Past Literary Luncheon Authors

	Summer 2009 Participants
	Lisa Genova    Still Alice    Feeling at the top of her game when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning and purpose in her life as her concept of self gradually slips away.
	Katherine Howe    The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane    Forced to set aside her Ph.D. research in order to help the settling of her late grandmother's abandoned home, Connie Goodwin discovers a hidden key among her grandmother's possessions that is linked to a darker chapter in Salem witch trial history.
	Beth Teitell    Drinking Problems at the Fountain of Youth    A whimsical assessment of today's youth-obsessed culture outlines the ridiculous side of everything from facial fitness coaches and high-priced skin serums to anti-aging gummi bears and cover models who never grow old.
	Gina Barreca    It's Not That I'm Bitter...Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World    Presents a series of humorous essays to express the author's viewpoint on women's issues, ranging from cougars and finding the right bra to the state of modern feminism and women in politics.
	Jennifer Haigh    The Condition    Devastated by their daughter's diagnosis with Turner's syndrome, a genetic disorder that prevents her from physically aging past childhood, the McKotches find her difficulties further challenged years later when, well into her thirties but still resembling a young girl, their daughter falls in love.
	Anne LeClaire    Listening Below the Noise: A Meditation on the Practice of Silence    The author of The Lavender Hour and Entering Normal describes her transforming experiences with the spiritual practice of silence, in a contemplative guide that that explains how silence can enable participants to become more aware and compassionate.
	MaryAnn McFadden    So Happy Together    After raising her daughter and caring for her aging parents for many years, history teacher Claire Noble finds her forthcoming nuptials and ambition to become a photographer compromised by their problems
	Jennifer Weiner    Best Friends Forever    Addie Downs and Valerie Adler were close until a betrayal during their teen years drove them apart; but twenty years later, a terrified Val shows up at Addie's doorstep wearing a bloody coat, pushing them both into a wild adventure where they must rely on one another again, in a novel by a best-selling author.
	Awista Ayub    However Tall the Mountain: A Dream, Eight Girls, and a Journey Home    Describes how the Afghan-born author flourished throughout her upbringing in America thanks to organized athletics, her founding of the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange for Afghan girls after the fall of the Taliban, and the personal stories of eight young soccer players.
	Jamie Cat Callan    French Women Don't Sleep Alone: Pleasureable Secrets to Finding Love    Presents advice for American women on adding sensuality and a little spice to every stage of love, based on the behavior and customs of French women.
	Lynne Griffin    Life Without Summer    A tale told in alternating voices follows the experiences of bereaved mother Tessa who is swept up by an increasingly bleak search for answers after her beloved four-year-old daughter is killed in a hit-and-run accident, and her grief counselor, Celia, whose efforts to help Tessa are marked by painful family memories.
	Nancy Thayer    Summer House    Follows the lives, loves, and fortunes of three generations of headstrong women as they convene at their Nantucket homestead where they are forced to come to terms with their life choices and the meaning of family.
	Summer 2008 Participants
	Alice Hoffman    The Third Angel    Follows the lives of three women in love with the wrong men--Madeleine Heller, attracted to her sister's fiance; Frieda Lewis, the muse to an ill-fated rock star; and Bryn Evans, engaged to be married but secretly obsessed with her ex-husband.
	Ann Hood    Comfort: A Journey Through Grief    The author of The Knitting Circle documents her family's journey of grief after the sudden death of her five-year-old daughter after a virulent illness, a process during which she learned how to knit and experienced comfort in unexpected ways.
	Sara Young    My Enemy's Cradle    Hiding out from the Nazis with her Dutch relatives, Cyrla, a half-Jewish girl, is confronted by a terrifying choice between certain discovery in her cousin's home and taking her pregnant cousin Anneke's place in the Lebensborn, a maternity home for Aryan girls.
	Elin Hilderbrand    A Summer Affair    Reluctantly agreeing to organize a children's benefit at which a rock-star ex-lover is performing, Claire Danner Crispin finds her efforts complicated by her clashes with a fellow organizer, her best friend's catering mishaps, and a new relationship.
	Jennifer Weiner    Certain Girls    A sequel to Good in Bed takes place thirteen years later and finds a no-longer-famous Cannie writing science fiction under a pen name, raising her teenage daughter, and considering her husband Peter's request to have Cannie's flamboyant sister provide surrogate services so that they can have a second child.
	Michael Tonello    Bringing Home the Birkin    A whimsical account of the author's five-year travels throughout the world in search of hard-to-obtain genuine handbags that he would subsequently sell on the Internet for a lucrative profit describes the events that led to his accidental career and his related encounters with celebrity and danger.
	Brunonia Barry    The Lace Reader    Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations. Now the disappearance of two women is bringing Towner back home to Salem—and is bringing to light the shocking truth about the death of her twin sister.
	Joan Anderson    The Second Journey: The Road Back to Yourself    Describes the melee of family and professional responsibilities that threw the lifestyle consultant author's own life into chaos, documenting the intervention staged by her friends and family members that convinced her to take the same advice she gives to her clients. By the author of A Year by the Sea.
	Nellie Hermann    The Cure for Grief    Deeply bonded to her three older brothers and in awe of her father's experiences as a Holocaust survivor, young Ruby is shocked when her eldest brother is abruptly taken away to a hospital, where he changes into a person she barely recognizes.