Zauner’s mother would use to recreate the food of her homeland. Food and her music are the two of the main ways that Zauner uses to celebrate and grieve for her mom. I enjoyed Crying in H-Mart as an audiobook which was read by Zauner. She mentions that some of her relatives had done narration work and to me she must have inherited some of these talents since she did an excellent job telling her engaging story. Even if you are not familiar with her music, her story still has a lot of heart and universal appeal of the bittersweet love and guilt combo that fuels many mother/daughter relationship. I do recommend though if you enjoyed the story checking out Japanese Breakfast’s debut, Psychopomp which has enjoyable pop rock melodies and songs which bring in some autobiographical elements of this period in Zauner’s life and her loss; it is a picture of her mom on the album cover.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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